David Cameron has denied sending out "mixed messages" over plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by 2015. The prime minister, his deputy Nick Clegg and foreign secretary William Hague have all said UK forces will not stay beyond that date in a combat role. But Mr Cameron has also said the withdrawal would be "conditions based".
Bewildered of Westminster
Hitting back at criticism from Labour and some of his own backbenchers, he told the BBC "there was absolutely no contradiction between the two things". Mr Cameron, who is in Washington, said there was "absolutely no change in policy" on Afghanistan from the previous government. He explained that he had said troops would be home by 2015 because he wanted to send out a signal "that we won't be in Afghanistan forever. To give people some certainty, we have said, to be clear, that in 2015 there are not going to be combat troops, or large numbers of British troops, in Afghanistan," he told BBC News.
At prime minister's questions, Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said Labour's Jack Straw would have to account for his role in the "disastrous" decision to invade. Mr Clegg later stressed his opinion was a "long-held" personal one. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, who backed the war, said his history on the issue was "different" to Mr Clegg. As regards the government's official position on the legal basis for war, a spokesman for the deputy prime minister said "it awaits the outcome" of the Chilcot inquiry looking into the background to the war. "The deputy prime minister was expressing his long-held view about the legality of the Iraq conflict," he added. "His views on the matter are very well known and widely documented."
Setting out his own views on higher education last week, Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, whose department is responsible for universities, said the idea of a graduate tax should be considered "as a priority". But the coalition government is now distancing itself from the idea that a graduate tax is the best way to get students to pay more towards the cost of their university education. Instead ministers are exploring the options for a scheme that allows graduates to contribute towards their university education in a way that maintains the direct payment from the individual to the university.
Dear oh dear, where's Bucks Fizz when you need them?
UPDATE: 12.32 22/07/10
UPDATE: 12.32 22/07/10
Clegg's 'illegal' Iraq war gaffe prompts legal warning
Philippe Sands, professor of law at University College London, said: "A public statement by a government minister in parliament as to the legal situation would be a statement that an international court would be interested in, in forming a view as to whether or not the war was lawful."
The warning came after a faltering performance by Clegg in the Commons when he stood in for David Cameron at prime minister's questions. The deputy prime minister made an initial mistake when he announced that the government would close the Yarl's Wood centre as it ends the detention of children awaiting deportation. The Home Office was forced to issue a statement saying that the family unit at Yarl's Wood would close but that the rest of the centre would remain open.
Shortly before that slip-up, Clegg threw the government's position concerning the legality of the Iraq war into confusion when, at the end of heated exchanges with Jack Straw, foreign secretary at the time of the war, Clegg said: "We may have to wait for his memoirs, but perhaps one day he will account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all: the illegal invasion of Iraq."
Clegg's remarks could be legally significant because he was standing at the government dispatch box in the Commons.
The warning came after a faltering performance by Clegg in the Commons when he stood in for David Cameron at prime minister's questions. The deputy prime minister made an initial mistake when he announced that the government would close the Yarl's Wood centre as it ends the detention of children awaiting deportation. The Home Office was forced to issue a statement saying that the family unit at Yarl's Wood would close but that the rest of the centre would remain open.
Shortly before that slip-up, Clegg threw the government's position concerning the legality of the Iraq war into confusion when, at the end of heated exchanges with Jack Straw, foreign secretary at the time of the war, Clegg said: "We may have to wait for his memoirs, but perhaps one day he will account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all: the illegal invasion of Iraq."
Clegg's remarks could be legally significant because he was standing at the government dispatch box in the Commons.
