In a move that reeks of antique farce and fresh tyranny, the Ugandan authorities have charged a lawyer with treason. Yes, treason. For doing his job.
The same job that the British Bar Council would applaud with a glass of claret and a pat on the wig. Now the UK Foreign Office, in a statement as limp as a week-old lettuce leaf, says it is ‘monitoring threats to the rule of law.’ Monitoring.
Not acting. Not sanctioning. Just monitoring, like a man staring at a fire through a telescope while his house burns down.
This is the same Foreign Office that tuts at Hong Kong and wags a finger at Moscow, but when it comes to a client state where a lawyer can be banged up for defending a client, they reach for the Kensington Palace notepaper and a pot of lukewarm tea. The accused, one of those fearless souls who believe justice should actually exist in a courtroom, has been branded a traitor for representing a blogger who dared to criticise the regime. Bloggers, lawyers, the rule of law: all are now fair game.
Meanwhile, the British government, in its infinite wisdom, offers a statement so devoid of verbs it could have been written by a committee of garden gnomes. They deplore, they condemn, they urge restraint, but somehow they never, ever do anything. Perhaps they are saving their energy for something truly important, like debating the colour of a new royal corgi’s coat.
The news from Kampala is a sickening kaleidoscope of judicial jiggery-pokery, and the UK’s response is a masterclass in abdicated responsibility. One wonders if the Foreign Office has a special drawer for such statements: one for Myanmar, one for Uganda, one for the bottom of the sea. So raise a glass of that airport gin, the kind that tastes of regret and botched foreign policy.
Cheers to the rule of law, monitored to death.
