When will they ever learn . . .

Cameron wants the Commons to vote in favour of British troops bombing ISIS in Syria.
He says this will make us safer. It will do exactly the opposite.
All it will do is make Cameron feel better when he meets other leaders.
Our politicians never learn. They make the same mistakes over and over again.
No wonder so many young people voted for Jeremy Corbyn.

Bombs or brains?

David Cameron is banging on again about military action 'to make us safe'. What planet is he on?
Let us suppose that our brilliant army, navy and air force, backed by our nuclear arsenal, manage to wipe out Daesh/ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
Are we to believe that, after celebrating our brave success, we will be immune from terrorism?
George Bush and Tony Blair thought that by invading some Arab country and 'shocking and awing' them into submission, we could somehow avenge the terrorist attack on New York and make the West safe from terrorism. They were wrong. Terrorism has increased. Why do we think military action will succeed now?

We are a county with the military might we needed half a century ago. 
Daesh/ISIS are a terrorist organisation with the military might they need now.
We might defeat them if we used the same tools they have, but we don't want to use soldiers with guns and tanks. Our public wouldn't stand for it.
We might defeat them if we used our nuclear weapons, but we don't want to do that.
So we use the things we have that they don't - air power, missiles, drones. And those tools won't defeat a terrorist group who can melt into the general population.
All military action will do is satisfy the politicians' need to do something and the terrorist leaders' need to have an enemy.

Terrorists are clever. They strike when we are not expecting it, at targets who are not prepared for it. 
We will only defeat them by being cleverer than they are and pre-empting those strikes. To do that, we must accept more surveillance, more action against those who indoctrinate.
Terrorism is the new way of fighting. We need to resist it with a new form of defence.

Big pond, small pond

The European Union is about working together.

It believes that European interests are as important as national interests, and, in time, will become more important than national interests.

The freedom of movement, goods and services, along with the single currency, make the people of Europe citizens of a continent, not just a country.

Politicians in Britain and in several other countries, cannot get their heads around this. They keep banging on about their national interest.

The solution is not, as David Cameron suggests, for Europe to become more like Britain. It is for those who believe in a European future to divest themselves of those who don’t.

Not a two-speed Europe, a single-minded Europe which decides on what terms other countries can deal with it.

The Europeans will decide what happens; share services, resources, regulations and data; deal as a group with international companies and other countries.

Those outside won’t have any say in what happens; won’t have the same access to services, resources or data; and will have to deal with multi-national companies and other countries on their own.

I want to be a European. I may be in a minority in Britain, if the media and politicians are to be believed. But my life will be better if the things which affect me are decided by Dutch, French, German and Italian representatives as well as those from Britain than it will be if my local representatives decide them all with no reference to any wider picture.