Middle East

Andrea Leadsom Excerpts

Monday 14th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Of course I agree with that; we put out a statement welcoming those measures. The Quartet’s envoy, Tony Blair, played an important part in bringing about those confidence-building measures and I pay tribute to him for that. We certainly welcome those measures, but, nevertheless, the overall assessment of the situation in Gaza is as I described in answer to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden). It is important to make more significant compromises than have been offered by the Israelis or Palestinians in recent months in order to have real hope that direct talks can take place and succeed.

[Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend have a view on the way that social networking sites have affected the direct action in Egypt and Tunisia? Does he think that that is an unmitigated good or is there a risk that rumours and false information could be spread in that way and worsen the problems in the middle east?

[Mr Speaker]

The Foreign Secretary’s views on philosophy are interesting, but we are also concerned about policy.