Eric Joyce: I hope not to speak for as long as 10 minutes. I have listened carefully to the speeches of my hon. Friend the Minister and the hon. Member for Mid-Norfolk (Mr. Simpson), and I want to talk about the situation in Goma, to follow on from the remarks of my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, West (John Battle), and to make a couple of points about what might happen. The Opposition...
Eric Joyce: I agree with my hon. Friend that a political solution is the key, but does he accept that there can be no long-term solution until the DRC army—the FARDC—has sufficient capacity?
Eric Joyce: I am especially pleased to be here with my hon. Friend the Minister. This is my first chance to see him in action and it gives me particular pleasure to be doing that today. I am aware that quite significant parts of the UK skills agenda have been devolved, so although I will mention Scotland's policies, I shall try to err on the right side of the rules and avoid straying into the tricky...
Eric Joyce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations the UK has made in relation to the arrest and detention in the Democratic Republic of Congo of Gabriel Mokia, head of the Movement for Democratic Change political party.
Eric Joyce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations the UK has made in relation to concerns raised by international observers at the conviction in the Democratic Republic of Congo of Freddy Bisimwa Matabaro and Mugisho Rwezangabo for the murder of the journalist Serge Maheshe and their requests for a renewed and effective investigation into his death.
Eric Joyce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations the Government have made to the Government of Rwanda on the continued detention of Charles Ntakirutinka.
Eric Joyce: My right hon. Friend's comments on education today are an explicit recognition that many people join the armed services with a pretty patchy record in education, but once they are there, they discover a prodigious capacity to learn. Will he assure the House that his Department will make a careful and concerted effort to liaise with institutions of further and higher education to ensure that...
Eric Joyce: What recent discussions he has had with the Government of Egypt on the middle east peace process.
Eric Joyce: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. I agree that the Egyptians have made commendable efforts in the last short while. Does he agree, however, there is a great deal more that they could do? I hope that they would agree that that is the case as well. I am thinking in particular of the tunnelling under the border, which is continuing, and the smuggling of people and dangerous contraband.
Eric Joyce: I sense that the debate has been whipped into an exciting, high-pitched frenzy over the past five and a half weeks, and so I rise to help my hon. Friend. The exit point that the hon. Member for Wellingborough made was about the class of travel. I have worked out that for his knees to touch the seat in front on an aircraft with a 40 in pitch between the seats, he would need to be just a...
Eric Joyce: What representations he has received from the Scottish Executive on arrangements for collection of local taxation.
Eric Joyce: I thank my right hon. Friend for his answer. Does he share my concern that the Scottish National party Administration's plans for a local income tax in Scotland appear to bring 55,000 students within the ambit of local income tax for the first time?
Eric Joyce: I had not intended to speak, but I saw my right hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr. Clarke) speaking on the monitor earlier and it struck me that I should congratulate him on making such a good speech on an important subject. CDC representatives visited me some three or four months ago and took me through their projects and plans across the world, particularly...
Eric Joyce: My right hon. Friend is absolutely correct, of course. The occurrence in Rwanda in 1994 was terrible, but development since then has been remarkable, supported not least by the UK Government, which I think is the largest bilateral donor to Rwanda, despite it being a Francophone country. He is right that when one thinks about these countries we tend to focus on the negative—the terrible...
Eric Joyce: The hon. Member for North-East Milton Keynes mentioned British military assistance training teams. My instinct is that the Congo would be unlikely to succeed in a bid in that respect, because those teams are in great demand all over the world, but does the Minister agree that security in the Congo is the No. 1 priority, the greatest imperative, and that there are things that the UK Government...
Eric Joyce: Christian Aid has recently pointed out that, from to time, it can be quite difficult to find where the UNDP has added value. By no stretch of the imagination does this apply to all parts of the UNDP effort, but in some cases, it might be worth examining whether there is scope for funding to be given directly to local NGOs to perform roles on the ground, because that gives some of those very...
Eric Joyce: I am listening to the hon. Gentleman's comments and I agree with pretty much all that he has said. I am sure that he has considered the scale of the problem. The UK Government are arguably the largest bilateral donor. My hon. Friend the Minister recently mentioned the £50 million put into the pool to which the MOD, the FCO and DFID all contribute. The scale of the problem in the Congo is...
Eric Joyce: It is also worth remembering to condemn Hamas a little more than we have been today. Some 700 rockets have rained down on Israel since January. I hear what my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt) said about many such incidents being a case of somebody trying their best in their back yard. However, Hamas has said that the purpose of the rockets is to cause Israeli migration away...
Eric Joyce: What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on reducing the number of pending military inquests.
Eric Joyce: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. I have received a number of letters from constituents who are concerned that the Scottish National party Administration in Scotland are dragging their heels on this matter. Does he think they are doing everything they can to expedite a solution?
