EU Immigration - The solution

The European Union is facing an unprecedented invasion, right now.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East are swarming into the EU, or are poised to do so.  Germany is said to be facing an influx of more than 800,000, this year.

This solution might work for some of them.

Many of these migrants are Muslims, fleeing war in Syria and Iraq or in Somalia or Eritrea or Ethiopia or Afghanistan.

Surely it would be far, far better for these migrants to be re-housed in a culture that is more in keeping with their own?

So why don't the EU authorities turn these people around and send them to Saudi Arabia or Iran - depending upon which Islamic sect, they follow.

Both are rich countries, both are strongly religious and won't persecute the migrants for practicing their religion - so long as they chose the right country.  Both are large countries with plenty of room for settling large numbers.  Saudi Arabia has a large population of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent - mainly Pakistan, it could simply replace these with the immigrants that are most in need.

This solution would reduce the burden on European countries and stop the indigenous people from feeling swamped and for their ailing economies being even more strained.  Plus, it gives the Saudis and the Iranians the opportunity to show charity and compassion to their co-religionists.  Win/Win really!

This would also take away the opportunity of those in Europe to say that these are merely economic migrants - just looking for a better life in Europe, than they can achieve at home.

If this is successful and these masses of Muslims could be accommodated within these two stalwarts of the Muslim community, then perhaps those Muslims that have migrated to Europe, during previous upheavals, could also leave and settle there, as well.

Too simplistic?  Consider how many Greeks and Turks moved in opposite directions when those nations moved apart in the 1920's.  Consider how many Muslims moved from what was to become India to what was to become Pakistan, in 1947 (and Hindus in the opposite direction.)  Mass migration can work, indeed has worked but has been most successful, when the people moving, move to an area with which they are culturally familiar.

Maybe the Americans could try this with their non-Mexican immigrants?  Let them stay in Mexico rather than take them into the USA and put them, (in an effort to disperse the large numbers) into alien environments.

If something isn't done though, watch for the further rise of far Right parties in Europe.  The French National Front is already in the ascendancy and will only be stopped from taking the French presidency by a coalition of Socialists, Communists and Conservatives.  We see, in Spain, Greece and Germany, a backlash building.  Even in my beloved UK, the UK Independence Party garnered a lot of support, in the last General Election, because of it's anti-immigration policies.

Doing nothing, isn't really an option!

Home grown terrorists

There is growing concern in Britain and the rest of Europe and Australia and the USA about the problem of so called home grown terrorists.  In Britain we have just had one of these young men becoming a suicide bomber, in Iraq.

These are most often the children of immigrants to the host country.  The problem of what to do about this is, as I understand it, that the host country cannot remove the passports or revoke the nationality of these young, mostly, men since they were born in the host country.  However,  certainly in the UK, that largely doesn't apply to the parents of these people.

I was absolutely shocked to see and hear, earlier this year, when three young girls left London and traveled to Daesh-held Syria, via Turkey, the family blaming London's Metropolitan Police for not doing more to stop their own children from leaving!  So much for their idea of parental responsibility!

So my solution is to revoke the right to stay for these parents and then deport them to their home country.  Yes, that's right - visit the sins of the children upon the father.  These families need to take responsibility for their children.  We are constantly being told that these Muslim families are close-knit families so let's see some family responsibility.  Indeed, I would not just restrict this to those that travel to join-up with Daesh.  If their children children participate in marches or protests where they carry the black flags of Daesh or protest against British troops, then the same punishment to be visited upon the parents.  Yes we live in a democracy but we will not provide Daesh with the means with which to destroy us!

It is high time that the peaceful majority in the Muslim community, stood up and showed how peaceful they really are and that they exercise control over those elements within their community, who would see our country become like the caliphate that Daesh is imposing in Iraq and Syria.  Women sold into sexual slavery, homosexuals thrown from the tops of buildings, people beheaded almost randomly.  Muslims in Britain, and other host countries, need to decide if they want to pay the price for such residency - that price is to stand-up for the things that make the host country what it is.  In Britain that means tolerance of followers other religions and of no religions.  It means acceptance of lifestyle choices made by people.  It means ceasing the barbaric practise of female genital mutilation (FGM) and above all it means treating all fellow citizens as equals and the laws of the land, as passed by Parliament as paramount and not supplantable by alien concepts such as Sharia

A recent poll, showed that more than 80% of Muslims support, to some degree or another the aims of Daesh.  Personally, I am always suspicious of such polls and how representative they truly are but the silence from the mosques of Britain might be considered telling.

