Beyond These Shores

Nick Clegg made a key speech today about foreign policy and Britain's relations with the rest of the world. He was keen to emphasise that whilst our friendship with the US is important, we need to take back decisions on foreign policy rather than blindly following the White House as we have for the last 50 years. He is right to point out that we need to cultivate good relationships across the globe independent of the US.
"Gordon Brown does not want to remind voters of the disastrous decision to go to war in Iraq." Nick told the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
"David Cameron does not want to remind voters that he is friendless in Europe. The real truth is the future of British foreign policy is as much in the balance as the future of our economy or our political system."
History is littered with our foreign policy mistakes. Many of them we seem hell bent on repeating. We created Iraq after the first world war, and went back with troops twice more recently. Afganistan has been a 200 year obsession. It is time we started making pragmatic foreign policy decisions that will bring us a better standing in the world for the future.

Dubious MI5

Lord Neuberger, the judge looking at the case of Quantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, said today that MI5 has a dubious record over his treatment whilst in US custody. Claims about his treatment include being deprived of sleep, threatened, shackled and having his genitals cut. The judge ruled that MI5 knew about at least some of this whilst he was held, and did nothing. Gordon Brown has given his full support to MI5 tonight. Yet despite the protestations of ministers and the MI5 chief, they appear to be complicit in the torture of a suspect. The treatment this man recieved was dreadful. There is simply no way to justify it. He was not starring in an episode of '24'. This is his life, and he was held without trial for nearly seven years, shipped from Pakistan to Morocco then to Afganistan. Finally he made it to Guantanamo Bay. This sorry episode simply drags us down to the level of our foes. Defending freedom 'by any means necessary' denies that very freedom. Labour have been stealing our freedom a piece at a time for years. Add this to the list. We need to be alert to the threats to our country, and we need to give the security services the tools to keep us safe. Condoning torture is not part of the deal.

Generals

I was really pleased to see the various Generals come out against the BNP's exploitation of our armed forces and military symbolism yesterday, along with former servicemen like Andy McNab and Simon Weston. The BNP have previously rejected calls by Vera Lynn to stop selling a CD with 'We'll meet again' on it to bolster their party funds. This time, leader Nick Griffin drew parallels between the Generals sending troops to Afganistan and the Nuremburg trials in 1946. What is most striking about Griffin is that each time he opens his mouth, something even more absurd than his last utterance comes out. Despite his best, feeble, attempts, his party are still the poisonous, despicable gaggle of racists they have always been. I will be amazed if his appearance tomorrow night on Question Time will do anything other than show him up for the hateful bigot he really is.