Depraved
17th April 2008, 17:03
Sir Bernard Ingham on Mbeki (http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71639?oid=88162&sn=Detail)
http://bp0.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWvFF6BBeI/AAAAAAAADNo/16ybfE8IeZY/s400/mbeki_afp.jpg (http://bp0.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWvFF6BBeI/AAAAAAAADNo/16ybfE8IeZY/s1600-h/mbeki_afp.jpg)
Hardly what one could consider a flattering opinion, but it is all true, not to mention heartning to at long last see influential and respected journalists saying what the likes of this blog have been saying for some time. Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s former spokesman, Sir Bernard Ingham on president Mbeki's “regressive” views on Mugabe.
Forty years ago, when Harold Wilson was in No 10, I recall a splendid lass putting on a Thatcherite display of contempt when someone in our company described himself as "progressive" - that is, politically Leftish. What arrogance and presumption, she railed. How dare he assume that his lot had a monopoly on the progressive forces of this land? He was getting above himself and would do well to acquire some humility.
That girl, I said to myself in those male chauvinist days, should go far, but I don't think she did. If she had, these Lefties might not be at it again.
Gordon Brown has just had the effrontery - the arrogance and presumption - to summon a bunch of "centre-Left" leaders from around the world to a golf hotel near Watford to discuss globalisation under the banner of "progressive governance" - once they had ditched a logo created for the occasion when they detected its swastika motif. Oh the blindness of arrogance.
That myopia no doubt explains why Brown still regards himself as "progressive" even though every week brings news, for example, of his Government plotting to damage the two bits of our education system that work - namely, the grammar school and independent sectors - to ensure that the State's comprehensives fail more youngsters.
The National Union of Teachers, latterly in conference, may show us why state education hinders progress, but clearly not even that mad lot tell the full story.
Two Watford participants, ex-President Bill Clinton and Peter Mandelson, can loosely be described as progressive since their lucrative onward march from the White House and from Industry to Northern Ireland Secretary to EU Commissioner has in no way been blocked by scandals.
Perhaps their progress is the only justification for the conference's "progressive" banner since, among the few other celebrities taking part, were Romano Prodi, failed prime minister of Italy, and Kevin Rudd, the new prime minister of Australia, who, I confidently predict, will eventually set back his nation.
You would certainly be hard put to it to describe Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, as progressive. After all, he has some fanciful ideas about the cause of Aids. Yet, he not only qualified politically but turned up in Watford.
I now feel obliged to advise readers to take a deep breath and compose themselves. That is what I did before contemplating the sheer arrogance, presumption and insensitivity of these "progressives" in harbouring a man who runs a fundamentally racialist regime at home and has for years done nothing on his doorstep to end Robert Mugabe's vicious oppression of Zimbabweans.
Mbeki chose to attend this swan while Mugabe and his bloody henchmen were refusing to accept defeat in an election and plotting to rig, through intimidation, a second presidential ballot to save his worthless skin. Had Mbeki had a progressive gene in his body, he would have been in Harare demanding Mugabe face his constitutional responsibility to hand over power.
His failure to do that has nothing progressive about it. It was entirely regressive.
It follows that, if this "progressive governance" conference had even the glimmer of an understanding of what constitutes progress, it would have abandoned Watford, taken Mbeki into protective custody since he is clearly too stupid to be allowed out alone, chartered a plane, thundered into Zimbabwe and ordered Mugabe to quit.
This would have had the additional merit of exposing the UN and Commonwealth for what they are - utterly pretentious in the defence of human rights - and crediting Gordon Brown with a decisiveness none had suspected in him.
With that one bold act, Brown might have rescued himself from the worst consequences of the "progressive governance" he has inflicted on Britain for nearly 11 years.
It should be plain to all bar "progressives" blinded by their arrogant assumptions, that there can be no progress in Zimbabwe - or over much of Africa for that matter - until the people are allowed to rid themselves of thuggish rulers like Mugabe and to feed themselves and, with the help of globalisation, prosper and, yes, progress. But these "progressive" pygmies do not think like that.
They will tolerate almost anything from foul Leftish regimes, including racial and tribal oppression, that would earn Rightish governments explosive moral condemnation.
Predictably, they praised Brown for his "progressive" - and pious - pursuit of aid for Africa instead of telling him to stop giving the useless likes of Mbeki house room and channelling our taxes towards the murderous Mugabes of this world. Progressive governance, my foot.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWsQl6BBdI/AAAAAAAADNg/DInpTIlYy24/s400/Bernard-ingham.jpg (http://bp2.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWsQl6BBdI/AAAAAAAADNg/DInpTIlYy24/s1600-h/Bernard-ingham.jpg)
This article first appeared in (http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/columnists/Bernard-Ingham-Progressives-going-nowhere.3961272.jp) the Yorkshire Post on April 9 2008. Sir Bernard Ingham is a journalist who worked as press secretary for Margaret Thatcher. He joined the Civil Service in 1967, working for the Department of Energy from 1974. He went on to spend eleven years as Thatcher's Chief Press Secretary. From 1989-90 Ingham was also Head of the Government Information Service.
http://bp0.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWvFF6BBeI/AAAAAAAADNo/16ybfE8IeZY/s400/mbeki_afp.jpg (http://bp0.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWvFF6BBeI/AAAAAAAADNo/16ybfE8IeZY/s1600-h/mbeki_afp.jpg)
Hardly what one could consider a flattering opinion, but it is all true, not to mention heartning to at long last see influential and respected journalists saying what the likes of this blog have been saying for some time. Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s former spokesman, Sir Bernard Ingham on president Mbeki's “regressive” views on Mugabe.
