Why is Britain Tolerating David Miliband?

Criticising his naïve remarks welcoming Georgia to Nato and baiting Russia, Lord Skidelsky, emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick, asked him to "talk sense" and "stop playing with fire".

After the diplomatic disaster in Delhi, it is apparent the foreign secretary has not listened to that advice. One reason could be that while the Cold War has turned to thaw, Miliband remains frozen in a time warp.

His efforts to isolate Moscow have been thwarted by Russia's resurgence on the geopolitical scene led by the master strategist, Vladimir Putin. And India's slow but sure progress to great power status is leaving less and less room for Britain in the Commonwealth, which seems likely to go the way of the International Cricket Council that was once Britain’s private club, but is now controlled by India.

Perhaps Miliband was trying to get back at the Indians for the drubbing they gave another British foreign secretary. In 1997, when Robin Cook offered to mediate in the Kashmir crisis, the then Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujaral told his guest he was the envoy of a "third-rate power" which shouldn't be "poking its nose in" India's affairs.

It remains to be seen how Miliband’s meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will go. Five days before George W. Bush left office, Miliband wrote in an article in The Guardian that Bush's war on terror was “deceptive and misleading”. At a time when British soldiers are auxiliaries in the American military machine, it was hypocrisy at its best. And while the foreign secretary's article was timed to curry favour with the new American administration, it's unlikely to impress the Americans. President Barack Obama is already ramping up the US presence in Afghanistan.

Miliband’s implacable resentment of Russia and now his graceless behaviour in India are clear indicators that he is unfit to be a foreign secretary, let alone prime minister. By retaining his services, Britain risks strained relations with even more countries.

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