Results 1-20 of 2,140 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon

Afghanistan — Question (4 Nov 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, nothing can diminish or should distract us from the tragedy of five young lives lost yesterday, the pain of their families or the bitterness that we feel because their deaths have been brought about by those who said they were our partners. However, we should not allow ourselves to be distracted from the fact that failure in Afghanistan—and we are quite close to it, in my...

Afghanistan — Question (19 Oct 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, do the Government not realise that troops cannot turn this round and should not be expected to, as our present difficulties with President Karzai's election clearly shows? Is not rule number one in an international intervention such as this is that the international community has a single, clear political strategy, attached to which is a small number of priorities which are then...

Afghanistan — Question (13 Jul 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, may I express the deep regrets and condolences of those on these Benches to the families and friends of those who were so tragically killed last week? There is no doubt that overambitious aims and under-resourcing have played a part in the position that we are currently in in Afghanistan, but is not another cause also this: that we have learnt through bitter experience that unless...

Northern Ireland Bill: Committee (11 Mar 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: I accept the noble Lord's admonition. He is entirely correct and I apologise to him, his party and any others I may have inadvertently offended. However, while my expression may have been inelegant—and again I apologise to the House and to noble Lords for it—that does not subtract in any way from the substance of what I have been saying. I ask the Government to think again. It...

Northern Ireland Bill: Committee (11 Mar 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: Perhaps I may respond to the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran. He drew our attention to subparagraph (11) on page 6 and accurately described what is there. If he looks a little further, he will see that a, "resolution for the purposes", of the above paragraph, "must be passed with the support of", and then he sees a majority of the Members of the Assembly, "a majority of the designated Nationalists...

Northern Ireland Bill: Committee (11 Mar 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: I declare an interest: I am, as the Government know, doing work in Northern Ireland on their behalf in seeking to reach an accommodation between the various sections of the Northern Ireland community on the issue of parades in the long term. I listened to the Minister's response in the debate earlier this week on the issue raised by my noble friend Lord Smith of Clifton in Amendments 2 and 5....

Afghanistan: Helmand Province — Question (4 Feb 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, may I gently tempt the Minister to give a slightly more substantive answer to a question that I have asked previously? The United States has a volunteer corps of post-conflict reconstructors who can move straight in after troops have taken a town such as Musa Qala. That is good, because it capitalises on the success of the soldiers. However, DfID has to wait sometimes weeks, even...

Armed Forces: European Rapid Reaction Force — Question (3 Feb 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, the United States has in effect withdrawn its security guarantee. Under President Obama the United States will have different priorities in the world; in the future Europe will not be its major priority. We are facing an assertive Russia, a rising China and a shift of economic power to the east. In the face of these circumstances, is not the right reaction from Europe to deepen its...

Aid Workers — Question (27 Jan 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, further to that question, does the Minister recognise that there is a conflict between carrying out the duty of care—for DfID employees, for instance—and moving them in straight after a conflict in a place like Musa Qala has finished? The need is to get them in fast if the opportunities won by the soldiers are not to be lost. The United States has tackled this problem by...

Disarmament — Question (14 Jan 2009)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, in his answer to my noble friend's second question the Minister said that strategic control of the firm now in effective US ownership remains in British hands. What exactly does he mean by that and how is it exercised?

Identity Cards — Question (10 Dec 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, did I hear the Minister say that the cost will be £30 per year?

Queen's Speech — Debate (2nd Day) (Continued) (4 Dec 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble and learned Lord, whom I have always admired and respected—I did so in full measure today on his comments on Europe. I hope that his party listens to those wise words, although I fear that there is not much chance that it will. I should like not to do the traditional tour d'horizon but to look a little wider at the context in which we...

Afghanistan (5 Nov 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, will the Minister accept that, whatever the Prime Minister may have said a year ago, the baleful fact remains that the dynamic is increasingly moving against us in Afghanistan? If this is to be turned around, while more troops and resources may be necessary, they will not be sufficient unless they are backed by two factors, which we still do not have. The first is an international...

Bosnia and Herzegovina (22 Oct 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: asked Her Majesty's Government: What is their assessment of the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (22 Oct 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer, but is it not the case that Bosnia is now going backwards rather than forwards and that there is a severe danger that we will sleepwalk ourselves back into a Bosnian crisis? Is not one reason for that the fact that Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of the Serb-dominated entity has in the past two years reversed the progress made in...

European Union (Amendment) Bill (18 Jun 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, we are considering whether to go forward to complete the parliamentary process on this Bill today. Why should we delay? We need to know not only where this country stands but where other countries stand when in due course we consider what to do next. This is an important procedure and there is no purpose in delaying it. I listened carefully to the noble Lord, Lord Owen, for whom I...

European Union (Amendment) Bill (18 Jun 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, this has been an exceptional debate and I have been privileged to take part in it. Perhaps in that spirit, I could start off by agreeing with two points made from the Conservative Front Bench, reinforced by my noble friend Lady Williams. The first point is that there must be no question of dealing with the Irish sovereign decision through their referendum other than with respect. It...

Immigration: Heathrow Airport (4 Jun 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, how can the Government say that they are not being complacent about—

European Union (Amendment) Bill (6 May 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: I am happy to follow the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, because I agree with many of his sentiments and those expressed earlier by the noble Lord, Lord Robertson. Above all, I agree with his puzzlement about the arguments put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford. I cannot work out whether I was more depressed or frightened by hearing the arguments put forward by those on the...

Afghanistan: Humanitarian Aid (12 Mar 2008)

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon: My Lords, I welcome the noble Baroness's answer to that question. Does she accept that aid which is not passed through government can have the effect of undermining the Afghan Government when we should be strengthening them? If there is a problem with capacity in the Afghan Government, surely the answer is not to change the way we give aid but to give more of it to strengthen governmental...