From today’s Indepdendent:
In a letter sent to the Prime Minister today, Nick Clegg calls the decision to award the Olympics to China a “mistake” and appeals to Mr Brown not to give the Games further political endorsement.
“China’s recent behaviour is a humiliation for the International Olympic Committee,” Mr Clegg writes. “Given their utter failure to deliver on their human rights promises, it is simply untenable for any representative of the United Kingdom to give political endorsement to these Games.
“I therefore urge you not to attend the closing ceremony of the Beijing Games, or indeed any other ceremonies associated with them.”
Mr Brown announced earlier in the year that he would not be attending the opening ceremony. Instead the Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, will represent the UK on Friday.
The Prime Minister did, however, make it clear that he would be at the closing ceremony.
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9 Comments
Well said Nick.
Yes but do you think the new labour leader should attend?
I disagree with nick Clegg who seems to show a shocking lack of knowledge of the significance of the closing ceremony.
At the closing ceremony the torch and various other things are handed over to representatives of the next Olympic games, which is London.
It would seem like a snub to the Olympic movement for the UK prime minister not to be there. The imapct on China would be minimal, but for us, quite frankly, it would make us look stupid.
If the olympic movement chooses to give the olympics to a nation like China then, quite frankly, it deserves to be snubbed. Someone has to make a stand. I think Nick has called this right or do we just stand by and tolerate this. That would make us no better than Murdoch and his cronies. Well said Nick.
Despite my epsodic sallys against leadership policy it is things like this that make me proud to be a Liberal Democrat….well said Nick
More good tactics from Clegg – even if you don’t agree with the details of the announcement.
It is strange (or maybe it isn’t) that the Conservatives have been silent on the issue. Cameron has hesitated to show where the tories stand, so we’ve got to be suspicious of his underlying motives, while anything he does say now will show their inability to take the initiative on matters of moral importance.
If we are sending the team then surely the rest is all gesture politics ?
Oh and Norfolk Blogger is quite right. If we are ging to engage in gesture politics then this is the wrong gesture for the reasons he states.
It id disappointing that, after 150+ years of ignoring China during the poverty that resulted directly from the Opium Wars, people now seem to be using it as a “human rights” platform and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.
And yet, lets face it, this is not the worst case senario when it comes to lack of human rights, nor is it the -only- case.
It is not surprising that we’d like to break up China’s power by fermenting independence along the cultural divides, but seriously – the PM -not- attending the closing ceremony – that really isn’t going to result in the desired effect.
China is the home of 1.3 billion people. Their organised crime problems are notorious. All Europe did was offer loans at rediculous interest rates when times were hard. And people expect them to bend over just like that?