LITTLE BOY LOST
The end of the war in Iraq has exposed the hiatus in policy-making at the heart of Tony Blair's 'New Labour' government.
The first sign was the much-discussed debate on whether Britain should join the Euro. The result was … undecided. The divisions between the Prime Minister (believed to be in favour) and the Chancellor (believed to be against) only mirror the ambiguity of the decision for Britain. In the end, all economic tests are not tests of the European Union, but of the British economy itself. The outcome of the debate, that the government must make a 'patriotic case for the Euro' sums up the problem - Britain can afford neither to support further European integration, nor can it afford to retreat from it.
(For the record, there is no doubt that the enlargement of the Euro-zone to include the British economy would be a positive thing. The question of 'sovereignty' is a red herring - monetary policy only became an important lever of governmental control as governments eschewed more direct means of intervening in the economy. Printing pound notes is no real expression of popular sovereignty. In that enlarged trade increases economies of scale and new technologies, it is a force for progress. It is only to be regretted that European enlargement runs parallel to increased protectionism and trade wars across the Atlantic.)
The second sign of Blair's loss of direction post-war was the cabinet re-shuffle. The eye-catching abolition of the Lord Chief Justice's role was meant to signal modernization. But 'modernization' is an empty word to Blair. The appearance of novelty substitutes for any real content. The only changes that have taken place under the modernization process have been to wind down governing institutions that have lost popular respect, without creating any convincing replacement.
SOME ROAD MAP
The trigger for the new round of atrocities in the Middle East is …the publication of the road map for peace. In the long term, the conflict is already built into the relationship between Israel, the Palestinians, and the West. But given that, the artificial attempt to use the conflict to boost tattered the credentials of Western politicians has cost scores of lives.
Once the possibility arose that Palestine would be the focus of a new round of international intervention, the stakes were much higher. For the Israelis anxiety that they would have to give up land to help George Bush led to greater belligerence. For the Palestinians, humiliating conditions of representation within the peace process only aggravate the many grievances they have against Israel. The price of western grand-standing is counted in human lives.
ADVICE FROM THE PAST
'You are ready enough, with your dreams of "a scientific frontier" to strike weak and semi-civilized peoples like the Afghans and the Zulus; but you, with all your talk … take care not to strike at a nation which is powerful enough to meet you in the field.' The Apparition of the Late Lord Derby to Lord Beaconsfield, by 'Politicus', Manchester, 1879, p.4
-- James Heartfield