Does Clegg go for a Love Actually moment?
James Forsyth 6:35pm
The foreign policy portion of tonight’s debate offers Nick Clegg several
opportunities to bracket Labour and the Tories together. Both of them supported the war in Iraq, both won’t take the military option off the table when it comes to Iran and both believe in
the centrality of the alliance with the US to UK foreign policy.
On this final point, it’ll be fascinating to see if Clegg launches a full-on assault on the view that the America alliance is the cornerstone of UK foreign policy. He sketched out the arguments against thinking about the special relationship in a speech the other day and there’s no doubt he could score some populist points by accusing the other two parties of being overly deferential to Washington.
I happen to think that Labour and the Tories are right on all these issues. For example, if you rule out using military force against Iran, you make it far more likely Iran will go nuclear as there’s no reason for it not to. But Clegg is the one who is on the popular side of these issues.
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Barry
April 22nd, 2010 6:53pm Report this commentHe doesn't just want to swap Washington for Brussels though. Saying we should stop being US-centric is to not point out what Nick actually wants - a Euro-force, fully joined up and used as an instrument of every greater unity across the continent.
What a paucity of ambition our politicians have these days. Has it been educated and institutionalised out of them and the general public or have they merely chosen to take the path of least resistance? The decisions they make often are nothing more than 'I don't want to take decisions' and to hand off vast gobs of authority to other nations, other bodies, quangos and technocrats, etc. We need to stop electing such wet drips.
There is no reason why Britain cannot and should not be fully independent in it's military might.(Nor political might for that matter)
Noa Zrk
April 22nd, 2010 6:59pm Report this commentIt's not so much what he's against, it's what he actually stands for, that he should explain.
Jamie
April 22nd, 2010 7:21pm Report this commentCan't imagine Nick Clegg would be welcome in Washington anytime soon.
Major Plonquer
April 23rd, 2010 3:13am Report this commentNick Clegg is in a dilemma. If we nuke Tehran the resulting 'nuclear winter' will reduce temperatures by 2C thereby eliminating Global Warming. So where does he stand on that?
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