Category Archives: Britain

Britain, Government, Politics, Russia, Syria, United Nations, United States

Among the rubble seize the chance of peace in Aleppo

SYRIA

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Rubble from destroyed buildings blocks a street in Aleppo. The scene is all too common across the country.

Intro: As Aleppo has been subjected to Russian bombardment over the past two weeks, the city has been left in a condition that can only be described as inhumane and beyond belief

RUSSIA has said that forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad are in possession and are controlling a third of the city of Aleppo.

What in fact they are in possession of is a lot of rubble from the devastation that the fighting has caused. The city is almost destroyed and is horrendous for the inhabitants that remain in this besieged city. In Aleppo, very little is left.

The situation has undoubtedly been made far worse since Putin’s forces have stepped in, with their military fighter jets and bombers and their boots on the ground. Russian intervention in Syria has been decisive, hard though it may be for the West to accept. The near annihilation and stomach wrenching images being beamed back from Aleppo is a very clear signal that we have been backing the losing side. That backing was only ever partial and delicately targeted to specific anti-Assad militant groups. There is no political appetite in the West – or in the UK – to increase our military resources that would inevitably lead to a face-off with Russia and Assad’s well equipped forces. We must now accept that the Syrian tyrant has won.

The best we can now do is to persuade the groups who we do back to call a ceasefire and try to end this brutal and destructive war. It has been raging now for more than five years.

As Aleppo has been subjected to Russian bombardment over the past two weeks, the city has been left in a condition that can only be described as inhumane and beyond belief. Hospitals have been flattened, babies have been taken out of their incubators as doctors desperately try to protect them, and aid agencies have been blocked in their task of reaching those most in need with medical and food stocks. About 250,000 people have been left without vital supplies; more than 450,000 people are believed to have died in the conflict to date.

As much as the West may detest the idea of Assad still being in power, we need to convince people to negotiate so that Syria can be rebuilt. This is essential not only for the besieged people of the country, who have had their lives disrupted for so long, but for the whole of Europe and other countries in the Middle East, many of which are struggling to cope with a huge influx of refugees.

This is all we can now hope for.

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Arts, Books, Britain, History

Book Review: ‘The History Thieves’…

BOOK REVIEW

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In this important new book, Ian Cobain offers a fresh appraisal of some of the key moments in British history since the end of WWII.

THIS carefully written and well-researched book takes deadly aim at the official version of modern British history. During our school years, we are taught that we are a decent and tolerant nation, and that the state does not assassinate its opponents, use torture or commit atrocities. Ian Cobain argues that this picture is both complacent and untrue, and he provides chilling evidence and testimony that the British state has routinely committed appalling crimes. Many of them, he argues, have been fought in wars well away from the public eye.

How many people know, for instance, that it was Britain – not the French or Americans – who launched the Vietnam conflict, airlifting the entire 20th Infantry Division of the British Indian Army to Indo-China in 1945 with orders to suppress a Vietnamese attempt to form their own government?

Who knows, too, about the four-year-long war fought by the British in Indonesia in the Sixties, or the decade-long counter-insurgency campaign in Oman on the Arabian Peninsula?

Cobain methodically calculates that British forces have been engaged somewhere in the world every year since at least 1914. Between 1949 and 1970, Britain initiated 34 foreign interventions. No other country, not even Russia or the United States, has such a record.

Yet, for the most part, British people are blithely unaware of any of this. Cobain argues that the reason for their ignorance is a culture of national secrecy more thoroughgoing than that of France or the U.S. He shows that the brutal Oman war went unreported for many years. And when wars did get reported, it was by tame journalists passing on doctored version of events.

Many of these events and wars also remain a mystery to historians. Cobain proves the British authorities have arranged the suppression – or destruction – of documents that portray Britain in a bad light. Thousands of incriminating files have been incinerated or dumped at sea, while others remain hidden in secret archives.

