My Lords, my speech will be rather different. Giovanni Spadolini was Italy’s Prime Minister in September 1982, when I joined the Foreign Office. In the following 10 years, Italy had seven different Prime Ministers. Italy was less effective on the international stage as a consequence. In the UK, 10 years ago our Prime Minister was the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton. It looks...
Does the Minister accept that, in the end, the decision to proscribe the IRGC is a political one rather than a legal one, so the need to send a strong political signal may trump the desire for complete legal consistency?
Stretching the Minister’s patience further, under transitional arrangements, UK citizens who go to school and live in the EU continue to pay domestic fees at university. That ends in 2028. Will His Majesty’s Government consider ending that penalty against UK citizens? I declare my interest as master of Christ’s College, Cambridge.
The last time your Lordships’ House debated assisted dying was in October 2021. More than 130 noble Lords signed up for the debate. I did not. I was a relatively new Member of the House and I thought that, with so many speakers, someone was bound to say what I thought—but that was not the case. Everyone I heard spoke eloquently, passionately and persuasively, but everyone had made up...
My Lords, the most damaging blow to any country’s international reputation is a justified charge of hypocrisy. The United Kingdom stands for the rule of law in all circumstances. We lose credibility when we seek exceptions to this principle for ourselves. Opponents of the Chagos agreement claim that the International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction, so the UK can safely ignore its...
My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, pointed out, the proposed new embassy would be the biggest Chinese embassy in Europe. Are His Majesty’s Government persuaded that China needs such a very large embassy in the United Kingdom?
My Lords, the country in the Middle East that had the worst 2024 was Iran. At the beginning of 2025 there are indications that Tehran wants to return to the negotiating table. When Mr Trump was the 45th President of the United States, he took the US out of the JCPOA. Now that he is the 47th President, will His Majesty’s Government urge Washington to re-engage with the JCPOA from a position...
My Lords, it is now less than three weeks until the US presidential election. Hamas and Hezbollah have a history of timing their attacks to generate maximum international attention as well as local disruption. Have His Majesty’s Government considered the possibility that there might be a spike in violence before America votes?
