#F1 should not be in Bahrain this weekend

There is no way that the Formula 1 circus should be going anywhere near Bahrain this weekend. The report published by Amnesty International contains grim evidence of unfair trial, arrest, police brutality and torture. The last cases they document took place in mid February, a time when the Bahraini Government was trying to portray a benign image of new found respectability.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is a human rights activist serving a life sentence for taking part in last year's protests. A life sentence. And if he's not released soon, that life might not have much left to go given that he is currently around 60 days into a hunger strike. 

Amnesty has found that those members of the security forces who violated  these prisoners have not been punished for their actions.

F1 spent last weekend in China. The human rights record of the Chinese Government is pretty diabolical. I don't like the sport going there. However, the F1 crowd's brief visit didn't, I think, cause any extra repression or lives to be lost. The situation is different in Bahrain. The Police are armed with live ammunition and will most likely shoot first and ask questions later if they think something's going to embarrass the Government. Ex Met officer John Yates is out there advising them and what he told the Guardian makes chilling reading. That regime will do heaven knows what to keep the streets quiet. Unfortunately we know from the Amnesty Report that heaven knows what involves sexual assualt, beatings, sleep deprivation and electric shocks and blindfolds. Oh, and people's families being threatened too.

That's why I'd like someone to go and give the exceptionally lovable current world champion Mr Vettel a clip round the ear with the Amnesty Report and tell him and anyone else daft enough to say the same, that Bahrain is not like Brazil. The area around Interlagos is a bit dodgy and people have had trouble getting to the circuit - Jenson was robbed a couple of years back, but this is a whole world of brutality away from that.

Already, Force India staff have come closer than anyone would ever want to a fire bomb and the Police have been firing stun grenades at protesters. This violence is a direct result of the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone's decision to go there and they should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Let's just hope that nobody, civilian, team or circuit personnel is seriously hurt or worse as a result of that foolish decision.

Nick Clegg's e-mail on Libya - and why I tentatively support the international action

This e-mail from Nick Clegg was sent to Party members before the air strikes on Libya began last night but I thought I'd post it anyway.


I am worried about the action and I just hope that it will save and protect lives in Libya. When a leader tells his own people that he's coming to get them and they won't be shown mercy, I do feel that it would be wrong to stand by and just let him commit genocide. It calls for urgent action and the international community has already been dithering for long enough. That's not to say that what we're doing isn't fraught with risk and danger. There could be some very unpleasant consequences if we're not careful. Let's just hope the loss of life is minimal and that Libya, in common with other countries in that region, eventually has a genuine, participative democracy. It's happened across Eastern Europe, something that I as a child thought would be impossible.


To those who say "why Libya and not Bahrain?" I do get what you're saying and I baulked a bit at David Cameron's comments the other day about the King there being willing to consider reforms. He's allowed the Saudis to come in and brutalise his own people and there's no excuse for that and the proposed reforms aren't even baby steps. However, I do accept that he is in a different league from Gaddaffi and there is the possibility of more progress by peaceful means in Bahrain. The Colonel, on the other hand, is now very clearly outside the international tent again and is in a position to embark on all sorts of nastiness beyond his own borders, as he did before. Tony Blair's rapprochement with this character has to be filed away in the already huge file "What were Labour thinking?" 


Anyway, here is Nick's e-mail.


Dear Caron,

As you will have seen in the news our coalition government has successfully led efforts in the UN Security Council to agree a ‘no-fly zone’ across Libya.

Colonel Gaddafi’s treatment of his own people has been brutal, savage and wholly unacceptable. We have worked with Libya’s regional neighbours, especially the Arab League, and countries across the globe, to secure a resolution in UN Security Council. This resolution will allow us to act lawfully  in deploying our forces to up-hold a ‘no-fly zone’ in Libya.

The Prime Minister gave a statement yesterday, which you can read here. And on Monday we will have a full debate in the House of Commons, followed by a vote. In addition we will be publishing a summary of the legal advice of the Attorney-General. 

That is the right approach. This is a coalition government that will act decisively to protect innocent lives and uphold universal human rights. But one which will do so working with, not against, international law and the international community. 

Best wishes,   

Nick Clegg MP

Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Sinister speech by Saif Gadaffi threatens brutal endgame

I had fully intended to go to bed early last night. Listening to the brutal ramblings of a deluded despot's son. Yet at 11pm, which would have been 1am in Tripoli, I found myself transfixed by the 40 minute speech, containing some not very veiled threats, by Saif Gadaffi, son of the Libyan dictator.

I found it quite chilling. He dismissed the brutality of the Police and Army firing live ammunition at protesters as mistakes by untrained officers. Yeah, sure, it's an easy mistake to make. He said that the evil foreign media was exaggerating what was going on and that there had only been 84 casualties. I'm sure anyone looking out of their windows in Benghazi would know different.

Gadaffi Junior looked as if he knew fine he was lying as he kept rambling on about how Libya was not Tunisia or Egypt. His desperate arguments included:

• the protests were being run by a few drug addicts and drunkards
• that the country would be divided and you'd need a visa to get from Benghazi to Tripoli - it would be like North and South Korea
• that a conversation with our foreign secretary William Hague had led him to believe Libya was vulnerable to foreign occupation. You kind of wonder if Saif's dad's mate Tony Blair's illegal invasion of Iraq gives that statement some false credibility.

