Dalai Lama banned from Number 10...

Gordon Brown has made another funky prime ministerial decision by banning the Dalai Lama from 10 Downing Street. Naturally, quite a few people are disgusted by such a move, especially the legions of Free Tibet protestors that live in the UK, Tibetans themselves, and suppliers of monastic robes who were expecting the visit's publicity to start a summer fashion trend amongst England's drunken youth.

Brown's (in)decision was made after the plucky PM determined that it would send out the wrong message to the Chinese government if he was seen shaking hands with the Dalai Lama outside Number 10. Instead, he has opted to see the holy one at Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The theory behind this is that it will allow him to tell disgruntled Chinese officials that the meeting with the Tibetan leader is a spiritual one as opposed to a political one.

Won't that kind of spin be bad for the karma?

Naturally, those who oppose Brown and his techniques are using the news to rally against him. William Hague said that it was bad form, the Free Tibet Campaign has asked him to reconsider, and others have gone along the same lines. Sources close to David Cameron have quipped that the incident is yet another example of everybody's favourite punch bag (Old Gordon) being "completely incapable of making a decision and sticking to it". Well, well, well...

The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, begins his 11 day visit to the UK on May 20th. It is unreported as to whether or not he is upset about Gordon Brown's not inviting him round for tea. Our estimation assumes that he too enlightened to be all that bothered..

Written by Oli Anderson on 12 May 2008 10:55 AM. Permalink