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As I wrote here a couple of weeks ago, foreign policy is not something that tends decide one’s electoral success as a British politician. But it is surely a test of one’s statesmanship.And if that is true, it pains me to say it but the only British political leader so far with a remotely statesmanlike… Continue reading Jihadism – four wrong responses

As Russia’s tanks approach the Ukrainian border – and a different group of tanks have apparently already crossed it – in a supposed “aid convoy”, I was struck yesterday by this fine piece by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, dissecting Obama’s foreign policy failures (well, I suppose it’s easier than trying to count his… Continue reading How much Obama really cares about Ukraine

No-one could exactly accuse President Obama of rushing into military action to deal with the resurgent Islamists of ISIS in Iraq, currently massacring local Christians and Yazidis. No, if there were a perfect illustration for the phrase “dragged kicking and screaming”, this would surely be it. But Iraq’s apparent political and military meltdown is, ironically,… Continue reading Labour risks being on the wrong side of history over Islamism

Britain, it is regularly noted, is an island nation and often behaves accordingly. It is a feature of modern British politics that, unlike some other countries whose very existence depends on their relations with larger, closer neighbours with whom they share a land border, foreign policy counts for little in the calculations of Westminster life. Elections… Continue reading Labour is tying itself in knots over Gaza

Regular readers will know that I appear to be slightly obsessed with this small corner of English local government. Partly, I freely admit, is purely personal: last year its mayor, Lutfur Rahman, ably demonstrated his unfitness to hold public office by wasting the time of his local police in pursuing someone who disagreed with him (i.e.… Continue reading Tower Hamlets: the net tightens

“We touched nothing” – Donetsk press conference. Photo: RT How long did we in the West really think it would be before the Ukraine crisis actually affected our own countries and we had to take our heads out of the sand?  That moment definitively came last Thursday, with the crash of Malaysian Airlines’ flight MH17,… Continue reading Oh, Russia.

If you needed any justification for the argument that Alex Salmond is merely a clever populist, who is probably a couple of months away from seriously overreaching himself, you have only to look at his position on the Gaza, where the Israeli and Gazan forces are currently racking up casualties at an alarming rate.The abduction… Continue reading SNP and Gaza: why Salmond is not a statesman

After this morning, I think I can retire from Twitter. Oh yes. I now know what it is like to be a minor celebrity. Yes, after my most successful-ever tweet (below), I felt indecently pleased and smug, in the way that professional writers who have just coined a phrase or politicians who have minted a… Continue reading My Twitter zenith, or A Plague On Both Your Houses

It’s a rollercoaster ride, this one. On the one hand, we continue to have a recovering economy, a relentlessly-downward-trending poll lead and pretty horrific personal polling for the Labour leader. The head of the policy review says “interesting ideas and remedies are not going to emerge through Labour’s policy review”. A well-meant piece on LabourList… Continue reading 8 May, 2015: the day-after scenarios

As if neatly to point up the serial failures of Obama’s foreign policy, yesterday the UN announced the highest-ever refugee count of the postwar period.I know. I am just a lowly blogger and not even one of Obama’s electors. But these things matter to all of us. The reality is, we all still depend on the… Continue reading Obama, chickens, roost