GRAB A BARF BAG BEFORE YOU READ THIS! THIS MAN IS BRAINWASHED AS HE CANNOT DISTINGUISH THE EU FROM EUROPE -
PERHAPS THAT IS HIS END GAME.
Interview on Morning Ireland
Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke to Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 prior to his visit to Dublin, 1 July 2009.
Read the transcript
Hilary McGouran (HM): Now British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, good morning. Good morning Mr Miliband, can you hear us?
David Miliband (DM): Yes I can, good morning to you.
HM: Thank you very much indeed for joining us. You’re in Dublin today to meet your counterpart Micheál Martin.
DM: Yes, I’m coming over this afternoon, lunch time and this afternoon for the latest in a series of talks that with Micheál Martin and with a range of political parties and civic society groups.
HM: The Lisbon agenda, what’s, what’s your message to Micheál Martin when you meet today?
DM: Well obviously the message is really from the Irish people and the Irish Government to the rest of Europe because we know that a very intense period of negotiation was undertaken by your Government as a result of the referendum vote last year. I think I would describe it as a win, win negotiation. It was certainly a win for Ireland because it provided very clear legal guarantees on the key issues that I understand were raised by Irish voters at the time of the referendum relating to tax, to defence, to abortion. But I think it was also a win for Europe because it found a way of moving forward without requiring every other European country to re-ratify the Lisbon Treaty.
HM: Well I presume in Britain’s case you were pretty glad about that because while it got through Parliament it, it’s not something that would win the popular vote in Britain, Lisbon is it?
DM: Well we promised not, that we would not reopen the Lisbon Treaty because our Parliament had passed it. We consider the Lisbon Treaty to be what I would call a reforming treaty, it mends the institutions of the European Union, it doesn’t engender or engineer a fundamental shift in the balance of power. And under our constitutional settlement there would only be a referendum if there was a fundamental shift in the balance of power.
And I think the big issue for Europe is whether it can live up to the massive global challenges that face us whether they’re economic, environmental or in the foreign policy domain. My view is that the Lisbon Treaty does help us do that. It will make the European Union more efficient and more effective, but obviously it’s for Irish voters to decide that in the referendum.
I do think that the process of discussion has been a positive one. There’s been a huge amount of respect for the process that the Irish Government have undertaken and we look forward to the next stages.
HM: And, and, you know, that language that says, you know, Lisbon is not fundamentally reforming there, therefore you didn’t have to have a referendum, many of your critics saw that as a political cop out because you were afraid of Lisbon not getting popular support. And if you look I suppose at the recent European elections in Britain, the rise of the BNP and Euro scepticism in general, the Far Right, that feeling if anything is only stronger in Britain now than it was before.
DM: Well one’s got to be careful. The, the BNP vote didn’t actually rise in this European election compared to the previous one. What happened is that the turnout from other parties, especially my party, fell. So I think it’s important to, to be careful about distinguishing different factors.
I agree that the European Union is not wildly popular in the UK. That’s partly because a lot of what it does effectively is invisible. You’ve just had on your news a little item about mobile phone charges being reduced as a result of the European Union’s activities. But I think that we have to be clear that if we have a, a constitutional settlement that says there are referenda when there’s a fundamental (indistinct) shift in the balance of power then we should stick to that. And no one can seriously argue that the changes in the Lisbon Treaty, which are useful in making the European Union more effective and more efficient, do amount to a fundamental shift in the balance of power between nation states and the European Union.
I think that that means it was right to go through a parliamentary process, but I also think that those of use who are pro European, and I certainly put myself in that category, we also have to be the reformers of the European Union, not just institutional reform, but policy reform too. So that in those key areas of economics, of energy and climate change, of foreign policy, the European Union is upping its game. And I’ll be talking with Micheál Martin and others not just about the Lisbon Treaty, but also about how Europe moves forward because we’ve got a new Commission coming in, a new European Parliament. I think that the world, the world’s problems need a stronger and more effective European Union and we’ve both, Britain and Ireland, got to contribute to that.
HM: And for instance, Britain I mean it, it was interesting that defence report the other day, that recommended that Britain strengthen its defence co-operation with Europe, if you like put less emphasis on the Transatlantic alliance, the relationship with America because you’re not going to be able to afford the defence capacity you want in future without more European co-operation.
