Aaargh - Gordon Brown's presents for Barak Obama - aaaargh!

beaujolais-nouveau

Lots of attention is being paid to what the PM will give Barack Obama, ever since he sent the bust of Churchill back to the British embassy. He's getting a hamper of gifts, in the hope that something will be worth putting on display in the Oval Office. To go with the Resolute desk there's a pencil holder made of timber from HMS Gannet, along with the framed commission of HMS Resolute which the First Sea Lord found kicking around the Admiralty. No10 says Gannet and Resolute were sister ships. Gannet served briefly in the Med on anti-slavery patrol. But ... I wonder what Mr Obama will make of the fact that the only action it saw was in Sudan when it shelled rebels against the British empire. He's also getting Sir Martin Gilbert's seven volume biography of Churchill, which will help him find out more about how the Mau-Mau were successfully suppressed in Kenya by the British Emp... Oh, I'm sure it will be fine.

http://broganblog.dailymail.co.uk/2009/03/mr-brown-goes-to-washington.html

It was of course Churchill who ordered the suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s; Obama's grandfather was detained as a subversive for six months at that time. Hopefully Obama will see the funny side.

http://www.order-order.com/2009/03/mr-brown-goes-to-washington.html

Some wonderful comments on the Guy Fawkes' blog, there.

To cap it all, Gordon Brown is going to tell Congress that the recession is their fault (his "light touch regulation" decisions had nothing to do with it, natch).

It is so embarrassing.

The only thing that the UK got out of the "special relationship" with the US while Blair was PM was Blair's medal. Looks as if Brown is not in line for any medals.

baileysbattlebus

beaujolais-nouveau wrote: »

http://broganblog.dailymail.co.uk/2009/03/mr-brown-goes-to-washington.html


http://www.order-order.com/2009/03/mr-brown-goes-to-washington.html

Some wonderful comments on the Guy Fawkes' blog, there.

To cap it all, Gordon Brown is going to tell Congress that the recession is their fault (his "light touch regulation" decisions had nothing to do with it, natch).

It is so embarrassing.

The only thing that the UK got out of the "special relationship" with the US while Blair was PM was Blair's medal. Looks as if Brown is not in line for any medals.

Regardless of what gifts Gordon Brown gave to Pres. Obama, what's embarassing ? The bust of Churchill was't a gift - it was loaned by Tony Blair to George Bush after 9/11 - so once Bush had gone I suppose it was right to return the bust - otherwise people would have accused them of keeping something that didn't belong to them.

Below is an extract from Ben Bernanke's speech to the LSE given at the end of January this year -

For almost a year and a half the global financial system has been under extraordinary stress--stress that has now decisively spilled over to the global economy more broadly. The proximate cause of the crisis was the turn of the housing cycle in the United States and the associated rise in delinquencies on subprime mortgages, which imposed substantial losses on many financial institutions and shook investor confidence in credit markets. However, although the subprime debacle triggered the crisis, the developments in the U.S. mortgage market were only one aspect of a much larger and more encompassing credit boom whose impact transcended the mortgage market to affect many other forms of credit. Aspects of this broader credit boom included widespread declines in underwriting standards, breakdowns in lending oversight by investors and rating agencies, increased reliance on complex and opaque credit instruments that proved fragile under stress, and unusually low compensation for risk-taking.

http://www.lse.co.uk/MacroEconomicNews.asp?ArticleCode=rzf37b4of6wl1h3&ArticleHeadline=text-bernankes_speech_on_the_financial_crisis

beaujolais-nouveau

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

Regardless of what gifts Gordon Brown gave to Pres. Obama, what's embarassing ? The bust of Churchill was't a gift - it was loaned by Tony Blair to George Bush after 9/11 - so once Bush had gone I suppose it was right to return the bust - otherwise people would have accused them of keeping something that didn't belong to them.

You didn't read my post with enough attention. I was referring to the seven-volume biography of Churchill. It is such a crass choice - typical NooLabour attitude (nothing of importance happened before we got into power) - it says: here is a reminder of when our forebears ruled your forebears, put them in prison, and dealt with an uprising (the Mau Mau uprising, 1952 onwards) that resulted in the deaths of several thousand of your family's fellow countrymen. It says: I, Gordon Brown, cannot deal with the fact that you Obama are younger, just as clever, far more charismatic and powerful and visionary that I am, so I will treat you as if you were a junior schoolboy who needed to read fewer comics.

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/kenya/a/MauMauTimeline.htm

As I happens, I was born in East Africa in the 1950s, and the Mau Mau uprising was a very very shocking thing for white colonials - it must have been far worse for indigenous Africans who had little protection. That's why Brown reminding Obama of that - and of Churchill the racist - looks like a calculated insult.

I bet the pencil holder will not have pride of place anywhere at all in the Oval Office. Brown is such a cheapskate.

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

Below is an extract from Ben Bernanke's speech to the LSE given at the end of January this year -

http://www.lse.co.uk/MacroEconomicNews.asp?ArticleCode=rzf37b4of6wl1h3&ArticleHeadline=text-bernankes_speech_on_the_financial_crisis

Well, note that this speech was given in London not in Washington. I'd like a closer look at the "undercurrents".

