First Pegida march pisses off peacefully

THE FIRST Pegida march in Britain, held in the Bigg Market in Newcastle on Saturday, passed off without major incident, according to police sources.

Pegida, a group that stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West^, is a German right-wing anti-Islam political organisation, founded in Dresden last October.

In Germany, it has had a fair amount of success with up to 25,000 people participating in an event held over there in January.

However, the group's attempts to spread internationally have not been as successful with little more than a smattering of protesters heading to rallies in Norway and Denmark.

The event in Newcastle was meant to be different, reinvigorating the Pegida cause by making a strong first impression in this country.

Heavily trailed on social media sites, organisers claimed the Tyneside city had been selected as there was apparently already a groundswell of support for the group.

But, ultimately, the reality was rather different. Yes, on the day itself, the Pegida supporters were outnumbered five-to-one by a counter-demonstration organised by Newcastle Unites.

For, while there were officially only 375 Pegida attendees, approximately 2,000 people marched from Gallowgate to Newgate Street against them at about the same time.

The disparity left the Pegida organisers blaming transport problems for their own paltry turnout. It was, in the end, all a rather pathetic damp squib.

Of course, Newcastle has been here before - even quite recently. In 2010, the English Defence League occupied the same spot as Pegida in a similarly unconvincing display of alleged strength.

And perhaps the reason why Newcastle was targeted again comes down to the fact that the north east region of England has fewer ethnic minorities living in it than any other part of the country.

Presumably the line of thinking goes that a lack of exposure to a multiracial society allows ignorance and fear to fester - and that this makes the area attractive to the likes of Pegida.

But, while that is evidently true in a minority of cases, it seems the far-right regularly misjudge the overall mood of the city of Newcastle itself.

After all, the de facto regional capital is not typical of the area as a whole - with a far lower proportion of those identifying as white British (83.61%) than the overall north east figure of 92.43%.

Even just a five-minute walk out to the west end of the town would confirm Newcastle is a far more diverse place to live than it is often given credit for.

Additionally, Newcastle United Football Club - based at the heart of the city - currently has one of the most ethnically diverse squads in the Premier League.

The Magpies regularly field Muslims in their starting line-up with Papiss Cisse wearing the iconic number nine shirt, and Moussa Sissoko, Cheik Tiote and Mehdi Abeid all featuring in midfield.

For their part, Pegida supporters deny it is racist or fascist but instead is concerned with the supposed "Islamification" of Britain.

But that claim was rather undermined by the fact that EDL and National Front banners could be seen in the Bigg Market.

Of course, recent events - such as the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris and the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - have made the religion of Islam a hot topic of debate once again in Britain.

There are no doubt legitimate concerns about "ordinary Muslims" being radicalised and about organisations like Cage acting as unashamed apologists for the masked lunatic Mohammed Emwazi, better known as "Jihadi John".

But, although those concerns exist quite legitimately, turning to extremists to fight extremism is simply never the answer.

Thankfully, at the weekend, the people of Newcastle agreed with that and so left the Pegida lot looking rather daft.

^ Pegida in German = Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes

Back to Iraq

BRITAIN will take part in air strikes over Iraq after MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the ongoing military action against ISIS.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the country had a "duty to take part" and that there was "no option to walk on by".

He added: "This is not the stuff of fantasy. It is happening in front of us and we need to face up to it."

Earlier this week, Mr Cameron had returned from his trip to the United Nations headquarters in New York to recall Parliament and raise a motion in favour of the strikes.

And, following a seven-hour debate in the House of Commons yesterday, the proposal was backed by the massive margin of 524 to 43.

That result stands in stark contrast to a similar vote just over a year ago. Back then, Mr Cameron embarrassingly lost in the Commons after proposing to take action against Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria.

This time, though, the mood in Westminster has been rather different. Assurances have been sought that Britain would not commit itself to ground troops or involve itself in the bombing of Syria - which, unlike Iraq, has not appealed for outside help.

And, with the wording of the motion confirming action was being restricted to air strikes over Iraq only, the outcome of the division was pretty obvious from the outset.

Of course, this decision to back military action comes after weeks and weeks of unremittingly grim news from the Middle East with ISIS having taken control of vast areas of Iraq and Syria.

More recently, the group has struck much closer to home, releasing a video this month of the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.

Another volunteer aid worker, Alan Henning from Eccles in Salford, remains in its clutches, his family this week having received an audio file of him pleading for his life.

Unsurprisingly then, it is not just the politicians who are in support of the strikes.

