Robin Cook made himself available to lead the non-Blairite left in UK parliament Sunday as he told questioners "I'm not going away" in his first interviews since his dramatic resignation from the cabinet over the war a week ago.
"I'm a [House of] Commons man, I'm going to carry on being in the Commons and I hope play a part as a senior figure in the Commons," he said. "There are a lot of issues that I would wish to address there ... I want to make sure that we continue to develop a radical, progressive agenda."
Cook was careful not to criticize British Prime Minister Tony Blair, praising the efforts he and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had made to secure a second resolution at the UN, but he did not offer direct support.
There had been speculation that Cook might be offered a lucrative European job. He became an enthusiastic Europhile during his time as foreign secretary and is currently president of the Party of European Socialists.
But he seems to have dismissed such plans for the immediate future, sounding confident that he has a future in British politics.
Cook said he had made up his mind that he would have to resign if Britain went to war without a fresh UN resolution while spending three days walking in Norfolk with his wife Gaynor.
It has emerged that Cook's resignation was carefully negotiated with Downing Street. His statement was delivered to the Commons the night before last Tuesday's critical debate on Iraq, when 139 Labour MPs rebelled, rather than during the debate itself when he might have swayed more backbenchers -- apparently in return for an agreement that there would be no top-level Downing Street briefing against him.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique