Alex Bigham Articles

Politicians are never short of advice; ‘some of it unsolicited’, as Ed Miliband said at the beginning of his conference speech. So, a couple of months in, forgive me for giving a few pieces of my own counsel to the new shadow foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper as makes a keynote speech to Chatham House today.

Dear Yvette

Politicians are never short of advice – ‘some of it unsolicited’ as Ed Miliband said at the beginning of his conference speech. So forgive me for giving my own pieces of uninvited, but comradely counsel to you as the new shadow foreign secretary. You have taken on what is a difficult portfolio at the best of times, and I hope this is helpful.

As Cameron travels to the US and Hague to Kabul, early forays suggest the Tories are trying to weave liberal elements into an essentially Conservative foreign policy, but Commonwealth remains above climate change in priorities  

The topic of yesterday’s leaders’ debate – foreign policy – was almost relegated to a sideshow in the attempts by both Labour and the Tories to stem the Lib Dem surge from last week by focussing on their core domestic political messages.