William Hague's statement on South Ossetia

"There is a very serious danger that these clashes could develop into a wider conflict between Russia and Georgia. It is vital for both countries to commit themselves to talks and cease fighting immediately."

Comments

[Umbrella man]

Is that all he said? Pointless. So, so, so weak.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Agreed- totally pointless. He'd be better off saying nothing, which would have had exactly the same effect on the outcome of the problem over there.

[Westminster Wolf]

Russia are the villains here. Couldn't WH have even hinted at that?

P A T H E T I C W I L L I A M !

[Jennifer Wells]

Strewth.

This is the language of the most cowardly foreign office official and that's BEFORE the officials have got hold of Mr Hague.

[Millsee]

What do you mean "Is that all?"

Here's what Gordon has had to say on the subject:

[Andrew Landriani]

Lets not forget this is war he is talking about. He is in the position of having to say something about it whilst saying as little as possible of an inflammatory nature.

Given that, his comments are about right. This could develop into a major conflict if left unchecked. Remember somebody in Washington recently wanted Georgia signed up as a NATO member? Imagine the necessary statement if they had been, and bombs were falling on Parliament green (again)!

[Ulster Tory]

Ulster Tory is shocked. Boris, now Bill. Why, oh why, do our high profile politicians feel they have to be part of the Establishment?!? The electorate want strong leadership and honesty, not wiffle-waffle.

[Northen tory]

Perhaps cleethorpes rock should spend more time campaigning in cleethorpes constituency and less time criticising other people's lack of action...!

[Sally Roberts]

Those who are criticising William Hague should realise that:-

a) it is early days and events need to pan out a little more before a fuller statement can legitimately be made and;

b) it is not 100% who the "good guys" and who the "bad guys" are in this dispute.

William Hague's statement is diplomatic and really all he could say for the time being in the circumstances.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

What exactly do you lot want WH to say? I think some of you hold the mistaken belief that Russia give a damn about what we think.

How can we tell another country not to invade someone when we have blundered into Iraq? It could be argued that Russia have more grounds for going into Ossetia than we had in invading Iraq unprovoked.

I know that Russia is important in terms of our energy situation, but if we had a more diversified, homegrown and secure energy policy, we wouldn't keep having to feign outrage when anything happens in some of the dodgy countries we're beholden to.

[Ulster Tory]

I retract my earlier statement - it is indeed to early to say anything. However, as soon as the fog clears, I'd hope Mr Hague has something stronger to say.

[Michael A]

Perhaps cleethorpes rock should spend more time campaigning in cleethorpes constituency and less time criticising other people's lack of action...!

[bootyboomboom]

Exactly Cleethorpes Rock. And "Northern Tory" clear off and come back once you've taken a computer course.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Northern Tory, I'm not criticising a lack of action. I support Hague's stance of saying very little! By the way, I do plenty of campaigning in the constituency and in others too, as I'm sure all contributors to this site do in theirs, you included.

[Amanda Wood]

William Hague no longer believes in anything very much. He likes to give clever funny speeches but nothing else.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Northern Tory, I'm not criticising a lack of action. I support Hague's stance of saying very little! By the way, I do plenty of campaigning in the constituency and in others too, as I'm sure all contributors to this site do in theirs, you included.

[Paleo]

Russia has stuck two fingers up to the neo-cons and their chums, especially the EU, in the New World Order. Good on them - stuff the Bilderbergers, the Trilateral Commission and those who would enlave us in World Government. Putin and Medvedev are true Patriots who are standing up for their country rather than sell it out!

Poor Willie Hague is out of his depth. He should put his baseball cap back on and go home to Mummy.

[CDM]

Whether one agrees with Hague's statement or not, I think we can all agree that it's pathetic that neither the Foreign Secretary nor the Prime Minister have commented on the situation.

[Bootyboomboom]

Paleo,

At last, a man who talks some sense! Enough of of this attempt at meddling in what is historically Russia's sphere of influence.

And I would say the same for the Ukraine. The Russian colours were flying over Sevastapol long before the US was even created. Plus, DID YOU KNOW more Russian soldiers died on Ukranian soil in WW2 than the combined number of American soldiers in every US war?

Hell, I wish I was Foreign Secretary I'd start a whole new foreign policiy approach. It would be called the N.D.F.C.B.P.L.T. policy which would stand for:
"The Neighbourly-Disputes-Of-Foreign- Countries-are-the-Business-of-the-People-who-Live-in-Them policy." Such an approach would be far more honest, practical and sensible and would save a lot of polictical energy for domestic affairs.

[Tyke Tory]

don't be nasty to cleethorpes rock. they work hard there

[Luis]

Oh dear William- rather feeble on this one.

In reality however feeble or inspiring, the statements make no difference.

Russia is coming of age as a resurgent power in a world where the US is exhausted.

It can do what it wants here and we will still go on paying Russia for its oil and gas regardless.

