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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Starmer's enslavement to woke ideology is a gift to the new axis of evil
When wokeness in Britain went from being a loony Left preoccupation to a way of life, hot on the heels of America's wokeward tack in 2020, only fools, villains and villainous fools insisted that nothing much was happening – apart from a bit of long overdue fairness. Of course, they said, the old Right-wing cis white straight men and women were squealing about the embrace by the virtuous of 'social justice' and 'equity,' but that didn't mean there was a real culture war afoot. It was obvious to me from the start of the woke era, however, that this was not 'just' a culture war but a real one, in a truly modern sense, with real consequences that would be felt far beyond a few workplaces or university seminar rooms. The vaulting from the seminar room into the world of the ideology linking 'white privilege' to empire to colonialism to the immovable fact of white British guilt has led to poisonous politics on the Left, a troubling reaction on the populist Right, and a ruling class who make decisions with our money, our personal safety and the security of the country based on it. If people have been injured or died already thanks to wokeness – for instance in the failure to confidently and properly police Islamist terror suspects or BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic knife crime), or in the body-destroying treatments handed out by LGBTQ+ allies to kids who said they were trans in the gender movement that followed Black Lives Matter – then much more is set to come. One of the most flagrant case studies in how the woke mindset can be physically dangerous is Starmer's Chagos islands agreement. The 'deal' is to hand the British territory to Mauritius, and lease back the land on the island of Diego Garcia, on which sits a strategically vital, Anglo-American military base. The lease costs £30 billion, and will be paid over 99 years. The Government's strange argument for the deal was that it would prevent the security risks that could come from instability due to international lawfare on this last 'colonial' outpost of Britain's. Starmer, somehow, did not think that it was more of a security concern that Chinese influence in Mauritius is malign and growing: China has now announced that Mauritius will be joining its power-grabbing Belt and Road initiative. Indeed, Starmer's comments about the handover in a press conference were very odd. He said with confidence that only Britain's enemies were against it. 'In favour are all of our allies: the US, Nato, Five Eyes, India. Against it: Russia, China, Iran.' Yet days after it went through, China was celebrating. Beijing's ambassador to Mauritius, Huang Shifang, told guests at the Chinese embassy in Mauritius's capital of Port Louis that China sent 'massive congratulations' to Mauritius on the deal, and that China 'fully supports' Mauritius's attempt to 'safeguard national sovereignty'. It's hard to think of a more cynical, almost joyously so, use of this terminology. China, after all, is a country obsessed with taking by force the democratic, independent Taiwan (Mauritius, China has made clear, supports its doctrine that Taiwan is already part of China); repressing free speech in Hong Kong, where it operates a subtle reign of terror, and subjecting its Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang to sadistic treatment in internment camps. And now it gets to set about enjoying all manner of devious proximity to our all-important Eastern base. So yes, Britain's Chagos deal makes delicious sense to China, but makes no sense for us. Unless, of course, you are Starmer and his inner circle, and you're enslaved to the twin ideologies of post-colonialism and 'international law' – which lands you in the awkward and unfortunate position, as we have seen, of ending up in agreement with China on core values like self-determination. It's a mess. All this Chinese gloating disguised as proper appreciation for nations' rights to freedom from colonial shackles serves as a useful reminder of just how suspicious such language has become. Yes, it is mass-peddled by august 'international' bodies, NGOs, courts and the UN. But these have all been corrupted by those with sinister anti-Western agendas. Indeed, the intranational bodies charged with pursuing a kinder world order with 'human rights' pursued through law always seem to favour those who care least about those obligations. It was telling when Lord Hermer, Starmer's attorney general, compared those in favour of withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to the Nazi philosopher and jurist Carl Schmitt, when what membership of the ECHR really means, in practice, is having to treat terrorists and foreign mass murderers with the utmost consideration. The greatest, longest-running example of the hijacking of a world organisation is the UN, which has been faking outrage at violations of 'international law' to endanger and ostracise Israel for decades. As Natasha Hausdorff, the international lawyer known for pointing out the legal flaws in the numerous evil smears levelled at Israel, notes : 'Armies of NGOs [have fed] the United Nations system and international bodies like the ICC and ICJ' so that 'pseudo-legal language permeates public discourse about Israel. This has now broken into public consciousness, but it has been building in the NGO world and UN world for a long time.' The once honourable ICJ – the International Court of Justice – was seized by South Africa to bring a case against Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal even as Israel sacrificed soldiers fighting Hamas in Gaza, resulting in an arrest warrant for the Israeli PM which Britain refuses to reject. As the famous American lawyer and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz says of the ICJ: 'It's not international, it's not a court and it doesn't do justice.' The bloc that still determines