Bahrain: Human Rights Abuses

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Thursday 25th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi (Con) [V]]

[Inaudible.]

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

Could the noble Baroness be unmuted, please?

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

The noble Baroness is muted and we cannot hear her. We will have to move on to the noble Baroness, Lady Northover.

Tigray Conflict: Axum

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Tuesday 9th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Triesman (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome what the Minister has said, but obviously there is more to do. Those of us who were involved in trying to negotiate peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea a decade ago are dismayed by the fact that they are now united, but in the suppression of Tigray. Crimes of concern to humanity are being committed every day and it is no accident that there are highly organised and disciplined militaries on both sides. Can the Minister add to his comments about approaches to the United Nations and tell us what we are doing with the African Union, which can often be a very significant force for installing peace? Can he also comment specifically on the fact that many of the leading Tigrayans who have served in the Ethiopian Government have been absolutely vital to the UK’s interests in securing peace in Somalia and the northern Kenyan regions? They are eager to be in places where they no longer fear for their lives. They want to continue with their education and are keen to continue with their charitable work—

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, perhaps the noble Lord would curtail his questions and let the Minister answer now.

[Lord Triesman (Lab)]

I wonder if the Minister would meet me to discuss this.

Aid Impact

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

I call the noble Lord, Lord Collins of Highbury.

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

Could the noble Lord unmute?

[The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

We will come back to the noble Lord, Lord Collins. I call the noble Baroness, Lady Northover.

Integrated Security, Defence and Foreign Policy Review

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

Again, I find myself very much in agreement with the noble Lord’s last point. We need to ensure that there is a thorough review of all the challenges we face, whether it is from Mother Nature and pandemics or from sinister actors. Let us not forget that it is not that long ago that we were impacted by chemical weapon attacks on the streets of Salisbury. On the integrated review itself, given the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, we are, of course, keeping all non-related government work under review. The Prime Minister has already said that he will lead the review and bearing in mind his leadership on the current crisis, of course we will look to ensure that the learnings from this crisis can be fed into the review itself.

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, with the leave of the House I suggest that we adjourn until 2.48 pm to allow noble Lords to leave the Chamber and other noble Lords to move in for the next Question.

Gaza

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Tuesday 15th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Noble Lords]

Blunkett!

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lords, Lord Campbell-Savours and Lord Blunkett, can choose who is going to speak next.

Iran Nuclear Deal

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Wednesday 9th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Stamford (Lab)]

My Lords—

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Conservatives.

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

My Lords, as my noble friend the Minister says, the task now is to persuade the American Administration to work on a new replacement agreement which embraces issues such as ballistic missiles and other destabilising and sinister activities by Iran. We all understand that. When we get on that path—as I hope we do—will he encourage his colleagues to point out two things to the Americans? First, if sanctions are reintroduced on a larger scale they will be immediately undermined by the Chinese, who already supply substantial amounts to Iran. They will soon supply substantial amounts of arms as well, quite aside from the wider dangers that the noble Lord, Lord West, has pointed out. Secondly, under American law the American Government are constrained from taking early and immediate actions and measures which lead to a substantial destabilisation of oil supplies in the oil market. This would certainly happen if Iran had to cut its exports from 2.9 million barrels a day down to fewer than 1 million barrels a day, and the result in oil markets would be chaos.

Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [HL]

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Committee: 2nd sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 29th November 2017 Lords Chamber

House resumed.

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, as the passage of business has travelled fairly quickly, I think it only fair to speakers in the next debate if we adjourn for 10 minutes until 7 pm.

European Union: United Kingdom Membership

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

That this House takes note of Her Majesty’s Government’s policy paper The best of both worlds: the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union presented to Parliament pursuant to section 6 of the European Union Referendum Act 2015.

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Anelay of St Johns, I beg to move the Motion standing in her name on the Order Paper.

Motion agreed.

European Union Referendum Bill

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Green of Deddington]

My Lords, I apologise for interrupting the noble Lord, but does he agree that—

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

I do not think this is the time for interruptions. Noble Lords should remember that we are on Report.

European Union Referendum Bill

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Wednesday 18th November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom]

I think that was for me. I am confused by the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, because he always produces these amendments in jest. I remember another one that said that the referendum should be delayed until 2019. That was tongue in cheek, was it not? The fact is that the Government do not control a free press in this country. You either have a free press or you do not, and if it is free it can take whatever line it wants to take. Perhaps we should be controlling the Guardian, with its attitudes to all this. This is absurd. We have a free press, which takes different sides on different things, and that is not a responsibility of the Government. Does the noble Lord want me to give way again? No, he does not.

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

I remind the House that before the dinner break I suggested that noble Lords should read page 151 of the Companion. I will repeat it, because obviously noble Lords have not been able to remember it:

“On report no member may speak more than once to an amendment, except the mover of the amendment in reply or a member who has obtained leave of the House, which may only be granted to: a member to explain himself in some material point of his speech, no new matter being introduced”.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords—

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, I think this is the only time I have spoken on this amendment, and with the permission of the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, and your Lordships, I will do so. I would add the BBC to the list of media outlets that my noble friend has been good enough to name. I ask the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, whether he has read the News-watch website about the BBC’s behaviour in this matter and whether he hopes that the BBC—

[The Earl of Courtown]

Order. The noble Lord has not yet moved his amendment.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom]

I am afraid that the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, has slightly confused things, because he was intervening on the intervention of the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, on me. Therefore this adds to the confusion. However, I do not think we will revert to talking about the free press and the fact that different newspapers have different views on things—I am not sure how productive that is. What we were talking about—or what I was talking about—was purdah and the fact that there is a concern, which I hope the Minister will address, that there will be some last-minute intervention, if the polls indicate that the country wants to pull out, to try to swing the vote with some bit of propaganda from the EU. Clearly, business has to continue to be done with the EU, but at the same time we do not want to see the whole referendum slewed by a last-minute intervention where the EU is being inordinately generous with other people’s money and doing something to try to swing the vote. That is what my Amendment 18 is about. I beg to move.