Mountebanks All

UN a Bunch of Condescending Snobs

Mike Hoskings
NZ Herald

The trouble, of course, in defending Donald Trump, is that your first hurdle is he is a buffoon, which makes any sort of defence difficult.  But the laughter we saw at the United Nations and grab all the headlines around the world yesterday encapsulates, in one small moment, just why the place is so disliked and distrusted by so many.

They are snobs. They're elitist, condescending snobs who, unless you have bought into their view of the world, see you as little more than an inconvenience and a Luddite.

Laughing at people is bad manners, it's rude, it's unnecessary - and of all places that should appreciate that it's the United Nations. Allegedly a global grouping designed to take on board the vast array of cultures, ideas, and political agendas, and mould them into some sort of workable operation in the hope of making a better world.  I'm not sure you are achieving that by belittling the world's most powerful country.

In the areas it really matters of course they're an abject failure and that is why - and they're too up themselves to have worked this out - we have seen the rise of people like Trump in the first place.  It's why Sweden lost its Prime Minister this week, it's why Angela Merkel virtually lost her reign as Europe's most powerful operator, it's why Britain is in the Brexit mess it is.


What an increasing number of what people want, and what the United Nations dreams of, are two completely separate things.

Our Prime Minister, of course, buys into the UN view of matters lock, stock and barrel. She has busied herself this week on things like mass migration, climate change, and Syria, along with meeting Anne Hathaway.  It's halls full of luvvies congratulating each other, air kissing, and generally talking smack.  When it comes to the aforementioned issues, they were talking about them last year as well, and the year before, and the year before...

And for those who buy into all this they'll turn up next year and repeat words like, 'something must be done, this is our time, we must act before it's too late, we are on the precipice of no return'.  Then the luvvies will applaud and retire for champagne and canapes, reassuring themselves they are changing the world - when in fact no such thing is happening.