Speeches by Whittingdale.

“Is the Minister aware of reports that Russia Today and Sputnik are increasing their dissemination of disinformation in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the same time as the widely respected Bosnian service of Voice of America faces closure? Will he see what more we can do to counter Russian disinformation in the region, perha…”

“I think we all have a rough idea of what the concept of soft power means, but the range of aspects is huge. Britain getting the Olympic games in 2012 was a massive boost to the reputation of the UK. How do you score that? You are producing indices of soft power. Did we suddenly acquire another 10 points because we had …”

“Every country is competing for Olympic medals. Winning the hosting is a much bigger thing.”

“We took evidence from the directors of the Foreign Office unit, alongside a director from DCMS, so I think there is cross-Whitehall co-ordination going on at official level.”

“Essentially, the reason why Russia was admired was that it was taking on the wicked capitalist west. That was the driving principle—they did not like us more than they did like the Russians, so that played out.”

“So a focus group, rather than an opinion poll?”

“No, it is good that you anticipated it. I was going to say, is this not just a glorified opinion poll? Clearly in your mind it is not. But if it is not just a glorified opinion poll, I am still completely unclear how you rank countries when there are so many different aspects, most of which are impossible to put a meas…”

“You have knocked down my next question.”

“It may be that this is designed for commentators, but it does get a lot of attention. When China overtakes the UK—as it is reported that apparently it has—that gets a lot of attention. China is now outperforming us on soft power. Why did China overtake us? What measure suddenly made China better than us?”

“I completely understand that. I think you are the person who essentially invented indices, or—”

“You said Burundi was also supplying troops in the eastern region of DRC in support of the DRC Government. Is this likely to become a Rwanda-Burundi conflict as well?”

“And the UAE?”

“You outlined earlier the reasons that have been given by Rwanda: concern about its own security and territorial integrity, and that the perpetrators of the genocide are over the border in the eastern part of DRC. Do either of you see any legitimacy in these arguments?”

“A lot of it has been covered, but I want to probe a little bit. You are very clear that the M23 are basically being controlled and in large part backed by Rwanda. How do the DRC Government view it? Do they consider themselves to be essentially in a state of war with Rwanda?”

“Will the Prime Minister look at the case of my constituents Mr and Mrs Adrian Fenton, who returned home from visiting France in their motorhome to discover an illegal immigrant concealed in the bike rack? They reported the matter immediately to the police, only to receive a fine of £1,500 from Border Force. Does he agr…”

“Are you confident that it can be achieved through pressure and diplomatic means without resorting to military action?”

“That is our intention. Are we intending to take, therefore, much stronger diplomatic and economic pressure, perhaps?”

“Finally, Minister, you referred earlier to Iran’s malign influence in the region and its involvement in the attacks on Israel, both directly and through proxies. On the one hand, we have been told that Iran has been severely weakened by the destruction in Gaza of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, but at the same time t…”

“And the support that we are giving will not be affected by the reduction in overseas aid?”

“We talked to them about the possibility of achieving a two-state solution one day. They spoke of it being generations away, and the recommendation that they made was education. The reason they said education was that they simply do not believe that the current generation of people running the Palestinian Authority, as …”