Of course, the immediate effect of putting the above proposal into practice would be to get the Human Rights lawyers up in arms but the response to this has to be two fold.  Firstly, rush emergency legislation through Parliament, abrogating the relevant portions of existing Human Rights legislation and immigration laws.  Secondly, deport immediately with no right of appeal.

Of course it's harsh but take a surf on the Internet and see what playing 'nice' has done to Christians or even Muslims in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria.  Take a look at those people having their throat cut by 'peace loving' members of the religion of peace or watch people being burned alive, then tell me putting people on a plane is cruel and unusual punishment or that water-boarding is somehow evil and equal!   

For Liberals and Socialists

Conservative readers might also find that this blog strikes a chord, so you too may want to read on.  The main thrust though is to pose questions for Liberals (in the American meaning) and Socialists - and all of their fellow travelers.

Listening to the TV news, this morning, I was struck by the time spent on news stories about the destruction of 3,500 year old Assyrian artefacts by ISIS.  Such destruction, by the mindless Muslim zealots who promote Islamic 'jihad' against all non-Muslims and all symbols of pre-Mohammaden era art, is not unprecedented.  The same happened in Taliban Afghanistan and in Mali.

However, my interest was more on what wasn't being reported.  There was a spokesman from UNESCO calling the destruction a war crime and then various other talking heads explaining the 'rationale' behind this.

What you didn't see though, was any linkage to the far more important destruction that is occurring, on a daily basis, in ISIS territories and also in other Muslim dominated countries.  While you will hear squeals of outrage about the destruction of these statues, you won't hear any such noise about the mass murder of Christians by ISIS.  Even the murder of homosexuals, usually such a sensitive touch-point for Liberals, evokes no outcry.  There are frequent reports of homosexual men being thrown alive from tall buildings and cliff-tops.  Where are the protests?  Christians and Yazidis are being lined-up and shot in the back of the head and their bodies pushed into mass graves, in scenes reminiscent of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, but there is only muted comment.

Thinking about this, I don't believe that this can be put down to post-Charlie Hebbdo fear.  This silence pre-dates these January attacks in Paris.  Homosexuals have been being hung from crane gibbets for years by the murderous Iranian regime but the LGBT community keeps quiet.  I wrote a blog-post on this site about the changes to the UK marriage laws and how they affect homosexuals and this piece received many comments from seemingly homosexuals, who called me homophobe and yet these same people seem to stay silent in the face of the far more important than marriage rites, state-sponsored persecution and murder of homosexuals.  I guess that is what it means to be a Liberal?

Attack a comedian, who makes a risque or slightly derogatory statement about homosexuals or 'trannies' or whatever, but say nothing about what is happening in ISIS Iraq and ISIS Syria and Iran and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.  Let President Obama get away with denigrating Premier Netanyahu  when he questions the idiocy of allowing Iran to become a nuclear-armed state (and the betrayal of America's staunchest ally in the Middle East) but don't support Republicans who recognise the evil that is in power in these countries, because, 'Hey, they're republicans, right?'

I think I can kind of understand the deafening silence from Socialists.  It kind of fits with their overwhelming sense of guilt at the 'imperialist' past of the West.  Something along the lines of  'well it is a normal response because these countries have been so exploited by the West, why would we get upset when they finally throw off the imperialist yoke and hit back at us, their oppressors'  Or some such rubbish as that!  Then there is the belief that is deeply held by Socialists that all the ills of the world can be squarely laid at the feet of Capitalism and if Capitalism is destroyed and replaced with Socialism then there would be no need for religions (ref. Imagine by John Lennon) and all would live in peace (and prosperity, of course)!

What I find very puzzling and concerning though, is the silence from Christian church leaders and from Hindu leaders.  It is very disappointing that Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby have not publicly, and regularly so, denounced the persecution of Christians within the Muslim world.  To be clear, this is not a problem that is confined to ISIS areas.  Christians are being persecuted, and have been for many, many years, in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and in the countries where Arab oil money holds sway.  Egypt's Coptic community suffers daily attacks but the Liberals and Socialists and their fellow-travelers in the media, stay silent.

