House of Lords Podcast: Lord Speaker's Corner12 Dec 2024

Lord Sedwill: Lord Speaker’s Corner

From the Foreign Office to National Security Adviser to Cabinet Secretary, Mark Sedwill – Lord Sedwill – is the latest guest on Lord Speaker’s Corner.

‘It comes down in the end to the quality of the individual and then they'll get the best out of the best civil servants.’

In this episode, Lord Sedwill shares his perspectives on the relationship between ministers and officials, reforming the Civil Service and what his advice would be for the new Cabinet Secretary.

‘There was a period which is now coming towards an end, a decade when the UK became quite introspective’

A former diplomat, including Nato representative and UK Ambassador to Afghanistan, Lord Sedwill also shares his perspectives on the UK’s changing role internationally, plus its need to actively engage the BRIC countries.

‘Diplomacy is not about talking to your friends. Diplomacy is about talking to your adversaries and seeing if you can find a way of dealing with the situation if possible without conflict.’

Lord Sedwill also speaks about working in some of most intense regions for the Foreign Office including Egypt and Iraq, where once he was held at gunpoint by a young man as he was trying to gain access to one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces as a UN Weapons Inspector.

‘This youngster, he was probably only 16 or 17. He wasn't scared of us, he was scared of getting it wrong and what would happen to him or his family. And I remember having to calm the situation down… I intervened and just used my Arabic and tried to calm the situation down. And that's probably the closest I ever came to being shot directly by someone where there was absolutely no protection.’

See more from the series at https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/

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