http://www.wikio.co.uk/blog/search/Miliband Wikio Blogs - search: Miliband wikio wikio http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69441765 A real humdinger of a David Miliband/John Humphrys interview yesterday on Today, which for me made David Miliband international viewpoint rather clearer. In short my take from that is that David Miliband is firmly and clearly keeping the UK on the U.S. pillion seat. I prefer the Gordon Brown realist approach , which I suspect is somewhat on the lines Nick Brown gave on CiF last week . David Miliband's views are obviously closer to David Cameron on this one. Will Gordon move David Miliband to another job (Treasury'), or give him the rope to appear too Blairite to the party? Some Miliband views I extracted from the interview: we are in a ... clear end to the period of relative and growing calm in and around Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union Miliband does not accept Russia is being encircled - on the basis that we (NATO?) are not an enemy of Russia and the term "encirclement" only applies for enemies it is UK policy that Ukraine should become a member of NATO if the Ukrainians want it only Hamas has supported Russia in its claims of South Ossetian and Abkhazia independence (interesting in that I suspect this is was an unplanned rhetorical side-swipe reflecting his personal attitude about Russia) politics and economics are joined in the modern world ... the Russian stock market has fallen in a significant way ... which is an important force for progress embedding the Baltic states in European institutions 10 years ago prevented hot conflict the NATO commitments are to [defend members at the point of a gun] Europe Minister, Jim Murphy, also thinks Georgia joining EU and NATO will stabilise the situation and add to UK security. I think doing this, within the next two decades at least, is dangerous to European peace, and I'd like to see Gordon impose a more realist attitude on the FCO. NB The Guardian amusingly points out that Nick Brown - as de-facto Chief Whip - will have to bollock himself if he wrote his piece without bothering to check what the Foreign Office line was. Maybe he was trying to undermine Miliband - but I'm inclined to think he just thought the David Cameron line very dangerous . Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:21:25 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69441765 2008-08-29T17:21:25Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69411467 The UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband (pictured above), yesterday said Russia must not start a new cold war and he accused Moscow of trying to redraw the map of Europe in the wake of the war in Georgia. Miliband was speaking in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine which, like Georgia, wants to join NATO. The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, yesterday defied the West by recognising as independent the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, presumably as a prelude to their eventual annexation by Russia. “The Georgia crisis has provided a rude awakening,” Miliband said in a speech to students. “The sight of Russian tanks in a neighbouring country on the 40th anniversary of the crushing of the Prague spring has shown that the temptations of power politics... China and Central Asian nations fail to support Russian over Georgia Liberal England Cold war movies The Rosemont Loving See 16 more posts on this topic: Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Cold War, Georgia's Keywords: russia , MONTH08 , YEAR2008 , ossetia , abkhazia , south ossetia , russian , georgia , cold war , new cold , medvedev , cold , war , south , independence Categories: russia , georgia , Politics , Europe , Ukraine , neo-con men and women , war , NATO , Geopolitics , South Ossetia , World , abkhazia , dead sea scrolls , Current Affairs , BBC Radio 4 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:02:37 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69411467 CALEDONIAN COMMENT 2008-08-29T02:02:37Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69322275 Former Sandwell BNP councillor (even the BNP threw him out) and crazy conspiracy nut Simon Smith... on David Miliband and the great Zionist conspiracy. Nuuuuurrrssse! Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:21:51 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69322275 2008-08-28T19:21:51Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69270651 PR Week's David Singleton has a cracking STORY about David Miliband's supposed leadership campaign. It alleges that he has already recruited a putative Director of Communications in the affable D-J Collins, who currently performs the same role for Google in the UK. Not only that, Singleton also names the six people who are advising Miliband on any leadership bid. The story looks very well sourced, I must say. The Foreign Secretary is keen to have D-J Collins, European communications director at Google, as his director of communications should be become PM. It is not known whether Collins has agreed to the plan. Miliband would also find a place in the team for Jonathan Kestenbaum, the well-connected chief executive of Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts). Kestenbaum is said to have told friends he would take chief of staff. Miliband is also believed to have a campaign manager in place. Alan Donnelly, chairman of the lobbying firm Sovereign Strategy, has been asked to perform the role. The three men are part of a six-strong inner circle already providing discreet help to Miliband in a personal capacity. Other members of the inner circle are former Downing Street head of policy Matthew Taylor and Miliband's current top special advisers Sarah Schaefer and Madlin Sadler. There's not much going on in political news at the moment so expect the Westminster lobby to be on to this like a rat at a trap. Miliband and his spokespeople will of course indulge in plausible denial, and it may well be that discussions haven't gone quite as far as this. But even if Miliband himself has not been present at any meetings, I would be very surprised this band of helpers hadn't met to discuss a few 'what if' scenarios at the very least. That's what happens in advance of leadership campaigns. But one of them has committed a cardinal sin. They have leaked. