House of Commons
Parliament

And that's your lot for the House of Commons for today.

MPs have a sitting Friday tomorrow. They will debate private members' bills, beginning with Tory MP John Glen's bill to repeal legislation making homosexual acts grounds for dismissal from the crew of merchant ships.

Join us then - good night.

House of Commons
Parliament

Patricia Gibson asks Michael Ellis whether "he thinks it's fair that communities that are not part of a big city" should miss out on UK government funding for growth deals.

Mr Ellis says the UK government has provided "very significant support" for urban areas in city deals and the Scottish government has powers to back the Ayrshire Growth Deal.

Another Ayshire MP, the SNP's Philippa Whitford, says she hoped the UK government would back the deal. The area has "three large towns but no city", she says.

House of Commons
Parliament

Michael Ellis, deputy leader of the House of Commons and a government whip, responds to the debate on behalf of the secretary of state for Scotland.

He says that the speech he has just heard made him think he was hearing from the tourist board for "the picturesque and beautiful area" that Patricia Gibson represents.

He notes that the SNP MP also raised the Ayrshire Growth Deal during Treasury questions earlier this week and says she is obviously working hard for her constituents.

Mr Ellis says new "city deals will unlock significant new investment in Scotland" and the UK government has contributed to those deals.

However, the Scottish government "has devolved responsibility" for economic development, he adds.

The prime minister says mainstream politicians must tackle a backlash against globalisation.

House of Lords
Parliament

That wraps up the week in the House of Lords.

Peers will be back on Monday at 2:30pm for oral questions followed by day five of the Higher Education and Research Bill at committee stage.

House of Commons
Parliament

The final item of business in the Commons is the adjournment debate, led by the SNP MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, Patricia Gibson.

It concerns the Ayrshire Growth Deal, external, proposals aiming to secure over £350m in Scottish government and UK government funding to create jobs and grow the local economy.

Ms Gibson says the Scottish government is enthusiastic about the project and she hopes the UK government is "receptive as well".

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Lord Kennedy of Southwark says Labour supports the regulations but asks what representations solicitors can make on the use of remote interpreters.

Baroness Williams replies that solicitors will be asked about their views on live link prior to any interview.

She adds that if there is "any doubt" about the ability of the suspect to cope with live link the physical presence of an interpreter will be required.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Peter Kyle says this is "the first time" in the Commons when he "agreed with every single word" spoken.

MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats put their names to today's motion: "That this House has considered Holocaust Memorial Day 2017."

House of Commons
Parliament

Communities Minister Andrew Percy, a former history teacher, says he used to deliver lessons on the Holocaust.

He says the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day 2017 - "How can life go on?" - is "a powerful and though-provoking question".

However, he says MPs today have spoken about many survivors who "came to this country after the Holocaust and their lives did go on".

He says the success of these people shows that "this is a story of survival".

The minister also tells the House it is necessary to "speak out" and "not to trivialise" the "unique evil" of the Holocaust.

Turning to modern anti-Semitism, Mr Percy tells the House he was shocked to visit a Jewish school in Brussels which was guarded by the armed forces and whose pupils laughed at the suggestion they wear their kippahs on the streets of the city.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers have reached the final item of business for the day - debate of revised regulations concerning police investigations and criminal evidence.

Home Office Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford tells peers that one regulation is being updated to allow the use of livelink for interpreters reducing the time interpreters have to spend travelling to individual police stations. 

Many MPs have been signing the Holocaust Memorial Day Book of Commitment in Parliament this week. 

More information on the Holocuast Educational Trust can be found here, external. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Foreign Office Minister Baroness Anelay defines the liberal international order as "a system defined by economic openness, rule of law and a respect of human rights".

She argues that these values have produced "exceptional" economic growth and "spread political freedoms across the world".

In conclusion she says that the "rules-based" world order remains robust but faces many threats and "we all have a duty to defend it".

