Some people think Queen Elizabeth should have been taught “Binn béal ina thost” – silence is golden – rather than the few phrases of Irish that propelled President McAleese into a double wow at that state dinner. The head of Britain apparently complained at a garden party the other day that the Chinese who visited Britain had been “very rude”.
Personally I think she’s on to something. I remember about twenty-five years ago, coming out of the BBC in Belfast. A group of some eight Chinese men who’d just been interviewed were standing on the pavement and several of them were spitting! Not at each other or at passers-by, but they were spitting. VERY rude.
And I think Queen Elizabeth’s son was right to describe elderly Chinese leaders as “appalling old waxworks”, just as I support Queen Elizabeth’s husband when he warned British students that if they had too much contact with the Chinese they could “develop slitty eyes”. The world is lost for people who have the courage to express themselves in this vigorous manner.
Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth’s words have been drowned a bit by David Cameron’s remarks, also caught on an open microphone, where he described – to Queen Elizabeth, as it happens – that Afghanistan and Nigeria, both of whom are attending an anti-corruption conference in London, as two “fantastically corrupt countries”.
Again, the British prime minister is probably right. Unfortunately, it’s not the most diplomatic thing to say about two countries attending an anti-corruption conference in your capital city. A capital city, incidentally, that the IMF and others have identified as a tax haven. And of course we know that the British PM himself has profited from off-shore finance and his party is bankrolled by companies that make massive use of these same tax havens.
In fact, the Western world, which is so good at identifying corruption in, for example, Zimbabwe, at the same time allows dirty money from those countries to be laundered through British banks, British real estate, British tax havens. Here’s what a group of Nigerian campaigners said in a letter to Cameron a few weeks ago:
“We are embarked on a nationwide anti-corruption campaign. But these efforts are sadly undermined if countries such as your own are welcoming our corrupt to hide their ill-gotten gains in your luxury homes, department stores, car dealerships, private schools and anywhere else that will accept their cash with no questions asked. The role of London’s property market as vessels to conceal stolen wealth has been exposed in court documents, reports, documentaries and more”.
Wow. And wow. The royal gaffe begins to look like small potatoes beside that mountain of hypocrisy. Consider yourself excused, Ma’am. Step this way and try not to smile.
Great article Jude and the quote from the Nigerian anti-corruption campaigners says it all.
The property boom in London and its importance as a financial centre is fuel by dodgy money from dictators, oligarchs, organised crime figures, politicians and members of ruling families from all over the world.
It would be interesting if a closer look was taken at the obscene amount of money being pumped into the English Premier League with most of the clubs being owned by foreigners who honestly have no real interest in the game of football.
British politicians may decry corruption in public but they do all in their power to ensure that London in particular retains its primacy as the financial world’s launderette.
http://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry
Nice one Paddy.
Perhaps, the inexcusable rudeness of the Chinese visitors occurred, Esteemed Blogmeister, in the Yellow Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace, maybe even in the vicinity of the chimney piece. Which, seemingly, is the English vision of a Chinese chimney in which nodding mandarins appear in niches as well as fearsome winged dragons.
Which is indubitable evidence that the English are not without a certain intimate acquaintance with the basics of Chinese culture. And which extends beyond a, erm, nodding acquaintance with, say, Number 102 Sweet and Sour Chinese beef balls in batter and, for instance, Number 62 Spring Chicken in Garlic and Chilli Sauce from the open till late menu of the local prize-winning Wing and Wong Windsor Take Away.
(A recurring motif: the take away. See below).
During the Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901) including the aftermath of the Battle of Peking, for instance, troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance among which British and German troops were numbered, committed war crimes while stationed in China . Author Bertram Lennox Simpson who was in China at the time reported that he came across a whole company of savage-looking British troops molesting a group of female converts ‘green-white with fear’ while a lady missionary valiantly tried to beat them back with an umbrella. Troops also looted with many of the stolen items ending up in England.
With sublime self-restraint Hausfrau Saxe-Coburg-Goth obviously did not resort to the unseemly missionary position (see above) by calling on One’s liveried flunkey:
-Ones says, Joe, One’s brolly !
Rather did she effortlessly depend upon the first resort of the Civilized : a verbal expression of disapproval in the German-Queen’s English, lady like and sotto voce.
Another of Her acquaintance, one Phil the Greek, has shown a similar laudatory forbearance.
