A surprising invitation has landed in the lap for Nick Fogg, who is seeking re-election next week as one of Marlborough’s two independent members of Wiltshire Council, on which he has served for the past four years.
Marlborough’s former mayor has been asked to deliver a paper on the risks of sectarianism at the meeting of the Inter-Action Council for ex-Heads of State and ex-Heads of Government, due to take place in Bahrain between May 8 and 11.
The Inter-Action Council was established in 1983 to deliberate on long-term, global issues facing humankind and to come up with feasible solutions.
These are then incorporated into the Final Communiqué issued after each annual meeting and sent, along with the keynote address, to decision-makers throughout the world.
“It’s a formidable challenge,” Nick told Marlborough News Online. “Among the council’s members are former American presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, former German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt and former Australian PM, Sir Malcolm Fraser.
“And the chairman is former Canadian PM, Jean Chretien.”
He added: “Of course Bahrain has troubles of its own, with internecine strife between Sunni and Shia Moslems. There were riots only days ago before the Bahreini Grand Prix.
“I suppose I can’t avoid addressing this issue in my paper. I did engage with them in my recent 70,000-word paper entitled ‘Optimism with Information’ on democracy in the Islamic World, which I wrote that for Queen’s University, in Ontario.”
Also taking part in the Bahrain event will be Michael Ancram, the former Conservative MP for Devizes, who will be revealing his experiences of the Northern Ireland peace processes.
“I was instrumental in securing him the invitation,” revealed Nick. “But never thought I’d receive one myself.”