House of Lords Podcast: Lord Speaker's Corner

• Lord Robertson of Port Ellen and Lord West of Spithead: Lord Speaker’s Corner

  Defence, security, Russia and China are on the agenda in the latest Lord Speaker’s Corner. Former Nato Secretary General, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, and former First Sea Lord, Lord West of Spithead, speak to Lord McFall of Alcluith.In this episode, Lord Robertson, who was also Defence Secretary from 1997 to 1999, warns that the UK is “under-prepared and under attack”. He also discusses Russian-organised sabotage in Europe, explaining “They can’t do it themselves. So they are now contracting out, a good capitalist principle, to organised crime. Our undersea cables, which carry 99% of all the data we use, are vulnerable and they're watching them and, in some cases, attacking them.” Lord West, the UK’s first Security Minister from 2007 to 2010, reflects on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying “It’s quite difficult to see how one’s going to get out of this [conflict] because one doesn’t want a full war between Nato and Russia. They [Russia] would lose it. And the danger with them losing it is – would they then make that stupid mistake of going nuclear?” Both also share their thoughts and experience of dealing with China. Lord West discusses his experience commanding a battle group as he dealt with a challenging Chinese navy during the handover of Hong Kong: “out at sea it was very different from the pictures coming from Hong Kong. The Chinese Navy were trying to ram our ships. They were opening missile doors.”Lord Robertson suggests a careful approach, saying “We've got to engage with China, but recognise that it is going to be the future challenge - militarily, commercially and diplomatically - and therefore be very, very cautious about what we do... I think it's probably better to call the Chinese a problem rather than a threat at the present moment.” Lord West also discusses his experience in the nuclear chain of command on 9/11, sharing “I remember getting a phone call from our nuclear firing cell, the guys who finally - when all the codes go - press the buttons, and they said, unbelievably, on my red phone [linking to the UK deterrent]: ‘Sir... the Americans are starting to move to immediate readiness for nuclear weapon release in all three systems.’ That’s strategic air, intercontinental ballistic missiles and subsurface ...’What do you want me to do?’” See more from the series https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  48:48

  --------

  48:48
• Baroness Manningham-Buller: Lord Speaker’s Corner

  Former head of MI5 Baroness Manningham-Buller joins Lord Speaker’s Corner to discuss the relationship between MI5 and MI6, reading upside down, meeting Vladimir Putin and whether Russia is at war with the West.Eliza Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller, served in MI5 for 34 years, becoming Director General in 2002 before retiring in 2007. She spoke to Lord McFall of Alcluith on 22 July 2025 about her career, including how she joined MI5, her family connection with espionage and leading the Service in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings:“I had learnt something from the military called ‘battle rhythm’, and I expected us to be flat out for some time on this, our role being to help the police in understanding this crime, this atrocity, this horror, and therefore I wanted people to come into work fresh.” She also dispels a common misconception of the relationship between MI5 and MI6:“The ‘Le Carré' view that the two organisations are constantly at each other's throats is entirely fictional. We both help each other, as we do with GCHQ. It's a close-knit community. The other very important partner for MI5 is the police.”Baroness Manningham-Buller later explains she thinks it might be right to agree with foreign policy expert Dr Fiona Hill’s assertion that Russia is already at war with the UK and the West:“Since the invasion of Ukraine, and the various things I read that the Russians have been doing here, sabotage, intelligence collection, attacking people, and so on… Fiona Hill may be right in saying we're already at war with Russia. It's a different sort of war, but the hostility, the cyber-attacks, the physical attacks, intelligence work is extensive.” She also shares her experience of meeting the Russian President 20 years ago following the G8 meeting in Gleneagles:“We all hoped that the past history of Russia wouldn't prevail, and, at the end of the Soviet Union, we would have a potential partner, and that was one of the reasons why Putin was with us for the G8 in 2005… I met him when he came back to London. But actually we were wrong in that, because Russia is extremely hostile to the West and we've seen it in all sorts of ways… I didn't anticipate that within a year, he'd be ordering the murder on London streets of [Russian dissident Alexander] Litvinenko.”Listen to the full episode to find out more.See more from the series https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  47:15

  --------

  47:15
• Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho: Lord Speaker’s Corner

  Entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, is the latest guest on Lord Speaker’s Corner as she sounds the alarm over the deepening gender divide in tech.Martha Lane Fox is Chancellor of The Open University, and President of the British Chambers of Commerce. In 1998 she co-founded Europe’s largest travel and leisure website, lastminute.com. From 2009-2013, she helped create the Government Digital Service and, in 2013, she joined the House of Lords as a Crossbench member. Baroness Lane-Fox is a long-time advocate for women in technology, telling the Lord Speaker she had “seen no change in the relationship between the sector and women, or in numbers of women” in over 30 years. She also gives a stark warning about entrenched sexism in the global tech sector, recounting how a CEO of a large company told her directly “We’re done with women” at a prominent US business event earlier this year. Baroness Lane-Fox discusses the challenges of investment in the UK, explaining “we have a default in this country … (of) seeing the barriers to things as opposed to the opportunities.” She also shares her opinion that the UK has an issue with scaling businesses, stating “We have the top three universities out of the top 10 in the world. We have amazing scientists, we have incredible inventors. But what we have is a stunning scaling gap, and experience gap … Only 10% of UK businesses even trade internationally. We are not very good at becoming big global businesses. So we need to keep having a push at the risk culture.” Finally, Baroness Lane-Fox shares her take on regulating tech, smartphones for young people and even what her go-to karaoke song is. Find out more by watching or listening now.See more from the series https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  46:09

  --------

  46:09
• Baroness Helic: Lord Speaker’s Corner

  ‘War and conflict is not something that is not familiar to me. It is not an essay title, it is not a theoretical exercise. It's very real.’ Campaigner Baroness Helic is the latest guest on Lord Speaker’s Corner as she warns that society has become numb to sexual violence in war. Arminka Helic, Baroness Helic, campaigns to raise global awareness of rape as a war crime. Here she shares her extraordinary journey from fleeing the Bosnian war as a refugee to becoming special adviser to the then Foreign Secretary William Hague (now Lord Hague of Richmond) via a researcher job in the House of Commons library.  ‘It’s a weapon that is part of ethnic cleansing and genocide… Survivors are stigmatised. Perpetrators are not. That’s what we have to flip. Some of the victims are as young as two months old. And the world does nothing. We have become globally desensitised.’ While working for Lord Hague, she persuaded him to join forces with Angelina Jolie to highlight the proliferation of warzone sexual violence. The Hollywood actor and then UNHCR Special Envoy and actor had written, produced and directed a harrowing 2011 film ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’, which underscored the pervasive nature of sexual violence in war. Following this, the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) was created, which has continued across multiple governments and is now supported by Labour minister and special envoy Lord Collins of Highbury. ‘I heard reports of some of my friends from school being detained in what became known as rape camps. We need to understand that war is not just about armies - it’s about lives torn apart. Peace agreements don’t end trauma.’ In this episode, Baroness Helic warns that rising global conflict, weakened international institutions, and public desensitisation have dulled reactions to atrocities that once would have mobilised urgent action. She also discusses Israel/Gaza, and raises concerns about Russian influence in the Balkans, describing the region as a potential ‘second front’ of destabilisation through proxy actors.  See more from the series https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  1:04:37

  --------

  1:04:37
• Lord Moore of Etchingham: Lord Speaker’s Corner

  ‘The demand for journalism is unprecedented in the whole of human history. But what's got much harder is to work out what the best media for it is, and where the money lies and where the future lies.’Former editor of the Daily Telegraph, Lord Moore of Etchingham, is the latest guest on Lord Speaker’s Corner. Charles Moore, now Lord Moore of Etchingham, also previously edited the Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph and is the authorised biographer of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.‘For the Conservative Party, Thatcher is the ‘big one’, as Churchill was and still is. It’s been very difficult for women leaders - of whom there have now been three in the Conservative Party. Should you be like Mrs Thatcher or not like Mrs Thatcher, as a woman leader?’In this episode, Lord Moore talks to the Lord Speaker about Britain’s first female Prime Minister, his career and journalism today. He also reflects on changes in the style of government and former Prime Ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson.See more from the series https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  --------  

  1:02:21

  --------

  1:02:21

More Government podcasts

Trending Government podcasts

About House of Lords Podcast: Lord Speaker's Corner

House of Lords Podcast: Lord Speaker's Corner: Podcasts in Family