Quaking In His Boots

With Morgan Tsvangirai out of the running for the Zimbabwean Presidency, our utterly incompetent Foreign Secretary, David Miliband along with the Queen have said that the soon to be ‘re-elected’ Robert Mugabe will be stripped of his Knighthood.

Such a strong, decisive and well thought out act on the part of our Monarch, Ministers and Government will no doubt leave Mugabe quaking in his boots when he hears he’s lost his title as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. Not.

If this rather pathetic and purely symbolic act is the best our Government can muster then Mr Mugabe has little to worry about, while the people of Zimbabwe still have much to fear.

Gordon Brown talks of wanting to see an end to violence in Zimbabwe and a peaceful transition to democracy – but this will not happen unless Mugabe is forced in some way to listen. Since African leaders have failed to strongly condemn President Mugabe’s terrible and oppressive regime; unless a western nation chooses to step in and take action then the suffering of the Zimbabwean people is only set to continue.

Democratic Legitimacy

With violence and the intimidation of voters increasing by the day in Zimbabwe, leader of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai has announced that he will not contest the Presidential run-off because a fair vote is now virtually impossible.

Politicians in the West have been very quick to condemn the tyrannical regime of Robert Mugabe and the apparent illegitimacy of his continued rule. Gordon Brown has on numerous occasions criticised the lack of legitimacy with which Mugabe has managed to cling onto office in Zimbabwe.

Similarly, our Foreign Secretary, David Miliband made a statement to reporters and the media in which he commented:

We face a critical crisis of legitimacy because it’s clear that the only people with any shred of legitimacy are the people who won the March 29th first round and that was the opposition.

The problem is that Gordon Brown and David Miliband wouldn’t know what democratic legitimacy was if it came up and punched them in the face (which quite a few people would like to do).

By ramming the Lisbon Treaty through Parliament without the referendum they promised, which was arguably illegitimate and undemocratic, Mr Brown and Miliband have proven that they are prepared to condemn the lack of democratic legitimacy in Zimbabwe without upholding such values themselves.

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