Weekly Poll Lowdown

Well it's a majority decision, and although a lot of you are quite happy to turf out Julian Assange now, most people would rather he stay in the Ecuadorian embassy. 18 of you chaps voted so it gives a very healthy mix for debate.

Should we enact the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 and arrest Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy?

Yes, get Assange out so he can stand for trial.	33%
No, don't cause a diplomatic upset.	67%
Unsure.	0%

The Julian Assange business is now getting to the point where it has joined the top table of ridiculous stories throughout the ages. Assange refuses to come out in case he is put on trial in the US for spying although he is going to Sweden on charges of rape and Sweden is one of those countries where human rights goes so far that it seems unlikely that his fears will come about. There is also a cost implication, the Met says that it has cost £3 million to guard the Ecuadorian Embassy to stop mad people trying to storm the embassy to rescue Assange.

Julian Assange giving a speech from the embassies balcony.

So why not just seize Assange? The Ecuadorians belong to that group of South American countries that, as a people and government, hate the West. This is despite America giving very important military help to Ecuador to tackle drug trafficking. Like Zimbabwe, Ecuador seems content to blame all its problems on the colonialists despite the fact they gained independence near to 200 years ago. A good example of this is when a leaked cable from the US ambassador said that the President was doing little to tackle police corruption and the natural response was thus to throw the ambassador out of the country.

The only fear I have over expelling Assange is the knock on effect on other countries like Brazil. Brazil doesn't buy into this imperial mantra very much because it is trying to make itself into a successfully developed country. However like Argentina over the Falklands some South American countries can seemingly stir them all up into great imperial hatred where the Western powers are responsible for all their problems. The fear is it this message sends out a negative images to these countries. However, I think this is a small fear especially considering how when Argentina did this and tried to ban Falkland Island's ships from docking in South American ports after a few days the rest of the continent decided not to do it. 

The President of Ecuador at a karaoke night actually giving an anti American Speech recently.

Vote in the New Poll on the sidebar.