Ukraine, Syria and Iran

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Monday 24th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

On Russia and Syria, I remind the noble Baroness that the resolution passed on Saturday in the UN Security Council was passed unanimously. This demonstrates, to an extent, that the Russians are beginning to lose patience with the regime, which is bombing, starving and besieging its own people throughout much of the country. That is at least some step forward. Of course we engage with the Russians as actively as we can on these and a number of other subjects.

On the question of help to the Syrian National Council and the moderate opposition in terms of weapons, the Government take the position that the House of Commons showed its unwillingness to provide military support in Syria and that we will not change our policy on that until we have brought that issue back to the Commons. That may happen at some time but, at present, we are providing non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition and will continue to do so.

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, first, I welcome what the Minister has said about the moves to re-establish normal diplomatic relations with Iran. The more difficult and more complex our relationships are with countries, the more important it is to have a well plugged-in embassy in place and I hope very much that we will have normal diplomatic relations with Iran as soon as may be.

Secondly, and this echoes what the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, was saying, it seems that the link between these three countries—Ukraine, Syria and Iran—is the role of Russia. I was glad to hear that the Foreign Secretary has spoken to Mr Lavrov this morning. Will the Minister confirm that the strengthening of our engagement with Russia, both bilaterally and through the EU and other international organisations to which we belong, should now be a real priority for our foreign policy?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I am well aware from many conversations with the Foreign Secretary that he has been working extremely hard over the past six months and more to engage the Russians on a wide range of issues; as the noble Lord will know from long experience, this is not always easy. It has been something that we have needed to do. Whether one calls the negotiating group on Iran the E3+3 or the P5+1, some of the members of that group are easier to work with than others but we do try to hold them all together.

On the current question, as I said in the Statement, we are moving forward gradually and proportionately and looking for reciprocal gestures and, so far, so relatively good. As the noble Lord will know, the current regime in Iran is complex and one always has to be aware that there are other aspects of the regime from the ones to whom we are talking.

The Future of the Civil Service

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I have spent much of my working life in either the Home Civil Service or the Diplomatic Service, working both in London and abroad. The first, important thing I want to say is that the vast majority of people with whom I have worked over the past 30 or 40 years have been committed, determined, able, politically neutral and very often courageous in ways by which, when I started, I was rather surprised. I shall not forget visiting Baghdad and seeing a dozen government department representatives living and working in a container in an underground car park, being shelled by mortars. That was serving your country at its best and is something we need to recognise more often.

I mention it because, as the noble Lord, Lord Butler, has said, there is a tendency now to attack, blame and denigrate the Civil Service. That is a mistake. One of the things I have learnt in the time I have spent in the private sector since leaving the Civil Service is that if you want to change an organisation, you need the support of those you are trying to change. That needs to be recognised, perhaps more among some Ministers than is now the case.

Of course, the Civil Service needs to change and adapt to ever-demanding tasks. Many of the reforms now under way are necessary, indeed essential—procurement, delivery and focusing on the skills needed for the 21st century, which must include language skills if we are to pay our way in the world. My noble friend Lord Wilson says, “English”, as well and I agree with that, too. The counterpart of this is the need to be able to move on people who are not able, for whatever reason, to deliver what is needed.

There are some reforms now proposed with which I really have difficulty. They have been mentioned by some noble Lords already. I have serious reservations about a substantial increase in the number of special advisers, creating a sort of cabinet for each Minister. When I mentioned to a senior and highly respected French civil servant recently that the Government were thinking of going down that road, he blanched, looked horrified and said, “Do not put a layer of 25 year-old political appointees in between the professional expertise of the Civil Service and its Ministers”. Perhaps that is not what is intended and I hope that, in replying to this debate, the Minister will be able to clarify that point.

I also, like others, worry about the move towards a more political say in the appointment of Permanent Secretaries. If a Permanent Secretary is regarded as the choice of one Government or Minister, he or she will inevitably be regarded with suspicion by the next Minister or Government. The combination of a more politicised group of Permanent Secretaries with larger numbers of political advisers will inevitably erode the principle of neutrality of the Civil Service, which remains an essential and widely respected pillar of our democratic system.

These are extremely important, indeed fundamental, issues for our system of government. For that reason, like others, I very much agree with the case for a parliamentary commission which can look at the role and functions of the Civil Service in the years ahead.

Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme (CB)]

My Lords, I follow the noble Lord, Lord Judd, with as much trepidation as I did some 40 years ago when as a young civil servant I followed him round some rather poor parts of west Africa on a ministerial swing, a trip that I suspect may have influenced both him and me in spending a good part of the rest of our lives in dealing with development issues.

I would like briefly to comment on Parts 1 and 2 of the Bill, and on procedure. On Part 1, first, I echo what some others have said this evening: lobbying, whether by NGOs, churches or companies, can be a valuable, necessary and, indeed, inevitable part of our democracy. In my own experience, much legislation and some policies with which I have been involved have been brought forward without consultation and as a result have been flawed. I have to say that Part 2 of this Bill is rather a good example of that.

