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Foreign policy priorities for an independent Scotland

I was at the former seat of British power in Ireland on Friday for the 12th Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade NGO Forum on human rights in Dublin Castle. This was the annual consultation with Irish based NGOs about priorities and I was the rapporteur of the working group on human rights in Irish Foreign Policy.

One of the issues discussed was whether, given the financial challenges Ireland faces, could they continue to give a priority to human rights and international development in their foreign policy. The answer from Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore was yes (1). But it did of course provoke some thoughts on priorities for a soon to be independent Scotland.

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Fear and loathing versus hope and integrity

Bahrain seems to have come to an impasse. Brutal repression, torture, killings, unfair trials and media censorship has not been able to silence a mass movement for change as was clear from the huge numbers demonstrating in Manama in the last weeks. And yet the Government is apparently paralysed and unable to engage in serious reform.

The mass demonstrations reinforce the fear and loathing of a privileged elite who have done so well out of autocratic rule. The longest serving unelected Prime Minister in the world is clearly an obstacle to any progress and yet he clings grimly to power. And the Saudi Arabians pull the hardliners strings

It is in this context that human rights defender Abdulhadi Alkhawaja announced a hunger strike unto “freedom or death.” Abdulhadi is my friend and former colleague at Front Line Defenders. [Read more…]

Weak and inconsistent support for human rights bolsters Assad et al

The pictures of the slaughter of civilians in Syria have provoked frustration and revulsion around the world. There is an understandable feeling that something must be done. When even a mild UN Security Council resolution was vetoed by Russia and China there were increased calls for international intervention.

Steven A Cook writing in The Atlantic on 17th January argued for military intervention and Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center commented that he hoped the article would be influential. I responded via Twitter that I hoped not, and that I could not see how air strikes would make a terrible situation better. Steven A Cook responded to me with: “how do you claim to defend human rights, but refuse to consider the possibility of action to protect humans?” [Read more…]

Anti-Scottish comments unhelpful

First time round with Joan McAlpine there was so much unionist misquoting and smearing that the use of the term “anti-Scottish,” about the concerted attempts of London based politicians to impose conditions on the referendum, was at least partly deflected. And Tom Harris with his comedic downfall helped to divert attention.

Mike Russell has now repeated the use of “anti-Scottish” to describe the Labour-Conservative attempts to end free university education in Scotland. There is a rational defence of the language he used, but it again provoked much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of the usual unionist suspects. [Read more…]

Inspiring hope, provoking a backlash;

Twelve months ago the world was astonished by the sudden crumbling of totalitarian rule  live on television as President Ben Ali fled Tunisia and mass protests erupted in Egypt. Legions of so called “experts” scrambled to revise their scripts and Western diplomats discovered their “realpolitik” had not been very realistic. The triumph of hope over fear was the theme tune for what was dubbed the Arab Spring. And the tremors shook the complacency of rulers around the globe.

There was of course a backlash. But all was changed, changed utterly. And human rights defenders (HRDs), those who work to protect the rights of others, were key actors in the movements to secure justice and accountability. [Read more…]

A question of currency

A lot of hot air has been expelled in the last few weeks on the thorny question of what currency choices an independent Scotland should make. I attended the BBC Radio 4 Questions & Answers recording in Musselburgh a couple of weeks ago and Margaret Curran was fair hooching in her seat with excitement as she avoided answering the question on whether an independent Scotland would be economically viable and instead gabbled on about losing the power to set interest rates or print money if Scotland keeps the pound. The supposedly more sagacious Alistair Darling then let loose in the Scotsman saying that keeping the pound was an absolutely ludicrous position

One is tempted just to say pot, kettle black. Poor Margaret Curran does not even seem to remember that giving up the power to set interest rates was supposedly the late Gordon Brown’s masterstroke (whatever became of him?). And we have George Osborne to thank for the quote that “printing money is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed.” [Read more…]