Britain’s role in protecting the downtrodden and protecting the weak has
significant historical pedigree. The British role in abolishing the international slave trade was one of the first liberal interventions. And as Abigail Green’s biography shows, Britain’s Sir
Moses Montefiore was not just a pre-eminent Jewish figure of the nineteenth century, but his pioneering approach to the problem of Jewish persecution helped transform the international response to
abuses of human rights.
No party, though, is going to the election with the kind of commitment to promote human rights abroad as Robin Cook did when he unveiled his ideas for an “ethical” foreign policy. This is hardly a surprise. Ten years of Tony Blair’s liberal interventionism, the neo-conservative sway over the Bush administration, and the fetishisation of rights domestically during successive Labour governments, have cured most voters of an interest in human rights internationally.
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