So I am calling for a sense of proportion.  I am upset about 3,500 year old stone statues and carvings being destroyed but I am outraged by Christians being killed because of their faith and by homosexuals being killed because of their sexual inclinations.  I am outraged that politicians and church leaders in the West do not speak out (make that scream out) more about these atrocities.  That these politicians  don't adopt a 'you've got more to lose policy' with Saudi Arabia and Iran and Egypt and Pakistan, by withholding aid, in the case of Egypt and Pakistan and perhaps more effectively by cutting off all diplomatic ties with those countries and imposing full trade sanctions, until the persecution ceases and until those countries adopt the same sort of freedom for an individual to freely practice their chosen religious faith or sexual inclination, that all people in the West enjoy - Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Taoists, Jedi, Buddhists, etc..

How long do you think that Egypt or Pakistan would survive without foreign aid?  Yes Pakistan would descend into chaos and, given its nuclear status, that is a concern but measures could be taken to mitigate that risk.  How long would Saudi Arabia survive if its 'princes' were denied access to the 'sinful' joys of the West?

Having read through the above, I realise that this is bordering on a rant.  No politician in the West has the courage to do the right thing and oppose militant Muslims.  They are too wrapped-up in preserving the comforts that they currently enjoy.  The media cannot be relied upon - they always look for equivalency - the CIA 'torture' terrorists with buckets of water and that is then 'matched' by ISIS burning people alive or beheading innocents, on video!  I am reminded of the quote attributed to Lenin, something along the lines of 'the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we shall hang them'.  The silence of the West in the face of the destruction of the values that have produced the greatest advances in humankind, will lead to a return to the barbarism from which Islam arose.

You should pity and weep for your children and grandchildren at the world that we bequeath to them!      

Answer to the ISIS dilemma

Western governments are in denial.

Right now they know that there is no appetite for any kind of 'boots on the ground' nor for any tie-up with the odious Assad regime. 

So what can they do to address this very significant threat? 

They are no doubt counting on ISIS' fifth columns within the USA, UK and France to commit bombing atrocities such that a groundswell of opinion for military intervention builds.  They must calculate how many bombings are needed.  Another Boston or maybe a spectacular like 9/11 or another Fusilier Lee Rigby or 7/7 in London?  Or maybe this time in Paris, which has a very special concern about its growing and self-alienated Muslim minority?

We should be alarmed because these atrocities will occur.  There is an inevitability about this that has escaped the media.

Islam is a religion of dominance.  Its adherents allow for no 'non-believers'.  You are either a Muslim and follower of Mohammed or you are an infidel.  Simply put, ones that doesn't follow Islam.  It will come as no comfort to Christians, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, Atheists or those that follow the Jedi tradition, that their long and  often deeply held beliefs, count for nothing.  They are infidels and they must either convert to Islam or be punished.

The punishment is now being meted out on a daily basis in Iraq, to Christians and to Yazidis.  Also now, we hear, to Shiite Muslims.  The punishment is death.  There is no concept of co-existence, no 'my way or the highway'.  It's the Muslim way or death! Nothing extreme about this Sunni Muslim religion!  Think about this when you next hear some liberal fool tell you that Islam is the religion of peace!   Look twice and listen thrice at the 'moderate' Islamist that says that these fanatics don't represent the true face of Islam.  Simply put, these fanatics do represent Islam.

Catholics and Protestants fought many wars and caused countless deaths in furtherance of the schism in Christianity but the numbers have the potential to fade into insignificance compared to the deaths that will flow from the conflict between the two strands of Islam.  The 8 year long Iraq/Iran war cost the lives of an estimated million souls but that can be viewed as an appetizer for the multi-course banquet of death that awaits.  The 200,000 deaths in the proxy war being fought in Syria is also barely a taste of things to come. 

Right now, Sunni Saudi Arabia, with its extreme (though that term is relative) Wahabi sect, is at war with Shiite Iran and, in Syria and Iraq, the Saudis are in the ascendancy.  I say this, not to seek support for Iran, who are as likely to be as murderous as are the Saudi and Qatari backed ISIS fanatics.   Rather, this is a statement of the current state of play, however, should as seems ever more likely, Iran complete its quest for nuclear weapons, then the whole dynamic changes. 

In this goal of achieving a nuclear capability,  the Iranians are being aided by the inept policies of the Obama administration and a resurgent Russia (also a beneficiary of Obama's failed policies) as well as a feeble European Union foreign affairs effort.

The civilised world faces an existential battle. 

