Jul132017

Paul Sweeney MP: Maiden speech

Scottish Labour

Mr Speaker, right honorable and honorable Members, I am grateful for this opportunity to deliver my maiden speech, and during a debate on such a tumultuous event in our nation’s history.

It is customary for a new Member to make some reference to his predecessors, and reflecting upon the introductory remarks of Richard Buchanan in his 1964 maiden speech, I noted that he declared “If it were within my power to introduce a new tradition to this House, it would be that hon. Members who are making their maiden speeches should do so from the Dispatch Box so that they might lay their trembling hands upon it and give some support to their quaking knees.”

On rising from these benches today I can thoroughly attest to my sympathy for those sentiments. The only consolation is I won’t have too long to wait for relief, as I will have the first opportunity to address the house from the Dispatch Box next week as Shadow Under Secretary of State for Scotland, and I can only hope that it will provide more ample support for my trembling limbs.

Dick Buchanan was the embodiment of the finest political traditions of my constituency, he was a proud railway worker, socialist and trade unionist. During his tenure as a councillor on the Glasgow Corporation it was not unknown for him to turn up at the City Chambers from the Cowlairs railway works in his boiler suit, before changing into the dapper pinstriped suit of the City Treasurer. He also left an eminent legacy to future members of this house as Chairman of the House of Commons Library Committee during its transition from an old-style, gentleman's-club library to the expert modern research facility that is at the disposal of Members of Parliament today; which I am sure has been particularly appreciated by those new members preparing their maiden speeches.

The area of Glasgow that I represent has a remarkable and diverse history, and that is reflected in the diversity and vibrancy of the people who live there today. From its early origins at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, it has subsequently been vital to Glasgow’s development, even though it was only formally incorporated into the city in 1891, when Glasgow’s territory was doubled in size. The Molindinar Burn, on the banks of which the founder of Glasgow, St. Mungo, established his cathedral and with it the surrounding town, flows from Hogganfield Loch, the fresh waters of which also nourished what is the longest established business in the city of Glasgow, Tennent’s Brewery, founded at the Drygate in the 1550s and whose amber nectar has slaked the thirst of many a Glaswegian over the centuries.

When I attempt to visualise the evolution of my part of Glasgow, Danny Boyle’s epic opening ceremony from the London 2012 Olympic Games immediately springs to mind. What was once an area of sylvan beauty and rural charm, a landscape of farms and weaver’s cottages, was rapidly swept away as the first harbingers of the industrial age emerged – the first canals and, later the first railways in Scotland would traverse the district. By happy coincidence of its position on the approach to central Glasgow from Edinburgh and the Lanarkshire coalfields, Springburn found itself at the epicentre of this frenetic growth as railway manufacturing and associated industries coalesced there to form the largest centre of locomotive manufacture in the British Empire, at its peak employing 8,000 people and with the capacity to build 600 steam locomotives a year, most which were for export.

Other engineering innovations were pioneered there too, most notably the first motor car built in Britain, the Johnston Dog-cart, built in 1895 by railway engineer George Johnston in the yard of his father’s house at Mosesfield on Balgrayhill. The first road trials took place in the dead of night with Johnston driving the car at twelve miles an hour on a twenty-mile journey across Glasgow. For this apparently reckless behaviour, he was charged with contravening the Locomotive Act by driving his ‘horseless carriage’ during prohibited hours along Buchanan Street, then as now the main shopping thoroughfare in Glasgow.

Today my constituency maintains this fine automotive engineering pedigree in the form of Allied Vehicles, the largest manufacturer of specialist taxi and mobility vehicles in the UK, employing over 650 highly skilled people in Possilpark. This high value manufacturer is also ingrained in the community, supporting many excellent projects such as Possobilities, which supports disabled people in the local area, as well as the highly successful Glasgow Tigers speedway.

Our engineering prowess was also critical to supporting Britain’s war effort during the First World War. Springburn’s railway works, gave themselves over to the production of munitions for the duration of the war. Throughout this period, they were responsible for producing military locomotives, aeroplanes, tanks, torpedo tubes, gun carriages, pill-boxes, and munitions such as mines and shells. The works also produced the first modern artificial limbs for wounded servicemen.

The directors of the North British Locomotive Company even offered their headquarters building to the Red Cross, as existing hospitals were insufficient to cope with the war wounded. It opened on Christmas eve 1914. Wounded troops would be transported directly to the hospital on specially converted 'ambulance trains'. By the closing day in May 1919, a total of 8,211 servicemen had been treated.

