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Lest we forget

July 6th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

Please stick with me. I know the first golden rule of blogging is to keep making regular posts and – where appropriate – to reply to readers’ comments. It is something I particularly enjoyed doing back in February and March when I was recovering from illness at home (and to be fair, had lots of time on my hands).

Sadly, in the past few weeks, I just haven’t had anything like the amount of time to sit down and gather up my thoughts – now I’ve started to receive emails, tugging at my heart strings to keep on blogging!

Firstly, I haven’t gone away.  Sadly (as a result of the illness earlier in the year) I am having to have lots of medical tests, which have put me out of action a bit. I’ve also been incredibly busy in the Commons, having secured a couple of debates – which take up spare time in preparation.

Anyway, I wanted to reassure my loyal band of followers that I haven’t forgotten about you. And I will be back to full operation soon! Promise!

I was going to post a blog on cuts, and particularly on the Bulding Schools for the Future programme, which was cruelly axed by the Conservative-LibDem Coalition Government yesterday. However, that and the AV referendum (another subject I will return to shortly) seem to pale into insignificance…

Earlier today I had the immense honour of attending the funeral of Lance Corporal Andrew Breeze at Christ Church, Denton.  It was one of the most moving church services I have ever attended.  And the people of Denton really did Andrew’s memory proud, lining the main street to the church and clapping him as he was carried from the hearse into the church.

Of course, any death in the service of one’s country is a tragedy.  These are young men – a similar age to me, in the case of Lance Corporal Breeze – who should have a full life before them. To have that life cut short is a cruel blow.

But it also serves as a reminder to politicians that the decision to commit our troops to combat is something that should never be taken lightly.  I don’t want to revisit the rights and wrongs of recent conflicts, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we do need to remember these painful consequences of decisions taken by politicians.  Yes, our armed services are professionals – I would say the best – and will go on missions throughout the globe as and when they are told to. Some will pay the heaviest price though.

On a sombre note, I sign off with the words used in Andrew Breeze’s funeral today: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

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Déjà vu, both Home and Away

June 24th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

It’s certainly been an interesting week in politics.

Of course the ‘highlight’ of the week in Parliament – apart from my Westminster Hall debate on policing cuts in Greater Manchester, that is – has been the new Coalition government’s emergency budget.

Much has already been written about the budget, and as the measures begin to bite, no doubt much more will be written; but I can’t help but feel a real sense of déjà vu. Geoffrey Howe’s ‘tough’ budget of 1981 saw attacks on housing benefit, child benefit and of course a near doubling of VAT to 15%.  That budget, of course, precipitated a deep recession from which parts of the country, especially those over-dependent on traditional industries – including my own Denton and Reddish constituency – have struggled to recover from.

Today, almost 30 years on, there are similar fears that the measures in the Coalition’s emergency budget could stall the fragile recovery and see us spiral down into a double-dip recession. It’s pointless re-running the arguments put at the election (when of course, Nick agreed with Gordon!). The Coalition have changed Britain’s economic policy considerably. Is it a gamble that will pay off for them? Only time will tell, but this country, and the public sector in particular, is certainly in for a bumpy ride in the years ahead.

Congratulations today to the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, who in a bloodless coup (almost!) has succeeded Kevin Rudd as Labor Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Very sensibly – and no doubt learning some key lessons from what happened to its British sister party – Gillard has publicly acknowledged on TV that she is an ‘unelected’ Prime Minister and that she will set in motion arrangements for an early general election so that Australians can endorse (or sack) her.

So it’s going to be worth paying a wee bit more attention to politics in the southern hemisphere for a while.  Things are moving quickly down under; Rudd of course was the most popular leader and PM ever just a few months ago. But then things went horrendously wrong for him over a number of policy issues, not least his mining tax proposals.  Can Gillard claw back enough support for the ALP in the next few weeks? We’ll see.

Australian politics is a tough game. One thing is for sure, the next election there is going to be well worth any political junkie taking the time to watch!!

A final interesting thought – with Gillard’s appointment, Australia has scored an all-women hat-trick: A female Prime Minister; a female Governor-General and, of course not wishing to stir up the Monarchy debate, a female Head of State!

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Categories [ General musings, International, UK Politics ]

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Kill Bill

March 15th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, a bit too smoothly perhaps, for the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill. That was, until a lone Conservative MP – and there were only three in the Chamber! – shouted “OBJECT”.

That one word, echoing around a near empty House of Commons means my Private Members Bill did not get its third and final reading last week. We try again this Friday (19th March) but realistically last Friday was the only opportunity we had to get proceedings started in the Lords before the General Election is called; there has to be a two week gap between the Commons stages and the Lords.

It was just possible, with government and opposition support, that the Bill could have been agreed in the ‘wash-up’ immediately after dissolution and, therefore, would have become law. This now won’t happen.