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:58:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69270651 Iain Dale 2008-08-28T11:58:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69278997 The gossip-laden public affairs magazine Pr Week, which caught our attention some months ago, is back with a focus on Miliband. One article leads with news that D-J Collins of Google would be Miliband’s director of communications should he become PM, which may not be terribly exciting to readers of GD. Turn the page, however [...] Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:27:40 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69278997 Charlie Edwards 2008-08-28T13:27:40Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69280770 Over at Burke’s Corner, Brian highlights an extraordinary comment by Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Radio 4’s Today programme (I was starting the car as he said it and I nearly stalled), in which he reassured listeners, "there's no question of launching an all-out war against Russia". Brian was equally aghast, and he is right to contend that the fact Miliband thinks he has to make such a statement speaks volumes about his refusal to act as a Foreign Secretary should and ease tension between Britain and Russia. The would be Labour leader chose Kiev in Ukraine as a location for an address which basically denies that Russia has legitimate foreign policy interests or a ‘sphere of influence’. Miliband’s language towards Russia is persistently the most strident issuing from the major European governments. In his remarks, not only does Miliband wilfully ignore the stark fact that Nato set the template (followed by Russia in the case of Georgia) of ignoring international law and undermining the territorial integrity of sovereign Serbia, but as David Hearst argues in Comment is Free, he is showing spectacular disregard for the complexities of Ukrainian history when he uses Kiev as a venue to denounce Russian interests in the ‘near abroad’. The very name ‘Ukraine’ means borderland. It is composed of eastern and central regions in which the population are drawn culturally and linguistically toward Russia and a western portion in which its people are more inclined toward the rest of Europe. As Hearst eloquently opines, “Does Miliband not realise that Ukraine as a nation has historically been torn between east and west, and what does he think would happen to old wounds if he, among others, starts to tug a little bit harder?” The relationship between Ukrainian and Russian identity is symbiotic. The Russian state has its roots in a precursor based in Kiev. The Ukrainian people are deeply divided as regards their attitudes to their neighbour and a relatively peaceful accommodation has only been reached because the fine balance of politics and identity has been recognised. Russia retains a Black Sea port at Sevastopol in the Crimea. This is ostensibly the potential flashpoint over which Miliband is extending moral support to the Ukrainians. Crimea is an overwhelmingly Russian area which was an intrinsic part of the Russian SSR before Khrushchev chose arbitrarily to reward his acolytes in the Ukrainian SSR with the territory. Whilst arcane details of Soviet history might seem unimportant to David Miliband, it is complexities such as this which mean that this particular tinderbox should be left alone by western politicians. Hearst warns, “By going to Kiev to send Russia a signal that Moscow will not be allowed to have a veto over Ukraine joining Nato, Miliband is stepping blindly and foolishly into a minefield. Thus far Russians and Ukrainians of all political colours, blue and orange, and of all ethnicities have resolved their differences by negotiation and largely without bloodshed. The new map has been changed as much by western military and oil interests advancing eastwards into the Black Sea as it is by Russia's bullying of its neighbours. But one is a product of the other.” Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:09:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69280770 Chekov 2008-08-28T12:09:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69226694 Sign of the times: Miliband noted that Russia’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen by $16 billion and risk premiums for investing in Russia have soared since the crisis began. By contrast, when the Soviet Union attacked Czechoslovakia in 1968, “no one asked what impact its actions had on the Russian stock market. There was no Russian [...] Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:54:30 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69226694 justin 2008-08-28T02:54:30Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69259156 Full coverage of UK politics To judge by David Miliband's whirlwind performance in Kiev this week, he does not seem like a man who is about to give up what he describes as "one of the best jobs in the world" to become Chancellor of the Exchequer - which, in the current economic climate, is arguably one of the worst. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:38:09 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69259156 2008-08-28T10:38:09Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69134857 AS MUCH as I'm sure David Miliband loves playing Mr Statesman, as a fellow British citizen I believe it is my right to tell him to stop embarrasing my country - and the West - in his calls for a "coalition" to counter Russian aggression. Here was me thinking that such a thing already existed in the shape of NATO, and our overreaching has already demonstrated how redundant that insitution is in this instance. Furthermore, even if Miliband wanted to add to this "coalition", where is he going to get allies? Ukraine? Victor Yuschenko's popularity is in freefall and it's highly doubtful whether he has the political capital to become involved in such a venture. More political posturing from this redundant government. Back your bags Mr Miliband and go back to your office. As Anatol Lieven pointed out yesterday - stop picking fights that you can't finish. Unfortunately for us, the Russians seem dead set on finishing theirs in territory where we have no interests, or in fact, any interest in risking British soldiers. That's even if we have the soldiers available, but I'm sure the Russians are well aware of this. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:21:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69134857 Ewan Watt 2008-08-27T11:21:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69205125 David Miliband was making great show today of fulminating in Kiev against Russian disregard of international law. Yet simultaneously he is continuing the sorry British record of participation in war crimes and contravention of the UN Convention Against Torture, Article... Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:15:34 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69205125 craig 2008-08-27T23:15:34Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69142630 David Miliband could not have chosen a better time to visit Ukraine , where feelings are running high after Moscow's decision to recognise the breakaway republics in neighbouring Ge... Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:12:08 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69142630 2008-08-27T13:12:08Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=68959788 Here is news in The Guardian concerning atheist UK foreign secretary David Miliband possibly becoming the next prime minister. It will take about 400 more years for the U.S. to get to this point, I am afraid. In this climate of quarrels between religionists and secularists, there are very many reasons to hope for a [...] Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:24:37 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=68959788 Stardust 2008-08-26T02:24:37Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69023390 Source: [b]Reuters[/b] LONDON (Reuters) - Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Tuesday rejected Russia's recognition of two breakaway regions of Georgia and called for an international coalition to counter it. "Today's announcement by President (Dmitry) Medvedev that Russia will recognise South O... Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:17:27 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=69023390 2008-08-26T15:17:27Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=68994522 This was the question posed by AC Grayling, one of the foremost philosophers of the postmodern age, with The Guardian reasoning that ‘in this climate of quarrels between religionists and secularists, there are very many reasons to hope for a non-believer at No 10’. And so Mr Grayling begins: ‘ When Labour cabinet members were asked about their religious allegiances last December, following Tony Blair's official conversion to Roman Catholicism, it turned out that more than half of them are not believers. The least equivocal about their atheism were the health secretary, Alan Johnson, and foreign secretary David Miliband. ’ Cranmer could give the whole article a good fisking: it is begging for it. But there is something woefully inadequate about it that causes one to question whether Mr Grayling is even half the philosopher he is cracked up to be. His first mistake is in taking Labour Cabinet members at their word. Would you believe anything they said? Would you have believed Tony Blair's protestations that he is a committed member of the Church of England? Or Gordon Brown on his Christian convictions? And if not, why would you believe David Miliband? He manifestly now has just one agenda, and that is to become prime minister. For that, he needs to be a figure of unity. And since religion divides, it must be eradicated. And Mr Grayling considers this a good thing, because ‘ Atheist leaders are not going to think they are getting messages from Beyond telling them to go to war. They will not cloak themselves in supernaturalistic justifications, as Blair came perilously close to doing when interviewed about the decision to invade Iraq. ’ Perilously close to doing? Why perilous? Is it not better to be subjecting one’s discernment to a higher moral worldview than to frame the world according to one’s own morality? Is it not better to be ‘getting messages from Beyond’ rather than getting them from the White House? ’Atheist leaders are going to be more sceptical about inculcating sectarian beliefs into small children ghettoised into publicly funded faith-based schools, risking social divisiveness and possible future conflict. They will be readier to learn Northern Ireland's bleak lesson in this regard. ’ This is such puerile reasoning that Mr Grayling appears to have reverted to GCSE philosophy. Like Dawkins, he is blind to the militant sectarianism of Atheism; ignorant of the force for good that true religion has always been (and Cranmer said true religion). Faith-based schools have historically worked in the UK, and they continue to surpass their ‘secular’ counterparts in exam results. Far from being socially divisive, the students who leave them are by and large forces for social cohesion and are frequently more respectful towards their fellow human beings and of authority and tradition. ‘ Atheist leaders will, by definition, be neutral between the different religious pressure groups in society, and will have no temptation not to be even-handed because of an allegiance to the outlook of just one of those groups. ’ Neutral? Is Mr Grayling not familiar with Rawls for Dummies? There is an evident dilemma in seeking neutrality of political effect because intrinsic to the pursuit of any policy is the likelihood that it will have a detrimental effect on at least one conception of the good (not least the Church of England) to the manifest benefit of another. There are manifestly circumstances in which it is inappropriate to act neutrally, not least where there are not even prima facie reasons to be neutral. Indeed, Mr Grayling ought to consider that there is no neutrality to be had because neutrality needs as much justification as any other position. ‘ Atheist leaders are more likely to take a literally down-to-earth view of the needs, interests and circumstances of people in the here and now, and will not be influenced by the belief that present sufferings and inequalities will be compensated in some posthumous dispensation. This is not a trivial point: for most of history those lower down the social ladder have been promised a perch at the top when dead, and kept quiet thereby. The claim that in an imperfect world one's hopes are better fixed on the afterlife than on hopes of earthly paradises is official church doctrine. ’ Actually, posthumous dispensation has been the most persuasive inspiration to good works in the history of mankind. Cranmer cannot see a Wilberforce or a Shaftesbury being ‘driven’ by Atheism. No, they were imbued with a divine and righteous anger which gave them a mission to pursue justice. Mr Grayling may be content to pour scorn on ‘official church doctrine’ but he then preaches the gospel of Marx, seemingly unable himself to learn the lessons of very recent history. ‘ Atheist leaders will not be tempted to think they are the messenger of any good news from above, or the agent of any higher purpose on earth. Or at very least, they will not think this literally. ’ Really? Mr Grayling ought to try telling that to the millions who died in order that Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot could construct their earthly atheistic paradises. Atheists have been responsible for some of the most appalling barbarism in the history of the world, but it is convenient for Mr Grayling to ignore this. Of course, they were not the messengers of some ‘higher’ power, but the agents of their own conviction, and that propensity to unaccountable infallibility is far more dangerous indeed. But then we come to Mr Grayling’s central thesis: ‘ Best of all, if David Miliband becomes prime minister, the prospect of disestablishment of the Church of England will have come closer. This is a matter of importance, for two chief reasons. The first is that the CofE's privileged position gives other religious groups too much incentive to try sharp-elbowing their way into getting similar privileges, such as the ear of ministers, tax exemptions, public funding for their own sect's faith schools, and the big prize of seats in the legislature. Secondly, the CofE has far too big a footprint in the public domain, out of all proportion to the actual numbers it represents: just 2% of the population go weekly to its churches. Yet it controls the primary school system - 80% of it - and a substantial proportion of the secondary school system, with dozens more academy schools soon due to fall under its control. It is entitled to have 26 bishops sitting in the House of Lords, plus a number more who have been made life peers on retiring; and it has the automatic ear of government - do not suppose that if Rowan Williams phones No 10 he is told no one is at home. ’ For all its faults, and they are legion, the Church of England embodies something of the psyche of the English people. It may be that 2% of the population attend, yet, according to the last census, 70% of the population acknowledge a cultural affinity with what it represents. The genius of Anglicanism is that it seeks to reconcile opposed systems, rejecting them as exclusive systems, but showing that the principle for which each stands has its place within the total orbit of Christian truth. Beneath the surface is the feeling for the via media which is not in its essence compromise or an intellectual expedient but a quality of thinking, an approach in which elements usually regarded as mutually exclusive are seen to be in fact complementary. These things are held in living tension, not in order to walk the tightrope of compromise, but because they are seen to be mutually illuminating and to fertilise each other. This is the ‘living tension’ which was first advocated by Hooker, who was opposed to absolutism in both church and state and an exponent of conciliar thought. This ensures that the laity, clergy and bishops all participate in guarding against autocracy in the state through a system of checks and balances that in many ways apes the parliamentary process. If authority is dispersed, spiritual tyranny is prevented. The similarities between the synodical and parliamentary procedures are unsurprising when both expressions of representative government have a common root in mediaeval political thought. Notwithstanding this, Mr Grayling is persuaded that ‘ Having a statedly atheist British prime minister makes it more likely that the functional secularity of British life and politics, the foregoing exceptions noted, will become actual secularity. Secularism means that matters of public policy and government are not under the influence, still less control, of sectarian religious interests. The phrase "separation of church and state" does not quite capture the sense in which a genuinely secular arrangement keeps religious voices on a par with all other non-governmental voices in the public square, and all the non-governmental players in the public square separate from the government itself. It means that churches and religious movements have to see themselves as civil society organisations like trades unions, political parties, the Scouts, and so on: with every right to exist, and to have their say, but as self-constituted interest groups no more entitled to a bigger share of the public pie of influence, privilege, tax handouts, and legal exemptions than any other self-appointed interest group. ’ Sadly, he is blinded to the religious nature of secularism, and the faith position of Atheism. Militant secularism is an inviolable political creed and Atheism itself seeks to propagate an absolutist worldview and infallible doctrine as repugnant as any it seeks to repudiate. Should David Miliband ever become prime minister, one might expect a peerage for Mr Grayling in order that he might focus on the elimination of the 26 bishops who sit in the House of Lords and the eradication of the Christian foundations of the nation and its constitution. And then he can spout his two-dimensional dogma and preach the gospel of Grayling to his heart’s content, while all the time, covertly and quietly, a far more militant and infinitely more dangerous spiritual power awaits its moment. And if David Miliband's Atheism is the most laudable attribute that AC Grayling can proffer as commendation for the top job, God help us. Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:06:00 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=68994522 Cranmer 2008-08-26T09:06:00Z http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=68645666 Both ICM and YouGov asked people about Brown and Miliband in their recent polls. In YouGov’s poll 21% of people thought Miliband would be a better Prime Minister than Brown (unfortunately YouGov didn’t give the alternative of him being worse than Brown - only of not being better). 11% of people told YouGov they would [...] Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:37:49 GMT http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=68645666 Anthony Wells 2008-08-22T17:37:49Z