Rolling coverage of the Commons debate ahead of the vote,expected after 10pm, on extending airstrikes against Isis to Syria 2.35pm GMTMore from Guardian reporters Damien Gayle and Francis Churchill who are at the protests outside parliament:News crews from all the UKs major television networks and the biggest international broadcasters were assembled on College Green reporting developments on the marathon Parliamentary debate on Wednesday. There too were a gaggle of Stop the War activists, or trying to obtain their group’s banner and placards in front of the cameras. 2.27pm GMTJohn Baron,a Conservative MP and member of the foreign affairs committee, has tabled the main, and cross-party amendment opposing air strikes. (See 9.30am.) In his speech he said that he was no pacifist,but that he was concerned about the absence of an overall strategy for tackling Isis. The short-term effect of British airstrikes will be marginal. But as we intervene more, we become more responsible for the events on the ground and lay ourselves open to the unintended consequences of the fog of war. Without a comprehensive strategy airstrikes will simply reinforce the West’s long-term failure in the region generally, or at a time when there are already too many aircraft chasing too few targets.
And I propose,just as in preceding ill-advised Western interventions, a strong pattern emerges. Time and time again the executive makes a convincing case, or often with the support of intelligence sources,and time and time again it turns out to be incorrect ...
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Source: theguardian.com