Thursday, April 09, 2009

More Trouble for David Lammy?

David Lammy has written a rather passionate defence of the Tamils on the Our Kingdom blog. Nothing wrong with that, you may think, and indeed there probably isn't. But it is unusual in the extreme for a Minister of State in one government department to write a highly opiniated piece relating to British foreign policy, especially when it concerns such a volatile conflict as the one going on in Sri Lanka. I doubt very much if he got it cleared by the FCO because there are several hostages to fortune in the article which they would have surely deleted if they had been given prior sight of the piece.

I think Mr Lammy may, yet again, find himself hot water. It is yet another sign of a government in decay when Ministers feel free to freelance in this way.

21 comments:

JuliaM said...

"It is yet another sign of a government in decay when Ministers feel free to freelance in this way."

Surely, the first sign of decay is when someone like Lammy is a minister in the first place...?

He makes Quick look like a genius!

Scott said...

He should spend less time worrying about Sri Lanka and more time worrying about Haringey.

that is what he is elected for.

Victor, NW Kent said...

Undoubtedly Tamils in Sri Lanka feel that they have been harshly treated. They may have some legitimate cause to feel that way.

The native Sri Lankans see the Tamils as an immigrant population that would not integrate and insisted on being treated as virtually a separate state.

Where David Lammy is wrong, as he always is, lies in the tacit support for terrorists. There are no good terrorists even when they are dubbed freedom fighters. The USA made this mistake in supporting "popular" uprisings in Cuba, Nicaragua and in Afghanistan.

He is further wrong as this is none of his business either as an MP for troubled Haringey or as a junior Minister.

davidc said...

'Victor, NW Kent said...The native Sri Lankans see the Tamils as an immigrant population that would not integrate and insisted on being treated as virtually a separate state.'

where else is there an 'immigrant population' who the 'native population' perceive as refusing to integrate and insisting on being treated as virtually a separate state.'?

answers on a postcard to hazel blears sec. of state for community harmony and fuzzy asperations

Old Holborn said...

oh Iain..

Meooowww

Conand said...

If Carlsberg trained Mastermind contestants..

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Do read David "Mastermind" Lammy's piece.

Go through it, replacing the words "disenfranchised British Workers" with "Tamils" and then realise how there is now most certainly, one rule for them, and one rule for us.

"Occupying Parliament Square"???
Where are the riot cops with their balaclavas and batons when you need them?

Oh sorry, I forgot. They are busy beating up innocent white people.

Ross said...

"The native Sri Lankans see the Tamils as an immigrant population that would not integrate and insisted on being treated as virtually a separate state."

The Tamils aren't really an immigrant population though. To be precise there were Tamils who came from India during colonial rule but there was already an existing Tamil population that had been there for 2000 years.

@molesworth_1 said...

David Lammentable does it again.

Unsworth said...

Where's Miliband in all of this?

Hacked Off said...

Tokenism

http://therantingkingpenguin.blogspot.com/

WV = toked nob ?

Athos said...

The difficulty here is in offering support for Tamils is that doing so offers support to the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE) aka the Tamil Tigers. This is because way back when Tamil political groups got together to protest their treatment and 'fight' their case, the Tigers pursued a vicious campaign of annihilating all the others. This leaves the Tamils only the LTTE to represent them (any other representatives being killed very quickly).

Thus they secure the support of people who would normally be repulsed by their horrific acts, because they were literally the only people who would stand up for them... it also allowed them to use the Tamil people's plight to claim justification for their warlords' self-aggrandizing campaign of terror.

Franky, the best thing that could happen here if for the LTTE to be destroyed utterly and consigned to the dustbin of savage history. Only then can the Tamils find representatives who actually want peaceful resolution and will work towards it, not just use it as a cover for re-armament.
This may hurt in the short term, but the sooner it happens the better off all people will be. Especially the Tamils themselves.

Anonymous said...

Surely, the first sign of decay is when someone like Lammy is a minister in the first place...?

Marvellous!!

Lady Finchley said...