Forty years ago, when Harold Wilson was in No 10, I recall a splendid lass putting on a Thatcherite display of contempt when someone in our company described himself as "progressive" - that is, politically Leftish. What arrogance and presumption, she railed. How dare he assume that his lot had a monopoly on the progressive forces of this land? He was getting above himself and would do well to acquire some humility.
That girl, I said to myself in those male chauvinist days, should go far, but I don't think she did. If she had, these Lefties might not be at it again.
Gordon Brown has just had the effrontery - the arrogance and presumption - to summon a bunch of "centre-Left" leaders from around the world to a golf hotel near Watford to discuss globalisation under the banner of "progressive governance" - once they had ditched a logo created for the occasion when they detected its swastika motif. Oh the blindness of arrogance.
That myopia no doubt explains why Brown still regards himself as "progressive" even though every week brings news, for example, of his Government plotting to damage the two bits of our education system that work - namely, the grammar school and independent sectors - to ensure that the State's comprehensives fail more youngsters.
The National Union of Teachers, latterly in conference, may show us why state education hinders progress, but clearly not even that mad lot tell the full story.
Two Watford participants, ex-President Bill Clinton and Peter Mandelson, can loosely be described as progressive since their lucrative onward march from the White House and from Industry to Northern Ireland Secretary to EU Commissioner has in no way been blocked by scandals.
Perhaps their progress is the only justification for the conference's "progressive" banner since, among the few other celebrities taking part, were Romano Prodi, failed prime minister of Italy, and Kevin Rudd, the new prime minister of Australia, who, I confidently predict, will eventually set back his nation.
You would certainly be hard put to it to describe Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, as progressive. After all, he has some fanciful ideas about the cause of Aids. Yet, he not only qualified politically but turned up in Watford.
I now feel obliged to advise readers to take a deep breath and compose themselves. That is what I did before contemplating the sheer arrogance, presumption and insensitivity of these "progressives" in harbouring a man who runs a fundamentally racialist regime at home and has for years done nothing on his doorstep to end Robert Mugabe's vicious oppression of Zimbabweans.
Mbeki chose to attend this swan while Mugabe and his bloody henchmen were refusing to accept defeat in an election and plotting to rig, through intimidation, a second presidential ballot to save his worthless skin. Had Mbeki had a progressive gene in his body, he would have been in Harare demanding Mugabe face his constitutional responsibility to hand over power.
His failure to do that has nothing progressive about it. It was entirely regressive.
It follows that, if this "progressive governance" conference had even the glimmer of an understanding of what constitutes progress, it would have abandoned Watford, taken Mbeki into protective custody since he is clearly too stupid to be allowed out alone, chartered a plane, thundered into Zimbabwe and ordered Mugabe to quit.
This would have had the additional merit of exposing the UN and Commonwealth for what they are - utterly pretentious in the defence of human rights - and crediting Gordon Brown with a decisiveness none had suspected in him.
With that one bold act, Brown might have rescued himself from the worst consequences of the "progressive governance" he has inflicted on Britain for nearly 11 years.
It should be plain to all bar "progressives" blinded by their arrogant assumptions, that there can be no progress in Zimbabwe - or over much of Africa for that matter - until the people are allowed to rid themselves of thuggish rulers like Mugabe and to feed themselves and, with the help of globalisation, prosper and, yes, progress. But these "progressive" pygmies do not think like that.
They will tolerate almost anything from foul Leftish regimes, including racial and tribal oppression, that would earn Rightish governments explosive moral condemnation.
Predictably, they praised Brown for his "progressive" - and pious - pursuit of aid for Africa instead of telling him to stop giving the useless likes of Mbeki house room and channelling our taxes towards the murderous Mugabes of this world. Progressive governance, my foot.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWsQl6BBdI/AAAAAAAADNg/DInpTIlYy24/s400/Bernard-ingham.jpg (http://bp2.blogger.com/_MPvswO6lxOY/SAWsQl6BBdI/AAAAAAAADNg/DInpTIlYy24/s1600-h/Bernard-ingham.jpg)
This article first appeared in (http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/columnists/Bernard-Ingham-Progressives-going-nowhere.3961272.jp) the Yorkshire Post on April 9 2008. Sir Bernard Ingham is a journalist who worked as press secretary for Margaret Thatcher. He joined the Civil Service in 1967, working for the Department of Energy from 1974. He went on to spend eleven years as Thatcher's Chief Press Secretary. From 1989-90 Ingham was also Head of the Government Information Service.