Revealed: Cameron's freebie to apartheid South Africa
David Cameron accepted an all-expenses paid trip to apartheid South Africa while Nelson Mandela was still in prison, an updated biography of the Tory leader reveals today.
The trip by Mr Cameron in 1989, when he was a rising star of the Conservative Research Department, was a chance for him to "see for himself" and was funded by a firm that lobbied against the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime.
Critics described it as a "sanctions-busting jolly" that raised questions about the character of the man who, after a week when the Government's credibility on the economy hit a new low, is now on course to be prime minister in a little more than a year's time.
Mr Cameron will portray himself as prime minister-in-waiting today when he addresses his party's spring conference in Cheltenham with a promise to introduce a "government of thrift".
The trip is revealed for the first time in a newly updated edition of Cameron: The Rise of the New Conservative, by James Hanning, the deputy editor of The Independent on Sunday, and Francis Elliott, the deputy political editor of The Times.
Labour should not be engaging in smear tactics against the Tories when there is enough truth out there to show them up for what they really are. For example:
"David Cameron asks us to judge a leader's character – well, Gordon Brown at this time was active in the anti-apartheid movement, while Cameron was enjoying a sanctions-busting jolly. That is a measure of character.
"This just exposes his hypocrisy because he has tried to present himself as a progressive Conservative, but just on the eve of the apartheid downfall, and Nelson Mandela's release from prison, when negotiations were taking place about a transfer of power, here he was being wined and dined on a sanctions-busting visit.
"This is the real Conservative Party, shown by the fact that his colleagues who used to wear 'Hang Nelson Mandela' badges at university are now sitting on the benches around him. Their leader at the time Margaret Thatcher described Mandela as a terrorist".
It is doubtful that Iain Dale will mention this on his blog. Because he too is a hypocrite and a liar. Paul Staines/Guido Fawkes who is also a racist and BNP supporter has previously boasted about wearing a hang Nelson Mandela T-shirt.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
A visit to South Africa hardly presents " support for apartheid". I visited Belfast in the early 90's but that doesn't mean I support the IRA.
ReplyDeleteMany people came and went to South Africa during and after the demise of apartheid. Nelson Mandela's first state visits were to Libya and Cuba. Tells you all you need to know about the World's Most Favourite Terrorist.
Henry: You appear to have missed the point that his trip "was funded by a firm that lobbied against the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime". He who pays the piper...
ReplyDeleteWell good for Cameron if he was lobbying against sanctions. The only damage sanctions did was to the overall SA economy putting hundreds of thousands of blacks out of work.
ReplyDeleteSA has never recovered from the imposition of sanctions and unemployment is currently at 45%. The Nationalist government weren't so much swayed by any road to Damascus conversion away from their ethnic socialist policies but realised that the economy would soon be in freefall and just thought "sod it Nelson if you want it so badly, you can have it".