General Sir Richard Dannatt’s interview with the Daily Mail’s Sarah Sands has been greeted with excitement by the anti-war press and it certainly offers ammunition to the critics of the Iraq operation. Sir Richard worries that British troops might be exacerbating the security situation (but only in certain parts of Iraq), he complains about the […]
The Pope has now issued an apology to Muslims after indirect suggestions that Islam was a violent religion were greeted with violent demonstrations across the Islamic world (eg here). We are in danger of entering a climate of fear where legitimate debate about Islam is suffocated. The still-unresolved Inigo Wilson/ Orange affair – instigated by […]
Douglas Murray, author of Neoconservatism – why we need it (book review), writing on the Social Affairs Unit blog, is unimpressed with the Tory leader’s 9/11 speech – particularly David Cameron’s request for more patience in security policy: "What we need to demonstrate least of all with Iran at the moment is "patience". Patience on […]
Matthew Parris wants to hear the "sound of silence" from the Tories on Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Mr Parris thinks that the Tories should "say nothing" on the global issues that have caused such harm to Tony Blair’s standing. An opponent of the Iraq war from the very beginning, his column for last week’s Times […]
Michael Ancram, Iain Duncan Smith’s Shadow Foreign Secretary at the time the Tories supported the Iraq war, has called for British troops to leave the troubled nation. The nation has descended into civil war, he writes in the vociferously and consistently anti-war Daily Mail, and British forces should get out of the firing line. Mr […]
On today’s YourPlatform Peter Hitchens has catalogued the way successive British and other governments have appeased terrorists:` "The best defence against terrorism is the knowledge – in the head of the potential terrorist – that his actions will fail to change the policy of the government against whom he fights, and that it will all […]
Yesterday I wrote about Tony Blair’s fine speech on the war on terror. There are many reasons why Tony Blair has failed to turn fine words into credible actions. But a leading reason is the way his government – and Chancellor Gordon Brown – have starved our armed forces of resources. This point was well […]
Everyone is turning against Tony Blair at the moment. It’s not just the usual suspects at the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Guantanamo-obsessed Today programme. It’s not just Clare Short and Gordon Brown. The Guardian, The Economist and Jack Dromey have now got the knives out for Labour’s longest-serving leader. At the root of […]
Liam Fox is in Washington again! The Shadow Secretary of State for Defence is on the other side of the pond for Senate Armed Service Committee hearings on the Joint Strike Fighter project. See here for background. Whilst he is away his two junior shadow ministers are in the news… and are doing a good […]
In additional to the regular tracker questions on David Cameron and the top ten shadow cabinet members, the ConservativeHome Members’ Panel was also asked six questions about the war on terror.THE WAR IN IRAQ The survey found that more than half of Tory members agree that the war in Iraq was a mistake despite the […]
Liam Fox reinforces his hawkish credentials today in a speech to the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. Dr Fox, Shadow Defence Secretary, is in USA as part of a Conservative delegation that includes William Hague and George Osborne. He says that the military option must remain open in the west’s dealings with Iran. Dr Fox criticises the […]
After Tony Blair and William Hague jousting about it in PMQ’s earlier today, 315 to 277 MPs backed the Government in a vote to bring the law against glorifying terror back into the Terrorism Bill. Seventeen Labour MPs voted against the Government. Blair’s line of attack was that we would be sending a soft message […]
The Conservative leadership is keen to win the backing of The Sun ahead of the next election but national security issues threaten a Tory-Murdoch reconciliation. When Messrs Cameron and Davis voted against Labour’s 90 day detention plans the two Davids were dubbed Dumb & Dumber by Britain’s best-selling newspaper. In an article for today’s Sunday […]
A new Populus poll for The Times gives Cameron’s Conservatives a 1% lead. A very slight recovery in LibDem support (compared to last month’s poll) appears to have disproportionately hurt the Labour Party. This is the first time that a Populus poll has put the Tories in the lead. Mr Cameron has lifted the Tories […]
At last night’s Cambridge Union the debate was ‘This House believes that military action is counterproductive in the fight against terrorism’. The proposition team was led by Anas Altikriti, a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain; Tony Benn, the President of the Stop the War Coalition; and George Galloway MP. Opposing the motion were […]