Sir_Humphrey

The Mau Mau rebellion was a Kikuyu rebellion. Obama's father is a Luo. One of his heroes was Tom Myoba, a Luo Trade Unionist/Politician who was assassinated probably on orders of the Kikuyu-led government of the time. The leading post-colonial Luo politican was Jaramoji Oginga Odinga who was imprisoned by the Kikuyu president Jomo Kenyatta. Last year the Kikuyu went on a killing rampage, partly in the Luo area of Kenya after Kikuyu president Mwai Kibaki stole the election from Luo candidate Raila Odinga.

Not quite as large a faux pas as might be expected. (BTW I studied Kenyan politics as part of my degree).

baileysbattlebus

Well, note that this speech was given in London not in Washington. I'd like a closer look at the "undercurrents".

WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The following is the full text of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech on 'The Crisis and the Policy Response' issued in Washington on Tuesday and delivered at the London School of Economics.

And I agree with you Churchill was a racist - as was virtually everyone of his generation. It's no secret.

Churchill was also a great leader in times of crisis - the war - perhaps the analogy is that?

Obama now has a bust of Abraham Lincoln in the Oval office.

And if you know your history you would also know that Abraham Lincoln today would be classed as a racist, as would most people of that time.

There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races ... A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas ..." (said about the Kansas-Nebraska Act). "Racial separation must be effected by colonization of the country's blacks to a foreign land. The enterprise is a difficult one but where there is a will there is a way, and what colonization needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is morally right, and, at the same time, favorable to, or, at least, not against, our interest, to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be".

Regardless of what you think, Barak Obama's political views will be closely aligned to those of Gordon Brown.

ruggedtoast

Imagine how much good it would do us if the Americans turned off the “special relationship”, or just turned round and were honest for once and explained that there isn’t one. Not on their side anyway, when the US talks about this in a meaningful sense they generally mean Israel.

What it is is a very one sided relationship, which seems to confer very few benefits on the UK, other than being the country equivalent of a small child being patronised by a much older, and not very interested bigger brother. “Sure you can hang around me but all your pocket money and sweets are mine”

France is strongly independent from the US and seems to have suffered no ill effects, despite all the American threats when they opposed the Iraq war, which turned out to so much hot air and bluster.


I think if anyone is inept enough to really p off the yanks, Brown can doit.


Heres hoping.

beaujolais-nouveau

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

The Mau Mau rebellion was a Kikuyu rebellion. Obama's father is a Luo. One of his heroes was Tom Myoba, a Luo Trade Unionist/Politician who was assassinated probably on orders of the Kikuyu-led government of the time. The leading post-colonial Luo politican was Jaramoji Oginga Odinga who was imprisoned by the Kikuyu president Jomo Kenyatta. Last year the Kikuyu went on a killing rampage, partly in the Luo area of Kenya after Kikuyu president Mwai Kibaki stole the election from Luo candidate Raila Odinga.

Not quite as large a faux pas as might be expected. (BTW I studied Kenyan politics as part of my degree).

You know what's wrong with your comment? Everything - you have omitted dates so that you can muddle up the sequence of things to make them "prove" what you want, whatever that is.

The Mau Mau rebellion - the Kikuyu (the largest tribe in Kenya) against the white colonialists and settlers who had taken away their land - lasted from 1952 to 1960 - and Churchill as Prime Minister organised the British response from 1952-1955. It was a major emergency, and it changed the course of history (and the way the British viewed their ability to govern Kenya).

Kenya did not attain independence from Britain until 1963.

Tom Mboya (not Myoba) was assassinated in 1969.

If Obama has little liking or respect for Churchill, one can easily understand why. It is not about Obama being a Luo, and the Mau Mau being Kikuyu: it is about Churchill authorised or condoned atrocities (detention camps, mass beatings, controlled villages, starvation, hanging, summary execution) by the Brits.

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

(BTW I studied Kenyan politics as part of my degree).

You amaze me. Which version of "Kenyan politics"?

Sir_Humphrey

beaujolais-nouveau wrote: »

You know what's wrong with your comment? Everything - you have omitted dates so that you can muddle up the sequence of things to make them "prove" what you want, whatever that is.

The Mau Mau rebellion - the Kikuyu (the largest tribe in Kenya) against the white colonialists and settlers who had taken away their land - lasted from 1952 to 1960 - and Churchill as Prime Minister organised the British response from 1952-1955. It was a major emergency, and it changed the course of history (and the way the British viewed their ability to govern Kenya).

Kenya did not attain independence from Britain until 1963.

Tom Mboya (not Myoba) was assassinated in 1969.

If Obama has little liking or respect for Churchill, one can easily understand why. It is not about Obama being a Luo, and the Mau Mau being Kikuyu: it is about Churchill authorised or condoned atrocities (detention camps, mass beatings, controlled villages, starvation, hanging, summary execution) by the Brits.



You amaze me. Which version of "Kenyan politics"?

Mboya was a typo. I was not making a connection with Mau Mau. Kenyatta also did away with Kikuyu dissidents, such as JM Kariuki in 1975.

There is no love lost between the Kikuyu and the Luo, which is my point. It is well known that the Kenyatta ran Kenya for the benefit of the Kikuyu, just as Evelyn Baring ran Kenya in favour of the British. I am certainly not defending the British Empire here - I know full well how the British behaved - in fact I have even driven past the house where Kenyatta was imprisoned during the Mau Mau Rebellion.

I am a bit confused as to the criticism of Brown here. The bust of Churchill was a gift to Bush. What is the criticism? I have read biographies of people I dislike.

Baring was a !!!! ruler, and so was Kenyatta.
As for taking away the land - this is exactly what the Kikuyu did to neighbouring tribes after independence!