UK Politics

3620 readers

62 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both [email protected] and [email protected] .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

[email protected] appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Downing Street rejects Lammy’s claim Israel broke international law in Gaza (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Downing Street has rejected David Lammy’s assessment that Israel has broken international law by blocking aid to Gaza, in a rare public censure for the foreign secretary.

A spokesperson for the prime minister said on Tuesday morning Israel was “at risk” of breaching humanitarian law, despite Lammy having told the Commons on Monday that the country had definitely done so.

The remarks, hours after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes on Gaza, mark a climbdown after Lammy appeared to have changed the government’s position on one of the most sensitive foreign policy questions it faces.

The public rebuke came less than 24 hours after Lammy told the Commons he believed Israel’s actions broke international law – a key test for whether the UK can continue to sell weapons to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I wouldn't even say that Lammy got rebuked. Just look at the language. They're pretty much just saying "This is the FO's/David Lammy's view, we do not technically endorse it. Please speak to them."

Well done David Lammy! He just earned a bit of respect from me. We could have easily woken up to the news that he'd ben shuffled off or even sacked for this. Or he could have said nothing at all in the first place.

In the context of the govts relationship with Israel I think this is actually good news.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

I wouldn’t even say that Lammy got rebuked. Just look at the language. They’re pretty much just saying “This is the FO’s/David Lammy’s view, we do not technically endorse it. Please speak to them.”

But when you add.

They added: “The government is not an international court, and, therefore, it is up to courts to make judgments.”

Id say that was very much the equivalent of. "Oi Lammy you are not in a position to make such statements as an official. Wind your neck in a bit."

The foreign secretary later said he “could have been clearer” in the chamber, when asked in an interview with Bloomberg if he regretted making the statement.

Could even be interpreted as "neck retracted one click."

In the context of the govts relationship with Israel I think this is actually good news.

When you consider the. "Israel’s actions in Gaza are at clear risk of breaching international humanitarian law"

Yeah, I'd agree they may at least be worrying a little about the need to re-evaluate the relationship, depending on Israels continuing actions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The thing is, the ICC already has an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu. who else are they waiting for?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

They might be waiting to see the outcome of Duterte's ICC case.

load more comments (1 replies)