Cup which glorifies this gangster state
SO is there still a risk to public health from the nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal – or not? With the mixed signals coming from the authorities, it’s impossible to tell.
If there isn’t, why has the chief medical officer warned anyone who was in the same restaurant or pub as Mr Skripal last Sunday to wash their clothes and clean personal belongings with baby wipes?
And if there is a risk, why has it taken the authorities a week to issue this alert? Surely, if this mysterious substance is dangerous, then speed is of the essence in mitigating its effects.
People are told not to panic, yet such confusing messages are guaranteed to instil exactly that reaction. If this was meant as an exercise in calming public concern, it’s been a fiasco.
Meanwhile, as the finger of blame for the attack points firmly towards Vladimir Putin, shadow chancellor John McDonnell announces that he won’t be making further appearances on RT, once called Russia Today – the Kremlin- controlled television station.
Laughably, he says this is because its coverage of the Skripal affair ‘goes beyond objective journalism’. What did he expect?
RT isn’t interested in objectivity. It’s Mr Putin’s propaganda mouthpiece and by appearing on it in the past Mr McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn have acted as his ‘ useful idiots’. Trying to distance themselves from it now is rank hypocrisy.
If Mr Putin’s involvement is proved, Downing Street must retaliate. Diplomats suspected of spying must be expelled, financial sanctions against oligarchs in London toughened and calls to revoke RT’s broadcasting licence seriously considered.
But what of the football World Cup, being held in Russia this summer? Should the England team be withdrawn altogether?
Like it or not, international football and politics are inextricably entwined and hosting the World Cup is a massive publicity coup for Mr Putin. (Shamefully, he will be helped in exploiting it by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, who has accepted £1 million to cover the tournament as a pundit for RT).
But discontent is rumbling – and not only in Britain. Germany’s best- selling newspaper Bild has been asking members of the national squad whether they can ‘joyfully play in Putin’s World Cup while he is bombing children in Syria’.
Perhaps our footballers – and the FA – should be asked a similar question: Do you really want to glorify the head of a gangster state who sends his thugs to commit murder on British soil?