Recent polling shows that the British public are also now far more in favour of action against ISIS than they were of an intervention against Syria last year.

Yet, even these numbers show there is a fair proportion of people who remain war weary from the previous large-scale conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the campaign in Libya in 2011.

Dissenting MPs raised concerns in the debate and questioned the worryingly open-ended length of time which has been committed towards the campaign.

Mr Cameron admitted that the mission "will take not just months, but years" - while some of his other statements further seemed to raise the prospect of mission creep.

After all - if it had been up to the Conservative leader, then British forces would now be preparing to bomb Syria too. It was only a lack of consensus in the Commons which prevented this.

Remarkably then, for the third time in less than 24 years, it is Iraq which is the focus of a bombing campaign including British forces. 

Yes, of course, this is somewhat different to the 2003 invasion in terms of its legality and even in terms of its morality.

But that still does not mean the air strikes will necessarily actually work.

ISIS may now control large swathes of northern Iraq - however, it remains more of an idea and a belief system than a geographical area.

Arguably, the group has been borne out of a hatred of western intervention in Iraq and the wider Middle East.

And so, in this context, yet more air strikes can surely only be considered counter-productive in the long term.

Therefore, as sad and frustrating as it would have been, this was a time which Britain should have engaged in regrettable isolationism.

The engagement of Special Forces with highly specific missions to free trapped British hostages is surely something nobody reasonable would oppose.

But yet another general bombing campaign seems to be a depressingly simplistic fall-back option to a hideously complex problem.

Philosopher George Santayana once said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

It feels, at the moment, as if we seem condemned to repeat it to fade.

THE MOTION

"That this House:
- Condemns the barbaric acts of ISIL against the peoples of Iraq including the Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Christians and Yazidi and the humanitarian crisis this is causing;
- Recognizes the clear threat ISIL pose to the territorial integrity of Iraq and the request from the Government of Iraq for military support from the international community and the specific request to the UK Government for such support;
- Further recognizes the threat ISIL poses to wider international security and the UK directly through its sponsorship of terrorist attacks and its murder of a British hostage;
- Acknowledges the broad coalition contributing to military support of the Government of Iraq, including countries throughout the Middle East;
- Further acknowledges the request of the Government of Iraq for international support to defend itself against the threat ISIL poses to Iraq and its citizens, and the clear legal basis that this provides for action in Iraq;
- Notes that this motion does not endorse UK air strikes in Syria as part of this campaign, and any proposal to do so would be subject to a separate vote in Parliament;
- Accordingly supports Her Majesty’s Government, working with allies, in supporting the Government of Iraq in protecting civilians and restoring its territorial integrity, including the use of UK air strikes to support Iraqi, including Kurdish, security forces’ efforts against ISIL in Iraq;
- Notes that Her Majesty’s Government will not deploy UK troops in ground combat operations;
- Offers its wholehearted support to the men and women of Her Majesty’s armed forces."

VOTING AGAINST THE MOTION
Labour (23)
Diane Abbott, Graham Allen, Anne Begg, Ronnie Campbell, Martin Caton, Katy Clark, Ian Davidson, Paul Flynn, Stephen Hepburn, Kate Hoey, Kelvin Hopkins, Sian James, Mark Lazraowicz, John Mc Donnell, Iain McKenzie, Austin Mitchell, Grahame Morris, George Mudie, Linda Riordan, Barry Sheerman, Dennis Skinner, Graham Stringer, Mike Wood, Jeremy Corbyn (Teller).
Conservatives (6)
Richard Bacon, John Baron, Gordon Henderson, Adam Holloway, Nigel Mills, Mark Reckless
Lib Dems (1)
Julian Huppert
Scottish Nationalists (6)
Stewart Hosie, Angus Roberton, Mike Weir, Eilidh Whiteford, Angus Brendan McNeill, Pete Wishart (Teller) 
Others (7)
Mark Durkan, Alasdair McDonnell, Margaret Ritchie, Jonathan Edwards, Hywel Williams, George Galloway, Caroline Lucas

Cameron urged to step back on Syria

WAR drums are being beaten again as the Syria crisis gradually reaches its international tipping point - but any action will almost certainly not involve British forces.

Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday in Cornwall and recalled Parliament to raise a motion supporting the principle of yet more military intervention in the Middle East.

But, embarrassingly for Mr Cameron, the vote in the House of Commons was surprisingly lost last night by 285 to 272 as MPs from all sides used their conscience and listened to the public.

