Big Sticks and Small Carrots

… a Liberal Conspiracy.

Initiated by Sunny Hundal (who’ll be on Radio 4’s PM programme today discussing the project), the aim is to create a new space in which liberal-left ideas can be debated. More than that, Liberal Conspiracy wants to use the power of the internet to bring people together to create a broad coalition which can campaign for liberal-left principles.

It is based on the group blog format but aims to be something slightly different. The comment policy, for example, has been specifically designed to foster a spirit of constructive debate. Constructive criticism will be welcome but thread disrupting trollism will be filed under “Bin”.

I’m honoured to have been invited to participate and I’ll mostly be writing about foreign policy issues. In that area, it seems to me that liberal-left principles and policies are in danger of being drowned out by the sound of Christopher Hitchens and George Galloway shouting at each other. One of the aims of Liberal Conspiracy is to focus attention on the area between these two positions.

It’s an ambitious project but nothing ever gets done if no-one ever does anything.

Join us at the Liberal Conspiracy.

Which we won’t understand

Yes, it is another post about the turning away of Iraqi employees of HMG who are now in grave danger.

I received a letter from Robert Smith yesterday confirming that he has signed EDM 2057. He has also written again to the Foreign Secretary asking him to address the flaws in the new policy and tabled a question to the Ministry for International Development to ask how many Iraqi staff have been employed for over twelve months.

He also included a copy of his press release on this issue which was sent out to various media organisations on Friday afternoon.

Smith speaks up for Iraqi Employees

Sir Robert Smith MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine has backed concerns about Iraqi employees working for the British government following the Prime Minister’s limited offer of support to those whose lives had been put at risk.

Sir Robert said “It is ridiculous that the Prime Minister thinks we only have a responsibility for those who have worked with this country for twelve months. The death squads will not ask how long someone has worked for the British before deciding whether to punish them. The motion I have signed calls on the Prime Minister to meet the UK’s moral obligation by offering resettlement to all Iraqis who are threatened with death for the “crime” of helping British troops and diplomats. We must ensure all those who have been brave enough to support us deserve our support in return.”

Whether any of these organisation’s choose to publicise this is open to question but I think we can safely say that Sir Robert is supportive of the aims of the campaign. Splendid stuff.

I make no apologies for continuing to post regularly about the plight of Iraqi employees of the British government.

The other day, Nick Cohen addressed the problem in the way that only he could as part of his latest attempt to convince himself that he alone occupies the moral high ground. In the now all to familiar style, he bemoaned the fact that not enough attention was being paid to the people who are actually doing the killing in Iraq. “Many find it impossible to declare who is killing interpreters, Christians and soldiers, and why” he declared*.

What then would Nick Cohen make of David Miliband’s blog post today on the subject of Iraqi employees? Miliband goes one step further and completely avoids mentioning the fact that trhis policy is needed because some of these people are being killed and many others live in fear for their lives. No mention. At all.

Comments are open on Miliband’s blog if you wish to express your opinion. If you do, please take care to be scrupulously polite. I’m not joking. Hostility will not help over there. Be polite!

Doing my best to see this from “the other side”, I can see that this is a tricky situation for the government. They are desperately trying to claim that the south of Iraq is a success story and that security situation has improved to the extent that British troops can withdraw. The fact that Iraqi employees of the British are in grave danger makes a mockery of this assertion and is politically embarrassing for the government. As a consequence, they’re trying to publicise a policy to deal with a problem which they don’t want to acknowledge even exists. The result is the half-hearted effort announced at the beginning of the week.

And that’s where any attempt to see the government’s point of view breaks down. Avoiding political embarrassment versus saving people’s lives? There’s no way I can even begin to understand anyone who chooses the former over the latter.

As it stands, the government’s policy will save some lives but leave many others to their fate. Please do consider writing to your MP to lobby for a further change in policy. Dan Hardie has all the information you need.

Finally, on a positive note, I emailed my MP Robert Smith yesterday to ask him to consider signing EDM 2057. This morning, I got a reply from his office saying that he had done so. Well done that man.

