March 5: What is our foreign policy?

THE tempestuous domestic policy exchanges between David Cameron and Ed Miliband at Prime Minister’s Questions masked the fact that Britain’s foreign policy is now rudderless following the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the divisions caused by the military approach undertaken by Tony Blair in tandem with George W Bush.

Yet, irrespective of the election’s outcome, the escalating crisis in the Middle East – and also Russia’s aggression on a number of flanks – has the potential to become one of the next Parliament’s defining issues. Silence, and the lack of interest shown in foreign affairs at PMQs yesterday, is not a policy. Indeed the need for a robust response has become even more urgent after Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, a former Royal Marine from Barnsley, was shot dead while fighting against Islamic State terrorists.

His decision to go, apparently motivated by a humanitarian desire to provide medical support to Kurdish forces, comes as the authorities desperately try to track down three London schoolgirls suspected of travelling to Syria after being brainwashed by IS militants.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With counter-terrorism experts fearing that these instances are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, raising still further the depressing and unedifying prospect of Britons going into battle against each other, it is clear that the political response needs to be far more robust.

Not only is there a need for better intelligence gathering, Britain must consider how best to neutralise the threat to global security now 
posed by this escalating war, the merciless execution of Western hostages, the radicalisation of impressionable young people and the terrorist attacks that have already been undertaken in Sydney, Paris and Copenhagen. It is clear, however, that the current strategy is not working.

In the driving seat

Co-ordinating transport policy

TODAY’S call for the creation of an official body, comparable to Transport for London, to oversee rail improvements across the North could not be more timely. If Yorkshire and neighbouring regions are to become the “Northern Powerhouse” envisaged by George Osborne, it will require real leadership to ensure that the promised new services are introduced, the antiquated Pacer carriages consigned to the sidings where they belong and the maximum economic benefits are accrued from the advent of high-speed rail.

However, given the recent track record of those political leaders who have been ordered to rewrite a major report on transport policy because the first draft was deemed to be too vague for the purposes of the Budget on March 18, there does appear to be merit to the proposal to create a transport commissioner who would oversee a new dynamic body that would go by the name “Transport for the North”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Such a leadership structure has helped to transform public transport in the capital – and the blueprint set out by the IPPR North think-tank would ensure that progress on transport investment is not sidetracked by the failure of local authorities, and others, to work together for the greater good of the region.

If the commissioner had to stick to a timetable, and is held accountable by elected council leaders, there is a greater likelihood of progress being made on transport policy than the present arrangements which do little to inspire confidence on the part of travellers. In short, it is time for passengers – rather than the politicians – to be put in the driving seat.

Irony of Beeching

Rural railway is now thriving

IT COULD only happen in Britain – a celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the most short-sighted decision in the history of the country’s railways.

Yet, in an irony of ironies, this is precisely what will happen tomorrow when the North Yorkshire Moors Railway holds special events – including the opening of a new platform in Whitby – to mark Dr Richard Beeching’s decision to close the route between Grosmont and Rillington.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In many respects, the Beeching axe was the making of this railway – it is now the world’s most popular heritage line, carrying 350,000 passengers a year, thanks to the dedication of a small army of volunteers who saw the route’s potential as a tourist destination.

If only Dr Beeching could have recognsed this when he was dismantling Britain’s rail network at its very core. For, if he and his Tory acolytes had done so, Yorkshire’s countryside communities might not be so bereft of public transport.