19 April 2018
Diary of a Corbynista
Theatre of the Absurd
by Don Urquhart
12 April
When will the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) investigate the Douma attack and what will they be allowed to see? If the Russians and Syrians obstruct them that will tell us that there was a chemical attack ordered by Assad.
Theresa May needs parliament’s approval before sanctioning military action. I do not trust her and the shifty bunch around her to make the right decision and whatever you think of the Commons, all of the issues will be aired publicly, most notably the evidence of wrongdoing, so notably manipulated before the Iraq war.
13 April
A study by think tank Reform says many firms have rebranded existing roles after being obliged to contribute cash to on-the-job training. They say that 40% of the apprenticeship standards approved do not meet traditional definition of such skilled on-the-job training courses. Typical of these are the companies KFC and Starbucks. You turn up for an “apprenticeship” and are shown how to make coffee or cook fries.
The government says “quality” is at the heart of its apprenticeship reforms.
14 April
Nicola Sturgeon speaks for many when she says that Mrs May had not answered how the action, “taken without parliamentary approval, will halt their use” of chemical weapons “or bring long term peace”.
Now to a certain extent honour is satisfied and we must get on to the serious peace-making business. One wonders what Anatoly Antonov’s threats will translate into:
We warned that such actions cannot be left without consequences. All responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris.
Let’s hope it is a masterstroke from Trump, Macron and May. It will depend on what comes next.
15 April
When Parliament returns tomorrow, it will debate Syria. It will be interesting to see how people behave.
Some will be banging the jingoistic drum, congratulating the PM for taking swift decisive action and urging her to support Trump in what appears to be enthusiasm for further action. Others will criticise her for bombing Syria as well as not getting parliamentary approval for the action.
Personally I will be looking for constructive suggestions for going forward; now surely it has to be Jaw-Jaw rather than the alternative. How things change. A couple of months ago Assad continuing in charge of Syria was unthinkable; now it is generally accepted.
We need to quickly move our focus from trying to run the Middle East to helping the victims all over the region. We could make a start by refusing to sell arms to any participants and that includes Saudi Arabia.
What’s quite certain is that relations with Russia need finesse and intelligence. Hopefully the Prime Minister can keep the Foreign Secretary away from it. He was on the Andrew Marr show. His host gave him an opportunity to explain why he had said that Porton Down had told him that Russia was responsible for the attempted murder of the Skripals.
He decided to answer a different question and waffled:
Porton Down told us in absolutely no uncertain terms that this was a military grade Novichok agent of a type that had been produced and stockpiled in the former Soviet Union. I said are you sure about that and they said they were certain.
On March 19th Deutsche Welle’s Zhanna Nemtsova had asked him:
You argue that the source of this nerve agent, Novichok, is Russia. How did you manage to find this out so quickly….
The Foreign Secretary responded:
I interrogated very closely…the people from Porton Down and they were absolutely categorical and I asked the guy myself are you sure? And he said there’s no doubt.
16 April
Straight after the news broke about the Douma poison gas attack we heard that Trump and Macron had discussed the matter. Where was the British Prime Minister? She spoke to Trump the next day saying that she had arrived home from Sweden at 11 pm the previous day and too late to speak with him. And here we are relying on a stonking increase in US trade, chlorinated chicken and the rest, when we leave the EU.
So how was she to react to react to Macron getting the inside track with Stormy Daniels’ alleged old flame. Did she really have an alternative to bombing Syria alongside the US and France? Macron will be the first foreign leader to enjoy a state visit to the Trump White House so she has a lot of ground to make up if she wants to be the President’s top poodle.
17 April
Yesterday’s statement by the Prime Minister followed a predictable course. She spent a long time asserting the legality of the Syria bombing. Jeremy Corbyn spent a long time questioning its legality and said she should have brought the issue to the Commons in advance. He was generally supported in this latter claim by his side of the House and a few opposite, notably Ken Clarke. There were many ad hominem attacks on Corbyn from Tories seeking to ingratiate themselves and PLP members keen to rubbish their party leader.
What happened in Douma is not yet clear and saying that does not make me an apologist for Putin or Assad. It is a fact. Just as it is a fact that we sell arms to the Saudis who use their own white phosphorus weapons against the Yemenis.
For me the high point was May’s response when Laura Smith asked her at what point Trump instructed her that military action would be taking place. Instead of lightly dismissing this unsuitable slip of a girl she gave her the most chilling stare and then rambled on about nobody telling her what to do. Protesting too much methinks.
18 April
In the Commons Jeremy Corbyn presented his war powers ideas. That’s what it amounted to. It was really an excuse to put Theresa May on the spot again over her support for Donald Trump’s vanity project – a bit of bombing in Syria.
Then the Mother of Parliaments descended into the Theatre of the Absurd. There was a debate on anti-Semitism whose only purpose was for Conservative and Blairite MP’s to heap opprobrium on Jeremy Corbyn in a farcical manner. There was the unseemly spectacle of Labour MP’s being applauded by the benches opposite for rubbishing their own party leader. It was all rounded off neatly by Amber Rudd advising Jeremy Corbyn to deal with anti-Semitism in his party.
There was no discussion of how to eliminate the abuse of many kinds suffered by the MP’s relating such experiences beyond blaming Corbyn for not expelling enough anti-Semites from the Labour Party. It would seem that serious crimes are being committed with impunity but dealing with that issue was not on the agenda.
