Author: Lloyd

  • Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords]

    Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords]

    We know that this has been happening thanks to the investigative work of Amnesty International and other non-governmental organisations. In 2014, Ukrainian-based S-Profit Ltd, which was registered here in the UK, was named by the South Sudanese Government as brokering a £44 million small arms deal. The South Sudanese Government are subject to sanctions; yet,…

    Read more: Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords]
  • Erasmus + Debate

    Erasmus + Debate

    Mr Speaker, I beg to move. That this house urges the government to negotiate continued access to the Erasmus plus program and all its successors schemes beyond 2020. Almost two years on from the EU referendum, the government has not yet answered key questions: such as how will we continue to co-operate with EU programmes…

    Read more: Erasmus + Debate
  • Livestock Worrying: Sussex

    Livestock Worrying: Sussex

    I think it’s important that I put on the record the contribution the farming industry makes to Sussex and indeed the whole country. Farming contributes over £140 million to Sussex’s economy and employs 8500 people permanently as well as offering employment to thousands of seasonal workers. Farmers manage 7,218km of rights of way across the…

    Read more: Livestock Worrying: Sussex
  • Syria

    Syria

    On the diplomatic strategy, resolution 377A of the General Assembly—the “Uniting for Peace” resolution—would allow this Government to convene an emergency session of the GA to seek a majority there. If that majority was found, it would provide a level of backing under international law that would give some legitimacy to further actions and strategies…

    Read more: Syria
  • International Development: Education

    International Development: Education

    They have trialled a number of alternative models of education: one whereby they have used Bridge International Academies, which we touch on in the report; one whereby they use local NGOs as providers; and one whereby they use completely non-profit international NGOs. When we spoke to some of the international NGOs on that trip, I…

    Read more: International Development: Education
  • National Security and Russia

    National Security and Russia

    It has often been misinterpreted—I hope not deliberately, but one can never judge that totally—but it has been about ​proportionality and ensuring that we do not get ahead of ourselves and refrain from unnecessarily inflaming language such as, “Shut up and go away.” It is also worth noting that few have worked harder in this place…

    Read more: National Security and Russia
  • UK-EU: International Development

    UK-EU: International Development

    I will briefly touch on a number of issues, which supplement those that have already been raised, and which are particularly about the co-ordination of non-governmental organisations. At the moment, Britain and London are one of the leading hubs for NGOs and aid organisations around the world. Those organisations receive a number of substantial grants,…

    Read more: UK-EU: International Development
  • Labour’s Foreign Policy

    Labour’s Foreign Policy

    Almost all media bandwidth is recent months has been taken up with Brexit and our benighted Prime Minister’s attempts to not appear completely paralysed by the political events rapidly overtaking her. While Theresa May commands no power and has singularly failed to show who she is or for what she stands. While she does nothing,…

    Read more: Labour’s Foreign Policy
  • Millennials and the Government’s Transport Policy

    Millennials and the Government’s Transport Policy

    It was with great fanfare last Autumn that the chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced he was extending discount railcards to those aged 26 to 30, offering 4.5m travellers a third off their off-peak tickets. Finally, after years of mistreatment – tripling their tuition fees, raising their VAT, denying them access to housing – the government thought…

    Read more: Millennials and the Government’s Transport Policy
  • UK Sales of Surveillance Equipment

    UK Sales of Surveillance Equipment

    With the notable exception of people suspected of terrorism offences, Britons – although subject to blanket state eavesdropping – are safe from arbitrary arrest, torture or extrajudicial execution. The same cannot be said for the citizens of dozens of states to which Britain is approving the sale of spy equipment, which can access people’s emails,…

    Read more: UK Sales of Surveillance Equipment
  • Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill

    Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill

    The arms export regime we operate in this country is, of course, underpinned by EU consolidated criteria. There is no mention of consolidated criteria or of bringing the arms licensing regulations into a system such as the sanctions regulations. It is, I suggest, a great shame. The Bill does not touch on that area. All…

    Read more: Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill
  • Erasmus Plus Programme: Youth and Sport

    Erasmus Plus Programme: Youth and Sport

    The Minister for Universities has stated that the Government intend to negotiate some sort of continued access with Erasmus Plus and its successor. However, the Government’s intentions remain unclear on the youth elements of the programme that are part of Erasmus now but may be separated post-2020 in the next EU multiannual financial framework, which…