It has to be at least partly healthy that the tide is turning and the western band wagon is finally halted in the Caucuses.

Expect more of this in Moldova, maybe Ukraine and ultimately some threats to the Baltic states and former eastern bloc countries.

[Luis]

Handing Radovan Karadzic to the Hague was the highwater mark of Western/US influence.

Russia is on the up from here.

[Lindsay Jenkins]

Surely William Hague noticed this crisis building over the last few years? Didnt he?

Edward Lucas recently published 'The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West'. It wasn't on Conservative MPs holiday reading list - perhaps it should have been.

[Ulster Tory]

RE: Bootyboomboom

"The Neighbourly-Disputes-Of-Foreign- Countries-are-the-Business-of-the-People-who-Live-in-Them policy."

Ulster Tory suspects that policy idea is the reason why Hitler was able to invade so many of Germany's neighbours.

[bootyboomboom]

Yes Lindsay,

Might I also recommend

"An End to Evil" by Richard Perle

"The West's Last Chance" by Tony Blankley

"Showdown: Why China wants war with the United States" by "Jed Babbin"

Simon Pearson's "Total War 2006" (published in 1999) is also an excellent read. If that doesn't feed your paranoia enough, there's always David Icke.

[Dave J]

Bootyboomboom, a resurgent expansionist Russia is not exactly some minor regional problem.

[Helen]

Russia's sphere of influence, eh? Well, the Georgians do not seem to think much of that argument and appear to be fighting to prove their case. This is known as appeasement: mustn't say bad things about the big bully. As for the argument of Russia as the defender of national sovereignty against the wicked oh whoever, there is a very large number of countries starting with Finland and moving south and east who might not see it in those terms.

[bootyboomboom]

Bootyboomboom suspects that Ulster Tory is a bit of a fool to be comparing Hitler with Putin and the Wehrmacht with the useless shambles that is the modern Russian army.

[christina Speight]

Russia and Georgia have both been fingered as the aggressors. But anything more stupid than the EU getting all of us involved by half-promising membership of NATO and the EU in such a sensitive spot it is hard to envisage.

Find some smouldering embers and chuck some petrol on them is the idea it seems!

[m wood]

Isn't it strange that there aren't vast crowds outside the Russian Embassy protesting at this intrusion into a sovereign state? Now if it were America invading a another country.......

[David Lindsay]

First and foremost, we should stay out of it.

Thank God that Georgia has not actually joined NATO, or we would already be at war with Russia. NATO should have been disbanded in 1991, when it ceased to have anything to do.

But instead, it has been extended to within a few hundred miles of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and it has gone about looking for conflicts from Kosovo to Afghanistan.

Let the realisation that we were one treaty signature away from World War Three, a global nuclear war, finally kill off NATO.

Georgia has withdrawn entirely from Iraq in order to fight this war. Perhaps Russia should invade the United Kingdom.

Odd how every microscopic entity in the Balkans that decides to declare itself independent is indulged, even to the point of military force, by the West, whereas those who seek to do the same thing in the Caucuses, objecting to the arbitrary borders imposed by Stalin rather than insisting on the arbitrary borders imposed by Tito, receives exactly the opposite response, possibly even to the point of military force.

If they will submit to the closely connected forces of European federalism, American hegemony and global capital, then even smack-smuggling, women-trafficking Wahhabi who wear black shirts in deference to their SS fathers and grandfathers can declare any bit of soil they like to be their state. But no one who will not so submit can expect anything other than scorn.

We need lots and lots of nuclear power. Then Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be of no more interest to us than Northern Ireland, the Basque Country or the deteriorating situation in Belgium is of any interest to the Georgians, the Abkhazians or the South Ossetians.

[RichardJ]

"What exactly do you lot want WH to say?"

He should call for the South Ossetians to be given a referendum on which country they wish to belong to.

[max u]

David Lindsey-

While I agree with most of what you say you are factually incorrect on one point.
The "arbitrary" borders imposed on Yugoslavia were not perpetrated by Tito but instead by us (Britain, France and the US) in 1919 at Versailles (or to be more exact St.Germain and Trianon). All our actions in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo essentially undid a territorial settlement that we had ourselves created in recognition of Serbia's aprt in WW1.

[Geoff]

And that vote would be independent, free, unrigged and fair in which particular way, RichardJ?

[bluepatriot]

William Hague has become a star turn on the speaking circuit but now says nothing of boldness politically. His self-confidence was destroyed in 2001. No-one seems to have noticed.

[Sammy Finn]

Is that all he said?

Truly Pathetic.

[Sally Roberts]

For crying out loud Guys - how many more times does one have to spell out that William Hague is using DIPLOMATIC speak!! When someone is either Foreign Secretary or Shadow Foreign Secretary this is how things are done..... Lord Hurd as Foreign Secretary was a Past Master at this - but then of course I don't suppose he would have many fans on Conservative Home - sadly!

