In Memoriam Nelson Mandela
Many of us in South London remembered Nelson Mandela visit to Brixton in July 1996 which formed an exciting part of his state visit that month as President of South Africa. There was an amazing outpouring of love and respect.This was a man who had overcome apartheid and racial prejudice and hatred to create a new nation. What a role model! I don't think Brixton has looked back since!
Lord C-J promotes Kurdistan/UK tourism
This is a speech I gave at a recent Iraqi-Kurdistan Tourism Infrastructure Development Conference at the BIS Conference Centre-a Reflection on 10 years of development.
It's a great pleasure to be involved with an event promoting Iraqi Kurdistan.I’ve been looking back over developments in the last 10 years now since I first went to the Iraqi Kurdistan region in 2004 and its incredible what progress political, economic and social has been made since then .
As a member of of the All Party Parliamentary for Iraqi Kurdistan it's been a pleasure promoting relationships between the Region and the UK.
I made a speech about my visit in the House of Lords shortly after I got back and it is instructive to contrast then and now:
Then I was driven through South Eastern Turkey having flown to Dyarbakir and it was was a relief to arrive at the border with Iraq after so many hours. Now there is a major new British designed Hawler (Erbil) International Airport with direct flights from all over Europe
Then I complained about the attitude displayed by Turkish soldiers towards Iraqi Kurds at the border with border guards describing my literature about agriculture and education as a “problem” because it mentioned the words “Iraqi Kurdistan” .
Now there are excellent political relationship too between Presidents and PM Barzani and President Gul and PM Erdogan. The PKK issue in Turkey is beginning to be resolved too with a cease fire declared by their leader Abdullah Öcalan and a peace settlement in sight.
Trade between Turkey and Kurdistan flows freely. Turkish companies are the largest direct inward investor in the Region . Turkey is becoming directly involved in oil and gas exploration in the region
Now thanks to the freetrade approach adopted by the KRG there is huge investment by Turkey itself growing at 6-8%. Kurdistan’s growth rate is reported at 12%. There is a growing consumer economy.
Erbil itself and the other major cities are transformed . New hotels and shopping malls have sprung up in the last 10 years.
There are major Oil and gas developments. There has been significant exploration and finds from a number of medium sized companies and now oil majors such as ExxonMobil and Chevron.
10 years ago I noted the progress that had been made in providing universal education at primary and secondary levels in Kurdistan even in the smallest village and in adult education too. Now Higher Education is flourishing .Education links with Britain are growing stronger by the year symbolized by recent visit from higher education minister David Willets. Recently 21 universities visited to explore ties.
In those days there were two separate government administrations . One run by the KDP and one by the PUK. Now and for some time there is a common democratically elected parliament with regular terms of office for government following elections and the Prime Ministership has rotated between the parties on two occasions. . The government of different parties and faiths continues to be a model of pluralism.
Now we see the maturing of parliamentary opposition too.
I talked then about the absolute need for a British consulate in Erbil. Now there is vastly better representation of British interests in Kurdistan. We take the Consulate General for granted but still await proper premises in downtown Erbil and still have major UK visa frustrations !
Then the British were conspicuous by their absence in helping with the economic development of Kurdistan and building commercial ties. Now particularly in the last three years British companies have begun to get stuck in and we have seen many British companies represented at the major trade fairs. In 2011 at the Erbil Trade Fair there were 89 delegates, including 20 exhibitors, the largest UK trade delegation to the region to date, in fact the largest non Ministerial business delegation to anywhere!
There are something which were true then and I am glad to say have endured throughout the ten years
Then I said that security in the Region in contrast to the rest of Iraq thanks to the continuing presence of the peshmerga was excellent and this fact should be recognised in FCO advice. This has continued to be the case - and the FCO stresses this fact in travel and trade advice. Iraqi-Kurdistan really is an island in a sea of instability.
Then I said they had built the makings of a religiously tolerant pluralistic democratic society. It was notable that many of the Chaldean Christians retreating from the bombs in Mosul were taking refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. Now there is a wonderful diversity of culture even more than ever in Kurdistan with a vibrant Christian quarter in Erbil in particular. Now of course the Region is absorbing a whole new set of refugees from Syria. All these elements lay the grounds for a potentially hugely successful tourism industry in Kurdistan which could become not just regional but international in nature.