The sinister bit, though, was his threat that he and Daddy would fight till the last man, woman or child was standing. This vile bunch are not going to give up power easily and despite being brought in from the cold in recent years, they aren't so bothered about upsetting the international community.

I feel for those brave Libyans out on the streets in Tripoli, Benghazi and other cities. They must know that if they continue, they risk a brutal onslaught from Gadaffi, but if they stop, they'll be rounded up and made an example of.  So far they seem to have responded to Gadaffi Jr's rant on state tv by ransacking the HQ of said state tv. Forty years of pent up anger and resentment at a regime that's kept them repressed and in poverty. 

It's all incredibly worrying. I hope that the Libyan people can rid themselves of this vile regime without it turning into a bloodbath. The BBC are reporting that the cities in the east, pretty much under opposition control this morning, are pretty peaceful now, but the violence has now spread to Tripoli.

The Bahrain regime, which I wrote about yesterday, is bad enough, but Gadaffi's response promises to be more irrational and brutal. On Bahrain, I'm glad to see that one of my favourite F1 drivers, Mark Webber, has publicly said what most others are thinking, that the race planned for 13th March should not go ahead.

It certainly looks like much of the old order is being forced to recognise that at least things can't go on as they used to across the Arab world. It'll be a while before we know what the outcome will be. I read yestersday, though, that despite women being part of the protests in Egypt, they are excluded from the body that's discussing the new constitution. That does not bode well. It's not going to be good enough to replace the old guard with new regimes which do not give equality to women, or protect them from abuse.

Bernie Ecclestone must pull #F1 out of Bahrain now

I said on Twitter on Tuesday that if the Bahrain Government was going to fire on its own people, then the Formula One season opener due to take place on 13th March, as well as the testing the previous weekend, should be cancelled immediately.

I am horrified to see that Bernie Ecclestone, someone you may remember who gave a million quid to the Labour Party when they still had ethics, so you'd think he'd have a passing interest in human rights, has now left it to the Crown Prince of Bahrain to decide whether the race goes ahead.

Until now, the Crown Prince as portrayed to us has been that friendly, benign figure Martin Brundle talks to on the grid. I remember a couple of years ago that started with Brundle being uncharacteristically obsequious and ending with him patting HRH on the shoulder and taking his leave with a "take care".  Last year Eddie Jordan interviewed this man and did all but prostrate himself before him.

We've seen another side to Crown Prince Salman ibn Hamad Isa Al Khalifa, though, these past few days. He was in charge of the Army when they fired on their own people in Pearl Square Manama in a series of protests that has left 6 people dead and hundreds injured. His subsequent withdrawal of the Army and willingness to talk is, quite simply, too little, too late.

I'm assuming the reason Bernie wants the Bahrainis to make the decision is motivated by money and contractual issues. If FOM makes the decision to pull out, are they open to claims for costs incurred by the teams? However, if it's the Bahrain Government advising it isn't safe, would that minimise any liability?

The Telegraph reports that the teams are reluctant to go, but want the decision to be made for them, again, presumably, because they are worried about Bernie suing the backsides off them if they pull out unilaterally. Each of the dozen teams will have at least 30-40 people with them, from mechanics to catering staff to IT people. They will be concerned for their safety. The Bahrain Government might well say they can guarantee the safety at the Sakhir circuit itself, but it won't be a good look if people have to walk past tanks to get in, and you have to think about the safety of the teams as they make their way to and from the circuit. The F1 circus is actually scheduled to hit town at the beginning of March when the final test takes place, so they could potentially be there for almost a fortnight. I suspect that test will be moved to Jerez or Barcelona so that teams won't actually arrive in Bahrain until Tuesday 8th or Wednesday 9th March. That's still 6 days when the volatile situation could erupt.

Just say they do go ahead and things kick off during the race weekend. Would the Crown Prince order the Army to fire on the people? What level of brutality would be used to keep them off the streets? Surely Ecclestone can see that a massacre would not be a good thing for F1 to be associated with - especially when it could be avoided.

We have this crazy situation where the Foreign Office website advises against all but essential travel to Bahrain, yet Ecclestone leaves it up to someone with a vested interest to make the call, the same person who has already shown that he considers it acceptable to fire live ammunition on peaceful protesters whose demands were modest, to say the least.  Is it not time to find some moral fibre and realise that F1's presence in Bahrain at this time is not going to help?

I've never been a huge fan of the move to hold races in places like Bahrain and China where there is no concern for human rights. Amnesty's report on Bahrain wasn't that great before all this started with reports of torture that made me wince. Imagine being locked up just for criticising the Government or the Royal Family? It's something that we in this country can't really comprehend.  The situation has clearly deteriorated since then. For the safety of everyone, from the people of Bahrain to F1 and media personnel, that race should be cancelled immediately. To do otherwise would be to condone a repressive regime's attempts to cling on to power without legitimacy.