British Values - The Vicar Harps On
Posted June 8th, 2007 by Tom
From Blood & Treasure
Russia has dismissed Tony Blair as an "ex-Prime Minister" as it hit back at his warning that British companies would not invest in the country unless it accepted Western values.
Where did the Vicar get this odd idea that, after Iraq and sleaze and attacks on British liberty and slavish devotion to the torture-heavy neocon foreign policy, he's the one to sell our values to the benighted heathens out East? It's at times like this one wonders if he isn't rather overqualified for the rubber room and the I-love-me waistcoat. Putin may be a bastard (and he is), but he's no idiot, and he'll look at the gas reserves and file this under 'Bollocks to Tony'. He knows that when it comes to oil and gas, no rules count and values go the same way.
Aside from the fact that
Aside from the fact that he's a politician and part of the ruling elite, in what way is Putin a 'bastard'? He's serving the interests of his country which is a hell of lot more than can be said of the criminal traitors we disgracefully tolerate.
Um, abrogating democracy,
Um, abrogating democracy, human rights and freedom of speech in favour of a centralised authoritarian state based on control of the media, natural resources and a powerful state security apparatus sounds pretty bastard like to me. The degree to which he stands out from Blair and Bush on this is, of course, rather smaller than one would like to see. They're *all* bastards, might be a better way to put it.
The Cold War is over and the KGB won?
Of course the real
Of course the real difference between Blair and Putin is that one is ' their' bastard and the other is 'our' bastard.
Mind you. I'm not too sure which is which...
And we are all their
And we are all their bitches.
The big joke is that Blair
The big joke is that Blair apparently expects Putin to pay any attention to what he says. Putin has to pay some attention to the organ-grinder (Bush); the monkey can safely be ignored. In the memorable words of Stalin (who was referring to the Pope, so a similar situation): "How many divisions does he have?" In Blair's case, that would be one. Or maybe two. The Russian army probably has more tanks than the British army has soldiers.
As so often, Brookes' cartoon in The Times said it all. Putin greets the approaching sourpuss with a deadpan "Yo Blair!"
I think id prefer their
I think id prefer their "bastard" at least he knows which country to fight for.
Putin is honest about what
Putin is honest about what HE is.
Spaking about honesty, I
Spaking about honesty, I heard the some audio footage of Blair prattling away at the 1997 "victory night" do at the Royal Festival Hall (it was on the Archive Hour on Radio 4 yesterday). Hilarious!! With hindsight, you can see the next ten years in that speech. Recommend everyone to try and listen (perhaps to be found on You-Tube)?
Go
Go here:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/atoz/index.shtml#a
Scroll down to and click on 'Archive Hour'. Play.
The speech in question starts at 30 minutes in, which you can FF to.
I'm surprised no-one has
I'm surprised no-one has seen fit to point out the particularly brutal irony of a man responsible for two wars for oil heading the calls of international outrage against the Russian president for his use of energy as a political tool. Really, how can he not laugh when he says it. What Putin doesn't understand is that liberal market economies lead to the strongest companies winning - i.e. anglo-american companies. Using state power to counteract the head start of those companies is acting against Western interests .. I mean, values, of course. He may, or indeed may not, be a bastard, but Putin is getting a rough ride in the press for not taking it up the arse from Shell and BP. Good on him. By the way, how would Britain react if Russia was sheltering a man publicly declaring himself to be attempting to overthrow the Russian state? Would we be taking sermons on 'Western values'?