Thursday 29 September 2011

Surface and Substance - Ed Milliband

Here is a link to a letter I had published in The Guardian today on Ed Milliband.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/28/surface-and-substance-ed-miliband

Sunday 11 September 2011

Democracy and the Invasion of Iraq

On the anniversary of the atrocities of 9/11, it is extraordinary that some members of the Bush Administration see fit to argue that the current wave of democracy spreading throughout the Middle East is as a direct result of their misguided invasion of Iraq. This morning on the Andrew Marr show on the BBC one former member of the government claimed that the removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq showed the rest of the Arab world that dictators could be brought down. Was that the same Administration that supported Gaddafi once he had abandoned his nuclear programme? Or the one that supported Mubarak? I am a great supporter of Barack Obama, but even he delayed offering American support for the democratic movements in Libya and Egypt, has only recently condemned the actions of Assad in Syria, and failed to condemn adequately the suppression of protests in Bahrain (and the use of Saudi troops to support the Bahrain government).

So please, do not use the memory of those dreadful events ten years ago to be a tool to repaint history.