Iran and Britain: Diplomatic Breakdown?

The Latest from Iran (24 June): Peering Through the Clouds

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Shirvin Zeinalzadeh, a regular contributor to Enduring America, assesses the significance of yesterday's news of tit-for-tat expulsions of Iranian and British diplomats:

In an eye-for-an-eye exchange on 23 June, Iran and Britain each cordially "invited" two diplomats to leave their post amidst accusations that they had exceeded their normal duties. Since it is remarkably rare for diplomats to be expelled, this is a powerful statement, marking the first stage of diplomatic breakdown between London and Tehran.

In the recent, past, Britain and Russia went through a similar situation when certain officers were expelled from the British Council in St. Petersburg. In return the Russian staff were sent home from the UK. Relations between London and Moscow have yet to recover fully.

The same may now occur between Iran and the UK. In diplomatic terms, each side balances on a knife-edge over their next steps, while the strongest message broadcast is that Iran will not tolerate interference in its internal affairs.

Both the UK and Iran have important diplomatic missions in the other's country. Britain has a large commercial and educational department in Iran, as well as a large number of Iranian tourists and students applying for entry clearance into the UK. The Iranian Embassy in the UK also has an important mission of consular services as well as commercial interests.

Many people in the UK will now be concerned about ties between Iran and the UK in terms of mutual visits, study, tourism and trade, not forgetting that many people travel to Iran for business as well as pleasure, and vice versa. The breaking of these vital yet delicate official links is a long-term concern. Meanwhile, as Iran officially states that the Presidential election results stand, the diplomatic tensions raise the question of whether Tehran can put itself forward as a force for peace in the Middle East and Central Asia, contributing to regional and international security as well as counter-narcotic and counter-proliferation efforts.

Diplomatic rows are common. The main goal of diplomacy is fundamentally selfish, as each side is always "arguing the case for its state". However, the tensions are usually contained within an understanding of how to conduct and maintain relations. This is now challenged by yesterday's development: the act of sitting down and talking or even being in the same room - far from minor successes --- may now be lost.

To be continued as events unfold....

The US and Britain: The Attack of the Nanny State?

Two weeks ago, the US Senate approved legislation empowering the federal government with sweeping powers to oversee tobacco products. In essence, Uncle Sam will regulate matters such as the amount of nicotine in a cigarette, not to mention how the cigarette is packaged, signed, and marketed. After 50 years of warnings from the surgeon general, Big Tobacco has finally succumbed to a smoking President. Now, if only the National Rifle Association would fall at the feet of a President with a smoking gun, maybe we would get some sanity over the interpretation of the Second Amendment's "right to bear arms".

I have to declare an interest. Not only am I a reformed smoker – I was a 60-a-day man back in the 1970s, but I am also a trustee of a cancer charity. Therefore, you will not find me defending the rights of the tobacco industry or cigarette smokers. In fact, on a trip to Australia some ten years ago, I welcomed the typical Aussie frankness. The message on a packet of their cigs was to the point: “Smoking Kills”.

However, will Americans be asking a bigger question? Do they want a nanny state, where risk taking is minimized to cover obtuseness, as the government seeks to protect the citizen from everything that they, not the citizen, considers potentially dangerous? Will tobacco regulation be the thin end of the wedge?

In Britain, The Nanny State by Robert Huntington examined the almost obsessive nannying of the Tony Blair and, briefly, Gordon Brown Governments. Huntington writes scathingly about the chief proponents of the movement and argues that bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive, with its army of "five-a-day [fruit and vegetable] coordinators" and "smoking cessation officers", are merely a bunch of conmen who have seized a slice of the Treasury's cash reserves without doing anything productive in return. Huntington argues that nannying is ultimately dangerous, as freedoms are continually eroded while funds and resources are increasingly wasted.

One wonders whether the freedom issue over tobacco legislation might reach the Supreme Court and, if so, if the legislation be rejected towards the end of Obama’s first term. In the economic sphere, I have been astonished at the acceptance by mainstream America of the Federal Government’s takeover of the banking system, a move that is socialist from any viewpoint and attacks the norms of American business freedom and ideology. In the social sphere, will the Obama administration be tempted to make further inroads into American life on the basis of safety?

The proposed healthcare legislation will get a much harder ride in Congress than the new tobacco laws, where I am sure Republican objections to charges of nannying will find support in some Democrat ranks. And, fortunately for the US, separation of powers prevents the executive from ramming through unwelcome legislation. Nevertheless, Congressmen might look at the British experience before they decide to get carried away with petty regulations, passed in the fervour of “we know better than you.”

Fear and Loathing in Britain's Parliament: An Explanation for Our US Friends (Daily Show Update)

Fear and Loathing in the British Parliament: An Explanation for my US Friends

Last week, Enduring America's John Matlin set out the British mega-scandal over the expenses of its Members of Parliament. Readers have noted that John's analysis is complemented by that of two other Jons/Johns --- Stewart and Oliver --- as The Daily Show surveys English stiff-upper-lip anger, Sacklesschester, and The Eternal Wonder of the Great British Moat:

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