How easy is that going to be, to get out of the British political Establishment? I know you’re pro Europe and this is your job as Foreign Secretary, but many people in Britain reluctant to, if you like, join the European herd. They like don’t they to stand a little apart?
DM: It’s interesting you put it like that, because successive American administrations have said that they want a more united and effective Europe and so I think in the area of defence and foreign policy co-operation it’s not a matter of saying that by building a stronger Europe we’re somehow neglecting our Transatlantic alliance. I mean I talk to Hillary Clinton, my opposite number in the United States. She wants a more effective European Union.
And certainly if you look at what the European Union is doing on an issue like piracy in the Gulf of Aden which has been a big thing that’s affected international shipping, it’s not a British operation there, it’s a European operation. It happens to be under British command. If you look at what the European Union is doing with its civilian monitors and Police Forces in Kosovo in the Western Balkans, you’ll remember that the collapse of Yugoslavia precipitated a massive slaughter on Europe’s borders in the 1990s. That’s not happening today in significant part because of a, an effective European foreign policy.
In both those cases the European Union is working with NATO, not as an alternative to NATO. I know NATO is a different issue, Ireland’s in a different position from Britain in respect of NATO, but I, what I think that that shows is that the European Union’s adding to the stabilising force around the world. It’s, it’s also the second largest development donor so it’s contributing to social justice as well and I think that that means that the old debate which said either you were pro American or you were pro European is actually out of date.
And in the modern world you’ve got an American administration that wants us to be more effective as Europeans, would actually be better partners for the Americans and I think that you’re right that we’ve got to take on that argument in Britain, but we shouldn’t be afraid of it.
HM: And one place that Britain has been singled out in recent weeks very much is in Iran recently where the authorities there have been very quick to point the fingers at yourselves in particular as well as the United States over what they say is the role in fomenting and being involved in the unrest after the disputed presidential election. What’s your view of the situation there now? Is this particular crisis over until the next time?
DM: Well thank you for raising that. You’re right that there’s been a high level of rhetoric directed against Britain and, and some other European countries by the Iranian authorities. My, my view is very, very simple, that it’s for the Iranian people to decide who should be their Government. It’s for their Government to protect their people, not to perpetrate violence against them and the level of violence that we’ve seen in the three weeks since the Iranian election campaign I think has been shocking to many people.
It’s provided a stark contrast with the passionate political debate that happened in the run up to the election. And the fact that now British diplomats have been expelled and locally engaged British staff, that means Iranians who work for the British Embassy in Tehran, should have been arrested, we think that two of them are still under arrest, is I think completely contrary to the sort of good political engagement that Iran says it wants. And I’m very pleased that Ireland was a strong part of the European consensus on Sunday in denouncing those arrests and calling for the immediate release of those British diplomats.
HM: What about the role of the BBC? Their Persian service, their television service, that’s been available in Iran and really seems to have wound up the authorities there, the ayatollahs there no end?
DM: Well that’s a good point. We’ve funded a BBC Farsi service, a Persian service as you say, over the last year or so. It’s not run by the British Government, although it’s funded by us. It’s an independent production by the BBC and I think it’s provided outstanding reporting. What …
HM: Is it going to stay?
DM: … what more, yes it will and more to the point millions of Iranians want to watch it. And I think that that is the best tribute there could be to the objective sort of reporting. Because remember Iran is an educated, cultured, civilised society with sixty per cent of its population under the age of thirty five, hungry for the sort of objective reporting and news that the BBC provides.
And I think that we should therefore encourage that sort of soft diplomacy if you like. People often say that diplomacy too often gets to be fiery rhetoric. This is about independent reporting. And in the modern world the truth will out and I hope that it comes out before too many more bones are broken and lives are lost in Iran.
HM: [Political Question]
DM: [Political Question]
HM: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband thank you for talking to us this morning and good luck with your trip to Dublin this afternoon.
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WELL THERE YOU HAVE THE LYING LITTLE WORM ALL REVEALED - THIS MAN IS NOT FIT TO HOLD A POLITICAL POSITION IN THE UK
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