Lord Malloch-Brown, Prat?

Have you ever watched someone from your government recently and thought, “you define a new level of stupidity, pomposity, ignorance, arrogance and plain incompetence, you are an idiot!” Just such a person appeared this week, his name shall shortly be revealed in this blog. Like most of you I have long despaired regarding the levels of nonsense generated by most governments, but this man, wanting to do good, could have exactly the reverse effect just because he’s so vain, self-seeking and stupid.

Two things collided in my consciousness over the last few days. The first was the worsening crisis in Burma following the terrible tragedy brought about by the cyclone of May 2 that destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives in that benighted country. There are estimates suggesting as many as 225,000 dead or missing.

That tragedy has been made much worse by the Burmese regime’s blinkered, stupid and misguided refusal to allow international aid into the country. This is clearly brought about by the paranoia of a dictatorship. There are indications that this stonewall defiance of the world’s wish to help is breaking down. The Burmese authorities are now saying that if the aid comes through the funnel of neighboring Asian countries it will be allowed into the country. So, just when that difficult regime might have been convinced to do the right thing along comes the British diplomat who is anything but diplomatic.

The British diplomatic connection to this terrible story is a man called Lord Malloch-Brown who represents my country as a Minister of State for the Foreign Office as its Asia Minister. He is, therefore, by definition, a diplomat. After listening to his Lordship on BBC’s Radio 4 the word diplomat is clearly not applicable to the Lord.

Malloch-Brown is an old human rights activist. Personally I might share many of his views, but then again I am not a diplomat sent to calm troubled waters, he is. Brown spent this interview purportedly about the Burmese disaster, and many others on the TV news on the previous day, lambasting the Burmese regime. He did this after stating that the situation with the Burmese Government was extremely delicate.

Surely even this diplomatic dimwit can understand that the last thing he should be doing is to try and score cheap human rights brownie points against the regime when his job is to diplomatically enable the aid the world can unleash to save lives via that same regime.

Does this public relations disaster of a man really not understand that the Burmese authorities also have televisions and radios and can and do monitor what is being said about them?

Perhaps Lord Malloch-Brown believes that his voicing his opinions about the odious government’s terrible track record of human rights abuses is more important than saving human lives?

Lord Malloch-Brown, is he a diplomat or a new definition of the word, prat?