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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I am pleased that the Queen’s Speech gave a special reference to the Commonwealth this year, its 60th anniversary. I wish to focus my remarks on the Commonwealth, although I shall end with something that I consider to be a grave shame and a blot on Britain’s copybook—the treatment of the Chagos islanders. The other day, someone who has had tremendous experience of the Commonwealth over the past 60 years said to me that we—not only as a Government but as a people—should see it as an opportunity. However, the sad thing about the Commonwealth is that we have not seen it as an opportunity; we have turned our backs on it and have been extremely unimaginative about it. The Commonwealth is a gathering of 53 countries with masses of different faiths—Muslims, Christians, Hindus and so on. It is made up of the rich and the poor, the developed and the less developed. I am very glad that we are now carrying out a major review of what role we should play within the Commonwealth. That review is being led by the Royal Commonwealth Society and I am pleased to learn that next week it will produce for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad its proposals on how we can revitalise the Commonwealth. It will focus on the principles of the Commonwealth and how we can promote its values; it will focus on the Commonwealth’s priorities and how it can give added value to other institutions and organisations; and, finally, it will focus on the heart of the Commonwealth, which is the people in it, and how, for example, the younger generation’s imagination can be sparked and how that generation can be encouraged to do business and develop its country and so on. I believe that the report will help to galvanise us into rethinking how we look at the Commonwealth. As for the meeting next week, the Minister may want to say something at the end of the debate. In Trinidad, our priorities will obviously have to be on climate change in view of the forthcoming summit in Copenhagen, but we should remember that 50 per cent of the Commonwealth’s population is under the age of 25. I hope that there will be a lot of emphasis on how we can engage the interest of youth in the Commonwealth. The third matter on which I hope we shall spend our time—something on which the Commonwealth is strong—is governance issues. If we do not do that, no one else will. The Commonwealth is well equipped to deal with that, together with peace-building and reconstruction. The other area to which I hope we will give party next week is development aid and trade, and I am glad that my noble friend Lady Flather spoke strongly about it. At the same time, I hope that within the Commonwealth we can take a hard-headed view about aid criteria. In recent months, a number of books and studies have been produced by Africans, as well as Europeans, on the subject of development aid. The current plea of many Africans is, "For goodness’ sake, don’t make us aid-dependent". The criteria of aid must be to help a country to develop so that it can stand on its own and not have to depend on aid for the whole of its future. Having been, a long time ago, the last British administrator in Kenya, I have the feeling that over these many decades we have been giving conscience money, whereas we need to give money for realistic aims so as to help our friends in Africa to develop themselves. I hope that the Commonwealth will focus on that. I hope that it will also focus on an issue that has come up a lot today—China. On the one hand, one can only welcome the dramatic expansion of trade and investment by China in Africa, as it is good news, but, on the other hand, it is not good news if the issues of governance in those African countries are ignored. One only has to look at the Sudan to see how fuelling them with more revenue through the purchase of oil brings about the growth of militias and the dangers of civil war. One of the great strengths of the Commonwealth is to focus on those kinds of issues. It should embark on a dialogue with China to try to persuade it that it is important to recognise and have a framework of accountability in those matters. In terms of development, I next want to comment on the diasporas, particularly the African diaspora. Since the Second World War, 20 million Africans have come to the western world. Living in the western world, they have developed great professional skills in a wide range of areas. Many of them are anxious to make a contribution of some sort to their countries of origin. There are diaspora groups in Britain, the United States and elsewhere who are becoming more and more sophisticated and concerned about what is going on in their countries of origin. Therefore, I am delighted that DfID is giving money to provide long-term support to those diasporas. I hope that the Commonwealth can play a part in this and I would like to see encouragement for those who want to return, even for a short time, to contribute to their countries of origin. That has nothing to do with the repatriation scheme but it would enable Africans to make a contribution to solving their own African problems. It is up to DfID to encourage them to return and to contribute for a time in whatever way they can. I am delighted that the Royal African Society is working strongly with DfID in that connection. A year ago this week, I led a debate in the House on Commonwealth scholarships and the fellowship scheme. The decision had been made by the Foreign Office to end all Commonwealth scholarships to developed Commonwealth countries. The then Secretary of State for universities—they keep changing their titles and I have given up keeping track—intervened and said, "We will take over the support for scholarships for developed Commonwealth countries from the Foreign Office", and it is all credit to the department that it did. Subsequently, I have been very glad that the British Government have contributed as well to the new Commonwealth endowment scholarship scheme, although after 2011 that arrangement will end. Will the Government assure us that they plan for that scheme to continue indefinitely so that the scholarships that we provide go to the whole Commonwealth and not just to the developing part of it? It might be worth reminding ourselves that we have had an alumni of 16,000 over the past 50 years: 50 have reached Cabinet office; 50 have become supreme court judges, high court judges or ambassadors; 80 have been university vice-chancellors; and, believe it or not, one has been a European Commissioner. I believe that that demonstrates the enormous value of the scheme. I hope that the Minister will be able to say something positive about that. Lastly, we must do something about a shameful problem that has been on our shoulders in Britain for the past 40 years. In 1964, Harold Wilson’s Government had an exchange of letters with the United States and a decision was taken to set up Diego Garcia. My quarrel is not with that decision at all; for all I know, the existence of Diego Garcia as a military base has made a major contribution to the security of the world. However, what brings shame on the reputation of this country is that 1,500 Chagos islanders, living in Diego Garcia, many of whose families had been there for more than one generation and some for three or four generations, were expelled from the Chagos archipelago. It was an absolute disgrace. When, in 1982, as a Minister of State, I arrived in Mauritius to find a demonstration at the airport, I did not even know of the existence of these people. They were Chagos islanders who had been expelled and who were living in great poverty in the islands. I managed to get them £4 million but I am ashamed to say that a condition of getting them that money was that they were asked to renounce their right of return. Events overtook us. The late Robin Cook restored their right to return, but that was then withdrawn by Jack Straw as Foreign Secretary and the islanders have now made an application to the European Court. That is a blot on our copybook. It is a disgrace. There is now an all-party committee of 44 members. I very much hope that this Government will take on their shoulders the responsibility to restore the right of those people to return at the very least to the outer part of the Chagos Islands, which is a good 150 miles away from Diego Garcia and does not pose a security issue. I look to the Government to take a lead on that.