December 29, 2009
The execution of Akmal Shaikh by the Chinese authorities should be unreservedly condemned and our Government shouldn’t accept the nonsense from the Chinese that ‘no one has the right to comment on China’s judicial sovereignty.’ That right can only be removed when its judiciary starts to act like one instead of behaving in the appalling manner that it has done in this case.
Mr Shaikh was mentally ill and delusional, but was treated in the same way as a normal person without any consideration being given to his state of mind and his illness. The behavior of the Chinese has been disgraceful and confirms the stereotype of a country that sticks two fingers up to the human rights of not only its citizens but of those belonging to other countries as well.
Our government has made public statements only recently and we have to ask what it has been doing for the past two years when Mr Shaikh was first arrested and found guilty. The EU has recently been collating as much power as possible from nation states regarding foreign policy – so here’s its chance to do something useful for a change.
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China, Foreign Affairs, Politics | Tagged: Akmal shaikh, China, Human Rights | 
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Posted by Imtiaz Ameen
December 9, 2009
During the past four weeks, my wife was in hospital and only eturned home last week after giving birth to a baby girl who we have named Nur Fatima. She is our first child and naturally we are absolutely delighted.
Also on Tuesday 8 December 2009, I was selected as the candidate for the Conservative Party for the May 2010 local elections for the Dewsbury South ward where I was a Councillor between 2003-2007 before I stood down which I am also pleased about.
This blog will be revamped in the next few weeks and from now blogging will resume on a regular basis.
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Conservatives, Dewsbury South, Politics | 
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Posted by Imtiaz Ameen
November 4, 2009
The tragic death of five British soldiers today has once again ignited the debate relating to the aim of the mission in Afghanistan on the same day Kim Howells MP, chairman of the intelligence and security committee and former minister advocating the removal of British troops.
As things stand I don’t support the idea of removing our troops as this would be a massive fillip to the Taliban and its allies and would lead to a surge in Taliban fighters coming into Afghanistan from the border region of Pakistan, once again destabilizing the country and undoing the work that has been carried out by allied troops to date. This would also quite simply be disastrous for Afghanistan, Pakistan and India not to mention the UK. The removal of allied troops would lead to the Taliban and its allies again setting up terrorists training camps specifically training would be terrorists to target the UK and the west which would mean once again taking some sort of military action to deal with these camps in the near future.
Having said that what is unclear is the strategy that we are currently employing in Afghanistan and what the clear goals of the current operation are. There is a great deal of ambiguity about the current operation and while keeping out the Taliban is the obvious aim, the Governments of the UK and US have allowed their initial strategy to drift to the extent that members of the public have no idea what is being done and when the end is likely to come for this operation or when the troops are likely to be pulled out. Alternatively, if the intention is to stay in Afghanistan for a period of say twenty years then this should be categorically stated so that the continued discussion which must be demoralizing for the troops and their families of whether we should pull our troops out each time we sustain casualties is avoided.
I hope that with an incoming Conservative Government there is a clearer strategy and a better explanation of the aims of the mission in Afghanistan.
Leave a Comment » | Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, Terror, Terrorism | Permalink
Posted by Imtiaz Ameen
October 23, 2009
I was unfortunately very disappointed with last nights Question Time and especially the way David Dimbleby chaired the discussion. Everyone knows that the BNP is a racist and vile party. Nick Griffin’s views are equally well known especially those relating to race, immigration and Islam i.e BNP topics. Yet more than three quarters of the show was devoted to these issues with quotes of what Griffin has stated in the past being thrown at him from all sides. Griffin despite being hated by almost all in the audience must have been delighted to have had the chance to say that immigration had been and was still out of control and that Islam was incompatible with western democracy. His message wasn’t to the studio audience but to those living in run down council estates and other deprived areas where such messages are so well received. He had several more open goals and had he not been so nervous and overwhelmed he could have made more of this opportunity to put forward his ideology and get his message across.
The panel discussions should have focused more on current concerns of the population on matters such as the economy, housing, education etc which would have exposed the shallowness of the BNP ideology. The BNP does well when it is criticizing others, highlighting or exposing populist concerns and being entirely negative and blaming a particular group for all society’s ills. Yet it doesn’t do well or win when it has to put forward policies to tackle these concerns or explain them in any detail.
Griffin would have looked even more out of his depth on discussions on education or crime or managing the economy out of the recession. In the end the BBC got its ratings and we didn’t learn anymore than we already knew about the BNP and Nick Griffin, who could have made much more of the oppurtunity afforded to him by the BBC to get his message out but failed to do so.
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BNP, Broken Britain, Conservatives, Economy, Education, Islam, Labour, Politics, Unemployment | Tagged: BNP, Broken Britain, Economy, Islam, UK economy | 
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Posted by Imtiaz Ameen
September 17, 2009
President Obama is to scrap the European missile defence shield which is a major break with the Bush administration and a feather in the cap of Russian intransigence diplomacy. The scrapping of the defence shield is a major triumph for the tough stance the Russians adopted and will give them renewed confidence in any future military/NATO dealings. The Czechs and the poles have been left in limbo and will feel that their defence is not the same priority under President Obama as it was under the previous administration. They will also now have to deal more cautiously with a confident and aggressive Russia.
And perhaps the most important factor in this is the impact of this decision on the Iranians. What should we read into this policy reversal as far as the Iranian nuclear issue is concerned? Does this decision indicate that Washington doesn’t think Iran will in the immediate future acquire a nuclear weapon or does it mean that it is inevitable that the Iranians will acquire a nuclear weapon but that it will leave it to others at a regional level such as the Israelis to contain and deal with? If it is the latter then this is a seriously significant shift in US foreign policy.
Leave a Comment » | Foreign Affairs, Iran, Politics, United States | Tagged: Defence Shield, Iran, President Ahmedinijad, President Obama, Russia | Permalink
Posted by Imtiaz Ameen
September 16, 2009
Leave a Comment » | Conservatives, Economy, Election, Labour, Politics | Tagged: Borrowing, Debt, Economy, Gordon Brown, Labour, Tax and Spend, Tax Cuts, Tax Rises, UK economy, Unemployment | Permalink
Posted by Imtiaz Ameen
September 2, 2009
The duplicity of the Government in dealing with the fallout of the release of al-Megrahi continues to unravel. Its starting position was that it had nothing to do with al-Megrahi’s release which has now shifted to one where it didn’t want him to die in prison.
It would have been far better for the Government to have been honest and simply say that they returned a dying man to his home country in exchange of several lucrative business contracts which would benefit UK businesses – that is most likely the reality of this situation and presumably what everyone believes anyway and to try and suggest otherwise is to take the public for fools.
Leave a Comment » | Foreign Affairs, Labour, Libya, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Imtiaz Ameen