15/03/2022 | 18:34:31 Mr President, first of all can I say it's absolutely vital that we overwhelmingly support this report and the expulsion of Russia. We must not be in any way distracted by ploy that I understand the Russian politicians are up to. We ought to know by now that we can't trust them. Mr President, in the calm and the reason of this Hemicycle, it's difficult for us to comprehend the atrocities that are taking place now on the ground in Ukraine. Terrible atrocities in Ukraine. But the reality was... 26/01/2022 | 11:39:48 Thank you very much, Mr President. I think the number of people who have spoken and the enthusiasm with which they have spoken indicates the interest in this. If I can deal with just one or two points. Mr André VALLINI from France and Mr Thomas PRINGLE from Ireland raised the issue of Qatar and working conditions. I had a very long discussion with the ILO representative actually in Qatar and his recommendation was "keep the pressure on on working conditions right up to, and including and... 26/01/2022 | 10:16:56 Thank you Mr President, I'm speaking here from Edinburgh. Mr President, dear colleagues, The great Liverpool football legend Bill Shankly, who was born in Glenbuck in my former constituency in South Ayrshire, he once said "football is not a matter of life or death; it's more important than that". True, that was a wee bit of an exaggeration, but football does play a very important part in the lives of so many people represented by us here today. That's why I've had numerous meetings on your... 25/01/2022 | 11:15:15 No. We didn't have the opportunity to express it. How could we express it? We weren't given an opportunity to call. There was no other way that we could express our support. So how could you get ten when we didn't have the opportunity to indicate whether we supported it or not? You didn't ask for a poll. You should have asked for a poll so that we could express our support. There was no other way. Four or five people, I saw, asked for the point of order including myself, and there was no... 24/01/2022 | 16:16:53 Thank you, Madam President. Unfortunately, I am online because I have been struck down with COVID-19 at the airport as I was hoping to leave to come to Strasburg. I am really sorry but to be with you, particularly to offer my congratulations too to Mr Tiny KOX. I also want to thank Mr Rick DAEMS for the work that he has done, particularly his visit to the United Kingdom along with Ms Despina CHATZIVASSILIOU-TSOVILIS, which was a very successful visit meeting ministers, the speakers, Lord... 30/09/2021 | 09:34:00 President, can I, like Ms Laura CASTEL, congratulate Sir Tony LLOYD on what is a really very well balanced report, all the more remarkable considering he was only appointed as rapporteur less than two days ago. It really is an excellent report. Madam President, many many millions of words have been written or said in relation to Afghanistan and you wonder if there's anything new to add. Mind you that doesn't normally stop politicians repeating and adding to it, and I'm no exception. However... 22/06/2021 | 09:35:24 Congratulations to my friend Roberto on an excellent report, which is of great interest as you will see that five other of my colleagues from the United Kingdom are participating, including my friend Lord Leslie GRIFFITHS, who is also a minister of religion. I hope he won't mind if I quote a parable: the parable of the Mote and the Beam. Now, we are rightly concerned about the lack of media freedom in countries like Russia and as a former general rapporteur on media freedom and the safety of... 21/06/2021 | 16:18:19 Mr Tiny KOX said at the Parliamentary Assembly is returning at a normal hour, from the recovering from Covid-19. Sadly the British delegation isn't able to attend in person, and I first ask you Mr President, if you would write again, as you've done before, to our Speaker and indeed to our Lord Speaker, supporting the excellent letter that our delegation leader Mr John HOWELL has put to them, asking for us to be able to attend and pointing out that we do have the same kind of diplomatic... 21/04/2021 | 11:40:10 Thank you very much for the opportunity of saying a few words. I want to speak in strong support of both reports and to thank the rapporteurs for doing an excellent job. I am concerned about, particularly, about the political prisoners and their conditions. First of all, I think we should make prisoners that have been arrested without good reason – I've got a list of the so-called reasons put forward by the authorities – and they are held in without mattresses, having to stand up, without... 27/01/2021 | 11:25:31 President, Thank you very much and can I also join in the thanks to the rapporteur for her excellent report on a subject which is dominating our media and indeed affecting all our lives, which is why so many of us are not in Strasbourg today. And I hope we can resolve the position so that by April we can all be there. But yesterday, sadly, in Britain we reached a milestone of a 100 000 people who have died with COVID-19. We are near the top of a table that no country wants to be at the top of...