Viewpoints: Politicians on the UK's global role

The nature of the UK's global role has been much discussed in recent weeks. Several politicians give their views.

At the end of August, Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote in Parliament approving military action in Syria to deter use of chemical weapons.

That Commons defeat prompted Chancellor George Osborne to tell BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there would now be "national soul-searching about our role in the world".

What should that global role be?

A BBC article on Tuesday featured a range of opinions on the subject from think tank experts.

Below several politicians give their views.

The UK is unique in that is a leading member of the EU, of Nato, of the G8 and now the G20, and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and a leading member of the Commonwealth.

When you put all these together, it gives an influence at a whole variety of levels and in a whole variety of geographical situations.

In the future, Britain will have to build alliances as we reduce our expenditure on defence.

If our military capability is reducing and there is reluctance on the part of the British public for military engagement, then we should be putting lots of emphasis into "soft power" - using all the mechanisms at our disposal to advance the cause of human rights, of democracy, of free markets.

We can do that through our more than 160 diplomatic missions around the world, through our tremendous influence and reputation, and by example.

We have a more a strenuous and robust debate about human rights than any other country I can think of, and we should hold that up as an illustration of how democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, should all three march robustly together.

We should be looking at [the Brics countries] as partners. The future of Britain has got to rest in partnership - and that's [also] why I would resist any question of withdrawing from the EU.

The UK is the crossroads of the free world. Bridging the time zones of east and west, London makes the markets and leads many of the debates about how the world should change.

The UK belongs to many clubs and networks. As a member of the [UN] Security Council we will undertake peacekeeping and armed intervention where the world community thinks it is needed. As a leading member of NATO we will be at the side of the US where we are happy with the common cause. Through the Commonwealth we create one the world's great meeting places for an attractive diversity of countries and cultures, to strengthen the impulse to democracy, free trade and the rule of law.

The UK needs a new relationship with the European Union, as we cannot become part of a united "Euroland". As the single currency seeks to create a country to love it, the UK has to reassert its independence. We need a relationship based on freer trade and political co-operation with the European continent, not one based on common government.

The UK is at her best when we take to the five oceans and the abundant airspace over the globe. We are a nation of free traders, advocates of freedom and democracy, supporters of the oppressed and fighters for justice. We know the world does not owe us a living, but we also know how to earn our living by working with the sources of power and wealth as they shift decisively towards the emerging markets. The UK is at its best creative, innovative and energetic. It will need to be all three as the world becomes more competitive in the years ahead.

The parliamentary vote on Syria marks a real opportunity for us to reset British foreign policy.

Intervention without UN backing proved disastrous in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a heavy toll in British and Allied lives, and an awful toll on lives in those states, plus the price of continuing instability and violence.

Britain can and should lead the world in insisting on compliance with international law and the use of UN mechanisms in cases of conflict and where necessary the International Criminal Court. Foreign policy should focus on working to strengthen these institutions.

We could offer significant leadership in getting rid of our Trident nuclear weapons. That would save £100bn, and send a message that these weapons of mass destruction have no place in the modern world.

We also need to stop subsidising our arms industries to spread their deadly goods, often bought by regimes ignoring the basic needs of their people and/or repressing their human rights. Exports to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are indefensible.

In the EU, Britain has too often been the cheerleader in advantaging of multinational companies over small local businesses, and a block to action in financial regulation, as in the resistance to the financial transaction tax.

The EU has an important role in providing a foundation of European, and global, standards in environmental behaviour, workers and consumer rights, and human rights. Britain needs to be part of that, while working to ensure the principle of subsidiarity - decisions being made at the lowest possible level, close to the people affected - is respected.

Britain needs to remain central to NATO and the EU and I believe we should have a referendum next May to resolve this issue for business.

It is true that Britain is competing in a global race, but I think we need to focus on what kind of team we - in Britain - want to be in this race. Our role will reflect the spirit of our team.

We are now entering a post-Thatcherite world where mutual obligations need to have their place at the heart of the economy as much as profit. I, for one, am not relaxed about the shocking inequality in modern Britain. I believe a more business friendly society does not necessarily have to be more unequal. We need innovative ways to encourage businesses to pay decent wages, for example, by reducing corporation tax for those that pay the living wage.

Britain needs a renewed sense of national purpose based on our shared values. It's time to encourage creative thinking and build new institutions based on the politics of the common good. Kindness is one of the bedrocks of this approach, drawing us together through the shared bonds we owe to one another, not just mediated through the state. To support Britain's entrepreneurial spirit and an ecosystem where fast growing businesses can flourish, we should invest in infrastructure and broadband for all.

We need a politics that is both pro-worker and pro-business.

It is a happy accident of history that the UK is perched on the edge of the continent of Europe. This has meant that since pre-history our trading links have been with the known world, rather than confined to doing deals with our friends on the continent. The discovery of Egyptian, Phoenician and other artefacts in Bronze Age burials across the country underlines this.

And as it always has been, so it can be again.

The UK should, when we leave the EU, reactivate our seat on the World Trade Organization (WTO), gain our place as a global trading nation, and refocus our efforts on the growing parts of the world, for example our Commonwealth partners, rather than concentrating on the high unemployment, low growth sclerotic economies of European Union.

We in the UK have a bright future out there in the globalised world, if we only grasp opportunities offered by luck, geography, history and our culture.