Of course one unelected head of state will support another

Queen Bea is supposed to go on a stat visit to Oman and Quatar this weekend. Trouble is, in both countries an unfortunate and badly timed enthusiasm for democracy has broken out which makes the visit of her majesty slightly awkward. Holland is after all supposed to be a beacon of democracy and human rights, a shining example to the rest of the world even if the silent partner of the current government would like to limit those rights to people with the right skin colour religion. We sort of miss the sangfroid of the French, never worried about the rights of those they do not do business with, or the fundamental hypocrisy of the British, able to lecture dictators on the need to allow a fair and transparant move towards democracy while selling them the weapons to prevent this. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean the queen won’t go or we wouldn’t sell them our leftover tanks: it’s just that we prefer to practise our own hypocrisy and complicity under cover of darkness and are not used to having to braze it out in the full glare of publicity.

Oh and of course we sold weapons to both Quatar and Oman, mostly helicopter (NH-90/Lynx) parts as well as radar, C3 and other electronic equipment, but also short range anti aircraft systems. Not to mention that a lot of foreign arms were shipped through Schiphol to those two countries as well. Holland’s gotta eat and if that means propping up undemocratic regimes by selling them weapons, as long as they are our allies, who cares?