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UK Worldwide Interests

My Lords, there is a variety of ways in which we can promote British interests—often by a small infusion of funds for very considerable dividends. I shall speak about five areas. The Diplomatic Service has featured first of all. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe of Aberavon, whom we all thank for introducing the debate, has spoken knowledgeably and feelingly on this matter. I, too, worry about the loss or diminution of missions in Brisbane and the Bahamas—the old and new Commonwealth—and in Madagascar where francophonie is in recession and the English language is on the rise. Why do we not recognise the strength of the English language and exploit it for our purposes? Miami is the gateway to the Caribbean and Central America. Bordeaux is the home town of 24,000 Britons who are domiciled in the Dordogne. Frankfurt is the home of the European Central Bank and a rival financial capital to London. We should be there on the qui vive for what is happening. I understand the Government’s laudable desire to get the best value for money, but I have offered an alternative in this House before—an alternative route of collocation of embassies. Perhaps that could be with the USA, where the priority is for security purposes, or with our partners in the European Union, which is already happening and where the proper allocation of duties can be achieved to ensure that we and our own British embassies are more effective. Secondly, I refer to the established institutions for promoting British culture and the English language. The noble Lord, Lord Patten, whom we warmly welcome to this House, spoke about the BBC World Service, and the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, talked about the British Council, run by the noble Lord, Lord Kinnock. We celebrate the work of the British Council. However, in the 10 years that I spent abroad, I was very conscious that there were other well-funded institutions of the same ilk such as the Goethe Institute and the Friedrich Stiftung Institute, which very effectively promote German interests and culture. Good luck to them, but we should be doing the same. We should approach institutions like the BBC and the British Council in a businesslike way. After all, those who learn English buy British. Thirdly, another British success is higher education and overseas students. A recent House of Lords report has, however, demonstrated that Britain has fallen to third place as the desirable destination for EU students wanting a higher education place, behind both France and Spain, homes to two other classic diplomatic languages. We should be trying to help and promote the strength of higher education and initiatives such as that which my own university, the University of Warwick, is establishing at a campus in Hong Kong. Fourthly, inbound tourism has been served well by the Government. Broadly speaking, tourism does not find favour with politicians. It should, however, because it has a vital role in promoting the United Kingdom and spreading British culture. The recent criticisms of the noble Lord, Lord Marshall, on the plurality of funding within the UK need to be properly addressed. We need a sharper, well-aimed strategy that is aimed at ruthlessly promoting Britain and the opportunities here. Fifthly, I turn to support for sport. Who can doubt the diplomacy shown by the noble Lord, Lord Coe, and our own Prime Minister in securing the Olympics for London? We now aspire also to gain a football World Cup. Those will not only bring people to Britain but take British ambassadors abroad under the auspices of sport. But we are very poor at recognising other areas of interest where we can use British ambassadors for our purpose. Although there are many examples I shall give just one from the world of chess. After all, London established the first-ever international chess tournament at the same time as the Great Exhibition in 1851. Hastings later became the most established annual tournament for international chess players in the world. In 1895, the American, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, was supreme over all his continental opponents of that time. Now, we are in a very sorry state of affairs. I cannot remember the last time that there was an international tournament in London. Hastings is now a second-rate or perhaps a third-rate tournament. I point that out to the Minister because I hope he will embrace other areas than the Diplomatic Service, and recognise that we require a thought-out strategy on how to promote United Kingdom interests and that a little funding will go a long way in helping the myriad British ambassadors who go out and speak up on our behalf and whom we welcome in our ranks.