British Conservative governments generally don’t really do ‘Foreign Policy’. With the exception of the Suez Crisis and the Falklands war, they have tended to err on the side of caution. This government in particular seems to have been almost rigidly focused on domestic issues of rolling back the debt, so that when a genuine international crisis like the Arab Spring uprising comes along they seem have been even less unprepared than their western neighbours.
James Forsyth worries that it’s leading to a bad appearance:
The political danger of all this is that it adds to Labour’s narrative about government incompetence. Alexander rattled off the list of government bungles on Libya: Hague’s suggestion that Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela, the delayed evacuation and the government getting ahead of itself in talking up a no-fly zone. Put these together with the SAS incident and you don’t get a positive impression…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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