For better or worse, and probably for better, the shadow of the Iraq war still looms large - and, as a Yougov poll demonstrated this week, there is little support in the country for another bombing campaign.

Indeed, 50% of respondents said they would oppose a missile attack while 25% supported the idea. Even Conservative voters were against the strikes by 45% to 33%.

Now, undoubtedly, there are some absolutely horrible things happening in Syria at the moment. You only have to see the news headlines and the television pictures of the people dying and suffering to work that out.

President Bashar al-Assad also appears to be a tyrant in trouble, willing to do anything to stay in power - and so it hardly takes a huge leap of logic to consider he would use chemical weapons on his opponents.

Importantly, though, from a British perspective, the actual situation on the ground in Syria remains as clear as mud. Was it definitely Assad who used the chemical weapons or was it the rebels using it to raise stakes and effectively invite Western intervention?

For his part, even Mr Cameron admitted in the debate before the division that there was no "one smoking piece of intelligence" which made it 100% certain the Assad regime was behind the atrocity.

At least this represented a more honest presentation than the one delivered by Tony Blair a decade ago about Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Nevertheless, it was only the result of an intervention by Labour leader Ed Miliband which prevented Mr Cameron from ordering immediate military strikes.

The Prime Minister was also forced to back down and perform perhaps his biggest U-turn yet after deep reservations about rushing a decision were also raised by his own backbenchers.

In fact, with about 30 Labour MPs absent, it was then those very same backbenchers who caused him to be defeated last night.

Notably, the BBC political correspondent Iain Watson had mentioned earlier on Twitter: "Senior conservatives saying to me that [the] chief whip misread the mood of the party on Syria".

And so it came to pass. Mr Cameron, while obviously disappointed, was left in no position other than to respect the wishes of Parliament.

Thus, the vote has become a momentous, historical, shift in power away from the executive to the legislature.

Of course, theoretically, Prime Ministers do not need the support of the Commons to go to war. Realistically, from now on though, any future PM would need to consult Parliament for approval.

It is difficult to see that happening any time soon - as while, doubtless, the MPs who voted against intervening last night did so with a heavy conscience, it has been decided that British forces have been in enough conflict recently.

That will not necessarily stop the United States, of course - although Assad's long-time ally Russia seems sure to have something to say about any use of force.

Already, both ex-Cold War adversaries have sent warships to the Mediterranean while holding discussions with the other permanent members of the UN Security Council.

But, increasingly, it looks as if no resolution will come from the Security Council unless Russia and China abstain as they did for Libya, rather than use their veto.

If the vetoes were used on this occasion, and the USA (and other Western powers such as France) still launched missiles amid a civil war in Syria, it would surely only further worsen the situation there.

Bombs to stop bombs has rarely been the right answer in recent times.

And so, while it is a pipe dream at the moment, my final wishes on this posting must be simply to hope Syria - and indeed the wider Middle East - will eventually find peace.

It has to happen someday.