Nearby Stobhill Hospital, the place where I first entered a more peaceful world some 75 years later, was also requisitioned by the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914 and over 1,000 patients were cared for there at any given time, until the return of the hospital to civilian use in 1920.

As an Army Reservist, the sacrifice that my city made during the First World War has been impressed upon me every year when I attend the Remembrance Day service in George Square. The stark enormity of the statement on the city’s cenotaph, that Glasgow raised over 200,000 troops – a fifth of its population – with 18,000 of that number losing their lives, and a further 35,000 injured never fails to move me with the sheer scale of the carnage that afflicted our people a century ago.

My constituency of Glasgow North-East was created at the 2005 general election from the amalgamation of the Glasgow Springburn and Glasgow Maryhill seats. Both areas have previously enjoyed excellent representation from exemplary parliamentarians. Although my seat was once described as a ‘Labour citadel’, there was even two Conservative Members in the interwar period, though it was thankfully a brief dalliance. The metaphorical and physically towering legacy of my antecedents was brought into sharp focus when I recently had the opportunity to venture into the Speakers House and was confronted by a 14-foot-high oil painting of Lord Martin of Springburn and Port Dundas – if there was ever a more effective device to make someone feel simultaneously inspired and inadequate I’ve yet to find one!

Michael Martin succeeded Dick Buchanan as the MP for Springburn from 1979 to 2009, of course culminating in his election as Speaker of the House of Commons from 2000 onwards. His parliamentary career, spanning seven consecutive general elections, was selflessly committed to the service of others and epitomises the opportunity that the Labour movement has offered to the advancement of working class people over the last century – rising from a Springburn sheet metal worker and shop steward to become the Speaker of this House. I was particularly gratified to meet Lord Martin just last week, and he told me of his delight that his seat was now back in ‘safe hands’, as he put it.

My first ever experience of party political campaigning was in the Glasgow North East by-election of 2009, after a telephone call from Gordon Brown’s wife Sarah, drew me from my exam revision to help William Bain hold the seat for Labour. As someone who was also born and raised in the local area and both of us the first members of our respective families to benefit from a university education, William proved to be a dedicated, industrious and committed champion for our city and its communities during his time in this House, speaking vociferously in opposition to the Coalition government’s vicious and self-defeating austerity policies during his tenure as Shadow Scottish Office Minister.

Before I had the opportunity to meet my immediate predecessor, Anne McLaughlin, I had watched her maiden speech with great interest when she delivered it in July 2015. I was particularly impressed by her yearning passion for improving the lives of her constituents and restoring civic pride to our communities; a passion that I share deeply. Anne cited the example of the project to restore the historic Springburn Winter Gardens, the largest glass house in Scotland, as a totemic symbol of our mission to continue regenerating a community that is still contending with the challenge of urban dereliction. As one of the founders of this project, I was personally delighted that Anne made such a generous endorsement of our efforts in her maiden speech. I would also like to thank her for the friendly and good natured election campaign we conducted in June and I look forward to working together in areas of mutual interest in the future.

All the maiden speeches of my predecessors reflect common challenges facing our constituents over the years. Whilst much progress has been made in certain areas, unfortunately many of the issues they identified decades ago remain all too stubbornly apparent today.

Michael Martin referred to the urgent need to strengthen government intervention to develop new industries that would revitalise the local economy and alleviate the unemployment and despair caused by the collapse of locomotive manufacturing. This is still a legacy of decline that my constituency has never fully recovered from. It was something that I felt keenly from an early age, as I learned about Springburn’s past industrial glories from my grandparents.

It is what inspired me to follow my grandfather and father into the Clyde shipbuilding industry, and later Scottish Enterprise, burning with a zeal to rejuvenate the great, Clydebuilt industries that once gave pride and prosperity to our city.

Having recently been involved with the development of Labour’s new industrial strategy for Scotland, I am excited about the opportunity we have before us now to unlock a new era of prosperity with the application of coherent, long-term thinking about the development of more high value industries in our country, and I look forward to pursuing that vision with vigorous enthusiasm in this place.

Housing is another recurring matter that is referred to by my predecessors, particularly exploitation by private landlords and the mass clearance of housing in areas like Springburn. Most Glasgow MPs stand in the tradition of John Wheatley and his famous Housing Act of 1924 that provided state subsidies for house building, to build a land fit for heroes. It led directly to the creation of Glasgow's municipal housing system, and saw large scale building of some 57,000 new homes in new districts like Riddrie and Carntyne in my constituency during the inter-war period.

