Member of Parliament for South Shields
Latest Speeches
The War In Afghanistan: How To End It
Compton Lecture
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
10th March 2010
It is a great honour to be delivering the Compton Lecture today. As a student here in the late 1980s I learnt much; about political science, my chosen subject, but also about the history of this great institution - a beacon both of academic excellence and of the enlightenment values of progress, discovery and belief in human worth, which we cherish so dearly on both sides of the Atlantic. I remember the twelve months I spent here extremely fondly.
Powerful People: Why Progressive Ends Needs Progressive Means
At DEMOS
London
23rd February
The Prime Minister asked on Saturday that voters take a second look at Labour. He set out serious plans for the pursuit of noble causes based on clear values. This speech is about those values, and how a re-elected Labour government would make them real.
The core value we espouse is a commitment to use government to help give people the power to shape their own lives. The power that comes with income and wealth. The power that comes with skills and confidence. The power that comes with rights and democratic voice. Not just for the few but for all. It is a fundamentally progressive vision of the good society.
A Call For Convergance: Science And Diplomacy In The Modern Age
IAP General Assembly
Royal Society
London
12th January 2010
Let me start by wishing you all a very warm welcome to London. It is a great honour for us that so many scientists have come so far to celebrate the 350th Anniversary of the Royal Society. It’s also a great honour for the UK and the Royal Society to be hosting the General Assembly of the Inter-Academy Panel. I believe this year you will be discussing biodiversity – prescient given the recent events at Copenhagen and the global debate on climate change.
This IAP General Assembly has also seen the launch of the Royal Society’s report on science and diplomacy. This is a theme that I will return to. But the report itself is emblematic of how the Royal Society embodies some of Britain’s greatest qualities: its commitment to the advance of knowledge; its international engagement; the meritocratic basis of its membership; its involvement in the public realm.
The War In Afghanistan: How A Political Surge Can Work
NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Edinburgh
17th November 2009
Last week in Berlin, I watched the moving commemoration of the event that defined the end of the Cold War. The fall of the Wall twenty years ago closed a dark chapter in Europe’s history. It also presaged a broader role for NATO.
There are many big, long term issues for NATO to address - notably cooperation with the EU, where the passage of the Lisbon Treaty creates a major opportunity for more proactive and efficient European Defence and Foreign Policy cooperation; relations with Russia, where NATO and OSCE in their own ways need to respond in a positive and principled fashion to the idea of a debate about European security architecture; and the modernisation of NATO’s internal structures, where we need to streamline decision-making, improve defence planning, slim down the headquarters structures and beef up capability development.
The Global Change We Need: Campaigning Diplomacy
Fabian Society Conference
London
7th October 2009
I was in Belgrade when I switched on the TV and president elect Obama (as he was then) was addressing the crowds in Chicago. And I think that this is a good moment not only to think about the lessons of the Obama campaign but President Obama’s first year in office. It’s a good chance to think about at domestic politics but also a good chance to think about foreign policy.
As I sat down to think about what I wanted to talk about today, there was a temptation, which is to take some of the big foreign policy areas where the Obama administration is trying to challenge some of the big taboos of international policy, whether in respect of Iran, the Middle East, nuclear proliferation or non-proliferation, while I could do that, that’s not what I want to talk about today, because rather than a particular issue or a particular theory or a particular policy. I want to talk about, not the ‘what’ of foreign policy, but the ‘how’ of foreign policy, which I think is rather more in tune with Sunder’s aim for the conference.