Thursday, September 3, 2009

Eric Joyce resigns over Afghanistan

Gordon Brown MP

10 Downing Street

LONDON

3 September 2009

Gordon

As you may know, I told Bob Ainsworth some weeks ago that I intended to step down as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Defence Secretary before the start of the new parliamentary term. This seems to me the least disruptive time to do that. I have been privileged to work as PPS to four senior Labour ministers in four government departments and now feel that I can make my best contribution to the Labour effort in parliament by concentrating on helping, as a regular back-bencher, to show that Labour remains sound on matters of Defence.

Labour was returned to power in 1997 on the back of your great success in turning the Economy from a weakness into a strength for Labour. Our continuing success in helping people from all parts of society become more prosperous, while helping the least well-off most, is built upon that. More quietly, during the 90’s, Labour’s then shadow defence team showed how Labour had become, after the disaster of the early 1980s, ’sound’ on Defence. It seems to me that your personal success on the economy won the deal in 1997, while colleagues at Defence sealed it.

We are now, I think, once again at a critical time for Labour and Defence. The Conservatives, of course opportunistically, think they can convince the public that we have lost our empathy with the Defence community. We must not allow this to happen. I know that you have great commitment to our armed forces and this was clear when you visited Afghanistan this week, yet there seem to me to be some problems which need fixing with the greatest urgency.

As you know, two Black Watch soldiers gave their lives during your visit. I do not think the public will accept for much longer that our losses can be justified by simply referring to the risk of greater terrorism on our streets. Nor do I think we can continue with the present level of uncertainty about the future of our deployment in Afghanistan.

I think we must be much more direct about the reality that we do punch a long way above our weight, that many of our allies do far too little, and that leaving the field to the United States would mean the end of NATO as a meaningful proposition. The British people have a proud history of facing such realities. They understand the importance of the allied effort in Afghanistan/Pakistan and I think they would appreciate more direct approach by politicians. We also need to make it clear that our commitment in Afghanistan is high but time limited. It should be possible now to say that we will move off our present war-footing and reduce our forces there substantially during our next term in government.

We also need a greater geopolitical return from the United States for our efforts. For many, Britain fights; Germany pays, France calculates; Italy avoids. If the United States values each of these approaches equally, they will end up shouldering the burden by themselves. The first place to start is an acceptance this week by them, and by the Afghanistan electoral authorities, that there must be a second round in the elections there. I do not think the British people will support the physical risk to our servicemen and women unless they can be given confidence that Afghanistan’s government has been properly elected and has a clear intent to deal with the corruption there which has continued unabated in recent years.

Most important of all, we must make it clear to every serviceman and woman, their families and the British public that we give their well-being the highest political priority. Behind the hand attacks by any Labour figure on senior service personnel are now, to the public, indistinguishable from attacks on the services themselves. Conversely, in my view we should allow our service personnel greater latitude to voice their views on matters which make distinctions between defence and politics pointless.

I believe the next election is ours to win, thanks greatly to your personal great economic success. But we cannot win unless we grip defence. Above all, Labour must remember that service folk and their families are our people. We say that we honour them for their risk, bravery and sacrifice and we must at literally all costs continue to show by our actions that we mean it.

I intend to do what modest amount I can to help from the back-benches.

Yours sincerely

Eric Joyce MP


tip of the manky bandage to Guido

6 comments:

Alan W said...

Resign over Afghanistan? Not really. A desperate attempt to distance himself from a sinking ship and keep his seat.

One thing though, he's just given a glimpse of Labour's stance when they (inevitably) form the Opposition next year. They're going to be anti-war and call for the troops out. It's the kind of bare-faced hypocrisy that we've become used to under New Labour and Joyce has learnt well, sucking at the arses of his masters.

Dick Puddlecote said...

"I believe the next election is ours to win, thanks greatly to your personal great economic success"

Earth to Planet Joyce.

million pound man said...

"helping people become more prosperous"

He got prosperous anyway. The first MP to make a million pounds in expenses.

"personal success on the economy"

A trillion in debt and rising.

"behind the hand attacks on service personnel"

Didn't he 'resign' from the Army because of this....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/226266.stm

Anonymous said...

One of the news channels reported the bits in red in his resignation letter & I thought 'Great a Labour MP who speaks his mind'. However, reading the rest of it here I can see that he is just one of the usual lying Labour mealy mouthed cunts that we know & hate.

Dark Lochnagar said...

He's spent numerous visits to Iraq and Palestine paid by their Govs, so he is right up the Arab's shitepipes. Plus he is the expensive cunt in parliament.

Barking Spider said...

Still, Rab, it makes Bollocks Bob, McSnot, Mandlebum et al look bad again - even if troughing pig Joyce is just another deserting rat.