Tag Archives: syria

Lord Roger Roberts

Lord Roger Roberts writes…Focussing attention on the humanitarian cost of the Syrian civil war

By Lord Roger Roberts | Thu 9th January 2014 - 12:32 pm

This afternoon, the House of Lords will discuss the tragedy of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Syria. Lord Roberts secured the debate, and here he sets out his views exclusively for LDV.

The crisis in Syria, which the UN has described as ‘the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of modern times’ is now reaching overwhelming levels. The total number of Syrian refugees is now estimated to be 2.3 million, of whom 0.5% – around 12,000 souls – are spread across the whole continent of Europe. Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest country, is bearing the brunt of this: an estimated 100 Syrians enter Bulgaria daily, many of them illegally. The country simply cannot cope.

The United Nations and its non-governmental organisation and local government partners in the region face many pressures. These organisations are fighting to ensure social stability. In Lebanon, in light of extraordinary population growth, essential resources, space, and labour are all causes of significant social tension. In East Lebanon, a makeshift refugee camp providing shelter for hundreds was burnt down last month, and the Lebanese town of Tripoli saw bloodshed mirroring the Syrian conflict in the latter months of 2013. Alarmingly, car bombs in Beirut are once again headline news. The spread of violence will continue, threatening to destabilise the whole region, unless practical and immediate measures are taken to relieve the pressure on Syria’s generous but inundated neighbours.

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Lord Roger Roberts

Lord Roberts writes: It is time to open our doors to some of the most vulnerable people in the world

By Lord Roger Roberts | Fri 3rd January 2014 - 8:46 am

ld4sos-bannerAs 2013 drew to a close, politicians from across the political spectrum came to the same conclusion: that the UK should offer shelter to (at least) a small number of the two million refugees who have fled the war in Syria. Even scaremongerer-in-chief, Nigel Farage MEP, called upon the UK to honour its obligations under international law. Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP, told BBC Radio 4’s The World this Weekend that ‘clearly we can’t take all the refugees, but we should play our part as an open-hearted, compassionate country’. The Labour Party …

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Caron Lindsay

Sir Menzies: “Unfortunate” that coalition will not let Syrian refugees come to UK

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 28th December 2013 - 3:09 pm

The Independent reports Sir Menzies Campbell’s comments on the decision by the Coalition Government not to join other countries in allowing 10,000 refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict where, let’s not forget, chemical weapons have been used. Sir Menzies was not complimentary, that’s for sure:

It’s unfortunate, to put it as mildly as I possibly can, that we have closed our minds to that possibility when other countries in Europe have taken a much more generous position.

The Independent’s view is that Sir Menzies represents the Liberal Democrat view:

Mr Campbell’s view represents that of many of his colleagues in the Liberal Democrats

…

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Stephen Tall

Syria – Lib Dem members’ views on military intervention

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th September 2013 - 2:25 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum  to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 700 party members responded – thank you – and we’re publishing the full results.

It’s a month ago to the day since David Cameron lost the vote in the Commons on keeping open the option of military intervention against Syria. Just a day ago, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.

In the week before the Lib Dem conference in Glasgow we asked what party …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 13 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “The world’s children deserve our protection”

By The Voice | Sun 29th September 2013 - 9:00 am

This week Nick reflects on two speeches in two weeks: the first to the party’s conference in Glasgow, the second to the UN general assembly. In one he announced free school lunches for the youngest children in English schools; in the other he announced an extra £100m of aid to help Syrian refugees. As Nick says, “We all hate the idea of a child going hungry. Be they a refugee on the borders of Syria, or the neglected child of a troubled family in an inner city: the world’s children deserve our protection.” You can read the letter in full, below…

libdem letter from nick clegg

Last week, I was at our party conference in Glasgow. This week I’m writing to you on a flight back from the UN in New York, where I spoke at the General Assembly and discussed Syria, Iran UK and arms control.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Lorely Burt on Syria and the vote

By NewsHound | Thu 5th September 2013 - 6:39 pm

Writing in today’s Solihull Observer, Lorely Burt, Lib Dem MP for Solihull explains why she abstained in last week’s vote.

Personally I could not support the government’s position. I will not support any more foreign war adventures: no more putting British lives at risk without broad international support and a direct threat to this country or our people.

We have all been sickened by the pictures of rows of dead Syrian children, and people dying so painfully from gas poisoning. But even so, getting involved in another war is an unpalatable option for most of us.

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Posted in LibLink | 9 Comments
Adrian Sanders

Adrian Sanders MP writes…The Government must learn where it went wrong over Syria

By Adrian Sanders | Wed 4th September 2013 - 4:25 pm

The Government’s handling of the Syria crisis continues to raise more questions than it answered.  I’m not sure if this is a response to the media coverage of the issue or a general surprise that the process of sanctioning military action would necessarily have to differ from that used ten years ago when invading Iraq.

Focussing on the domestic political situation, it is clear that MPs in general supported a robust response to the use of chemical weapons despite the understandable concerns of the public.  The motions failed solely due to Ed Miliband’s rather devious pragmatism; something one doesn’t expect in …

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Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged and | 76 Comments
Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 4th September 2013 - 1:44 pm

Michael Moore MP with apprentices Cameron Collins and Mark Tully at Mainetti 30 08 13 Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore MP, writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition. 

Jobs campaign

I recently launched a local jobs initiative as part of the Liberal Democrats’ ‘A Million Jobs’ campaign.

Apprenticeships are a really effective way of tackling youth unemployment because they enable young people to develop the training, skills and experience they need to enter fulltime paid employment. They also benefit businesses who gain value …

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Posted in Op-eds, Parliament and Scotland | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Daniel Furr

Opinion: War is hell, but sometimes dictators leave us with no choice

By Daniel Furr | Tue 3rd September 2013 - 3:34 pm

The Mother of All Parliaments, one of the oldest democracies in the world, decided against condemning, and possible military action against, a brutal dictator, who used chemical weapons on his own population. I shall not critique the political fallout and alleged skulduggery or whether or not certain individuals played politics with the issue; my opinion is to express why intervention is required and why Britain needs to lead on Syria.

Assad has terrorised his own population with conventional and chemical weapons. Innocent people have been indiscriminately targeted; entire neighbourhoods destroyed, towns and villages laid waste and countless communities have been massacred. …

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Posted in Op-eds | 110 Comments
David Gray

Opinion: Even if this is the end of our ‘Special Relationship’, there is no need to mourn its passing

By David Gray | Tue 3rd September 2013 - 2:10 pm

cameron-obama-hot-dogIt’s that old classic love story. Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl become infatuated with one another. Boy leads Girl into a series of illegal wars in the Middle East. You know the rest. (In the interests of gender equality, I should point out that you are more than welcome to switch around the genders in this analogy.)

But now, this one sided relationship has a new twist. Girl has said no to the Boy’s latest attempts to lead her into another bombing campaign, and Boy is angry. Boy storms out, and …

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Mary Reid

No chemicals sent to Syria from the UK

By Mary Reid | Tue 3rd September 2013 - 12:22 pm

Syria mapAccording to the Independent, Vince Cable is under pressure over some export licenses that were issued by his department in January 2012.

The licenses were for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride. both of which can be used to manufacture sarin gas, which we now know was used in the chemical attacks in Syria. But further down the article we can read that:

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills insisted that although the licences were granted to an unnamed UK chemical company in January 2012, the substances were not sent to Syria before the permits were eventually revoked last July in response to tightened European Union sanctions.

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NewsHound

Nick Clegg says that there will not be a second vote on Syria

By NewsHound | Tue 3rd September 2013 - 10:51 am

Nick Clegg has told the BBC that there will  be no second vote in Westminster on military intervention in Syria. He said:

I don’t think there’s any point in us going back to parliament asking the same question… so we have no plans to do that.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has called for a second vote after US revealed new evidence about the use of sarin gas. Nick Clegg responded by saying that he didn’t need any additional persuading to take the position he did, given the evidence he had already seen.

