Winston Churchill famously said that “You can always rely on the United States to get the right result – after they have tried every other option”. It now appears that after the American people have tried the ultimate other option for the last four years Churchill has been proved correct. Assuming it will be a […]
As the last Foreign Secretary who had overall responsibility for overseas aid, I am delighted to welcome the proposed merger of the Department for International Development (DFID) back into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office – with one major caveat which I will come to later. I am a strong supporter of overseas aid, in which […]
The people of Hong Kong have been magnificent. Up to 2 million of them came out on to the streets to protest. They were peaceful and brave. They won the admiration of the world. And they won their battle. There was no certainty that Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Government, with […]
Much of the comment and advice about whether Huawei should be allowed to operate in the US, the UK and other Western countries ignores the fact that the position in the United Kingdom is, unavoidably, more complicated than in other countries. Huawei has been in the UK since 2005. Its equipment and technology have been used […]
The brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi has already become a cause célèbre whose consequences will reverberate for years to come, and not just for Saudi Arabia. Imagine if it was the Kremlin and not Riyadh. The attempted murder of the Skripals in Salisbury was just as brutal in the methods used. The immediate reaction from […]
There is a sense of shock and outrage in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Manchester. We see young lives destroyed and ISIS gloating. We all have a dread and a fear that terrorism has become part of our way of life and that the future is bleak. These feelings are natural and I […]
President Trump has said that he is going to seek an increase in US defence expenditure of $54 billion, a 10 per cent increase in the current total of $596 billion. It is not yet clear to what purpose these additional resources will be put. The US military is, already, by far the most powerful […]
