Our guest writer is Gareth Thomas MP, shadow minister for international development UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, returning from viewing the devastation in Pakistan for himself today has told the world to ‘wake up’ to the full scale of thetest
Serious questions need to be asked about David Cameron’s committment to international development: Where is the vision? Where is the leadership? Where is the ambition?
Unless there is a change in how it perceives the nature of warfare, the West will lose the war in Afghanistan, despite declaring victory, and spend the next 10 years in splendid isolation wondering what went wrong.
The leaked DfID document raises important questions about Andrew Mitchell’s ‘output-based’ approach. How will progress be made without the commitments? What is so broken that needs fixing?
DfID are recommending the end of 100 public commitments. Among those for the chop are support to global education and cash for health services and systems.
Regardless of how his actions might affect the Haitian nation or its people, the incoming Haitian president is unlikely to see out his term in office without it being violently hampered, or even terminated, unless he demonstrates a clear willingness to succumb to the political and financial demands of Washington and Wall Street.
A debate is quietly raging in the US press over remote-controlled warfare. On one side is the Wall Street Journal, which ran an editorial in April praising the expansion of UCAVs under Obama; on the other side is The New Yorker and The Nation, with Tom Engelhardt of the latter taking a strong line.
The tiny British territory of Diego Garcia is being used for a US military build up. David Cameron is silent on the issue.
Last week, the UN General Assembly made history with its declaration that water and sanitation are human rights to which all people are entitled. The resolution was the fruit of many years’ labour by campaigners from around the world, and was eventually passed by 122 votes in favour to none against, with 41 abstentions. So why did the UK’s new Lib-Con government mount such a furious campaign against it?
The call by former defence chiefs Lords Bramall, Beach and Ramsbotham to delay a new Trident programme for at least another 15 years as Britain no longer requires an “all-singing, all-dancing” version as currently planned, raises fresh concerns as to both the strategic value and value to the tax payer of the £97 billion defence procurement programme.
