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Five things you should know about foreign policy this election

Half a century ago, the US Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that Britain “has lost its empire, but has yet to find a role”. The same is true today.

By Bernard Goyder
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Map of the British empire
Map of the British empire

Are we still stuck in the imperial mindset? Flickr/Boston Public Library. Some rights reserved.

1) Labour really like Trident

Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, is desperate to demonstrate that Labour is as tough on defence as the Tories. The Conservatives allege that Labour is prepared to dump Trident to get a deal with the SNP. Trident is a Scottish based submarine fleet of armed with thermonuclear warheads that float ever-ready to avenge an attack on Britain or its allies. 

Alexander’s stance shows the extent to which memories of the 1983 election defeat still haunt the party leadership. The then Labour leader Michael Foot proposed in a manifesto one backbencher called "The Longest Suicide Note in History" to get rid of all nuclear weapons, and Margaret Thatcher won a landslide victory.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0