Syria: A few points
Tuesday 30 July 2013
Guest post
 Just recently the Telegraph reported the death-toll has now exceeded 100k and is fast approaching the civilian body count for the whole of the Iraq war - with no end in sight. By contrast I think history will be kinder to the Iraq invasion than the present generation. While there are still daily car bombs killing scores of people, Iraq, by contrast with Libya, Egypt and Syria is stable (after a fashion) and at least has a constitutional construct should things stall. I argued in favour of the Iraq invasion at the time however, my reservations about intervention now are born of cost and military competency concerns having being mugged by reality. But relatively speaking, the outcome could be far favourable than whatever will happen here, especially if the conflict engulfs Lebanon for whatever reason. No situation of this nature can ever truly be resolved without a true and decisive victory. The lack of any such settlement in Iraq is why there are still daily bombings. But it should be noted, without the presence of US forces, most Iraqi cities would look like this (see link). While Iraq is an example of what happens when we do something, Syria is an example of what happens when we do nothing. I have persistently argued against intervention in Syria, not least because we cannot afford it, but also because their is no longer a public appetite for intervention, assuming there ever was - and we simply do not know if supporting the rebels would result in something better. The lesson for me is that for a resolution you should either occupy fully as the Americans did in Iraq or do nothing at all - and the same should apply to the Israel-Gaza situation. Either occupy and win, or leave it alone and focus on defence against conflict overspill. (and wherever possible, leave the British out of it.) That said, I don't think any invading force in Syria or Gaza could expect to fight without being up to its neck in blood. So all things considered, the best I can muster, horrific though it is, is a resigned "oh dear". The West has done what it can in the region - and taken much of the blame and absorbed much resentment. Perhaps it's time the liberal left and the Arab states learn what happens when we do sit back and watch - and let history be the judge. COMMENT THREAD Peter North 30/07/2013 |
Norway: arrived safely
Tuesday 30 July 2013
I spoke to the bar staff in the hotel ... male and female, asking about the general election, which is later this year. The europhile Conservatives are expected to get in, so I asked if that would mean that Norway joined the EU. The young lady almost squawked in indignation ... "No!" she exclaimed, "we're not having any of that!".
I said our prime minister had told us that we must stay in the EU. If we left, he had told us that we could end up a disaster like Norway, I said. "Yes!" the both said. "You can see what a disaster is is here", they said. "You'll have to go back home and tell that that Norway is such a disaster ...". Between giggling, they agreed to be filmed later, so they could tell us just how bad things had got.
Anyhow, first thing, we're off to the outskirts to interview a farmer - runs beef and dairy, and is the local chairman of the equivalent of the NFU. Should be interesting to hear what he has to say. Nearly midnight here and still not quite dark ... warm and calm. Ye gods! It's hard here!
Richard North 30/07/2013 |
Local government: the enemy within
Monday 29 July 2013
Local authorities in the UK have "firmly backed EU leadership and direction of the country’s waste and environmental policies". So says the Local Government Chronicle as overpaid chief executives look to Brussels rather than Westminster for their laws.
LARAC - the local authority recycling advisory committee - said the influence of Europe had "mitigated" the UK government's focus on the market economy at the expense of environmental concern. "We consider that UK environmental legislation has benefited from EU directives and that this situation should continue", LARAC says. "Without EU legislation in environmental issues, the UK would have had a greater reliance on landfill and contributed more to global warming than it currently has, and had a recycling infrastructure still geared to only paper, metal and glass". Thus, we know exactly where the loyalties of the town hall looting classes lie. So-called "local" government is happy to by-pass national government if it thinks it can get a better deal from the "colleagues". Someone needs to find out exactly how much local government spends on kow-towing to Brussels and, one would like to think, deducting that money form their budgets, except of course that it would be local taxpayers who would lose out. One thing for sure though – as do they owe no loyalty to their own taxpayers, so we see this new class of technocrats owing no loyalty even to the national legislature. They may be local government officials, but largely they do not even have British interests in mind. In every sense, these people are the enemy. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 29/07/2013 |
The Harrogate Agenda: and so to Oslo
Monday 29 July 2013
 Before we go any further, let me give you a date for your diary – Saturday 19 October. This will be our very first workshop – an intensive one-day course on The Harrogate Agenda at the Cairns Hotel in Harrogate, which is now in the advanced stage of planning. At this workshop, we will be launching our 30-page pamphlet on the Movement, which has been re-written on is in its final draft. The proceedings will then be opened with a background to the Chartist Movement from a senior academic, followed by the update position on The Harrogate Agenda, and the first full showing of our two films – one the "foundation" video and the other the "Norway option". Places are limited to no more than 35. To book your place, e-mail Niall Warry via this link and he'll process your application. Meanwhile, we are flying to Oslo today for an intensive week of filming. We intend to interview farmers' representatives, local politicians, an academic, secretary of the "no" campaign, fisheries experts and others. This will be the final phase of filming in a prolonged exercise which also had us in Bristol, interviewing the Norwegian head of a Codex committee. I have no doubt that this will be a powerful weapon in what we believe will be one of the main battlefields of the coming referendum campaign. Alongside that, we will be producing a detailed pamphlet on the "Norway Option" which we hope will be a Bruges Group production, published later in the year, to coincide with the annual conference at which I, Booker and Mary Ellen Synon expect to be speaking. Neither of the films would be possible without the generous sponsorship of Peter Troy, who has donated £30,000 towards production costs for what will be two half-hour, professionally-made documentaries, and a film specially forYouTube. This week is, for obvious reasons, going to be hectic, and blogging is going to be uncertain. I will have full internet access and will aim to give a resumé of our interviews on each day, along the lines that we did for Mr Knudtsen. Nor then will there be any peace for the wicked. The following week we plan to be in Portugal, filming the location of the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, plus much else, completing our filming schedule. The end of the filming will represent another landmark in a year of real progress. Deliberately, there has been little to show up-front, despite some concerns about our strategy. However, some of you may remember an initiative in September last year by Andreas Whittam Smith founding editor of The Independent, who launched a campaign to save our democracy. For all the hype, where is that now? The reality with political movements is that they take time, and require sound, detailed planning before they can be expanded and take on a life of their own. I am very pleased with our progress and we are well on track for our first annual conference, which will be in Harrogate in the Spring. More of that later... COMMENT THREAD Richard North 29/07/2013 |
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
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