President Zuma

To read reports of Gordon Brown's fawning and utter capitulation over Zimbabwe, during the visit to Britain of the South African President, Jacob Zuma, is sickmaking, with a side order of rotten puke.

To start with, Zuma has rehearsed all the glib twaddle about British Colonialism. To paraphrase a well known meme, "What did the British do for us, apart from education, roads, sanitation, health and security" They now have self determination; fine, I am all for that, but look at where it has got them - millions dying and infected with HIV/AIDS, due in part to the government position on the virus, which largely consists of advising people to eat vegetables.  Zuma himself is not pure as the driven snow, oh no, not by a long chalk.

Brown's capitulation over Zimbabwe is vile:

"We applaud the efforts that President Zuma is making to bring stability and change to Zimbabwe"

That's bollocks, and Brown knows it. Zuma is supposedly here to convince Brown and the EU to go easy on Zimbabwe sanctions, claiming that the process is interfering with free and fair elections in the country. How he makes this connection defies my understanding. (A bit of recent history here, Mr Zuma - Many in civilised Europe campaigned actively for sanctions against South Africa when the whites were in charge, on the basis that sanctions worked. What changed, Mr Zuma?)

All in all, Britain is feting and entertaining a savage in a suit, for reasons I am not aware of. Oh how the mighty Britannia has fallen.