I have a friend in Kurdistan who is passionate about the preservation of its cultural heritage and get regular updates on developments!
Bayan has mentioned some amazing sites. I've only been to a few of them.
Some cities in Kurdistan go back 8000 years to the dawn of civilisation like the UNESCO protected citadel of Erbil.
There is the Assyrian aqueduct -the largest in the world built by Sennecherib in 700 BCE and the site of Alexander the Great's famous battle against Darius III the Persian Ruler at Gaugamela IN 331 BCE.
There are the extraordinary Yazidi temples at Lalish
There is so much to see.
Now it even appears that the Hanging Gardens were not in Babylon but in Northern Iraq!
Allied to the history -and we must never forget that part of that history are some of the recent tragedies during the Anfall under Saddam Husedsein's rule and the genocide at Halabja in particular, now recognized as such by Parliament -there-is Kurdistan's extraordinary scenery -the spectacular Zagros mountains and dramatic waterfalls.
The mountains will be the friends of Kurdish tourism I hope!
Every year the tourism infrastructure in terms of transport links and much better quality hotels and hospitality offer-and shopping!- has improved.
All this will I am sure lead to a huge growth in tourism in Kurdistan. I am a great believer in the power of tourism to generate economic growth and employment and spend time urging government to do more here to release the potential.
I know the KRG are very aware of the potential importance of tourism to Kurdistan and I am absolutely delighted to help open today's proceedings and hand over to the Minister who is going to give us all the information we need to encourage investment in tourism and hospitality!
Lord C-J criticizes new lobbying bill
Just before the Commons left for the recess the Government published its long awaited bill to regulate lobbying. Sadly it is is deficient in many respects. I criticised it in the pages of PR Week and recently took part in a seminar on transparency in lobbying run by the Committee on Standards in Public Life. See my speech below.
www.prweek.com/uk/news/1192515/Lord-Clement-Jones-predicts-unholy-row-lobbying-legislation/
Lord Clement-Jones predicts 'unholy row' over lobbying legislation
Daniel Farey-Jones, prweek.com, Wednesday, 24 July 2013, 9:00am
Liberal Democrat peer and CIPR fellow Lord Clement-Jones has predicted an 'unholy row' over the Government's 'ludicrous and wrong' lobbying bill.
Westminster: The Members’ Lobby (Credit: Getty Images)
Clement-Jones, a partner at a law firm that operates a small lobbying practice, att-acked the ‘weak’ bill’s narrow focus on third-party lobbyists’ interaction with ministers and permanent secretaries.
‘It’s ludicrous to limit it to ministers and permanent secretaries,’ he said. ‘I could mount a perfectly respectable campaign without going anywhere near a minister – what about a special adviser, or mid-tier civil servants or somebody who runs a government agency?
‘There’s going to be an unholy row when it comes into Parliament,’ he added. ‘In many ways it would be better not to have a bill than have one at all if it’s going to be weak as this.’
Clement-Jones, who was chair of the government relations practice at healthymanviagra.com DLA Piper from 1999 to 2010, said that the bill left unanswered questions over whether legal firms would have to sign up.
‘We have to have a statutory register otherwise the usual code of conduct that is applied by the solicitors’ regulatory authority, which is that you don’t reveal your clients, is not overridden.’
His comments come as political and constitutional ref-orm minister Chloe Smith insisted the register would cover law firms and management consultancies, but only at the registrar’s discretion.
The commons committee charged with overseeing pol-itical reform has also hit out at the bill, saying the Government had ‘shown a lack of res-pect for Parliament’ in its rush to publish the draft bill.
The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee pledged to focus on influencing MPs’ responses to the lobbying bill after it was denied scrutiny of draft legislation.
Speech to Committee on Standards in Public Life on September the 19th
It seems rather strange for me to be starting the batting today but I suppose that the reason doing so is because I have worked on both sides of the street both having been lobbied and having run a government relations operation.
