Islamophobia

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Monday 14th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, we have not yet heard from the Cross Benches.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, there is no common statistical basis whatsoever suggesting that members of any one faith suffer more discrimination than others. Emotive words like Islamophobia are simply unhelpful pleas for special consideration. Does the Minister agree that the Government have a basic responsibility to ignore all special pleading and ensure that all faiths and beliefs are equally protected?

Royal Navy: Deployment

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Monday 2nd July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I hope my noble friend will appreciate that I cannot comment on a leaked letter. What I can say, I hope by way of reassurance, is that the United States has been, is and will remain this country’s closest ally. It is a vital partner in the NATO alliance. I am quite sure that the United States feels exactly the same way about the integral nature of the NATO partnership.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, our Prime Minister famously declared in Washington not much more than a year ago that Britain will have to stop acting as the world’s policeman. Bearing that in mind, what is the point of our having a naval presence right around the globe? Russia, China and the USA all wish to have the same. Does that further the cause of peace? Would the Minister agree that we are living in the 21st century and not the 19th?

[Earl Howe]

I certainly agree with that.

I say in all seriousness to the noble Lord that this is not simply about policing. These deployments arise principally from a convergence of tasks and opportunities. A main focus for the Navy in the case of each Royal Navy ship is joint training and exercises with our Far East partners, but there are other important tasks as well, such as international efforts to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions and sanctions on North Korea—which HMS “Sutherland” has been assisting with, for example.

Terrorist Attacks

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Tuesday 5th December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, while we owe a great debt of gratitude to MI5 and the security services, does the Minister agree that in itself their work does little to tackle the causes of terrorism and of extremism? Does he agree that that cause lies in the misuse of outdated religious texts to incite impressionable youngsters to commit outrages?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, yes, I agree with that. My right honourable friend the Prime Minister was clear in her statement of 4 June that “enough is enough”. We need our counterterrorism strategy, which is currently being worked up in the Home Office, to keep up with a number of fast-moving areas. One is most definitely to tackle terrorist ideology and to deny online safe spaces to terrorist communications, part of which will be to ensure that warped doctrine does not reach the internet. However, we also need to deny safe spaces in the real world so that malign and misleading published material is not promulgated.

HMS “Queen Elizabeth”

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Thursday 2nd March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the 2015 strategic defence and security review set out our intent to have two front-line operational F-35B squadrons by the end of 2023, and we plan to buy 138 Lightning aircraft over the life of the programme. To date we have taken delivery of eight F-35B aircraft, with a further six, currently in production, to follow very shortly. The next annual production contract is scheduled to be let next month, and we intend to order a further three under that part of the contract.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

In her visit to Washington, the Prime Minister made the highly significant statement that we would stop trying to change the world in our image. While this will come as a considerable relief to the 22 countries we have not invaded at some time or other, does the Minister agree that the Prime Minister’s important statement should lead to a reassessment of foreign policy and a possible defence saving?

Counter-Daesh: Quarterly Update

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Tuesday 24th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord about the Prevent strategy. Currently, the greatest threat comes from terrorist recruiters inspired by Daesh. Our Prevent programme will necessarily reflect that by prioritising support for vulnerable Muslims and working in partnership with British Muslim communities and civil society groups. I do not have up-to-date information about the extent to which we have been able to intercept and assist—in the right sense—those returning from the Middle East, but I shall gain data from the Home Office, if I may, and write to the noble Lord about that.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, Daesh cannot be defeated by military means alone. It lives and exists on a distorted ideology of religion. It is important to look at religion itself. If religions tell people what to do, they should be open to criticism. The Koran is an historic text. There are things written in the Koran for a particular period for a particular purpose. They have no relevance at all and it is false and wrong for anyone to say that any religious text is the word of God. The Koran says some good things about how to treat slaves better, but would we say today that the Koran condones slavery? It is very important to ensure that religious texts are taken in context and common sense is used to interpret them. Words such as “prevent” and “radicalisation” actually fog meaning rather than explain it. We need to get at what we are actually teaching, and the Government need to do much more with the Muslim clerics to explain Islam in the context of today, so that people know that this is a false ideology.

[Earl Howe]

The noble Lord makes a series of very good points. Only this morning, I was down in Shrivenham, at the international military religious leaders’ conference, where from 19 nations we have 40 representatives of mainly Muslim denominations, all of them Army, RAF or Navy officers, coming together to share experiences in this area. I attended a lecture on the very subject that the noble Lord mentions. I have personally visited mosques and spoken to imams, and there is no doubt that around the country the Government are engaging with Islamic religious leaders to ensure exactly the point that he makes: that where the Koran is preached, it is preached correctly and no fog of meaning surrounds the words that are bandied about.

