Syria

Thursday

Steerpike

Breaking: Stan Collymore joins the SNP

This morning the 66 Labour MPs who voted in favour of airstrikes on Syria — ignoring the pleas of their leader Jeremy Corbyn — have woken up to deselection threats from the hard-left as they stand accused of being warmongers. On top of this, there is another burden they must bear: they have driven Stan Collymore out of the Labour party. In what will no doubt be a devastating loss to the Labour party, the former footballer — who issued a public apology in 1998 after he attacked his then-girlfriend Ulrika Jonsson — has cut up his membership card after discovering that a number of Labour MPs voted in favour of airstrikes: https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/672189903308984320 In need of a

Sebastian Payne

Can Leave.EU control its members? This video suggests not

A bizarre video has been released on the YouTube channel of Leave.EU, one of the campaigns vying for the official Brexit nomination. It was entitled ‘We Are At War Again’ and tweeted through its official account – before it was swiftly taken offline. Coffee House has received a copy of the video. You can watch it above. In the video, Ireland is labelled ‘The Balkans’ and countries in the Middle East are labelled a ‘bunch of foreigners’ and ‘f*ck knows’. The Leave.EU campaign say this is not an official video and it was uploaded to its website by one of its 350,000 ‘users’. A Leave.EU spokesman says: ‘It was a video produced in February this

James Forsyth James Forsyth

After Labour’s Syria shambles, step forward Major Dan

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thegreendelusion/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss Labour’s civil war over Syria airstrikes” startat=700] Listen [/audioplayer]It makes no sense for Britain to bomb Islamic State in Iraq but not Syria. Attacking a group that does not respect international borders on only one side of a border makes no strategic or military sense. From the Prime Minister down, government ministers are acutely aware of this absurdity. That is why they have been so keen to gain the Commons’ permission to extend the strikes to Syria. Yet this week Westminster has been gripped, not by the strategic case for taking the fight to Islamic State in Syria, but by the effect

Mark Hollingsworth

Silent strongman Sergey Shoigu is the real force behind Russia’s military aggression

‘Crimea is ours,’ President Putin boasted last May. He was speaking on a documentary viewed by millions of Russians, and it was the culminating moment in the militarisation of Russia. Moscow had attracted criticism for spending unprecedented sums on its armed forces under Putin, despite a weak economy over-dependent on oil. The successful annexation of Crimea seemed a perfect vindication. Yet the huge expansion of Russia’s armed forces budget was instigated not by Putin but by the defence minister, the mysterious Sergey Shoigu. The ascendancy of the military has propelled Shoigu up the ranks of the power elite to the extent that he is now regarded as the favourite to

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: Syria airstrikes and Hilary Benn’s extraordinary speech

The House of Commons has voted to carry out airstrikes in Syria this evening by a majority of 174, but today’s debate has been overshadowed by an incredible speech from Hilary Benn. In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the implications of the Commons vote and what the shadow foreign secretary’s address means for the Labour party. Has Benn challenged Corbyn’s authority with his barnstorming speech that has won praise from all parties? How long will the glow last? Did Benn inspire the large number of Labour rebels? You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Commons votes to bomb Islamic State in Syria

British airstrikes against Islamic State will be extended to Syria after the House of Commons voted strongly in favour of the government ‘s motion tonight. The government had a majority of 174, enabling David Cameron to claim that he has the consensus backing for bombing IS in Syria that he has long craved. 67 Labour MPs voted in favour of strikes, which was higher than expected this morning. But Hilary Benn’s remarkable impassioned speech, the finest I’ve heard in the Commons, swayed at least one wavering Labour MP—Stella Creasy voting for, having previously been undecided and facing huge constituency pressure against action. Thought, it was worth noting that the government

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Anybody who uses the phrase ‘Daesh’ is terminally deluded

This is a relentlessly busy world, with so many people expressing so many different points of view. We become overwhelmed by it all, at times. So it is useful to have a few short-cuts at hand, when sieving the wheat from the chaff. Much as it is the case that we might ignore any commentator who uses the world ‘vulnerable’, so too we can assure ourselves that anyone who uses the term ‘Daesh’ in respect of those head-chopping Muslim lunatics out in Syria, is terminally deluded and we can ignore them too. The term is now used exclusively by those who wish to kid themselves that the Islamic State is

