David Miliband

Wikipedia coverage: Read the full Wikipedia article, including its references. The material below is the existing Deep Politics Wiki article.

David Miliband  link Powerbase Sourcewatch (Politician, businessman)
Born	David Wright Miliband 1965-07-15 London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	Jewish
Alma mater	Corpus Christi College (Oxford), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Parents	Ralph Miliband, Marion Kozak
Children	2
Siblings	Ed Miliband
Spouse	Louise Shackelton
Interests	International Rescue Committee
Party	Labour
UK politician who was Foreign Secretary 2007-2010

David Wright Miliband is a former British Labour Party politician who was Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband. David Miliband and his brother, Ed Miliband, sat in the UK Cabinet simultaneously. In 2013 the Daily Mirror reported that Miliband would be announcing the following day that he intended to resign as an MP and leave politics altogether. He announced he was taking up a "charity" post as head of the International Rescue Committee in New York where his remuneration is reported to be £300,000 ($450,000).

Education

David Miliband went to Corpus Christi College (Oxford) and obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. From 1988 to 1989 he took a master's degree in Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Kennedy Scholar.

Foreign Secretary

Mockery of justice

Following an article in The Guardian of 21 February 2008 headlined "Miliband blocks release of key Lockerbie files", The Sunday Herald of 24 February 2008 accused David Miliband of making the Lockerbie appeal a mockery of justice. The paper was scathing about David Miliband's having signed a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate in an attempt to prevent disclosure of the document (relating to timers) that had been in the hands of the Crown Office since 1996 (before the Lockerbie trial) but which had not been divulged to the Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's defence (as the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission believed it should have been). It expressed the view that it is outrageous for the UK Government to seek to prevent the Scottish Appeal Court having access to the foreign document even though the SCCRC took the view that a verdict reached in ignorance of it might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice.

On 25 February 2008, Hans Köchler, UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial, reported:

The continued withholding of evidence related to the case of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi makes a new appeal actually impossible. Should the document in question not be made available, criminal proceedings under Scots Law will have to be terminated.

The behaviour of the British Government is in contravention to the commitment it made vis-à-vis the United Nations Organisation prior to the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1192 (1998) to enable a fair and independent trial of the two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie case under Scots Law.

The invocation of "Public Interest Immunity" (PII) – unprecedented in the history of Scottish criminal justice – is tantamount to political interference into the Appeal Court’s conduct. It is obvious that criminal proceedings cannot be fair if the Defence is denied access to a piece of evidence (document) which has been revealed to the Prosecution.

Under the highly politicised circumstances of the Lockerbie Trial, the issuing of a PII certificate by the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom appears to be a rather desperate measure to influence the conduct of the court in a manner favorable to the British Government; it further strains the constitutional relations between Scotland and the United Kingdom.

The separation of powers between the Executive and Judiciary is a basic characteristic of the rule of law. In the present case, this principle is violated because of the outright interference of the British Government in a matter of the Scottish Judiciary.

The British Government’s interference makes devolution of authority in matters of Criminal Justice to Scotland entirely meaningless. What is the meaning of "devolution" if a Scottish Court is prevented from operating according to its own rules? Scots Law is not to be administered under the terms of a Protectorate. The crucial question will now be whether the Scots will be able to assert their (constitutional) independence in devolved matters.

It is to be hoped that the Scottish Judges will uphold the independence of the Judiciary and will reject the British Government’s interference. A court of law is transformed into a political body should the Judges allow this kind of interference.

The persistent refusal of the UK Government to allow the disclosure of vital evidence to the Defence points into the direction of a cover-up. In the context of the irregularities at the Lockerbie trial and appeal in the Netherlands (described in the undersigned’s reports of 2001 and 2002), this development demonstrates the need for an independent investigation under a United Nations mandate – especially since the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has declared that a "miscarriage of justice" may have occurred.

The convicted Libyan national (Megrahi) has a right to a genuine judicial review of his verdict outside the confines of international realpolitik. In June 2007 the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his case back to the High Court of Justiciary for a second appeal. If appeal proceedings are now made impossible due to the British Executive’s interference, Mr Al Megrahi will be denied his right to fair trial under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In this case, he will be entitled to proceed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

On 21 July 2008, Hans Köchler wrote to David Miliband:

I regret having to contact you again in the Lockerbie case – a matter that should have been resolved by now (almost twenty years after the tragic event) on the basis of the rule of law. Allow me, first, to refer to the Libya page on the web site of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The section related to the midair explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie states, inter alia, that:

"Al-Megrahi was found guilty and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah not proven [sic!]."

While the information concerning Mr Al-Megrahi is correct, the information concerning Mr Fhimah is wrong. The accurate words in the case of the verdict reached on Mr Fhimah would be "not guilty". It is worthy to note that the sentence on the FCO web site is also semantically flawed. A person can be found "guilty" or "not guilty", but not "proven" or "not proven". Only an allegation/accusation, not a person, can be found "proven" or "not proven". The sentence on the web site can easily be corrected if the word "proven" is replaced by the word "guilty". ["On 31 January 2001 Al-Megrahi was found guilty and Fhimah not guilty" instead of "On 31 January 2001 Al-Megrahi was found guilty and Fhimah not proven".]

I trust that, for the sake of truth, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office will correct this mistake. The accurate information about the verdict in Mr Fhimah’s case is to be found in the official transcript of the High Court of Justiciary at Kamp van Zeist (record of Day 86, January 31, 2001, pages 10235 to 10236).

Expense claims

The Daily Telegraph's investigation of expenses claims by Members of Parliament reported that David Miliband had claimed for gardening expenses and approximately £30,000 in repairs, decorations, and furnishings for his constituency home in South Shields. A spokesperson said: "At every stage, David Miliband followed the procedures and rules as laid out by the parliamentary authorities".

Business interests

According to a March 2013 article in the Huffington Post UK, Miliband made almost £1m since the 2010 election. The article listed sources of income from speaking (where he received up to £20,000 per event), advisory and teaching roles, journalism, gifts, hospitality, and overseas visits. On 21 December 2010, The Office of David Miliband Limited was formed with Miliband and his wife Louise as directors.

According to the Financial Times, "much of Mr Miliband’s time has been spent on his lucrative directorships and speaking roles, which he would be expected to give up if he returned to frontline politics…as of January 2013, David Miliband has made just short of £1m on top of his MP’s salary since he failed to win the Labour leadership in the summer of 2010."

David Miliband is one of six members of the Global Advisory Board of Macro Advisory Partners which advises multinational corporations, sovereign wealth funds, investors, and governments.

In January 2012, David Miliband joined the Board of Directors of Mauritius based private equity group, Indus Basin Holdings. IBH operates Rice Partners in the Punjab region of Pakistan. It specialises in managing the end-to-end supply chain for major global users of rice.

According to the Financial Times, "Mr Miliband’s jobs include advisory roles with VantagePoint Capital Partners, a Californian group; Oxford Analytica, a UK advisory company; and Indus Basin Holdings, a Pakistani agrochemical group. He is also a member of the advisory board to the Sir Bani Yas academic forum, which is hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates. Despite supporting Arsenal, Mr Miliband is vice-chairman and a non-executive director of Sunderland Football Club. As a speaker he commands a fee of up to £20,000."

Miliband is also on the Advisory Board of the VantagePoint Capital Partners.