NAIVE FOREIGN POLICY IN THE NEAR EAST OR JUST PROTECTING THE OIL COMPANIES' INTERESTS

Cameron with interim prime minister of Egypt

I suppose that in every job, there should be a training period at the beginning, a time during which the person learns on the job, often with the bosses eye firmly fixed on the most important decisions to be made.
In the case of the first or prime minister of a country that is a little more difficult because, in theory at least, he (or she) is the big cheese. But even this republican blog accepts that previous prime ministers have paid tribute to the advice given to them by the Queen, and the counsel they should be able to call upon most of all is that of the senior civil servants  from departments of government. The professionals


So whilst it is excusable that band new, squeaky clean David Cameron would want to make his mark early on foreign policy matters, it surely must have occurred to him, or to his foreign policy advisors in Downing Street or the FCO, that not only was he the first western leader to visit Cairo after the overthrow of Mubarak, but he was the only one to show any inclination to do so. It might also have occurred to him or them to wonder why that was.

King Farouk

Research, which if he didn't have the time or the wit to do, someone should have thought of, would have told him that the military has had a hold on the governance of Egypt since the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952 which it engineered with the help of the CIA. (Farouk's son was king for about a year, but as he was only 6 months old when he succeeded, it was surely Col Nassar who was calling the shots.) It was, then, very unlikely that the Army was about to give up power willingly in 2011.


So Cameron's visit to meet the new "interim" rulers (the military) was a somewhat dangerous and daring piece of foreign policy. Hailing the coming of democracy to north Africa was something over which he might have been well advised to "wait and see".


For, although there is to be an election, the military has made it clear that the new constitution should include a place in government for the military, and that that place should be shielded from any civilian oversight. 


Now, it is possible that that might be a sound idea. The relative stability of Egypt has been guaranteed over the last 60 years, possibly in part thanks to the firm hand of the military, under Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak in turn. And, in any case, we cannot judge the needs of every country by the needs of our own (as if we had any real democracy anyway). However, a state in which the military plays a role in government without any oversight of the people is not a democracy, and Cameron looks rather foolish to have hailed it as such.

Mr Hague and Mr Myers

The worrying thing is any role the FCO may have had in this piece of foreign policy. There was a time when the London FCO Arab desk might have been able to offer suitable advice about how to tread in this area. Maybe it still can and was ignored by a headstrong and none too clever Foreign Secretary (his judgement has to be called into question over his appointing his young friend and driver as a special advisor, and sharing expensive hotel bedrooms with him). Maybe there is no one left in the FCO who dare question the political masters, or maybe they just don't have the skills any more.


Whatever the reasons, Cameron's enthusiasm looks rather naive.


And as Syria explodes into civil war, there are those who are asking why Britian and France are not rushing to the aid of the "insurgents" as they did in Libya. Oh yes, the situation is more complex in Syria, and the military machine maybe stronger, but there are many similarities. The reason given for intervention in Libya was that we could not stand by and watch a dictator kill his own people. I failed to understand that at the time as we do that all  all over the world. But now it looks weaker and weaker as over 2,700 civilians including 100 children have been killed by Assad's forces.


It wouldn't be anything to do with the fact that Syria hardly has any oil worth talking about, could it?

DO YOU KNOW WHERE MAURITANIA IS?

Danny sent me this quiz last night.

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

It relates to the geography of the Middle and Near East, Arabia, and North Africa

I did OK on Africa, the Near East, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and most of the peninsula, although the little countries at the bottom got me a couple of crosses. But where I was pretty lost and did a fair pile of guessing was in the former Soviet “stans”.

I thought it was a pretty fun way of learning and I was pleased to see that there are other quizzes to be had.

In view of recent events in Egypt and Tunisia, and current events in Algeria and Yemen, and with the almost certainty of more desire for democracy, for which we have been calling for a long time, and yet almost certainly won’t like when it comes, at least in some of the countries, I think it’s an area of the world worth knowing a little more about.

Good luck.

Pics: A street scene in Mauritania, and the flag of Chad.

RULE BRITANNIA... BRITANNIA RULES THE WORLD

Gordon Brown in some sort of mistaken notion that he was the Chinese or American President, or some other sort of world statesman ordered the Pakistani President to kill Osama bin Laden.

Apparently the President was not happy at his tone.

Yesterday Mr Cameron, equally deluded, was minded to employ his 9 whole months of experience of government, by lecturing the Egyptian President about what he should be doing with his little bit of trouble.

Where on Earth do these people get off?

Firstly I can’t help but think that if Messers Brown and Cameron were in the habit of addressing themselves to issues in the UK, then perhaps we wouldn’t find ourselves in the parlous state that we do, and secondly, what is it about British Prime Ministers that make them think that they know best about things that are happening on the other side of the world.

How would Brown or Cameron like it if they got a call from the Chinese president, giving them instructions about how to have a successful Olympics or from the Qataris, pointing out that it was barbaric to pepper spray protesting students?

