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Lord Wallace of Saltaire: My Lords, I, too, welcome the Ministers to their various new appointments, singular or plural as the case may be. I hope that the fact that a Minister has three responsibilities entitles him to a slightly larger office space within the House of Lords. We shall watch with interest to see what happens. I also welcome our new Foreign Secretary. I believe that it is particularly desirable to have...
Iain Duncan Smith: The Minister claims much credit for moves away from Maastricht and other treaties. Why, in 1997, did the Prime Minister describe the proposals to which the Minister signed up at St. Malo and Nice as "ill-judged transplant" operations, which he voted out?
John Bercow: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that reply. When the Prime Minister referred in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday to those people who really may have an agenda to destroy NATO", assuming that he did not intend to incriminate himself, did he mean the French? If not, who did he mean? If he did mean the French, why cannot the Secretary of State see that the Prime Minister's collusion...
Keith Vaz: ...pleasure to respond to the speeches of the hon. Member for Lichfield (Mr. Fabricant). I well remember my visit to Lichfield at his invitation in my previous incarnation when he was mobbed by his constituents in the high street, all asking for the name of his hairdresser. It is a great pleasure also to see in the House my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Mr. Foster)—in my...
Sir Sydney Chapman: In view of the Secretary of State's very last comment and the fact that the Prime Minister said last week that it would be his policy to strengthen defence inside NATO, can the Secretary of State explain how those comments square with the St. Malo Anglo-French agreement, which asserted: The European Union must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed by credible military forces", and...
Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, we are all very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, for introducing the debate. We are grateful, too, that the treaty, in English, arrived in time for us to study it before the debate. The last time we debated a treaty--the Amsterdam Treaty--there was a document before us which set out in great detail the effect that all the amendments in the new treaty had on the existing...
Lord Shore of Stepney: My Lords, first I pay tribute to our chairman, not merely for her chairmanship of the committee but also for her cool, elegant presentation of the main findings of our report earlier this afternoon. It is of enormous help to be able to speak against a background of that kind. I cannot proceed without paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Chalfont, who has made more sensible comments on this...
Iain Duncan Smith: I shall start by paying tribute to the hon. Member for Preston (Mr. Hendrick) on his first appearance in the House. I pay him the courtesy of agreeing with my hon. Friends that he made a good speech. It was an excellent start to his political career. We crossed swords during his election, but I give him the benefit of the doubt on his first speech in the House and I welcome him on behalf of...
John Maples: The Prime Minister prayed in aid a statement by Senator Hagel. However, he has misinterpreted Chuck Hagel, with whom I had a meeting last summer. Senator Hagel said that he has considerable misgivings about the development of capability outside the NATO framework, which is what we are talking about here. The St. Malo agreement, which the Prime Minister presumably looked at very carefully...
Bill Cash: Such debates are characterised by the misquoting of Churchill, who was, after all, one of this country's greatest Prime Ministers. It is a disgrace that people should attempt to subvert his meaning. I have referred to two different spheres. We know that we do not want European government. I have often said as a slogan: "European trade and political co-operation yes: European government no"....
Robin Cook: I fully maintain our position that we will not undermine NATO. That is why, throughout the past two years—1998, 1999 and 2000—ever since we launched the St. Malo initiative, Britain has been careful to ensure at every step that nothing we did undermined NATO. As a result of those measures, the European Union now has a stronger relationship with NATO and with its non-EU members. I hope,...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, as to the noble Lord's final point, to my certain knowledge the House has discussed this issue following Statements in relation to NATO summits and EU summits, and I have, both as a Foreign Office Minister and Defence Minister, answered a number of questions raised in a number of debates. As this Statement makes clear, this has not come as a bolt from the blue. The Government have...
Michael Howard: The Secretary of State has acknowledged that greater European defence co-operation, which is entirely welcome, could take place within NATO. Does he accept that that was the Government's policy until the 1998 St. Malo agreement? Why was that policy changed?
Crispin Blunt: I thank my hon. Friends for their forbearance in allowing me to catch your eye towards the end of the debate, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I hope that the Minister will bear in mind what has been said about European defence, notably by my hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith) —the shadow Secretary of State—my right hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Sir G....
Mike Hancock: I agree entirely. [Interruption.] The Minister, from a sedentary position, is blaming the Tories. Of course they are partly responsible. However, the Government have had three and a half years, and we were told by the adjutant-general today that it would take 10 years to put right the accommodation in Aldershot alone, let alone Catterick. Navy accommodation in Portsmouth still causes problems...
Lord Burnham: My Lords, I am sad to hear the arguments of the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, for she seems to reflect the normal Liberal argument that if there is a threat put your head in the sand. Defence against ballistic missiles is one of the most important subjects that the world has to face and it is a grave pity that this debate has not attracted more speakers. However, with respect to the noble...
Lord Owen: ...Committee is to be congratulated on its report. It is extremely helpful to have this type of detailed analysis because the Inter-Governmental Conference in Nice is an extremely important one. First, it will have a considerable bearing on the pace of enlargement. I am frankly shocked by the delays in the enlargement process, particularly in relation to political matters over Poland, and, in...
Viscount Falkland: ...of the previous speakers. The noble Baroness has painted a picture of tourism which will be set alight in this country by information technology. The noble Lord, Lord Harrison, gave us an enthusiastic tour d'horizon of the situation which confronts us, saying that it will continually improve. During the Recess I spent some weeks travelling around Europe, in particular France, Italy and...
Mike Gapes: The European strategic defence identity is how to get the 2 million-strong armed forces of NATO's European members to be capable of deploying 50,000 or 60,000 personnel in an effective action at one time. It is not beyond the wit of European countries to do that. I refer the hon. Gentleman to the recent Defence Committee report, in which we went into such issues in considerable detail. The...
Lord Burnham: ...it will be to go to find out before he speaks whether anything new has occurred which he ought to bring to the attention of your Lordships. The whole of what the noble Baroness said--indeed, she wasted no time--lasted 27 minutes. It took her all that time to deliver it, and I emphasis that she "wasted no time". But the fact that she had to take 27 minutes to do so is an indication of the...
