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4.11 p.m.
Baroness Macleod of Borve: My Lords, unfortunately I have been ill and I cannot now stand to speak. Therefore, I cannot see the noble Earl who has just spoken. However, I wish to thank the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for the wide-ranging picture that he has described to us this afternoon. He is always a man to be followed in a debate. I would dread there to be a day when he followed me, which would oblige him to say some nice words about what I had said. He has a brilliant brain and we all listen to him, as we have with great pleasure and interest this afternoon.
I also wish to welcome, as will other noble Lords, the noble Earl, Lord Enniskillen, who is to speak this afternoon. I remember so well his attractive, tall, red-haired father. He was a great friend to everyone here. I am so glad that the noble Earl has chosen this debate in which to make his maiden speech.
We are asked to discuss the practical problems faced by young people. All people are beset by practical problems when they are growing up. The problems one faces and one's ability to cope with them depend to a large degree on one's formative years. It depends on whether one is fortunate enough to have been brought up in a stable family, whether one has, unfortunately, been brought up by parents who are divorced, whether one is brought up by a single parent, whether one is adopted, or whether one is orphaned. Whether or not a young person reaches the age of 16 and beyond as a happy, healthy and well-adjusted person depends on the way that person has been brought up and on his experiences of early childhood. Whether a young person can make a full contribution to society will depend on the end product of his experiences of early childhood.
This afternoon our attention is being drawn to the practical problems faced by young people; that is, those aged from 16 to 22.If one is much older than that, one cannot remember the time when one faced so many practical problems. I refer to the problem of sometimes being coerced into taking drugs and the difficulty of withstanding pressure from those who want to persuade one to take more drink than is necessary. I refer also to the problems of a shortage of money and a shortage of work, which the noble Earl mentioned. Unfortunately, many young people experience a shortage of housing.
The way in which a young person has been brought up will determine whether, at the age of 16 and over, he or she is still welcome within the family, or whether they are thrown out to fend for themselves. If they are thrown out to fend for themselves, where they live is of paramount importance, not only as regards the way they live but also as regards the jobs that they will be able to obtain. It will affect their employment prospects as sometimes they may not be able to obtain a job because they do not have a permanent residence.
The Government--and through the Government, other agencies--have had much success recently in providing housing for young people who have no homes of their own. We are all aware that it is primarily in this great city of London that the problems occur. We are all aware of the tragedy of youngsters living in the doorways of shops, or perhaps of clubs, or anywhere that gives them protection from our inclement weather. Those doorways constitute their only home. However, they can make good. They are not happy--how can they be?--but they survive.
I happen to know a little about this matter because I have been involved with the charity, Crisis at Christmas, since its inception. It was started by my late husband and myself many years ago when we discussed it round our dining room table. That was in 1967. We hold an open Christmas for about 1,000 people in an enormous warehouse. We feed them and look after single people who are temporarily--we hope--homeless. They make friends at that event but outside the Christmas period they are lonely people. Loneliness is one of the worst scourges in our society today.
Having said that housing is the most important thing that we can provide for our young people, I believe we must all admit that the basic need in their lives is that of a stable family background, whether that is the young person's own family or a co-opted family. If these young people have a stable family background and a family whom they can approach, that makes all the difference in the world. Housing has been provided, by the Government and others, in a big, smart building in Great Peter Street. I believe that the housing is owned by the Salvation Army, but I have not been able to check that. More housing providing 200 beds was opened at the beginning of this week. Housing is gradually being supplied by the Government and by other charities. We can only encourage that as much as we can from this House.
Those problems do not mean that young people cannot and do not make a full contribution to society. From my knowledge of them I maintain that they make a full contribution to society in most cases. They are young and we are apt to think that young people do no good because unfortunately some get into the press. However, the voluntary work undertaken by young people in hospitals and various institutions is perhaps unknown to most noble Lords present. But if one goes round a psychiatric or paediatric hospital, or any organisation which cares for the elderly and the sick one cannot fail to be impressed by the overwhelming help that young people give. As a disabled person, if I want
help perhaps to cross the road or to find my way I would always ask a young person--someone in the age groups that I have mentioned.After all that the noble Earl, Lord Russell, said, I feel that I have failed miserably. However, we must give much thought to the help that we can give to those young persons while growing up and afterwards. I hope that all Members in this Chamber today will continue to do their best for those young citizens of our society.
4.22 p.m.
The Lord Bishop of Birmingham: My Lords, first, perhaps I may say how indebted we are to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for initiating this important debate. Secondly, I wish to reiterate how much we look forward to hearing the maiden speech of the noble Earl, Lord Enniskillen. Thirdly, I should like to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Macleod, for the important point she made about the positive things that are done by so many young people, so often unnoticed. I should declare a personal interest. I am the chair of NACRO's Young Offenders Committee and have been so for some years. I should also like to thank the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for mentioning St. Augustine, to whom the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle and I are devoted; we are avid students.
