buy canada goose jacket France is now a bigger player on the world stage than Britain buy canada goose jacket

Canada Goose online Imagine if canada goose clearance God forbid the terror attacks that took place in Paris 10 days ago had unfolded not in the French capital, but in London. Canada Goose online

canada https://www.canadagooseoutletcoats.com goose coats David Cameron, like Francois Hollande, would have dashed to his bunker to convene his cheap Canada Goose national security committee, declared a state canada goose uk outlet of emergency and addressed the nation, his face clouded with a fresh resolve to canada goose uk black friday confront the terrorist menace, wherever it is found. canada goose coats

Canada Goose Outlet In once crucial respect, however, Mr Cameron would not have been able to canada goose factory sale match Mr Hollande when it came to taking the fight directly to the Islamic State as it Canada Goose online opens a new, European front. Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose Jackets In a rare address to both houses of the French parliament at Versailles, Mr Hollande was Canada Goose Outlet able to inform his nation that, even as he spoke, the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle was readying to put to sea to project French retribution into the lawless Islamic State enclaves of Syria. Canada Goose Jackets

buy canada goose jacket cheap Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier (Picture: AFP) Photo: AFP buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose clearance Much has been written about the failings of the last canada goose clearance sale Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), and indeed the latest cheap canada goose uk repackaging of what remains, but it is at inflection points like the Paris attack that the consequences of a decade of muddle in canadian goose jacket Britain foreign policy is laid painfully bare. canada goose clearance

canada goose coats on sale True, it is frankly embarrassing that the French have an aircraft carrier while Britain a nuclear state and permanent member of the UN Security Council has left itself without; but it is not just a question of resources, it is also one of resolve. canada goose coats on sale

While President Hollande proclaims La Republique will endure a thousand years, Mr Cameron finds himself shuttling off to Paris to offer his support even as buy canada goose jacket his whips frantically lobby Parliament for permission to offer more in Syria than just warm words.

cheap Canada Goose And do not think for a second that British weakness has gone unnoticed in Washington DC, where Mr Hollande will arrive later today to press the Canada Goose Coats On Sale case for more a forceful intervention against Islamic State. cheap Canada Goose

canadian goose jacket To judge by Mr Obama tepid remarks at the G20 last week, Mr Hollande may not get everything that he wants, but it is worth reflecting that the French President arrives in the US capital with considerably more credibility that Mr Cameron would in the same position. canadian goose jacket

canada goose store The French intervention in Mali, their leadership in the joint operation against Libya, and the dogged Canada Goose Online commitment to an independent foreign policy within Nato may not always endear buy canada goose jacket cheap them to Washington, but it does earn a certain amount of respect. canada goose store

Even when France is getting up American noses, as it did when publicly checking Washington over last year Iran nuclear talks, it does not escape US notice that France still behaves like a power that believes it can makes a difference.

Canada Goose Parka Compare this to Mr Cameron position. Not only does the UK not have an aircraft carrier, but it spent much of last year dithering over whether to meet its Nato target to spend 2pc of GDP on defence, having called for others to do the same. Washington made little effort to conceal its uk canada goose outlet irritation. Canada Goose Parka

The last time Mr Cameron tried to back action in Syria the British parliament famously fumbled the ball, producing the most confused episode of Barack Obama presidency as the US failed to enforce its own lines over chemical weapons. The French stood ready to act.

canada goose deals And in a Europe facing existential crises, where America once saw Britain as a key ideological ally, it now sees only uncertainty caused by Mr Cameron decision to appease his eurosceptic flank with (as the US would see it) a dangerous, destabilising referendum. Hardly canada goose outlet store the Canada Goose Jackets act of a great statesman. canada goose deals

Canada Goose sale Even in the arena of intelligence, where Britain has canada goose black friday sale institutional primacy over France thanks to Canada Goose Parka the Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement canada goose between the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, change is in the air. Canada Goose sale

canada goose black friday sale Over time, the need to tackle the Islamic State Canada Goose sale threat will inevitably force greater co operation between the US and the French, German and other EU intelligence services, a shift that threatens to further dilute the UK already not so special relationship. canada goose black friday sale

None of this even touches on Britain’s unnecessarily clumsy embrace China which appalled Washington and left one senior US government team actively holding China strategy sessions in which the UK was no longer to uk canada goose be depended to share US values and objectives.

Mr Cameron plainly feels canada goose uk shop much of this and is rushing visibly to rectify many of his own mistakes. This week SDSR is canada goose coats a start, a vote for military action in Syria is a must, as is a successful EU renegotiation and a quick referendum that returns Britain to a constructive role in Europe.

But is a relative term here the EU referendum is very likely a year away and Britain will not have a carrier to sail alongside De Gaulle until 2020.

canada goose It is never too late to set a new and canada goose coats on sale better course as Mr Cameron is now rightly urging but nation states have wide turning canada goose store circles. Confidence is hard won, but easily lost; restoring Britain place in the world will take time. canada goose

canada goose clearance sale Peter Foster has reported for The Telegraph from New Delhi, Beijing and Washington for over a decade. His new e book Facts Is British power diminishing? is available on Amazon now canada goose clearance sale.