MP: UK guilty of double standards on UN vote

Simon Danczuk MP, chair of Labour Friends of Palestine, said regarding the UK annoucments on the UN vote said today: "Today's announcement makes the UK look guilty of double standards when we have a Prime Minister praising the Arab Spring, saying 'we are on your side' and supporting the right to self-determination in the Middle East then denying the same  right  to Palestinians. "Even Tory grandees like Nicholas Soames are warning this absurd position will mean that Britain will have to face severe consequences in the Middle East. "David Cameron cannot travel round the world saying he is a friend of democracy while leaving Palestinians in their refugee camps and blocking their statehood bid. This is the worst kind of hypocrisy." The UK will abstain in a United Nations (UN) vote on Palestinian statehood, Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons during a statement on the Middle East. In response, Douglas Alexander MP, the Shadow Foreign Secretary said "Given the absence of any meaningful negotiations between the parties at present, a point which I am sure the Foreign Secretary will not dispute, can he tell the House how his position of having no position is likely to advance the peace process?   He went on to say "the decision announced by the Government today represents a further acceptance of and accommodation to a wider pattern of failure-failure to achieve meaningful negotiations, failure to meet the aspirations of the Palestinians and, indeed, the Israeli people, and continued failure by the international community to find a way through the present impasse."