Malala Yousafzai
Lord West of Spithead Excerpts(9 years, 6 months ago)
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Baroness Northover
My noble friend will know that we put a great deal of stress on working in fragile and conflict-affected states. We fully recognise that development should be a driver towards peace and stability, which is one of the major reasons why we invest what we do in education.
Lord West of Spithead (Lab)
My Lords, I was privileged to show Malala and her family around the Palace of Westminster and to talk with her about Pakistan. She is the most amazing young woman. Could the Minister confirm—maybe she cannot say in detail what is happening; if she cannot say it on the Floor of the House, maybe she would write—that we are ensuring that Malala is protected? She has been shot once; she is in an area of this country where we know that there are jihadists. I would like to know that our nation is looking after this amazing woman.
Baroness Northover
The noble Lord will know that I cannot go into detail. We are indeed protecting her.
Afghanistan: Quarterly Statement
Lord West of Spithead Excerpts(10 years, 1 month ago)
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Baroness Northover
I thank the noble Lord for what he has just said. Of course, one of the names I read out was Oliver Thomas, whom many of us knew as he was a parliamentary researcher. That brings it home to those who would otherwise not feel the impact of the contribution that they have had to make. The noble Lord is right about the education of girls. The transformation from 2001, when virtually no girls were in school, is astonishing. Of the 6.3 million children in school in Afghanistan, about 2 million are girls. We have not got to equality, but we have made a lot of progress and will make sure it continues.
Lord West of Spithead (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister quite rightly points out how much we owe to our men and women for what they have done in Afghanistan, but there is a pernicious scheme—a poison—abroad which really upsets our servicemen. It relates to things that have happened in the past. I hope the Minister can assure the House that it will not happen in Afghanistan. It has happened in Iraq. We have seen the Al-Sweady inquiry, which has cost the MoD £47 million. Key evidence, which would have made the whole thing unnecessary, was shredded just before it was called. We have the business of the International Criminal Court amazingly saying it is doing a preliminary investigation into this country, which can and does look into activities by its forces. I believe that is quite extraordinary. Members of the International Criminal Court would be jolly lucky if they were caught by our people rather than most countries in the world. Can the Minister say that we will not allow this trawling of Afghanistan to find cases and trumped-up issues to cause problems for our people, because it has a huge, pernicious effect on our service men and women?
Baroness Northover
I hear what the noble Lord says. I thank him for the tributes he has paid. He will know full well the contribution that our service men and women are making. I do not doubt that the standards of our troops are second to none. It is clearly vital that our troops, like all other troops, adhere to international law in this regard because we are trying to establish respect for the rule of law in Afghanistan. Clearly, if one or two let anybody down then that can let the whole group down. I am well aware that the troops themselves wish that every single member of their group adheres to the high standards to which they themselves adhere.
Queen’s Speech
Lord West of Spithead Excerpts(11 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord West of Spithead
My Lords:
“It is upon the navy under the good Providence of God that the safety, honour and welfare of this realm do chiefly depend”.
Thus ran the preamble to the Articles of War, written more than 300 years ago. There is no doubt that naval dominance of European waters was the longest, most complex and expensive project ever undertaken by British state society. As a result a small, weak, insignificant offshore island was able to develop into the world’s greatest power. More recently, the prime reason we survived the German wars of the first half of the 20th century was the strength of the Royal Navy.
We remain the sixth wealthiest country in the world; world shipping, which is the sinews of our global village, is run from London; we are responsible for 14 dependencies worldwide; we are the biggest European investor in South Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific Rim, where stability is crucial if we are to get the return we need from our investments; and we are a permanent member of the Security Council. We are, like it or not—and I know that many do not like it—a world power. We are of course an island, but the Government seem sometimes to forget that. The maritime sector was worth more than £10 billion in 2010, and 90% by value and 95% by volume of our imports and exports travel by sea.
How are we safeguarding this today? The noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig of Radley, rightly said that there was hardly any mention of defence in the gracious Speech. The Prime Minister has stated on a number of occasions that defence and security are the first responsibility of government. These are fine words but I fear that they have not been backed up by actions. In the 2010 strategic defence and security review we took measures that severely weakened our ability to project power, yet within months our forces were being committed to action in Libya. There have been further cuts since, and further indications that the Government would be willing to commit British forces if we are not careful.
Similar cuts are being made by our European allies, and the USA is finding itself carrying more and more of the defence burden of looking after the military interests of the western democracies and other nations worldwide. The US, too, is having to find savings and is now looking across the Pacific rather than towards the Euro-Atlantic region. Europe will have to take on more responsibility for its own security. The US has consistently supported us in the European, African and near-eastern area. Are we really not going to support them in the Far East and Pacific if the call comes? Those areas are increasingly important to the UK as well as to the US.
None of us can predict the next crisis. It may happen tomorrow, and from my experience of the intelligence world I know that we have a very bad track record of predicting crises. In an increasingly chaotic and dangerous world we must carry our share of the burden. Simply and starkly, we are not carrying our share. I do not have time to list all our shortfalls that impact on the critical mass of the Navy. Manpower has to be one area of concern. We had 75,000 sailors in 1982, some 30 years ago, and have 26,500 today—a cut of two-thirds in naval manpower, with all the effects that that has on flexibility.
