UK must listen to the voice of its people

IT IS unworthy to respond with cynical laughter to David Cameron’s proclamation that the UK “lost its moral authority” after 9/11 (your report, 10 September) and that though “mistakes were made” in the following war that cost perhaps a million Iraqi lives he, like former prime minister Tony Blair, still thinks he was right to vote for it.

We readers should rise above cynicism, as did your editorial of the same day claiming that Cameron’s penitence did not go far enough to deliver the UK’s “moral authority” from Blair’s “corrosive legacy”.

It certainly did not, but, of course, it was long before the events of 9/11 that we ceased to be trusted in the Arab world, and, as your writer concedes, it will take more than a “partial intervention” in Libya to restore our good name.

Indeed it will, for no country endears itself to another with cruise missiles – more than 100 of which fell on Libya on day one of the four-month conflict.

To put this in context, suppose that an aggressor decided the SNP government was really bad for Scotland and, to help us, took out with a mere five such missiles the parliament building, the M8, Kinloss Air Base and the two Forth Bridges. One can imagine the chaos this would cause and how the euphoria of liberation would rock the land.

There is a way to restore our good name: listen more to the voice of the people, of whom hundreds of thousands marched fruitlessly in Edinburgh and other cities against the Iraq war, and less to the voices of powerful cartels and lobbies representing private interests. The truth is we care about our good name; they have more mundane concerns.

JOHN MELROSE

Whitehaugh Park, Peebles

For Britain to regain some moral authority and punch above its weight in the world, Prime Minister David Cameron must take a more even-handed approach in foreign affairs and he could start by voting for the United Nations resolution granting statehood to the Palestinians later this month.

We know the Jewish lobby – which controls US foreign policy in Israeli/Palestinian matters – has dictated that America should veto the resolution and if Britain abstains, then it is giving tacit support to the nasty government of Netanyahu and Lieberman, which continues to practice apartheid, ignore UN resolutions and build illegal settlements on the West Bank in contravention of international law.

A positive vote for the resolution would show that we stand for international law, are against the abuses of the occupying power and the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people and are serious about a just peace settlement. We have a long climb to establish any credibility in the Middle East after our disastrous and illegal adventure into war in Iraq lead by Tony Blair, but it would be a starting point.

PETER SPEIGHT

Howe Street

Edinburgh

Tony Blair must live in cuckoo land if he honestly believes that the military action taken in Afghanistan and Iraq by the western armies has no bearing in terrorist activities worldwide and has the temerity to describe those who do think that as naive.

I’m afraid that there is more chance of hell freezing over before peace in the Middle East will be any nearer with such a brazen attitude from the former prime minister, who is leading the talks and commands little respect or trust from the people of the Middle East.

DENNIS GRATTAN

Mugiemoss Road

Bucksburn, Aberdeen