Cobain calls this “an extraordinary ambitious act of history theft”. He maintains “the British state of the late 20th and early 21st century was attempting to protect the reputation of the British state of generations earlier, concealing and manipulating history – sculpting an official narrative – in a manner more associated with a dictatorship than a mature and confident democracy”.

The author explains that the problem is getting worse because of recent legislation pushed through by the Coalition enabling suspects to be tried in secret courts, meaning that defendants do not even know the charges being made against them. The real reason for much of this secrecy, suggests Cobain, is not to ensure justice, but rather to protect the reputation of intelligence officers complicit in crimes such as torture and rendition.

Cobain is an honest and accurate reporter, but there is one serious criticism of the book. It does not give enough voice to the Whitehall figures whose job it is to fight terrorism and make sensitive decisions about British foreign policy.

They have the grave and very difficult task of ensuring atrocities are not carried out on the streets of Britain – and, in recent years, they have been successful in this vital and largely thankless task. Their need to work in secret is all too understandable.

Whilst we have nothing in our recent history comparable to the appalling atrocities committed by the French in Algeria, or the Belgians in the Congo – let alone the mass murders of Stalin, Mao or Hitler – most Britons should continue to believe that we live in a fair and honest country.

Nevertheless, Ian Cobain has written an important book which deserves to change the way we see our recent past. It warns us against complacency, and exposes why we should challenge what we have been taught from a young age.

–     The History Thieves by Ian Cobain is published by Portobello for £20.

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Britain, European Union, Government, Politics, Society

Brexit and immigration…

BRITAIN

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Immigration was a central argument during the Brexit vote. But now the Government in Britain must make clear to EU nationals resident in the UK what the position will be before Britain departs the European Union.

Intro: The status of around three million EU citizens in the UK when we leave is still uncertain

Since June 23, the day 17.4 million voters in Britain decided that the UK would leave the European Union, the persistent refusal of the UK economy to collapse in ruins following the vote must be rather frustrating to diehard Remainers. For those who advocated Brexit, statistics showing unemployment at an 11-year low must be quite cheering. That more people in Britain have jobs than ever before – almost 32 million – is another indicator of just how successful open markets and labour laws can be when overbearing bureaucracy such as the power of the trade unions are curbed.

No-doubt, some of the rise in employment will be accounted for by people from outside the UK. The number of Eastern European migrants employed in Britain rose by almost 50,000 between July and September. That can only be attributed to the strength of the UK economy, but must raise the question as to whether EU citizens are coming to the UK to qualify for residency before Brexit.

The status of around three million EU citizens in the UK when we leave is still uncertain. Some suggest that any EU national resident in the UK on the day we leave should be entitled to stay; others argue that right should only be conferred on those individuals’ resident in the UK prior to June’s referendum.

The prime minister still holds the line that we must first have assurances about the future status of Britons living elsewhere in the EU before the UK can commit on how Europeans here will be dealt with.

While the British Government is protective of its negotiating hand before Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is enacted, there is a clear risk of unintended consequences: not just by encouraging migrants to enter the UK before the legal position is decided, but also in causing angst and uncertainty for those people who live and work here legally. Many have families with children at school and are holding down full-time jobs with securities such as mortgages tied to their homes. The distress for such people has become palpable.

Theresa May faces allegations from EU leaders that her Brexit policy lacks clarity, hypocritical insinuations when we consider the political crisis gripping the continent. A recent remark, too, by German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was also telling. Even as Mrs Merkel hinted at changing EU welfare rules to deny benefits to migrants, she insists that the basic right of free movement cannot be compromised to suit Britain, “because everyone else will then want these exceptions”. But that is an admission that voters across Europe want to end the free movement laws their leaders insist on upholding.

Westminster has held firm to the view that “Brexit means Brexit”, and, despite legal anomalies to still be worked through, such as when and how Article 50 can be triggered, Britain alone has the chance to create an immigration system that allows it to admit and retain the best talent while meeting the public’s demand for better control. Mrs May should prevaricate no longer and should set out the principles that will underpin that system. This should include a clear and unambiguous statement about the status of EU nationals currently resident in the UK.

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