[Umbrella man]

But that's the problem Sally!!! Diplomatic speak is appeasement. If Hague is going to be a prisoner of the Foreign Office then the people rejoicing will be brutalist leaders of the world. Putin. Mugabe. Burma's leaders. Saudi leaders. Ahmadinejad.

[grumpy old man]

Hi all.
1. Brown and Miliband won't come up with a statement on South Ossetia because:
a. They don't know where it is.
b. The Russians haven't found time to tell them what to say yet.
c. They're too busy fighting each other.

2. Do we make noises of outrage which we cannot back up with meaningful actions. Ban imports of Russian gas and oil, anyone? We could ,of course, ban Russian oiligarchs(sic) from taking over our soccer teams.
3. WH is shadow Foreign Secretary. He has at present no power within the UK. The UK has no power, militarily, economically or politically, thanks to the policies of Labour. We have no historic interests in this region.
4. Nevertheless, purported Tory activists are lambasting WH for not being more condemnatory in a part of the world where we have no vital interests, no influence, and even if the area wasn't land-locked we don't have gunboats anymore. We could possibly send a few hoodies on "adventurous training" and "Goodwill" visits, personally overseen by Des Browne.
To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, "Speak really softly when you haven't even got a big stick".

[Sally Roberts]

Umbrella Man @ 09:28 - that is probably why you (and I!) would not make a good diplomat...

But it is lucky that we do have skilled diplomats as the alternative would be a constant state of aggression, tension and probably ultimately annihilation - diplomacy prevents conflict!

[Ulster Tory]

Ulster Tory suspects that Bootyboomboom is also a bit of a fool not to realise that Ulster Tory was simply criticising the policy based on historical evidence, which is one of the best tests.

[Malcolm Dunn]

Better to have said nothing at all than this . Did you highlight this speech because of your disappointment at it Tim?
Douglas Hurd is a very decent chap but because of his behaviour vis a vis Bosnia I will always remember him as an absolutely terrible foreign secretary.

[grumpy old man]

Concurrently with the suggestion that Des Browne and some hoodies pay a goodwill visit to Georgia, the Georgian Govt declares a cease-fire. So, the Georgians read ToryDiary, and the very mention of Des and the hoodies strikes fear into the hearts of the Georgian Nation. Remember, you read it here first, folks!

[Tim Montgomerie]

I did think it a pretty pointless statement Malcolm but thought I'd let ConHome readers react without any promoting from me.

[Chad Noble]

Perhaps Hague could simply have pledged an absolute need for a referendum on what action to take if the conflict still in play before 2010 and some vague promise of "not leaving it there" if not.

[Siegfried von Bock]

William Hague, if that is the best he can do, is not fit to be Foreign Secretary.

That statement is an utter disgrace and only gives more fuel to those who suspect that Mr Hague is great at the jokes but utterly devoid of any political judgment - as evidenced by his witless "Save the £" campaign in 2001.

[passing leftie]

An official sidles up to the Chair of the security council and whispers something into his ear. The tension is palpable. The he speaks "William Hague says you have to stop fighting, or the fighting could lead to more fighting"

Silence descends.

The Russian delegate rises.

"What extraordinary statesmanship! I concede that we have been wrong, and I hold out the hand of friendship to my Georgian counterpart"

The Georgian delegate says:
"If only we had considered the approach of stopping fighting to stop more fighting, this conflict would not have escalated. I accept your hand, propose a vote of thanks to William Hague."

Chamber erupts in tumultuous cheering, William Hague carried round the room by ecstatic delegates, William Hague wakes up.

[Eveleigh Moore-Dutton]

Surely the story that we are missing is the story of the dog that has failed to bark. Europe sits on the edge of a bloody border dispute that could escalate and spread catastrophically but David Miliband is "on holiday". Does he think that we haven't noticed that a would-be prime minister has priorities that are inappropriate for someone who would lead (or at least powerfully influence) the Western world. Does he seek to copy the current prime minister's former McCavity tactics and become invisible whenever hard decisions may have to be made...or he is he just another maneouvering, scheming ditherer?

[stephen hoffman]

absolutely pathetic ,russia is plainly in the wrong invading a country's sovereignty and william hague is basically saying georgia is as bad as Russia - cameron had it right when he criticised russia severely - Mccain had it right when he said russia should be excluded from the G8 , obama and hague had it wrong - when they offer mealy mouthed words. for god sake even milliband is being tougher on russia than he is.

[Philip Lardner]

Well done Mr Hague! Statesmanship requires firm action behind the scenes so as not to leave any of the parties - i.e. Russia - with little room for public diplomatic manouevre. Shouting belicose statements in public may make some politicians feel big and brave (from a thousand miles beyond the front line), but will only make Russia less willing to develop a constructive relationship with the UK and the West. Gordon Brown has isolated us from Putin and Russia by such tactics, and arguably encouraged Russian action such as this in response to Georgia's military push which, whether they have a sovereign legitimacy or not, were the true cause of this military spat.