Lord Bilimoria praised the recent unveiling of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Parliament Square. As a member of the Mahatma Gandhi Statue Special Advisory Panel, and the Founding Chairman of the UK-India Business Council, Lord Bilimoria explains the importance of recognising the man who rose above his diminutive stature to become one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century in an article for Total Politics.
This Tuesday, Lord Bilimoria responded to the Select Committee on Soft Power and the UK’s Influence report Persuasion and Power in the Modern World. Speaking in the House of Lords, he praised the report and discussed the significant soft power that India, his country of birth, and the UK, his adoptive country, wield on the world stage.
Lord Bilimoria went on to detail the threats to the UK’s soft and hard power, which include the repeated budget cuts inflicted on Britain’s cultural and defence institutions, and noted the areas in which the UK continues to excel.
Lord Bilimoria today wrote the following letter to the leading financial newspaper, City AM, critiquing the Home Secretary’s proposals to expel foreign students from the United Kingdom upon the immediate conclusion of their studies.
As former international student himself, Lord Bilimoria remains a vocal support of the rights of people to study in at British universities, as well as being allowed to remain and work in the country after graduation.
Speaking in the House of Lords on Thursday, Lord Bilimoria addressed a number of issues raised by the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement – the penultimate finance statement ahead of next May’s General Election. Lord Bilimoria criticised the slow pace of deficit reduction and missed economic targets by the coalition – whilst also speaking in favour of tax reform, increased government support for research and development and expressing concern at funding levels for the British Armed Forces.
Speaking in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Bilimoria’s addressed a number of issues emerging from the Second Reading of the SME. Touching on matters ranging from the pub tie, to entrepreneurship, to tax relief – his speech was well received and gained positive comments from the Business Minister, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, and from other members of the House including the former Energy Secretary, Lord Wakeham.
Lord Bilimoria was a guest on Sky News’ flagship ‘Murnaghan’ programme on Sunday 2nd November, where he was interviewed about the positive aspects of immigration following a recent study by UCL about British attitudes towards migrants from various EU and non-EU nations.
He was joined by the Bulgarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Konstantin Dimitrov, and Labour MP Barbara Roche, the former Immigration Minister.
The following transcript was kindly provided by Sky News.
On Monday 27th October, 2014 – Lord Bilimoria appeared on Chris Evans’ Breakfast Show, talking about Zoroastrianism as part of Faith in The World Week.
Pause For Thought is BBC Radio 2’s flagship slot readling with religion and spirituality and includes contributors from a wide variety of faiths, religions and backgrounds.
Lord Bilimoria was the first Zoroastrian Parsi to enter the House of Lords in 2006 – however, the first three ethnic minority members of the House of Commons, Dadabhai Naoroji, Mancherjee Bhownagree and Shapurji Saklatvala.
Fittingly, Lord Bilimoria is a Crossbencher, whilst Naoroji was a Liberal, Bhownagree a Conservative and Saklatvala a Communist with Labour support. The four largest political groupings in Parliament have therefore all been represented by members of the small British Parsi community.
Speaking in the House of Lords on Friday, Lord Bilimoria spoke cautiously in favour of the proposed use of military force against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known various as ‘ISIS’, ‘ISIL’ and ‘IS’) upon the recent request of the Iraqi government and President Obama’s so-called ‘Coalition of the Willing.’
In his speech, Lord Bilimoria noted the slow pace at which the government proposed the military intervention, as well as critiquing the present state of the UK Armed Forces.
The debate ran co-currently with a debate in the House of Commons, which endorsed the principle of military intervention via airstrikes by 524 votes to 43.
Lord Bilimoria has spoken out against the government’s higher education policy, specifically with regards to restrictions placed upon international students in the United Kingdom.
The following article was published on the New Statesman’s “The Staggers’ blog on Monday 1st September.
Founded in 1913, the New Statesman is one of the most well-respected current affairs magazines in the United Kingdom.