Posted in News | Also tagged | 14 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink…Paddy Ashdown: After the Syria vote, Britain must not sleepwalk into isolationism

By NewsHound | Sun 1st September 2013 - 7:48 pm

Paddy Ashdown has been writing about the implications of the Syria vote for the Guardian’s Comment is Free site. First, he pretty much repeats what he said on Friday:

There are strange paradoxes here. It is possible to be both proud of a parliament that said no to the executive on a matter like military action. But sad; even – dare I say it – a little ashamed at the decision it took.

Of course there are reasons for this. The leftover poisons of the Iraq war; the toxic effect of public distrust in our politics. Mishandling by the government. President Obama’s

…

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Westminster Insider

Opinion: The Syria Milishambles

By Westminster Insider | Sat 31st August 2013 - 10:01 am

See Saw Cameron MilibandEd Miliband has once again done his best impression of a statesman. On Thursday morning, with bags under his eyes, he declared that he was tabling an amendment to the government’s motion on Syria. His amendment would require a ‘clear legal basis’ for military action, and a second vote in the House of Commons following the forthcoming UN weapons inspectors’ report.

The government’s motion, on the other hand, requires a ‘sound legal basis’ for action, and a second vote in the House of Commons following the forthcoming UN weapons inspectors’ report. Snap!

Miliband stumbled and stammered in the Chamber Thursday afternoon as he tried to draw a line in the sand between his amendment that wasn’t an amendment and the government’s identical policy.

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Jonathan Fryer

Opinion: Syria – We still have a responsibility to protect

By Jonathan Fryer | Sat 31st August 2013 - 9:07 am

Several speakers inThursday’s House of Commons debate on possible intervention in Syria referred to the developing concept within International Law of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Basically that means that when a government is unable or unwilling to protect its own people from humanitarian disaster then the international community has an obligation to intervene. Since R2P’s endorsement at the UN in 2005, it has generally been assumed that any such international intervention should have the backing of a UN Security Council resolution, which in Syria’s case would have been impossible, given that Russia and maybe also China would have vetoed …

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Posted in Op-eds | 54 Comments
NewsHound

Adrian Sanders MP on the Syria crisis and vote

By NewsHound | Sat 31st August 2013 - 8:03 am

Adrian Sanders, Lib Dem MP for Torbay did not attend Thursday’s debate. Writing on his blog, he explains he is:

Currently representing the UK at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in South Africa with other MPs from the Labour and Conservative Parties so was unable to attend the debate.  I made it clear that were I present I would have voted against military action.

As other MPs at the conference would have voted the other way, our votes effectively cancelled themselves out. However, I was in touch with all of my Lib Dem colleagues in the UK and urged them to

…

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Kishwer Falkner

Baroness Falkner on Syria and intervening abroad

By Kishwer Falkner | Fri 30th August 2013 - 1:03 pm

I join Paddy Ashdown in feeling depressed about my country today.

In my near thirty years as a Liberal Democrat I have heard two tropes consistently from campaigners: that policy is irrelevant and that foreign policy is particularly irrelevant.  Yet it is foreign policy above all that shapes our party’s fortunes.

Take the SDP split over Europe – that got me into the party in ’85. Then came our opposition to the UK’s ban in letting in Hong Kong residents before the handover to China  – several of my friends joined too, and it put Paddy Ashdown on the map.  In the 90’s it was Bosnia and subsequently Kosovo that made us carry a uniquely and sometimes lonely flag for freedom and humanitarian intervention – last night the same isolationist Foreign Secretary of that period was arguing against doing anything in Syria – some things don’t change!  We subsequently made the right call on Iraq, and will shortly see the trial of Seif Gaddafy in Libya – who threatened to stamp out Libyan dissenters as cockroaches. Despite current troubles, on balance I am proud that we averted that.

