Queen's Speech

Lord Jopling Excerpts

Wednesday 26th May 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jopling]

My Lords, having been a Member of one or other House within this building for the past 45 years, I thought that the speech that we heard from my noble friend Lord Ferrers yesterday was undoubtedly the best speech from the mover of the Motion on the Address that I have ever heard, and I congratulate him on it. He used one phrase that I particularly liked. He said:

“Governments consider it a matter of pride to pass more laws”.—[Official Report, 25/5/10; col. 11.]

Having read the gracious Speech, I have a feeling that our coalition seems hell-bent on doing that. There was a very long list of future legislation. I really hope that they are not overdoing it so that we will find ourselves suffering from legislative indigestion before very long, because that has a big effect on the outside world. When, years ago, I found myself in charge of a department, I said to the Permanent Secretary on the first day: “Please remember: I am not interested in legislation except where it is vital”. It may be that that is why I never moved on to take charge of another department after that.

Turning to today's debate, I add my warmest congratulations to my noble friend Lord Howell. It must be rare, I think, for one so expert and experienced in foreign affairs and government to become a Foreign Office Minister. I had the enormous pleasure to serve for 10 years in another place on the Foreign Affairs Committee under his chairmanship. Over the past 13 years here in your Lordships' House, I have admired his expertise on foreign affairs from the opposition Front Bench.

In particular, he has a great enthusiasm for the Commonwealth. I remember a study that we did on that down the other end of the Corridor many years ago. I have always admired his great enthusiasm for the Commonwealth, and I am glad to see that among his responsibilities is responsibility for Commonwealth affairs. I was sorry that yesterday, in the Speech, I was unable to find the word “Commonwealth” expressed at all. I hope that that was an oversight, and I hope that my noble friend’s influence will bring Commonwealth issues more to the fore in future.

To turn to my noble friend who will be winding up the debate, I want to make a few comments about defence, and NATO in particular. I hope that, when he winds up, he will be able to say something about our strategic defence and security review. It has already been delayed because the previous Government put it off until after the election—which is culpable. There are massive questions to answer, and a number of them have already been raised this afternoon. There is the huge question of whether in these straitened times we can afford both an updated Trident and new aircraft carriers. I do not know; I have considerable doubts as to whether we can. If my noble friend is able at this early stage to say something about that, that will be most helpful.

I am particularly concerned that as the strategic defence and security review proceeds in the months ahead, it takes place in conjunction with NATO's current moves to revise the alliance’s strategic concept. The Albright committee has already reported with a draft of its proposals to the North Atlantic Council on the alliance’s strategic concept. The new Government will have already considered this. I have a copy of it. It will clearly lead to consultation, with, I hope, the prospect of an agreement in Lisbon in November. I hope that my noble friend will be able to give us an undertaking that it will be done in conjunction with our review. Can he tell us who will represent us after Mr Hoon’s departure from the Albright committee? I imagine that the committee will continue its work, and it would be interesting to know who will represent the United Kingdom.

That takes me to the matter of parliamentary oversight of defence issues. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly does a thorough job in this field. It so happens that this weekend I shall be presenting to the assembly in Riga—I am rapporteur of one of the committees—a report entitled Maritime Security: NATO and EU Roles and Co-ordination. I have spoken to your Lordships before about the problems of NATO and EU co-operation. I know that some people blame it on the Turkey/Cyprus problem and that other people say that things are improving. However, the issue needs very firm direction and I hope that the new Government will provide it. The Albright committee was pretty firm on this. I was glad to see that it said:

“NATO and EU leaders should do everything possible to prevent disagreements from interfering with effective cooperation between the two organisations”.

There are far too many overlaps and parallels between EU military affairs and NATO that need dealing with.

Lastly, in their final days the previous Government did something that ought to have been done a long time ago: they decided to wind up WEU. It was rather like deciding to put to sleep an old dog that had been useful in the past but had withered away to skin and bone. For the past few years the parliamentary arm of WEU floundered about trying to find a new role for itself, and it took on parliamentary oversight of the European Union’s common security and defence policy. When he winds up, will my noble friend tell us whether the Government continue to favour any sort of parliamentary oversight over CSDP after the demise of WEU, and, if so, where it should be taken? It should clearly not be taken in OSCE because of the Russian involvement, and it is not really a matter for the Council of Europe. I suggest that the Government look carefully at the prospect of finding a way, if possible, of attaching parliamentary oversight on CSDP to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. I hope that the Government will consider that.