Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting

Debate between Viscount Waverley and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Thursday 6th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

I am delighted that the noble Lord has raised this issue. We discussed it briefly outside the Chamber and I assure him that his views will be taken firmly into account.

[Viscount Waverley (CB)]

My Lords, would it not be plausible to make full use of the internet and to devise a website to allow for two-way exchanges of opinion among all parliamentarians around the whole of the Commonwealth?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

I assure the noble Viscount that, as part of the programmes that we are putting forward and consulting widely on, it is our intention to make the best use we can of the internet and all it can deliver. In some areas around the world, of course, it is more difficult to get the broadband speed. However he is absolutely right that modern communication is important. After all, we have to think of the young age of most people across the Commonwealth.

Balfour Declaration

Debate between Viscount Waverley and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Monday 3rd April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

Yes, my Lords.

[Viscount Waverley (CB)]

My Lords, given the increasing vacuum from the United States and the concern expressed by Arab partners, is it now realised that Israel can become a strategic ally in the common cause of combating terrorism and Islamist extremism?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I think it is incumbent on all those who believe in peace around the world to do exactly that, and I hope and expect that Israel would be part of that work.

Russia

Debate between Viscount Waverley and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Tuesday 31st January 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, on a previous occasion I have been able to make it clear that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is already putting in place the opportunity to expand our network throughout the other member states of the European Union. Our bilateral relationships should therefore remain strong and develop to be even stronger as and when we leave the European Union.

[Viscount Waverley (CB)]

My Lords, would it be helpful if the Government, in the Security Council, resolved to endeavour to complete uncompleted Wilsonian principles as to when the right of self-determination supersedes that of territorial integrity, to remove all question of doubt?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, we can learn from history. We can certainly learn to engage with Russia and to engage even more closely with our allies in the United States, as I mentioned yesterday. Sometimes it seems at the moment that policy development is, in the polite phrase that I think I used, evolving and rather confusing. That makes it difficult to be able to give the noble Viscount a satisfactory answer at this particular moment.

European Union

Debate between Viscount Waverley and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Monday 4th July 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, last week the Leader of the House repeated the Prime Minister’s Statement, in which he said that,

“we have now got to look at all the detailed arrangements, and Parliament will clearly have a role in that in making sure that we find the best way forward”,

and that, as we move ahead towards leaving the EU, it will be important to,

“ensure that the interests of all parts of our United Kingdom are protected and advanced”.—[Official Report, Commons, 27/6/16; cols. 23-27.]

That still stands.

[Viscount Waverley (CB)]

My Lords, to what extent will the Ponsonby rule or its successor arrangements under the constitutional change brought in in 2010 be applicable to this process?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, that will be under consideration.