Due to the efforts of my predecessor Michael, and others Glasgow became a pioneer in the modern Housing Association movement, that saved many of the traditional Victorian tenements in areas like Dennistoun and Springburn, and by writing off the city’s £1 Billion housing debt, the last Labour government enabled an unprecedented renewal of the city’s housing stock, led by organisations like NG Homes, with over £100million invested to improve housing standards in my constituency.

These physical improvements are not just about the sandstone, glass and slate, it’s also about reinvigorating the very soul and character of our city; what it means and feels like to be a Glaswegian from one generation to the next.

These efforts have, however, been frustrated by policies from the party opposite that continue to undermine living standards in my constituency. Despite efforts to regenerate our communities, my constituents are still subject to the indignity of benefit sanctions, tax credit cuts and frozen wages. With unemployment and benefit claimant rates in my constituency double the national average and the child poverty level at 36%, the continued onslaught of Tory cuts to their living standards is too much to bear for many. When a constituent approaches me in the street to describe how she was forced to financially support her son and his partner, who was suffering from a terminal brain tumour, for 9 months before his death as he had been found fit to work and had his benefits cut, it is clear to me that we have seen the creation of a new minimum definition of dignity, where anything short of starvation and anything above destitution is now seemingly acceptable, and is apparently blind to any appeal to human compassion.

It was a view that was only galvanised as I watched the benches opposite cheer with perverse triumph as our effort to remove the public sector pay cap was defeated last month, quite oblivious to the harm this causes to millions of people.

My duty as a Labour Member of Parliament has been crystallised by those observations. The people of Glasgow North East sent me here because they despair at the Tories and yearn for the vision of hope and prosperity that Labour has offered them.

In 1948 this house, having witnessed the disastrous effects of two terrible world wars, was told that the welfare state was established to remove the shame from need and create a society with solidarity at its foundation. Today it is now our solemn responsibility to do everything in our power to defeat this government and restore that abiding principle in our society. That is why the people of Glasgow North East sent me here, and I will do my utmost to repay their faith in me by how I acquit myself in the pursuit of that endeavour in this house.

 

This speech was delivered on July 13 2017. Please check against delivery. 

Jul132017

Opening remarks by Commissioner Moscovici on the Commission’s proposal on the illegal import and trafficking of cultural goods

EU

Bonjour à tous.

The issue is certainly fascinating. Je voudrais vous parler aujourd’hui d’art et de terrorisme. L’articulation peut paraître un peu surprenante mais, il faut avoir en tête une réalité, c’est que les terroristes sont bel et bien des trafiquants d’œuvres d’art. C’est même une activité fort lucrative, qui est un des soutiens principaux du financement de leurs méfaits.

Financement du terrorisme

Le trafic d’œuvres d’art est une arme parfaite pour les groupes terroristes. En pillant les territoires qu’ils occupent en Syrie et en Irak, ces groupes financent leurs activités criminelles, y compris des attentats sur le sol européen.

Nous en avons vécues les conséquences dans nos chairs ces dernières années. Paris, Londres, Berlin, Nice, Manchester, Stockholm et Bruxelles, à quelques mètres d’ici, l’an dernier. Ces mêmes groupes sont ceux qui terrorisent aussi les populations de villes comme Alep et Mossul.

La Commission européenne est engagée aux côtés des Etats membres à stopper les sources de financement du terrorisme. J’y travaille activement en collaboration étroite avec mon collègue Julian King.

Les sources de financements sont nombreuses. Nous devons agir sur plusieurs fronts, sur tous les fronts.

Ainsi, en tant que Commissaire en charge des affaires douanières, j’ai récemment proposé de durcir les règles qui encadrent les flux d’argent liquide qui entrent et sortent des frontières de l’UE et qui peuvent être utilisées pour financer des activités illégales. Et à la rentrée, je présenterai une vaste réforme de la TVA pour empêcher la fraude transfrontalière “carrousel” qui sert elle aussi à financer des activités criminelles, y compris, sans aucun doute, des activités terroristes. La fraude à la TVA transfrontières est estimée à 50 milliards d’euros par an, qui sont autant de perte de ressources pour les États Membres.

Mais pour notre sécurité, pour lutter contre le terrorisme, nous devons aller plus loin encore et cibler davantage. C’est pourquoi nous voulons porter un coup d’arrêt au trafic d’œuvres d’art et de biens culturels originaires de pays tiers et qui entrent illégalement sur le territoire de l’Union.

Parce qu’il ne faut pas s’y tromper! La politique de la table rase culturelle orchestrée par des organisations terroristes comme Daesh est au cœur de leur combat idéologique. Le pillage des sites antiques de Palmyre en Syrie ou de Tombouctou au Mali, a montré que les groupes terroristes n’ont aucun tabou lorsqu’il s’agit de détruire des trésors irremplaçables.

