26/06/2025 | 11:43:13 Mr President, I acknowledge the report's intention to improve co-operation amongst public and private actors involved in migration management. Co-operation is valuable, but it cannot replace firm enforcement. The report underplays the need for robust measures to deter illegal crossings and disrupt smuggling networks. There is a noticeable lack of focus on deterrence strategies. Without clear intentions to discourage dangerous journeys, more lives will be lost and put at risk in the Channel... 26/06/2025 | 10:26:56 Madam President, I'm a sailor. I know the English Channel well. It's very dangerous. We've always had a precious principle, sailors, in international law for centuries, that if somebody is in distress at sea, you pick them up. I support that. But because we've been very weak over this issue, people are dying every year because they're attempting to cross the Channel. And this report is not the answer. If this report was adopted, more and more people would make these hugely dangerous journeys... 25/06/2025 | 16:36:58 Mister President, I've been a friend of Israel for the whole time I've been in parliament for 43 years, and I fully support the right of Israel to defend itself. I condemn, utterly, Hamas and all their actions. I support the actions of the United States and Israel over the last 10 days. But I just want to be balanced in this. Just because you are a friend of Israel doesn't also mean that you can't be a friend of Palestine. Just because you support the human rights of Israelis doesn't mean... 24/06/2025 | 17:18:58 Mister President, I only have two minutes, and even if I had two hours, that would not be enough to articulate the appalling crimes that the Russian Federation has committed. Not just its original invasion, but every breach of what we call the Geneva Convention. The brutal treatment of prisoners, the kidnapping of children, the bombing of innocent civilians. But I'm perhaps going to make myself a bit unpopular in this Assembly by not just condemning Russia, which I do unequivocally, like... 10/04/2025 | 10:20:01 Mister President, we only have one planet. We all agree it's worth protecting, for instance, from illegal logging and fishing. We are custodians of the natural world, not its masters. But net zero by an arbitrary date is a fantasy which has been adopted as a dramatic tenet of faith by our political class and is now being weaponised in the criminal law. G.K. Chesterton once said that when people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing, but become capable of believing in... 08/04/2025 | 10:35:51 Thank you, Madam Chair. Of course, China and Russia want to do us down, but we are strong, and our greatest defence is total freedom of expression in our own countries and allowing people to stand for election, even if that inconveniences some people. I was once an election monitor for this organisation at one of Mr Vladimir PUTIN's elections. Of course, the actual ballot wasn't fiddled. He didn't need to fiddle it. He simply stopped his opponents from standing. And therefore it is a very... 30/01/2025 | 10:30:54 So, Mister President, it is true that since Shakespeare's time, we lawyers have had a bad reputation. But of course, we are essential to preserve the rule of law in a democratic society. And we see what's going on in Russia with the absurd, ridiculous and horrible persecution and imprisonment of the lawyers that represented Mr Alexei NAVALNY simply for representing him. So the rule of law is absolutely right. And in those terms I agree with everything that the Rt Hon Lord HERMER KC says. But... 29/01/2025 | 19:19:03 Mister President, Perhaps I should start by declaring an interest and therefore you can ignore what I say. I am a proud grandfather and the father of six children, and my personal view is that we cannot solve the demographic crisis in Europe by importing people from all over the world against the will of our own people. The best way is to encourage our own people to have children, to create the housing for them. At the same time, so many of our own people are on benefits. It's said by Paul... 29/01/2025 | 10:36:14 Madam President, the teaching of history is indeed essential for the future of Europe. And I agree with Lord George FOULKES that there is a multiplicity of narratives and modes of interpretation. The essential purpose of history must remain the search for truth, being able to relay, based on evidence and intellect, what actually happened at a given time and place and what the effect has been. Truth must always be the most important thing. But there's great value in examining a multiplicity of... 01/10/2024 | 13:03:15 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) So much of government, of good decision-making, is about maintaining a fine and often very delicate balance. This report and its resolution are both very wise and measured in that regard. Citizens today are all subject to a barrage of propaganda from a variety of sources. This is the age of the “influencer” on social media, and – given our fallen human nature – not all influences are beneficial or even benign. At the same time, the...