Communist China is feeling the effects of this.  India has seen this in the recent past, so has , Argentina, France, Nigeria and the aforementioned USA and UK to name just some of the countries.  Even the peacefully neutral Swedes and Norwegians are experiencing the conflict between their open societies and those of their Islamic migrant communities.  Denmark too has seen the illiberal consequences of allowing a cartoonist to publish his works.  Indeed Russia too, has tragic experience of trying to co-exist with the 'religion of peace' but Putin, having, some in the West say 'brutally dealt' with Islamic dissidents and terrorists, is currently playing a different game to secure Russia's borders and to poke America and the EU, in the eye at every opportunity.

So the solution?

First some history. 

When the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait in 1990, Margaret Thatcher was reported as telling the American President, George H Bush, not to go 'wobbly' and to have 'stiffened his spine' on the issue of confronting Saddam.  She saw the threat posed by Saddam and so too did Bush #1 quickly come to this realisation.

With, ISIS, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the civilised world faces a similar choice - either we fight now, in the sands of Arabia and Persia or we fight soon on the streets of London, Paris, New York, Beijing and Dehli.

Make no mistake, this is a fight that isn't going to go away.  It takes a certain type of fanaticism to hack-off the heads of people that don't follow your brand of religion.  The same kind of fanaticism that causes people to fly planes into buildings or walk into a hotel and randomly shoot people or to strap on a suicide bomb vest and detonate the bomb in a crowded market place.  Does it sound like these are people that can be reasoned with?  The lure of the 72 virgins is just too great for these people.  So since death is what they most want, death should be visited upon them and their supporters.

The solutions are not pretty but there is nothing nice about the aftermath of a suicide bombing or the beheading of innocents.

The world needs to decide where it stands and then back-up their declared position.  Russia needs to say if they are with the West or against it.  There can be no fence-sitting or neutrality.  Why?  Well this is about all-out war.  And it will be bloody and terrible.  ISIS and similar intolerant organisations need to be destroyed, not neutered, annihilated completely. 

Similarly Saudi Arabia and Qatar need to be brought to heel.  They cannot enjoy the fruits of western civilisation and industry while at the same time seeking the destruction of those societies.  The leadership of these countries need to be changed to reflect the required new direction that these countries must take.

Iran must immediately cease funding its proxies in Lebanon and Palestine and completely destroy its nuclear programme.  Again, regime change is needed.

Pakistan must give-up its nuclear weapons.  At this time the state is too unstable to be trusted with such weapons.  Its security services operate as a 'state within a state' and must be brought under democratic control before they decide to pass on enriched uranium to Islamic terrorists.

In Iraq and Syria, the allies - those that are 'with us' - need to impose a very heavy and brutally ruthless, military solution.  Any opposition, any, must be crushed and crushed completely.  There can be no hand-wringing in the media or from liberals in the West.  The consequences of a softly-softly approach can already be seen on the streets of our cities where ISIS fellow-travelers become ever more bold in pushing their murderous ideologies.  Where Islamsists kill a British soldier , on the streets of the capital and try to hack-off his head.  Where Islamists explode bombs at the finish-line of a marathon race.  Unfeeling brutality and force must be met with the a multiplied version of the same.  Make no mistake though, this will mean bombs dropped by planes and so called civilian casualties but we will also require to put 'boots on the ground'.  We will also need to impose economic sanctions against these people - starve them of the goods and yes, foods,  that their people need.  Frankly faced with pictures of the victims of ISIS or the pictures of starving ISIS followers, I would always be moved by the former and never by the latter.

The approach to Iraq and Syria must also be applied in North Africa and Nigeria.

In the home countries, Islamists must also make a decision.  Are they with their home country, in the existential fight against radical Islam or are they with the enemy?  If the latter, then they must be imprisoned - yes whole families interred.  You, as an Islamist, cannot live in the USA, UK or France etc., and burn the flags of those countries or spit on its soldiers.  You cannot declare certain areas as alcohol-free or forbid people to have dogs or women to walk around without a hijab.  These home countries and their traditions existed ever before you did.

Immediately, the oxygen of publicity must be deprived to Islamic organisations, the Muslim Council in the UK and CAIR in the USA are at best, just apologists for their murderous co-religionists.  They place an equivalence on the actions of these barbarians with those of the West  They insist on applying the laws of the host countries when it suits them, while all the time trying to impose Sharia law.

Immediately, any of the ISIS fighters, from western countries, that return 'home', must be imprisoned.  They must be taken out of circulation.

