say what you like about the man – but he sure knows how to get a handshake. mugabe is fast becoming the dennis pennis of the diplomatic world. up he pops, gets his handshake, goes back to zimbabwe with the photo opportunity he wanted. meanwhile the unsuspecting target has to suffer the wrath of the press for their mistake.
prince charles has now followed in jack straw’s footsteps.
charlie was sat one seat away from mugabe (which has to go down as one of the best seating arrangements in the history of diplomacy given mugabe’s attitude to the uk. or perhaps these events work on the same principle that seats in the cinema work – you rush in get the one you want and bugger the rest of the people, i can see the various ushers standing in the middle of it all saying please fill up the seats in the middle of the rows while people such as clinton, chirac, blair all sitting on the aisle seats just glare).
clarence house on behalf of charles said he "caught by surprise”. which is better than jack straw’s “….the fact that there is serious disagreement between zimbabwe and the uk does not mean we should be discourteous or rude." (here) (and it’s that kind of polite attitude that would mean I would never make it as a politician – rude and discourteous is best some of the people I work with can expect from me – ain’t that right kenny).
meps glynnis kinnock and richard corbett have criticised the prince. corbett said this was a golden opportunity to deliberately and very visibly refuse to shake hands with this man.
"to fail to do so was, frankly, stupid." (here) which while is fair comment ignores the fact that charlie has been trained from birth to shake hands…. (it’s a trait the political class have to go to special classes for – as well as kissing babies..) so it’s a little harsh that in the heat of the moment that a hand is thrust in his direction that he ends up shaking it almost instinctively.
while you would have liked charlie to have reacted properly the fault must lie with the people who
1] arranged the seating.
2] who advise and protect the prince for not spotting this potential gaffe and either moving him or warning him.
3] the spineless officials who have let mugabe enter europe despite an eu ban on him entering europe.
4] whoever wrote out the invite to him in the first place.
when mugabe isn’t rigging elections it looks like he is blagging his way into the best parties in the world.
2 comments:
Well, quite clearly Mugabe shouldn't have been there but it would have been much more fun had he been seated next to Tony. He seemed to think he was rigging the last election against Blair rather then the MDC.
Also like the idea of the seating being a free for all but the presidents were arranged in alphabetical order of their countries in French. That did give us Bush and Chirac (Etats Unis et France). Prime Ministers, however, were very cleverly seated in date order - of when their country officially recognised the Vatican. We were stuffed somewhere at the back.
i would have liked to see the free for all scrum approach.
it is also something that should be made part and parcel of all international negotiations.
rather than have a dispute go to war the people involved would have to have a bundle.
nick/spin once suggested that it should go to a bare knuckle blood bath contest.
me i think it should involve wwe rules. it would both stop conflict being expensive but would also be entertaining. all disputes could form a part of the monthly ppvs from the wwe.
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