Newham Borough Liberal Democrats

Sarah's bulletin: 10 December 2010

Dear friends,

Liberal Democrats

I will not add too much to the acres of comment and analysis on tuition fees. Suffice to say that I support Nick Clegg's observation that 'I understand why many in our party wish we could have pursued a different policy. I wish that too; but we simply were not in that position, we did not win the General Election but went into a coalition and had to tackle the greatest economic crisis in decades.'

As Shirley Williams wisely said, "increases in fees are never popular, but at a tough time, the least able to pay them will get the help they need. Given the scale of the UK's financial crisis, no government could afford to meet the universities' huge requirements for additional funding without an increase in tuition fees".

Like Vince Cable, I am proud of the package that he put forward. The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that it is more progressive than both the current system and that proposed by Lord Browne. And as Anne McElvoy wrote in the Evening Standard earlier this week, "[Nick Clegg] has said openly that it was a mistake to lock himself into a spending commitment he couldn't maintain in practice. Not edifying: but still far more honest than New Labour's tergiversations on its tuition fees pledges in office, or the clumsy Tory series of U-turns in the last decade. It's true grit - the invisible stuff of power."

Now we must win the Oldham East & Saddleworth byelection. And we can, we have a superb candidate and excellent expert campaigners. I've been once and will go again before Christmas. Please go too - early and often.

Wikileaks and Julian Assange

The WikiLeaks revelations and US diplomatic cables continue to cause scandal. I fully support investigative journalism and whistleblowing as they are a crucial part of a democratic and open society. The Iraq war logs made public by WikiLeaks, and the allegations of complicity in torture and even murder of Iraqi detainees, rightly shocked the world, and must be investigated.

However, I do not share Assange's apparent attitude that everything should be published, and that he is the person to do so. The 'mass dumping' of State Department cables is not the same as carefully considered revelation - and the publication of a list of infrastructure (including UK sites) considered critical for US national security in my opinion went too far. Diplomacy is essential to the avoidance of conflict and war, and some secrecy for diplomats' candid comments and those of their sources is justified. Dissidents and opposition figures will not be prepared to share their observations if they are going to be open to all to read. Mind you, serious questions are justified about US data security - at a time when they are asking for more and more of our personal data - given that a junior employee not only had access to but could download classified cables!

I myself in fact found my own name on WikiLeaks last week in a rather amusing cable from the US Embassy in Brussels from February 2009 about our European Parliament resolution on closing Guantanamo and the resettlement of former Guantanamo detainees in the EU. I am described in the cable as being "known to be somewhat outspoken", something I think I can be proud of!

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is now in custody in Wandsworth wanted in connection with rape and sexual offences under a European Arrest Warrant issued by Sweden. The first EAW Sweden issued was procedurally incorrect because they failed to state the maximum penalties for the crimes involved, maybe a small point but sloppy and not very impressive. I do in fact have concerns that the European Arrest Warrant may be being misused, since extradition can only be 'for prosecution', not just for questioning which this second request appears to be intended for, according at least to the press. Mutual legal assistance must be used for questioning and I hope that UK courts uphold that; I am following this up.

Human Rights, lots of them!

Today is Human Rights Day, and last night on its eve I attended the Human Rights Awards of Justice, the legal NGO which works for human rights and the rule of law and of which I have the honour to be vice-chair. Several of the lawyer nominees had worked in connection with the inquiry, of which the report is being drafted, into the death of Baha Mousa. Baha Mousa was an Iraqi who died in the custody of British soldiers as a result of their alleged abuse, and there are others who allege beatings and mistreatment. But all of the nominees and winners, see here, are doing fantastic and inspiring work to uphold individual rights and legal accountability.

I was very moved when one winner noted how the alleged victims were putting their faith in the justice system of the very country whose agents are alleged to have violated their rights. That is both a tribute and a trust that needs to be honoured. To me there is nothing more important than respect for law, once that breaks down you really are lost. I am very happy that the leadership of the Ministry of Justice (Ken Clarke and LibDem Tom McNally) and the positions of both Attorney General (Dominic Grieve) and Advocate General for Scotland (LibDem Jim Wallace) are in the hands of people who understand that.

One of the remarks made by Director Roger Smith was about the transformation wrought by the Human Rights Act and the fact that the coalition government was committed only to a commission - which might just take a good few years to report - on a British Bill of Rights. I would add (these are not Roger's words) that even then the wording says the commission will 'investigate a British Bill of Rights that incorporates and builds on all our obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights. Incorporation of the ECHR is exactly what the Human Rights Act does, so the abolition of the HRA some Tories wanted - because a) it has Europe in the title, though of course not an EU instrument but inspired by Winston Churchill! and b) it protects even prisoners or terrorist suspects - has actually been kicked firmly and satisfyingly into touch!

Then this morning of course there took place the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, with an empty chair for Chinese recipient Liu Xiabo. My LibDem colleague Edward McMillan-Scott, European Parliament Vice-President for Democracy and Human Rights, represented the EP along with Heidi Hautala, chair of our Subcommittee on Human Rights. They praised the unity shown in the face of intense Chinese pressure by the EU, all of whose 27 member state ambassadors were represented. Whether or not this is in part due to my parliamentary question on this I don't know (!), but good news nonetheless.

