Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging thinktanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", 2019 parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, "Speedboat", "The Cockroach", eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Ian Smith
Why was this man such a hero to people who, after all, would not otherwise be overly sympathetic towards acts of treason against the Queen backed up by a Boer Republic set up as an explicit act of anti-British revenge in a former Dominion of the Crown by people who had been interred during the War because of their pro-Nazi activities? For that matter, why were they so fond of that Republic? Don't give me "Mugabe". That's not the question.
In the words of the Associated Press:
ReplyDelete"Despite their bitter differences, Smith and Mugabe shared one common bond — their deep dislike of Britain, which they saw as a meddling colonial power.
Just as Mugabe accused former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of interfering in Zimbabwe to protect the interests of whites, Smith poured vitriol on the government of the late Harold Wilson for pressing him to hand political power to the black majority."
If Smith couldn't accept black suffrage until blacks had become sufficiently prosperous and well-educated to meet the proprty and educational qualifications for voting, then he was simply accepting Rhodesia's immaturity, and should therefore have accepted continued British rule while that immaturity remained.
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