Starmer’s close friend Philippe Sands KC has acted as chief legal counsel to Mauritius on the Chagos deal for years – it is actually his shaky legal opinion on the “electromagnetic spectrum” at Diego Garcia that Downing Street is hiding behind in its insistence the surrender has to go ahead. Satirists are going out of work at an unprecedented rate…
Beijing Barry Gardiner has invited Sands to chat about the Chagos deal – on which the CCP is undoubtedly keen – on the 25th of this month at his APPG for Climate, Nature & Security in parliament’s Portcullis House. An invitation says the “Chagos negotiations are a complex combination of post-colonial justice, environmental policy, and global security interests, with a wide range of implications for marine conservation, climate resilience, and regional stability” and “world experts” including Sands will “frame the issue and support a deeper understanding of the integrated security concerns.” Mauritius for its part has dismissed existing environmental protections for the Chagos Islands as unnecessary…
Mauritius is an ally of China – its total cumulative investment is around $1 billion. No doubt Sands, who planted a Mauritian flag on Chagos without permission, will present a ‘balanced’ case for the country’s eco-credentials…
Read the full invitation below:
“I write on behalf of Barry Gardiner, our Chair, to invite you to a meeting of the APPG for Climate, Nature & Security on Tuesday 25th February at 5pm, in Room S, Portcullis House.
The meeting will focus on the ongoing Chagos negotiations. The Chagos negotiations are a complex combination of post-colonial justice, environmental policy, and global security interests, with a wide range of implications for marine conservation, climate resilience, and regional stability. Given the importance of the issue, the APPG will host world experts, Professor Philippe Sands KC (International Law expert practitioner and academic, 11KBW and University College London), (Dr David Blagden (Associate Professor of International Security and Strategy, University of Exeter) and Charles Clover (Executive Director of the Blue Marine Foundation and author of The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat) to frame the issue and support a deeper understanding of the integrated security concerns.”
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”