Category Archives: Finance
Military intervention in Syria following the Douma attack was proportionate
SYRIA
IT has now been fifteen years since the Iraq War. That conflict has cast a long shadow over British foreign policy. The blowback against former prime minister Tony Blair and those who supported his decision to commit British forces to that conflict was unprecedented. It has created in the current generation of political leaders an extreme caution when it comes to matters of military intervention.
No one doubts that the deployment of an armed response must always be the last resort. But when the caution of politicians means a rejection to step in when it is both appropriate and necessary, we are on very shaky moral ground.
The decision by the British Government along with our international allies France and the United States of direct strikes against Syrian chemical production sites is a clear point in case. The use by the Syrian government of chemical weapons in an attack that killed more than 40 people in the town of Douma could not go unchallenged. The West has responded with proportionate force that leaves both Syria and its proxy Russia in no doubt as to what will happen if the ‘red lines’ of chemical weapons are breached or proliferated.
Unfortunately, though, a difficult tone was set by President Trump as he took to Twitter in a typically hot-headed intervention last Wednesday when he promised deployment of ‘smart bombs’ prior to the strikes on Syrian targets. War should not be trivialised using social media, more so even by the president of the United States.
French president Emmanuel Macron, who has previously said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would also represent a “red line”, declared that he had proof the regime of Bashar al-Assad was behind the attack on Douma. Mr Macron remained cautious in the run up to the attacks but should be applauded for the courage he took in committing French warplanes to the cause.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has persistently asked for a full intelligence briefing on the situation in Syria. He also wanted any decision on military intervention to be put to a parliamentary vote.
Naturally, many who favour Britain’s involvement in strikes against the Assad regime will be deeply sceptical about Mr Corbyn’s intentions. He was, after all, once chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, which condemns military action by western governments.
This lack of trust is at the heart of politicians’ inability to move on from the Iraq War when discussing possible deployment of British troops. A common characteristic of those who felt strongly either way about the 2003 intervention is the belief that those with whom they disagree are acting in bad faith.
It is clearly time for our national debate to get past Iraq and for politicians to honestly assess the merits of action based on humanitarian need rather than political risk.
. See also Britain must now act against Syria’s regime
Macron tells British PM that UK can ‘always’ change its mind on Brexit
FRENCH-BRITISH RELATIONS
The summit in Paris was intended to set out a joint approach to tackling terrorism and online radicalisation.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, has told Theresa May that the door is “always open” for the UK to change its mind about Brexit.
Emmanuel Macron appeared to hold out the prospect of allowing Britain to re-enter the EU as the pair held a joint news conference in the garden of the Elysee Palace in Paris.
Mr Macron said: “Of course the door remains open, always open, until the negotiations come to an end.”
But he stressed that “once the negotiations have started, we should be well aware that it will be more difficult to move backwards”.
Their first bilateral meeting had the uncomfortable backdrop of Mrs May – abroad for the first time since losing her majority – meeting the President following his recent comfortable election victory and on the brink of big gains for his party in parliament.
It comes as the UK’s Brexit strategy has been thrown into doubt by the shock election result, with pressure on Mrs May from factions within and outside her party to water down her threat to withdraw Britain from the EU with “no deal”.
The Prime Minister insisted that the Brexit negotiations – due to start next week – would start on time and that there would be no requests for a delay from the British side.
But she dodged a question on whether she now intended to pursue a “soft Brexit”, saying: “We want to maintain a close relationship and close partnership with the EU and individual member states.”
She added that after the election there was a “unity of purpose that having voted to leave the EU, that the Government gets on and makes a success of it”.
The President – asked if he believed that is what Mrs May intended as the leader of a minority Government – said it was for her to comment on the UK’s intentions.
Mrs May is said to be close to formalising a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party, which has reservations about leaving the EU Customs Union and would refuse a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.
The summit in Paris was intended to set out a joint approach to tackling terrorism and online radicalisation, including levying hefty fines on the tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for failing to remove extremist content.
Echoing some of the rhetoric from British ministers about the need to allow the security services to access encrypted messages, Mr Macron said the intelligence agencies must be able to access digital content “no matter where it is located”.
Both leaders have stressed their “solidarity” in the face of terrorism. Mrs May said that “nowhere is our co-operation closer than in the area of defence and security”, with both countries leading international efforts to attack Islamic State with airstrikes.
Earlier, the German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said in an interview with Bloomberg that if the UK changed its mind on leaving the EU, “of course they would find open doors” in Europe.
Arts, reviews & current affairs 