Although Elizardbeth and He have never been close during their (gulp) 69 years of blissful marriage – consensus among fearless court correspondents attribute this bliss to that traditional clause of royal protocol which ordains the consort walks a mandatory six paces behind the royal behind. And also that the consort keeps his own hands behind, while nodding like a pet Kokoni which, of course, is a tame domestic Greek dog.
The fearless court correspondents further report that this mandatory distance of six paces is rigorously maintained at all times in their domestic lives behind closed doors. As Fagan, the famous nocturnal meter inspector, can, has and will continue to testify in the widely read Red Tops. (for a consideration, Guv).
And if one had more reason than most to be anything but forbearing it is surely Phil the Greek. For 69 long years, day in, day out, (whatever about night), this native of Mon Repos, Corfu has to go to a Hellenic destination and back again.
But then, during his schooldays in the American school in Paris, his form master reported that Philip Battenburg of the House of Schleswig-Holstein -Sonderburg-Glucksburg (put that in Leprechaun, Gregsy !) was as follows:
-Philip is a rugged, boisterous boy but always remarkably polite.
Politesse, not unlike noblesse, never fails to oblige.
Hence Phil the Greek’s remarkable ‘beal binn in a thost’ / Trappist vow of keeping one’s trap shut (his Mummy, though not an Egyptian, in later life got herself to a nunnery, leaving a note on the door of Mon Repos – ‘Princess Alice doesn’t live her anymore ‘ – as one, orthodoxly does) .
Thus far, and recall his is now merely 94 years young, he has kept a Homeric silence in relation to the one of the most significant deliveries in the long and distinguished backstory of Take Away:
-The Elgin Marbles.
Which are still located in the British Museum, having been purchased in 1801, shortly before the birth of Phil the Greek, at the Parthenon Gift Shop in the Acropolis by a tourist, name of Thomas Bruce, aka the 7th Earl of Elgin. Bruce, showing great foresight, had the marbles shipped home in jig time and housed in the British Museum, contagious to Tower Bridge.
That of course is the same identical bridge which was once famously celebrated on telly by the twin towers of Chin Fein, Jimmy Hill and (gulp) Bruce Forsyth.
And there, the Elgin Marbles remain, to this very day (Wednesday, Sheffield time).
And are liable to so remain, as long as Madame Elizardbeth remains in full possession of Her marbles.
Long may it be so ! / Go raibh fada buan I !
” A group of some eight Chinese men who’d just been interviewed were standing on the pavement and several of them were spitting! Not at each other or at passers-by, but they were spitting. VERY rude.”
Jude, I happen to know a little about Chinese culture, my dad has been to China twice in his life and spitting is part of the culture and is very common. Indeed its very common all around Asia. Adolf Hitler once said that all the Indians had to do was spit all at once and they would drown all the British in India because spitting was so common and the Indians so numerous. Just in case anyone ever visits China/India/Asia, expect also to find people urinating on the streets in public. Again, its cultural and completely acceptable and common. In India its also common to see people pooing in the streets……and no, its not due to lack of toilets, its cultural.
Is Nigeria/Afghanistan corrupt? lol stupid question. Is Britain corrupt? lol Another stupid question, of course it is, the difference is the British are far better at concealing it. Look at the paedophile ring that has operated at Westminster for decades, maybe even for over a century. You have all sorts of dodgy clubs and societies at Westminster, such as the “Monday Club”, etc. Everyone knows the MP’s/Officials in the Westminster paedophile ring are still being protected, there’s no way they will ever be brought to Justice by the Police because the chances are the people in control of the Police are involved in the paedo ring itself as well! The deputy head of MI6 was also a mass rapist/paedophile and was active at Kincorra. He was exposed just AFTER he died…..how convenient….Jimmy Savile and other celebrities like Gary Glitter were all involved in these paedo rings. Don’t be under any illusions, these paedophile rings still exist. For more info research: “PIE”, the Paedophile Information Exchange group from London.
But is Britain as corrupt as Nigeria/Afghanistan? Well to be fair: its not. The statistics speak for themselves.
PS: Just heard on the news that the Chinese government has blocked Chinese media from reporting on Queen Elizabeth’s comments about Chinese diplomats being rude. Nigeria/Afghanistan may be “fantastically corrupt” but China would put even them countries to shame…..