Immediately, the 'hate' legislation that exists in so many countries must be applied against these people that would threaten our very existence.  They may not all be prepared to be front-line 'fighters' but they support, with their hate-filled words, the elimination of Western ways.    There is a 'hands-off' policy linked to the failed  multi-culturalist policies that the West has adopted, which exempts Muslims from the application of law.  This has to stop.

Immediately, the Palestinian boil needs to be lanced.  The Abbas regime in the West Bank must be issued with an ultimatum.  Either you accept the right of Israel to exist or we (the West) will immediately cease all aid and impose a blockade to starve you into submission and we will fund opposition to Fatah, that does want peace.

In respect of Gaza, a similar ultimatum.  Either give-up the ISIS like Hamas terrorists or face the brutal consequences of your continued intransigence.  You have to decide if you want war or peace but know that war will be total and Gaza flattened!

The UK Prime Minister, David Cameron has talked of a generational struggle against this poisonous ideology and other politicians are coming to realise the battles that must be fought.  As said earlier though, this isn't about the traditional 'West'  This struggle affects India, China, Latin America, Africa and indeed, all of the world.

Who are you with?

Robin Williams - perspective

I don't seek to offend but some will not like this post.

Robin Williams died this week.  It seems that he was suffering from 'depression' and may have been aware of the early onset of Parkinson's Disease as well as facing financial bankruptcy.  So he took his own life.

That is sad.  Forget all the stuff about his being a great comedy actor and comedian, his family have lost a father and a husband.  As said, earlier, that is truly sad and if they wanted them, the family would have my condolences.  I would offer them the same as I do for any death of which I hear.  These are heartfelt but some might say only cursory as in many cases I do not know the deceased, however, as a Christian I pray they and Robin Williams rest in peace and rise in glory.

That's almost it from me, as regards the suicide of Robin Williams, however, I do have something further to say about the reaction to his death.

This was out of all proportion.  Yes he was a funny man and as said, his passing is a loss for his family and perhaps the world is a little bit more of a sadder place, without his presence but a sense of proportion is called for.

On the days before his death, when he was maybe pondering the troubles that ailed him, people were dying in Iraq and in Syria.  Dying really doesn't do it justice.  They were being murdered.  In the case of Iraq, they really doesn't cut it either.  They were being butchered for their beliefs.

They may have had 'depression' like so many people claim to now know so much about, although I think that 'depression' is a 'western' concept.  In the Yezidi and Christian villages of Iraq, they might feel 'down' about their crops or the marriage prospects of their children or a thousand and one other mundane things but in those villages, they just had to get on with life.  $500 an hour shrinks (or however much these charlatans charge) aren't thick on the ground in rural Iraqi areas.

One of those thousand and one other things which might have caused mood swings was likely to be, will ISIS or the Islamic State (IS) as they now style themselves, come to our village.  If they come will my neighbors denounce me as a non-Muslim or rather as a non-Sunni Muslim, since even Shias are not safe.

The existential threat posed by IS, carries with it the ability to focus the mind.  Not on deep and dark inner worries and mis-givings.  No, but onto how do I survive?  How do I get my family to safety?  The introspection suggested by depression is a luxury that much of the world, and certainly those facing beheadings in Iraq, simply cannot enjoy.

So, to the reaction.  The media was immediately flooded with tributes from so called celebrities bemoaning the loss of a comic 'genius'.  Then these tributes were re-cycled and re-cycled.  None of these 'celebs' paused to mention the true tragedy that was occurring at the same time, on the other side  of the world.  None thought to question whether the drug abuse that Robin Williams had previously admitted to, might have messed-up his mind so much that suicide could seem like a reasonable way out of whatever was troubling him.  None thought to ponder, how many people, right there in the USA, might decide that the debt burden that they and their children have is just so great that they can't go on and so take their own lives?  That this debt or other troubles was such a 'downer' that they felt depressed enough to end it all?  I am sure that there were people hearing of Williams' death and thinking to themselves 'Williams should have tried to walk a mile in my shoes.  Williams should have had to worry about from the next meal was coming or how the hospital bills, for Grandma, could be paid.  Then Williams would know what depresses me!'

And if that person was on a mountainside in Northern Iraq and heard of Williams' death, whether that person knew of Williams or not, I believe that the thoughts from the depths of their depression, would not be ones of sympathy but would be ones of 'how do I save my family' .  They would have a sense of perspective.  They would understand that Williams chose to end his life.  They would understand that they and their fellow Christians or Yezidis have only two choices  - flee and maybe die, or stay and certainly die.