    Read more: Erasmus Plus Programme: Youth and Sport
  • Drug Consumption Rooms

    Drug Consumption Rooms

    Let us take Sydney as an example. In 1999, the Kings Cross area of Sydney was known particularly for its large number of overdoses and deaths. In the British national picture, I see similar patterns in parts of Brighton and Hove. I remember visiting Sydney at that time, and it was a problem. Drug consumption…

    Read more: Drug Consumption Rooms
  • Arms Trade and Brexit

    Arms Trade and Brexit

    As the spectre of Brexit emerges, so do the first meaningful signs of the Tory vision of “building a global Britain”. The Department for International Trade, set up by Theresa May to put some flesh on the bones of her slogan, has prioritised arms sales for Britain’s post-Brexit industrial policy. The DIT, which licences Britain’s…

    Read more: Arms Trade and Brexit
  • Finance (No. 2) Bill

    Finance (No. 2) Bill

    I know the Minister says that he has better data than the OBR, but I tend to believe the OBR, which was set up by the Conservative Government to provide independent analysis, over the books that are cooked in the Treasury—[Interruption.] Yes, the books that are cooked in the Treasury. What we need are clear supply-side…

    Read more: Finance (No. 2) Bill
  • Dispelling the Re-Selections Tension

    Dispelling the Re-Selections Tension

    This year’s national conference in Brighton saw Labour embark on an ambitious and much-needed review of party democracy. The review aims to “ensure that the hugely expanded membership is fully involved to become a mass movement which can transform society”. In that context, it is essential members’ voices are heard in local government and Labour…

    Read more: Dispelling the Re-Selections Tension
  • Budget Resolutions

    Budget Resolutions

    Instead, we heard that councils could borrow an extra £1 billion for home building, even though £20 billion would be available if the cap was scrapped; that we would remove stamp duty for people who can afford houses—nice if someone has the money to start with, but no help if people are just about managing…

    Read more: Budget Resolutions
  • Paradise Papers

    Paradise Papers

    Last year it was the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca, this year it is the Bermuda-based Appleby. Major “offshore legal service providers” offering transnational corporations and super-rich individuals a place to sink untaxed income have had their client lists leaked to the press. Naturally, much of the attention this morning has focused on the moral rectitude of…

    Read more: Paradise Papers
  • Global LGBT Rights

    Global LGBT Rights

    The reports of a Government crackdown are worrying. I remember raising the reports of a Government crackdown in Azerbaijan in 2006, after one of my first visits there. The ambassador’s comments are reassuring, but we need more than just warm words. We need some concrete action from the Azeri Government. I am sure that the…

    Read more: Global LGBT Rights
  • Government Policy and the Proceedings of the House

    Government Policy and the Proceedings of the House

    Constituents can agree or disagree with their local Member of Parliament, but it is important that they know how their local Member of Parliament views an issue and how they vote on that issue when it comes before them. Voting in that sense is a cathartic process: it allows us to support the process of…

    Read more: Government Policy and the Proceedings of the House
  • European Union (Withdrawal Bill)

    European Union (Withdrawal Bill)

    “We will scrap the Conservatives’…White Paper and replace it with fresh negotiating priorities that have a strong emphasis on…the Single Market” ​and putting “the economy first”. That was the manifesto on which Labour Members stood only a few months ago. We said that we would scrap this Bill and send it back. I beg Labour…

    Read more: European Union (Withdrawal Bill)
  • Scheduling of Parliamentary Business

    Scheduling of Parliamentary Business

    I wonder about the responsibility of the Government, and what this looks like for constituents out in the wider world. Today my constituents were queuing around the block for more than an hour, not for a gig or a music activity, but to see the local doctor in Peacehaven. That is a regular thing for…

    Read more: Scheduling of Parliamentary Business
  • Chris Gibb Report: Improvements to Southern Railway

    Chris Gibb Report: Improvements to Southern Railway

    He said that employees had borrowed money for cars on their credit cards and could not afford to go on strike, and he went on and on. If that is not a political motivation to aggravate this strike, I do not know what is—it is a clear ratcheting up of the dispute. Of course, there…

    Read more: Chris Gibb Report: Improvements to Southern Railway
  • Labour Must Stand with Trans People Against a New Section 28

    Originally this article was written on 23.06.2020 for Tribune Magazine it was since amended following a statement by the author. Last week we saw a step forward for trans people in the United States with the Supreme Court deciding that discrimination in the workplace because of sex, which was already illegal, covered trans people as…

    Read more: Labour Must Stand with Trans People Against a New Section 28

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