David Miliband

The things they tell you...

We all know that Finland is properly renowned for being top of the best leagues - not football but education. The PISA education studies say Finland's 15 year olds have the highest educational achievement, and there is also the least inequality of achievement of OECD countries in Finland But on a trip last week I was also told in my FCO brief that Finland is top of the mosquito swatting championships...surely not...who counts these things?

Finland, Denmark and Sweden, which I visited this week, are all countries which have made a virtue of their openness, and have committed money and people to furtherance of decent values around the world.  Two Danish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last week - further testimony to that country's commitments. 

But the Finns and Swedes are not in NATO - hence the importance of the EU/NATO coordination that I discussed in all three countries. The membership of the two organisations has significant overlap, but they were founded to do different things, and should be complementary in their activities.  They can only do this if there is proper coordination - in Brussels and on the ground in Kosovo and Afghanistan. One important by-product of the talks this week on Cyprus will I hope be the confidence on both sides to try to overcome the barriers to NATO/EU cooperation.

Democracy Canon

I spoke to 400 students at Copenhagen University about the future of Europe. A week before the Danish government published their 'Democracy Canon' - "intended to act as an inspiration for a debate on the understanding of the prerequisites for democracy in Denmark."

The canon lists 35 key events, philosophical trends and political texts that have had the most significance for Danish democracy.  The Magna Carta and John Locke get a mention alongside The Jutland Act and the Danish Farm and High School Movement as well as the Salman Rushdie affair and...notably for a country often alleged to be viscerally Euro-sceptic... the EU Treaties.  Before this sets off a great debate..."EU Referenda" get a mention too.

It's a nice idea.  A British list would probably be shorter (Magna Carta, Reform Acts...) and more focused on our own history (can't see Tocqueville making it, or Greek democracy).  Maybe that is why our notion of democracy is a bit thin.

Five Years On

The media and public have rightly paused this week to reflect on the Iraq War five years on.  I think the essential point is that the war itself went better than people feared, but building the peace has been much more difficult than people expected.  For many people the judgment of history has already been made.  But the next five years, not the last five, will be decisive for political reconciliation, for security improvement, and for economic reconstruction.  The BBC/ABC poll this week makes striking reading.  It is not that things are sorted; it is that the undoubted steps backwards in 2004/5 have been reversed; and that confidence creates its own momentum.

We will debate the timing of an inquiry into the origins of the war in the House of Commons on Tuesday.  The important work now underway across the country, including in Basra where over 4,000 British troops are doing important work in support of the Iraqi Security Forces, means that the government do not believe the time is now right for such an inquiry.  Let's stay focused on the job in hand.

Posted at 18:25 23 March 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]