The comments made by James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, on 14 November 2022.
The UK congratulates Israel and Qatar for reaching an important deal to open direct flights between Tel Aviv and Doha for the World Cup.
We welcome the commitment that this will benefit football fans in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and foster stronger people-to-people links across the Middle East.
![PRESS RELEASE : UK and international partners announce further sanctions against Iranian officials [November 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/fco-150x150.png)
The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 14 November 2022.
The UK and international partners have announced coordinated sanctions on Iranian officials who are leading the violent repression of protests in Iran.
Protests continue across Iran following the tragic death of 22 year old Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iran’s so-called Morality Police, who were sanctioned by the UK on 10 October. The Iranian authorities have responded to the protests with violence, reportedly killing hundreds and injuring thousands of others.
The Foreign Secretary has announced the UK will designate Communications Minister Issa Zarepour and a range of local law enforcement and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials who have been involved in and ordered the crackdown on protests.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said:
These sanctions target officials within the Iranian regime who are responsible for heinous human rights violations.
Together with our partners, we have sent a clear message to the Iranian regime – the violent crackdown on protests must stop and freedom of expression must be respected.
The Iranian people could not be clearer. It’s time for the regime to stop blaming external actors and start listening to the voices of their people.
Zarepour and Vahid Mohammad Naser Majid (chief of Iran’s Cyber Police) have been designated for shutting down the internet in Iran, including disabling Whatsapp and Instagram, and banning the use of the Google Play app and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
Their actions are part of a wider clampdown on freedom of expression in Iran which has included the arrest and detention of more than 40 journalists and Iranian girls being sent to ‘psychological centres’ for protesting for their right to choose what to wear, according to regime officials.
22 other Iranian political and security officials are designated today in response to the continued brutal violence aimed at protestors, in provinces including:
These sanctions will ensure that the individuals on the list cannot travel to the UK and any of their assets held in the UK will be frozen.
The UK has already designated a number of high-ranking security and political figures, as well as the Morality Police, for their roles in protests in Iran.
The Foreign Secretary also summoned the Iranian Chargé d’Affaires last week to make clear that the UK does not tolerate threats from foreign nations against individuals here.
The speech made by Alok Sharma, the out-going COP President, on 14 November 2022.
Thank you, Minister Jorgenson.
Can I just remind all of us friends, that at COP26 we did resolve collectively to peruse efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.
I have always said what we agreed in Glasgow and Paris has to be the baseline of our ambition.
We’ve got to stick to that commitment. We cannot allow any backsliding.
But we are already at 1.1 degrees global warming and I know I don’t have to remind all of you the impact of that around the world.
Even at 1.5 degrees we are still going to have devastating outcomes for many millions. As our friend from Bangladesh reminded us 1.5 needs to be a red line.
And this cannot be the COP where we lose 1.5 degrees.
So, we’ve got to fight for this and every fraction of a degree absolutely makes a difference.
And it’s the difference, for very many, including each of your countries, between a tolerable existence and an impossible future.
Let me remind you a year ago what Mia Mottley said – in Glasgow she said 2 degrees “would be a death sentence” for very many nations around the world.
I believe we can keep 1.5 alive – we’ve got the business community on our side.
We all would have seen on Saturday, 200 international businesses signing up a to an open letter in defence of 1.5.
We are seeing impressive sectoral impacts – renewables, zero emission vehicles.
We’ve heard about that this morning.
Yes, there is a serious work going on with our finances. We need to be in a place where we can see more in terms of MDB reform, we need to do more on JETP. Yes, we need to include more on finance.
But on the 1.5 we need to make sure that we reaffirm our commitments to that.
We’ve got a G20 leaders meeting going on right now.
They’ve showed leadership last year. They need to show that again.
They need to, coming out of that G20, to reaffirm their commitment to Paris and to Glasgow.
In terms of mitigations outcomes here, really quickly there are four things we need to have.
One is for those countries that have not set out their revised NDC to do so aligning with 1.5, we’ve got 33 countries that have already done so including the UK.
Secondly let’s make clear our commitments to the science, no rowing back on the science, we heard from the science this morning.
Thirdly, further steps to phasing out coal phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
And fourthly we need to agree the legalities on the Mitigation Work Programme to shift the dial on implementation and ambition.
The reality is without progress on mitigation we are going to beyond our ability to adapt and of course I want to see progress made on loss and damage here but unless we stick to the mitigation piece all of that is going to be a lot more difficult.
So, friends in conclusion, we’ll either leave Egypt having kept 1.5 alive or this will be the COP where we lose 1.5.
You need to work out how you want future generations to look upon this COP and each of us individually as countries.
It’s really up to us to decide, I hope we will decide to keep 1.5 alive, thank you.
The statement made by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, on Twitter on 14 November 2022.
Utterly beyond comprehension that someone would vandalise a war memorial on Remembrance Day – sickening and disgraceful. I hope those responsible are identified and brought to justice.
![PRESS RELEASE : Shocking extent of Class Pay Gap revealed [November 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/socialmobilityfoundation-150x150.jpg)
The press release issued by the Social Mobility Foundation on 13 November 2022.
The Department for Opportunities (DO), our campaigns and advocacy arm, has today released research that reveals the shocking extend of the UK’s Class Pay Gap.
Professionals from working-class backgrounds are being paid an average of £6,718 less than peers from middle-class backgrounds.
Read the full research on the Department for Opportunities website.
The research was exclusively covered by The Observer here, accompanied with an opinion piece by our Chair, the Rt Hon. Alan Milburn, here.
To bring to life the horror of classism in the workplace, DO has created its first piece of short-form entertainment STAY DOWN featuring Michael Socha and Jo Hartley with Jonathan Hyde.
It follows DO’s first campaign on the Class Pay Gap last year which created the Class Pay Gap Day. The 2022 Class Pay Gap day is 14 November 2022.
![PRESS RELEASE : Universities call on government to back world-leading UK research and innovation ahead of autumn statement [November 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/universitiesuk-150x150.jpg)
The press release issued by Universities UK on 13 November 2022.
Ahead of the autumn statement on 17 November, we are urging the Chancellor to recommit to uplifting investment on research and development (R&D). This long-term investment will ensure that universities can continue to support growth and prosperity across the whole of the UK.
We have joined with more than 100 business organisations, education leaders and individual researchers in writing to the Chancellor urging the government not to cut R&D funding. This funding is the engine of growth, enabling universities to attract investment and talent, make world-leading discoveries, generate knowledge, and create and nurture new, innovative businesses and jobs across the UK.
This call follows our recently published report ‘Our Universities: Generating Growth and Opportunity’ highlighting the ways in which universities can play a bigger role in generating economic growth by supporting jobs and prosperity, boosting skills and opportunities, and building pride in place and local communities.
University research excellence is also well-distributed geographically across the whole of the UK, with recent assessments showing over 80% of submitted research activity to be world-leading or internationally excellent.
University-led research and infrastructure lays the foundation for new innovations, and universities are directly involved in the creation of new businesses as well as future-facing jobs:
Investment in R&D supports universities to work with local and national businesses through consultancy or contract research, providing specialist advice and access to the latest facilities and equipment to develop innovative products.
This fiscal event also comes at a time of continued uncertainty over the UK’s association to Horizon Europe, and EU structural funds coming to an end this year. We are urging government to secure association to Horizon Europe and protect the budget set aside to fund alternatives and for urgent action to avoid the loss of hundreds of vital growth-boosting research and innovation projects at risk, which will see their EU funding end this year.
Following the last austerity era, there were suggestions that the UK’s research output may have lost momentum in terms of international competitiveness. We do not want to lose our momentum again at a time when growth is a key strategic priority.
Public funding for university research and innovation is key to driving long-term economic growth and prosperity across the UK. Certainty around public funding will also help leverage the private investment needed to achieve the government’s ambition. Ensuring this funding is stable and long-term creates the conditions for effective collaboration and high-risk innovation activities leading to transformational breakthroughs – such as the Covid-19 vaccine.
The speech made by Danny Kruger, the Conservative MP for Devizes, in the House of Commons on 9 November 2022.
It is always very good to be called last in debates because it means that I get to listen to everybody else’s speeches. I have enjoyed the debate enormously and it has been very edifying, particularly to listen to everybody boasting about how big and beautiful their constituency is. My Devizes constituency is as big and beautiful as any, but more importantly, I suggest that it is the oldest place in England—[Interruption.] My goodness me, 1066—in my part of Wiltshire, we were trading in the fourth millennium BC, as evidenced by recently discovered archaeology. In Amesbury near Stonehenge, there was the discovery of the body of an archer, who—carbon dating and testing demonstrates—came from somewhere in central Europe in about 2000 BC. They obviously had some freedom of movement arrangements, which some disapprove of. It did not turn out well for the Amesbury archer, who died near Salisbury.
I mention that because we have been an economic entrepôt since the dawn of time. Through the middle ages in particular, my part of Wiltshire was incredibly prosperous. The great wave of prosperity arose from the wool trade, particularly, and then by about 1800, when the town of Devizes was a very important centre of the wool trade, it started slowly to decline as industrialisation happened, as the Kennet and Avon canal that comes through the town was dug and as Brunel was building his railway out to Bristol. Those amazing industrial innovations were actually the harbinger of the economic decline of our area, as people moved from the land into the cities. However, even through the 19th century, all sorts of important innovations and technological developments happened in our area. I pay particular tribute to one of my favourite local firms, the agricultural engineers T. H. White, which has been going since 1832 and has a £100 million turnover. It is still based in Devizes and is still a family firm, employing people all over the country and, indeed, the world. I have seen some of its amazing agricultural machines in use in our area.
Places left behind by industrialisation are becoming viable again. Our rural economies are becoming viable and thriving. Brilliant companies are hidden up almost every farm track and in every little backwater. In all our towns and industrial estates, there are brilliant, modern, high-tech firms such as Varivane, which makes kit for the Royal Navy. Most of our frigates have been kitted out by this little firm on an industrial estate in Devizes.
The other day, I visited a firm just outside Marlborough called Design 360, which makes amazing writing. It is run by a man who noticed when he was growing up in the area that everything seemed to be made in China. He said, “Why does everything have to be made in China?” and dedicated himself to developing a business in Wiltshire that makes the best possible kit at good prices and employs local people.
We have all sorts of other amazing industries, particularly in the agritech space. We have artificial intelligence that can monitor a multitude of crops in a field, so we can get away from the monoculture model of farming and have a variety of crops being grown in the same place. The health of millions of plants is being monitored through AI. We have vertical farming industries and are developing proteins that can be a massive British export and feed the urban populations of the world.
It is not all high tech. We should not think of the rural economy of the future as being all about whizzy new technologies. Actually, the future could and should look much like the past. I particularly want to see a revival of local food processing. That should be one of our great ambitions in this space, because it feels all wrong that farmers have to send their produce miles away for processing. It disappears into other regions of the country, and if it comes back to Wiltshire at all, it is packaged by some other firm. Why should we not have shorter food journeys and good local processing, as other countries do?
I totally endorse everything that has been said about the importance of food security and about the opportunity that environmental land management schemes bring to enhance the production of food as part of our public goods regime. There is no conflict between supporting the environment and supporting growth, but we need to recognise that the production of food is farmers’ primary objective. I would say that food security is more important than enhancing global trade, so I would prioritise it over trade deals.
How can we help? I agree with everything that has been said about the importance of support with energy and about VAT and rates relief, particularly for pubs and brewers. I want to mention a few other things quickly, beginning with skills. We export too many young people. We have a culture of higher education; we should invest more in further education. Wiltshire College is a brilliant local institution. I would like to see more support there.
I echo everything that has been said about housing. We need more housing in our local villages. We should say no to the five-year land supply rule; every village should be able to build more houses without having to use that rule.
I turn to connectivity. We need more broadband. Thankfully, I am confident that we will get a railway station in Devizes. I agree about demand-responsive buses. We must say no to HGVs. I echo my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Greg Smith): we have to improve the situation.
Lastly, I turn to planning. I must mention a brilliant firm, Poulton Technologies, which is run by the Coplestone family. They want to build an amazing factory to create undersea technology for fixing pipes, but they cannot do it here. They are having to do it in Saudi Arabia, because the planning system does not allow the space in the UK. That is what we need.
![PRESS RELEASE : COP27 – Global Shield branded a ‘cynical distraction’ – Friends of the Earth [November 2022]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/friendsofearth-150x150.png)
The press release issued by the Friends of the Earth on 14 November 2022.
Responding to the launch of Germany and the G7’s Global Shield against climate risks, Rachel Kennerley, international climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:
“New funding is urgently needed to support the communities facing devastating loss and damage due to the impacts of the climate crisis.
“But wealthy governments funnelling money from existing finance pledges to subsidise insurance companies is not the solution that climate vulnerable countries have been calling for.
“At COP27, we need to see the world’s worst historic emitters, like the G7, stop sidestepping their responsibility and commit to provide support directly to those on the frontlines of a crisis they did the least to cause.”
Bareesh Chowdhury, Asia Pacific regional facilitator at Friends of the Earth International, said:
“Here at the climate talks, countries facing devastating storms and deadly floods are demanding a funding facility to help them deal with these worsening disasters.
“But instead of meeting their call, Germany and other rich governments are distracting from this vital need for finance by proposing their own cynical scheme that focuses on insurance instead of badly needed funds.”
The statement made by Roz McCall, the Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, on Twitter on 14 November 2022.
This is appalling and vile. I hope that the culprits are caught and made to face up to the disrespect they have shown to everyone who has served or lost a loved one due to conflict.
The statement made by Meghan Gallacher, the Deputy Leader of Scottish Conservatives, on Twitter on 14 November 2022.
Disrespectful. Disgusting. Vile. Just a day after Remembrance Services took place and our country fell silent, Edinburgh City Chambers war memorial was set on fire. This is one of the many reasons I am bringing a Bill forward to better protect war memorials.