Tony’s Red Line on Foreign policy?
December 16, 2004 by Ken
Filed under The Best of the Rest
Jack Straw defends the cutting or down grading 30 British Embassies around the globe as a money saving exercise, Straw said the money would save £6 Million a year which would be redirected to other Foreign Office departments.
Michael Ancram, the Conservative foreign affairs spokesman, said: “The Government must give a far clearer reason for making these dramatic changes and must show that British commercial interests and the interests of Britons abroad will not be affected.”
At what point I wonder are these two fine upstanding gentlemen going to tell the British people that Britain will soon not need any embassies, because they would only duplicate the work of the now ongoing EU diplomatic core under the new EU Foreign Minister.
Needless to say the EU of course does not have authority for either of these innervations until the Constitution is ratified; but they are not going to be waiting for any democratic decision as the paper Ratification Bottleneck points out “adopting a few measures that would allow for anticipated application of some of the more significant innovations contained in the Constitution could facilitate the ratification process itself, in fact some of these innovations are the subject of intense political debate in a few countries. Those opposing the Constitution interpret them in a distorted fashion, spreading unfounded alarmâ€.
Without in any way wishing to distort this particular innovation, or spread undue alarm, might is not be considered rather fortuitous that just at the time the EU, which by the way is not a state, and not intending to become a state, is building up its own diplomatic core, employing and training EU diplomats and preparing to open its own EU embassies in order to look after EU Citizens etc and promote the EU across the world, just at this time Britain is deciding to cut back on exactly those very same services for Britain. Might it not also with out spreading undue alarm be pertinent to ask what the latest situation is on Tony’s Red Line on Foreign policy?
My father always told me; never believe what people tell you, only believe what they do. That is as good a maxim as any when we are watching the non EU state become more and more stately!
