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European Council: 11-12 December 2008 and Prime Minister’s Visit to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for repeating this Statement from the Prime Minister. Let me treat first the matters relating to Afghanistan. It was right that the Prime Minister should visit our troops. I am sure that he, my right honourable friend David Cameron and all who visit to assure them of the total support they have in our country, are moved and humbled by the professionalism and heroism of these young people. Each week, in Prime Minster’s Questions, we hear the names of new casualties and, with them, new partners and parents who see the irreplaceable fruit of years of loving care laid down in sacrifice. We should give thanks every day for our young men and women on active service wherever they may be. We must never accept the litany of young life lost as routine, never fail to test the reasons or probe the objectives behind it or ask what will constitute success in Iraq or Afghanistan. Is there not disturbing evidence of growing confidence among the Taliban and of serious defects in the Karzai Government? What are we doing to address those issues? Should not the prime focus of the mission be security and the destruction of terrorist training? What commitments were given at the EU summit to deploy additional troops from EU states and to do so in the front line? What evidence is there that the Pakistani army can and will act to drive al-Qaeda and terrorist camps out of Pakistan? What bankable assurances did the Prime Minister receive? We also stand with the people of the great nation of India, our staunch friend, scarred by the savagery of slaughter in Mumbai. The battle against terrorism is world-wide. The enemy is ruthless, determined and unflinching. The world must stand together against this threat. The terrorists want to divide us, divide parties, divide nations. They must not be allowed to do so. There is no meeting place between us and the truly evil men ready to order women and children to blow themselves apart to kill. Can the noble Baroness confirm that the Lord Chancellor is studying changes to the Human Rights Act to make it easier to sling their criminal apologists out of this country? I now turn to the EU summit. Let us look at the fine print of the so-called 20-2020 package, which, of course, we support. Can the noble Baroness confirm that, in effect, some of Europe’s most polluting industries are excluded? Can she confirm that the UK target for renewables is lower than 20 per cent, at 15 per cent of total energy consumption by 2020? Is there any plan to revise that? Can she confirm that paragraph 22 of the presidency conclusions makes it clear, first, that any further reduction depends on a successor global agreement to Kyoto being agreed in Copenhagen and, secondly, on India and China signing up? That does not sound like world leadership to me. It sounds more like, ““this year, next year, some time, never””. Will the noble Baroness tell the House what firm commitment to 20-2020 and beyond the Prime Minister received from India on his recent trip? Does the noble Baroness agree with the statement by the Europe Minister, Caroline Flint, that the crisis makes no case for joining the euro? On the Lisbon treaty, Europe’s leaders had to make a big decision: to respect the wishes of the people who live there or say that the Irish were ignorant. Is it not shameful that the Irish people are to be made to vote twice because our Government did not like the result the first time, while the British public are not allowed to vote at all? Was not one purpose of the Lisbon treaty to slim the number of commissioners from one national of each member state? Can she confirm that the conclusions say that the EU will take legal action to ensure that the number will stay the same? The statement says that no legal change is required. If the text means what it says, Ireland has won concessions on tax policy, security and defence, education and social policy. However, the Prime Minister says that nothing has changed. Those statements cannot both be right. Perhaps the noble Baroness can explain. Will the Prime Minister be sending the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, to Dublin to put the case during the next referendum campaign? Do the guarantees on the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, for example, apply to this country? Do they have legal force, or are they just promises designed to gull the Irish people into doing what they were supposed to do the first time around? If they have legal force to modify or add to the treaty, will they be put before the UK Parliament and the British people? If so, when and how; and if not, why not? On the economy, the Government claim that Britain is uniquely well prepared. Knowing what we now know about No. 10’s addiction to dodgy statistics, one has to ask, ““Well prepared for what?”” Tomorrow’s headlines, perhaps. If we are so well prepared, why are the high streets of Britain closing down; why are British workers being asked to take pay cuts or face merciless job losses; and why has sterling fallen to another record low? Is it the fault of the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats, or is it because world markets have heard the Prime Minister’s boasts and found them utterly out of touch with the realities of British policy failure? Why is Britain forecast to be heading for a worse recession next year than any other major economy? Could it be anything to do with the fact that, for years, the Prime Minister has been supervising the banks running a policy of spend, spend, spend and promoting a decade of borrowing and financial irresponsibility? Why, again this morning, has the IMF said that there will be no recovery at all in 2009, whereas the Chancellor forecasts a surge next July? The Government say that the EU leaders agreed with their saviour—always a prudent position—that every country should provide the same fiscal stimulus regardless of its situation. Why, then, does the European Commission statement, to which the communiqué refers, say: "““Those that took advantage of the good times to achieve more sustainable public finance positions and improve their competitive positions have more room for manoeuvre now. For those Member States … which are facing significant external and internal imbalances, budgetary policy should essentially aim at correcting such imbalances””?" Is that not Eurospeak—the noble Baroness will be well versed in these matters—for, ““If you’re in a hole, stop digging””? Is it not preposterous in the light of authoritative comments in Germany to say that there is a Eurochorus singing karaoke with their saviour and that the answer to a debt-fuelled recession is to double the national debt? Germany’s Social Democrat Finance Minister has called this crass and mistaken and said that Britain’s debt will now rise to a level that will take a generation to pay off. Tony Blair spent years worrying about his legacy, and so he should have because we are now living with it. Should this Prime Minister not worry about the catastrophic legacy that he is piling up of busted pensions, lost jobs, negative equity and debts piled on debts for our children and grandchildren? When will the Government act to deal with what the Governor of the Bank of England says is the single most pressing challenge: getting banks lending again? Will they now adopt the Conservative Party’s policy of a national loan guarantee scheme, so that we can get business trading and Britain out of this recession? When the summit is over and the back slapping done, each EU leader has to go back to his or her own country and deal with what the communiqué states are very different national problems. So I again ask the noble Baroness whether she will, on behalf of the Government, accept any part in this disastrous recession and whether she will apologise to those who have lost jobs, savings and homes because of the mistakes that her Government have made and continue to make.