However, such lobbying must be open and transparent and must be made public. I am not talking about just lobbying by consultant lobbyists. Like others, I am puzzled by the Bill’s exclusive focus on consultant lobbyists. The coverage surely needs to be wider than that. I am also puzzled by the exclusive focus on Permanent Secretaries and Ministers. I have a certain respect for both Permanent Secretaries and Ministers but I am not naive and the focus surely needs to be much wider than that, and include political advisers, directors-general, directors and, for example, anyone in a team working on a new Bill who might be instructed to report any approaches from lobbyists to their director or director-general. The important thing is that this is done.

[Baroness Williams of Crosby (LD)]

I apologise for interrupting the noble Lord but does he agree that the Permanent Secretary is probably almost the last civil servant to be lobbied in a controversial situation?

[Lord Jay of Ewelme]

I entirely agree. Indeed, any lobbyist worth his or her salt is going to make quite certain that they lobby somebody slightly lower down the scale, and by the time the piece of legislation or the policy gets to the Permanent Secretary or the Minister, the damage may well have been done. I entirely agree with the noble Baroness.

In this context, I particularly liked the idea of the noble Lord, Lord Norton—if I have understood him rightly—of shifting the focus in this part of the Bill from the lobbyist to the person being lobbied, with some mechanism to ensure that that lobbying is made public when the Bill or the policy is made public. That seems a rather simpler approach than that in the Bill at the moment. I look forward to the Minister’s comments on that and I hope that that idea can be considered further.

On Part 3 of the Bill, if the aim is to catch the transatlantic political sharks of the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, as they approach our shores, as seems to be the case, we must find some way of ensuring that our NGOs do not get caught in that net. I recognise that the Government have tried to reflect some of the concerns that NGOs have expressed but, as our e-mail inboxes have shown in the past few days, they have not succeeded. To leave open the possibility that NGOs decide not to continue their activity in a full year before an election or have to spend on complying with new bureaucracy time and money which donors rightly expect should be going to the front line—to the poor, the sick, the elderly and the homeless—is quite simply wrong and contrary to some basic constitutional principles of freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

On procedure, I much regret that the Bill was not subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. A Bill with clear constitutional—indeed, electoral—implications is just the sort of Bill that deserves and requires full and proper pre-legislative scrutiny. It is perhaps too late for that to happen now, but I ask the Minister to think seriously about ensuring that Part 2, at least, even at this late stage, gets the kind of proper consultation with those whom it may seriously affect that it so badly needs. That would surely be time well spent.

Syria and the Use of Chemical Weapons

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Thursday 29th August 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jay of Ewelme]

My Lords, much has been said recently in this House and elsewhere about the need to learn the lessons of the past in considering the options in Syria. Of course, the trouble is that the lessons of the past do not all point in one direction. Many will believe we were wrong not to intervene in the genocide in Rwanda. Let us remember that the most recent weapon of mass destruction to be used on a massive scale was the machete. Many will believe that we were right to intervene in Sierra Leone and, although we were lucky that Milosevic fell when he did, in Kosovo. Many, including the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, think that we should have intervened in Bosnia to prevent the massacre at Srebrenica. Many have serious doubts now about military involvement in Afghanistan, although it seems politically inconceivable not to have taken action after the attacks on the World Trade Center.

I believe that most people think that the invasion of Iraq was wrong, and many thought so at the time. I agree wholly with the noble Lord, Lord Wright, and argued in this House for the inquiry into Iraq precisely so that we could learn the lessons. When faced with decisions such as those we now face, it is a tragedy that we do not yet have that report. I think that most people would argue that the intervention in Libya was justified, although it is probably too early to be sure.

It is hard to draw clear conclusions for Syria from this variegated past. The lessons will need to take account above all else of the circumstances in and around Syria, and not of what happened in the past. The key questions are as follows. Would intervention be in accordance with international law? In part that will depend on what the weapons inspectors say and on the conclusions that the UN Security Council draws from their report. However, we need clarity on this, and to be confident in retrospect that, even if things go wrong, we were right to take action when we did. The Attorney-General’s advice is very helpful on that point, but I am not convinced that it is conclusive.

Would intervention achieve its objectives, and are they clear? In other words, how sure can we be that intervention will so degrade Syria’s military capability that it will not use chemical weapons again? The moral case for acting against the use of chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction is clear, but we have to be confident, even if we cannot be absolutely sure, that our action will work.

What is the risk of collateral damage? I have no qualms, even after the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, in talking about collateral damage. I recall being told before the Iraq war that US missiles had 95% accuracy, so if 500 missiles were sent, 25 would miss their target. Perhaps they are better now, but one or two missiles hitting a school, hospital or crowded market can shift the moral argument.

Will intervention strengthen or weaken the United Nations? The past decade or so has shown how hard it is to reach agreement in the Security Council. The temptation is to ignore it or to try to bypass it. That temptation is huge but wrong. Surely it must be in our interest, however difficult it may be, to strengthen the United Nations.

