Clearout

Sir Malcolm Rifkind was superb on Iraq. But something unfortunate seems to have come over him where Syria is concerned. He claims that Ed Miliband's approach to these matters would make it impossible to repel a (not very likely) invasion of the Falkland Islands. Of course, it would mean no such thing.

Rather, it would mean the pursuit a strictly self-defensive foreign and security policy - isolationist, if you will - while observing the canonical requirements of internationalism. No liberal intervention could ever achieve the required level of consensus, so Britain would never participate in such. Britain would therefore wage war only ever in self-defence. Genius. Pure genius.

For Miliband to pursue this, however, he will need to confront his own party staff, many of whom are fossils from the Blair Period, and will therefore have found themselves deeply disoriented by the last week's events. Well, such a clearout is overdue, anyway. It may as well be over this as over anything else.

With the Constitution having just evolved in order to require the approval of the House of Commons  prior to military intervention, Prospective Parliamentary Candidates ought to be required to sign a public statement that they would never vote, and understood that they would lose the Whip if they did vote, for any military action other than to repel such actually committed or immediately imminent action against British territory or British citizens, except with the prior approval of the UN Security Council, by definition including that of all five Permanent Members. They should also be required to reprint that public statement, in full and without comment, in their respective election addresses.

Anyone on the staff who did not like that, and there would be quite a few, would be told to keep their mouths shut, or else to avail themselves of the open door. They could perfectly easily be replaced.