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Airstrike debate sketch: terrorist sympathisers, anti-Semitism and a basket of old ribbons

Bomb Syria. That was Cameron’s priority today as PMQs was sidelined in favour of the debate on airstrikes. His opponents’ strategy was ‘Bomb Cameron.’ They demanded a withdrawal of his remark that any opponent of bombing must be a ‘terrorist sympathiser’. The snarliest words came from Alex Salmond whose grey jowls jiggled with rage as he shouted, ‘apologise for these deeply insulting remarks.’ Cameron offered a correction but no contrition: ‘There’s honour in voting for; honour in voting against.’ He didn’t hold back when describing Isil. ‘Women-raping, Muslim-murdering medieval monsters,’ he said. And he set out the case for extending the bombing from Iraq into Syria. Right now our jets have

Kate Maltby Kate Maltby

‘National security’ has become our main justification for war

I’ve been in touch with Anisa for just over a year, ever since I met her in a dingy refugee compound on the outskirts of Amman. She’s a super-educated young woman from Damascus (most of the early wave of refugees were) and she’s never had much time for self-styled IS (‘none of them are actually Syrian, they’re invaders,’ she insists). Today Anisa is more depressed than ever. If Britain joins the coalition of airstrikes against IS territory in Syria, it will largely be symbolic, as The Spectator’s leader explains. The US has already been bombing Raqqa for nearly a year and a half. As the analyst Shashank Joshi suggests, we have a limited airforce, and

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn gives his half of the Labour response to Syria

By the time Jeremy Corbyn got to his feet in today’s debate on action in Syria, the House of Commons was in a fractious mood, with interventions from MPs focusing as much on the Labour party as the issue up for debate. The Labour leader did not find much support from his own side, either, with a number of pro-intervention MPs frowning and muttering as he ploughed on with his speech. Hilary Benn appeared to be grinding his teeth during much of the response. It opened, inevitably, with a man who could quite reasonably be described as a ‘terrorist sympathiser’, given his dealings with the IRA and his ‘friends’ in

Sam Leith Sam Leith

While ‘Daesh’ prepare to fight, MPs debate how to hurt their feelings

Today in the Commons the Tory backbencher Rehman Chishti asked: “Will the Prime Minister join me in urging the BBC to review their bizarre policy; when they wrote to me to say that they can’t use the word Daesh because it would breach their impartiality rules? We are at war with terrorists, Prime Minister. We have to defeat their ideology, their appeal. We have to be united in that. Will he join me now in urging the BBC to review their bizarre policy?” https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/cameron-on-what-to-call-isis David Cameron positively purred: “I agree with my honourable friend. I’ve already corresponded with the BBC about their use of IS—Islamic State—which I think is even

The Spectator

Why it’s time for Britain to join our allies in their fight against the Islamic State

The Islamic State is as monstrous an enemy as that has emerged in recent history. It crucifies and decapitates its victims, holds teenage girls in slavery and burns captives alive. It is wrong to call it a medieval force, because such institutionalised barbarity was seldom seen in medieval times. As far as five centuries of records from the Ottoman Empire can establish, stoning was authorised only once. Isis now regularly stones suspected adulterers to death. It is not seeking inspiration from the Middle Ages. We are witnessing a modern form of evil — and it is spreading fast. Labour MPs, now accustomed to receiving threats from hard-left activists, were told this

The Spectator

The best speeches from the Syria airstrikes debate

Welcome to Coffee House’s coverage of the Syria debate in the House of Commons yesterday. Here are the best speeches in favour of and against the motion, with full quotes and audio clips. 10:15pm: The foreign secretary Philip Hammond has closed the debate on behalf of the government, making the case for the airstrikes: 9:45pm: Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn has delivered a rousing speech in favour of the airstrikes that received huge applause from both sides of the Commons. There was a standing ovation for Benn, led by former Tory Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell from Tory backbenches. Quite extraordinary. 9:10pm: former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer has said he is voting against airstrikes, although he

