Sir Winston Churchill
June 4th 1940
“We shall stop them shopping at Selfridges.”
David Cameron
Tbilisi, Georgia, August 16th, 2008
Mikheil Saakashvili and David Cameron
Well David Cameron knows how to show solidarity with the Georgian Prime Minister and inept military adventurer, Mikheil Saakashvili, with his blood curdling threat to stop Russian Oligarchs shopping in the West End of London. He also agreed to support Georgia’s application to join NATO, you know the anti-Soviet Bloc looking for a new meaning in life and stationing missiles in Poland to fly over Russia on the way to Iran or other “rogue states.” This is not; you will be surprised to hear the Middle Eastern “rogue state” which has attacked each and every one of its neighbours including destroying the EU funded infrastructure of Gaza, dismembering Lebanon, occupying the sovereign territory of Syria, occupying East Jerusalem and the West Bank which it is settling and applying collective punishment to the civilian population (in defiance of the “quaint” Geneva Conventions), which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and which has developed nuclear weapons. And did I mention that its previous Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had personally led a terrorist massacre of women and children? During the raid on Qibya in 1953, 69 Palestinians were killed and forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque were blown-up. The act was condemned by the US State Department, the UN Security Council, and by Jewish communities worldwide. And the current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s father was Quartermaster of the Irgun terrorist organisation (you know the guys who killed both the British and UN Peace Envoys and hanged three British soldiers including a Jewish lad from the East End) and Foreign Minister’s Tzipi Livni’s father was the leader of the Irgun group which carried out the King David Hotel massacre which killed 91 people including 17 Jews. And did I mention that a previous Israeli Prime Minister, Menachim Begin was the Irgun leader who gave the order? But less of rogue states with terrorist links, lets get back to the successor of Churchill as leader of the Conservatives.
But whilst PR Dave may not often be compared to Winston Churchill he does know about “fighting them on the beaches” for “Bucket and spade” Dave has shown his true 'blue' colours by holidaying on a £21,000 a week yacht, surrounded by an armada of seven boats of 74 mates and family and banqueting in the finest restaurants on the holiday he would prefer that you didn't see.
Mr Cameron and his family joined 74 friends on seven traditional gulet boats for a week-long tour of the Turkish Riviera which last Friday. Each of the double-masted wooden vessels with 20ft high white sails has its own personal chef, captain and two crew hands. It was Mr Cameron's second holiday within a month, but, unlike the first, he didn't invite the Press along. Three weeks ago the Tory leader and wife Samantha posed for official pictures as he holidayed with his family on a humble bucket-and-spade beach in Cornwall.
With the credit crunch biting, he portrayed himself as a stay-at-home politician in touch with the British electorate. His photo-calls and interviews led even the most loyal Tory newspapers to mock his opportunism. But there was no fanfare at all for his sybaritic week-long tour off Turkey's south-west coast where the former PR executive took advantage of its closeness to the conflict in Georgia and used a private plane for a quick photocall with the Georgian president in Tbilisi.
But by Sunday morning he, Samantha, 37, and their children had joined the sailing party off the Fethiye peninsula to celebrate the 60th birthday of his mother-in-law Viscountess Astor. The total cost of hiring the seven gulets was an estimated £150,000. As the armada organised by Samantha's stepdad, Tory peer Viscount Astor sailed majestically out of Gocek Harbour it looked like a scene from 1970s BBC drama The Onedin Line. Margaret Churcher, 62, on holiday from Leicester with her daughter and son-in-law, said: "They were really impressive they took up the whole bay as they sailed out.”Those are beautiful boats but I'll have to keep dreaming. We were in just a tiny sailing boat that would probably fit in one of their cabins." Mr Cameron, his family and in-laws, were in a traditional gulet yacht called the Sema Tuana which sleeps 10.
By day, they swam in the clear blue sea, laughed with pals and drank bottle after bottle of wine served by the dutiful staff. At night, the Camerons dined at rustic seafront restaurants. The large group of pals ate fresh seafood, Turkish mezes and drank local wines at little restaurants dotted along the rugged Aegean coastline. On Wednesday, they relaxed on plush sofas as the MP for Witney read John Milton's epic 17th century poem Paradise Lost in the 38C (102F) heat. (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/surly-republican.html )
After showering and changing on board, scores of diners were ferried to land by inflatable dinghies. That night the party took over the Indigo Terrace restaurant in the pretty Turkish port of Kalkan until 2am before being taxied back to sea on their boats. A total of 76 guests racked up a bill of more than £2,000. Waiter Huseyin Aslan, 32, said: "They were all very wealthy and looked like they were here for a lot of fun. They were well behaved but there was a lot of laughing and drinking and some dancing.
Well as Tony Blair once remarked “If we can’t take that lot apart, we don’t deserve to be in government!” Unfortunately Tony is no longer around to take them apart; he is now a full time “Peace” envoy to rogue states in the Middle East, indeed he even has an office in one, in Jerusalem, and he may even visit Gaza one day or indeed enjoy the typical fish meal by the banks of the Euphrates in Baghdad surrounded by grateful Iraqi’s enjoying the restoration of peace he helped bring about there. Makes sense to me! (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/britain-in-iraq.html )
But there is a serious point to all this. Relations with Russia and Middle East Peace must start on the basis of Realpolitik, not comic book characterisations of Brutish Russians, plucky Georgians, Arab Terrorists, Holier than thou Israel. America and Europe’s overriding strategic interests lie in peace and co-operation with Russia based on mutual respect and understanding and a genuine and enduring Middle East Peace based on justice, not military adventurism subsidized by the U.S. of A. Let us say it loud and let us say it clear, whatever about any other considerations Europe and Europe have no great strategic interests in Israel or Georgia, indeed the opposite case could be made for both.
So let’s get back to reality not the sound bites of the Boy Wonder David’s *, Milliband in Kiev who is more interested in plotting coups at home than preventing them abroad and Cameron whose exercise of publicity without responsibility in Tbilisi gives opportunism a bad name. I’m sure David Cameron has many qualities but like his “holiday” in Devon being REAL is not one of them!
* Note; this is not meant to indicate a prejudice against all Davids.
No comments:
Post a Comment