Be kind to the Saudis, they're our friends!

Setting the stock of the rifle comfortably into your shoulder you carefully line up your slowly moving target. It lumbers along seemingly oblivious of the immanent danger. You squint through one eye ensuring that the crosshairs are centred on the target. A slow smile spreads across your face: an easy target. You gently, but firmly, squeeze the trigger. Bull’s eye! A direct hit!

And nothing happens.

So, yet again, the Saudi government (what a misnomer that is) has shown itself above any of the cares of the mere mortals who struggle along without a sea of oil under their feet. Doesn’t matter how many times you score a direct hit: they just walk away.

It’s difficult to know how to categorise that strata of the Saudi population (loathed by its people) which calls itself the government. Since the royal family dominates ministries and offices of state then it tend towards an oligarchy; but, as there is also a supreme king, it suggest totalitarianism and, as it uses the extended family it is also nepotistic. Its corruption goes without saying not only in terms of the overwhelming hypocrisy of the governing classes as they mouth the necessary inanities as befits a family which has charge of the holy places of the Prophet, but also in the cavalier way in which they ignore the irksome restraints of the Koran as soon as they are out of the country.

It is very hard to forget the ham fisted attempts of the Saudis to suppress the television programme ‘Death of a Princess’ which clearly demonstrated the lamentable lack of democratic progress in that benighted country not only in their response to western reporting but also in the savage system it sought to expose.

It is a country built on repression and a ruthless disregard for the values outlined in the UNO charter. It makes its own selfish rules and relies on its oceans of oil money to buy itself out of any situation which may indicate the rotten foundations of that corrupt state.

If money corrupts then oil money corrupts absolutely. The alleged corruption connected with BAE will not be resolved now because of the links of National Importance which connect this country with that of Saudi Arabia.

Do we really believe that Saudi is in the ‘fight against terrorism’ for any other motives than the self interest and self perpetuation of a detested royal family? Do we really believe that anything other that money and power motivates the ruling dynasty of that country? Do we really believe that Saudi is anything other than a pariah state only tolerated for friendly access to oil by a power hungry west? Democratic elections in Saudi would see the royal family swept away in a torrent of Islamic religious parties. No, the west is content for the disreputable bunch of self seeking autocrats to luxuriate in unbelievable wealth because their very corruption ensures the ‘stability’ of a country vital to the interests of the west.

If the west ever deserted their human rights denying oil producers then the Saudi royal family would be torn to shreds by their loyal subjects.

As we plod our way towards Christmas the number of news stories which demand depression seems to grow. I resolve to be more upbeat. If only for my own sake!

A more pressing problem for me than the galloping dissolution of the world is what to cook on Wednesday. It has been decided that the meal will be Spanish. I think that I will make a Fideuá and perhaps some crema catalana ice cream. I will give this some thought!

Food is always uplifting!