Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Vote tomorrow on British airstrikes in Syria

I’m utterly confounded by the media’s focus on the internal divisions within the Labour party, rather than on the critical decision that parliament will vote on tomorrow.

All our energy should be spent questioning the Prime Minister about his plan. What is the logic of bombing ISIS and what will it achieve? Paul Mason wrote that the key questions are:

What is the world going to look like when we win?

What do we want at the peace conference, and what will our own society look like after the struggle is over?

Where is the long-term political plan for Syria? Why isn’t this the question dominating the airwaves? What do the Syrian people want?

Labour party politics may be an interesting side-story, but its a dangerous distraction.

Considering the fact that David Cameron looks likely to win the vote tomorrow in favour of military action, why aren’t his arguments being subjected to maximum scrutiny? Everyone seems to be interrogating Corbyn who is currently looking to be the weaker force. A bizarre misuse of press power.

It’s not only Labour MPs that are divided by this issue. Conservative MP David Davis, for one, has argued that he’s not yet convinced by the case for war because he doesn’t know the political endgame or the full military strategy. Peter Hitchens pointed out that the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail have taken contrary for and against positions.