Author: Lord Alderdice
On Wednesday 9th October Lord Alderdice spoke in a House of Lords debate on the UK Strategic Defence Review instituted by Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and headed by Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, a former UK Minister of Defence in the Blair administration and from 1999 to 2003 the Secretary-General of NATO. Until accepting this new responsibility he was, as is Lord Alderdice, a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on International Relations and Defence Committee. The debate on the Strategic Defence Review was conducted in Grand Committee and was obtained by Lord Robertson to give an…
Speaking on Thursday 25th July 2024 in the House of Lords during the Foreign Affairs and Defence day of the Debate on the King’s Speech (Hansard Volume 839, Col 646), Lord Alderdice (Liberal Democrat) appealed for a focus on the defence of people, country and the rule of law and criticized the political leaders who had led the world into unwinnable and unjustifiable wars. Lord Alderdice said: “My Lords, how to address in five minutes the range of foreign affairs and defence issues in a fast-changing world, and in the context of deepening global conflict? Since 1964—fully 60 years ago—we…
CRIC 2024, our annual conference, will be held from 23rd – 25th September 2024 in Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. This will be our 11th Annual Conference and it is taking place amid deepening concerns about the deteriorating geo-political climate. It is not just the worsening violence in the Russia/Ukraine war and between Israel and the Palestinians, but also the conflicts that are spreading more widely in the Middle East, in Sudan and other parts of Africa, Asia and indeed right across the world. There is a real danger not only that the current wars will spread and merge,…
I am delighted to have been elected an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Oxford, especially in this its 400th Anniversary year. I have very much enjoyed working at the College in recent years, especially with colleagues in the Changing Character of War Centre and the Quill Project and I look forward to a long association with this wonderful academic community.
Addressing the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine at a meeting last night at the Spring Conference of the Party in York, Lord Alderdice drew on his experience, not only of the Irish Peace Process but of work in many other areas of conflict including in the Middle East and called for a block on the supply of arms to both sides in the conflict and the release from prison of the leading Palestinian figure, Marwan Barghouthi, who has spent many years behind bars in Israel since the second Intifada including very extended periods in solitary confinement. Lord Alderdice said: “The…
When reading Exodus 20 v 1-17 (the Ten Commandments) and John 2 v 13-22 (Jesus clears the Temple Courts), which are the passages set down for our study in the lectionary this week, I found myself thinking about Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and political prisoner who met his death a couple of weeks ago in the freezing conditions of a Siberian jail. Later I will say why I thought about Navalny but first let us turn to today’s reading from the Gospel according to John. The Scottish theologian, William Barclay writes that it has been said that ‘John…
My Lords, how should one wind up a debate of such passion and complexity? Jesus summed up the whole of the law and the prophets by saying: “Love God with all your heart … Love your neighbour as yourself”. When you next look into the eyes of one of your own children or grandchildren, you will see the miracle of a wonderful human being. You do not want them to suffer, be beaten, shot or blown up, have their limbs amputated without anaesthetic, live in misery or die in agony. That is too awful to contemplate. When you next look…
For some years I have been warning publicly that we are heading into a third global conflict, and this, at times, led me to feel quite down about the prospects for humanity. This third global conflict is not simply a rerun of the disasters of the twentieth century, for before 1945, however terrible a war was and however many people died, the world would repair itself and in time the population of the world could be restored. With the threat of nuclear war and the reality of climate change, humankind has brought about the very real danger of our own demise.
Lord Alderdice spoke in the House of Lords debate on the Israel/Gaza Conflict on 24 October 2023. Here is the script of that speech –
My Lords, I start by declaring my interests in the register, particularly as Executive Chairman and Director of The Changing Character of War Centre at Pembroke College, Oxford.
At this Advent Season we focus a great deal on the story of the birth of Jesus, however, it does not seem that this was the main focus of the Gospel writers.