Ashdown paints picture of tough future for Britain and the west | Michael White

Lib Dem leader says ex

discontinuities' in the world might be necessary "adjustment frightening and dangerous" for global structures

throughout the ritual navel gazing of a party conference, there was little coverage of poor prognosis Paddy Ashdown, and not just for Britain but for the West in general . While it is still the right half (and probably is), that the maneuvers will of the coalition and the points, Ed Miliband, the finest of policy reform in the shadow type from which no traveler returns even in Essex.

What was it? Speaking at the panel discussion on The Guardian annual marginal (Allegra Stratton reported domestic politics here), Ashdown was concerned about the growing number of "discontinuities" in the world today, which will require a "framework terrible and dangerous "to realign structures potentially world" that we believe the world is like what the world is actually like. "

What did he say? Well, the UN is supposed to be running all sorts of activities around the world, but is increasingly marginalized as it is structured around the world as it was in the 1940s after the defeat Germany and Japan.

He meant that the U.S. is still considered a major economic and military power in the world, but more and more debt to China. That Europe is not seen as a global economic power 2, but is actually debt and confusion.

I'm sure you get the picture. I beat on these inconsistencies here all the time, so it was good to hear your Paddyship do the same thing on a public platform. Only the Liberal Democrats have the courage to preach these truths to power, he insisted, among other speakers at the conference in Birmingham to make similar observations on the role of the party in the coalition.

These adjustments are not only within the Western sphere, the United States and Europe by the North Atlantic. Mark the end of Western hegemony 400 years since the fall of the Ottoman Empire on the eastern flank of Europe, he said, although he might have added the decline of Ming China (Ming unrelated Campbell), which many people take for granted.

India and China are back at the center of the world stage - "if we can not see that we are bloody fools," he told an audience of 700 men noon - and we can assume that the U.S. will be "our friend of last resort", not to save us from ourselves as he did twice in the 20th century. If that.

The United States is increasingly concerned about the threat of China in the Pacific. It has a president born in the Pacific. Who has the biggest fight naval presence against Somali piracy in the Indian Ocean, he asked? Therefore, China - is a mercantilist power and must keep its sea lanes open for trade, since Britain did once

exactly. When Britannia ruled the waves, many pirates were Chinese. No more. His pirates now wear clothes and come ashore to take our wealth legally. They are busy buying EU companies and sovereign debt at good prices, as the U.S. once did.

• Contrary to what may be felt due to the turbulence in the euro area Ashdown - a former diplomat, former squaddie special services and, later, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party - think British response right should be greater integration with Europe. Far from apologizing for his pro-European enthusiasm, the Liberal Democrats should be "more pro-European" already.

Why? Because of a new authoritarian Russia, rich in oil and gas moves threatening to restore its sphere of influence, lost when the Soviet bloc collapsed after 1989, and who seek to destabilize or even break the EU . Fantasy? I would say no.

be wary of this type of integration discourse - it is very difficult, for one thing - but not as cautious as I do on the requirements of the conservative right that the weakness of the euro area is the sign David Cameron's concessions in the demand for news from Brussels, or (according Telegraph yesterday) a referendum on British membership of the EU. It is true that the request came from Mark Pritchard MP, a good guy, but not the sharpest pencil in the box.

Pritchard called for the EU "occupying force", which shows that everything will not get what this phrase means.
All EU member states except Britain and Sweden were subjected to the tyranny of domestic or foreign occupation (some more than once) in the 20th century . They know the difference, as Pritchard is obviously not. The recovery of protectionism is every man for himself increasingly on the cards. Scary stuff, but not all liberal Democrats who have (Chris Huhne is happy), and the tone of the party conference is curiously optimistic.

Find best price for : --Britain----Clegg----David----China----Ashdown----Paddy--