We’ve always messed up the Middle East. Let’s stay out, for once

I suppose I should cease carping. We got a Blue Labour budget (except for the ludicrous stuff on inheritance tax), and far better than anything we would have got under my party, Labour. And at least the Prime Minister is addressing the issue of Islamic ‘extremism’. Yes, I suppose, I would concur that taking away the passports from juvenile wannabe jihadis is a good idea. Just about. A horrible part of me thinks they should be taken away once they have left the country, though. Certainly that should apply to the adults. Encourage them to go, then nullify their passports.

However, to disavow our own role in facilitating the Islamic State is evidence, to my mind, of a delusion. The same sort of delusion which afflicts William Hague when he argued that we should have ‘got in sooner’ to help overthrow Assad. Why? Because if we had done so there would now be a nice, consensual, democratic government in Syria? Grow up. We should not have invaded Iraq. We should not have encouraged the Arab Spring. We should have left Libya alone. We should leave Syria alone now. Leave it all alone. We only make things worse for ourselves. And for them.