My MEP colleagues also noted that this was an auspicious start to the EU's new external foreign policy which must be guided by the principles of democracy, the rule of law, and the universality, inalienability and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms. They repeated our call for the External Action Service to have a strong and effective international law, human rights and democracy directorate, for the establishment of an EU Special Representative on human rights and the appointment of human rights focal points in EU Delegations. Reminding Commission and Council that the Parliament would continue to use its new (Lisbon treaty) powers to demand a more efficient and visible EU policy on Human Rights and Democracy, Edward and Heidi said:

"The global struggle for human rights is far from over and to have an impact in this arena, more coherent and forceful EU human rights structures need to be put in place."

US delegation: San Francisco and Silicon Valley

I have been in San Francisco for most of the last week on the yearly MEP delegation visit to the United States to meet our US Congress counterparts. We discussed everything from civil liberties & data protection to biofuels to financial regulation, trade and economic links and foreign policy. We also visited Silicon Valley, where we met several firms including (in my case) eBay, Intel and Cisco (colleagues went to other firms including Google) and discussed technological innovation. The topic of internet governance came up as well, timely with the WikiLeaks saga! I am pictured with the outgoing chair of the Congressional EU delegation, Democrat Congresswoman Shelley Berkley - and the Fortnum's tea caddy which I bought for her as a (personal) goodbye present. It went down rather well, not only as Shelley does hold tea parties, but also because of the double entendre with the 'Tea Party'!

Pakistan links

We also had a session at that meeting with the foreign minister of Pakistan, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and discussed his country, Afghanistan and Iran; you can read his address here. I was particularly interested by his reference to the British Pakistan Foundation that he and Foreign Secretary William Hague recently launched and its equivalent in the US, the American Pakistan Foundation. The aim of the BPF is to encourage links with the Pakistani diaspora and to fundraise to fund crucial health and development projects back in Pakistan. If you interested in development in Pakistan, do give what you can. I am also interested in linking up with the Foundation, given that many of my constituents are of Pakistani heritage.

Fred 'the Shred'

We were told this week that Sir Fred Goodwin & his colleagues will not face any regulatory or criminal punishment for pushing RBS to the brink of disaster, at a cost of £45 billion to the British taxpayer. If there was one time that the outgoing Financial Services Authority could have shown some muscle in the face of financial irresponsibility, it was now. The FSA is not even making its report into RBS public, and Vince Cable is far from impressed. The LibDem Treasury spokesman in the Lords Matthew Oakeshott is pursuing this and had an excellent interview on the Today programme yesterday. But at least strict new EU rules on bankers' pay and bonuses will prevent people like "Fred the Shred" ever again walking away with massive pay packets while the banks they leave behind crumble, see here.

Israel

You will have heard about the huge forest fire which has ravaged northern Israel and claimed 42 lives. Israeli firefighters were quickly overwhelmed by the enormity of the fire and this is the subject of internal political recriminations. But they appealed to their neighbouring countries in south-east Europe for help and I'm pleased to say that Bulgaria, Jordan, Russia, France, Greece and the UK all sent assistance, and even Turkey made a special point of casting aside recent tensions and sent planes. Although there is already some cooperation on fighting forest fires, I think organisations like the 'Union for the Mediterranean' could do a lot more to help one another combat this common and recurring threat.

While on the subject of Israel, I am honoured to have been made a Vice President of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, to which I have belonged (as Liberal then LibDems) for 3 decades. In my new position I hope to continue to combine my staunch support for the existence and security of the state of Israel with my critical appraisal of the policies of any particular Israeli government and my strong backing for a 2-state solution with a viable Palestinian state.

Yes to fairer votes!

The 'Yes' campaign for the fairer votes referendum got a boost this week when Labour leader Ed Miliband said that he too, along with 8 other shadow cabinet members, would be campaigning for voting reform. It just makes sense: AV will put an end to jobs for life for MPs, make them work harder to keep their seats and will mean that everyone's vote will count. I used to be a local councillor in Islington and I always remember how all the incumbent Labour councillors in safe Labour wards never did anything to improve our council services, for the simple reason that they didn't have to! All part of why I will doing everything I can to help this campaign along.

Elections in Ivory Coast

The West African country of Ivory Coast recently held presidential elections and our sister party, the Rassemblement des Républicains, led by Alassane Outtara, won with 54% of the vote. But incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, quickly orchestrated a constitutional coup and got himself sworn back into power. Liberal International, which does a lot of work in promoting democracy around the world has taken a lead in putting pressure on Gbagbo to concede victory. A return to civil war would be devastating. You can watch the ALDE press conference on this subject here.

EU funds for cigarette factories must end

A Financial Times investigation has uncovered that a large amount of EU money - reportedly €1.5m in all - from the European Social Fund is currently being paid to cigarette companies and factories. Funding to help laid-off cigarette factory workers find a new job is fine, but subsidising the tobacco industry is not. MEPs have stopped EU funding for farmers growing tobacco, we must also stop European subsidies for making cigarettes. Little attention appears to have been paid to this so far, so I will be putting down a parliamentary question on the subject.

Best regards,

Sarah Ludford