Sunday, August 06, 2006

When Jack met Condi

Remember the Jack Straw/Condoleezza Rice love-in when she visited Blackburn? It may have done for the foreign secretary's career.

According to the Mail on Sunday (so it must be true):
A US source told The Mail on Sunday: "Mr Straw's views did not find favour in the White House and its concerns were passed on to the British Government."

It was revealed last week by a senior aide to media mogul Rupert Murdoch that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was shocked to learn of the influence of Muslims in Mr Straw's constituency when she visited Blackburn with him during a tour of Britain in April.

Four weeks after her visit, Mr Straw was mysteriously fired...

"The Bush team worried about the problems a British Foreign Minister faced when he depended for office on an electorate with a heavy Muslim component - something Rice noticed on her visit," said Mr Stelzer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It probably wasn't so much the presence of Muslims as the man of Straw's pandering to them that caused the upset.

Lobster Blogster said...

This story is picking up very slowly. At the last count sixteen news sources were covering it. The problem for Blair is that it is a mystery as to why Straw was sacked.

I had always assumed it was because Straw ruled out military action against Iran at a very early stage, but then the timing would seem to be all wrong. Could Straw have dared to challenge Blair's pro-US views in cabinet?