When people mourn Robin Williams, I trust that they will also remember the thousands of people that are being murdered in Iraq and Syria.  People that don't have a global fan-base.  People that were  content to live a 'simple' rural life, far away from the glamour and glitz and the psychiatrist's couches of Hollywood. 

Before I get accused of speaking ill of the dead, in respect of Williams and venting my anger and such against him, let me be clear.  I do feel angry about Williams' death but more so about the reaction to this death.  President Obama spoke eloquently about the death of this individual.  If only he had spoken so about the thousands that are dying elsewhere.  Dying not at their own hand but at the hands of fanatical butchers.  I feel angry that the media make such a spectacle of the death of someone like Williams, who chose to take his own life or of the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who effectively did the same by overdosing on a cocktail of drugs and yet say so little and show even less of the horror being inflicted on others because of their beliefs.  Do we say that because these people have chosen their god, that their murder is somehow equated to a suicide? 

When did we get to the state that the death of a celebrity out ranks the genocide of a people?  

If you've read this far, you perhaps understand the lack of perspective that has been shown by the media and politicians.  If you agree with me, please pass this blog onto others and help raise awareness of the genocide of Christians (and Yezidis)  that is happening in Iraq.  Today there are no Christians in Mosul, the city that was recently overrun by IS, for the first time in 2,000 years!

Sir Fred Goodwin - more hypocrisy

So, an obscure committee of civil servants have recommended that Sir Fred Goodwin, of RBS fame, be stripped of the knighthood he was awarded by the last government.  This 'de-knighting' was confirmed by  The Queen.

Goodwin was awarded the knighthood, in 2004 for 'services to banking'.  Nothing he did since then has been found to be criminal - nothing!  Crass?  Insensitive?  Arrogant?  Self-serving?  He seems to be guilty of all of these things but none are a criminal offence.

As stated above, Goodwin received his honour for 'services to banking'.  The committee did not disclose if it found that those 'services to banking' to have been wrong, in some way.

So let's for a moment, leave aside opinion on the honours system and ask why he is stripped of the gong?  The only conclusion I can reach is that it is because it is expedient and panders to the baying mob.  I don't think anyone is fooled that this is a civil service committee which is operating independent of the government.  This has the grubby hands of politicians, all over it!

Contrast his treatment with that of

• Lord Archer - Jailed for perjury
• Lord Taylor - Jailed for fraudulently claiming more than £24K in expenses.
• Lord Hanningfield - jailed for fraudulently claiming more than £30K in expenses.
• Baroness Uddin - SUSPENDED from the House for illegitimately claiming more than £125K in expenses.
• Lord Paul  - (One of Britain's richest men) SUSPENDED from the House for illegitimately claiming more than £42K in expenses. 
• Lord Bhatia - SUSPENDED from the House for illegitimately claiming more than £27K in expenses.

All have retained their honours.

I don't like hypocrisy but do the politicians have to be so blatant about it?

Now turn to who it was that ennobled Goodwin - Step forward 'the people's tribune' the defender of the 'working class - The Labour Party!   At that time, that would mean Blair and Brown.  Since Tony was waging his dodgy war with Iraq (cast of thousands, including ill-equipped British troops), one comes to the conclusion that the domestic maestro, Gordon 'I have banished boom and bust' Brown, was the sponsor of the award.  No doubt assisted by other members of the Tartanocracy, including Wily Alex Salmond.

You will scour the media in vain for any of them to now be defending Goodwin.  The only supporter I saw with the decency and courage to speak out was Sir Jackie Stewart, apparently, a family friend of Goodwin.

Of course Goodwin and his team brought RBS to the brink of disaster (some would say beyond).  However, he did not single-handedly cause the economic crisis (but see below).

• Then Senator Obama (and others) was a big proponent, in the US of reckless lending which became known as the sub-prime mortgage market.  
• Gordon Brown and leaders throughout Europe continued to borrow money and increase debt levels to unsustainable levels, without any assistance from Goodwin!
• The people of Europe and the USA continued to borrow and borrow and then spend money that wasn't theirs.
• Some banks, including RBS, were dealing in financial instruments of which they really knew very little, at the end of the day.
• Some financial institutions, just like some countries became over-leveraged and their shareholders paid the price (and in some cases, like RBS, they were bailed out)

So the mob has its victim but just like the Hester bonus - at what long term price to the UK?