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged | 41 Comments
Bill le Breton

Syria: A Reply to Stephen Tall

By Bill le Breton | Fri 30th August 2013 - 11:49 am

Stephen, as an internationalist you should applaud and accept the outcome of the democratic House of Commons last night. Do not be ashamed. Be proud. Do not be dismayed. Be hopeful.

The biggest destroyer of lives and life chances is anarchy. Anarchists work to bringing the whole house down. That is their objective. The rule of law is anathema to them.

I quoted earlier in the week, Gavrilo Princip, whose assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austrian precipitated the loss of 21 million lives and, if you see the Second World War, the Cold War and the dominance of Stalin as a …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | 28 Comments

Syria debate: how Lib Dem MPs voted

By Andy Boddington | Fri 30th August 2013 - 9:24 am

Last night, thirty-three Lib Dems voted for the government’s motion; 9 voted against; one abstained and 14 did not vote.

Alexander, Danny: For
Baker, Norman: For
Beith, Sir Alan: For
Birtwistle, Gordon: Against
Brake, Tom: For
Brooke, Annette: Did not vote

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged | 39 Comments

Opinion: Syria vote – A step change in Britain’s relationship with the world

By Andy Boddington | Fri 30th August 2013 - 7:33 am

the_master_of_the_ordnance_500Yesterday’s Commons vote on intervention in Syria is a landmark. And a surprise.

All day I had been reading the pundits in the national press and listening to the BBC. No one expected the government to lose the vote. Least of all the government.

My view is that is one of the most significant votes in our recent history.

This perhaps – hopefully – is the moment when we stop believing we are a world power. At long last we, or at least our parliament, believe that we cannot bomb our way to peace. This could be the point where we believe our best interests, and those of the world, lie in using our financial and political resources to promote a world that works without war.

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Posted in Op-eds | 19 Comments
NewsHound

Clegg, Ashdown, Williams & Hughes set out case for action in Syria

By NewsHound | Thu 29th August 2013 - 9:00 pm

Writing in tonight’s London Evening Standard, Nick Clegg, Simon Hughes, Paddy Ashdown and Shirley Williams set out the case for international action in Syria.

After describing the horrors of  chemical weapons, they declare:

We four believe a strong response from the international community is now necessary.

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Posted in LibLink and News | Also tagged , , and | 18 Comments
Layla Moran MP

Opinion: Syria survey shows surprising consensus in complex situation

By Layla Moran MP | Thu 29th August 2013 - 6:15 pm

Yesterday afternoon I emailed about 1000 voters in Oxford West and Abingdon asking them for their views on Syria.

What is interesting is that despite the complexity of the situation, there has been broad consensus in their views. Many start by saying things like ‘I am no expert’ and ‘I am torn’ but when they explain their reasoning the convergence is clear.

I summarise the responses received so far in the hope that a) it has a cathartic effect on those who haven’t expressed their views as I suspect many people feel the same and b) to ask if this is the …

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Iain Donaldson

Opinion: An open letter to Nick Clegg on Syria

By Iain Donaldson | Thu 29th August 2013 - 5:20 pm

Dear Nick,

Today Parliament is considering international action in Syria and you will take the most important decision of your leadership of the Liberal Democrats.

It would seem to me that there are four clear questions that must be answered before any military intervention is launched in Syria.

Is there compelling evidence of Assad’s guilt?

If compelling evidence of Assad’s guilt emerges, has an international arrest warrant been issued under international war-crimes law?

Have all non-military avenues for extradition to The Hague failed?

Has the Security Council sanctioned the necessary action to execute the arrest warrant?

Right now there appears to be no compelling evidence of Assad’s …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | 39 Comments
Toby Fenwick

Opinion: A no-fly zone offers the best chance of success in Syria

By Toby Fenwick | Thu 29th August 2013 - 4:04 pm

The conflict in Syria has continued with greater or lesser public notice for more than two years now. In this time thousands have died, millions have been displaced within Syria and into neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. And the international community has done little or nothing, hamstrung by Russian support for Assad, Chinese support for non-intervention, and ultimately, lack of western interest.

