The group of senior MPs and peers responsible for scrutinising the activities of the intelligence agencies has sharply criticised the government for failing to hand over the guidelines provided to MI5 and MI6 officers for interrogating terror suspects. Seven months ago, Gordon Brown promised to give the cross-party intelligence and security committee (ISC) the existing guidelines – which, ministers...
The Prime Minister faces some major challenges on the foreign policy front if this poll reported in the Independent on Sunday is anything to go by. They say that seven out of 10 Britons believe that there should be a phased withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. They tell us that a report by Oxfam reveals how women and children in Afghanistan are bearing the brunt of the ongoing conflict, undermining...
The PM was rather good as he explained his Afghan strategy today – calm, lucid and far from tetchy Did you catch Gordon Brown on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning? Shame if you didn't. He was rather good, calm and lucid, not tetchy at all as he explained the government's reasons for keeping British military forces in harm's way in Afghanistan. Did he say anything new? No, not much,...
Frank Field tables early day motion signed by 22 demanding debate on conflict This may not get anywhere, but it's being pushed by Frank Field, who has the ability to make things happen in the House of Commons, and so it would be unwise to ignore it: Labour MPs are pushing for a vote on the Afghan war. MPs have discussed the conflict on plenty of occasions but, according to Field, the debates have...
Premen Addy http://www.dailypioneer.com/214411/Chickens-of-chicanery.html The Anglo-American alliance allowed Islamism to strike root during the Cold War as this served its purpose. Islamists from around the world found a safe haven in London and Britain didn't care what they did abroad. The chickens of British chicanery are now coming home to roost Dreams of the imperial past have an abiding resonance...
From The Guardian, Nov. 3, 2009: It's time to pull out of Afghanistan and take the fight to Bin Laden in Britain by Kim Howells I backed the war, but the chance looks squandered. ...
You published an article by ex-minister Kim Howells ( Comment, 4 November ) calling for "necessarily intrusive" surveillance of Muslim communities in Britain because of the al-Qaida threat. The day after you reported that Irish Republican "dissidents" are committed to carrying out terrorist attacks in mainland Britain ( Report , 5 November). Will Howells now call for "necessarily...
The dimensions of the unfolding disaster in Afghanistan are becoming bigger and more daunting by the day. Once-staunch defenders of the "good war" are starting to break ranks. Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister with responsibility for Afghanistan and current chairman of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, questions in our newspaper today the central tenet of...
Britain's presence in Afghanistan has been seriously questioned this week following the deaths of seven army personnel, and calls from former junior Foreign Office minister Kim Howells MP to withdraw all troops from the country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday defended Britain's continued presence, saying that troops there are "our first line of defence" against terrorist attacks on...
It used to be the received wisdom that when you find yourself in a hole, the sensible thing to do is to stop digging. Nowadays, however, the new orthodoxy is that when in a hole, you should dig ever more frantically until – with luck – you re-emerge at the Antipodes. With scarcely a break in the serried ranks of government and opposition until the other day, when Kim Howells took upon himself...
, sta “[Kim Howells] has the classic New Labour profile and like fellow migrants from the far left – Straw, Reid, Blunkett and Clarke – he has retained a love of state intrusion and is, as they all are, an enthusiast for ID cards. There is a part of Howells that remains firmly rooted in the [...]
It's time for Gordon Brown to ditch the fine-sounding language, and work out how to leave Afghanistan – the sooner, the better Gordon Brown's speech this morning was his most sombre assessment so far of the risks and difficulties in Afghanistan. He made clear his determination to keep plugging on. But is the argument for this war not beginning to collapse in on itself? Judging by recent polls,...
Gordon Brown will this morning pledge to stay the course in Afghanistan against mounting political and public disquiet over the eight year military campaign that has now cost 230 British lives. At the end of grim week for British soldiers in Afghanistan Mr Brown is due to make a major speech in London in which he will restate his personal determination "not to walk away" from the war. With...
To withdraw our troops now would be to betray the people of the region It is very disappointing that Kim Howells, who was closely involved in the planning for the Helmand taskforce, has now changed his mind about its value ( It's time to pull out of Afghanistan and take the fight to Bin Laden in Britain , 4 November). He claims: "It would be better ... to bring home the great majority of our...
DianaWest.net 5 November 2009 By Diana West Kim Howells is a British Labour MP who formerly oversaw Afghanistan for the Foreign Office, supported the war there, and now serves as chairman of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee. I can't imagine that I would find all of his policies to be my cup of tea, but in today's Guardian , he published a proposal containing some extremely sensible...
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