The Wardman Wire

On Newsnight last night, George Galloway was arguing that Fidel Castro is a virtual anti-imperialist Saint, and that anything that he did wrong - or that was wrong with his country - was more or less the fault of the USA. He also - in passing - tried to get away with a comparison between George Bush and Hitler, while arguing that the South American “democratic revolution” of the last three decades is down to Fidel. Fortunately, he was reminded of his own record of cavorting with dictators.

Meanwhile a commentator was arguing (taking the core of the message in 6 words): Cuba all bad, USA all good. When asked “has Cuba done anything good in the last half-century?”, he was unable even to address the question - instead, going (more or less) “quack quack quack” from his script.

Peter Oppenheim - ex-MP for Amber Valley - has published a detailed and well-written response to Fidel Castro’s departure on his new blog. It is a pleasure to read .

So, for Fidel - thumbs up or thumbs down?

For my money, thumbs down.

Currently the Cuba government has - according to Amnesty International - locked up at least 58 people for offences such as daring to have an opinion and talk about it. That’s alone is enough to celebrate his departure, without needing to think about the Area Committees, the 3 hour self-justifying speeches, and the other repressive machinery Fidel has introduced.

So - on behalf of the people who Fidel Castro locked up, and for those who suffered because they stood for various types of freedom, I’m celebrating the end of the Castro regime. And when his brother goes I’ll celebrate again.

And to the Unites States Government, I award a yellow plastic duck for having a stupid (which is the correct word) embargo policy for half a century, and I’ll award them a gold star when they have finally got rid of it. Now that it can go, it will remove one excuse for some to attempt to minimize the very positive contributions made by the USA elsewhere.

But let us remember that Western Governments - including our own - hardly have clean “human rights hands” at present.

Wrapping-Up

For a better account, visit - as I said above - Peter Oppenheim’s blog Party Political Animal.

Tags: fidel castro, cuba, amnesty international, human rights