The large-scale chemical attack in a Damascus suburb claiming at least 300 lives at once changed everything and nothing. Everything, in that such an egregious violation of the laws of armed conflict, along with President Obama’s previous warnings of …

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Posted in Op-eds | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

** Lib Dem members’ poll results on Syria ** Military intervention: 25% say No, 7% say Yes. 62% say Yes BUT…

By Stephen Tall | Thu 29th August 2013 - 1:20 pm

Lib Dem Voice yesterday polled our members-only forum  to discover what Lib Dem members think of the situation in Syria. Some 580 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results today. The survey remains open and we’ll update these results in the next day or so if they change.

Lib Dem members: opposed to Iraq and Afghanistan wars; supportive of Libyan and Kosovo interventions

First, we asked about views of UK involvement in recent conflicts abroad. There was a big span of views. Unsurprisingly, given the Lib Dems were the only party to vote against military action against Iraq …

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Posted in Europe / International, LDV Members poll and News | Also tagged | 33 Comments
Mark Pack

Opinion: Syria – I know what’s wrong; working out what’s right is rather harder

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th August 2013 - 11:54 am

It is easy to work out what I disagree with on Syria.

The absurd politics of those on the left who have never lifted the smallest placard in protest again Assad’s wide scale murders but break out a garage-full the moment there is a whiff of US involvement in something.

Or those who talk about Syria with reference to Iraq but without references too to countries such as the Ivory Coast or Sierra Leone, where military intervention worked. Or without reference to countries such as the former Yugoslavia where the problem was not that military intervention took place but that it took …

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Posted in Op-eds | 22 Comments
Christine Gilmore

Opinion: Liberal Democrats can’t let Assad away with barbaric crimes

By Christine Gilmore | Thu 29th August 2013 - 10:55 am

Syria is not Iraq. While Liberal Democrats were right to be sceptical of Blair’s claims about the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction against the better advice of Hans Blix, the UN and his own legal advisers,  the situation in Syria is different in important respects.  In one case Blair and Bush wanted to invade and used chemical weapons as an excuse. There were no chemical weapons. In the other case a genocide against civilians, ethnic cleansing of Sunnis particularly in Alawite-majority areas has been going on for over two years.  Chemical weapons not only exist but have been used …

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Posted in News | 27 Comments
Jonathan Brown

Opinion… Syria: what do we do now? And, as importantly, why? (Part 3)

By Jonathan Brown | Thu 29th August 2013 - 8:42 am

The experience of the war in Iraq rightly made us all more sceptical about involvement in the Middle East. But the underlying principle of ‘responsibility to protect’, that as human beings we have a duty to one another, remains as true as it has ever been. It is too late for there to be a good outcome in Syria, but there are ‘less bad’ alternatives we should aim for.

No one is considering sending in the army. There’s no support for it, scant evidence we could do it legally and little reason to think it would make things better rather than …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Make your views known on Syria: Lib Dem members’ survey now live

By Stephen Tall | Wed 28th August 2013 - 9:25 pm

The new LDV members’ survey focusing on Syria is now live. So if you are one of the c.1,500 registered members of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum — and any paid-up party member is welcome to join — then you now have the opportunity to make your views known.

There are five questions relating to the current situation in Syria. 300 Lib Dem members have completed the survey within a couple of hours of it going live. We’ll be reporting the initial results on Thursday, though the survey will stay live for a couple more days to give as …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 6 Comments
The Voice

Clegg: Five reasons why this is not Iraq

By The Voice | Wed 28th August 2013 - 8:44 pm

Nick Clegg has just sent the following email to Liberal Democrat party members:

Dear member,

Tomorrow Parliament will consider international action in Syria.

I have been adamant from the outset: any case for international action must be taken to the UN in an effort to achieve as great an international consensus as possible. And I have made certain this is taking place.

We must wait until we hear from the weapons inspectors.

Ahead of tomorrow’s debate, you can read the full wording of the motion we’ll be laying before Parliament here.

For the past week I have been in regular discussions with the Prime Minister, …

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