But the dramatic suddenness of that event – eight days from first ballot
Posted in General on 23. Sep, 2010
But the dramatic suddenness of that event – eight days from first ballot to resignation – invested it with a psycho-dramatic intensity which has cast a long shadow down the years.At the time, I misjudged the matter. Many Tories are now howling forth the same anguished cry: how did we get into this mess, and what is to be done? The party’s problems predate Margaret Thatcher’s fall, or it would never have dispensed with its most successful peacetime leader. It is much easier to write a mere letter, and that makes the failure to do so more culpable. As the Tory party cannot afford a further postponement of recovery, it must not continue to be led by a myxie rabbit.Recovery.
The inevitable routine then takes place: distract any small children, especially the very little ones who think that they have found a furry, floppy pet, and then do the necessary, with boot or stick or stone. Though it might seem rather late to warn the Tory party about the dangers of looking ridiculous, as all wise Tories now recognise, things can always get worse.Most of us have had the pleasure of a country walk briefly impaired by an encounter with a rabbit afflicted by myxomatosis. The vast majority of Tory MPs now accept that a change of leadership is inevitable. But most of them are still hoping that 25 of the others will have the courage to write the letters.This is not only cowardly It is also damaging.
If this had been a boxing bout and had not been stopped several rounds ago, the sport would be banned.
In the Conservative leadership ring, however, no one sensible figure is in charge There are 166 referees, many of them dripping wet. By the weekend, the Tory leader was like a bloodied boxer who had been battered well beyond the risk of brain damage. Iain Duncan Smith is a Roundhead, not a Cavalier, yet in one respect he does resemble Charles II He is being an unconscionable time a-dying This is not solely his fault No one seems prepared to administer the coup de gr?. Before it is too late.y.alibhai-brown independent.co.uk
More from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Time, I think for the enlightened left to answer and fight back.
For them.And finally, I think Kampfner is right when he says that our neocons “share a deep-rooted conviction that virtually all criticism of Israel must, by definition, be inspired by anti-Semitism”.We have ignored these sinister new ideologues for long enough. When I meet some of these neo-cons, I can feel their intense discomfort that someone like me is now in their corridors The fact that I am Muslim makes it worse. They actively promote the old Powellite agenda – to its shame, Prospect magazine this year actually gave an award to Anthony Browne for a venomous anti-immigration pamphlet. They constantly attack the BBC, dissenting journalists and true internationalists as a threat to democracy and the country. Let us go forth and civilise them, he calls, let us pre-empt, take over lands, make ourselves safer. He does not care to comment on the number of lives that have been lost as a result of US policies, or how much evil is still fostered in the name of western national interests.There are three other areas where the neo-cons are making real inroads. John Lloyd, a neo-con guru, sneers that we on the left are “relativists”, but fails to address his own relativism when it comes to our actions and those of the US on the world stage.When he comes here next month, will these warniks be asking George Bush to release victims in all those other countries where there is a dictator (probably very friendly with Bush) but no oil?Robert Cooper, the British diplomat who works for Javier Solana in Brussels, is another warrior espousing the rhetoric of “enlightened” colonialism.
The lawless actions of the US and UK governments – Guantanamo Bay, anti-terrorist legislation, arms selling, instigating small wars (the US in the Congo for example), nuclear proliferation – are glaring examples of duplicity on a grand scale.British neo-cons do not question this. Instead their leaders promote reprehensible ideologies to back the new empires. The West works to keep other countries down; democracy is often a fig-leaf for continued exploitation. We don’t want countries such as Saudi Arabia and Burma to be protected under the rules of sovereignty.But so far we can see only double dealing and cruel self interest masquerading as morality.