Mick Hartley

After that disgraceful letter on Syria to the Times yesterday, it's perhaps worth recording today's letter on the same subject. It's a major improvement:

Sir, The Syrian regime remains determined to pursue a military solution regardless of the civilian bloodshed and devastation caused by its violent tactics. Faced with the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster, world leaders must address the suffering of the one million people trapped and starving under siege, the thousands being displaced from their homes on a daily basis, and the children cowering as bombs rain down on their communities.

At the European Council last week, European leaders renewed sanctions on the Russian Federation for its actions in Ukraine but missed another chance to impose targeted sanctions for Russia’s actions in Syria and its continued support of the Syrian regime. These could have included freezing the assets of, and imposing travel bans on, Russian individuals involved in the country’s actions in Syria.

We urge the leaders of our four nations to come together and use all the levers at their disposal to ensure that there are consequences for the atrocities committed in Aleppo. This should include exploring options for targeted bilateral sanctions, and pushing for action at the UN general assembly to hold perpetrators of war crimes in Syria to account. If our leaders continue to rely on words alone, we are not only failing the Syrian people, we are complicit in the slow dissolution of the international rules that protect humanity from the worst horrors of war.

Madeleine Albright, former US secretary of state; Lloyd Axworthy, former foreign affairs minister, Canada; Emma Bonino, former foreign affairs minister, Italy; David Miliband, former British foreign secretary

Ah, David Miliband….surely one of the biggest "what ifs" of recent UK politics. What if the unions hadn't intervened to install Ed instead of David as Labour leader? Would Labour have won the 2015 election? Would we have been spared Jeremy Corbyn? 

David's still, at 51, a mere slip of a lad in political terms. Will he be riding in on his Blairite charger to slay the dreaded Corbyn after Labour gets pulverised at the next election? Or will Labour by that stage be beyond repair?