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Financial Security – Mark Speaks in Baku
Mark was invited to speak at a NATO conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on financial security during the global crisis. Below is the speech he made. 1. IntroductionLadies and gentlemen, good morning. I...
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No longer a faraway place
Few would confidently predict the outcome of events in Egypt. The twin effects of 24/7 media coverage and the fact that so many Britons of all age groups have been tourists to that country brings into...
View ArticleMilitary Action in Libya
The patiently secured UN and Arab League approval for action is only the first stage of this affair. No-one can be sure where this will all end. However, it is worrying that the Arab League now seems...
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The battle to restore trust and credibility in the Middle East
The violent death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US forces on the first day of the month in some respects neatly closes the final chapter of a decade-long story. Journalistic speculation aside, it...
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Visit to Azerbaijan
Mark is currently the Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Azerbaijan and in Whitsun recess, led a delegation of MPs and members of the House of Lords to Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital...
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Making the case for overseas aid
Few Tory MPs attending constituency events nowadays avoid being buttonholed – often by the most Conservative-minded person present – and harangued about the government’s stance on overseas aid. Not so...
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A worrying sequel to the Arab Spring
The global media circus has moved on from Cairo, Alexandria and the Egyptian seaboard. Soon the current rapt attention to the terrible bloodshed in Damascus, Houla, Aleppo and Homs will similarly...
View ArticleHow rent-a-mob jihadis are tormenting a benighted Christian minority in...
Mark wrote the following article for the Independent. It can be read online by clicking here In January 1945, my mother, too young even for school, joined millions of other ethnic Germans fleeing...
View ArticleEuropean Travails Ahead
Mark appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour on Sunday 4 November (click here to listen) to discuss the government’s defeat on the EU budget vote. Now that the dust has settled, here are a few of...
View ArticleThe first skirmish of many?
Thankfully few people have to endure the unimaginable terror that beset our nation’s hostages and waiting relatives as the Amenas gas plant siege dragged on last week. In a world of relentlessly...
View ArticleForget the British Empire – Syria’s fate is not ours to determine
Mark had the following piece published this morning by the Daily Telegraph. To read it online, here Anyone listening to recent reports on the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad government in...
View ArticleThe complexity of locating Britain’s national interest in the Middle East
The West’s tacit support of the military overthrow in early July of Egypt’s first Islamist president will have stark implications in the years ahead for our diplomatic relationships within the Middle...
View ArticleSyria Vote
Last night, the Commons debated and was asked to vote on a motion, pasted below in full, concerning Syria. At the beginning of the week, it had appeared that the Commons would be asked whether or not...
View ArticlePersecution of Christians in the Middle East
This morning Mark attended a Westminster Hall debate about the plight of Christians in the Middle East. Since the debate was so well attended, he was only able to make a short contribution. Pasted...
View ArticleUkraine – Russia’s Opportunity for International Renaissance
In the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse, the symbolic evidence of communism’s failure was inescapable. Along with the admission of ideological defeat – made all the more painful given...
View ArticleWhy Britain’s best future lies inside the European Union
As we all well know, the growing sense of unease over the past decade at developments in the European Union has made withdrawal tantalisingly tempting to many of our fellow Britons. Indeed, those of us...
View ArticleModi’s India – Finally Open for Business from the City of London?
Few would dispute that we have been here before. The opening up to UK investment of commercial opportunities in India has had many a false dawn over recent years. However, the assent of Narendra Modi...
View ArticleWe may now need to deploy ground troops in Iraq and Syria
Understandably, much current historic coverage has concentrated on the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War. But it was the Treaties of Versailles and Sevres, painstakingly negotiated at the end...
View ArticleIraq: Coalition against Islamic State
The decision on whether or not the UK should partake in air strikes against Islamic State has been looming ominously over parliament all summer. The prospect of the UK once again becoming involved in...
View ArticleA European good news story
The dramatic plunge in the Russian rouble and the knife-edge presidential votes precipitating elections in Greece provided more than enough copy for financial journalists this week. So it was perhaps...
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