Patrick Wintour
Republicans ban Brit pol
Despite Blair support in Iraq war, GOP won't let Labour official on convention floor.
The Republican party in America has barred a Labour MP from the floor of its convention, allegedly on the grounds that he is not sufficiently conservative.
The excluded Alan Williams, a veteran Welsh MP and member of the liaison committee of MPs, said last night that the same problem had occurred four years ago at the previous convention, although a last-minute deal then had given him access to the floor as a member of an all-party British delegation. Last night he said that no compromise had been possible this time: a shame given the considerable support the prime minister, Tony Blair, had given the Bush administration on Iraq.
Continue Reading CloseMixed reviews
Critics say Bush's offer to double U.S. aid to Africa by 2010 is too little, and too slow.
Downing Street hailed a promise by George W. Bush to double aid to Africa Thursday, saying it helped Tony Blair’s big goal of boosting aid to Africa by $25 billion by 2010.
But Bush’s offer, centering initially on a $1.2 billion injection to cut malaria deaths in half by 2010, was greeted skeptically by aid agencies, some of which claimed the bulk of the money was coming from already earmarked U.S. funds and was anyway likely to be rejected by the Republican Congress.
The British agencies, including ActionAid, also claimed the boost in cash would not come for five years — behind the timetable set by the Commission for Africa. No. 10 experts accepted that the “precise timetable for the upward curve in spending” was not yet clear.
Continue Reading CloseBroken promises
Bush declines to increase U.S. aid for Africa as a new U.N. report reveals the expected toll in child deaths from the failure to reduce global poverty.
Three million children will die in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the failure of the global community to meet its promise of slashing the death rates of children under age 5 by 2015, the United Nations is to reveal Wednesday. With Tony Blair Tuesday struggling to persuade George W. Bush to back Britain’s ambitious plans for Africa, the U.N. Development Program said the human cost to Africa in child deaths would be the equivalent of twice the combined under-5 population of New York, London and Tokyo.
Continue Reading CloseWishing Kerry well
Is the British government secretly hoping for a Democratic victory in November?
John Kerry supporters in America have been told by Peter Hain that Downing Street is hoping the Democratic candidate wins the U.S. presidential election in November.
Hain, who sits in the Cabinet as leader of the Commons, has been in the U.S. on a mostly private visit. He met Labor supporters in New York, as well as members of the Kerry team. He has declined to discuss the visit, and his public remarks at a party thrown by former Sunday Times Editor Harold Evans were largely bland. But in private discussions with guests, his tone was markedly different.
Continue Reading Close“Where is American diplomacy?”
UK report reveals fears for future of Palestinians.
The United States is losing interest in the Middle East peace process and prospects of creating a viable Palestinian state are gradually disappearing as a result, a British government assessment of the Palestinian crisis warns.
The analysis, written by the Department for International Development (DfID) in consultation with the Foreign Office, reveals the alarm within Whitehall at the disengagement of the Bush administration from events in Israel and the occupied territories.
It warns: “The role of the USA, the country with the most leverage over Israel, is key. Frustration with aspects of the Palestinian leadership, preoccupations in Iraq, presidential elections and security concerns for US citizens may risk USA disengagement at the highest levels from the peace process when it is most likely to start collapsing.”
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