A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

The wrong letter at the wrong time

I'm disappointed that thoughtful, generally sensible MPs like Sadiq Khan and Shahid Malik have put their names to a letter telling the government to change its foreign policy in the face of the terrorist threat: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4786159.stm

If they want UK foreign policy changed they should argue that on the merits of the policy i.e. is it the right thing to do, not on the basis of whether the kind of crazies who want to blow up passenger jets might be more likely to do so because of it. Otherwise you are giving the terrorists a veto over the UK's role in the world.

The letter reinforces the terrorists' world view - i.e. that Muslims are victims of a great, organised global injustice, rather than combating that view.

The signatories of the letter should be reminding the Muslim community in the UK that British forces remain in Afghanistan and Iraq at the request of Muslim governments to save Muslim lives and enable Muslims who were enduring tyranny to elect their own governments (in the case of Iraq, for large periods of Saddam's rule it was a secular tyranny and the "occupation" has actually seen a great upsurge in religious freedom of expression).

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is this really what you believe? It is totally and utter bollocks.

5:03 pm, August 12, 2006

 
Blogger kris said...

I don't think it's bollocks. It's the most sensible thing I've heard in ages.

6:42 pm, August 12, 2006

 
Blogger kris said...

You do of course realise that you will upset the Stoke Newington prawn sandwich eaters with stuff like this!

7:01 pm, August 12, 2006

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To be fair, from the text of the letter I think it is fairly clear that the MPs are not saying that the foreign policy should change because of terrorism, they are saying that the policy is in some cases wrong in itself; and that it is also a contributory factor in increasing the risk of terrorism in the UK; and that to change it would be both right and also help to protect the UK from the risk of terrorism.

You will probably still disagree with them on that basis, because you agree with UK foreign policy in its totality (from what I can see) but you are misrepresenting their position by implying that they want to surrender to the terrorists.

7:29 pm, August 12, 2006

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not just the the wrong letter at the wrong time

I'm disappointed that thoughtful, generally sensible MPs like Sadiq Khan and Shahid Malik have put there names to a letter . . .
That should read "their names" surely?

The letter reinforces the terrorists' world view - i.e. that Muslims are victims of a great, organised global injustice, rather than combatting that view.
That should read "combating" surely?

So many entries lately! Maybe you are overworking Linda!

3:00 pm, August 14, 2006

 
Blogger Luke Akehurst said...

Thank you, spelling errors corrected. So many postings because weather too damp to spend weekends sat in Clissold Park.

4:12 pm, August 14, 2006

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

 
Free Hit Counters
OfficeDepot Discount