Congratulations to David Newton of Edinburgh. For those of you who don't know David, he's right up there with Paxman and Humphrys when it comes to asking top questions to our leading politicians. On Monday in our regular You Ask the Questions feature, in which readers get the chance to ask a politican a question, David asked Harriet Harman: "Fidel Castro: hero of the left, or dangerous authoritarian dictator?" The deputy Labour leader replied: "Hero of the left – but time for Cuba to move on".
Well, David's question was so good, that it was put to Gordon Brown during today's PMQs.
The Conservative MP John Baron asked Brown whether he agreed with his deputy leader that Castro was a hero. The PM side stepped, saying: "There can be no defence against the abuse of democratic rights in any country."
There you go David. Two questions for the price of one.
Fidel is or was a hero for the left? At least in Latin America a lot of politicans tend to be kind with him up till now, but they are not exactly into making Cuba a model for their own countries. Except for that crazy dictator with oil, but that is another story...
Posted by: Favaro | Wednesday, 27 February 2008 at 09:11 PM
I once had a conversation with a newspaper seller in Havana. He said that life in Cuba was a tough choice between the leader's mind-numbing four hour speeches or starvation. It's revealing to see that the old radicals in our government still think he's worthy of comment. And disturbing to observe how uninterested politicians are in the fate of the ordinary Pedro.
Posted by: john problem | Thursday, 28 February 2008 at 08:50 AM
Hero of the left - latin america is poor, cuba is poor. latin america has poor health and education, cuba's is first class. they have a future thanks to Castro! He risked his life to do it, that is heroism!!!
Posted by: James | Friday, 29 February 2008 at 12:06 PM