Vince Cable boycotts Saudis

Vince Cable, the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, is refusing to meet King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who is currently in Britain on a state visit:

Mr Cable says he will not attend any of the planned ceremonial events – as would be normal for the leader of one of the main opposition parties.

Mr Cable told the BBC’s Today programme that by any assessment of Saudi Arabia, “the human rights record is appalling”. He also cited the regime’s arms deal with the British firm BAE and the row over alleged corruption surrounding it.

Mr Cable added: “I think it’s quite wrong that as a country we should give the leader of Saudi Arabia this honour.” He said that although Britain has a “business-like” relationship with the country, Britain would not dream of extending the same invitation to other controversial leaders like Libya’s Colonel Gadaffi. He said he had also been critical of the Saudi regime’s treatment of Britons.

Cable is probably wrong about Gadaffi — if Gadaffi was buying 20 billion quid of British weapons, he’d likely get a state visit too. (And why not? Being nice to foreigners with dodgy human rights records is OK if Britain can make a profit out of doing so.)

Jonathan Calder of Liberal England and Rumbold of Pickled Politics both approve of Cable’s behaviour. I don’t. I think if Cable has problems with Saudi Arabia (and particularly its human rights record) he should attend the events, and tell the Saudis politely but firmly what he thinks. While talking to people you disagree with might not solve all the world’s problems, it’s likely to be more effective than I’m-not-talking-to-you gesture politics.

In particular, Cable should tell the Saudis that relations between the UK and the KSA would be improved if the Saudis didn’t torture or otherwise infringe the rights of UK nationals detained in their country. And that if Saudi Arabia improved rights for women, particularly the right to drive, they would not only get a much better image in the West, they would also be doing their country’s economy a favour — it’s ridiculous to ignore or suppress the talents of a large portion of their country’s people. Saudi Arabia’s oil isn’t going to last forever, and they should be preparing now for when it ends.

In the longer term, one’s thoughts should turn to the question of how does one improve human rights throughout the world, and in particular prevent foreign dictators from torturing Britons. It seems to me that part of the answer lies in creating a stronger, bigger, better armed, more unified European Union, which because of its size and power would have a large array of sticks and carrots with with to persuade foreign countries to do what we want. Then, if foreigners tortured civilized people EU citizens, we could credibly threaten to bomb or invade their country, to boycott their goods, to arm their enemies, etc.