Kowtowing Boris Johnson is guilty of shameful double standards in serving as an apologist for Saudi Arabia’s leader.
As a horrified world looks on at Vladimir Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine, the brutal regime of Mohammed bin Salman is alleged to have committed many of the same barbaric offences in Yemen.
Our Prime Minister is a man without principles for overlooking the killing of children, bombing of hospitals and suspected use of cluster munitions in the Middle East – while rightly condemning them in central Europe.
Begging bin Salman to open the oil taps in order to slow rises in petrol and energy prices carries a high political cost.
Johnson will face that cost when he travels to Saudi Arabia to woo a Crown Prince said by US intelligence to be involved in the butchering of exiled journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Human rights are universal and abuses must be condemned – including in Saudi Arabia, a country without fair trials which recently carried out the mass executions of 81 men.
The PM should have cancelled tomorrow’s disturbing, humiliating trip there and instead stood up for decent values everywhere.
Choose a side
UK-sanctioned Chelsea oligarch Roman Abramovich’s flight to Moscow is the scramble of a Putin crony desperate to salvage his crumbling empire.
His closeness to the invader is why his return home will be viewed as a self-serving PR exercise unless he speaks out publicly.
Because everybody has to pick a side in this war. If Russian oligarchs turn on Putin then this war might be halted. Say nothing and they have picked Putin’s side.
Greatest gift
No greater wedding present could a bridesmaid give a bride than to be a surrogate mother delivering a beautiful baby.
The bride throwing a bouquet for a bridesmaid to catch is a nice flowery tradition – but is second best to the incredible gift of life.
