It is getting quite tiresome to note the number of right wingers indulging in the puerile and facile act of putting photos of Prime Minister's shaking hands with former tyrants.
Of course foreign policy changes over time and anyone with a reasoned brain can understand the nuances of these changes and the times in which they were taken.
The right over the last four days have slavishly focused on the meetings of Labour Prime Ministers (Tony Blair and Gordon Brown) meeting and shaking the hands of Gaddafi over the last ten years.
Of course the picture of Tony Blair was taken as a result of Gaddafi renouncing his weapons of mass destruction and his apparent thaw to Western approaches on economic renewal. After the meeting Gaddafi opened up his oil markets and appointed a moderate Prime Minister. That is not to excuse the subsequent actions over the uprising or his muderous tendencies; but whoever said foreign affairs was easy.
Before Tories start jumping on this type of bandwagon its worth looking at some Tory Party Prime Ministers and some of those they have had diplomatic relationship with:
Mugabe shaking hands with former Prime Minister, John Major. Mugabe is of course a tyrant who is continuing to inflict huge suffering on his population.
The picture was taken in the early 1990s when Mugabe was seen as a paragon of stability
Pinochet with Margaret Thatcher. Despite Pinochet having a terrible human rights record of imprisoning and murdering political opponents - Mrs Thatcher always supported his attempts to destroy socialism in his country and for the support over Falklands.
Conservative Party Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain shaking hands with Adolf Hitler after the Munich Pact was signed. Hitler later went onto invade most of mainland Europe.
If the Tories want to play this type of puerile game - be careful - the shadows of history have a habit of showing hypocrites up
Never Forget...
