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North Africa and the Middle East

I am glad that I have helped to perpetuate the sense of equality that we are observing this afternoon. Obviously, this is a vital debate. My hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North rightly drew attention to its historical connotations, and to Britain's historical involvement in the region. We tend to delude ourselves in the House that Britain is seen as a benign liberal democracy that never operates out of self-interest but is concerned only with the greater good of mankind as a whole, and that we seek to promote the rule of law, democracy and independence throughout the world. Sadly, the history of Britain's involvement in north Africa and the middle east hardly adds up to that. We have seen, for instance, the 1952 coup in Iran and all its subsequent ramifications, the Suez operation in 1956, the United States bombing of Libya in 1986 when the planes took off from this country, the obsessive dealing in arms in exchange for oil, and the turning of a blind eye to volumes and volumes of human rights abuses in countries that we claim are close friends of ours. Last week I tabled what I thought was a perfectly innocuous and reasonable question to the Secretary of State, asking him to tell me on which occasions since June last year"““human rights issues have been raised with… (a) Morocco, (b) Tunisia, (c) Algeria, (d) Libya,(e) Egypt, (f) Yemen, (g) Saudi Arabia and (h) Bahrain””." I was very disappointed to be told that the Minister would answer ““shortly””. I hope that he will answer shortly—