Results 61–80 of 1000 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Keith Simpson

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: My right hon. Friend has only six minutes left, but will he address some of the questions that we have all raised?

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard, and to see an interesting cross-section of colleagues present at what I hope will be a good debate about the lessons from the war in Afghanistan. Over the past week I have had to put up with a number of colleagues rather facetiously asking, “Lessons from which Afghan war?”—with the assumption that my right hon....

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point. That is the law of unintended consequences. I do not think that we, the Americans or our allies wanted things to turn out in that way in either Iraq or Afghanistan, but he is correct: that story is continuing and should concern all of us. Were the policy and strategy outlined by the British Government at the time correct? Were they well thought through?...

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: There is a direct connection, although I do not necessarily completely agree with the hon. Gentleman’s logic. If he will bear with me, I shall come on to that. The basis of British foreign and security policy is twofold: first, absolutely to hang on to and stand by the special relationship with the United States of America; and, secondly, to play a leading role in NATO. Those two elements...

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: The problem with our participation in the Iraq campaign and our military commitment in Afghanistan, which then expanded, was that the policy aims changed, and widened out. There is an argument—I do not actually stand by it but there are many who believe it, including perhaps some hon. Members present—that, through our participation in Iraq and Afghanistan, we made our streets less secure....

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: I agree with my hon. Friend. That was the problem. The material in the public domain—official records and the memoirs of civil servants and senior military officers—shows that it is difficult to establish how, for example, our commitment to Helmand came about. Helmand province was irrelevant in terms of the overall security picture in Afghanistan, and we did not want to go there. The...

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: As we all know, that kind of co-ordination is helpful, but it is not the same as having a proper machine, with minutes, allocation of clear objectives and a full-time National Security Adviser.

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: It is indeed. My right hon. Friend, who is very experienced, has touched on a problem that occurred not only with the Foreign Office but with DFID and the Ministry of Defence. Often in life, there is the feeling that once an overall decision has been made to do something, the phrase, “I hear what you say,” comes out, but people are not prepared to factor in what they have heard because it...

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: There is no doubt that the Americans have viewed with a degree of dismay what they see as the decline in the critical mass of our foreign policy and defence, because they value that. However, they have often been disappointed in our ability to deliver what we promise. We suffer, and have suffered in the past, from what I call “Montgomery syndrome”—a snobbery, particularly among the...

Afghanistan — [Mark Pritchard in the Chair] (11 Feb 2015)

Keith Simpson: None of us is naive enough not to think that the view of the Treasury is paramount, but there has to be a balance. It is not about Ministers versus the military. I would draw into the National Security Council not only the CDS but the chiefs of staff. I would put their fingers in the mangle, because we know that they leak like sieves. The Times recently ran a front-page story about the fact...

Business of the House: Backbench Business — Iraq Inquiry (29 Jan 2015)

Keith Simpson: I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) and other hon. Members on bringing forward this debate. There is no doubt that pressure in this House and the other place—I also had a small debate in October in Westminster Hall on the Chilcot inquiry—was undoubtedly one of the reasons why Sir John Chilcot wrote to the Prime Minister. He realised that a...

Business of the House: Backbench Business — Iraq Inquiry (29 Jan 2015)

Keith Simpson: I agree with my hon. Friend, but the other factor, which has been touched on by a number of hon. Friends and colleagues, is that this is not a stand-alone British inquiry. We were the junior partner in an alliance with the United States of America. That lies at the heart of the Iraq inquiry. I would like to emphasise—I have discussed this with a number of hon. Friends and colleagues—that...

Business of the House: Backbench Business — Iraq Inquiry (29 Jan 2015)

Keith Simpson: No, I do not. I have to say, with the greatest respect to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr Grieve), the former Attorney-General, that my heart sinks every time I hear we are going to have lawyer-led inquiries. Ironically, despite the suspicion that it would be a cover-up, I actually think it is a great pity that we cannot have a parliamentary-led inquiry....

Business of the House: Backbench Business — Iraq Inquiry (29 Jan 2015)

Keith Simpson: I see my right hon. and learned Friend wants to intervene.

Business of the House: Backbench Business — Iraq Inquiry (29 Jan 2015)

Keith Simpson: I, of course, accept that from my right hon. and learned Friend. In my opinion, it is a great pity he is no longer Attorney-General—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”]—but that is above my pay scale, as they say. How can we help my hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border (Rory Stewart), the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, in his approach towards questioning Sir John...

Business of the House ( 8 Jan 2015)

Keith Simpson: My right hon. Friend is no doubt aware of the very strong feeling expressed both in this House and in the other place for a speedy report by the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. I accept the fact that, as this is an independent inquiry, he and the Prime Minister have no control over this matter, but I hope that Sir John Chilcot takes note of this concern and expedites the report as quickly...

[Mr George Howarth in the Chair] — Chilcot Inquiry (Costs) (29 Oct 2014)

Keith Simpson: It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth. I congratulate the Minister on his new appointment. He understands the problems of research, writing and getting things cleared, as the author of a much respected book, “5 Days to Power”, on the formation of the coalition in 2010. He had perhaps a slightly less happy experience on publishing “The Eye of the Storm: the...

[Mr George Howarth in the Chair] — Chilcot Inquiry (Costs) (29 Oct 2014)

Keith Simpson: I am grateful, Mr Howarth, and take note of that. I am not going off into a byway—one of my interpretations of “costs” is to do with the lessons of the inquiry, which I think have direct relevance not only to this debate but to the interests of nearly all colleagues in the House of Commons. Naturally, I will take note of what you have said. The problem always was that the inquiry’s...

[Mr George Howarth in the Chair] — Chilcot Inquiry (Costs) (29 Oct 2014)

Keith Simpson: I have every sympathy for Sir John Chilcot and his inquiry. With such a broad inquiry, he has been tasked almost with an impossibility. On the one hand he wants to get to the truth, within the riding instructions, and wants to be fair to individuals, Departments and agencies. However, at the same time he has been aware—I suspect he would argue this—that the delay has not been his fault,...

Business of the House (16 Oct 2014)

Keith Simpson: Will the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war report this side of the general election, or will it be like the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Dickens—something we will expect in about 50 years’ time?


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