European Realism Or Simply A Flash In The Pan?

At last we have a senior Government Minister spelling out in very clear terms why the European Union is of crucial importance to Britain’s place in the world and why, post-Lisbon, the member states of the EU need to work a damn sight harder to unite and get on with the job of promoting European interests. According to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband: "The trouble is that at the moment the European whole is less than the sum of its parts. Outside Europe people are confused about what we care about and what we are willing to do. Inside Europe it is not much better; different countries have pet projects but there is not sufficient common purpose."

Forget the so-called special relationship with the United States, if it ever existed, it was over in the 1960s. The US’s new special relationship is with China and at last the British government is beginning to understand this. David Miliband has put down a marker for a new attitude towards the European Union and appears to signal that, after years of procrastination from Labour under Tony Blair, the government are ready to take a more grown-up stance on Europe. Miliband now recognises the obvious weaknesses in European foreign policy: "Arrangements are ad hoc, co-ordination patchy, messages confused and relationships with the great global powers lacking clarity, strategy or purpose... So the choice for Europe is simple. Get our act together and make the EU a leader on the world stage, or become spectators in a G2 world shaped by the US and China."

What is even more encouraging is that he seems also to recognise that the UK’s ambivalent or even downright hostile attitude to the European Union of the Thatcher, Major and Blair administrations is no longer tenable: "I think the choice for the UK is also simply stated: we can lead a strong European foreign policy or – lost in hubris, nostalgia or xenophobia – watch our influence in the world wane."

Clearly, Miliband is leading the UK government's campaign to get Tony Blair elected as President of the European Council, although I have yet to be convinced that Blair is sufficiently interested in Europe to do this job effectively, but I am beginning to hope that there is more to it than that. Are we seeing signs that Labour are now willing to face down the eurosceptics in all parties and make Europe a key issue in the forthcoming general election campaign? To do so would put enormous pressure on the Conservatives who are even more deeply divided on the issue of membership of the European Union than they were ten or twenty years ago, but it would also cause problems for the other mainstream parties, including the Liberal Democrats, traditionally thought of as pro Europe but who of late have been increasingly unwilling to put Europe high on their political agenda.

I only hope that Labour have the courage to see this through against the inevitable baying of a profoundly eurosceptic press led by the News International owned papers together with their fellow travellers such as the Telegraph, the Mail and the Express.

So, How Was It For You?

Last Thursday’s edition of Question Time, of course. Did anything else of note happen last week?

After much righteous indignation on all sides and many column inches across the print media, what is your verdict on poor Nick Griffin? For me there was a certain inevitability that the programme would indulge in bear-baiting, and it did come across as extremely unbalanced, but ultimately Griffin was exposed as the nasty, dim ultra-nationalist that he undoubtedly is, although the manner of this exposure was less than edifying. I thought that only Bonnie Greer and to a lesser extent, Sayeeda Warsi came through the experience with any credit. Chris Huhne was way below par and Jack Straw came over as bumbling and out of touch. The studio audience were the real stars.

Kathryn Flett in yesterday’s Observer had this telling comment:"Personally, I am delighted that, via the BBC, Griffin finally had the chance to demonstrate to a larger and wider audience than he has ever previously managed to reach not only what an odious slippery little slug of a man he is, but that all his attempts to polish his despicable opinions into something approaching acceptable Middle Englandese were received with the dismissive derision they deserved. Ultimately, and most potently, his big TV talent contest moment in the spotlight has exposed him not merely as the bigoted racist we knew him to be but, arguably more importantly in the long-term, as a political and intellectual lightweight."

I am left pondering two points. What exactly does the term "indigenous English people" actually mean? Presumably it refers to those people found inhabiting Britain before the Romans, the Vikings, the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, or even the Normans invaded. Do the members of the Royal Houses of Windsor, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Hanover or Orange count as indigenous English people?

Secondly, something good might yet come out of last Thursday's debate, the main political parties may be forced to hammer out sensible immigration policies which can be put to the electorate, rather than simply pretending that immigration is not issue and therefore does not need to debated. Or perhaps the current atmosphere of hate created by the BNP is simply too highly charged for a rational debate on this issue to take place?

The forthcoming General Election Campaign could be a lot more interesting than I, and others, had anticipated.

Question Time Tonight - A Big Risk?

Apparently Kelvin Mackenzie, one-time editor of that bastion of free speech, The Sun, has suggested that tonight’s Question Time is an absolutely ‘must watch’ event. This is probably the only time I will ever agree with anything that Kelvin Mackenzie has ever said, written or intimated.

Is the BBC right to invite Nick Griffin to appear on the programme? On balance, yes. There are undoubtedly risks for the mainstream parties to appear alongside Griffin on such a flagship current affairs programme, but as Chris Huhne wrote in yesterday’s Guardian:

“… once the BBC had extended the invitation, we [he and Nick Clegg] concluded that it would be perverse to exclude the liberal political tradition that is most diametrically opposed to the authoritarian and nationalist views of the BNP. We had to take Griffin on.”