Yes, one wonders why the police allowed the Tamils to take over the streets around Parliament resulting in the closure of Westminster tube station two days running which greatly inconvenienced many of us. I do not relish an extra 15 minute walk in the morning because of an illegal demonstration. It is a pity that the police didn't show such restraint at the G20 demos which of course was put on by white middle class crusties. Imagine if one of the Tamils keeled over dead after police manhandling like that poor paper seller. Then you'd really see riots in the street.

Newmania said...

*I see Onan the Barbarian ( aka Sunny Hundal) has issued one of his daubed infantile harrangues but this looks like a balanced post. It is very odd ,at this point ,to start this sort of thing .After all New Labour have not lost yet ,and due to the system it may well be quite close .I would love to know what Mr. Dale`s speculations are ,as to the motives .

Is Lammy thinking of TV ? Profile ..that sort of thing ..post Brown positioning. You have to wonder how much authority an electoral dead weight can have in the Party now

The Remittance Man said...

One really does have to admire the stupidity of this government, they take it to a whole new level.

The right to protest in Parliament Square was taken away from law abiding Englishmen on the rather flimsy excuse of "security". Yet, Mr Lammy and his chums seem quite happy to allow noisy Tamils to clutter the place up.

I wonder if it would constitute cruelty to point out to him that the Tamils were the first modern terrorists to deploy human bombs?

Rachel Joyce said...

I can't see anything here that is out of kilter with what the All Parliamentary Group (which includes Conservative MPs) have been saying all along. He is a member of this group, so where is the problem?

He says "The Sri Lankan government has rejected international calls for a ceasefire (including from the Foreign Secretary); while the LTTE continues to refuse to allow civilians caught up in this battle to leave the conflict areas."
How is this tacit support for terrorism?

I agree with his points, as would most who had studied the history. The issue is whether a minister should be in an all-party group, but that is for the whips to decide. His points are completely in line with what a number of Conservative, LibDem and Labour members of the All-Party Group would say.

The other issue is why the media don't cover the issue properly - most readers of this blog will not know the story of Sri Lanka (last 2500 years to present day including post Empire and current issues) and will not be able to make a judgment. That is because the media do not discuss the fact that there is no free press allowed by the government, and what both sides of the story are.

Houdini said...

Nothing wrong with that, you may think, and indeed there probably isn't.

Unless he is commenting on and from British foreign policy, as a minister of state he should keep his mouth shut. As an MP and backbencher, then fair enough, but as a Minister he should be sacked.

Anonymous said...

Many postings miss the critical point that SriLanka is a democracy and the tamils in their conclaves and in the rest of the country can participate in elections and elect their own MPs. Indeed in, 1960s they did so with Tamil represenation in the central government. The LTTE was the first organisation who created effective suicide bombers with devastating effect. It is rumoured that they exported their suicide bomber-creating skills to the Middle East. Their suicide bomber, a female, was such an expert that, a few years ago, she dodged the security
surrounding the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi ( son of Mrs Gandhi) and was able to explode the hidden bomb killing the Prime Minister and herself. LTTE is heavily rumoured to be involved in credit card ID theftsin London, lottery scams all over the world etc.. to fund their weapons procurement. With Indian Govt help there was a kind of peace and solution brokered years ago(just like Clinton did with Barrack and Arafat, which Araft did not agree) and the Tamil leaders later rejected it as they wanted autonomy and their own rule in their enclaves. LTTEs use students and most overseas members of tamil diaspora as their extension in Western countries. They have the distinction of introducing the the very first AK-47s in India when their mates were given sancuary some years ago. Their methods are brutal, much worse than one sees in Middle East, they often 'borrow' one son from a family to do their dirty work.
I am sorry I have very little time for their issues. They should elect their MPs and try to achieve a kind of peace through negotiation. The cricketer Muralitharan a Tamil has shunned their methods. He is
an indispensable member of Srilankan cricket team. Many moderate tamils outside the Tamil enclaves in Srilanka are well integrated. It is not simple immigrants vs the natives issue. It is like people in Bricklane demanding their own govt, currency, passports and their boundary. I should add that I am not a Tamil/Srilankan. Lammy is an idiot. Brown and Blair are fools letting these LTTEs supporting students in country in greater numbers.

Chucklenuts said...

He's just incredibly thick.

JP said...

Rumour has it that Lammy has been earmarked as the next Labour candidate for Mayor of London. Ken won't be happy.