Melanie Reid wants us to pay the Chandlers’ ransom.
As The Times has revealed, Somali pirates have reduced their ransom demand for Paul and Rachel Chandler, the kidnapped British sailors, from the original $7 million sum to $2 million (about £1.3 million).
One does not need to see another picture of poor Mrs Chandler, separated cruelly from her husband and wasting away in distress after four months, to be overcome with the impulse to phone up the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and ask them, a mite rudely, what they receive taxpayers’ money for if not to use it in emergencies like this.
I don’t need to – I am well aware that the minute taxpayers’ money is used to free these hostages it is a green light for the pirates to target UK citizens for more. This is not what taxpayers’ money is for.
Forget the precedent about not negotiating with terrorists (as long as they’re not Irish). Enough is enough.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. It is a principle for a very sound reason – every ransom paid is encouragement for more. Freeing the Chandlers by paying off the pirates places every UK citizen who may be travelling in the area at greater risk. Never, never, never negotiate with hostage takers. Yes, it’s bad for those who are taken, but allowing the problem to escalate as a consequence of moral cowardice as espoused by Reid makes matters worse. Better still, send in a task force to carry out a rescue. I thought we had learned that one in the wake of Entebbe.
This is a one-off that, were it not so tragic, would resemble a farce. Two middle-aged yachties, by no means rich, retire early and decide to amble round the world under sail. They are kidnapped by pirates in the expectation that anyone in a pleasure craft in that part of the world is a first cousin of the Emir of Dubai.
It is not a one off. Pirates are busily hijacking anything worth taking in the area. That they misjudged the Chandlers’ wealth is neither here nor there and is not an excuse for a taxpayer bail out. They should have stayed well clear of the area. They made an error of judgement. While I feel sorry for them, errors of judgement have consequences. Sorry, but risking other people just to free these two is wrong and Reid is an idiot.
There, but for the grace of God and a better pension plan, might go any one of us.
Well, no, actually. If I decided to sail a yacht around the world, I’d avoid the Somali coast by rather more than a few hundred miles. This is because I am aware of the pirate activity going on.
You know, if you asked the British public tomorrow what they thought, I suspect you would get a resounding vote to pay the ransom.
Really? You think so? The majority of comments to the piece suggest otherwise.
That said, there is always the odd idiot. Step forward Peter Marshall:
Predicable old Poms. The floodgate arguments. You hear it before they think it.
Er, that’s because that is precisely what happens when hostage takers smell easy money. They come back for more.
Every other country somehow manages to deal with kidnapping and ransoms but the UK?
Indeed. Israel, for example.
These Somalis treat the British with contempt because they expect to get away with it. There’s said to be British warships in the area, prevented from acting against pirates for fear of infringing their ‘human rights’ and that any who are captured would be awarded wealth and asylum by the British judicial system.
Obviously taxpayers money – far more of it than the pirates want – should be applied to the elimination of all such pirates and their relatives and sympathisers. All Somali pirate or fishing craft should be sunk, the shore bombarded to destroy port facilities and slaughter as many as possible of the locals. Aircraft and drones should be applied to massacre as many as possible of the inhabitants who are out of reach of naval action.
It should be announced that all Somalis in the UK will be killed (and this should actually be done with maximum barbarity and publicity, and the same applied to all their lefty sympathisers), and those in Somalia decimated until the kidnappers and their families and tribes have been eliminated by surviving locals to end the British attacks, and as much money as was demanded by the pirates is instead handed over to the heirs of the kidnapped Britons (who will be presumed to have been murdered), and an amount, say twice the cost of military operations, has been paid to the British government as compensation. The Ethiopians already occupy parts of Somalia and could be encouraged to help kill more Somalis.
‘Let them hate, provided they also fear.’
The fact that none of this is conceivable by our modern degenerate rulers and populace explains why more ferocious people will be increasingly ascendent.
Doesn’t our taxpayer’s money go towards paying for the Royal Navy to slaughter these pirates?
.-= My last blog ..Kids ages and fathers =-.
I have no argument with the original piece and no sympathy for the Chandler’s, the bloody fools, but isn’t some of this caused by corrupt local governments selling fishing rights to the EU?
As we all know since Ted Heath gave away our fish to the frogs and Spanish our fisheries have been raped and our industry decimated. Now that they’ve hoovered up all our fish they have to find some elsewhere – Africa here we come- and the local african fishermen have thought “sod this” and decided to play Red Beard.
I believe there is an element of that. Reprehensible though it is, it doesn’t justify kidnapping and ransom demands. The Royal Navy knew how to deal with piracy on the high seas before. Give them the necessary rules of engagement and let them do it again – that is what taxpayers’ money is for.
I tell you what, Melanie. Since you think paying off criminals is such a fine idea, how about paying me not to commit crimes against you. My weekly tariff is as follows…
Not burgling your house…………………..£50
Not stealing your car…………………….£10
Not pissing through your letter box….£10
Not raping you……………………………….No charge