Queen’s Speech

My Lords, this contribution will be a little different. Had I been able to make a contribution last Thursday, I would have put the accent on international development. Had it been yesterday it would have been constitutional affairs, but today it is transport. However, I would like to return to international development, and indeed to the gracious Speech, where Her Majesty stated: ""The Duke of Edinburgh and I look forward to our visit to Bermuda"." Bermuda is, of course, the place with the greatest GDP in the world. It could have been the British Virgin Islands or the Cayman Islands; those are places known as dependent territories. They are clearly not financially dependent, but some places are; those are St Helena, Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha, Montserrat and the Pitcairn Islands. On the one hand we talk of the dependent territories, where less than a quarter of a million people live, as a group. Yet there does not seem to be a relationship of one with another. It strikes me, for example, that the rich little people could assist the poor little people, and I would have thought that that ought to be encouraged. The Government have in recent months taken a great interest in looking at the richer places, with the Foot review looking at Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and the nine dependent territories, which are far from being financially dependent, and which have their feet well and truly into financial services. They are often thought of as tax havens, whether they are or not. The other side of the coin is the really dependent territories. In the first day of debate on the gracious Speech, there were many contributions that I would describe as aspirations to influence events in other countries. In the really dependent territories, there is opportunity for real action. It is to the Government’s great credit that even now, with all the implications of the credit crunch and the financial circumstances, the aid budget is still earmarked to rise to 0.7 per cent of GDP. However, the first call on the aid budget is to meet the needs of the overseas territories—and hence I come to the issue of transport. I declare an interest as one of the three parliamentarians who went on the Commonwealth parliamentary visit to St Helena last February. The case has been made, both here and in other places, for the St Helena airport. The RMS "St Helena" currently makes 26 visits a year to that island but the ship is nearing the end of its life. An airport is essential to meet people’s mobility needs, to get them to and from the island, to meet their health needs, and, not least, to meet the economic needs and prospects for tourism if the island is to have a future. On 8 December 2008 the Government decided that there had to be further consultation. Until that time it had been believed that there would be an airport. Further consultation took place with people who lived on St Helena, on Ascension Island, on the Falklands or in the UK. Last week the response was received, with 70 per cent of respondents saying, "Build the airport now"; 29 per cent saying, "We’ll cope with a new ship"; and a handful saying, "We’ll wait and see". Wait and see was, of course, the Government’s preferred option. There has been an abundance of consultation, and indeed of consultants, but the view of the people is clear: build the airport now. That in itself involves a delay because it will take five years to build an airport. However, the DfID budget is still on the rise, so surely this is the best time to take on a capital project of this type, before there is a settled disposition of the resources of the 0.7 per cent between the various areas within DfID. As I say, the construction will take five years or so, but the economy would be assisted during the construction period, and it would foster confidence to stop the population decline. Will the Minister ensure that an announcement is made? There are only 15 days to wait until the first anniversary of the pause. It would not be a bad thing to give St Helena a Christmas present, the prospect of the airport. An airport would be not just for Christmas but an economic lifeline for the century ahead.