What happened to diplomacy?

He is in a hopeless no-win position. Authorise the launch of cruise missiles against carefully selected sites and he’ll be accused of being President Barack Obama’s puppet. Sit on his hands while innocent civilians are gassed to death and he will be accused of cowardice.

In many respects, Mr Cameron should be comforted by the fact that Parliament will today demand evidence of Syria’s war crimes before committing to military action; this is one of the few positive legacies to emerge from the Iraq war and Alastair Campbell’s “dodgy dossier” of a decade ago.

Yet his hand is hindered by the toothlessness of the UN and Arab League which has ignored the Assad regime’s atrocities for too long – as well as the breakdown of cordial relations between President Obama and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Unlike America’s Ronald Reagan and the then Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev who came together with Margaret Thatcher’s assistance to bring about the end of the Cold War, the US and Russia are now involved in a dangerous period of retrenchment.

President Putin, an Assad ally, still claims that the Syrian regime was not behind last week’s deadly chemical attack and warned, after the withdrawal of Russian diplomats, that military action will lead to the “long-term destabilisation of the Middle East”. He probably hopes that this will divert attention away from Russia’s human rights abuses.

Conversely, President Obama was naive when he said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a “red line”. If he does not provide an appropriate response, what message will America’s passiveness send out to North Korea, Iran and the provocative Putin when they next test the resolve of the US?

A further deterioration in relations between America and Russia is not beneficial to the wider world, not least Syria, and Mr Cameron should make this plain when he next speaks to these two presidents.

Harnessing the Humber’s potential

THE inter-related nature of policy-making on the economy, energy and the environment is illustrated by Able UK’s long-running plan to build a £450m marina energy park that could transform the future of those ports adjacent to the River Humber, including Hull, which still endure above-average levels of unemployment.

The firm has spent four years, and £35m, trying to advance a scheme to the satisfaction of both local planners and also marine conservationists. It has not been easy, as evidenced by Transport Minister Norman Baker choosing to give conditional backing to the scheme subject to further environmental safeguards being signed off.

Able UK’s response reflects the welcome progress which has been made – and the lingering delays. “We will be taking immediate steps to address the issues raised in the Government’s announcement and sincerely hope that there will be no further delays in a project which enjoys the overwhelming support of the entire local community,” said group development director Neil Etherington.

His words need to be heeded. The offshore wind sector presents an unrivalled opportunity to transform the fortunes of the Humber, including Able UK’s proposed site off North Killingholme, and also entice Siemens to Hull.

Given how politicians have teamed up with businesses and energy entrepreneurs to advance these plans, it would be regrettable if this momentum was lost because two small obstacles could not be overcome.

Allure of the Scarborough Festival

AT the end of an Ashes summer which reflected so poorly on the sport, it is symptomatic of cricket’s changing times that England and Australia begin a frenetic series of one-day matches today rather than making

a pilgrimage to North Marine Road, the enduring home

of Scarborough Cricket Festival.

One of cricket’s timeless traditions, in contrast to the poor sportsmanship and unconvincing umpiring which characterised this year’s Ashes struggle, the Yorkshire Post’s cricket correspondent JM Kilburn once wrote: “Wherever a pilgrimage through the cricketer’s England may begin, it must surely end, if the traveller has any sense of the appropriate, at Scarborough in Festival time.” They are words as relevant today as they were in 1937 when Kilburn made this observation. North Marine Road may lack the mod-cons of international grounds, Headingley Carnegie included, but it still had an atmosphere of its own yesterday – the squawk from a seagull flapping furiously in the sea breeze as a shaggy-haired Ryan Sidebottom and Jack Brooks spearheaded Yorkshire’s ongoing attempt to land a County Championship title in the club’s 150th anniversary season.

Even though many sides now eschew the festivals that were so prevalent in Kilburn’s era, the appeal of seaside cricket – and Scarborough on a late summer’s day – is still an alluring one.