Parliament’s back - but only for two weeks before we all break up again for the party conferences and Scottish Referendum. It’s all a little unsatisfactory, as there is a huge amount to be discussed.
The world is in a fair degree of chaos. Islamic fundamentalists have taken control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, of parts of Libya and in a great swathe across North and central Africa.
President Obama seems to want military strikes to halt their advance. We provide aid, but are wary of a repeat of last year’s Syria vote... No one seems to have much of an idea what to do about it.
Meanwhile a small wicked group have brought the good name of the rest of their perfectly law-abiding community into disrepute by disgustingly abusing 1,400 children in Rotherham. The various officers and councillors involved, who seem at best to have cast a blind eye to what was going on, must certainly pay with their jobs. But blame must lie fair and square with the filthy swine who carried out these appalling crimes. Everyone is outraged, but no one seems to know what to do about it.
Meanwhile, the Russians have in all but name invaded Ukraine. If they are allowed to get away with this blatant breach of international law and the UN charter, then there will be an eventual threat to places like Poland and the Baltic states, which, of course, are members of Nato and the EU. Any actions there even similar to those in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine would without doubt lead to war. Mr Putin must be dissuaded. Yet no one seems to know how to do so. The French president has dissolved his government, as his economy shows no sign of recovery. My colleague Douglas Carswell resigns his seat to fight a by-election for UKIP, which is counter-productive, even for we Eurosceptics.
And with all of that as background, Parliament goes off for another break to accommodate the party conferences and to allow our Scottish MP friends to campaign to keep Scotland in the union. Despite Alistair Darling’s poor TV performance, the polls look fairly hopeful of a reasonable ‘No’ vote. But if the polls are by any chance wrong, we will be facing massive upheaval in our political and constitutional and national life. If it all goes horribly wrong no-one seems to have the faintest idea what we will do about it.
So I hope that my fellow Parliamentarians have enjoyed their summer break. If no one else knows what to do about it all, surely it is at least our duty to try to bring some order back to the chaos.
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