Crucially, can we be sure that we can conduct a surgical strike and withdraw? I agree very much with what the noble Lord, Lord West, said. How will other states such as Iran and Israel react if provoked? How will Hezbollah react? Syria is in the middle of a vicious civil war that could only too easily draw others into a regional conflagration, with incalculable consequences for our interests and those of others. The Foreign Secretary said that this uncertainty may last for decades. The noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, spoke about the importance of focusing on our interests. Surely they are to work with others, however difficult that may be, to prevent that conflagration. Such prolonged instability and uncertainty cannot be in our interests, or those of the US, Israel or Russia. That, and helping to solve the appalling humanitarian crisis now engulfing Syria and its neighbours, must be our principal aim in the years ahead.

I cannot see now how military action against the Syrian regime, even if it is legal and even admitting the horrible nature of the Assad regime, will advance our key aims. If anything, the risk is that it will do the reverse.

European Union Committee Report

Lord Jay of Ewelme Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Grand Committee

[Lord Jay of Ewelme]

My Lords, I, too, greatly welcome the report and the debate. I have greatly valued my participation over the past five years. Half of it was on Sub-Committee E and half on Sub-Committee C. The report shows the importance and relevance of EU committees and sub-committees and of the work that they do: the scrutiny, the reports they produce and the occasional visits abroad. In my case this involved a trip to Brussels and 24 hours with the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, in an underground conference centre in Paphos, where speeches were limited to one minute each or—the Minister may note—30 seconds for members of coalitions. The committees’ reports are, rightly, highly regarded here and in Brussels. I stress that they are widely, if not universally, respected. I, like the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, rather regret that some of those who are rather more critical of our reports are not present to take part in this debate. With some trepidation, I noticed that the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, had slipped in for a moment or two just now, but he has since slipped out.

Since the period of this report, the number of sub-committees has been reduced from seven to six, as several noble Lords have mentioned. I understand the reasons for that; I also understand why some members of the committees regret it. Although I ought perhaps to duck at this point, I do not think that the reduction necessarily weakens the importance or visibility of the EU Committee or its sub-committees. Speaking as a member of Sub-Committee C on external affairs, I am secretly pleased that the oyster of foreign policy has been infiltrated by the grit of international trade.

However, I want to make one more general point. For those of us who have been involved in difficult EU negotiations over the years—in my case, under successive Prime Ministers and Governments, they included the negotiations over the single market, the Single European Act of 1986, the Maastricht treaty involving enlargement from 12 to 27, and the introduction and birth pangs of the euro—even against that background, we are in the middle of an extraordinarily difficult time, both for the EU, as the eurozone struggles to find some sort of equilibrium, and for Britain’s participation in and possibly departure from the EU.

To some extent I echo the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, in saying that the EU clearly has two huge achievements to its credit: first, the knitting together of western Europe after two world wars and, secondly, its provision of an economically liberal, democratic home for the countries of eastern Europe after the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. I, for one, do not see the award of the Nobel Peace Prize as being over the top for that. Perhaps I could ask the Minister to tell us who will be representing the United Kingdom at the awards ceremony for that prize next month.

However, given that there is no political goal similar to those of the past 30 years, and with the euro in trouble and opinion here increasingly sceptical there is—to put it at its mildest—a real question about the future of the European Union. There is a real need in this country for a proper, informed and dispassionate debate about the options before us. What are the implications for Britain of a semi-detached or completely detached status from the European Union? What are the implications for British industry, agriculture, the environment, social policy, aid policy or our foreign and defence policy? What are the potential implications for Britain’s role in the world and its relation with, say, future United States Administrations?

I believe that Britain’s interests and our hard-headed national interests lie in continuing to remain in, and influence, the EU’s institutions and policies to contribute to a stable relationship between those in and those outside the euro, so that we can benefit from the single market. To avoid any misunderstanding, I see absolutely no contradiction whatever between full participation in the single market and strengthening our commercial, economic and trading relations with China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa. We really need to do both. One has only to look at the contrast between Britain’s commercial and economic relations with China and those of Germany to realise how much needs to be done. As I say, we need an informed debate about those issues.

No one has yet mentioned this today, but the Government’s work on EU competences will no doubt help in that. I hope that the EU committees can be involved in that work, but that will go only so far and will take time. Meanwhile, politics advances. An increasingly isolationist tendency here and an increasingly self-absorbed eurozone, with the non-eurozone countries deeply reluctant to follow the UK towards a semi or complete detachment, is not a happy prospect for this country. This House should be well placed to play a part in that debate, which we really need. We have the expertise from different standpoints. Both in our committee work and on the Floor of the House, there is a real need for us to try to ensure that there is a properly informed, dispassionate debate about the hugely important issues before us.

As others have said, this House will be listened to if it engages in such debates. This is perhaps a question for the noble Lord, Lord Boswell, when he ends the debate. Could the EU Committee contribute ideas for ways in which the House can play a full part in that debate? Does the Minister have thoughts about how this House can play a more effective role in such a debate? That is hugely important for us; this House has a huge role to play in that.