Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The unpatriotic Conservatives

Yesterday I suggested that because many leading Conservatives are neo-cons they have no basis from which to mount an attack on Labour's disastrous foreign policy.

Here is another illustration.

As I also mentioned yesterday, the Labour minister Shahid Malik was stopped and searched at Washington DC's Dulles airport after a series of meetings on tackling terrorism. This is not the first time he has been singled out by US authorities.

And what is the Conservative reaction?

Here is Michael Forsyth's question to Steve Bassam in the Lords yesterday:
My Lords, does the noble Lord not think that Ministers should set an example in co-operating with security officials at airports and not complain publicly about their treatment however much they are inconvenienced?
That's right: one of Her Majesty's ministers is detained by the minions of a foreign government, and Forsyth's reaction is to side with that government.

It seems that their love of all things American is so overwhelming that we can't even rely on the Tories to be patriotic any more.

6 comments:

Paul Evans said...

It's rather pathetic. Good post.

cbmilne33 said...

Yes I do agree with what you said about the British Conservative Party who are the real traitors by being allies with a USA that has every year an annual 4 July Hate Britain-oops-Independence Day.We must remember that the USA military are descended from the anti-British Minutemen.I am disgusted that the renegade ex-Australian(now 4 July 1776 British hating American)Rupert Murdoch is able to undermine our UK/NZ/Canada/Australian/Commonwealth Monarchy by his media machine.Where was his media when the Irish Roman Catholic IRA did their stuff and now they are continuing on an anti-Islam Crusade post 911 from their previous Paki-bashing(guaranteed to alienate British Muslims)long before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan set the Islamist ball rolling.

Anonymous said...

Ok, so it wasn't the most warm-hearted thing for a Conservative to say. Sounds like a spectacular diplomatic blunder on the part of the Americans more than anything else.

Anonymous said...

Much as it pains me to agree with the Tories, I really can't see what's wrong with their assertion. If, for whatever reason, they felt the minister was acting in a manner that caused them suspician, the airport security officers should of course have acted. Simply standing for election and winning does not guarantee that one is a thoroughly decent and reputable chap - there are plenty of people willing to elect extremists, as the presence of the Honourable member for Baghdad Central demonstrates.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that would be the same for the Saudi King or say Condoleeza Rice herself?

Tristan said...

Ministers of every government should be subject to the same security as everyone else. Or are we not equal under the law?

In reply to cbmine33 - what utter nonsense. As for the 4th of July - I support their celebration of liberty and freedom from the tyrannical rule which the colonies were subjected to by the then British government. Perhaps if us British had been more flexible then the US colonies would have remained under British rule, but the government refused to compromise. Freedom is more important than who rules you.