Airstrip One

Ah, Zimbabwe

The EU have now spoken, Mugabe better behave, or else. No one's saying we should go in, yet, but the justification has been written. We're not really intervening in another country, we're helping them get a Democratic government.

What business it is of ours whether Zimbabwe gets a democratic government is beyond me. However a cautionary tale should come from neighbouring Zambia. There the opposition took over years ago. They were called the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, rather than the Movement for Democratic Change, but they were rather similar. Pro-western, democrats, trade unionists.

Few commentators have picked up on the fact that Zambia may prove to be a precursor of Zimbabwe, were the sainted opposition rig the polls almost as enthusiastically as their predecesors. Of course the election is far more gentle in Zam than in Zim, but then Kaunda's one-party christian socialism (remind you of anybody closer to home) and Mugabe's multi-party quasi Marxism were always quite different.

Of course we can't say that it is a cultural thing, because every Anglosphere country embodies democracy, freedom, the Common Law and the rules of cricket when it was played by gentlemen.