Syria and Iraq: ISIS

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Tuesday 8th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. The UK is leading international efforts to counter Daesh’s poisonous ideology. Our work with the internet industry, for example, has helped to stop the proliferation of Daesh propaganda. We announced at the UN General Assembly in September that the UK would host a new coalition communications cell. That cell helps countries that have previously lacked the means or knowledge necessary to deliver effective communication interventions against Daesh to do so. It is already helping to drive the coalition strategic communications to counter Daesh’s extremism and ensure, essentially, that no media space is left uncontested.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that we cannot destroy a negative ideology based on a harsh interpretation of medieval Islam by bombs and bullets alone? Is the Minister aware that the Muslim community and Muslim leaders have condemned Daesh, and will the Government work with them to ensure that their message of condemnation is carried to every mosque in the country—preferably in English, which is the language young Muslims best understand?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, this is a central theme of the Government’s counterextremism strategy, about which I spoke in last week’s debate. I fully agree with the noble Lord that to disrupt and defeat Daesh and its ideology requires more than just military action. It requires the disruption of its ideology in the ways that I described, and discrediting it across the world in the way the noble Lord indicated.

Alcohol: Impact on Accident and Emergency Services

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Wednesday 21st January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, again, there has been a great deal of progress in alcohol labelling. Independent research published in November showed that just under 80% of bottles and cans of alcohol on shelves now have the correct health labelling: a clear unit content, the CMO’s lower-risk drinking guidelines and a warning about drinking when pregnant. That fulfils an industry-wide responsibility deal pledge.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the drinks industry should bear the cost of treating people with alcohol-related sickness and illness who end up in A&E that is proportionate to their number? For example, it is 80% in some hospitals on a Saturday evening.

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, as I said earlier, there is actually no evidence that the A&E pressures we are now seeing are attributable to trends in alcohol-related attendances, and we have a mechanism through duties on alcohol to compensate society for the harms that alcohol causes.

Abortion

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Wednesday 12th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the analysis recently reported in the Independent newspaper was based on census data, as my noble friend pointed out, for households with usually-resident dependent children. The gender balance of dependent children in these households is affected by a number of events that occur after birth, such as the age at which dependent children leave the parental home. As there are a number of alternative explanations for these observations, it cannot be concluded from the Independent’s analysis that sex-selective abortions are taking place. The best available data on which to base gender ratio analysis continue to be births data, which were the basis on which we did our analysis last year. I can tell my noble friend that that analysis will be updated on an annual basis when new data are available.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)]

My Lords, gender-selection abortions are an extreme form of gender discrimination. Sadly, it is all too prevalent in sub-continent communities. The Sikh guru, Guru Nanak, taught from day one the total equality of women; they can join in and lead any part of the Sikh service. Unfortunately, culture sometimes gets the better of religion; even in the Sikh community, that sort of discrimination can take place. Will the Minister ensure that funding given to sub-continent communities is conditional—indeed, is predicated—on promoting gender equality and respect for women because, at the moment, it often feels as if it is given to those who shout the loudest?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 must be adhered to by all who provide a public service. Any specific allegations about gender-selective abortions being undertaken will be reported to the police. Abortion on the grounds of gender alone is illegal, as I have said. The Abortion Act is very clear on that point.

Health: Diabetes

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Wednesday 25th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I agree wholeheartedly with the thrust of the noble Lord’s question. As he will know, Diabetes UK has pioneered a programme of diabetes community champions from ethnic-minority communities to raise awareness of the condition in their communities. The Department of Health has awarded Diabetes UK a grant through the volunteering fund national awards for the programme to be rolled out across 12 English cities over the next two years. I gather that 111 community champions have already been recruited in London. This is exactly the sort of initiative that we need if we are to reach those who are most at risk of developing or, indeed, being diagnosed with diabetes.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon]

My Lords, for many years, the Network of Sikh Organisations has been active in working in clinics in gurdwaras, or Sikh temples, to promote an understanding of health issues and to do checks for blood sugar and raised cholesterol. These tests and other health advice have been very effective. Will the Minister consider ways of giving impetus to such initiatives and perhaps extending them to other faith groups and centres in order to combat the evil of bad genes and the subcontinental taste for sweetness and sugars?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I am aware of several local initiatives that are doing great work in accessing those in both black and minority-ethnic communities along the lines mentioned by the noble Lord. We have made important progress in strengthening our approach to promoting equality in health and social care and in tackling these inequalities that exist. That is especially important in relation to the Asian community. I am thinking in particular—the noble Lord mentioned the need to roll out initiatives—of the NHS Heath Check programme supported by the guidance on prevention issued by NICE and the Change4Life Programme, which now has a bespoke element to it targeted specifically at ethnic-minority communities.

Health: End-of-life Care

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Singh of Wimbledon

Monday 16th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

I agree with my noble friend on both counts.

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon]

My Lords, in considering better enhanced provision for end-of-life care for those who have lost capacity, will the Minister note that our opinions and attitudes change with the perspective of time? A young boy may consider that upon reaching the age of 60 or 70, life would not be worth living. I think that a 60 year-old—and most of us here—would differ from that opinion. It is very important that advance directives—living wills—should be considered and should be important. However, they should be tempered with proper questioning and proper care.

[Earl Howe]

I agree fully with the noble Lord. Advance care planning is not a one-time issue, it is an ongoing process. It requires regular reviews of a patient’s wishes and assessments of their needs. Support, training and education for staff in understanding that, and taking forward care planning, are being made available through the end-of-life care strategy. People’s wishes and needs change throughout life, and that is to be expected.