I've been as a Liberal Democrat working peer in the House of Lords since 1998 and during the 80s and 90s I was a lobbyist and lawyer for business and then in a law firm and the chairman of their global government relations practice.
An important experience for me was the lobbying individual MPs in the course trying to get Sunday Trading Reform. This was an example of where an individual MP with a free vote has a considerable influence as opposed to the normal circumstance where it is the Government which is looking to make a decision
I must say that I agree with 99.9% of the Political and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s recent report, which came out on 5 September, in its critique of the new Bill.
I won't repeat the contents of that but suffice it to say that as regards the definition of a consultant lobbyist, the scope of the officials involved and and the de minis provisions which exclude certain firms the Bill seems to me to be misguided.
In terms of scope of officials involved we need to look at how lobbying works in the UK. In a hierarchical society we may well need to go to the top.
In the UK lobbyists often make the case to junior officials first and work their way up through the food chain. We should include in the definition of lobbyists therefore those who lobby not just senior civil servants but mid level officials. Special advisers should be specifically included too.
Generally I believe that the enforcement of the various professional codes of conduct is far more important than registration and the declaration of clients.
I should declare a slight conflict here because of the unique position of solicitors who are governed by a strict code of conduct imposed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. This provides that solicitors cannot disclose clients identity without their consent.
They never know whether a client will give permission in the future.So a statutory override through legislation is required by solicitors to be able to sign up to codes such as that of the APPC which require disclosure of clients.
Generally I believe that the lobbied are more important than the lobbyist. It is far more important that there is transparency by public officials and by members of the legislature including the Lords than lobbyists declaring who they act for.
The key is who among decision-makers and opinion formers should declare and what they should declare i.e. what ever codes say there should be a further transparency for members of the Executive such as ministers, civil servants and special advisers.
Surely now it is feasible for them to make a regular declarations. Quarterly is not enough especially now with the new Gov.uk website which could aggregate the information.
It is very important that declarations by members of the executive should give detail as to the nature of the meetings. For instance if civil servants meet the CEO of a holding company it will not be always clear which particular aspect of the business has been discussed
For the legislature there are slightly different considerations and it is important that on non constituency matters MPs should declare who they have been lobbied by. Likewise in the Lords peers should declare who they have been lobbied by for the purposes of influencing legislation.
I don't believe that this should be as frequently as for the Executive but six monthly would certainly be in order.
So a set of flawed proposals which don’t address the real issues. If the Bill had undergone pre-legislative scrutiny- essential in circumstances where constitutional issues are involved-I really do believe we would have had a much better debate about what really does constitute a proper level of transparency.
Amazing Isabella Blow Exhibition at Somerset House
Isabella or Issie as she was known was my 2nd cousin and a fashion legend who whilst Tatler Style Editor, Fashion Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine and in other roles "discovered" and nurtured Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy and a http://healthymanviagra.com/ number of other major designers but who tragically committed suicide in 2007. The launch last week had just about everyone of note in the British fashion industry there.
This exhibition not only describes her family background (grandaughter of White Mischief Sir Jock Delves Broughton and Lady Vera Broughton pioneering explorer and photographer) and career but includes a incredible collection of her designer clothes, with some amazing hats. As I said to her sister Lavinia afterwards, it was touching, fascinating and astonishing all in one.
Lib Dems Upbeat Glasgow Conference
As you've probably seen in the media the Lib Dems have had a very positive conference in Glasgow . Here is Nick Clegg's Speech which sets out the Party's wares for this link the next General Election
http://www.libdems.org.uk/speeches_detail.aspx?title=Nick_Clegg_F43_speech_to_the_Liberal_Democrat_Autumn_Conference&pPK=d924e602-c2eb-4b5d-831f-52991de6894b
Great news on Equal Marriage Bill
On Monday 15th July the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill passed through its Third Reading in the Lords without a vote. It has now received essaywritingstar Royal Assent. Many congratulations to all those involved on all sides of Parliament and all the campaigners for equal rights who have made the case so effectively. Peers wore pink carnations to show support!