Well-being

Lord Addington Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, when I put my name down for this debate, I was thinking, “This is a good topic, there are lots of interesting things here”, but what exactly is the topic? We are talking about well-being. The noble Lord, Lord Tugendhat, pointed out that whoever compiles a list about well-being will bring with them their own prejudices. I may be putting words in his mouth. Ah, he is nodding; thank God for that. But we bring our own perceptions to this. I asked myself, “Do I talk about the barriers?” My interests have been aired far too often—learning disabilities, special educational needs and the barriers to entering employment—and I have had a couple of goes at them in the last week, so I will look at something else, which adds to what we are doing.

The noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, did not pull the rabbit out of the hat but she did wave its ears over the brim, when she talked about exercise. A very important part of my life has been the organisation and playing of sport. It gives purpose, providing all the benefits of exercise—a wonderful way of countering many of the things that lead to mental illness—and social interaction. You have a group that you can go back to, even when you are not involved in the activity. I could talk about the virtues of rugby union and how, if you carry on playing, you keep physiotherapists in a good income for a long time.

These benefits are probably true of any sport, and any amateur activity—music, arts or any hobby. We should encourage them. Where do the Government come in? In this country, the Government get off lightly when it comes to sport, because we build and maintain our own clubhouses and pitches. In France, you play at the stade municipal. Germany’s equivalent of the FA, when asked how much it spends on pitches, said, “We don’t. The Government do it for us.” Most places in Europe have huge activity by Governments to ensure that these social interactions happen. In our country, local government, the backbone of all this, is squeezed, and the huge facilities in parts of our education system are not open enough for people to use them.

We then have the problem of the arts people not talking to the sports people. There was a point of revelation in our DCMS cluster, when someone was complaining about a lack of rehearsal space for an acting project. I said, “Have you spoken to your local sports club?” “Why?” “Because they have a clubhouse. They will lend it to you, or you can rent it from them. If you have a drink in the bar afterwards, which usually funds their activities, they will be keen to have you there.” The Government are not taking a lead in ensuring that these people talk to each other. These people are part-timers, so have the problem of fitting in their work and this activity. They do not have the time or energy for this. Political parties like to talk to themselves about themselves. We have all been in that room. Amateur groups for sports or the arts are the same; they talk to themselves about themselves, say somebody else should help but do not know how to communicate with them. The Government must take a lead here.

Another thing that mitigates this is the gig economy. It is great; you can dictate your own times if you are, for example, a well-paid computer nerd. I use the derogatory term, but I mean someone well paid who commands their job. If you are driving a taxi and being paid only when people want that taxi, your livelihood is controlled by when other people want you. If you are an on-demand, no-contract waiter or barman, you must wait around to be needed and cannot fence off time for your hobby. We must give better rights to these groups to ensure that these activities take place. Put bluntly, a cricket team with nine men does not win very often if it has lost two people to work in the local pub. The same is true of losing your leading man in a theatrical production. We must ensure that there is a better way of focusing and allowing people to do these things, because it enables them to have a slightly more pleasant life. As the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, said, productive workers tend to be happy workers. Most people will not get all their satisfaction from their job, but from something outside. We must look outside the workplace to ensure that our workers are at their best. That will generate a bit more income and ensure that everybody is a little happier.