Indeed, the most annoying thing is how the Conservatives have led people a merry dance over my Bill. On the face of it, they supported it (albeit with some minor reservations). At second reading, they said lots of nice things about the Bill from their frontbench, and yet the tell-tale signs were there, even then. Sally Keeble, who kindly piloted the Bill through the various stages in my absence, and I wanted to try doing all the stages – 2nd reading, Committee and 3rd reading – all on the afternoon of 26th February. The Liberal Democrats and the various minor parties all agreed to this approach because they supported the Bill. The Conservatives, however, wouldn’t agree to this fast-tracking approach, ensuring it had to go though each stage separately.

We continued to try and bring Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition on board, and at Committee stage even accepted a number of concessions and amendments so the Bill could be supported by all parties and become law. The Conservative frontbench got everything they asked for, including a sunset clause, meaning the legislation would have to be voted on annually for it to continue.

Which brings me back to last Friday: just three Conservative MPs were in the Chamber. Two were Opposition whips, and one was the Chairman during the Committee Stage of the Bill. One of them shouted “OBJECT”. With that single word, not only was my Private Members Bill effectively killed, but the hopes of the 40 poorest countries in the world, too.

With that single vocal objection, the United Kingdom Parliament sadly signalled to other countries (many who are looking to introduce similar legislation) that we think it still alright for the so-called vulture funds to buy up cheap historic third world debts and then sue for full repayment with interest here in the British Courts.

View the Jubilee Debt Campaign on Vulture Funds here

Co-sign Douglas Alexander’s letter to David Cameron here

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Categories [ International, UK Politics ]

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Middle-East: Peace in our time?

March 1st, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

Foreign Affairs is one of my main interests in Parliament; I have a particular interest in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and, importantly, in the middle-east peace process intended to resolve it.

Israel and Palestine is a fantastic region, with a wonderfully rich history, beautiful scenery and really great people and it is nothing short of a tragedy that, for the past 60 years, Arab and Jew have been in conflict over the same relatively small piece of land.

I want to start this post by saying something which has, sadly in my opinion, become very contentious on the left in British politics in recent years: I consider myself to be a ‘friend’ of Israel. Of course, as parliamentary chair of Labour Friends of Israel, you might expect that statement to be a given. Actually I consider myself equally a ‘friend’ of Palestine and the Palestinian people, too. I don’t actually see why one should cancel out the other, particularly if we believe in a peace process where ultimately there will be two viable and secure states side-by-side, as I do.

I first visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2007, and I have since led delegations of British MPs to the region in both 2008 and 2009. We get to meet a cross section of key people in Israel and Palestine including Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, US Lieutenant General Dayton and Quartet Representative, Tony Blair; through to the aid agencies, charities, teachers, doctors working hard on the ground for peace. We get from them all a clear understanding of the issues and the work being done to bring the two sides together.

Every time I visit the region, I am struck by the real optimism for the future despite all the seemingly intractable issues still on the table left unresolved. It is also very easy to focus on the things not going right and to ignore that real progress is actually being made too.

For example, in recent weeks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to a US proposal for indirect peace talks with the Israeli government. That has to be a good thing. The British government has also continued to call for the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority towards a two state solution and the Egyptian and Jordanian leaderships have made positive statements on the need for renewed talks.

Movement and access, and the availability of water, continues to improve in the West Bank due to increased Israeli-Palestinian Authority cooperation. Indeed, the visible changes in Ramallah just between my visits in 2008 and 2009 were remarkable. The West Bank economy is growing by over 7% a year, assisted greatly by the lifting of movement restrictions as the British and US trained Palestinian policing units take more control over internal security; and it shows!

There is the problem of Hamas in Gaza, of course. This is a ‘two state’ peace process, not ‘three states’ but Palestinian unity is proving very difficult to achieve, despite Egypt’s best endeavours to bring Fatah and Hamas together. Equally, as life for ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank improves considerably, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains dire with Israel and Egypt severely restricting the quantity and type of goods allowed into the territory in an effort to prevent Hamas from manufacturing and firing rockets.

As a result, much of the extensive infrastructure damage caused by last winter’s Israeli military operation is yet to be repaired. The British government rightly pledged £54 million in emergency aid over the last year to meet the needs of the people of Gaza, and in December 2009, DfID pledged an additional £5 million for teachers for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides schooling for 206,000 children in the territory.

So some things are improving – albeit I admit very slowly on the political front – and there are still some very difficult issues to be resolved on Jewish settlements, final borders and on the eventual status of Jerusalem. There is also a niggling fear in the minds of ordinary Israeli citizens that, despite the recent period of quiet, rocket attacks could easily be resumed from both Gaza and Lebanon.

Let me end this post on an optimistic note: In a CNN interview on 7 February, King Abdullah of Jordan urged the USA to give the peace process its “undivided attention”, asserting that “the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians want a two-state solution as soon as possible”. He’s right.

Can a lasting peace be achieved soon? With that renewed effort, I very much hope so! The opportunities and benefits for the region are there to be grabbed. After 60 years of conflict, the time is indeed right.

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Andrew’s addendum

February 24th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

POLLS UPDATE:

Late last night on Twitter, @toryatsea (yes I do have quite a few Tory friends on Twitter, I know!) was bemoaning the ‘poll obsessives’ – something I concede from my sick bed, I have become. This was following the latest YouGov tracker poll for The Sun, continuing to show only a 6% Tory lead.

