Miliband To Claim Refugee Disaster Was Partly Cameron's Fault

[Zacs-Master]

Barrel scraping tactics?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32441968

[mrs_overall]

I cannot take seriously anything that comes out of the mouth of Bernie Winter's secret love child (Milliband)

[Zacs-Master]

Me neither. I don't know who has his hand up his backside but he comes across as a puppet of someone rather than being his own man.

[dannyk13]

A new low from Wallace..

[mrs_overall]

My shouting at the TV is usually restricted to quiz contestants who don't know easy answers, but of late, every time Milliband appears, I find myself shouting "buffoon"

[jim360]

The precise wording will be very important, which is why all of these pre-speech announcements tend to irritate me rather. Why not wait until he's actually said it? Ho hum.

In as much as Libyan intervention should have been more complete after the invasion, he is right. But, before Ed Miliband makes too much of this, he might care to wonder why it was that there was no enthusiasm for "boots on the ground" and a larger involvement. The main reason? at least as I see it, it's because the West lost its appetite for interventionalist foreign policy during and after the mess made in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several hundred deaths among UK forces and with little to show for it -- and several thousand deaths among US forces with the same lack of results -- have turned us off getting involved in foreign countries to any extent that puts soldiers' lives at risk. Even though it was necessary to have some forces in Libya after Gadaffi's fall to help ensure a stable aftermath, this was never an option people would have voted for, and so the leaders of NATO countries in particular felt they had to stay out.

If Miliband wants to assign any personal blame, then, he might care to look in Tony Blair's direction.

[retrocop]

Who does Miliband blame for the infinitely more civilian deaths in Iraq where there was a great lack of post war planning and a certain past Labour PM walked away from?
Yes .Miliband has my contempt for his disgusting insinuations to score points.
Is it the norm for Labourites to open mouth and insert foot I wonder?

[douglas9401]

Not that two wrongs make a right but this is only politics.
The attempted smears on Miliband's father were something worse so let's not start jumping up and down and defending other 'honourable' gentlemen too quickly.

[jno]

sounds like fair comment to me. Britain's half-hearted yes-we're-intervening-no-we're-not approach to conflict in recent years has left the worst of all possible worlds: lost friends and gained new enemies.

As for the Tories throwing their hands in the air shouting "Don't mention the war..." Sorry, but they've been the ones in power, so they need to defend their record.

[ichkeria]

I don't think he is "blaming Cameron"
He is right to point out that we should have done more post-airstrikes and removal of Gaddafi to bolster the Libya's fragile government, During the Gaddafi years all normal government institutions were run down to more or less nothing. Added to the problem of the tribal nature of the country's inhabitants. Maybe it would have been an impossible task, but I can't believe there was much in the way of proper assistance. You cannot just assume that because you help get rid of a dictator that everything is simply going to fall into place. And before anyone says we should not have helped get rid of Gaddafi, well, we didn;t help get rid of Assad either and that turned out no better. The fact is that at the time of the coalition intervention Libya was already sliding into chaotic civil war without our help

[Zacs-Master]

Whatever the historical background, it is pretty shameful to throw the political mud around in this fashion, especially considering, as some have pointed out, the dire record Labour have in this arena.

[Svejk]

Even the Labour sycophants on the Today programme went off this story as the morning went on.

[Zacs-Master]

Good! There is some sense in the Labour party then.

[sp1814]

And bizarrely, when Farage said the same thing five days ago, not a peep on the AnswerBank.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/19/farage-cameron-blame-migrant-deaths-mediterranean-sarkozy-libya-gaddafi-ukip

Why?

[jno]

because British politics is as tribal as Libya, sp1814?

[Zacs-Master]

Because he's no chance of being the country's leader, I would assume.

[ichkeria]

What Farage said wasn't the same thing at all. He claimed that we should not have got involved in the first place. What Miliband is saying is that we should have done more afterwards. And he's right of course.
Farage sees everything in terms of its potential to stop migrants. Gaddafi presumably scored high on the Ukipometer in that respect along with a few others ...

[jno]

then that makes it purely playing politics on both sides, doesn't it, Zac?

Because in factual terms it was just as "absolutely offensive" and "pretty distasteful" (or, in my opinion, not) no matter who it came from. But they're only upset because of who said it, not because of what was said.

[Svejk]

Farage is right, it is partly Camoron's fault. But as it's much more the Labour Party's fault, Milibug has got some nerve to be flinging stones.
Farage can, because he didn't start any wars and he didn't scour the world for immigrants to bring here.

[berniecuddles]

quite simple really milliband=tory government again!! happy voting

[mushroom25]

interesting that the conservatives are demanding an apolgy for something that hasn't even been said yet - as Jim alluded to above, miliband's spin doctors may have applied the gun to their feet.