Liz Windsor celebrates with dictators, despots and tyrants

Liz Windsor continued her year of excess and self-congratulations today by hosting a lunch at Windsor Castle for fellow monarchs.

Among those in attendance were a number of unpleasant autocratic and absolute monarchs who really shouldn't be invited to pleasant lunches at British tax payers expense.

Included among these truly evil human beings are the King of Bahrain who has had protestors against his oppressive regime arrested or simply shot during the past year. Therr's also King Mswati of Swaziland who runs his country for his self interest while the population suffer.

Added to this are members of the Saudi and Kuwaiti royal families both of whom rule nations with appalling civil rights records notably being opposed to equality for women and being anti-gay.

Particularly sickening was that many who attended wore military uniforms of the armies they use to oppress their populations.

Quite why old Liz thinks it is acceptable to entertain such despots is beyond me. Maybe she's been ill-advised or maybe she's gone ga ga in her old age. Or maybe she wishes she could be more blatant and evil rather than simply ripping off the British public financially and for privilege.

I often hear, from monarchists, what a great job Liz Windsor does. Today shows that she is a disgrace and a national embarrassment.

COMMENT: F1 Bahrain Grand Prix

So it looks like the Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead tomorrow despite protests in the country itself continuing and an increasingly vociferous opposition from human rights groups and left wing political parties. 

I still can't decide what would be the right thing. 

Yes, Bahrain has an oppressive monarchy that has violently squashed opposition and, yes, the Bahrain government is guilty of all sorts of human rights violations but should that mean a car race, organised by a private company and not representing any national teams, be stopped? I still don't understand the double standards of those opposed to the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Why speak out against Bahrain hosting a race but not China? To be taken seriously surely there has to be a consistency in outcry?

How many countries are without human rights violations?

I mean, should a nation that has beaten and kettles protestors, had five days of riots last summer during which the police lost control of many city centres, and have a proven record of institutional racism in the police be allowed to hold a Grand Prix?

Yes, in an ideal world sport should be able to operate outside of politics, particularly when the teams competing are private rather than national, but, of course, the world isn't ideal and politics circles sports events like a pack of rabid hyenas. 

I guess my biggest fear, after the idiot at the Boat Race, is that a protestor will have an "Emily Davison" moment during tomorrow's race.  Where would that leave Formula One, international sport and, consequently, this summer's Olympics?

OPINION: Should the Bahrain Grand Prix go ahead?

The Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix is scheduled to take place in 11 days time, and, like last year when it was cancelled, the question of whether this year's race should happen has been raised.

Bahrain is a wealthy Arab state with what can reasonably called a strict and oppressive government. Last year, when peoples across North Africa and the Middle East rose up against a number of oppressive regimes as part of the Arab Spring, the Bahrain authorities crushed opposition to their leadership and, in the wake of that, and ongoing troubles, it was thought best that the race didn't happen.

Opposition groups have, over the past couple of weeks, been raising the temperature as the race date gets nearer. They would like the race to be cancelled again because, they say, human rights have not changed and the authorities are still clamping down severely on anyone found to be speaking out against the government.

Formula 1's supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, has said that the teams have a contractual duty to turn up to race but, in practically the same breath, he says he can't force them. In all likelihood a decision about the race in Bahrain will be taken this weekend at the China Grand Prix.

Yes, that's right, the China Grand Prix!

So, Formula 1 might not go to Bahrain to race because of ongoing human rights abuses but there are no calls for the race in China, the country that many consider to be the world's worse abuser of human rights, to be cancelled. After all, there's a big potential audience in China, isn't there? Formula 1 can make a ton of money there.

Formula 1 needs to look much more carefully at the countries it chooses to take races to. Yes, this is sport and not politics, but only the most naive political virgin would argue that the two aren't closely linked.

Formula 1 is an enormous cash cow - it goes it generates thousands of dollars, but, like Apple have found with the problem of workers' rights in factories making iPhones and iPads, with global wealth must come some moral responsibility.

I hope that the Bahrain Grand Prix doesn't happen, and I hope it stays off the calendar until there are sufficient positive changes happen to improve the lives of ordinary Bahraini citizens, but I hope that Formula 1 will also reconsider the morality of its races in China, the UAE, and several other countries.