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In a major first, the new House of Commons committee which aims to give back bench MPs more of a say in Parliamentary business has scheduled a debate this Thursday (9 September) on the subject of British military involvement in Afghanistan - and there will be a 'free vote' for [...]

Total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 334 It was a hell of a choice. Duty ruled that I had to read the Sunday Times today. Should I buy it or pay a £1 on line. I do...

Total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 334It was a hell of a choice.  Duty ruled that I had to read the Sunday Times today. Should I buy it or pay a £1 on line. I do not want to encourage payments for on-line papers - especially Murdoch ones. [...]

Tony Blair was right about Gordon Brown. Today we have confirmation of the bitterness and disagreements at the top of the Blair government. All that spinning and all those stories turn out to have been well founded. [...]

Asset: Saddam Hussein has gone Debits: 100,000 Iraqis killed, 4500 US soldiers dead, $750 billion spent; 3 million Iraqis in local or foreign exile: US and GB world reputations as peace makers damaged.   Heads win Although the heart pulls a different way, the head rules. My vote is for David Miliband’s mental dexterity, gravitas and intellect. He will be [...]

William Hague went to Afghanistan. A fortnight later so did David Cameron. On separate days they reported back to the House so that we backbench MPs could question them. Hague reported: ‘Optimism. Brave soldiers. Taliban on the run. More optimism. Afghan Army and Police getting ready. Shame about the casualties. But above all else optimism.’ Cameron breezily reported: ‘Optimism. Brave soldiers. [...]

Now that US troops have left Iraq (or rather re-named continued occupation as training Iraqi security forces), the spotlight turns to Obama’s pledge, made in November 2009, that the US will begin the transfer of its forces out of Afghanistan in July 2011, less than a year away.   However US [...]

When US troops left Iraq recently, some were criticised heavily for saying “We won”. It wasn’t that kind of war. The understandable wish of young people in a dangerous job to claim their presence had been worth it, the soldier’s [...]

Which political party members are smiling after 100 days of coalition? The answer is a bit of a surprise. The Tories have gorged on the Daily Mail diet of low hanging fruit. It will turn nauseous on them. Yes there is applause in scrapping speed cameras as part of the armistice [...]

Total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 332 What a pathetic defence. Under friendly fire in Bristol, Clegg defended the Liberal Democrats' record in government, claiming the party was pushing for fairer policies, for example, the restoration of the earnings link for state pensions from next April. It was said [...]

The US  retreat from Iraq silently under cover of night says it all.   But there are painful lessons, wholly contrary to the spin, which Western opinion (and particularly US opinion) needs to learn but will find hard to swallow.  For almost everything about this catastrophe was wrong from start to [...]

Total number of British Soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 331 There is sad anniversary tomorrow in Gwent. It will be exactly a year since Abergavenny soldier Private Richard  Hunt died from wounds suffered in Afghanistan. His death attracted a great deal of publicity because he was the 200th soldier to die. [...]

Total number of British Soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 330If I had done this as MP, my wife would have divorced me  - possibly posthumously.Spent the day in deepest North West Leicester-shire hunting out anecdotes about the subject of my new book. David Taylor MP died without warning on Boxing [...]

Whilst many of you have written in support of withdrawing our army from Germany, some have expressed the conventional objections that we need to use the housing in Germany, and we need the tank training that the German facilities permit. These [...]

The staggering Wikileaks evidence proves that Nato Governments have been lying about the failure of policies in Afghanistan  for the past nine years. Hitting back Time magazine published the mutilated face  of a wife punished by her husband, with the headline "What happens if we leave Afghanistan?" It's crude emotional blackmail. A [...]

Today I wish to start a debate about why we have armed forces, what we expect of them and how they should be shaped, deployed and supported in the future. The [...]

For the past 25 years members of local peace groups re-dedicate themselves to the campaign for international  harmony. Flowers are cast on the waters of Tredegar Park Lake to recall a similar ceremony in Hiroshima.   Arguments still rage on the need to bomb the two Japanese cities. Some argue that it shortened the war and [...]

 Tomorrow (Friday 6th August) annual peace commemoration of Hiroshima at the Lakeside Tredegar Park Newport at 6.30  to 7.00pm. Poems, peace readings and flowers to cast on the waters of the lake. La GrippeA bit more reality from France on the Swine Flu pandemic that never was. FRANCE'S swine flu vaccination [...]

Dennis Robinson told the bishop his sermon had made him proud to be an atheist. David is the father of a Welsh soldier killed in Afghanistan. He  accused a Bishop Tom Burns of “hijacking” his son’s funeral service for political propaganda. Not for the fisrt time. The Bishop had previously preached [...]

Total of British soldiers killd in Afghanistan = 327The fog of carefully contrived bluster and confusion on Swine Flu is disappearing. I have been putting in parliamentary queries. They designed to get answers to the questions that Government inquiry did not ask. One answer has been taken up by a perceptive [...]

Advance is retreat The last tragic chapter of our Afghan tragedy  is replicating old futilities. As we retreat from Northern Helmand a morale boost is needed to present failure as success. Operation Black Prince seeks to 'clear a stronghold' named Saidabad. Serious students of military news might remembers that this area has [...]