Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
I remember the late, great former MPs who served in the Second World War. We musn’t forget their lessons
When I was elected to the House of Commons in 1987, the post-war generation were very much in charge. Denis Healey, the Labour MP and former beachmaster at Anzio for the allies’ amphibious landing in the Second World War, sat on the other side of the House, while on our side Bob Boscawen and Carol Mather – both decorated with the Military Cross for bravery – were deeply respected government whips.
Mrs Thatcher as Prime Minister had rejected the advice of her early War Cabinet and determined to retake the Falklands by military force. She said in Parliament that military aggression must never pay.
On the night the Berlin Wall came down I was in the smoking room in the House of Commons respectfully listening to Julian Amery and Bob Boscawen talking about international affairs. They pointed out that their fathers’ generation had perished on the western front and their own had delivered Europe from the Nazis and helped set up the international rules-based system and the Bretton Woods institutions. Now it was the end of the Soviet Union. Drinks were ordered. We realised that my generation might be the first not to have to go to war – in Europe – nor send our children into battle.
Roll the clock on nearly 35 years and the ghosts of that generation are watching the reaction of Britain – and Europe – to Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. They will have seen the admirable leadership of Ben Wallace, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, their parliamentary successors. They will also have seen the uncertainty and dithering response of some of our allies, and they will undoubtedly have heard on the BBC flagship current affairs programme Any Questions recently the well-articulated but hideous and fearful sound of appeasement. They will have winced.
We have been here before. At the Munich conference in 1938, the British and French leaders who agreed to hand Hitler part of Czechoslovakia believed they were securing peace. But the most catastrophic conflict of the twentieth century followed. The lesson that should have been learned is that bullies cannot be pacified. Give them an inch, and the tanks will roll in before long.
No one here in Britain, or indeed in the wider world, should be in any doubt: this is vital not just for Ukraine, whose determination to fight for its freedom is undimmed, but for us in Britain and beyond. The war has brought with it the greatest atrocities on our continent in a generation: the death, rape, torture and deportation of civilians on a massive scale. We see the war’s impact spread across Europe, even to our own shores, with espionage, cyber-attacks, disinformation and suspected arson activity. At stake in Ukraine are vital principles. These are not just words found in the United Nations charter – a charter signed by Russia but which she now flagrantly breaks and dishonours; they are essential foundations for the security and prosperity of the entire world. Sovereignty. Territorial integrity. Right, not might.
If Russia were to win in Ukraine, we would be back in a world where the most fundamental international rule –that countries must not seize land from others or resolve disputes by force –was in shreds.
Let no one believe that if Putin succeeded in his illegal invasion and conquered Ukraine, he would stop there. His distaste for Baltic states’ membership of Nato – with their sizeable Russian populations – is well known. An attack on them would cross a red line. Article 5 of Nato’s constitution says that an attack on one is an attack on all and we would be treaty-bound to respond. It is said that when the Oxford Union passed the motion that “this House would not fight for King and country”, Adolf Hitler took note. Putin also is watching, buoyed by the memory of Nato’s silence in the face of Russia’s chemical attacks in Syria, which crossed Obama’s red lines. We must never send the signal that the West is weak and indecisive again.
Ukraine can and will win, provided that we support it enough, fast enough and for long enough. That is why we must use every sinew of our superb global diplomatic capability to lobby and persuade all those who care about freedom and liberty that Ukraine’s fight is our fight, that Russian victory would be unconscionable and we must supply all the weaponry and authorise all the use of it, in any way, that contributes to Ukraine’s plucky and brave defence against aggression and complies with international law and the rules-based system.
The people of Ukraine have shown extraordinary bravery and determination in resisting Putin’s vile war machine. We should support them in their smart move to turn the tables on Putin and show up Russia’s vulnerability to a determined counter-attack. David is beating back Goliath in ways no one would have imagined when the war started. We must help them fight the war none of us can afford to lose.
History has warned us. As Aneurin Bevan said “you don’t have to gaze into a crystal ball when you can read an open book”.
The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP is the shadow foreign secretary