Saturday, February 12, 2005
Middle-East
As we watch the Iraqi results come in, I am torn between many different emotions:
- Happiness at the voters having the opportunity to vote in an open manner
- Cynicism at the pretext of democracy that gives us elections where the candidates dare not show themselves in public
- Disgust at Dubya for trying to impose his placeman on the Iraqis
- Joy at him coming third, despite being almost the only face on TV
- Fear that the exclusion of the Sunnis will only cause more death and destruction.
On the up side, at least it was a universal franchise, even if many were far too terrified to take up the opportunity, with a 4% turnout in some provinces.
Now, Dubya is looking around for other countries on which to impose American democracy - that is to say, free, fair and open elections that will result in the US supported candidate winning.
Why not ask Calum about his recent jolly to Saudi Arabia in February 2004, where a high powered (sic) delegation of Calum, Clive Betts (who?) Crispin Blunt (who?) and David Atkinson (who?) no doubt berated Crown Prince Abdullah over his totalitarian misogynist regime. Or maybe not, as the whole freebie was paid for by the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding. How could the CAABU afford this when the director's report for 2003 shows that they have had to slash everything just to survive?
Could it be related the directors statement: "Members of Parliament, like property prices, have shot up in value. When a Labour government has such a massive majority, the Prime Minister can afford to ignore or downplay the odd momentary lapse of loyalty from the backbenches". Calum MacDonald has a majority 1,074.
So what prompted this sudden interest in Arab-British matters? Calum has never shown any sign of interest in Saudi affairs, but perhaps the promise of a freebie momentarily spurred his interest. I'd love to tell you what was discussed, but none of the MPs seem to have placed any information about their discussions or their 4 day trip into the public domain.
However, as we celebrate the extension of the universal franchise, Calum (and Labour, and their leader George Dubya Bush) are silent over the exclusion of Saudi women from the sham elections also happening this week in that oil-rich dictatorship. However, the Al-Saud clan are our friends, and consequently are 'good' dictators.
