Category Archives: Society

Britain, Government, Politics, Society

Theresa May has now been PM for six months

UNITED KINGDOM

theresa-may

Theresa May has now held Office of Prime Minister for six months. On a recent visit to the United States Mrs May said that British Conservatives shared the principles of US Republicans.

Intro: Britain has a prime minister with convictions and a true sense of purpose. After just six months, she is growing fast into the job

AS a generally broad rule, Theresa May doesn’t give much away about her thoughts. But when the British Prime Minister does have something to say, it makes compelling listening.

The last fortnight has been an impressive period for Mrs May, with two speeches of historic importance, both full of substance and good sense.

And to crown it all came last week’s encouraging talks with Donald Trump, who hailed a “fantastic relationship”.

In the first of her momentous speeches, the prime minister outlined her vision for Brexit, with a straightforwardness and clarity that left her critics floundering.

Last week, addressing Republicans in Philadelphia, she set out her political philosophy and ideas about Britain’s relationship with the US and wider world.

In doing so, it is no exaggeration to say she signalled the end of a grim era for the West. For she brought down the curtain on two disastrous decades of Anglo-American intervention in foreign wars, whose legacy has been the rise of Islamist terrorism and the biggest migrations in peacetime history.

Whilst in America, Mrs May said that British Conservatives shared the principles of US Republicans: ‘The value of liberty, the dignity of work, the principles of nationhood, family, economic prudence, patriotism – and putting power in the hands of the people.’

But in a hugely significant passage, she added: ‘The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over.’

Yes, we should intervene when the threat to our interests is real, and we should stand by our friends and allies. But wherever possible, Western values should triumph by example, not by force of arms.

As for those who have accused Mrs May of crawling to Mr Trump, they are a long way wide of the mark.

True, the prime minister did show politeness fitting for a guest – and the friendship due to our most powerful ally and biggest trading partner among individual nations.

Yet she has not shrunk from telling President Trump some home truths, warning him to be wary of Vladimir Putin, speaking up for NATO, free trade, and emphatically rejecting bigotry and torture.

Of course, there was always going to be a limit to how much could be achieved in such a short visit. But on the evidence of what she has said, Mrs May’s message on both torture and NATO appears to have got through. The prospects for a trade deal with the US seem set to be very promising.

There is good reason for quiet optimism that the UK’s partnership with the US will be highly successful – particularly for trade – to the great benefit of both countries.

Britain has a prime minister with convictions and a true sense of purpose. After just six months, she is growing fast into the job.

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Britain, European Union, Government, Politics, Society

UK Government announces plans for Brexit negotiations

UNITED KINGDOM

David Davis MP, the Brexit Secretary, has set out the UK Government’s negotiating strategy in a Government White Paper.

David Davis MP, the Brexit Secretary, has set out the UK Government’s negotiating strategy in a Government White Paper.

BREXIT SECRETARY David Davis has set out the Government’s negotiating strategy for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in a keenly-awaited white paper.

Launching the 77-page document in a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Davis said the paper confirmed Prime Minister Theresa May’s vision of ‘an independent and truly global United Kingdom’.

Confirming the UK’s strategy would be guided by the 12 principles set out by Mrs May in her Lancaster House speech last month (see article), Mr Davis said the Government was aiming for ‘a new, positive and constructive partnership between Britain and the European Union that works in our mutual interest’.

The white paper, entitled The United Kingdom’s Exit From And New Partnership With The European Union, was published a day after MPs voted overwhelmingly to permit Mrs May to press ahead with starting withdrawal negotiations under Article 50 of the EU treaties.

Mrs May’s foreword to the white paper was made up of extracts from her Lancaster House speech, in which she said that forging a new partnership with Europe and a ‘stronger, fairer, more global’ Britain would be ‘the legacy of our time, the prize towards which we work, the destination at which we arrive once the negotiation is done’.

In a preface to the document, Mr Davis said that Britain entered the negotiations which the Government intends to trigger by the end of March in ‘a position of strength’.

Stressing that the UK ‘wants the EU to succeed’, he urged the remaining 27 member states and European institutions to be guided in the upcoming negotiations by ‘the principles set out in the EU Treaties concerning a high degree of international co-operation and good neighbourliness’.

Mr Davis said the Government would not publish details of its plans that would undermine Britain’s negotiating position, but promised ‘extensive engagement with Parliament’ and a ‘high degree of public engagement’ as the process went forward.

‘This document sets out our plan for the strong new partnership we want to build with the EU,’ he said.

‘Whatever the outcome of our negotiations, we will seek a more open, outward-looking, confident and fairer UK, which works for all.’

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Britain, Donald Trump, European Union, Society, Terrorism, United States

America’s travel ban

UNITED STATES

donald-trump-executive-order

President Donald Trump’s executive order brought a 120-day suspension to America’s refugee program, and an indefinite end to its intake of Syrian refugees.

President Donald Trump has insisted that the U.S. would have been inundated by “bad dudes” if he had given any warning of his clampdown on visitors from terror-hit Muslim countries.

Mr Trump’s administration faces growing protests at home and abroad for closing the country to people from seven largely Muslim countries.

The abruptness of the executive order, which even the US Department of Homeland Security wasn’t warned about, has caused widespread chaos and confusion, with travellers left stranded at airports across the globe.

Mr Trump has, however, defended his decision and the way it was implemented. ‘If the ban were announced with a one-week notice, the “bad” would rush into our country during that week,’ he said on social media site Twitter.

The order, banning refugees from Syria and imposing a 90-day stop on most people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen from entering the US, has prompted protests across America and provoked strong condemnation from many world leaders.

Even Barack Obama broke with the tradition that former presidents do not criticise their successor to say he ‘fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.’

Mr Obama said he was ‘heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country’, saying it was ‘what we expect to see when American values are at stake’.

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The US President justifies his travel ban and uses social media site Twitter to disseminate his message.

Amid reports that customs and immigration officials struggled to interpret the new rules, Mr Trump instead blamed the chaos at US airports on a Delta Airlines computer outage and the presence of protesters.

He added: ‘Only 109 people out of 325,000 people were detained and instead held for questioning.’

Mr Trump, who has also signed a new executive order to cut back on business red tape, insists that the travel ban and new vetting procedures will be very good for national security. He said: ‘We had to make the move some day, and we decided to make the move.’

Mr Trump was unrepentant as he said there was ‘nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country’, telling sceptics to ‘study the world’.

Despite the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson insisting that British passport holders will escape the ban, the exemption doesn’t appear to have protected all UK citizens.

Lukman Faily, for instance, a former Iraqi ambassador to the US and a British passport holder after spending 20 years in the UK, planned to travel to Washington for a conference on fighting Islamic State.

Trump supporters claim he was badly served by inexperienced advisers who pushed the order through without consulting government departments on how to enforce it.

Blame has chiefly fallen on Stephen Miller, his 31-year-old former speech writer and now Mr Trump’s White House policy adviser.

Mr Miller has argued that the imposition of the ban has been an ‘efficient, orderly, enormously successful challenge’ to a ‘failed orthodoxy’ and was bound to attract protests. He has refused to say whether the US was soon planning to add other countries, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, to the list.

Amid claims his order may breach the US constitution by targeting people on the basis of their religion, Mr Trump has insisted his travel ban is not anti-Muslim.

But German chancellor Angela Merkel said the fight against terrorism ‘does not in any way justify putting groups of certain people under general suspicion’.

And Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator, accused Mr Trump of working with far-Right groups on the continent to engineer the EU’s disintegration. He identified President Trump as one of three threats to the EU, along with radicalised political Islam and Vladimir Putin.

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