As Sergey Lavrov and Lord West’s recent contributions to the Syria debate - which debate later focussed in the House of Commons on a Motion by Labour MP for Wirral South Alison McGovern on the current situation in Syria and the Government’s response - have made clear, a more serious matter than that which is currently challenging the United Nations it is hard to imagine.
Watching the Prime Minister conclude the Syria debate, with a ruffled looking Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson sat behind the her on one side and a yawning (it was approaching Midnight and had been a long day) Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson behind her on the other side, a fanciful picture of the day’s Cabinet meeting based on the introduction to Alan Bennett’s History Boys (albeit the context there is a Bill on the criminal justice system) sprang unbidden to mind.
The History Boys: A Play
Act One
Irwin is in a wheelchair, in his forties, addressing three or four
unidentified MPs.
IRWIN This is the tricky one.
The effect of the bill will be to abolish trial by jury in at least half the
cases that currently come before the courts and will to a significant extent
abolish the presumption of innocence.
Our strategy should therefore be to insist that the bill does not diminish the
liberty of the subject but amplifies it; that the true liberty of the subject
consists in the freedom to walk the streets unmolested etc., etc., secure in
the knowledge that if a crime is committed it will be promptly and sufficiently
punished and that far from circumscribing the liberty of the subject this will
enlarge it.
I would try not to be shrill or earnest. An amused tolerance always comes over
best, particularly on television. Paradox works well and mists up the windows,
which is handy. 'The loss of liberty is the price we pay for freedom' type
thing.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780571224647
That note of cynicism was perhaps triggered by the publication of information by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee today giving insight into “the private thoughts of key people at Leave.EU and SCL” - as the Chair’s summary puts it:
This based on the work of Dr. Emma L. Briant, University of Essex, on SCL which she describes as “a conglomerate of companies including Cambridge Analytica who did work for the Trump campaign”.