Balfour Declaration

Debate between Baroness Northover and Lord Hughes of Woodside

Monday 3rd April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hughes of Woodside (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, the Minister referred to the Balfour Declaration, which says that nothing should be done,

“which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”,

and I welcome that. However, with the tinderbox in the Middle East, is it not even more urgent than ever that the future of Israel and the Palestinians is taken forward, and does that not mean reversing rather than expanding the settlements?

International Development: Diseases of Poverty

Debate between Baroness Northover and Lord Hughes of Woodside

Wednesday 24th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I know that the noble Lord is very concerned about value-based pricing in the United Kingdom. We have to take a few steps back in terms of the support that needs to be given for the development of these treatments overseas. This is on a totally different scale. There is, in effect, no market, as the noble Lord’s colleague said, and we need to ensure that there is support for research and development before even the prospect of a market is taken forward.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

My Lords, great damage is being done to vaccination programmes by religious fanatics who preach that vaccination is in some way an imperialist plot. Is a lot of money being spent on education to disabuse people of that idea?

[Baroness Northover]

Again, the noble Lord highlights an important area. Polio is on the edge of being eradicated but in Pakistan and northern Nigeria, as the noble Lord will know, religious fanatics have killed some of those trying to roll out the programmes there. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working extremely hard to tackle this but, obviously, it is a very delicate problem.

Malawi

Debate between Baroness Northover and Lord Hughes of Woodside

Monday 21st May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

My noble friend is quite right to say that these issues need to be addressed, and poor governance is of course the root cause of much poverty. DfID is putting a considerable amount into seeking to address that issue, so that the Government of Malawi can be held to account—not least in the way that they manage their public finances, to which he referred. We are pleased that the new president is now talking to Mozambique about restarting discussions on the energy interconnector, which is encouraging and is important to industry in the area. However, first and foremost, it is important to try to address the economic problems in Malawi. DfID is in constant contact with Malawi, which is also in constant contact with the IMF. An IMF team is there right now.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

Is there not common agreement in all quarters of the House that it is essential that our overseas development money is spent efficiently and without corruption? Does the Minister accept that good governance is essential in order for that to be done? Will she therefore make sure that budget support, which is a very important part of good governance, is restored as soon as possible?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Lord is absolutely right that aid money must be used well, and that is why the general budget support was removed. Until we can be certain that the protections are there, it would not make sense to restore budget support. However, money is going in, meanwhile, in terms of development, and the contribution from DfID to Malawi is as great as ever but is channelled through other routes.