Wrapping up the debate, Lord Bruce tells peers that "we must acknowledge our failings, our complicity" and come up with measures to show how liberal values can address public concerns. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow communities and local government minister Kate Hollern says the "moving speeches" made by MPs today show "why these lessons must never be forgotten".

The Holocaust did not begin with camps but with "the view that someone's racial background marked them out as inferior", she argues.

And she adds that the perpetrators "were not unique - they were ordinary men and women carrying out acts of extraordinary evil while others stood by".

Ms Hollern argues that "the role of the next generation is even more crucial" and the Holocaust and other "difficult subjects" need to be taught in schools.

And a "concerning rise" in anti-Semitic incidents means "we must fight attitudes that cast any group as somehow less than any other", she adds.

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

The man who was prime minister last Christmas and isn't this Christmas thinks he knows why.

"I stand here as a great optimist about how we can combat populism. It may seem odd that I am so optimistic, because after all the rise of populism cost me my job."

So said David Cameron recently, on the lecture circuit for the defeated, at DePauw University in Indiana in the United States.

The man who is president of the United States this Christmas and won't be for much longer has opined on the subject too.

Read more here.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem Baroness Northover fears that nationalism and populism will "take us into very dangerous and dark territory" and says "we need to fight for a world where fairness, openness and tolerance dominates." 

Labour's Lord Collins of Highbury warn peers that "if we don't deliver credible alternatives to economic challenges, voters across Europe will abandon mainstream politics altogether for the ugly populism of the ultra right."

House of Commons
Parliament

"The Holocaust did not begin with the murder of millions," says SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.

"It began with what we now know as hate speech."

She adds: "We must not make the same mistake again."

Image source, Reuters

The theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day is "How can life go on?"

The Holocaust Memorial Day website, external says: "The aftermath of the Holocaust and of subsequent genocides continues to raise challenging questions for individuals, communities and nations. HMD 2017 asks audiences to think about what happens after genocide and of our own responsibilities in the wake of such a crime. This year’s theme is broad and open ended, there are few known answers."

The theme encompasses topics including trauma and coming to terms with the past; displacement and refugees; reconciliation and forgiveness; and remembrance.

The website quotes Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who died last year at the age of 87:

House of Commons
Parliament

"Anti-Semitism is not something restricted to the 20th Century - and certainly not restricted to Islam  - but something that was the norm in medieval and early modern Europe," says the SNP's Alex Salmond, a member of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation., external

Also a member is Tory MP Eric Pickles and Mr Salmond notes it may be the only area in which the two agree with each other.

He quotes poet Robert Burns: "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn."

The former first minister of Scotland tells the Commons: "I claim no special virtue for the Scottish nation in this sense but Scotland is one of only two nations in the whole of this continent who have never had anti-Semitic legislation on our statute book."

He adds that there will always be those who "seek to deny" the Holocaust but anyone who does not deny it "should be embraced by us as human beings".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Lord Blencathra pulls no punches during his speech in which he attacks the 'liberal international order' mentioned in the motion.

He says that whilst he "entirely supports" a rules-based international order, he does not support international liberalism and speaks with relish of his enjoyment at reading "agonising articles" in the left-wing press complaining about the rise of populism.

The peer says that populist leaders were to be applauded so long as they were all extreme left, such as Chavez and Castro.

"Nobody can do hypocrisy better than the left liberal elites," he says.

Lord Blencathra also welcomes the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump tomorrow, saying that the end of President Obama's term in office will mean "we will be rid of the most useless American President I have ever seen in my entire lifetime".

"His only legacy is rhetoric," he says, and accuses him of leaving a "disastrous vacuum" that has been filled by Putin and China. 

President Obama is the "perfect example" of the liberal international order that has been "routed around the world", he says.

The Andrew Marr Show

Denial is a film about the renegade British historian David Irving, accused of denying the Holocaust.

Timothy Spall spoke to Andrew Marr about the challenges of playing the role: "He is isolated in his views so that does have its effect on you."