Tucked away in the comments section of the Sunday Times is the above headline written by Martin Ivens, a serious tory I would think. Nevertheless his article does have a few points worth noting.
Apart from the Iranians, our other friends and enemies believe Britain is, at best, marking time while Gordon Brown concentrates all his resources on survival. At worst, they believe the country no longer counts. The problem is the prime minister can't articulate a vision of our place in the world. Perhaps he doesn't have one.
He continues by stating 'In America they fear we are coming "Europeanised": Britain shows less appetite for fighting wars than peacekeeping. The low point of our military reputation has unfortunately occurred on Brown's watch.'
Why unfortunately? It's Brown's competence that causes problems for military operations. He doesn't understand foreign policy and prefers the safety in numbers of the G20 summit where he can pose on the world stage.
Martin Ivens believes David Milliband is a competent minister. I disagree. He has no stature and seriously lacks conviction when expressing his 'sympathies'.
Mr Ivens also believes Mr Cameron will provide a trumpet blast as they are the traditional party of a forward foreign policy and robust defence spending.
I shall withhold judgement at present.
Posts
13 comments:
I shall withhold judgement at present.
Much more of Brown and Mandleson, we shall not be permitted the luxury of making judgements.
Image is number one, George Bush looked the fool but he was very funny, Brown is the fool and he is utterly revolting, so much so he will put a whole generation off politics forever.
She certainly does.
Sensible decision OR, overloaded with information at present.
It's not a sake of will Lorenzo, he is (present tense).
Apparently Tony Benn rates the Millipedes...
I think the foreign secretary one is a total pratt, and I've never really seen the other one do anything at all, so I have no opinion.
I think Brown is the worst prime minister ever, and we're all just watching him trying to survive, knowing that he's a goner next election.
The thing I hate about him most is that he wouldn't admit to being Scottish. You don't have to be a nationalist to have pride in Scotland. He was clearly ashamed of it... and I would imagine it will be ashamed of him.
Brown's only interested in power tris, and if he thought talking up Scotland would ensure he was more powerful he would.
As it is he tends to convey his Scottish roots in a negative fashion. Rather sad really isn't it.
"Britainnia Shrivels under Gordon Brown"
I'm certainly less tumescent than I was under Blair, Major or Thatcher.
My pocket is Monty.
Britain shows less appetite for fighting wars than peacekeeping.
Of course this isn't true, but if it were, what kind of dismal creature would think it a bad thing? In his opening paragraph he says: "Iran’s foreign minister, paid us the highest diplomatic compliment – that of believing in our malevolent powers". That's the highest compliment? Really shocking stuff - Mr Ivens is clearly a psychopathic fruitcake. I notice that the Guardian notice of his appointment described him as 'cultivated and thoughtful'. Tells you something about their standards. And the eedjits wonder why we want separation?
BTW, anybody see Roger on the telly last night, trying to make out that the argument for independence was just a bit of pschyobabble about national identity? It's about practical politics, you doofus - we don't want to be tied to these warmongering American stooges and their antedeluvian joke of a parliament.
"The prime minister vetoed the dispatch of an extra 2,000-3,000 troops to Afghanistan recently. Given the shortage of armoured vehicles and Chinook helicopters, perhaps it was a mercy. "
I reread the original article SubR and found the above, which was missing from your article.
Is it true that Brown stopped the deployment of these troops because ewe did not have the equipment for them?
FFSake!
Just leave the others who also have barely enough equipment to get on with the job and keep the body bag count off the front page?
The man is pond life, sub amoeba in evolution.
Vronsky, I took the comment about Iran as sarcasm but looking at it from your viewpoint of course it's nonsense.
Aye I saw Roger. I was also disappointed in Brian Taylor not coming clean with the reason for devolution. 'Was all Tony's idea' - as if.
I purposely missed that bit out FC because I do bang on about the military and lack of funding and equipment.
It's well recorded that Brown pulled out of putting more troops in because of lack of money.
You're right of course, they're needed, but what does Gordon care.
Post a Comment