WEIR ONLY SCOTTISH VOICE IN LEBANON DEBATE 

Angus MP Mike Weir was the only Scottish MP to take part in the Radio Four “Recall of Parliament” Debate on Thursday of this week. The Debate was staged at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London and used the form of a real parliamentary debate. A special programme was broadcast on Thursday evening and it was also broadcast live on the web and a live excerpt was heard on the PM programme.

Speaking on behalf of the SNP and Plaid Cymru in the debate Mr Weir praised the efforts of relief agencies in the Lebanon.

“They are working in difficult and dangerous conditions. Even with a ceasefire in place there is no guarantee of their safety. These brave men and women still risk their lives to help those who need it most, and for this they should be applauded.”

Mr Weir was, however, critical of the UK government’s failure to call for an immediate ceasefire and failure to question Israel’s action until after the ceasefire was in place.

“We have witnessed the deaths of more than 1300 civilian men women and children. Civilian deaths serve no purpose, regardless of who is pulling the trigger. We cannot help but echo the sentiments of Kofi Annan that it is a tragedy that the United Nations did not reach agreement earlier, and avoid five weeks of vicious fighting.”

“Perhaps Ministers comments on the disproportionate nature of the Israeli action would have carried more weight had they pressed for a ceasefire when the bombs were actually falling.”

“But it is worse than that. Not only did the UK government not call for a ceasefire but allowed the use of Prestwick Airport in Scotland for shipping weapons to Israel by the United States. That is a terrible scar on the conscience of our nation. Independent Ireland, a staunch friend of the United States, refused to let them use Shannon airport, Scotland should have had the power to say no to the use of Prestwick.”

Mr Weir added that whilst no one could realistically argue that UK foreign policy was the only reason for terrorism it was a factor.

“The government’s approach to foreign policy has made the UK a higher profile target and more importantly, increased the dark well from which terrorists’ spring.”