The UK has lost influence since Brexit to become just one of many “middle powers” in the world, former foreign secretary David Miliband has said.
Writing for the Observer, Miliband, now president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said that in order to reverse the decline, the UK needed to enter new “structures and commitments” with the EU on foreign policy.
The 7th, 10th, whatever it is, largest economy, and one of what, 5 nuclear (admitted at least) powers, loses influence by being independent instead of 1/27th of a collective?
Always was, always will be an arsehole.
The UK has lost influence? Good, that means we no longer need to worry about our much-vaunted “international reputation”. We can proceed to withdraw from the ECHR, cancel Net Zero, and so on; safe in the knowledge that other countries are no longer influenced by us.
The UK’s influence is what was left over when the UK ceased to be a serious global power. Now, it’s merely a comfort blanket for inadequate politicians who caused the UK to cease to be a serious global power.
But we MUST ‘Punch above our weight’ because, err, anyone remember why?
Dave Millipede as Jeff Tracy?! Bit of a stretch for my knackered old brain.
With a wig, he might pass as a trans Lady Penelope…
“Soft Power” ie enriching African dictators or paying for Indian spacerockets while China builds them football stadia and holds their knackers with unrepayable loans.
The same tired old mantra about influence in the EU and where did it get us ?
Twat
Probably fed up in his current post as he has so little power and wishes that an EU commissioner job was still on the list of cushy numbers for his next role.
Always was, always will be an arsehole.
Two foreign secretaries, both called Dave, both complete arseholes.
I was going to add the Right Honourable Baron Owen but with hindsight he came nowhere near the elevated level of manipulative and insincere twattery achieved by his inferior namesakes.
We had no influence in the EU and the EU doesn’t seem to be as influential as it thinks it is so I’m not sure what difference our secession made.
Having a sluggish economy and a series of lightweight Prime Ministers has done more damage to our reputation than Brexit.
Influence always comes at a price. Last time I shook him, Piggy was empty
Maybe not a “World Power” if you are unable to stop thousands of people in rubber dinghies invading you most weeks.
The Miliband brother who had to be wangled into Oxford by his father’s left wing pals, that Miliband?
However dim Ed might be I’ve never seen such a claim about him.
Anyhoo, the correct complaint about the UK’s place in the world is that we have made ourselves a satrapy of the USA.
Just another example of Enoch Was Right.
unable to stop thousands of people in rubber dinghies invading you most weeks.
I’ve been rereading Max Hasting’s book on Bomber Command. The bit where it bombs Hitler’s invasion barges. And there is still that Lancaster, isn’t there? It’s hard not to put two & two together & come up with a solution.
Being dim is one of the requirements of getting into Oxford isn’t it dearieme? That & being avaricious & having useful relatives &/or pals.
Nah, BiS. Being bloody clever is your most certain route in.
Oooo, my friends at Davos won’t talk to me! It’s a disaster!
The UK has lost influence since Brexit to become just one of many “middle powers” in the world, former foreign secretary David Miliband has said
Did he mention how many passports for those other middle powers he has, while rubbing his hands, greasily?
Miliband, now president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee,
Thunderbirds are gay!
@dearieme When you’re bloody clever Oxford would be at the very bottom of places that’d be available to you and that you can choose from…
“Oxford would be at the very bottom of places that’d be available to you” Where do you have in mind? American undergraduate education has always been feeble so you’d not go there until/if you wanted some postgraduate work.
Sur le Continong ETH is, or used to be, very good. Further afield you might consider NUS. Naturally I assume that a kid contemplating Oxford isn’t bright enough for Cambridge.
If middle powers just means anywhere not as mahoosive as the USA or China but still with a decent sized population, economy and army, then why would you expect the UK to be anything higher up the ladder than a middle power? For all the declinism there’s no reasonable definition by which we are outside the top 20 global powers, so really middle powers means “upper middle”. If we had a population of 200 million and you scaled up our armed forces and army to match, then you could make a meaningful comparison with the US – we would be smaller, poorer and weaker but broadly within the same bracket, or at least the tier below. But with the population and, frankly, land area that we’ve got, then of course comparing us to the USA or China is going to look silly.
So I don’t get all the woe-is-me over this. What’s the alternative, invade our rightful French territories and take Ireland back to boost our population and resources to less “middling” levels? Encourage the USA to tear itself apart into more palatable constituent states in a devastating civil war, then do the same to China, so totally screwing over the global (and hence our own) economy but at least put us among the first rank of the powers still standing?
Oddly for all that the Left decry how the Right have never got over the loss of Empire, it’s often left europhiles who bang on about us not being so influential as we used to be when a third of the world was painted pink. I mean, what do they expect?
Sticking broadly to the subject of Foreign Secretaries todays bbc news front page features this story:-
The Foreign Office should be abolished and replaced by a new Department for International Affairs with “fewer colonial era pictures on the wall”.
I suspect they’d rather abolish this country and replace it with something with less history. Who’d have guessed British diplomats and Pol Pot would be on the same page?
Parliament should give the new department “core objectives and mandates” that “endure beyond the tenure of individual ministers” to avoid repeated short term policy change, the authors say.
Seriously? The concept of civil service departments taking any notice of mere ministers is about as antiquated as their “colonial pictures”. A distant memory of times long passed with entirely different values.
@John
“A distant memory of times long passed with entirely different values.”
But more lions……..