Quotes from Crispin Blunt

Saudi Arabia has been commended for allowing women the right to drive; the opening of cinemas and other entertainment establishments; ending the power of arrest of the religious police. In parallel however, there have been arrests of the activists who for years had advocated for these changes.

Eighty per cent of the membership of the Conservative Party are very keen to make sure that Brexit happens, we'll be in a position to enthusiastically support leaving the E.U. with no deal and if we are then able to agree a position to put to the country, I think we would hit the ball out of the park.

For the government, there is the frustration of not being a full part of the anti-Isis coalition. For ministers to have their position restrained by our parliament is an embarrassment with their international colleagues.

Theresa May's triumph at being the first foreign leader to visit Donald Trump, when she addressed the Republican caucus and advised that it is sensible to engage with Russia but to beware, appears to have come a bit late for Jeff Sessions.

Turkey is an important strategic partner facing a volatile period. It needs and deserves our support, but that support needs to include our critique where Turkish policy is not in its own, or our, joint long-term interests: these are regional security and stability as well as strong and accountable institutions in Turkey.

In 2013 I voted against military intervention in Syria.

Trump has shown that there are limits to how brutal the maximalists can afford to be.

In 2008, Damian Green, then shadow immigration minister, had his parliamentary office raided without a warrant, by the Metropolitan police, after he was implicated in leaking Home Office documents that were politically embarrassing to the then Labour government.

London Pride is a big event in the global celebration of freedom.

In view of the mess left behind by the French and ourselves, we cannot simply leave Libya alone.

Order has been sustained in Egypt over at least the last three decades by police conduct which bears more hallmarks of Egypt's Ottoman heritage than an accountable criminal justice system.

The creeping optimism that there might be a route to peace in Syria remains constrained by the elephant in the room - Bashar al-Assad.

Disentangling this mess of foreign national interests is a necessary precondition to ensuring that there will be a future for Syria that is Syrian-led and Syrian-owned.

Doing something to make ourselves feel better is beside the real point of defeating Isis and ending the Syrian civil war.

Britain's independent possession of nuclear weapons has turned into a political touchstone for commitment to national defense, but this is an illusion.

The 2013 deal, whereby the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons verified the destruction of 95% of Syria's declared chemical weapons, was negotiated between Russia and the U.S. and either the Russians haven't honored their side of the deal or they have been betrayed by the Syrians.

We simply do not have time as we move from one meeting to the next to have hours to peruse leisure websites of whatever type. There are days when I do not have time to switch my desktop computer on, and computer access is by mobile devices on the run between competing engagements.

I think our leadership is now seized of the fact that we have a problem with the youth vote and it might be an idea to get into an intelligent place, both in policy making and in terms of the presentation of our values around freedom and responsibility.

For all those who seek to maintain the rules-based international order, Russia presents a challenge.

It's not going to be my political raison d'etre, I think it would be presumptuous to take a leadership role. But I would want to make sure that we support equality.

Nigel Farage said he would do a deal with the devil to get Brexit over the line; the Conservative party is very far from being the devil in this.

There is not a shortage of assets in northern Syria but a shortage of targets.

Any initiative involving the green beret - as opposed to special forces - to expand and train a national Libyan military capacity has value, but not in Tripoli, where U.K. forces will be targets and look like an invading force.

What we have to do is make sure there are prison places for those sent to prison by the courts and we will continue to do that regardless of how many people are sent to prison.