Finally, our shameless hypocrisy has been laid bare

HAUNTED by the memory of the Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who helped fake his own death in Kiev with the aid of the Ukrainian authorities and a lot of pig’s blood, I feel I must be cauti ous about t he di s appearance of t he Saudi j ournalist Jamal Khashoggi.

It would be a great relief if Mr Khashoggi were to turn up alive and well, amid embarrassed explanations. But it is looking like an increasingly faint hope.

What should we in Britain make of this, if it turns out to be as bad as it looks? Sadly, we cannot say or do much. Even if we do eventually condemn the Saudis, we will do so with obvious reluctance, and will try as hard as we can to avoid a total breach. I’ll be more than surprised if we impose any serious sanctions.

This country has been living in the pocket of the Saudi despotism for decades. Our crazy policy in Syria, of supporting jihadis we would lock up if we found them in Birmingham, was adopted to please the Saudis. We are more or less silent about their police state repressions. We swallow our revulsion at the cruel little war they are conducting in Yemen, and side with them in their wild sectarian confrontation with Iran.

Our Royal Family is ceaselessly forced to pay court to the rulers of Riyadh. Flags in London fly at half-mast if a Saudi king dies. At least two recent British premiers have had to do obeisance to these tyrants as they were invested with some sort of ‘honour’.

David Cameron was awarded the Order of Abdulaziz al Saud in 2012 for ‘ meritorious service to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’. Theresa May got hers in 2017.

I understand exactly why we do this. Britain is no longer a great and rich imperial power and must do undignified things to keep its citizens in work.

That is worth a few humiliations, and having to be polite to people you don’t really like.

Personally, I think we take it too far when we get involved in violent, futile and dangerous nonsenses like the Syrian war.

But, in any case, we need to tone down our moral bloviation when other countries misbehave. For s ome years now, t he Briti s h Government has squawked about t he undoubted wickedness of Russia. I have always said this outrage was phoney, because it is selective and is not aimed at lots of other countries we are afraid of, or owe money to.

Thanks to the Khashoggi incident, all kinds of other people who had never noticed this hypocrisy have now done so, and so it will have some effect. Well done, as always, for catching up. But remember, you read it here first – as usual.