Category: Non-EU Countries

Internet has changed foreign policy for ever, says Gordon Brown

In exclusive interview with the Guardian, prime minister says web era ‘more tumultuous than any previous economic or social revolution’

Katharine Viner

Gordon Brown says foreign policy 'can no longer be the province of just a few elites'. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

Foreign policy can never be the same again — and it’s all because of the internet, Gordon Brown said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.

Referring to the so-called Twitter revolution in Iran, the prime minister said technological advances and the democratisation of information mean “foreign policy can no longer be the province of just a few elites”.

“You cannot have Rwanda again,” he said. “This week’s events in Iran are a reminder of the way that people are using new technology to come together in new ways to make their views known.”

He described the internet era as “more tumultuous than any previous economic or social revolution”. “For centuries, individuals have been learning how to live with their next-door neighbours,” he added.

“Now, uniquely, we’re having to learn to live with people who we don’t know.

“People have now got the ability to speak to each other across continents, to join with each other in communities that are not based simply on territory, streets, but networks; and you’ve got the possibility of people building alliances right across the world.”

This, he said, has huge implications. “That flow of information means that foreign policy can never be the same again.

“You cannot have Rwanda again because information would come out far more quickly about what is actually going on and the public opinion would grow to the point where action would need to be taken.

“Foreign policy can no longer be the province of just a few elites.”

During a frank and personal interview in Guardian Weekend magazine, published tomorrow, he also discussed the return to favour of the business secretary, Peter Mandelson.

Brown said that there was now a “common purpose” between the two of them, and that the Labour party – famously resistant to Lord Mandelson’s charms, had finally come round to him.

“People are coming to appreciate his talents in a way the Labour party didn’t before … I think there’s a great affection for him now,” he added.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk, 19 June 2009

June 21, 2009
Equality bill will outlaw ‘apartheid’ constitution of the BNP

The BNP’s “apartheid” constitution will be outlawed under legislation before parliament, Commons leader Harriet Harman told MPs yesterday.

Ms Harman said she was “shocked and horrified” by the election of BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to the European Parliament last week.

She said there was “no place” in Britain for having a political party that only accepted white people as members and that the Equality Bill would prevent this.

During questions on future business she told MPs: “We have all been shocked and horrified by the fact that two regions of this country, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside, are represented by the British National Party, a party who have in their constitution a provision that you cannot be a member of that party if you are not white.”

She added: “All of us should agree that there is no place for a political party in this country to have an apartheid constitution and the Equality Bill will prevent that being the case.”

According to the BNP’s constitution, members must be from the “indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of Indigenous Caucasian”‘.

Tory Philip Davies said: “The reason why so many people voted for them the BNP wasn’t through an endorsement of their nasty creed of politics but out of frustration. The mainstream political parties don’t seem to be addressing their legitimate concerns in these areas.”

A spokeswoman for the Government Equalities Office said: “The Equality Bill would give individuals a right to take legal action against the BNP, in respect of it excluding anyone from membership on grounds of race.”

Source: The Herald, Scotland, June 21 2009

June 21, 2009
Devils United

The leader of the far-right British National Party wept as he saluted party members for helping win two seats in the European parliament.

Nick Griffin was addressing delegates in a Blackpool hotel as part of the BNP’s “summer school” and Victory 09 celebrations.

After listening to speeches by party bosses Mr Griffin was applauded to the stage.

He managed just a “Thank you,” before he broke down. He thanked individuals and the collective membership for enabling two MEPs to be elected – himself in the North West and Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Speaking amid St George’s Cross bunting and sepia photographs of war veterans and impish little children, Mr Griffin applauded senior member Mark Collet, with whom he was cleared of inciting racial hatred in 2006.

“The propaganda was exceptional,” he said of the BNP literature produced ahead of the local and Euro elections.

Mr Griffin attacked the media for what he described as a smear campaign the likes of which he had never seen before. He attacked the three main parties for turning the country into a “multicultural bankrupt slum” and “organising and funding” the protesters against him.

“Like a new boy at school,” was how he described visiting Brussels for the first time. But he said he had joined forces with other right-wing parties, forming “Devils United”.

Outside The New Kimberley Hotel on the south promenade some 80 Unite Against Fascism members protested against the BNP.

Four people were arrested near the protest, which police said was peaceful. The four were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

Press Association

June 20, 2009
Racist Terror Targets Romanian Migrants again second day in a row

Police are investigating an attack on the home of another Romanian family in Belfast.

It follows the attacks by racists on around 20 families in the city, which forced more than 100 Romanians out of their homes.

A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said nobody was injured in the latest incident, which happened in the east of the city at around 11pm.

“There was an incident last night of criminal damage to a property which is being investigated as a hate crime,” he said, adding that a window was smashed in the attack.

Northern Ireland Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said: “Very sadly we have seen another attack on a Romanian family in east Belfast last night.