The subject is of the highest importance because, in talking about young people and their place in society, we are talking about our country's future. Our young people are our future. There is no doubt that there is a problem--the alienation of many young people, young men in particular, of which the incidence of youth crime is one of the symptoms.
How will adult society as a whole respond? The basic question is this, I believe. Do we respond with a mentality and, therefore, with policies of exclusion; or do we respond with a mentality and, therefore, with policies of inclusion? Exclusion when faced by distressing behaviour is often the immediate natural reaction. I believe that the mentality of exclusion is implicit in the way that we so readily talk about young people in the third person--we are doing so now--rather than trying to listen to them and let them speak for themselves. It is a symptom of our fear, anxiety and even--I am sorry to say--dislike.
Our adult society is one which, on the whole, does not like young people very much. People who are disliked tend to respond by behaving in dislikable ways. Deep down most of us actually believe the negative things that other people say about us and respond accordingly. Tell a child that he is not capable of anything and he will lose self-respect and ambition. His expectations will be low. Brand a young person as a young criminal and he will behave as one.
There is a symbiosis between exclusion and self-exclusion--for instance, between truancy and exclusion from school; between absence of work and the habit of work; between lack of facilities for young people and lack of interest in anything except hanging around and being a nuisance.
We also need to attend to the powerful effects of the language of exclusion. I refer to such dreadful talk as "animals" and "rat boys" which breaks out from time to
time. Such language does no good at all, least of all to those who use it. We have no right to consign our fellow human beings in that way to some kind of dustbin, whether it is a dustbin of the mind or body.The noble Earl, Lord Russell, has called our attention to the practical problems which diminish the ability of young people to make their full contribution to society. He has mentioned some. Here are some others and some of the same. So far as concerns young men, there is the loss of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs. There is the collapse of opportunities for the kind of jobs which gave respect in tightly-knit working communities. There is the loss of the habit of work now spread over two generations. There are the special difficulties which ex-offenders have in finding the kinds of secure employment which will help them not to offend again. There has been the chopping and changing of training programmes. There have been the effects on youth work of cuts in local authority funding. We have already heard of the problem of unemployment among graduates and the problem of homelessness among the young.
Few, if any, of those are the result of deliberate policy. But they have all contributed to a culture of exclusion. However, there is one area in which a policy of exclusion has been deliberate. That is in recent policy towards young offenders with its emphasis on punishment and locking people up. That is, I believe, a policy of despair. For that reason--as I said, I speak as chair of NACRO's Young Offenders Committee--we must welcome the Audit Commission's recent report on young people and crime with its emphasis on prevention of crime, work with parents, the place of schools and leisure facilities, housing, training and employment.
What the Audit Commission said is in close accord with NACRO's recently published strategy on crime in England and Wales with its significant title, Prevention, Restoration and Reintegration.
Give young people a stake in society. Listen to them, value them and include them. That is a positive policy instead of the negative habits of exclusion. We need to foster a mentality of inclusion by which young people will be valued, not feared and condemned.
Policies of inclusion will require investment. But do not let us forget the high costs of the existing policies and habits of exclusion. I am thinking not only of the costs of our penal system but of the costs of unemployment and the sheer waste of human talent. The present state of affairs is a waste not only of cash but of people.
In the end there is a profound moral principle at stake. What price do we put on our fellow human beings? Do we recognise our young people, however unattractive we may sometimes find some of them, as our own flesh and blood? That is the basic issue. If we do not, we diminish our own humanity.
4.30 p.m.
The Earl of Enniskillen: My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I thank noble Lords for their legendary courtesy in welcoming me here. I believe I have relevant experience to bring from Kenya, where I work. I ask the indulgence of the House
while I bring that experience to your Lordships' attention and in so doing, even though it may seem rather narrow, offer a more global view.We are all interdependent to an increasingly great degree and Britain's young people do not have unique practical problems. Those in other parts of the world will also be Britain's problems to a greater or lesser extent. But Britain's young people have unique learning opportunities which can be used to greater effect overseas. Under-employment, sadly, may be a fact of life in future, but there are other ways to occupy young people.
The youth of today are tomorrow's leaders. The learning and experiences they undergo in their formative years will shape and prioritise their future decisions. The environment in which they develop will influence the way they feel about themselves, and their consideration for the world around them, thus enabling them to make their full contribution to society. The environment influences the quality of life for young people in Britain, but in other parts of the world dictates their very existence.
By their experiences and through our trade and aid agreements with other countries, tomorrow's leaders will influence how the global village develops and their wise management of the environment will ensure we can support the human population--a very practical problem.
Britain has made a huge contribution globally in the fields of education and political and personal freedoms. But are we doing enough to ensure the wise use of natural resources and thus prevent problems for younger generations? I believe this should be given top priority. Otherwise tomorrow's conflicts will not be over ethnic, religious or political differences; they will be about practical problems of food and water.
