Airstrip One

Double Consent

It pains me when I have to disagree with the Heritage Foundation, as I do just about all the time on foreign policy. When you disagree with the Times editorial writers or the Tory Reform Group I can survive as I tell myself that they are after all pretend conservatives who for their own weird reasons want to be attached to the true faith. However it is people like the Heritage Foundation who can at least think straight. I digress.

Anyway this chap from Heritage was on Newsnight last night, and he came out with some eminently reasonable suggestion on Bush dumping Arafat. The idea he said was that Palestinians could vote for whoever they want, the Americans also had the right to deal with whoever they want. Now this is not to point out that it is still possible to agree with "heritage" even if one thinks sensibly on foreign policy, but as an idea which I have been pushing for some time - the idea of double consent.

The idea that somewhere, like the Falklands wants to remain British is surely not to the point. It's whether Britain wants to retain the Falklands as well. The idea is that we in the metropolitan power should also consent to retaining the vestiges of Empire. And that is, in my opinion the crucial point. It is not whether they want to be defended by us, but whether we want to defend them.