The Mad Colonel and the Gay Lord

The more the previous government of this country, that once headed by the vile Tony Blair, slips into history the more venal, the more corrupt, it seems, the more mired in the deepest forms of turpitude and hypocrisy. It makes it worse that Blair continues to tour the world, touting his tawdry credentials as a latter day saint, rather than sink into the oblivion he deserves.

Meanwhile Peter Mandelson, if possible even more morally debased than his master, recently came to the defence of the beleaguered Gaddafis, saying that he and Blair were absolutely right to make friends with these people.

It’s certainly true that we live in a world with some fairly unpleasant leaders, people like Colonel Gaddafi and Hashim Thaçi, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, another of Blair’s pals, who stands accused of the worst kind of butchery during the Balkan wars. One has to be practical; it’s not always possible to take the moral high ground in international diplomacy. But there is being practical and there is being cosy, and, my, oh, my, how cosy Blair and Mandelson were with the Mad Colonel and Saif, his nauseating playboy son.

I’m sure most of the people who read this will have seen the recent news footage from Libya, also know as Colonel & Son, where the chief executives are doing all they can to ensure they do not go out of business…permanently. What you may not know is that Saif is battling for democracy; at least he is according to his Lordship. There is nostalgia at work here, a loyalty between chums, created, I suppose, when Saif spent a jolly good time with the gay peer on Corfu, as guests at Nat Rothschild’s villa. The Gay Lord, the Muslim Playboy and the Jewish Financier; is there a joke in this, I wonder?

There is a joke, certainly, a joke in Mandelson’s way of looking at events, one unfortunately without a great deal of humour. Never mind the Colonel’s rambling and half-mad statements on TV, never mind Saif’s determination, to use his words, to fight to the last man and the last bullet, he recognises, says Mandy, that Libya has to go on a different course, a transition towards political pluralism.

Quite right, my lord, just as the release of the Lockerbie bomber had nothing to do with shady deals over oil and cosy relations with playboys. Yes, one has to be realistic about international affairs; one has to remember to play the Machiavellian game. But there is realpolitik and there is Mandy Blair politick, enough to disgust even the most cynical realist. That the British people could ever have been taken in by these criminal hucksters is something that will never cease to perplex me.