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HOWARD'S WAY.... a weekly column from Michael Howard MP

8 June 2006<IMG height=195 hspace=10 src="images/michaelhoward3.jpg" width=130 align=right vspace=10 border=0>

I have been away during the Parliamentary recess lecturing to a seminar organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. The theme was “Strengthening Parliaments� and the delegates came from every continent – South Africa and Zambia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Australia and the Cook Islands, Canada and Bermuda, among many others.

It reinforced my view that the Commonwealth is one of the great underused resources in the world. It includes more than 50 countries from all conceivable categories and backgrounds. It is, in a real sense, a microcosm of our planet.

So if it were possible to reach agreement on some of the challenges facing the planet within the Commonwealth, that agreement would have a powerful impact on the rest of the international community.

Take global warming. We are all aware of the controversy surrounding the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Change Convention – the Convention which I helped negotiate when I was Environment Secretary in 1992. This controversy is certainly not easy to resolve. But the common bonds and history of the Commonwealth might make the discussions a little more fruitful than those which take place in other environments.

If the Commonwealth was to reach agreement on this vital issue and take that issue, as a block, to the United Nations the effect would be undeniable.

Can this be done? The impetus must, of course, come from the governments of the Commonwealth. That is why, in 1992, the Indian Environment Secretary and I established regular meetings of Commonwealth Environment Ministers.

But Parliament can give their governments a nudge. And when we are so heavily and directly influenced by events that take place far away, we should redouble our efforts to use every resource available to promote the general good.

That is why I continue to take the Commonwealth seriously and I hope my efforts last week were not in vain.