the balance of power and the fate of countries – just – is the Western one. And we are now in great peril, due to being gullible and ill-informed, anti-Semitic, terror-appeasing and morally confused. Our cultures swallowed whole by Leftist cultural theories that were meant to never leave academia – those of post-structuralism and post-colonialism – and under their influence we turn our faces towards the lies pouring from the Eastern axis of 'resistance' – with lethal consequences. The international human rights community in all its respectable clout gives this evil nonsense the stamp of approval. Older people just about remember when international law meant something. Some saw first-hand the real genocide of the mid-20th century, others spectacular bloodshed under monsters and in the course of war. Some of us just remember hearing about those times and events, from parents and grandparents. To us, the souring of organisations like the ECHR, ICC, ICJ, UN – the whole concept of 'international law' itself – is bitter and clear. The rising generation, though, those who have taken up en masse the garbage of third-rate academic theories about coloniser and oppressor, who misuse terms including racism, apartheid, genocide, settler-colonialism, fascism and even capitalism, seem to genuinely think these corrupted organisations are the end of the moral and geopolitical rainbow. That reference to their motions and cases and objections and votes must end all arguments; that the old animating force behind international courts for human rights and justice was just a relic of a racist age, and now we know better. In some ways we do. But those who still chase after 'international' legitimacy are barking up the wrong tree – either accidentally or, like China, on purpose. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Chagos security fears as China cosies up to Mauritius
Mauritius has fuelled fresh security fears over the Chagos islands deal after announcing it would seek a closer relationship with China. The Chinese ambassador to Mauritius said she supported 'deepening full-fledged exchanges and co-operation between China and Mauritius' after a meeting with the country's prime minister on Thursday. The Chagos deal, to be announced by Sir Keir Starmer's Government in the coming weeks, will lead to the island chain being handed to Mauritius and the Diego Garcia base there leased back to the UK. Critics of the deal argue that Mauritius's close relationship with China is a security risk, because Beijing could spy on future military operations at the base. They say that China could install military operations on islands close to the base, which would make it harder for the UK and US to operate in the Indo-Pacific region. Tory MPs and Republicans in Washington have urged the Government to scrap the deal, but Donald Trump has signalled his agreement for the islands to be given away. The security fears were stoked on Thursday by a meeting between the Chinese ambassador Huang Shifang and Navin Ramgoolam, the Mauritian prime minister. Mr Ramgoolam has been negotiating the transfer of the islands, which will cost UK taxpayers a reported £9 billion. After Thursday's meeting, the Mauritian government said Ms Huang had 'pointed out that Mauritius possesses strategic advantages and expressed confidence that there will be broad prospects for future collaboration between the two countries'. The government said that Ms Huang had emphasised close economic ties between China and Mauritius, including that the free trade agreement between the two countries was the first between China and an African country. 'As the new Chinese Ambassador to Mauritius, Dr Huang said that she is fully committed to deepening full-fledged exchanges and cooperation between China and Mauritius,' it said. The Foreign Office says it has no security concerns about leasing the Diego Garcia military base from Mauritius, and insists that the deal will contain security guarantees to prevent Chinese influence. But the meeting provoked fury from Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, who said it showed Sir Keir had endangered British and American interests by signing away the islands. 'This is exactly what we have been warning the Government of from the very start,' she told The Telegraph. 'Fuelled by their endless sense of shame about our great country, and their Leftist decolonising ideologies, Labour have rushed to surrender our own sovereign territory, with zero consideration of who might benefit from this shameful giveaway. 'It is clear Labour are far more concerned with kowtowing to Beijing to recognise the threat that China poses to our interests, and this shoddy affair is yet another example. When Labour negotiates, Britain loses.' The UK argues that it is required to give up sovereignty of the Chagos islands, known officially as the British Indian Ocean territory, because of a ruling by the International Court of Justice in 2019 that said they should belong to Mauritius. Ministers say the 'security' of the base, which is shared with the US, would be put at risk because of Britain's shaky legal footing. But critics say the court can be safely ignored, and that the talks amount to an attempt by Mauritius to extract more money and territory from Britain in the international courts. The Telegraph understands that the deal is close to being announced by the UK, and should be put before MPs in the coming weeks. Mr Trump, whose secretary of state, Marco Rubio, criticised the plan to give away the islands, gave his cautious backing to the deal at a meeting with Sir Keir in Washington earlier this year. UK officials have always denied that there is any security risk from China, and point to the American government's support for the deal. Separately, it was reported on Thursday that Downing Street has delayed the signing of the deal amid concerns it has become 'toxic' among MPs. The estimated £9 billion cost of the deal will be difficult to sell to Labour MPs at the same time as welfare cuts, The Times reported.
