The Speaker began by welcoming his guest – the Mongolian parliament’s Chairman – as an observer in the Gallery.
Dashzegviin Amarbayasgalan is the 43-year-old social democrat who swept into power in 2016 at the head of the Mongolian People’s Party. His small (3.3 million people) country is
developing ties with various ‘
third neighbours’ (after China, its largest trading partner, and Russia).
An important element in Mongolia’s economy is its giant
Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, being
developed by a subsidiary that is majority-owned by Rio Tinto. A
2020 report by the (Dutch) Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations says that the relevant trade agreements have not been as beneficial for the government as they might have been.
We too are caught between two big neighbours – in our case, the US and EU. Perhaps our visitor may find something instructive in our attempts to remain standing on our own two feet, despite external influences and internal political machinations. For our part, it will be interesting to be involved in that part of the world: don’t make waves, Bond, and bring the kit back in one piece this time!
The Prime Minister opened his remarks by saying had spoken to President Zelensky last night and reaffirmed “our unwavering support for the people of Ukraine”. However, when the Lib Dems’ Lee Dillon called for the seizure of Russian assets as a “punishment” for “Russian aggression”, Sir Keir replied that it was “complicated”, which is true not least because the UK and US have still not declared war on Russia.
Only nine months ago, President Putin called the West’s diversion to Ukraine merely of the interest on those assets a “theft” that would itself “not go unpunished”.
Starmer also expressed his concern about the IDF’s resumption of hostilities in Gaza – which were prompted by Hamas’ continued holding onto hostages – a “grave breach” under the Genevan Conventions.
He concluded with a salute to the passing of Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway, the last surviving pilot of the Battle of Britain. If readers wish to appreciate the cold dread of those days, of duty performed without any confident expectation of personal survival and national victory, they should read the wartime
short story ‘There’s No Future In It’ by ‘Flying Officer X’ (H E Bates.) What has war cost us? Yet Left and Right are still banging the drum…
Also, the Centre, if that term can properly be applied to the Lib Dems, whose leader is Sir Ed Davey, associated himself with Sir Keir’s remarks. After a failed attempt to secure the PM’s support in the Commons later that afternoon for a tabled exemption from the NIC rise for the NHS and care providers, Sir Ed turned to the subject of hare coursing, thus flying the Lib Dem flag for rural communities and their wider battle against local crime. Was there a hint of ironic condescension in Sir Keir’s thanks for “raising this important issue, which is a matter of deep concern”?
As usual, much of the session was devoted to a list of needs, many of them inadequately addressed by the Opposition during their fourteen years in power. For example, as Labour’s Lauren Edwards said, there was not enough skills training for young people. However, while wishing to reset our relations with the EU, Starmer dodged Helen Maguire’s (Lib Dem) call for “a UK-EU youth mobility scheme”: “We will not be returning to freedom of movement” – a bridge too far, as it were.
The catalogue of wants continued: research into brain tumours in children; how to ‘make work pay’; immigration; knife crime and insufficient numbers of police; eating disorders and other mental health difficulties for young people; the young homeless (this from Scottish Labour’s Chris Murray, which allowed the PM to castigate the SNP for cutting its affordable housing budget); the dwindling access to banking services; how to manage the energy transition role of the Grangemouth refinery and safeguard employment there; compensation for those harmed by infected blood when receiving transfusions; violence against women and girls.
This and much else would take so much money! The Greens’ Carla Denyer pressed for a wealth tax, as though the flight of the rich was not already obvious; Sir Keir reminded her that her party’s manifesto implied extra borrowings of £80 billion, “which would have done exactly what Liz Truss did to the economy”.
Reform’s Lee Anderson received scornful noise when he said he came to the House hoping for “sensible answers” and got only “glazed expressions and waffle”. His question about Net Zero and its putative effect on Earth’s temperature duly attracted more dubious waffle from the PM about growth, jobs and the economy, with a side helping of contempt for “a party that fits in the back of a taxi”. Yet perhaps Starmer’s gofers might try to do more than draft smart-alec ripostes…
… as well as lazy wallpaper replies. When Kemi Badenoch asked why we were having an emergency Budget, she had the customary litany about inward investment, wages going up faster than prices (as though that did not contain some seeds of national financial difficulty) and – yawn – the £22 billion ‘black hole.’ The Opposition Leader countered with ‘growth down, borrowing up, destroyed business confidence’.
She would not be drawn on whether she would actually reverse the NIC increase, but when the PM said he had put in more millions for hospices, she was sufficiently on top of her brief to point out that the extra cash was for buildings, to which Sir Keir responded that he had “already set out the position in relation to hospices” – hardly a debating triumph on that point, but with his army behind him, who cared?
More telling – and perhaps that is why it was saved for the fag end of PMQs – was Diane Abbott’s question about the morality of cutting benefits for up to a million claimants, “the most vulnerable and poorest people in this society”. Sir Keir “paid tribute” to her and said the issue was “difficult”, but was “not prepared to shrug [his] shoulders and walk past it”. How does that work as an answer? Oh dear – time to go.
Get any tips, Mr Amarbayasgalan?