Given Griffin’s increasingly nasty attacks on his fellow panellists on the BNP website and his attempts to enlist the support of the ghost of Winston Churchill to the BNP cause, the reasonable front that the BNP presented during the recent European Parliamentary Election campaign is being blown apart by Griffin’s own Goebbels-like ranting.

What I hope will come out of tonight’s programme is that Griffin and the BNP are exposed for what they really are, a bunch of nasty, racist, extremists intent on destroying those virtues of Britishness that most of us hold dear: freedom, tolerance, and social justice.

Well Done The Generals!

I was both surprised and delighted to learn this morning that four very senior generals had written to The Times calling for the extreme right to cease using the military to promote their stilted and sometimes, racist agenda. Here is part of the letter:

"We call on all those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain's military for their own advantage to cease and desist…

The values of these extremists - many of whom are essentially racist - are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness."

It strikes me that it would be a very good thing if the Royal British Legion followed the example set by the generals and made a point of disassociating themselves from the activities and views of right wing extremists up and down the land who may seek to exploit Remembrance Sunday to promote their fascist opinions.

Problems In Paradise

A month ago, an organisation in Llandrindod to which I belong received the following rather alarming letter, I publish it here in full ( including the exclamation marks) in order to stimulate a debate on what is, to some Llandrindod residents, a very sore point :

“DRUNKS and BOY RACERS

I am withholding names for fear of reprisals, but I would nevertheless like you to take this letter into consideration at your forthcoming meeting.

We are disgusted with the amount of drunken people that hang around this town. They congregate in Somerfield’s alley, on the green by the station and on the park benches on Temple gardens. They openly drink from beer cans and bottles and are now decanting their drink into plastic “pop” bottles trying to disguise the fact that they are drinking alcohol.

During the summer we have visited Newtown, Welshpool, Kington, Brecon, Abergavenny, Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Hereford, Leominster and Builth, and not ONCE did we see anybody drinking on the streets or behaving like the drunks in this town.

We have just had a 9 day Victorian Festival and many comments were made about the drunks. We are a TOURIST town and if the tourists stay away, the hotels will be sold and turned into more bedsits and flats for these type of people to inhabit. These people do nothing for the town, only TAKE from the town and are stopping tourists visiting. We have noticed it more this year, than ever. What an example for the young – why got to school/college, take exams, look for a job – when you can collect benefits and drink them away. What a waste!!! We are rate and tax payers and our money is being used to finance their disgusting habit.

We had visitors staying with us this summer and they didn’t want to walk to the shops because they had to pass these people. They felt intimidated and could not believe that it was allowed here and commented that they had never seen anything like it before. We are not against drinking, but drink in proper places, eg. pubs, clubs and your own home.

The second part of this letter concerns the “boy racers”.

We went for a walk around the lake with our grandchildren. We thought we were at Brands Hatch!!!!!!!

Boys were racing, and I do mean racing, around the road. They were overtaking each other on the other side of the road, making a terrific noise with their “souped” up engines. We were terrified, even though we were on the pavement. If one of these cars had lost control, they and possibly us, would be dead. We left the lake and as we were walking back, it looked like they were racing between the lake and Somerfield’s delivery entrance, because as we went to go over the station bridge, they were turning round to go back!!!

Surely you can think of a way to slow these drivers down. Speed cameras, speed humps, Police, Police, Police and more Police!!!!!

We have heard comments from people staying in hotels saying they could not sleep for the noise of these cars and would DEFINITELY not be coming back!!

We love this town and we work hard for the tourists that come into it. Please consider the law abiding residents and stop pandering to the drunks and boy racers.

Yours faithfully,


Mr & Mrs VERY, VERY, unhappy residents of Llandrindod Wells

PS We will also be writing to the County Council, the Town Council and the Police about these problems and we are considering writing to the local papers to see if they could help us.”

I have no idea whether or not these additional letters were sent. However, such is the tone and content of this letter that I feel it deserves wider publication.

Where Next, Gary?

Rumour has it that the Llandrindod’s maverick town and county councillor Gary Price has joined the ultra-right Montgomeryshire Independent Group on Powys County Council. He, who used to trumpet loudly and often that he was the only “truly independent county councillor in Powys”, seems to have decided to join a group whose main, and possibly only, aim was to recreate an independent Montgomeryshire and oppose any potential development in Powys outside of Montgomeryshire.

Now this move by Gary Price is credible, but what is less credible is the associated rumour that the Montgomeryshire Independent Group has dropped the word ‘Montgomery’ from their title and are now calling themselves the Shire Independent Group. Presumably they have done this to accommodate Gary Price? But what is their agenda? Does anyone know?

If these rumours turn out to be true it begs the question “why?” Why would Gary Price want to throw in his lot with a dubious bunch of reactionary councillors who appear to be very much influenced by Glyn Davies, the Conservative PPC for Montgomeryshire? And did Gary consult his electors on this move? Or perhaps he isn’t going to tell them?

Come on Gary, tell us what you’re up to.