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Proceeding contribution from Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (Crossbench) in the House of Lords on Thursday, 24 June 2010. It occurred during Debate on Latin America.


Latin America

As two noble Lords have withdrawn there are theoretically a few more minutes for me to sum up, but I do not propose to take many of them. Fortunately, the noble Lord, Lord Howell, has summarised everybody’s speeches succinctly, so I do not have to. We have this afternoon had an amazing range of opinion and views. I cannot fail to mention the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Liddle, with which I agreed almost entirely. He will be a valuable asset not only to this House but to the cause of Latin America. His policy review organisation will no doubt produce many interesting papers of value on the subject. The themes that came though in this debate were, obviously, human rights and environmental concerns, which were mentioned by so many. The one thing that I thought was particularly striking was the idea of unity—the noble Lord, Lord Hannay of Chiswick, expressed this—in Europe and Latin America; in other words, the dream of Bolivar. There are obviously a lot of differences of opinion and different ideas about how to achieve unity in these two great continents that must work together. In coming back to that in other debates, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, said, we may need to address many aspects of this immense problem. I am extremely grateful to all those who have taken part. I have learnt an enormous amount from this debate. One never stops learning. Even though I have been at it for many years, every day I learn something new. Today has been no exception. I beg leave to withdraw the Motion. Motion withdrawn.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
719 c1469-70 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Development aid China Human rights Drugs Japan Foreign relations Politics and government Rainforests Trade EU external relations Honduras Colombia Cuba Haiti Embassies Bolivia Mexico Argentina Brazil Peru Trade promotion Latin America
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk