Tag: 2024

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 17 July 2024.

Lord Pickles visited Jersey from 8 to 10 May 2024 to mark Liberation Day, the end of Jersey’s occupation by Nazi forces during World War 2.

Key to the UK’s Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) was the visit by Lord Pickles to Jersey to take part in Liberation Day. The Channel Islands were the only part of Britain to be occupied by the Nazis during the Second World war. Liberation Day marked the end of almost 5 years of occupation by Nazi forces during World War 2. Jersey was liberated by British troops on 9 May 1945, the day after VE Day, which saw an end to the hostilities in Europe.

This year, Lord Pickles in his capacity as chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance took part in the annual commemorations. This included a dinner hosted by the Bailiff of Jersey at the Old Library, Royal Court House, St Helier, and the re-enactment of Liberation Day around Liberation Square, where crowds gathered in 1945 to welcome British troops and watch them unfurl the Union Jack from the balcony of the Pomme d’Or Hotel.

This was followed by solemn service at the Slave Workers’ Memorial at Westmount, a memorial that remembers the thousands of slave and enforced workers who suffered at the hands of the German forces. The service was hosted by Gary Font, the son of a Spanish Civil War fighter who was forced into slave labour in Jersey. Lord Pickles laid a wreath at the Slave Workers’ Memorial with the following message: ‘In memory of all foreign labourers who died during the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands and remembering those that suffered and survived’.

Lord Pickles also hosted and spoke at a panel discussion on 10 May 2024, entitled ‘ The Memory of Forced and Slave Labour in the Channel Islands’. Speakers included:

Dr Paul Sanders (NEOMA Business School, France)
Martha Bernstein (Jersey Jewish Congregation)
Sarah Buckingham (Jersey Heritage), and
Gary Font (spokesperson for forced and slave labourers in Jersey)
The panel was chaired by Dr Gilly Carr (University of Cambridge).

There was a broad discussion on ensuring we remember the victims of slave and enforced labour on the Channel Islands. Hope was expressed that the upcoming Alderney Review would name victims and thus give them lasting dignity.

Dr Carr asked Lord Pickles why is it so important for us to remember forced and slave workers in the Channel Islands? He said:

The camps in Alderney were significant in the history of the Holocaust not just because they were sited on British soil but also because there had been considerable speculation in recent years over numbers of individuals murdered by the conditions in the camps.

Lord Pickles went on to say that:

Numbers matter because the truth matters. The dead deserve the dignity of the truth; the residents of Alderney deserve accurate numbers to free them from distortion. Exaggerating the numbers of the dead, or even minimising them, is in itself a form of Holocaust distortion and a critical threat to Holocaust memory and to fostering a world without genocide.

Lord Pickle went on to say that he hoped the review which will be published on 22 May will put to rest theories on numbers and provide lasting dignity to the dead and some peace to the residents of Alderney who continue to remember them at the Hammond War Memorial every year in May.

Other key themes emerging from the panel discussion was the desire for good educational programmes in schools to tie that in with authentic sites in the island. Westmount, for example, has no information board and yet it is the place where forced and slave labourers were buried during the occupation and where Spanish Republican survivors who stayed in the island held their own annual memorial which continues today.

The audience, many of whom represented the education, heritage and survivor communities, engaged with the panel and discussed how the history of slave and enforced labourers should be remembered and how it should be part of the education offer.

Lord Pickles ended his visit to Jersey with a Shabbat dinner with the Jewish community where concerns were raised about the rising levels of antisemitism across the UK especially on university campuses and recent Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Jersey. He reassured the Jewish community of Jersey that better days will come.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 17 July 2024.

UK military advisor, Nicholas Aucott, says Russia’s invasion poses a profound challenge to the international order on which our prosperity and security depends.

Thank you, Mr Chair. Almost two and half years on, Russia’s illegal war of aggression continues unabated, posing a profound challenge to the international order on which our prosperity and security depends.

The outcome of this war matters to every member of this Forum. Russia likes to advance its narrative of disinformation advocating a ‘multipolar world’, but in reality, this is nothing more than a world where Russia is free to challenge its neighbours’ sovereignty and disregard the very security architecture we are here to preserve.

Russia must not be allowed to operate with impunity, violating the borders of other sovereign countries, dictating to other sovereign nations which security arrangements it may or may not make. It is imperative that Ukraine is successful in repelling Russia’s invasion because the consequences of a Russian victory for Ukraine and the wider region are too dire to contemplate. But Ukraine has shown, with our support, that they can win this war and restore sovereignty over their internationally recognised borders.

The reality is that this war has been a military and political disaster for Russia. To date, more than half a million Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded during Russia’s war.  The average daily number of Russian casualties (killed and wounded) in May was 1,200 per day. It is estimated that 70,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the last 60 days alone. The Russian people are being forced to pay the price for Russia’s President’s miscalculation – every Kinzhal missile costs USD 7 million, as much as 130 Russian teachers’ annual salaries. With Defence now accounting for up to 30 per cent of Russia’s Federal government spending and 6 per cent of its GDP, this war is taking its toll on Russia.

In framing its argument, Russia seeks to deflect from the reality that there is one aggressor in this war: Russia itself. The policies in support of Ukraine are not inherently anti-Russian, nor do they pose an existential threat to Russia, as the Russian narrative would have us believe. They simply require that Russia ends hostilities towards Ukraine and withdraws from Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.

In the face of Russia’s disregard for international law, the United Kingdom will continue to support Ukraine. We do this recognising that if Ukraine’s borders are not secure, no one’s borders can be secure. That is why the United Kingdom has committed, this year, to sending the UK’s single largest package of equipment to Ukraine, including air-defence and long-range missiles, vehicles, and ammunition.

This is a demonstration of the United Kingdom’s long-term commitment to Ukraine and to European security more broadly.

In closing, Mr Chair, I reiterate that Russia’s invasion poses a profound challenge to the international order on which our prosperity and security depends. This should matter to every country, no matter where they are in the world. Ukraine’s security is inextricably linked to all of us, and the United Kingdom will maintain the resolve and provide the ability to ensure that Ukraine wins. Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 17 July 2024.

China’s WTO Trade Policy Review, July 2024: UK Statement. Delivered by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, Simon Manley.

1. Chair, let me join others in welcoming Vice Minister Li Fei and his delegation, as well as the team here in Geneva so ably led by my good friend Ambassador Li; to you Chair, as ever; and to our Discussant for his comments. Whilst all Trade Policy Reviews require preparation, to review China’s trade policies is to review more than one tenth of global trade. So I take my hat off to the Secretariat for their report. And, of course, to the Chinese delegation for answering over eleven hundred questions.
2. Since we last convened to review China’s trade policy in 2021, strains on the global trading system and, consequently, economies, have only increased. We have seen new stresses on supply chains and global inflation, and national security has once again come to the fore. If such challenges are not managed in all our interests, there is potential for long-term damage to the rules-based global trading system.
3. Indeed, our shared prosperity and security depend on greater predictability and confidence in global trade – the benefits of which have powered China’s own economic development. As the world’s largest trading economy, China’s actions carry particular significance. It must lead by example. That means transparency. Taking action to tackle unfair discrimination. And addressing bilateral trade imbalances that stem from a lack of reciprocal market access. All issues we raised three years ago, and which remain salient today.
4. We recognise and welcome China’s leadership here at the WTO, whether it be supporting dispute settlement reform and the preservation of the e-commerce moratorium; spearheading the declaration on Technical Barriers to Trade and promoting the Investment Facilitation for Development Initiative at MC13, or working constructively to deliver for developing countries. China has made a positive difference.
5. And as one of the three co-Chairs of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender, let me also welcome China’s efforts to increase women’s economic participation in trade activities, particularly in the fields of science, technology, and financial services.
6. It is precisely this sort of leadership that we encourage China to demonstrate in other areas too, for instance in our discussions here at the WTO on industrial policy and subsidies. The UK looks to cooperate with China on these and other global issues that need our urgent attention and which it is in all our interests to address, recognising that there will also be areas where, at times, we will need to compete and must challenge.
7. Within China’s domestic market, we recognise where the government has responded to Members’ concerns since China’s last Review. We welcome promised improvements to the foreign investment environment, recent updates to data regulations, and pledges to further reduce the Foreign Investment Negative List.
8. In implementing these policies, it is imperative that China consults with foreign businesses of all sizes to ensure the improvements they implement meet their needs.
9. Indeed, there is much more we want to see China do to improve market access for foreign investors and importers, and to restore business confidence. First and foremost, legal commitments to a level playing field must be complemented by putting appropriate institutions and processes in place to ensure that regulations are enforced with accountability, transparency and fairness across China.
10. The current situation is that that in China, laws and regulations are sometimes published with little prior notice or are ambiguous in scope, leaving foreign businesses uncertain about how to comply. Where China has agreed to open market access, long delays in administrative approvals can appear arbitrary. Some UK pork producers are still unable to export to China, despite COVID restrictions being lifted 18 months ago. The Chinese government has affirmed that companies should not be forced to hand over technology, but how this is policed and discouraged is unclear.
11. Chair, the UK’s comments today stem from a belief that to restore confidence in the benefits of global trade, Members must fundamentally support the mutual viability of each other’s industries. It is therefore with the very aim of supporting global trade that we urge China to consider where its domestic support and protection for certain industries might be harmfully impacting others. And to commit to changing its policies.
12. In particular, with 98 central State Owned Enterprises affiliated with 32,000 legal entities and responsible for an estimated 4% of global GDP, it remains crucial that China implements fully its Accession Protocol commitment that the government will not influence State Owned Enterprises operations, if we are to ensure fair competition.
13. Despite China having implemented some corporate governance reforms, we note that some State Owned Enterprises have been tasked to make advances in strategically important sectors and that political oversight has been strengthened through Party committees. We continue to hear of foreign businesses facing difficulties in accessing procurement opportunities in sectors dominated by State Owned Enterprises. China could and should be more transparent about its management of State Owned Enterprises, and to demonstrate that they act as truly independent, commercial entities.
14. We also ask China to undertake further reforms to show Members that it is committed to transparency and to regulating the provision of subsidies, including those provided to and through its State Owned Enterprises; to disincentivizing overinvestment; and to taking further action to avoid oversupply in international markets. As Chair of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, we call on China to rejoin international efforts to remove market-distorting subsidies which support excess capacity in steel making.
15. Chair, in September 2023, President Xi spoke of the need to reaffirm free trade and genuine multilateralism – a principle that implies governments working together to promote trade reciprocity and the free flow of goods and services across borders. We agree. But we ask China to consider where efforts for self-reliance and security may conflict with that fundamental idea.
16. For example, despite committing, on accession to the WTO, to join the Government Procurement Agreement, China’s government procurement remains closed to imported goods. We have welcomed changes to data regulations in China, but significant restrictions remain on information moving out of the country, with businesses feeling pressed to localise production to unlock market access in China. Such measures to onshore supply chains undermine trade reciprocity.
17. That said, all Members have the right to take legitimate measures to protect their national security, but this must not be abused to justify arbitrary discrimination. At the WTO, we have questioned China’s restrictions on some exports of critical minerals. If not transparently enforced, the 2023 amendments to the Anti-Espionage Law and broad national security exemptions in domestic legislation undermine the predictability of the trading environment that businesses need.
18. And the opaque and arbitrary use of economic measures for political reasons to undermine the legitimate choices of WTO Members undermines trust in China as a reliable trading partner. Such actions also undermine confidence that China is indeed committed to the open, rules-based, transparent, and non-discriminatory system that it says it wants and that we so passionately want to see.
19. Chair, to conclude, the UK’s engagement with this Trade Policy Review has been motivated by the belief that the WTO remains indispensable but is challenged by the ways in which its Members are operating as they seek to cope with global challenges. We need to remember the collective benefit we all receive from adherence to a rules-based and codified trading system. We are confident that China is willing and able to listen to trading partners’ concerns, and we want to continue working constructively with China to restore predictability and confidence in the multilateral system.

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 17 July 2024.

Improving living standards for working people through economic growth will be the central focus of new laws set to be unveiled by His Majesty The King today [Wednesday 17 July].

Improving living standards for working people through economic growth will be the central focus of new laws set to be unveiled by His Majesty The King today [Wednesday 17 July].

In the first State Opening of Parliament under this government, The King’s Speech is expected to unveil over 35 bills and draft bills which will support delivery of the government’s first steps and missions to rebuild Britain.

The package of bills will focus on growing the economy through better transport, more jobs and turbocharging building of houses and infrastructure – helping to make every part of the country better off.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain. For too long people have been held back, their paths determined by where they came from – not their talents and hard work.

I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the country. It is the only way our country can progress, and my government is focussed on supporting that aspiration.

Today’s new laws will take back control and lay the foundations of real change that this country is crying out for, creating wealth in every community and making people better off – supporting their ambitions, hopes and dreams.

Transport

New legislation will be introduced to create a simplified rail system by bringing rail services into public ownership once their contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their commitments. This approach will avoid the burden falling on taxpayers to cough up for compensation to operators for taking services into public ownership.

Transferring operations to the public sector will save the taxpayer millions of pounds currently paid out in fees to private operators each year. It will end the fragmentation of our railways, establishing a more efficient and reliable rail service for passengers – helping to get people to work on time and boosting productivity.

The government will also introduce legislation to establish a new public body, Great British Railways (GBR) which will be focused on improving services and creating better value for money for passengers.

