THE SAUDI REGIME IS BRUTAL AND AWFUL, SO WHY DID WE BACK THEM FOR UNHCR?

Salman

Saudi Arabia has greeted the new year by executing 47 people.

They have justified these punishments by saying that they are blessings for the now dead, because they will be saved from committing any further evil acts. Well, it's a strange sort of blessing in my opinion, but then, I'm Scottish, not Saudi, and maybe I don't understand.

I can't help feel that, vile though Scots may find it, what Saudi Arabia does, is Saudi Arabia's business. It is most certainly not the business of Scotland or the UK. We can dislike and disapprove, and we should do so. But their regime is their business and changing it is up to them. No matter how hard that might be. Just as changing our regime is our business and we don't appreciate other countries poking their noses in.

The Clown Prince

We need always to remember that just because Scotland or the UK does things in a certain way, that doesn't make it right for everyone, everywhere in the world.

There are many things that are done here that regimes elsewhere might find intolerable. Sexual freedoms, drinking alcohol (and some of the consequences thereof), are examples that spring immediately to mind. Our penal regimes are very different from theirs, and although they are far from perfect, we don't expect to be lectured by Saudi or Iran on our our way of doing things. Even when these ways fall far short of what some of our own citizens would like to see.

International bodies of which they are members may have the right to lecture countries, but neither the UK nor Scotland does, particularly in light of the fact that the Council of Europe has stated that the UK's benefits are "manifestly inadequate" and the UN is investigating the welfare regime of Iain Duncan Smith. It's not beheading with swords, but it does indicate a less than perfect human rights regime in these islands.

Yemen

If we feel strongly about Saudi's behaviour, perhaps we should reduce our diplomatic ties with them, stop inviting them to our royals' weddings, divorces, re-marriages and massively lavish birthday and jubilee bashes, stop trading with them, and stop supplying them with arms so they can murder indiscriminately, both their own people, and those in Yemen.

It might, even without hindsight, have been a good idea not to recommend them for chairmanship of the UNHCR. But it says something that the UK relied upon Saudi for its membership of that organisation.

When Scotland or the UK is perfect and understand fully the way of life, customs and practices of other lands, maybe then we could lecture them on how to behave. Until then, let's concentrate on (given it's such a Christian country) casting out the mote that is in our own eye.