The tracker poll is an interesting beast. My understanding is there is a set sample and each day, the oldest data drops off and a similar new sample is added. In theory, any switches in support over events, should be immediately apparent, rather than having to wait for the next monthly poll to be produced. Of course, the usual points about margins of error, etc., still apply.

The most interesting thing about the YouGov tracker (as at 24th February in any case) is that there has been very little movement, despite all the media hype over ‘Bully-gate’. Whether this factors into subsequent polls still remains to be seen, but the YouGov tracker is also in line with all the other current published polls (except the Angus Reid polls which are wildly out on anything else published!)

YouGov Tracker Poll:


 CON LAB LD Lead
24 Feb 38% 32% 17% Con +6%
23 Feb 39% 33% 17% Con +6%
19 Feb 39% 33% 17% Con +6%
18 Feb 39% 32% 18% Con +7%
17 Feb 39% 30% 18% Con +9%

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VULTURE FUNDS:

My Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill has its second reading on Friday. As I mentioned in my earlier blog piece, Sally Keeble MP (pictured) has very kindly agreed to take the Bill forward for me on Friday – and until I can properly return to work following my recent health problems. The text of the Bill and Explanatory Notes can be found here.

And here’s a piece from today’s Guardian too.

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Categories [ International, Opinion Polls, UK Politics ]

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130,000 reasons to say sorry!

February 24th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

I really enjoyed Dan Snow’s recent series on BBC2, Empire of the Seas.

It was a thoroughly enthralling story of England’s and then Britain’s rise as a global imperial power. For me, it was one of the best current explanations of who we are, where we came from, and how at its height, a third of the world was painted pink on maps; an empire over which the sun would never set!

As a child, myself, I loved this period of history – and Snow’s series, for me, was a great nostalgic look back at the fantastic heroics of Nelson and the great explorations of Captain Cook. But it was precisely that, a nostalgic look back.

Today, quite rightly, the British Government is apologising for a terrible chapter in Britain’s quite recent imperial past. We now know that from the 1920s onwards, there was a clear policy – agreed between Britain and her Dominion governments – of child migration to help maintain and grow the ‘white’ population principally in Australia (though others were sent to South Africa, Rhodesia, Canada and New Zealand too). This policy affected no fewer than 130,000 British children over several decades.

In 2010 we are understandably appalled that any British government – of the left or right – could allow this practice to happen, particularly as archive reports show that concerns were raised at the time about the poor living conditions and the physical and sexual abuse faced by those children.

And what shocked me the most was that this wasn’t just from the pages of the inter-war history books; BBC News yesterday interviewed a man who had been sent to Australia as a five-year-old in 1970. That was only four years before I was born!

I hope, as with Kevin Rudd’s apology in Australia a few months back, the British Government’s apology today can help the process of healing for those now adult ‘child’ victims and their families.

It won’t undo those terrible experiences, but it is a chapter in Commonwealth history we should be very keen to to acknowledge and close – though for the sake of those children, never, ever forget.

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Time to end the Vulture Culture

February 20th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

Every year I have put my name down on the Private Member’s Bill ballot – just in case I am lucky enough to be drawn – and for the past four years, I have failed miserably to get any slot for my own piece of legislation.

Then, one morning in November 2009, I got up and switched on my BlackBerry (which had been charging overnight) and received instantly about 500 emails begging and pleading with me to take up a variety of good causes in my Bill. By the time I had reached my Commons office, it was over 1,000 emails. And a few days later, the snail mail had started to drop on my desk too!

Actually I think the ballot was a Mancunian “fix” this year – all top three slots went to Greater Manchester Labour MPs (Dr Brian Iddon, David Chaytor and myself).

I have spent a great deal of time considering which issue I should take forward and that’s no easy task… everyone wants to be your friend! But when I was elected to Parliament one of my personal pledges was to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves in this world.

One of the things I have personally been concerned about has been the operation of so called “vulture funds” whereby a small number of investment companies buy up the defaulted debts of the world’s poorest countries at very low prices and then take them to court to aggressively recoup the debts at full value. So after long consideration this is the issue I have decided to deal with through my Private Member’s Bill.

Very recently in the UK High Court two investment funds won the right to recover over £20m from Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world. This was for an initial loan in the 1970s of only £6m. Surely this is money that could be better spent on things such as health and education by the Liberian Government?

For too long, some companies have been allowed to get away with exploiting the debt relief received by developing countries for their own profit; taking vital resources away from those that need it most.

The second reading debate is next Friday, 26th February. For health reasons, I am unable to personally present the bill, but kindly the whips’ and the Speaker have allowed me to be able to have it presented by another member (Sally Keeble has agreed to do this) although the Bill remains in my name.

In all seriousness, I’m not entirely sure how likely my Bill is to make it onto the statute book. The timing of the General Election and the dissolution of Parliament will to some extent determine that. But we’ll give it a go and hopefully help to change the world in a small way!

For more information, see the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

The text of the Bill and explanatory notes can now be found here.



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