Donald Trump and Keir Starmer won’t see eye-to-eye (Image: Getty)
The Chagos Islands, or perhaps more correctly, the Chagos Archipelago, are topical once again, but at a time of great inconvenience for our hapless PM. You see, Possums it’s all about .
This coming Monday the Donald is to be sworn in once again as President of the United States, completing a Republican clean sweep of congress along with the White House.
Now, we are all aware of the Trumpian tendency for belligerence when provoked, which means Two-Tier won’t be immune from that any less than others. And let’s be honest, Two-Tier hasn’t exactly ingratiated himself with Trump.
In fact, I think it would be fair to say that Two-Tier is not held in the highest regard in the ranks of the incoming president’s inner or even wider new administration circles either.
Like him or loath (as indeed many do) him, does have Trump’s ear, as indeed does our very own . You see, Elon has gone to great lengths recently to pour scorn and general derision on the Labour government in this country.
He has also not held back, nor has he hidden his personal disdain for the PM and his minions either, so one can only hazard a guess at what Trump himself might think.
But we don’t need or for that matter, to spell out the extent of ineptitude on display from this government over the last six months, do we, Possums? No, we don’t. Witnessing gross incompetence is bad enough, but living with the consequences day to day is even worse, isn’t it?
Over the past couple of days, it has emerged that rather than rush to sign away the Chagos per the terms of a modified agreement for surrender of British sovereignty, Two-Tier was decided to wait until Trump was inaugurated as the next US president.
It had been extensively reported that the British government were pressing ahead with the formalities of a formal handover PRIOR to Trump’s return to the White House, which, let’s be honest, is a bit like prodding a king cobra with a short stick.
Definitely ill-advised and monumentally stupid!
Ok, so why all the fuss? Well, has something of a bee in his (voluminous) barnet about most things linked to China – and this is the crux of why the two statesmen won’t see eye-to-eye.
He is especially suspicious of the Chinese Communist Party and its generally malignant global agenda for domination and control, as
indeed he quite rightly should be. Mauritius, to whom Two-Tier is hellbent on giving away the Chagos, is a very close ally of China which raises alarm bells amongst sensible folk.
Two-Tier, of course, has quite clearly demonstrated that he fails miserably to qualify on that score. And why is there any basis whatsoever to a legitimate Mauritian claim to the Chagos anyway? Mauritius is, after all, closer to the Seychelles and the Maldives than it is to the Chagos.
The basis for any legitimate claim to the Chagos has long been hotly contested, with the UN ultimately providing a forum for most member nations to support Mauritius.
The ICJ ultimately got in on the act and issued a NON-BINDING ruling that recognized Mauritian claims.
Hope you stayed with me, Possums, because here is where things will liven up a bit and I loves a good gossip, me!
One of Two-Tier’s great mates is a fellow by the name of Philippe Sands KC. Ahhh, you see the common thread? Well, Mr Sands is a barrister by profession (same as Two-Tier) and without doubt an enormously clever chappie. He graduated with a top law degree from Cambridge in 1983 finally being called to the bar in 1985, before eventually taking silk in 2003 (means he became a Queen’s Counsel, now a King’s Counsel. You know, QC/KC?).
Anyway, it turns out that Two-Tier and Mr Sands are quite chummy and have been for many years. In case you’re still not quite getting the drift, then perhaps it will help if I tell you that Mr Sands is a very prominent human rights lawyer; you know, he gets briefs to argue high profile human rights cases in court, including the infamous ICJ (International Court of Justice). Same as Two-Tier, he’s a human rights lawyer; pity that didn’t count much for the Chagossians.
Mr Sands has been retained by Mauritius to handle the sovereignty matter concerning the Chagos.
Now, quite apart from a big fat fee for his efforts the kudos he would receive for such an emphatic victory would be enormous. Mr Sands has also benefited in other ways courtesy of Mauritius, since he has been so instrumental in their campaign to take over the Chagos that he was granted Mauritian citizenship.
He also received the country’s highest civilian award – the Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean – which means that he is styled “the honourable” in Mauritius.
Add to that a diplomatic passport, albeit subsequently returned, and there you have it.
Both Two-Tier and his mate seem to have both paid scant regard to the plight of the indigenous Chagossians, of which there are some ten thousand in number mostly located in the UK, with some in Mauritius.
The Chagos islanders were expelled by the UK at the request of the US between 1967 and 1973 to allow for construction of the military base at
Diego Garcia, which remains a vital strategic asset to our most important ally to this day.
So, the Starmeresque spectre of chumocracy surfaces again, showing the ugly face of cronyism as if we needed any reminder. None of this is, of course, to suggest that either Two-Tier or Mr Sands are guilty of some dastardly deed other than displaying gross hypocrisy, all the more remarkable when basic common sense is so evidently lacking.
For all their academic achievements their total ignorance of conflict or dispute resolution seems to be totally obscured.
Two-Tier’s dilemma in resolving issues is to retreat to the law, yet as in this case, that approach ignores many practical realities. will never be convinced that it is a smart move to surrender sovereignty to a country so closely allied with an adversary especially when the territory concerned is the location of vital strategic assets essential to cover not only US national security, but ours as well.
Trump has absolutely no reason to trust the British PM anymore than we do. But perhaps this is a good thing for the next four years as I suspect Two-Tier will be kept on a very tight leash. Let’s not delude ourselves, Two-Tier is not liked by Trump and his team, nor are his cohorts. Any thoughts to the contrary are entirely misplaced.