Mais derrière ces images choquantes, qui sont aussi des images de propagande, se cachent des milliers de vols culturels sur les sites, car les terroristes sont aussi des hommes d’affaires avisés qui aiment à se définir comme un État, c’est-à-dire qu’ils connaissent la valeur de ces objets, statues ou fresques. Pour le dire en langage imagé, le trafic de biens culturels fait partie d’une sorte de “business model” pour eux.

L’an dernier, j’ai eu la chance de rendre visite aux douanes de l’aéroport de Roissy alors même qu’elles venaient de saisir deux bas-reliefs syriens du Moyen-Âge exportés illégalement en Europe pour une valeur de 400 000 euros. Ceci m’a convaincu qu’il fallait encore agir.

C’est le devoir de l’Europe de protéger ce patrimoine, alors que nous célébrerons en 2018 l’Année européenne du Patrimoine Culturel. Mon collègue Tibor Navracsics sait toute l’importance qu’il y a à protéger les biens culturels les plus menacés.  

Règles actuelles

Une fois dit tout cela, que pouvons-nous faire contre ces trafics ?

L’UE a déjà pris des mesures pour protéger le patrimoine culturel en interdisant le commerce de biens culturels de l’Irak et de la Syrie. Mais, on le sait, ces règles peuvent toujours être contournées par des individus peu scrupuleux – il paraît qu’il en existe – qui font passer ces objets en contrebande dans un autre pays tiers, avant de les exporter vers l’UE. C’est le principe du carrousel.

Certains États membres ont aussi réagi en adoptant des mesures nationales sur les importations. Mais les criminels passent alors par un autre État membre, plus vulnérable et moins réglementé, pour accéder au marché intérieur — c’est ce qu’on appelle le «port shopping».

Nous avons donc besoin d’une réponse commune systématique plutôt que symptomatique.

En quoi consiste notre  proposition?

Ce que nous ciblons aujourd’hui, c’est le trafic des biens culturels qui sont illégalement exportés depuis des pays tiers et revendus en Europe à des collectionneurs privés, parfois bien intentionnés, parfois négligents.

Le plaisir que nous avons à admirer ces œuvres d’art, ne doit pas être un prétexte à couvrir même indirectement des activités de nature criminelle ou terroriste.

Nous prenons donc aujourd’hui le problème comme il doit l’être: à la source, en mettant en place des mesures de prévention. J’irai plus loin: de dissuasion: à la fois sur l’importation et sur le stockage de ces biens culturels au sein de l’Union.

Notre proposition prévoit donc, parce que la douane est au cœur de tout cela, des contrôles douaniers plus stricts sur l’importation de biens culturels. Ceux-ci couvriront l’entrée des biens lorsqu’ils sont appelés à être mis en libre pratique sur le marché intérieur, ou lorsqu’ils sont stockés dans les zones franches du territoire de l’Union. Ici j’insiste, les zones franches doivent être traitées comme des frontières de l’Union.

Nous avons développé la première définition commune de ce qui constitue un “bien culturel à l’importation”. Cette définition est essentielle pour nos autorités douanières; elle donne à près de 120,000 fonctionnaires des douanes basés aux frontières extérieures de l’Union, la sécurité juridique dont ils ont besoin pour détecter et pour éventuellement saisir ces œuvres d’art suspectes – celles que j’ai vues à Roissy par exemple.

Le champ d’application de cette définition est bien calibré.

La définition d’un «bien culturel à l’importation» couvre d’une part un large éventail d’objets d’art (peintures, antiquités, statues, gravures, lithographies, instruments, manuscrits etc.). Elle s’inspire de ce qui existe déjà dans la Convention de l’UNESCO de 1970, qui est, vous le savez, le principal instrument international en matière de protection du patrimoine culturel, ce qui est bien notre objet.

D’autre part, notre proposition accorde une attention particulière aux objets les plus à risque, autrement dit ceux qui sont les plus menacés de destruction, en fixant un seuil minimal de 250 ans à partir duquel les mesures devront s’appliquer. Là aussi, cette limite d’âge ne tombe pas du ciel, elle n’a pas été définie de manière arbitraire, elle s’aligne sur les normes fixées par l’UNESCO. Elle permet ainsi de focaliser les efforts sur un segment bien particulier du marché de l’art et d’éviter une charge administrative trop forte pour les musées et les galeries d’art contemporain par exemple.

