Christmas Adjournment

Richard Graham Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow so many speakers who have talked of successes and of subjects that are of interest to us all, such as artificial intelligence. However, these Christmas Adjournment debates also give us a chance to appreciate some of those who would not normally be mentioned, and there is no better way for me to start than by thanking those in the Gloucestershire health and care trusts whose staff serve so many of my constituents and those of my Gloucestershire colleagues so well, often at home and sometimes giving palliative care at the end of life. I have been honoured to see them in action from time to time when volunteering with the NHS each summer, but this year I feel more deeply than ever about this, because Alice Roberts and her team were helping my younger brother, who died of cancer three weeks ago. My sister-in-law Sophie described Alice and her colleagues as “amazing, kind and empathetic”, and I know what a difference their approach made in the last few days of his life. I am incredibly grateful to all the district nurses in Gloucestershire, many of whom I know will carry on helping patients like my brother at the end of their lives through this difficult winter.

Let me just add that I find it hard to say much about Royal College of Nursing or ambulance strikes, or to make judgments, when emotions, respect, responsibility for public finances and the politics of union strikes clash so uncomfortably for me at the moment. I have chaired regular meetings between our county’s MPs, our NHS trusts, public health and our county council for almost three years now, and with huge respect to all the health professionals involved, the question that I ask myself is: if nurses are stressed by volumes of work and lack of resources, as they are, what will happen to the backlogs? They will only increase. That is why I can only encourage all those responsible to think of creative solutions to capacity in our A&E hospitals. Is it right, for example, that alcoholics return regularly to these hospitals, including the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, both for their detox treatment and for a 10-day monitored recovery? Is that really what an A&E hospital should do when beds are needed for real accidents, not recurring addiction? This is not to downplay the importance of such help, but just to ask whether it could be done elsewhere than in our A&E hospitals.

Let me now move on and appreciate those who serve us abroad: not only our armed forces, who have been mentioned several times today, but our diplomatic service, our international trade officers and others, including the British Council and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Some work in countries where there may be more sun but also, until recently, many more covid restrictions. Many of those people did not see family back here for well over two years, and I want to thank them all.

Official trade statistics may not show great growth in trade with Asia, but Opposition Members such as the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) should be careful about rubbishing what is being done on behalf of our country. The trans-Pacific partnership, the free trade agreement talks with India and the joint economic trade committees with Thailand and Indonesia will achieve much, although not overnight, and I commend to the hon. Gentleman and other Eeyores here today the thought of the day in Pimlico underground station this morning:

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.”

Having just celebrated 10 years as the Prime Minister’s trade envoy for parts of south-east Asia, I will go on building the new: the satellites, cyber, education, life sciences and green energy partnerships and links that are good for our partners in south-east Asia—indeed, all of Asia—and for us.

That leads me to the sensitive bilateral relationship that we have with China. This House has had no shortage of urgent questions on human rights in, and sometimes outside, China. We have had more debates on abuses of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang in the past two years than on human rights everywhere else in the world put together. No one here imagines that what has happened in Xinjiang or in other minority ethnic parts of China—I have seen many of these myself at first hand—would be remotely acceptable here, but what we have almost completely missed is the real human rights success in China this year, which is the near-complete reversal of the zero covid policy, and to a lesser extent in Hong Kong, where it is modestly disguised as flexible zero covid.

The people of China, seeing random restrictions harshly imposed on them in the name of an impossible goal, made their feelings clear across the nation, unconsciously echoing the remark by Dr Li Wenliang, the famous Wuhan doctor, that there must be more than one voice. There are three interesting aspects to the speed of the policy U-turn: first, it shows that the Communist party of China can listen; secondly, it is good for global supply chains and growth; and thirdly, it was domestic, not international, pressure that achieved such important change.

The latter aspect is the subject of a new book by Jamie Gruffydd-Jones called “Hostile Forces: How the Chinese Communist Party Resists International Pressure on Human Rights”. Jamie notes that

“foreign pressure may raise citizens’ awareness of human rights violations…or it may spark nationalist sentiments, lead to a backlash against the international community and drive support for their government’s actions.”

He highlights how, for example, changes to the death penalty in China came from the domestic outcry over the execution of Mr Nie Shubin for a rape and murder that another man subsequently admitted to. Jamie goes on to say that the CCP has, so far, been successful in ensuring a tight link between party and nation in opposing criticism on human rights from the west and, indeed, has been able to

“weaponise such international pressure for its own propaganda purposes”.

The reinforcement of the CCP’s depiction of US and UK pressure on human rights may be the unintended achievement of those in this House who are relentlessly focused on China’s domestic human rights abuses. This approach has not been very successful in Tibet and I wonder whether it is achieving much in Xinjiang—not because calling out human rights issues in China is wrong, but because it may be counterproductive, while missing the dramatic success for the wider human rights of the Chinese people over zero covid that was achieved without our help. This matters because in an uncertain world we should, as western leaders rightly concluded at the Bali G20, de-escalate tensions and engage, even when engagement is difficult with major nations with very different systems, values and histories.

On that note, let me come back to my Gloucester constituency. There is lots that some of my constituents may disagree with me on, but as a small city we are much more successful when we pull together for the common good. We have the country’s first ever conversion of a department store into a university teaching campus. Debenhams has been converted into a University of Gloucestershire campus, with all its health courses as well as a wellbeing centre and a relocated library. That is us at our best. That work is complemented by the work of Reef plc 100 yards away at the Forum, where a Roman statue of Venus was found under the old bus station and a huge new tech hub will sit beside Gloucester’s first four-star hotel before long.

Both projects are funded by the Government’s levelling-up fund. We know levelling up when we see it because it brings pride to our city—or to different parts of the country—as will rectifying the underpass that connects these areas, under our railway station and lines, to Great Western Road and our Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. This key route for many will be improved, straightened and stripped of steps to make it much more user friendly. That work starts in the new year. There are many strands of good things being done locally and nationally that we should never forget when we criticise ourselves for not being perfect.

I want to finish by thanking all those who work in the House of Commons for their great help to me, not least Mr Anam Uddin, who on two separate occasions has recovered my backpack when it has been lost—once at almost midnight. I wish him and everybody else here—all the servants of us fortunate MPs—a very happy Christmas.