Right or Wrong?

[Snoopy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7132218.stm

Gordon Brown is boycotting a summit of European and African countries in Portugal this weekend in protest at the invited presence of Robert Mugabe. Should he be there fighting our corner (Baroness Scotland has gone) or should we refuse to have anything to do with them until they kick Mugabe out?

[Snoopy]

As a supplementary question ~ Is it my eyes or is Gordon Brown looking older by the day?

[Darwins Selection]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7132218.stm

Gordon Brown is boycotting a summit of European and African countries in Portugal this weekend in protest at the invited presence of Robert Mugabe. Should he be there fighting our corner (Baroness Scotland has gone) or should we refuse to have anything to do with them until they kick Mugabe out?

For once Broon is right.

We would be giving an air of respectability to Mugabe if we didn't snub him.

[Darwins Selection]

Is it my eyes or is Gordon Brown looking older by the day?

I would remind the honourable member that we are all getting, and looking, older by the day.

I rejoice if Mr Brown is doing it quicker.

[Snoopy]

Is it my eyes or is Gordon Brown looking older by the day?

I would remind the honourable member that we are all getting, and looking, older by the day.

I rejoice if Mr Brown is doing it quicker.

'preciate that we all age but I guess the responsibility (whether or not one agrees with the way he exercises it) weighs exceeding heavy on the PM .... Blair went from youth to middle age in a matter of months and after ten years really looked very ill indeed. Brown seems to have really gone down hill very quickly.

OR do they have grey hi-lights put in their hair to make them look wiser? 

[Barman]

I can’t get the BBC site to work at the moment so I can’t read your link…

The real question is why is Mugabe there at all? I though the EU banned him or something? Didn’t that Thatchell try and arrest him once?

Brown should go there and arrest him…

[Darwins Selection]

Is it my eyes or is Gordon Brown looking older by the day?

I would remind the honourable member that we are all getting, and looking, older by the day.

I rejoice if Mr Brown is doing it quicker.

'preciate that we all age but I guess the responsibility (whether or not one agrees with the way he exercises it) weighs exceeding heavy on the PM .... Blair went from youth to middle age in a matter of months and after ten years really looked very ill indeed. Brown seems to have really gone down hill very quickly.

I think the job does take its toll, either genuine stress of steering the ship of state or worried that some skeleton is about to be revealed by the press.

I always thought Clinton aged very fast, but that could just have been physical exhaustion.

[Snoopy]

I can’t get the BBC site to work at the moment so I can’t read your link…

The real question is why is Mugabe there at all? I though the EU banned him or something? Didn’t that Thatchell try and arrest him once?

Brown should go there and arrest him…

Yes they have banned Mugabe but "suspended" the ban to invite him to this conference because other African Nations threatened to "do a Broon"
The article:

Brown boycotts summit over Mugabe
Gordon Brown and Robert Mugabe
Mr Brown said he would not attend the summit if President Mugabe did
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is boycotting an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon because it is being attended by Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe.

Mr Brown has said he will not sit at the same table as Mr Mugabe, because of his human rights record.

But European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso attacked the move saying leaders should be prepared to meet people of whom they do not approve.

The UK has accused Mr Mugabe of human rights abuses and rigging elections.

Mr Mugabe faces a travel ban in Europe but he was allowed to attend the summit after African leaders threatened to stay away if he was not invited.

Africa relations

Mr Barroso criticised Mr Brown's decision to stay away from the summit, saying: "If you are an international leader then you are going to have to be prepared, on occasion, to meet some people your mother would not like you to meet.

"That is what we have to do from time to time."

   
Mugabe should not go home without being made to feel deeply uncomfortable and those who welcome him should not go home without feeling ashamed
William Hague, shadow foreign secretary

And European Parliament president, Hans-Gert Poettering, said relations between Africa and the EU were more important than Mr Mugabe's presence at the meeting.

But former international development secretary Baroness Amos, who will be attending the summit in Mr Brown's place, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was right that the prime minister stood up for his principles.

"Every leader makes his or her own decision about who they will meet and the circumstances in which they meet them.

"There's no doubt that this summit would become a media circus if the prime minister of Britain were there with Robert Mugabe," said the Labour peer.

'Shameful'

Mr Brown's decision to boycott the summit was backed by the Conservatives but shadow foreign secretary William Hague said Baroness Amos should make the British government's feelings plain to Mr Mugabe.

"It is a shameful episode for Europe that President Mugabe is to be feted in Lisbon," said Mr Hague.

"It is important that Baroness Amos, the minister representing Britain, lays his crimes bare before all those attending.

"The British people will want to know that these points have been made and that every leader attending the summit from Europe and Africa has had to take heed."

Partnership

He added: "Mugabe should not go home without being made to feel deeply uncomfortable and those who welcome him should not go home without feeling ashamed."

Zimbabwe's official inflation is given at around 8,000% - the highest in the world and Mr Brown has said President Mugabe had to take full responsibility for the collapse of the country's economy.

The two-day Lisbon summit will include the launch of a new partnership between the EU and Africa to tackle issues such as development, good governance, peace, security, migration, energy and climate change.

The EU will also be attempting to draw up a number of new trade agreements with individual African countries and regional blocs.

[Barman]

What a farce! 

So Brown won't go but Baroness Amos will?

Mugabe must be shitting himself...

[Bar Wench]

What a farce! 

So Brown won't go but Baroness Amos will?

Mugabe must be shitting himself...

So what stand are we as a country making then? None! Brown is an elected official as such he should go where the country wants him to. His personal morals shouldn't come into it at all. Either Britain thinks we should have a representative there or not. If Britain does have a representative there then it should be our Prime Minister. This is a half arsed measure. Either we boycott as a nation or we don't.

[Barman]

What a farce! 

So Brown won't go but Baroness Amos will?

Mugabe must be shitting himself...

So what stand are we as a country making then? None! Brown is an elected official as such he should go where the country wants him to. His personal morals shouldn't come into it at all. Either Britain thinks we should have a representative there or not. If Britain does have a representative there then it should be our Prime Minister. This is a half arsed measure. Either we boycott as a nation or we don't.

Agreed... Brown wants a long weekend in the highlands prolly...

The whole thing is a farce really…

Mugabe can’t come ‘cos of human rights abuses and quite frankly turning his whole country into a shit-hole…
So the African nations say they won’t come if Mugabe can’t come…
So Europe says ‘that’s all right then Mugabe can come’

What message does that send?

Personally I think Europe should have said ‘Mugabe can’t come ‘cos he is banned and you lot better turn up or we’ll reconsider the billions in loans we are writing off and the aid and support we are giving you. Because let’s face it guys, without the support of the industrialised nations that you appear to despise so much you’d all be up shite creek without a propulsion device’.

[grumpyoldsoldier]

I can’t get the BBC site to work at the moment so I can’t read your link…

The real question is why is Mugabe there at all? I though the EU banned him or something? Didn’t that Thatchell try and arrest him once?

Brown should go there and arrest him…

I understand that he was shipped in through a military airfield