HAMMOND'S A BIT OF A LIABILITY REALLY, AND THAT'S ONLY ONE OF HIS MANY FAULTS

I've never had much time for the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond.

I first became aware of him when I watched a Despatches programme back in October 2010, which showed that he had transferred a deal of his investments to his wife in order to avoid tax.  And a considerable amount of tax too. Experts said at the time that there could be savings of around £180,000 for every million in profit that was made. Not a bad saving for him. 

But pretty despicable for a Cabinet minister in a government cutting everything to shreds.

Even after that I was barely aware of him and his doings. He has a seemingly well deserved reputation for being dull as ditch water. 

I put him down as another typical selfish rich Tory with little understanding of the world and a huge opinion of his own importance. 

He seems to have spent his life insulting and upsetting people, but typical of his type it never seems to bother him and it doesn't seem to have done his career any harm.

 

Pretty much he's saying "up yours"

Conveniently this article, which appeared the other day, shows a bit more about his abilities, or rather lack thereof. I was particularly shocked (if not a little amused) by the picture above taken at the talks where John Kerry hammered out a deal essentially between America and Iran over their nuclear programme and the rest of the countries just agreed.

You’ll note, incidentally, that he has positioned himself right next to the American Secretary of State (his de facto boss). 

Those of you conversant with the protocols and manners of the Near and Middle East might know that the “thumbs up” signal that Hammond is giving is considered extremely offensive in Iran. Apparently it’s a bit like giving the ‘middle finger’ to someone here….so sort of “Go spin on it!!!” 

Just what you'd expect from the FCO.

Now, as foreign secretary, surely a job for a far more competent man, given its dependence on diplomacy, compromise and good relations, noner of which he seems to be even aware of, much less accomplished in, he has weighed in to the debate over Calais by claiming that millions of migrants pose a threat to the EU’s standard of living and social structure, apparently using the term “marauding migrants” to describe the desperate people at Calais trying to get to England.

 

They need help. They are humans like us.

He said: “So long as there are large numbers of pretty desperate migrants marauding around the area, there always will be a threat to the tunnel security. We've got to resolve this problem ultimately by being able to return those who are not entitled to claim asylum back to their countries of origin.”

Hammond said EU laws meant migrants could be “pretty confident” that after setting foot on EU soil they would not be returned to their country of origin. “Now that is not a sustainable situation because Europe can’t protect itself, preserve its standard of living and social infrastructure if it has to absorb millions of migrants from Africa.”

Of course something has to be done.  Only a fool would think otherwise.

But Mr Hammond considers himself to be an Anglican: the English version of Christianity. Like so many politicians, he claims to be a man of faith.

Maybe as a Christian he would like to consider a Christian approach to the problem instead of referring to these people as if they were a bunch of wild animals. Who does he think he is? Katie Hopkins?

As I said in the comments on a previous post, all these so-called Christians at the head of the UK, including the Queen and the prime minister, might like to ask themselves..."what would Jesus do?", instead of using JC as an election tool.

In many cases these migrant people are fleeing from countries in which the "great" European powers (mainly Britain and France) have dabbled over the years.  Hammond didn't mention that many of them are trying to escape the mess that the Americans, Brits, Italians and Spanish left behind in Iraq and also a Syria overrun by IS, thanks to the chaos of region...or the mess that the French and Brits left after interfering so disastrously in Libya, and leaving behind complete chaos.

Now I know that not everything can be attributed to the interference of the West and in particular Britain, but a fair amount of it can be. Time after time we imagine that the likes of Blair, Brown, Cameron and Osborne know better how to govern Middle Eastern or African countries, when they don't. 

The Queen maintains that every action she takes is guided by Jesus's teachings. So is she opening up her house to people displaced by famine, poverty, war?  Aye right!

And telling the public that these countries have appalling regimes which must be changed just won't work any more when we know that they happily sign massive weapons deals with the Saudis and Bahrainis. 

I don't pretend to have a solution to the migrant problem, but I didn;t choose a career in international politics. However, I'd venture to suggest that Mr Hammond might like to get together with other UN members to see what they can do to stop the traffickers. 

These people who sell freedom and bliss in Europe and in particular the green and pleasant land, where they assure potential customers that everything is as near paradise as you can get. 

It must seem like dream to someone living in fear of their lives in a broken country in North Africa or the Middle East, just as it did for Brits leaving the UK for better countries at various economic downturn/persecution stages of British history. 

But these salesmen lie, just like the ads you see on the telly that tell you that you can take 20 years off your age by using this new cream... and only £60 a jar!

Meeting with other leaders won’t solve the problem, but it might go some way towards stopping it at source. Of course, it won't placate the UKIP faction.

 

Oh just a bit tighter, Mr Bush

We should remember too, that most other European countries, some of them even more broke than we are, have already done a very great deal more that Britain to resettle people fleeing from the horrors of broken regimes that we helped break… Maybe Britain has to take its share of the responsibility for the mess it has left behind it in its leader's search for a Congressional Medal.

 

Some commentators would have you believe they all want to come here.
Not really.

In the meantime Cameron, who has already tried to tone down Hammond’s rhetoric, might like to look to see if the “leader of the house” job could be made available to Hammond.  That’s where failures as FCS usually go, isn’t it?

It’s time we had a proper Foreign Secretary, up to the difficult job that awaits him. 

Oh look, we are being overrun...

I'm thankful that the Minister for External Relations in Scotland, Humza Yousaf, treats the situation with a great deal more decency than his British counterpart. Maybe one day soon he will be the Secretary for Foreign affairs in an independent Scotland.
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PS: Just found out that The Great Foodbank Siege is online and on sale now.

Will write more about it tomorrow.

Here is the link. Please help if you can.

Mark talks more about it here on his blog.