“All of this raises very fundamental questions about the type of society we want to develop and create in Northern Ireland some 15 years after the ceasefire.”

She continued: “Northern Ireland is still deeply divided, deeply segregated. People in urban areas here in Belfast live in divided communities.

“There is an urgent need for all government departments across the spectrum to develop a shared future that is an integrated society. The process of reconciliation and healing must start. And we must become a welcoming community.”

Romania’s consul general is to hold high-level meetings in Northern Ireland over the attacks.

Dr Mihai Delcea intervened when his countrymen fled to emergency accommodation in Belfast.

A church hall and leisure centre were used to provide temporary refuge for those left homeless, while donated food and blankets poured in from members of the community.

It is understood accommodation in the south Belfast area is being made available for one week.

Dr Delcea will meet Ms Ritchie at the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

Police have said they do not believe paramilitaries were involved in orchestrating the attacks that were condemned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and local politicians.

ITN

June 18, 2009
Royal College of Midwives attacks BNP maternity claims

The Royal College of Midwives has hit out at claims by the BNP that it blames immigration for increased pressure on maternity services.

An article on the BNP website said: ‘According to a survey by the Royal College of Midwives issued in 2008, the quality of NHS care has plummeted because ministers failed to predict a massive rise in the birth rate among immigrant mothers.’

According to the article, ‘several maternity wards at NHS hospitals in areas which serve largely white areas of the country, have been forced to shut their doors for months at a time because staff were needed elsewhere to deliver babies from foreign-born mothers in immigrant-dense areas.’

But the RCM denied that it considered immigration to be a problem.

General secretary Cathy Warwick pointed out that many midwives were born outside of the UK and without them, NHS maternity care would be ‘on its knees’.

Instead, Ms Warwick said the pressure on maternity units was caused by increasing fertility rates in older women.

Ms Warwick said: ‘We have seen an almost 50 percent rise in the fertility rate for women aged 40 or over, for example, and these women place more demands on the service than younger women. ‘Every year, the amount of medical intervention in maternity care increases and the number of babies delivered by caesarean section rises, both of which place extra demands on those providing maternity care.

‘The growing complexity and quality of maternity care are therefore the main reasons why pressures on the service are growing.

‘Thankfully, all mainstream parties recognise this and there is cross-party support for more resources for maternity care to deliver the first-class service we all want. That is the approach that responsible political parties should be taking, not scapegoating foreign-born mothers for a failure to invest in more midwives and better facilities and choice for all women.’

Source: www.nursingtimes.net, 17 June, 2009

June 18, 2009
Nazi sticker on Blackburn BNP man’s car

By Tom Moseley »

A BRITISH National Party activist drives around with the word “Nazi” written on the back of his car, it has been revealed.

Robin Evans, the BNP’s Blackburn organiser, said he had not tried to remove the word as he did not find it offensive.

The former councillor for Mill Hill in Blackburn, who now lives in Darwen, said he did not know who had stuck the letters on his metallic green Volkswagen Golf, but thought it was “quite funny”, adding: “It doesn’t bother me”

Blackburn MP Jack Straw said the sticker “exposed the true colours of the BNP”.

Party leader Nick Griffin, who was recently elected as a Euro MP for the North West, advised Mr Evans to remove the term.

When asked about it by the Lancashire Telegraph Mr Evans, who stood for the BNP at this month’s Darwen Town Council elections, said: “You know what people are like. Everyone calls me a Nazi.

“Someone put it on there 12 months ago. It was in silver letters. What you see there is the wreckage. I haven’t a clue who tried to take it off but I couldn’t be bothered.

“To be honest I thought it was quite funny. It’s better than them putting my windows through or smashing bottles on my head which I’ve had before.

“The car is on its last legs. I would rather be driving around in a big Porsche. But my car and whatever it looks like does its job and I am OK with it.”

Asked whether he found the term ‘Nazi’ offensive, Mr Evans added: “Everyone is individual. My personal interpretation, not the BNP’s, is that it means a nationalist, which is where the word has come from. If someone’s in the street screaming ‘Nazi, Nazi’, that is offensive. It is not offensive against other people.”

Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, said: “It’s very offensive, especially to people who are Jewish, but also to virtually everyone else in society.

“This exposes the BNP’s true colours.”

Coun Tony Melia, the leader of the For Darwen Party leader and deputy council leader, said: “If someone put that on my car I would have it taken down instantly. It is absolutely tasteless.”

Mr Griffin said: “I would advise him to take it off. It was obviously put there by some crank. He may be putting a brave face on it.”

Asked whether he found the term offensive, he added: “I don’t know if it’s offensive per se, you see all sorts of swastikas on news stands and history books.

“But used against us it is highly offensive, because we believe in British values like free speech.”

Source: www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk, 17th June 2009

June 18, 2009