The days of London running the world are over. Live with it. Get your heads down and try to find a sensible way of sorting out the mess that is Britain. See if you can find a way to employ all the people for whom there are no jobs; see if you can find a way of dealing with the worst crime rates and highest prison population in Western Europe; and while you’re at the tackle the drugs issues, teenage pregnancies, education that sees people with degrees but unable to spell simple words and punctuate a paragraph. Deal with issues like the woman who testified yesterday that the hospital (in England) where she went for a small operation, was so dirty that she went in for a week’s stay and ended up being there for 18 months, suffering from C Diff, E-Coli and MRSA.

Do something about the joke that is the British Railways system, where the prices are around double and the service around half the European average, and where believe it or not, they are putting up prices by 3 times inflation in order to discourage people from using the service, because they simply cannot cope.

Sort the bloody pot holes in the roads. We pay between £120 and £250 a year in road tax, not to mention the most expensive petrol in the world, and our roads are like Yak tracks in Nepal. Cars are shaken to bit and springs are broken on a daily basis.

Do something about building affordable rented houses so that we stop this ideologically driven nonsense that even the poorest can own their own homes. Home ownership is for rich people who can afford to deal with the re-roofing, or damp coursing that comes along from time to time. Not poor people who struggle to get by to have enough money for food by the end of the month.

And do something about the crap you expect our pensioners to live with. No surprises that Britain has the lowest pension as a proportion of average wage, in all of Europe, and many live in penury.

That’s what running a country is about. Not lecturing Egyptians about how to deal with riots or telling Pakistan who to assassinate.

Oh and if your reason for thinking that you have the right to do any of that is (as mine is for lecturing you) that Britain gives aid to these countries (as I pay my taxes to you)...then stop giving them aid. It is us that needs aid. Our pensioners, our hospitals, our roads.

Shape up or ship out.

Pics: Fresh faced and busy tailed as ever, the sleeping ugly; Hosni, looking well Browned off at being lectured by Cameron; Osama, Osama, where for art thou Osama? (Ok, I know it doesn't mean where!); Don't you think that Egypian riots have a golden glow compared with the grey ones we have here? Birl on it Hosni, I is de boss, because I is British, innit.

GEORGE OSBORNE: TIME FOR A CHANGE?

Mr Osborne has called unions the "forces of stagnation" and blamed them for holding back Britain's economic recovery. Gideon has also said that he will change union law if his deficit-reduction timetable was disrupted by strikes. Nice one. The hard fought for rights that we have to withdraw our labour will finally be nailed by George Osborne.

This has doubtless been brought on by the fact that Osborne fears that union leaders are planning strikes against public spending cuts. The TUC has already organized a protest in London on 26 March, three days after the budget. It hopes that the protest will attract a million demonstrators.

"I completely understand” said our George, “that trade unions want to represent the interests of their members” ...and then went on to tell them what the interests of their members were.

Well, it’s good to know that someone as high and important as Mr Osborne knows all about the needs and aspirations of the ordinary working person of this country. It had worried me that, being as rich as Croesus, Mr Osborne might have difficulty in understanding what it was like to live on a couple of hundred quid a week. But no. He knows what we need and want.

Osborne showed this understanding by saying that he hoped growth would come from debt reduction, cutting corporate tax rates and reforms to English health and English education. Right, well that’s going to help Mrs McTavish put food on the table when inflation on necessaries is running at around 10% and pay rises at about 0.5% (except for bankers, MPs and the Queen). And as many English doctors are predicting utter chaos as they are removed from doctoring and put in charge of vast budgets; and almost no schools, teachers or parents support Gove’s muppet ideas on education, I’m having some difficulty in understanding how this will put food on tables.

Osborne said he felt a "huge responsibility" to make the right decisions for Britain. He said that he was fulfilling this responsibility to the best of his ability. Perhaps a comment from me there would be unhelpful. He said he realized things were not easy for families. There we go again. It’s only families that are having it tough, not just under this government; the last one was just as bad; single OAPs are having the time of their lives. And the 20+% of young people that are unemployed are thoroughly enjoying it.

George was asked on yesterday’s “Politics Show” why he did not modify the deficit-reduction timetable and he replied: "If I went to parliament and got up at the dispatch box in the House of Commons and said, 'I am abandoning the deficit-reduction plan that Britain set out last year.' What do you think the reaction would be? Within minutes Britain would be in financial turmoil. I'm not prepared to let that happen.

Actually he was asked why he didn’t modify it, not abandon it. But his answer shows that, no matter how wrong it is, and it doesn’t look good at the moment, he can’t go back, because he thinks that financial turmoil would follow. What exactly does he think we are suffering at the moment?

Oh for the courage of the Egyptians.

Pics: Gideon George Osborne: All at sea; very smug; catching flies and asleep at the helm. All dedicated to Somepapfaedundee, who loves pictures of our Chancellor. (Weird bloke.)