Thursday, March 07, 2013

What united Hugo Chavez and the Conservative right?

The answer, it seems, is admiration for Belarus.

Here is a BBC News report from 2006:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Belarus, calling it "a model social state like the one we are beginning to create". 
During a visit to Minsk, he called for a strategic alliance with Belarus to counter "hegemonic" capitalism. 
Mr Chavez later met President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights.
And here is a Daily Telegraph report from October of last year:
The Attorney General today indicated that he may block any Conservative plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights warning that Britain would become a "pariah state" comparable to Belarus. 
Dominic Grieve intervened after Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, refused to rule out leaving the convention following a radical review of Britain's human rights laws. 
Mr Grayling told the Daily Telegraph yesterday that "the current human rights framework under which we are operating has gone badly wrong” and said he "ruled nothing in and nothing out" in regards to leaving the ECHR.
Dominic Grieve may not be attracted to Belarus, but it seems that a substantial element of his party is.

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