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.