The Wardman Wire

A storm has risen up over MPs having investments in Zimbabwe. Or, rather, as the facts actually are, in companies which have a presence in Zimbabwe.

The Independent On Sunday proclaims that:

Three of David Cameron’s frontbenchers are among six Conservatives – and one Liberal Democrat – with investments together worth more than £1m in firms trading in Zimbabwe. The revelations will embarrass the Tory leader, who has sought to take the moral high ground over the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Except the firms involved are major international firms, such as Shell, Barclays, BP, and Tesco. These investments are not investments in Zimbabwe, but investments in a major company - something which is hardly inappropriate, so long as it is properly reported.

By referring to these investments as “blood money”, the Independent is in effect trying to criminalise anyone who has investments with or uses the services of any of those companies, as there is little real difference between these two things in reality - as plenty of choice exists in both.

If I banked with Barclays, shopped at Tesco and filled up my car at a Shell garage, the Independent is in effect claiming that I am also “propping up Robert Mugabe’s regime”.

What is most ironic with the Indy’s faux outrage at this story is this fact dredged up by Guido:

Hypocritically, the Indy’s parent company, Independent News & Media PLC, owns 100% of CCI, which according to the corporation’s own website “is the largest and fastest-growing outdoor advertising company in South Africa, with significant operations in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.”

So the Independent is “propping up Robert Mugabe’s regime”. And to a far greater extent than any individual shareholder.

Then there is the hypocrisy a member of the government, John Mann MP (PPS to Tessa Jowell) saying:

Politicians profiting from the blood of the Zimbabwean people need to consider their position. What this shows is that greed for money supersedes moral responsibility.

Then why don’t you go and talk to the Chacellor of the Exchequer, John, and ask him why Northern Rock - the bank he nationalised - is active in Zimbabwe? Or is it only politicians from parties that aren’t Labour who need to “consider their position” when they profit [or not, as the case may be] from “the blood of the Zimbabwean people”?

The current situation in Zimbabwe is reprehensible, and whether or not a few MPs hold shares in a multi-national that just happens to have a presence in Zimbabwe means nothing. The situation in Zimbabwe is one that needs to be rectified - but can’t until the African leaders want to.