26/01/2023 | 10:36:21 President, it is an honour to open this debate on behalf of my group and it is even more of an honour to follow the last speech. which was truly inspiring. It almost bought a tear to our eyes when we heard of that poor farmer. To the world, he may have been a farmer but to his family, he was the universe. And this explains the appalling, emotional and cruel impact of this war. And the other phrase that we heard in that inspiring speech was that Putin, in reality, is not afraid of NATO. That... 24/01/2023 | 19:14:51 The Council of Europe has got to concentrate on the important things and the most important thing at the moment, of course, is to resist Russian aggression, and to its credit, the Council of Europe very quickly after this appalling invasion kicked Russia out of this Assembly. Although our record before then was mixed and we all know that because we wanted the Russian subscription after the invasion and annexation of Crimea we did not move fast enough and we allowed them to stay in this... 12/10/2022 | 12:05:19 Sometimes, Mister President, I have been critical of this Assembly because I think it has concentrated on minor issues, particularly in Western Europe. May I say that this report is an excellent report produced by my colleague Mr John HOWELL and his co-rapporteur. It is absolutely forensic in its criticism and it seems to me that this is a sort of issue that the Council of Europe has got to concentrate on. Here is a founder member of the Council of Europe and yet there is absolutely no doubt... 11/10/2022 | 11:23:28 It's an honour, Madam President, to follow the last speaker from Kosovo, and we welcome us to this Assembly of the free nations of Europe. Because, dear colleagues, make no mistake: we are now engaged in an existential battle in the world. On one hand, we have the freeman nations of the West, led by the United States of America, and let us have no criticism of that great republic, countries of the European Union, countries like my own, Great Britain. On the other hand, we have authoritarian... 22/06/2022 | 11:44:38 Can you hear me? Thank you very much for calling me in this debate. It's a great honour to speak in this debate, because the scourge of antisemitism is something that disfigures and has disfigured large parts of Europe and European history. I'm pleased to say that the only country I can speak of with any real knowledge, the United Kingdom, has enjoyed, over the last century, extremely good relations with our Jewish community. There was a large Jewish community in the United Kingdom at the end... 27/04/2022 | 20:23:17 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Today I have the great honour of having been officially sanctioned by the Russian government for opposing Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack against Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused me and 286 other British MPs of the “groundless whipping-up of Russophobic hysteria” aimed at “demonizing” Russia. Nothing could be further from the truth. At all times we have sought dialogue with Russia and encouraged Western... 26/01/2021 | 18:59:37 A lot of good work. And I just want that's what some people think of it [inaudible] [DAEMS: Could you go to floor please because you have double sound. You have to go to floor down left on your screen] Okay. [DAEMS: Thank you, you've got the floor. Three minutes.] Okay, can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? I just wanted to thank all those who have spoken and to say that this is clearly compromised but I think we set the bar for expulsion high in terms of the national delegation and in... 26/01/2021 | 18:07:34 Thank you very much, dear colleagues. By introducing some modifications of a technical nature into the rules of procedure, my report concludes the work the Assembly started three years ago. In the report prepared by our colleague Mr KOX on behalf of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, we went through the numerous stages of drafting and the consultation process, given the importance of the procedure and the number of actors involved in the preparatory stage. Through this three... 29/01/2020 | 10:27:19 On behalf of the European Conservatives Group, I would like to say that we support this report and we believe in the concept of reasonable accommodation. In reply to the Socialist spokesman, reasonable accommodation does not mean that you take away the rights of other people. Let me just give you one example in a hospital, for instance. If you wish to require or have an abortion in a hospital, under the law of most countries in the world, you are entitled to receive that service. What we... 28/01/2020 | 11:41:47 Respect for democracy and the rule of law are of course fundamental to the Council of Europe. I believe that this report actually undermines the Council's ideals. I believe it fails to protect the pluralism that makes our continent so rich in its diversity. In both tone and content it seeks to replace pluralism by enforcing conformism with social liberal ideas. Now with the limited time I want to highlight just one example from this report. Paragraph 22 notes the results of the election for...