Seat in the House of Lords for Baroness Joan Bakewell, defender of the arts

Published: 25th November, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

CUTS in library services will have a new critic in the House of Lords after it was announced that broadcaster and writer Joan Bakewell, who lives in Primrose Hill, has been made a baroness.

The journalist, who served in the previous Labour administration as a champion for older people, was one of 10 appointees made by opposition leader Ed Miliband last week. She has vowed to keep a watching brief on threats to libraries and to scrutinise the impact of cuts on the arts and broadcasting.

She said: “I am particularly interested in what the future holds for libraries. 

“My job is to take the Labour whip and turn up and watch what is happening. 

“There are some areas I am interested in and well informed about. I want to look closely at the arts and arts funding, and how the arts may be damaged by cuts.”

As a broadcaster, she intends to use her professional experience to champion public service broadcasting and keep a careful eye on the work of the BBC. 

She said: “While I am a great believer in public service broadcasting, the BBC is powerful and it can be seen as a threat to lots of different segments of society. It is important to make sure there is a balance kept in what it does.”

Ms Bakewell, a Dame of the British Empire, is to keep a watching brief on issues that affect older people. 

She added: “I will be looking at pensions and the provision of social care. The very old can require detailed help.” 

The broadcaster, who has a keen interest in medical ethics, aims to play a role in considering whether the law should change in regard to assisting dying. 

She has yet to decide whether she will become Baroness Bakewell of Primrose Hill but says she will still be known as Joan.

Despite taking a seat in the Lords, she is keen to see the unelected upper chamber radically reform­ed. She said: “I am not sure immediately how to reform it. There are great disadvantages in simply copying the House of Commons, as it would become part of the party machine. There needs to be another system in place – perhaps partly elected and partly appointed, with fixed terms of five years.”

Meanwhile, Lib Dem HQ operations director Ben Stoneham, who lives in Camden and was once leader of the borough’s Social Democrat Party, has been made a working peer, alongside fellow Camden resident Claire Tyler, who works for counselling service Relate. 

Former Haverstock School pupil and ex-Labour MP Oona King has been made a working peer.