* I have more I’d like to say about Cohen’s latest effort but not here. Maybe in another post.

A new website has been launched as part of the campaign for “an immediate turnaround in current government policy in relation to current and former Iraqi Translators and Contractors, who, due to their employment assisting our forces, are being avoidably abandoned in mortal danger”.

We Owe It To Them

Clicky clicky.

An Early Day Motion on behalf of Iraqi Employees has also been launched by Lynne Featherstone:

EDM 2057

IRAQI EMPLOYEES

That this House recognises the courage of Iraqis who have worked alongside British troops and diplomats in Southern Iraq, often saving British lives; notes that many such Iraqis have been targeted for murder by Iraqi militias in Basra, and that an unknown number have already been killed, whilst many others are in hiding; further recognises that many Iraqis who have worked for fewer than 12 months for the UK are threatened by death squads; and therefore calls upon the Prime Minister to meet the UK’s moral obligations by offering resettlement to all Iraqis who are threatened with death for the `crime’ of helping British troops and diplomats.

Please consider writing to your MP asking them to sign this motion.

Here’s the written statement on Iraqi employees.

There are so many conditions and get out clauses as to make Brown’s statement yesterday close to worthless. Tim Worstall highlights the disingenuous nature of this supposed change in policy.

And this:

In addition, interpreters/translators and other Iraqi staff serving in similarly skilled or professional roles necessitating the regular use of written or spoken English, who formerly worked for HMG in Iraq, will be able to apply for assistance for themselves and their dependants provided that they satisfactorily completed a minimum of 12 months’ service, and they were in our employ on or after 1 January 2005.

So if your life is in danger because of your association with HMG but you are unskilled or semi-skilled and don’t speak English, the Brown government doesn’t care if you die.

Or perhaps they think this is what’s happening in Iraq:

Madhi Army militiaman: You are known to have worked with the occupiers. I’ve got my power drill ready. I just need to check a few details before I drill a hole in your skull.
Former employee of HGM: Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me…
Militiaman: Shut up, traitor. We know that you worked for the occupiers for more than twelve months. Do you deny this?
Former employee: No, but…
Militiaman: And we have heard you speaking English to the occupiers.
Former employee: Yes, but…
Militiaman: And we believe you worked for them in a skilled or professional role.
Former employee: No, that’s not true. I worked in the laundry.
Militiaman: Oh, that changes everything. Sorry to have troubled you. Mind how you go ma’am…

What is required is not difficult to understand. The government should offer asylum or a resettlement package to all Iraqis whose lives are at particular risk because they worked for HMG. The families of those at risk should likewise be protected. This needs to happen now. People are dying now.

Brown’s pathetic attempt to present the façade that he’s doing something while the government pulls out all the stops to do as little as possible makes me feel physically sick. Any faint hope I might have had that Brown would be an improvement over Blair is rapidly fading.

On the face of it, this looks like good news:

Iraqi interpreters and other key support staff who have risked their lives to work for Britain are to be allowed to settle in the United Kingdom, The Times has learnt.

Get. On. With. It.

The “possibly” in the title refers to this:

Government sources have disclosed that a few hundred vital support staff would also be helped, although they declined to give details.

You know what they say about the devil’s location. Details which “government sources” are unwilling to discuss are known to be among the pointy tailed one’s favourite haunts. Best wait and see what the government actually says (and does) before breaking out the bubbly.

On that note, why am I even reading about this in The Times? Is to too much to expect to hear this first hand from, you know, a minister or something? Can’t the government do this one small decent thing without it becoming just another part of their attempts to groom journalists and curry favour with their employers? Apparently not.

Anyway, Dan Hardie has been doing a fantastic job coordinating the interweb campaign and there’s been lot’s of good stuff going on. When it finally comes, it seems unlikely that the government’s statement will suffer from too little scrutiny.

Vote Brian Haw.

Seriously. Imagine the message that’d send to the politicians in their cosy Westminster bubble.

It’ll only take half a minute to vote. Why not encourage other like minded people to do the same? Go on. I’ll owe you one.

Those not familiar with Brian should start here.