First Steppes in Pragmatism, or 'Ethical Foreign Policy meets Oilfield' - Mr Slippery Goes to Kazakhstan

So our Prime Minister, Mr Slippery, has managed to slip in a visit to Kazakhstan.   Now, I have no personal objection to such visits. We need to get our military equipment out of Afghanistan, the Pakistani route may be closed or difficult, and we need business, and if we need to be nice to an unpleasant despot to achieve these things, that is fine by me. My only principle in foreign policy is the national interest of my country, its sovereignty and liberty. 

 

But Mr Slippery's stern interventionist moral position on Syria’s Hafez Assad, and on Libya’s Muammar Gadaffi, is rather undermined by his politically-expedient friendliness towards the comically sinister ( but sinister even so) Nursultan Nazarbayev.  Of course, Anthony Blair (to whom Mr Cameron is,  as we know,  the heir) has already been busy in this interesting part of the world, where the offices of critical newspapers burn down mysteriously (and headless dogs are hung up outside their charred offices), and critical individuals get roughed up equally mysteriously in darkened hallways.  A conspiracy theorist might think these things were connected. The very idea.

 

Those who would like to read more about the Kazakh paradise and its fascinating capital city can do so by following the two links below, both of which were written following an enjoyable visit I made there a few years ago. Alas, I do not think I shall be going back.

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327296/Kazakh-President-Nazarbayev-dictator-Royal-warrant.html

 

and

 

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/soviet-stepchildren/