Chris Bryant
Main Page: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)Foreign Affairs Committee
Chris Bryant Excerpts(3 years, 6 months ago)
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Tom Tugendhat
My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. The one brief response I will make is that one of the big changes William Hague made when he was Foreign Secretary was to reopen the language academy. Bringing together understanding, as well as leadership, is fundamental if we are to have the delivery that my hon. Friend rightly emphasises, and bringing that together with the military elements of leadership and co-ordination makes a huge difference.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
I confess that when I listened to the witnesses, I kept remembering those words of the Victorian poet:
“We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven”.
However, the truth is that much still abides for this country. The BBC is the most respected newscaster around the world; English is still becoming the world’s language; we are often the penholder in all the major international institutions; and many people want to do their legal business in this country because we respect the rule of law. Do we not need to find that new niche where we are still special?