I will be fair to the Government and congratulate them on their realisation of the crucial significance of maritime strike, and their aspiration to run both new carriers. Not to run both would be a national disgrace. Let us hope that their gamble of getting rid of “Ark Royal” and the Harriers pays off. So far we have got away with it for three years; we have to get away with it for another four or five. It was a gamble.
I will focus on just one example of our many shortfalls in the maritime sphere. Noble Lords may remember the preamble about the importance of the Navy to our nation that I gave at the beginning of my speech. Do the Government really believe that 19 destroyers and frigates—that means only six deployed—are sufficient for our nation? At the time of the Falklands war, when the Royal Navy saved the Government’s bacon, we had about 60 destroyers and frigates. The difference in capability of our new ships does not make up for the huge lack of numbers; one ship cannot be in two places at once. We have cut to the bone and, in naval parlance, our nation is standing into danger. I have written to the Prime Minister stating that very point.
We can no longer be sure that our Armed Forces are capable of meeting the tasks that our nation and people expect of them. We are at a crisis point, and something has to be done. History has shown how our nation suffers if we forget the crucial importance of our military and, in particular, of the sea and our Navy.
Crime: Domestic Violence
Lord West of Spithead Excerpts(11 years, 4 months ago)
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Baroness Northover
I agree with my noble friend. I also support the campaign that is occurring today, and DfID is supporting the campaign that will be seen in Cape Town today—which, in the light of the news this morning, is perhaps particularly relevant. My noble friend is right to highlight the way that we have taken this forward; there are, for example, two specific criminal offences of stalking that came into effect in March 2012, and the DPM announced in September the widening of the definition of domestic violence to include 16 to 17 year-olds and coercive behaviour. We are working very hard to bring greater protection for victims and to bring more offenders to justice. It is also important that we work with criminal justice professionals to ensure proper guidance and training so that we can support these changes in the legislation.
Baroness Corston
My Lords, is the Minister aware that domestic violence is a major cause of women in this country ending up in prison? With which organisations in this country are the Government working to eradicate this drastic harm to all these lives?
Malawi
Lord West of Spithead Excerpts(12 years, 1 month ago)
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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.
Baroness Northover
It is indeed extremely important to make sure that that kind of support is in place, and DfID has been supporting healthcare in Malawi very strongly. The noble Lord will be aware that the previous high commissioner was expelled by the former president, but the UK has decided to appoint a new high commissioner—a process that is going through at the moment. Meanwhile, the new president has decided to appoint a new high commissioner to the United Kingdom—and that, we hope, will help.
Women: Special Operations Executive
Lord West of Spithead Excerpts(13 years ago)
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Lord West of Spithead
My Lords, I join the thanks to my noble friend Lady Crawley for this opportunity to recognise the very brave women in the Special Operations Executive. I have a particular interest as I am a trustee of the Imperial War Museum and the author of a study in the late 1980s into whether women ought to be employed in Royal Navy ships, which led to them taking up such employment in the early 1990s. During that study, one of the issues often raised with me—many points were raised with me to the effect that it should not happen—was the ability of women to cope with conditions of combat. It is interesting that the SOE had addressed those issues more than 50 years before. Initially, there was a great deal of opposition to their being employed, as some noble Lords have said, but authorisation to use them came finally from Churchill himself, according to Selwyn Jepson, who was the recruiting officer for the French section of SOE. Interestingly, after the war, Jepson recalled:
“In my view, women were very much better than men for the work. Women … have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men”—
something to which I think the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, referred. That was an interesting reflection.
Of course, most of us have heard of Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, and Noor Inayat Khan—probably less of her. They were all George Cross winners, and two of them were killed. Feature films were made of two of them, as has been said. The noble Baroness, Lady Trumpington, touched on Nancy Wake. How many have heard of her—the White Mouse? She led a band of 7,000 French Resistance maquisards in the Auvergne, and that was just before and during the liberation of France. She killed an SS man with her bare hands—a horrifying thought—and now she lives in the Star and Garter home in Richmond. It is quite incredible.
Of course, we must not forget that 67 years ago tonight more than 1 million men were fighting on the beaches of Normandy, in the air over Normandy and in some 5,500 Royal Navy ships—sadly nowadays we have rather fewer—off the coast of Normandy, but women were doing so in France. I mention one who was touched on by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton: Pearl Witherington. She ran the Wrestler network, as was said, fielding about 1,500 men. The Germans put 1 million francs on her head, and during that crucial D-day period it was estimated that her network killed 1,000 Germans and took 1,800 prisoners. It is quite remarkable and almost unheard of. She was recommended for a Military Cross, but because she was a woman she could not have one. I am glad to say that that has now changed.
The murder of 13 such women in Germany, even though they were members of the FANY—the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry—and the Women’s Royal Air Force, which should have protected them, was an appalling crime. I end with a verse from a poem that put words in the mouth of Violette Szabo by a man called Leo Marks, who was a cipher officer, which I think encapsulates these women:
“The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours”.
I believe that we owe these very brave and formidable women recognition. It is not too late, but it is over to you.