A Little Bit of Politics

Little time goes by without some mention of the Salisbury spy saga and very little of the coverage seems to be measured or have any context. Rather the siren voices of the press make ever more outrageous statements. Before I start this blog let me say that the attempted murder of anybody is completely wrong, it is something that should be tried through the courts and due process.

At the moment we are operating in a fog of uncertainty, the government has told us who the perpetrator is without sharing any of the evidence. Boris Johnson is a serial liar so why should we believe anything he says without something to back it up. In truth the media and we know nothing about the background to this attempted murder, yet we make many assumptions.

To my simple mind there could have been many people who would seek revenge on the victim, this was not a saint we are talking about. He was a serious spy who caused great damage to the Russian spy network by defecting probably at a personal level. Who knows who bore a grudge?

What we also know is that state sponsored killing is not a preserve of Russia, both the UK and the US use assassination as a tool against alleged terrorists, though we should note the due process of the law is not followed. A thoughtful article by Simon Jenkins makes a strong case that there is considerable moral ambivalence in our position.

I think we have to be much more rational in our response, expel some diplomats, that just satisfies the desire for revenge and newspaper headlines, in the end what does it achieve. Why don’t we surprise everybody and start a dialogue. Invite the Russians to play a part in the investigation; the very surprise element would give the UK the moral high ground.

Food for thought.