James Forsyth James Forsyth

There are two strong reasons why the UK should join Syrian airstrikes

There is a war in Syria already. Islamic State’s headquarters in Raqqa are already being bombed on a regular basis. These facts are all too frequently forgotten in our debate about whether to extend airstrikes against Islamic State to Syria. But that we would not be the first country to strike Raqqa is not a reason to sit on the side-lines. To my mind, there are two particularly strong reasons for the UK joining the coalition attacking IS in Syria. The first is our obligations as an ally. Post the Paris attacks, the French President has made a direct plea for our help. Imagine how we would feel if Islamic

Sebastian Payne

David Cameron will be kicking himself for calling Corbyn and co ‘terrorist sympathisers’

Today’s debate and vote on airstrikes in Syria has already descended into name calling. At last night’s meeting of Conservative MPs, David Cameron reportedly urged his party to vote for the airstrikes because: ‘You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers’ It’s a line that echoes the Tories’ prior attacks on Corbyn as a threat to Britain’s national security, as well as and the Prime Minister’s accusation in his conference speech this year that the Labour leader ‘hates’ Britain. On a day which was set to be about ideas and arguments, and not personalities, Cameron’s remarks have provided ammunition for Corbyn and his New

Tuesday

Nick Cohen

Corbyn has done enough damage to Labour. It’s time for him to step down

Jeremy Corbyn is a rarity among politicians. All his enemies are on his own side. For the Tories, Ukip and the SNP, Corbyn is a dream made real. They could not love him more. As the riotous scenes at the shadow cabinet and parliamentary Labour party meetings this week showed, his colleagues see Corbyn and John McDonnell as modern Leninists who are mobilising their cadres to purge all dissidents from the party. Conversations with Corbyn’s aides show a gentler side to the new regime, however. They suggest the Corbynistas are unlikely to be able to control Labour MPs when they can barely control themselves. ‘Chaos’ was the word that came

Karwan Jamal Tahir

For us Kurds, Western intervention is a lifeline

In Kurdistan, we have had reason to be grateful for Western intervention. Last June, Daesh captured one third of Iraq overnight and then attacked us. What saved us was swift Western airstrikes, partly from British forces. Now we ask for your help again. We have a border of 650 miles with Daesh. We have pushed them back and recently captured Sinjar – the scene of medieval rape, sexual enslavement and genocide against the Yezedis. Once again, Western airstrikes were vital. Our liberation of Sinjar cut the main supply road between Mosul and the Daesh ‘capital’ of Raqqa – but Daesh can use other roads. We cannot defeat them without international

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s approach to the Syria vote is making a mockery of its MPs

MPs are currently in a cross-party briefing with a number of Cabinet Ministers about tomorrow’s vote on Syria. The Home Secretary, the Foreign Secretary, the Defence Secretary and the International Development Secretary are leading the briefing. Number 10 is very keen to show that MPs have had every opportunity to ask questions, with the Prime Minister’s statement on the Strategic Defence and Security Review last Monday referring to the need for action, as well as his statement in the House on Thursday on his plan for British involvement in air strikes. In that second session, he took questions from 103 MPs. The government has also tried to make it as

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Government publishes Syria motion

In the past few minutes, the government has published the following motion on action in Syria, which you can read below. The Leader of the House Chris Grayling has announced a change to the Commons business which will see PMQs cancelled and this motion debated for 10 hours. The Cabinet today held what the Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman described as a ‘very serious’ discussion, with 20 frontbenchers speaking in favour of the motion. Significantly, when asked whether those present had discussed the question of who the 70,000 moderate opposition forces are, the spokeswoman said ‘that was not a focus of the discussion’, adding ‘it was not a point that was

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tom Watson asks Cameron to delay Syria vote

The biggest problem with Labour’s furious and seemingly endless infighting is that it is preventing the party from doing its job of scrutinising the government. The Shadow Cabinet are largely scrutinising their leader and one another, which makes it easier for David Cameron to be vague about certain aspects of his case for war. But today, Tom Watson has written to the Prime Minister demanding a delay in the vote and clarity on two key points. They are: 1. The detail behind Cameron’s claim that there are ‘approximately 70,000 opposition figures on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups’. 2. A timeline for peace and arrangements for a