WILLIAM HAGUE INTERNATIONAL STATESMAN AND POOPER SCOOPER


In 1977 a speaker mounted the rostrum at the Conservative party conference and addressed the assembled delegates in the sonorous terms of middle aged authority, though for all the gravity of the speakers tone there was something pompous even ridiculous about the speaker, for he was a sixteen year old boy. “Half of you won't be here in 30 or 40 years' time", he impertinently informed his enraptured audience. The speaker was one William Hague.

It is now approaching forty years since he made that speech and William Hague is now exactly where he intended to be, doing exactly what he was born for, holding one of the great offices of state. In 2010 William Hague was appointed First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary.

Hague is the consummate performer, both playing the statesman and engaging in parliamentary debate. He is an able parliamentarian and witty speaker. Though can I be the only one to detect another presence in the chamber when he is speaking, the ghost of the precocious schoolboy looking on approvingly? You feel that there is part of Hague that he only just manages to keep in check. He longs to grip both labels and address the chamber in grave Churchillian tones, “I have to tell the house that this nation, with the empire firmly behind it will stand firm…”

But though all has gone smoothly in the great Hague career plan, leaving aside the little matter of a disastrous period as leader of his party, there is something amiss and one feels, there may be sadness in the Hague heart. For Hague has written a book on Pitt the Younger and whilst writing every word he must have been conscious that no matter what happens he can never be a William Pitt; the empire long gone Great Britain no longer dominating the world stage, his role so often reduced to that of bag carrier and third fiddle from right to the American Secretary of State.
Hague strikes man of destiny pose

On incident more than any other illustrates the depths to which the Foreign Secretary must now stoop. The last week has witnessed the holder of this great office of state scuttle to the High Court to suppress information concerning the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.[1] With Public Interest Immunity certificates firmly gripped in his hand seeks to clear up any shit left lying around that might damage our relations with the autocratic Russian gangster regime of Vladimir Putin.

The Nineteenth century famously saw many Russians seek refuge from autocracy in London, safe in the knowledge that any British foreign secretary would protect them. William Hague is not in a position to offer such guarantees of safety. The man who seeks to tread in the footsteps of Lord Palmerston is reduced to the role of pooper scooper.




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