Human population growth and ingenuity coupled with technology and focus on economic development today has a capacity to destroy the environment tomorrow, leaving younger generations impoverished. One such threatened resource is the world's wetlands.
Why is this relevant to today's debate? In the short time available I will try to illustrate from my own experience one area where yesterday's deficiencies give us problems today which mainly affect the younger generation and will affect future generations. They themselves have the ability to correct those deficiencies given the necessary support.
In Kenya, one of the most developed countries in Africa, millions of people have to walk great distances to collect water from unreliable sources. Ironically much of our water and that of Ethiopia and Uganda flows through the Nile, and feeds the rich riparian irrigation strips in Sudan and Egypt. Kenya and Ethiopia are both countries where droughts are common.
Yet Kenya also feeds the United Kingdom and Europe. Its flowers and vegetables now join its tea and coffee in terms of quality and export earnings: 75 per cent. of Kenya's flowers grow in the world's largest flower farms around Lake Naivasha, where I live, which is one of the most important fresh water
resources. The lake is highly susceptible to pesticide and chemical pollution from the surrounding farms, among other threats.We have drawn up and are implementing a management plan for the sustainable wise use of the lake's resources, and to promote the existing multisectoral uses without damaging the lake. We initiated action to declare Lake Naivasha Kenya's second Ramsar site in 1995--giving it worldwide recognition as a wetland of international importance.
It has been a long, uphill task against considerable opposition because of the lack of proper long-term planning in the past for some of the economic developments and lack of cross-sectoral environmental legislation in place to regulate them. In spite of all efforts to the contrary therefore, damage has been done. The younger generation is increasingly aware of these issues, but we have not left them an enabling environment in which to implement their knowledge. We have left them with the problems.
Our success to date, which is probably a unique initiative throughout the world, has been achieved by voluntary work and consensus building at community level with support from the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the UK ODA and Leicester University researchers among others. The result has been a pilot scheme of a sufficient quality to attract Kenya government and international support and by example has encouraged other initiatives.
Some 6.5 per cent. of the earth's surface is covered by wetlands and possibly half of that is in the tropics and sub-tropics, where they are most fragile and where land hunger is at its highest. Two-thirds of the fish we eat globally spend at least some of their life-cycle in wetlands. Yet the rate of loss is alarming and the EU is only now formulating wetland and sustainable land use policies. With the notable exception of Canada and Uganda, other countries are far behind.
Governments are too preoccupied with SAPS Paris Club meetings and conflict resolution to be able to give the necessary attention to the problem. Is it not time that we enter the era of the EAP--environment adjustment programmes--with strategies directly to link sustainable wise use of resources to international trade and aid agreements? It is not a matter of choice; it is the only long-term option, and it will provide job opportunities and enable young people to make a real contribution.
Through its membership of the EU, international conventions such as Ramsar and OECD, and its leadership positions within the commissions of IUCN, Britain has the opportunity to take the lead globally to promote knowledge and awareness as a major priority. Enforcement will never be a solution. It requires educated and aware decision-makers, the young people of today, to create the necessary economic incentives. It is fruitless to expect countries such as Kenya to conserve their forests and wetlands unless the real value of those resources is recognised in the global context when the country is at the same time thirsty, without oil reserves, land hungry and needs employment opportunities and foreign trade so urgently. It needs the
support and experience of the international community to achieve that hugely difficult balance between socio-economic development and conservation.Research and job opportunities in understanding and monitoring conservation issues, and drafting management plans, policy and environmental legislation abound throughout the world. We must enable and enthuse our young people to take them or perform voluntary or community work in related fields ensuring that work is given its true worth in the promotion opportunities back home.
International NGOs such as IUCN are uniquely positioned to help by placing young scientists to work with local communities and for governments to channel more donor support through such organisations by way of return of benefits and recognition of the worth of the natural resources consumed.
The European environmental advisory councils have recently issued an excellent statement on environmentally sustainable land use and reform of the CAP. That statement is worthy of the utmost support.
Our young people have the opportunity to lead the world in environmental issues just as previous generations did on parliamentary democracy and civil liberties. I feel that this is one way in which we can turn young people's problems today into tomorrow's opportunities for them to contribute to society, but time is not on our side.
4.39 p.m.
Lord Holme of Cheltenham: My Lords, it is a great honour on behalf of the whole House to be able to thank the noble Earl, Lord Enniskillen, on an outstandingly interesting maiden speech. The noble Earl's breadth of vision does not surprise me. He served in the Irish Guards; he was a civilian pilot in Kenya; and he is, it may surprise the House to hear, an honorary citizen of the state of Texas. His breadth of experience showed in his speech. We all greatly enjoyed it and I am convinced that the message of shared community environmental enterprise in Kenya is one that is very relevant to this debate this afternoon. I hope we shall hear from him often in this House.
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