Par ailleurs, nous introduisons un nouveau système de licence d’importation pour les biens archéologiques, les parties de monuments démantelées, les manuscrits ou les incunables qui seront soumis à un système d’autorisation plus strict. Tout importateur — que ce soit un musée, un collectionneur privé ou une salle des ventes — devra donc obtenir des autorités compétentes de son pays une licence indiquant que les biens culturels qu’il introduit dans l’Union européenne ont été exportés légalement de leur pays d’origine.

Tous les autres biens culturels nécessiteront une déclaration signée (“affidavit”) assortie d’une sorte de carte d’identité avec photo de l’objet attestant de l’origine légale des biens culturels. Ce que nous voulons c’est une traçabilité de l’identité des biens culturels.

Que voulons-nous faire au final? Nous voulons responsabiliser les importateurs, pas les culpabiliser, les responsabiliser. Nous voulons renforcer le pouvoir de contrôle des douaniers, leur donner vraiment le moyen d’agir, les moyens légaux et les moyens partagés. Nous voulons sécuriser en quelque sorte le marché de l’art sur notre continent. Ce qui aussi, aura le mérite de tarir à la source, de couper à la racine les sources de financement du terrorisme que constitue ce trafic de biens culturels.

Conclusion

We are announcing today one of the final measures that form part of the Commission’s broader fight against terrorism financing. We have started this work a year ago, we have been acting fast.

We cannot accept that terrorists steal cultural goods in Syria and Irak and sell them illegally in Europe to finance terrorist attack against European citizens.

This must absolutely be stopped with the support of our Member States.

We are making importers of cultural goods aware of their responsibilities.

We are improving the traceability of cultural goods.

We are empowering customs and cultural administrations together.

We are also responding to international calls.

Just last week the G20, which I attended in Hamburg alongside President Juncker, called for a concerted international effort against the looting of antiquities for the express purpose of providing profit for terrorist entities. That is precisely what we are doing today. The EU wish to take the lead on this issue.

In this fight against terrorism, the EU is playing its part on all fronts; the ease of funding for such reprehensible acts as those perpetrated by ISIS and other groups must come to an end.

I now count, as always, on the Member States’ support. This is a fascinating, decisive, important file which concerns our common identity, our cultural heritage, our values and above all, the security of all our citizens and this is why I really hope this proposal will be adopted swiftly and can be implemented as soon as of January 2019. Let’s go fast, we have no time to lose.

Jul132017

Press release: Defence Minister opens £3M Cyber Security Centre in Gloucester

HM Government

The new ‘Cyber Works’ centre, is designed to tackle the complex cyber threats the UK faces. It will create 90 high tech jobs in Gloucester and enable Lockheed Martin to work closely with its UK partners to share knowledge, research and deliver cutting edge capabilities.

Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin said:

With our £1.9 billion National Cyber Security Strategy, Britain is a world leader in the field and the opening of today’s cutting-edge centre is a great example of how partnerships with industry are at the heart of that strategy. Together we are developing solutions to national security risks.

We are already leading in NATO with support to offensive and defensive operations in the fight against Daesh and complex cyber threats, and I’m also delighted that this centre will further boost the UK’s cyber capabilities.

The Government is investing £1.9 billion in cyber security as part of its five-year National Cyber Security Strategy to create a UK which is secure and resilient to cyber threats and prosperous and confident in the digital world.

A key part of that strategy is partnerships with industry, with £10 million being invested in a new Cyber Innovation Fund to give start-ups the boost and partners they need, while the £6.5 million CyberInvest Scheme is building a community of industry, government, and academics to support cutting-edge research and build UK security in cyber space.

The ‘Cyber Works’ centre will support Lockheed Martin’s contribution to CyberInvest, while the company has also signed up to the Government’s CyberFirst scheme which will boost UK skills by inspiring and supporting young people considering roles in cyber security and intelligence.

With National Offensive Cyber Planning allowing the UK to integrate cyber into all of its military operations, defence plays a key role in the UK’s cyber security strategy. Offensive cyber is being routinely used in the war against Daesh, not only in Iraq but also in the campaign to liberate Raqqa and other towns on the Euphrates.

In Defence, the £800 million Innovation Initiative has already boosted investment in UK research and business, with multi-million pound competitions to develop artificial intelligence and automated systems.

In January, the MOD will open a dedicated state-of-the-art Defence Cyber School at Shrivenham, bringing together all our military joint cyber training into one place. And the Defence Secretary recently announced a major reorganisation of the Army’s Royal Signals Corp and Intelligence Corp to equip them to fight the information battles of the 21st Century.

The MOD also has a key role to play in contributing to a culture of resilience. That’s why we set up the Defence Cyber Partnership Programme (DCPP) to ensure that its industrial partners protect themselves and meet robust cyber security standards.