Thursday 27 April 2017

Mugwumps of the World, Unite!

Tory party and Brexit cheerleader daily comic, The Sun, today carries an article by an imposter who masquerades as Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs:  a  blond, messy  mop-haired fellow who goes by the unlikely name of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
 

The comic introduces the article by asserting:  "Boris Johnson launches the most savage assault yet on the Labour leader,’" claiming “It is absolutely vital for Britain’s security that we have the strong, stable and decisive leadership of Theresa May”

 

Johnson later went onto the national broadcast airwaves, including an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC radio. In defending  Britain’s retention of the Trident nuclear WMD system ( of which, incidentally, he could not provide a single instance when pressed by Tory- supporter Ferrari in which it could be used in military conflict despite his Cabinet colleague, the defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon’s assertion on Monday that the prime minister could launch the deadly nuclear WMD in a first strike), Johnson asserted that there were several countries in addition to  North Korea with atomic ambitions to  obtain  nuclear weapons. 

The only credible candidate country for this destabilizing proliferation is Saudi Arabia, Britain’s biggest ally in the Gulf, recently visited by the prime minister, to set up new arms deals! (“Saudi Arabia Still Seeking Nuclear Weapons Capability,” Free Beacon, March 31, 2017; http://freebeacon.com/national-security/report-saudi-arabia-still-seeking-nuclear-weapons-capability/)
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn has for many years called for the creation of a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East. He told Parliament  on 18 July last year : “....at the last two nuclear non-proliferation treaty five-yearly review conferences there was unanimous support for a weapons of mass destruction-free zone across the middle east, which is surely something that we can sign up to and support. I look forward to the Defence Secretary’s support for that position when he responds to the debate.” (http://www.ukpol.co.uk/jeremy-corbyn-2016-speech-on-nuclear-deterrent/)
 

This is something opposed by the Conservative Government because they support nuclear weapons proliferation with Israel’s illegal possession of its own 200 nuclear warheads. ("Israel nuclear weapons: UK government loses file on its involvement with country's arsenal," Independent, 4 August 2016; http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/israel-nuclear-weapons-uk-government-loses-file-involvement-a7172116.html; "How Shimon Peres Outwitted the U.S. to Bring Nukes to Israel," Daily Beast, 28 September 2016 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/28/how-shimon-peres-got-nukes-for-israel.htmlComment

Johnson argued in The Sun  “ “We are faced with a resurgent Russia, interfering blatantly with European democracies
“And a semi-deranged regime in North Korea, bent on getting nuclear weapons that could one day be used to strike this country  North Korea's Kim Jong Un says engine test is 'new birth' of rocket industry

Look at the world today, and the problems Britain is grappling with.
We have a revanchist Russia, interfering blatantly with European democracies - countries that Moscow wants to pull back into its sphere of influence.

We have a semi-deranged regime in North Korea, bent on getting nuclear weapons that could one day be used to strike this country.”
Just when Kim Jong-Un is on the verge of acquiring a really deadly nuclear weapon, Britain could be on the verge of acquiring Jeremy Corbyn as PM - a man whose brilliant idea of a nuclear deterrent is that we should send our nuclear subs to sea with no nuclear missiles aboard.

Where is Corbyn on any of these issues?   And we are engaged in a vast struggle against ..evil …And yet Corbyn is nowhere to be found on any of these issues.”

Johnson, idiosyncratically,  called Corbyn  “a mutton-headed old mugwump.”- in an attempt at a dismissive insult.
 (“Don’t feel sorry for that mutton-headed old mugwump Jeremy Corbyn – he poses an enormous threat to our country if he gets into No10, “ The Sun, 27 April 2017; https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3422855/dont-feel-sorry-for-helpless-jeremy-corbyn-he-poses-an-enormous-threat-to-our-country/)

But what is a Mugwump, anyway?.

Accoridng to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mugwumps) The Mugwumps were Republican political activists who bolted from the United States Republican Party by supporting Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the United States presidential election of 1884. They switched parties because they rejected the financial corruption associated with Republican candidate James G. Blaine. In a close election, the Mugwumps supposedly made the difference in New York state and swung the election to Cleveland.

The jocular word mugwump, noted as early as 1832, is from Algonquian (Natick) mugquomp, "important person, kingpin" (from mugumquomp, "war leader"),implying that they were "sanctimonious" or "holier-than-thou,"[2] in holding themselves aloof from party politics.

 

So Johnson actually described Corbyn as “an important person, a king pin “. Praise indeed!

No comments:

Post a Comment