Campaigner of the Week: Lord Bird
3 min read
Lord Bird talks to Georgina Bailey about his his latest campaign for a UK-wide Future Generations Act, and how he's not afraid to "cheese off some people" to ensure that society and the planet work for the children born in the next few decades.
Who
Crossbench peer and Big Issue founder Lord Bird
What
Bird is launching his campaign for a Future Generations Act on Monday 14 October, as the next Parliamentary Session begins. His Bill would create an independent UK Commissioner for Future Generations, who would act as a guardian to protect the interests of future generations, and oversee UK Government policy to ensure that their needs are met. It would also provide legally enforceable rights for individuals to hold public bodies to account, and ensure that the UK government increases its focus on preventative spending and works to protect future generations from social, cultural, economic and environmental threats.
Why
As Bird – who entered the Lords in 2015 – explains, “I came in to the House very much on the basis of preventative methodology. It wasn’t really about keeping the poor comfortable… I was obsessed with the idea that my job was to dismantle poverty and prevent it from happening.” His Bill is very much an expansion of that principle, aiming to introduce measures now to tackle poverty, climate change and health inequalities for future generations. “The world we live in today is a failed future because we never did the right stuff 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago,” he believes. “And therefore you’ve got this predictability of failure that is built into most legislation because it tends to be short term”. By mandating that all public bodies, including the UK government, must balance the needs of the present with the needs of the future, Lord Bird aims to shift our legislative focus to one of long-termism and prevention.
How
In 2015, the Welsh Assembly passed the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, and appointed Sophie Howe as the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. Through Big Issue Cymru, and his work on the P.E.C.C. (Prevention, Emergency, Coping, Care) model of social spending, Lord Bird began working with Howe and her office. Seeing the Welsh Future Generations Commission’s successes and limitations inspired him to team up with Green Party MP Caroline Lucas to develop the Future Generations Bill. Building on the Welsh Act and his own Credit Worthiness Bill (which passed the Lords last July), Bird’s Bill is designed to have “more teeth” to hold all public bodies – from local authorities to UK government – to account for the future impact of their actions.
Next step
Bird is ambitious: as well as “praying to the Aztecs and Incas and all the people who influence numbers” for luck in the ballot, he’s begun work on building a cross-party, cross-society alliance standing up for future generations across multiple pillars. As well as environmental and social justice activists, he’s clear that this alliance must also include businesses, investors, scientists and social enterprises, and must communicate in an accessible way. “It’s not a party-political thing. It is a kind of ‘let’s be grown up about our politics’ bill.” He admits they may “cheese off some people”, but this campaign is about national wellbeing, not “making anybody feel chastised or in any way penned in”. Bird explains that he and Lucas “want to bring [business] in in a way which is efficacious for capitalism… it’s not about destroying profits, it’s about making profits in a different way.” And if he doesn’t get a fortuitous draw in the ballot? “We’ll look to finagle it in a different way…. we’re both very committed”.
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