Queen's Speech

Lord Judd Excerpts

Wednesday 26th May 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Judd]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of Saferworld and as a governor of the LSE who serves on the advisory board of its Centre for the Study of Human Rights. The noble Lord, Lord Howell, has a long and respected record of wise concern for international affairs. Only a few days ago, I was looking at a photograph that he recently sent me of a meeting we had together with U Thant as Secretary-General of the United Nations. I was very glad to hear my noble friend Lady Kinnock, but sad that she has not had longer to bring all her commitment and experience to bear directly on foreign policy in government. It is absolutely clear that she will effectively bring it to bear indirectly from the opposition Benches.

As the noble Lord, Lord Howell, said, the first inescapable truth of our existence is interdependence. That is evidenced in economics, migration, environment, climate change, security, culture, education, health and other dimensions. However, we have to recognise that globalisation can be seen as threatening and disempowering for countless people across the world. The challenge is to find a dynamic formula for enabling people to establish a sense of security in their identity and immediate community while recognising that the numerous strategic issues that overwhelm them can be solved only by effective co-operation at local, regional, national and international levels. It is not either/or. The need is to appreciate interdependence and then find ways of most effectively handling it. That is central to economic, foreign, security, overseas development and defence policies.

Co-operation in Europe must not falter. The consequences of failure would be as disastrous for the British people as for anybody else. We have to start from where we are and the euro cannot just be wished away. However, we should perhaps look for a change of approach to Europe’s future. Arguably, we will have a stronger European Community if it is more confederal in style, with more emphasis on co-operation by its member nation states, rather than having a centralised, imposed bureaucratic style. Co-operation and co-ordination should be the essential culture. That will demand strong leadership and while we must all hope that the coalition can provide that, there will inevitably be anxieties about how the Liberal Europhiles will work effectively with the Conservatives and their rejection of the European Christian Democratic tradition in favour of the eccentric and extreme right of the European mainland.

We are all rightly concerned about security. A redefinition of the ingredients for security is long overdue. It must include economic, social, environmental and related matters. The National Security Council to be established by the coalition is interesting but the needs are greater. Arms control, conflict resolution and security sector reform are key parts of all that, as is pre-emptive diplomacy. Human rights are absolutely central to it. Where there are few human rights abuses, the danger of alienation and extremism will be less; where there are serious human rights abuses and failings, the recruitment of extremists will be facilitated. Human rights are not an optional extra. They are the muscular core of relevant security policy. To be effectively fulfilled, they must be seen as valid universally and never partially. That is why the UN convention, the European convention and the European Court of Human Rights reflected in our own Human Rights Act are so critically important.

For those reasons, our own anti-terror legislation has to preserve a demonstrable and unswerving commitment to those standards and principles that make our society and its system of justice worth defending. I am glad that the coalition has staked out its intention to tackle issues such as secret tribunals and the current inadmissibility in open court of intercept evidence, worries about the nature of control orders and the detention of children in the operation of our immigration policy. The presumption of innocence and justice being seen to be done are central pillars to our system. We erode them at our peril.

In specific country terms, there are two vivid examples of the dangers of counterproductivity in Israel and, as I recently saw on a visit for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights, in Russian policy in the Caucasus and Chechnya. Russia and Israel, by their oppression and repression and by their abuse of human rights, are recruiting for international terrorism and widening instability. There is an urgent need to work with courageous and enlightened people in both countries who understand that and seek to change course.

It is encouraging that the coalition has committed itself to 0.7 per cent of gross national income by 2013. In an age of boundless technological developments, it is shameful and grim that millions of people still go prematurely to their graves never having begun to be what they might have been. Sustainable economic prosperity is obviously related to global stability and security. But these challenges are at least as demanding at the global level as at the individual country level. Global, environmental, trade, economic and migration policies are as critical to sustain development as anything done at the country level—often more critical. There is a growing resentment among many well educated and highly articulate people at the way in which the advantaged nations of the world, often partly advantaged by the exploitation of the less advantaged, remain determined to manage the world and impose their agendas in the global international institutions. That is very much related to the alienation that leads to extremism and threats to global security. The agendas need to be felt to be every bit as much the agendas of the disadvantaged. To limit the disadvantaged to responding to our priorities, however enlightened we believe them to be, is to perpetuate hostility and non-co-operation.

The coalition has its defence review to come. As a former Defence Minister, I endorse every word of appreciation to our service personnel and their families. The real validity of the review will be a willingness to look honestly at the future and at the threats and challenges to come and to ask what we must do to prepare for the future. What will we have to be prepared to do and how will we do it? How do we ensure that invariably the equipment and resources to undertake the task can be guaranteed before we undertake it? There should be no exemptions to the review. Faced with daunting financial challenges and restraints, why should the immensely expensive Trident renewal be ring-fenced? Alternatives must be properly examined, as I understand the Liberals are arguing in the coalition.

The case for the aircraft carriers has to be seen in the context of what we see as our role, if any, in deploying rapidly and flexibly across the world to play our part with the international community in sustaining peace and stability. The case for the carriers could be very strong in such a context, providing as they would free-standing platforms from which we could operate. But the overriding responsibility of the review must be to identify the task ahead. It would be utterly appropriate in doing that if the review were to encompass an analysis of the vital contribution to defence, peace and security to be made by arms control and disarmament policies and what should be our role in pursuing those in the nuclear, chemical, biological and conventional spheres.