WHEN PARLIAMENT HITS BACK
Full list of 285 MPs who voted against the principle of military action in Syria
Conservative (30) David Amess, Steve Baker, Richard Bacon, John Baron, Andrew Bingham, Crispin Blunt, Fiona Bruce, Tracey Crouch, David TC Davies, Philip Davies, David Davis, Nick de Bois, Richard Drax, Gordon Henderson, Philip Hollobone, Adam Holloway, Dr Phillip Lee, Dr Julian Lewis, Tim Loughton, Jason McCartney, Nigel Mills, Anne Marie Morris, Andrew Percy, Sir Richard Shepherd, Sir Peter Tapsell, Andrew Turner, Martin Vickers, Charles Walker, Chris White, Dr Sarah Wollaston 
Labour (224) Diane Abbott, Debbie Abrahams, Bob Ainsworth, Douglas Alexander, Heidi Alexander, Rushanara Ali, Graham Allen, David Anderson, Jonathan Ashworth, Adrian Bailey, William Bain, Ed Balls, Gordon Banks, Kevin Barron, Hugh Bayley, Margaret Beckett, Anne Begg, Hilary Benn, Joe Benton, Luciana Berger, Clive Betts, Gordon Birtwistle, Tom Blenkinsop, David Blunkett, Kevin Brennan, Lyn Brown, Nicholas Brown, Russell Brown, Chris Bryant, Karen Buck, Andy Burnham, Liam Byrne, Alan Campbell, Ronnie Campbell, Martin Caton, Jenny Chapman, Katy Clark, Tom Clarke, Vernon Coaker, Ann Coffey, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Mary Creagh, Stella Creasy, Jon Cruddas, Alex Cunningham, Jim Cunningham, Tony Cunningham, Margaret Curran, Simon Danczuk, Alistair Darling, Wayne David, Gloria De Piero, John Denham, Jim Dobbin, Frank Dobson, Thomas Docherty, Frank Doran, Stephen Doughty, Jim Dowd, Gemma Doyle, Jack Dromey, Michael Dugher, Angela Eagle, Maria Eagle, Clive Efford, Julie Elliott, Louise Ellman, Natascha Engel, Bill Esterson, Chris Evans, Paul Farrelly, Frank Field, Jim Fitzpatrick, Robert Flello, Caroline Flint, Paul Flynn, Hywel Francis, Mike Gapes, Barry Gardiner, Sheila Gilmore, Pat Glass, Mary Glindon, Roger Godsiff, Paul Goggins, Helen Goodman, Tom Greatrex, Kate Green, Nia Griffith, Andrew Gwynne, David Hamilton, Fabian Hamilton, Harriet Harman, Tom Harris, Dai Havard, John Healey, Mark Hendrick, Stephen Hepburn, Meg Hillier, Margaret Hodge, Kate Hoey, Jim Hood, Kelvin Hopkins, George Howarth, Tristram Hunt, Huw Irranca-Davies, Glenda Jackson, Sian James, Cathy Jamieson, Dan Jarvis, Alan Johnson, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jones, Tessa Jowell, Eric Joyce, Gerald Kaufman, Liz Kendall, Sadiq Khan, David Lammy, Ian Lavery, Mark Lazarowicz, Chris Leslie, Emma Lewell-Buck, Ivan Lewis, Ian Lucas, Fiona Mactaggart, Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mahmood, Seema Malhotra, John Mann, Gordon Marsden, Steve McCabe, Michael McCann, Kerry McCarthy, Gregg McClymont, Andy McDonald, John McDonnell, Pat McFadden, Alison McGovern, Jim McGovern, Anne McGuire, Ann McKechin, Iain McKenzie, Catherine McKinnell, Michael Meacher, Alan Meale, Edward Miliband, Andrew Miller, Madeleine Moon, Jessica Morden, Graeme Morrice, Grahame M. Morris, George Mudie, Jim Murphy, Paul Murphy, Ian Murray, Lisa Nandy, Pamela Nash, Fiona O'Donnell, Chi Onwurah, Sandra Osborne, Albert Owen, Teresa Pearce, Toby Perkins, Bridget Phillipson, Stephen Pound, Lucy Powell, Nick Raynsford, Jamie Reed, Steve Reed, Rachel Reeves, Jonathan Reynolds, Linda Riordan, John Robertson, Geoffrey Robinson, Steve Rotheram, Frank Roy, Lindsay Roy, Chris Ruane, Joan Ruddock, Anas Sarwar, Andy Sawford, Alison Seabeck, Virenda Sharman, Barry Sheerman, Jim Sheridan, Gavin Shuker, Dennis Skinner, Andy Slaughter, Andrew Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Smith, Jack Straw, Graham Stringer, Gisela Stuart, Gerry Sutcliffe, Mark Tami, Gareth Thomas, Emily Thornberry, Stephen Timms, Jon Trickett, Derek Twigg, Stephen Twigg, Chuka Umunna, Keith Vaz, Valerie Vaz, Joan Walley, Tom Watson, Dave Watts, Dr Alan Whitehead, Chris Williamson, Phil Wilson, David Winnick, Rosie Winteron, Mike Wood, David Wright, Iain Wright
Liberal Democrats (9) Paul Burstow, Mike Crockart, Andrew George, Mike Hancock, Julian Huppert, Dan Rogerson, Andrew Stunell, Ian Swales, Sarah Teather, Roger Williams
Scottish & Welsh Nationalists (9) Jonathan Edwards, Stewart Hosie, Elfyn Llwyd, Angus MacNeil, Angus Robertson, Mike Weir, Dr Eilidh Whiteford, Hywel Williams, Pete Wishart
Various Northern Irish MPs (7) Gregory Campbell, Nigel Dodds, Jeffrey Donaldson, Brian Donohoe, Mark Durkan, Lady Hermon, Naomi Long, Alasdair McDonnell, Margaret Ritchie, Jim Shannon, Sammy Wilson
Others (2) George Galloway, Caroline Lucas