(TALKZIMBABWE) The Labour Party has destroyed Britain

The Labour Party has destroyed Britain
Peter Chimutsa — Opinion
Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:18:00 +0000

DEAR EDITOR—Is it not ironic that some of the architects of the crisis in Zimbabwe have now completely left British politics or have gone quiet about the situation in the country?

If I remember very well the current crisis started in 1997 when the Labour Party’s then Secretary for International Development, Claire Short wrote that infamous letter denying responsibility for colonisation.

The British government then withdrew all the land resettlement funding which had been agreed at Lancaster House and under-written in the interim constitution for Zimbabwe.

The land grab was then started by the war veterans who argued that land was the reason why Zimbabweans fought the ‘Bush War’ and if the British were not going to give compensation, then the war vets had to take matters into their own hands.

Despite a call by government to open up dialogue with Tony Blair, there were allegations of over-spend of the facility in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) war—a legal war under the Southern Africa Development Community which was threatening to destabilize the region. In any case that war started in 1999, not 1997 when the British withdrew their funding.

Allegations of corruption were also flimsy. Reports from Transparency International at around that time showed Zimbabwe as one of the best countries in fighting corruption.

Many ministers were relieved of their positions by the Prime Minister Robert Mugabe when they were found guilty of corruption. (See the Sandura Commission and the Willowvale Scandal).

I think there were, however, mistakes made both by the British (in withdrawing funding) and the Zimbabwean government (in failing to adequately quell farm invasions); but that is no reason to be so gung-ho on the country.

Tony Blair and Claire Short, the architects of this current mess are now sitting comfortably somewhere in Britain, or wherever they are, and President Mugabe and his government have to deal with a hostile world.

This is the legacy of the British Labour party in Zimbabwe.

Before Labour came into power, the relations between Zimbabwe and Britain were excellent and there was mutual respect.

Today, the relations have become hostile, as Gordon Brown has refused to shoulder any blame for the crisis. He was the Chancellor then and he knows how the problem started.

We just hope that the British people will realize the hypocrisy of this party, which has now lost its luster and vote them out of power.

The signs that Brown will go are there. As much as he is fighting for the exit of President Mugabe, we will fight for his exit too.

He has become the most unpopular figure in modern British politics with his myopic economic and political policies.

British people today trail behind in living standards from the rest of the Europeans and the cost of living in the United Kingdom has continued to deteriorate.

Gordon Brown could have made a ‘brilliant’ chancellor, but as a prime minister, he has failed dismally. The Labour Party at the last by-election in Henley was trailing, for the first time behind the Green Party and the BNP. It was in fifth place.

Brown has failed both in domestic and international policy. The body count in Iraq/Afghanistan of British soldier deaths is increasing daily, yet he takes British people for granted by pledging to send more troops at a time he should be considering withdrawing.

Brown is also a very arrogant leader who does not listen to his electorate, hence his defeat in every election since his premiership, and that trend is now irreversible.

Brown has to go for Britain to retain its original luster and international respect.

The ‘British Gentleman’ has been ‘killed off’ by this Labour government.

Some of the vile words used by this administration are in clear contrast to the diplomacy of Winston Churchill or the shrewdness of Margaret Thatcher. British politics has simply ‘gone mad’ because of this party.

It is time people realize that the British Labour Party has become a liability both to the world and to Britain.

The immigration policies espoused by this government have made Britain look evil and unaccomodative.

They have continued to send Zimbabwean asylum seekers to a place they say is ‘dangerous to live’.

Such duplicity has become characteristic of this government.

The hope of buying a house, for first time buyers, in Britain today is a dream many will never wake up from.

Rising prices have become an everyday spectacle and rising taxes are the order of the day.

Yet the arrogance continues as the Brown government refuses to accept that things have completely gone wrong.

Tony Blair and Claire Short should come back and mend these problems they started, or else the Labour Party simply has to go if Britain is going to be the shining country that it used to be.

Peter Chimutsa

peterchimutsa@yahoo.com