Friday, March 18, 2011

Will David Cameron make it to Scottish Tory Conference?

So, David Cameron is supposed to be coming up north to address the Scottish Tory Conference in Perth - presumably in the same place that Nick Clegg addressed the Scottish Liberal Democrats a fortnight ago.

I wonder if he'll still make it, given the fact that he may be about to send troops into action to protect civilians in Libya. Is this the right time for the Prime Minister to be out of London? Yes, I know that technology can keep a PM in touch, but is it not best for him to be closeted with the people who know what they're doing during the crucial preparations?

I am sure that all the plans will already have been made. Enforcing a no fly zone is something that I can't imagine you make up as you go along. There may also be jittery world leaders to calm down now the UN resolution has passed.

I guess the judgement call has to be Cameron's - a nonchalant display of high politics might be deemed the sensible course of action.

Cameron's never been PM without our troops being in action and that must be a heavy responsibility - but starting a new campaign must bring its own special kind of pressures.

I'm not normally a great fan of military action, but on this one I can see the very clear humanitarian rationale behind it. When you have a dictator bearing down on people who oppose him saying openly that he's going to show no mercy, there is a compelling case for action.  The discussion about him using weapons we supplied to him on his own people is not one for today but there's a bit of me that thinks we have a moral responsibility to those people.

Let's just hope that it's all over quickly, with the least possible loss of life and that the prospect of international bombardment makes Gadaffi's mercenaries think twice about what they are doing.

1 comment:

Viridis Lumen said...

I certainly agree with the No Fly Zone and it appeared yesterday to have had the necessary impact without a single jet being airborne or missile fired - reports this morning however suggest otherwise.

But the issue of who sold weapons is as pertinent today as any other. Both the Labour and Coalition Governments sold Gaddafy weapons and several hundred millions of "crowd control" equipment. And infamously, days after the Egyptian revolution, Cameron coupled a visit to Tahrir square with leading an arms trade delegation to the Middle East. At the same time as the Pearl Square killings in Bahrain, Coalition Govt Ministers were a few miles away in Abu Dhabi promoting UK arms sales at the biggest ever Middle eastern arms fayre in history, where kings, sheiks and dictators were keener than ever to snap up the equipment of terror and suppression - so no change, no learning and no ethics there.

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