Sex is the last great secret between parents and children Channel 4's new series, Adult at 14, has provoked the usual shrill cries of outrage. The idea of young teenagers having sex (nobody ever credits them with making love) still, in these sex-mad times, propels people to their feet or to the Letters pages in protest. Yet are we honestly surprised? My theory is that most of us are only pretending to be. Sex is the last great secret between parents and children. They are welcome for all that, as promises on the record against which Mr Bush's good faith can be judged in the future.. "We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq and pay a bitter cost of casualties and liberate 25 million people, only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins."The second was his call to Israel to stop "the daily humiliation of Palestinians", freeze settlements and not prejudice final peace talks by erecting "walls and fences". He stressed his commitment to a two-state solution and a "viable" and "democratic" Palestinian state.Both the pledge of constancy on Iraq and, especially, the warning to Israel can be seen as presents to Tony Blair in recognition of his loyalty - perhaps the only policy presents the Prime Minister will receive during this highly contentious visit. It was, Mr Bush said, the "alternative to instability and hatred and terror". Here, as in much of what Mr Bush had to say, was an underlying sense of anxiety, verging on paranoia, about the nature and intentions of the non-American world that ill behoves the world's pre-eminent power.For all the familiar elements in Mr Bush's speech yesterday, there were two categorical restatements of his administration's policy that deserve to be hailed without reserve. The first was Mr Bush's insistence that the US was in Iraq for the duration - even if he gave the undertaking rather more lurid expression than was strictly necessary.
Was it, as Mr Bush insisted again yesterday, the US and Britain, who went their own way, citing the UN's refusal to act on earlier resolutions. Or was it the majority of Security Council members who believed that there was still mileage in continuing with weapons inspections and feared the consequences of a rush to military action?Mr Bush's third pillar, the "global expansion of democracy" rang different alarms, suggesting - yet again - that the current administration sees American-style democracy as the panacea for all global problems, something that can - indeed, should - be imposed upon others. Insisting on his own and America's support for multilateral approaches to international problems, Mr Bush said that it was not enough to "meet the dangers of the world with resolutions". In some ways, his new fluency served only to highlight the extent to which his policies proceed from the utter certainty of his convictions - a certainty that many of us on this side of the Atlantic find hard to share.Mr Bush listed what he said were three "pillars" of peace and security: international institutions, the use of force as last resort, and the expansion of democracy. Damning the United Nations with faint praise, he warned that it risked going the way of the League of Nations if the Security Council was not prepared in even the most heinous of cases to mandate the use of force.The question, of course, is precisely who was upholding the honour and credibility of the United Nations before the war with Iraq. Each of these, however, appears considerably less solid when viewed through the prism of European experience than it does to a President who clearly has no qualms about unilateral action even now.Among the most dubious of Mr Bush's arguments was the link that he assumed between the first of his two pillars: the strength of international institutions and the readiness of these institutions to authorise the use of force. Instead, Mr Bush offered his audience a forceful restatement of his already known views, delivered with a degree of verve, eloquence and even humour that defied his reputation as the least articulate American President since the silent Calvin Coolidge. That Mr Bush stood up and spoke up in exemplary fashion, however, could not make his arguments any more compelling. President Bush's foreign policy speech at the Banqueting Hall in London yesterday was never going to spring any surprises This is not what keynote speeches on state visits are for. The real price to be paid will be at the next election if Labour is unable to offer anything more to the electorate. A government that shows purpose and drive, and offers a coherent vision of reform, will be rewarded. A government which retreats into its shell, and is devoid of new ideas, will deserve to suffer the consequences.. |
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