With Great British Railways, the fares and ticketing system will see simplified fares, discounts, and ticket types. Once established, the new body will also ensure that ticketing innovations like automatic compensation, digital pay-as-you-go and digital season ticketing are rolled out across the whole network.

The King’s Speech is also expected to feature a Better Buses Bill to deliver the government’s manifesto commitment to reform the bus system by delivering new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services and to lift the restriction on new publicly owned bus operators.

This will help bring an end to the postcode lottery of bus services and will give local communities throughout England the power to take back control of their bus services. It will mean local leaders can decide to introduce better bus networks, at pace, which reflect the needs of the local communities that rely on them.

Building

Getting Britain to build more housing and infrastructure, including through planning reform, will also be central to the Government’s plans to strengthen economic growth.

The Bill will speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects.

By enabling democratic engagement with how, not if, homes and infrastructure are built – the major brakes on the planning system will be addressed to support sustainable growth.

Empowering local communities

As part of the government’s plans to empower local leaders to deliver change for their communities, the King’s Speech is also expected to unveil the English Devolution Bill. This will deliver the Government’s manifesto commitment to transfer power into local communities and recognising the vital role local leaders play in supporting growth by establishing local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities and households across the country.

The speech will build on the first fortnight of the government’s mission of national renewal.

From the launch of a National Wealth Fund to strengthen UK investment, to a new Mission Control tasked with turbocharging the UK to clean power by 2030, to opening the recruitment of a new Border Security Command, and the Deputy Prime Minister’s pledge to kickstart a new devolution revolution to transfer more powers out of Westminster and into the hands of local people – the Government is hitting the ground running and wasting no time in its work to change the country.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 17 July 2024.

Statement by UK Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

Nine months since the 7 October attacks, at least 120 hostages, alive and dead, remain held in horrific conditions. Innocent Palestinians continue to suffer and die in Gaza. A devastating humanitarian crisis is worsening by the day. There is an imminent risk of famine. And we are deeply concerned about the risk of regional escalation, in particular along the blue line between Israel and Lebanon.

President, in one of his first acts as UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer set out the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire, immediate release of all hostages, and an immediate surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza. We strongly support the ongoing efforts of Egypt, Qatar and the United States to this end – the deal on the table, endorsed by this Council in resolution 2735, is the best chance to support this. We urge both sides to show flexibility in negotiations and demonstrate a clear and firm commitment to ensure implementation of the deal.

First, we are calling on Israel to protect civilians, to allow unfettered aid into Gaza and to ensure the UN and humanitarian actors have the access and equipment necessary to safely get aid to those who need it most. We reaffirm our support for UNRWA and the vital role it plays in saving lives in Gaza as well as providing basic services and promoting stability in the West Bank and the wider region – a fundamental building block for lasting peace. It is essential that UNRWA is able to operate on a sustainable financial basis and able to deliver on its mandate.

Second, we express our serious concern at the escalating violence perpetrated by settlers in the West Bank. We condemn recent Israeli expansion of settlements. We reject decisions by the Government of Israel to declare 2,357 hectares of land in the West Bank as ‘state lands’ so far this year – the largest of such declarations of state land since the Oslo Accords. Such acts are not only illegal under international law, but also undermine prospects for a two-state solution. We demand a halt to these illegal activities.

Third, there is no military solution to this conflict. Pursuing military options will only deepen divisions and perpetuate the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis. The civilian death toll in Gaza is unacceptable. Reports of civilian casualties following Israeli strikes near schools and designated humanitarian zones in Gaza in recent weeks were appalling – as the Foreign Secretary said, urgent measures are needed to protect civilians.

We are appalled by the impact of the conflict on women and children. The UN estimates that there are over 17,000 unaccompanied children in Gaza, and over 5,000 women have been confirmed as killed, with many more unidentified or missing. Many of those killed and missing are mothers. Children are especially vulnerable to being killed, maimed, separated from their family, suffering trauma, acute malnutrition, violence, and exploitation. Women and girls in Gaza face a desperate struggle to access food and ensure basic hygiene, health and dignity in the face of unfathomable sanitary conditions, rape, and conflict related sexual violence.

Peace will be sustainable only if both Israelis and Palestinians recommit to a renewed peace process resulting in a two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian State – the undeniable right of the Palestinian people. The UK Foreign Secretary’s visit to the region this week signifies our unwavering commitment to this end. The UK Prime Minister has spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Abbas, and other regional leaders, underscoring the UK’s commitment to play its full diplomatic role in securing a ceasefire deal and creating the space for a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution. The world needs a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.