Former Labour MP for Clydebank and Milngavie
I very much congratulate the Government on their initiative in setting up the Commission for Africa. I also congratulate that body on having produced a quite superb report, and I shall talk about three areas of it. The report is incredibly useful; indeed, I think that it is the best analysis that I have ever seen of the problem. It is presented in a penetrating way and although it is long, it...
I agree. Some of those with a scientific background are no longer employed in posts where they can use that background. Something very strange has occurred: agriculture has become very unsexy for DFID, northern development agencies and non-governmental organisations. There has been a decline in investment in agriculture and in the natural sciences. African agriculture is now in crisis, as the...
That is absolutely right. The politicians are known as walking wallets. They are seen as opportunities to gain resources. One politician that I talked to last week boasted to me that he had just provided 1,000 scholarships for people to learn IT skills, because that is what the firms wanted. He was aiming to get 5,000 scholarships, which he would personally pay for. Where does that lead in...
That is what I was referring to. One of the major ways in which we can tackle corruption is by the "publish what you pay" initiative. It is a criminal offence to bribe a foreign official; we have taken that step forward. But it is difficult to see how we can get good governance without paying much more attention to the issue of transparency and building partnerships of parliamentarians that...
I apologise if I misconveyed what I was trying to say. I am not pessimistic about the potential of African agriculture; it has huge potential. I am, however, pessimistic about the lack of recognition for that potential, as displayed in the developed world's willingness to devote attention to African agriculture. There are huge internal problems with African structures, but I am not...
It is a pleasure to follow the Chairman of the Committee. I am sure that he and other members of the Committee would agree that the report is one of the finest and most useful that we have produced, so it is good that we can debate it. I should point out that more of us would have attended this debate, but half of the Committee is on its way back from Iraq, so only the half that went to Sudan...
I concur with that. I am delighted to see the unfairnesses of our trade policies emphasised. However, anybody who thinks that if we get rid of the common agricultural policy and make our trade policies completely fair then African agriculture will boom is living in cloud cuckoo land. Products of the right quality still have to be grown for export in the necessary quantities, and there is a...
It will help. It would be foolish to say that it would not. However, there is more to it. I am, coincidentally, coming to a couple of relevant examples. It is often said that Africa never had the agricultural revolution, which was a huge stimulus to development in Asia. However, for internal reasons—not, in my view, for trading reasons—Africa becomes less self-sufficient and more...
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the dispersal of Government jobs to Scotland.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what procedures are in place whereby the legality of Resolution 1422 of the UN Security Council may be judicially determined.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what his policy is on application of Article 16 of the Rome Statute; and if he will make a statement; (2) what action the Security Council took, in passing Resolution 1422, to determine whether there was a threat to international peace and security that justified taking powers under Chapter VII of the United Nations...
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which states have signed bilateral impunity agreements following Resolution 1422 of the United Nations Security Council; and how many have ratified them.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether, in negotiating a bilateral treaty for impunity from the International Criminal Court for American nationals, he has sought assurances from the United States that an American suspected of war crimes would be prosecuted in the United States for the full range of war crimes specified in the Rome Statute; and if he will...
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what implications Resolution 1422 of the Security Council has for compliance with other international agreements, with particular reference to the Convention against Torture and the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made towards bringing into practice a judicial system for the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) if he will make a statement about recent activities of the Government relating to bilateral agreements with the United States concerning the International Criminal Court; (2) what implications the recent Extradition Treaty signed with the United States has for the treatment of those suspected of committing war crimes...
