William Hague defends "sending a British warship named after a pork sausage to rescue Brits from a Muslim country". Yes, really.
Tim Montgomerie
I recorded the substance of William Hague's statement on Libya yesterday but this bizarre exchange between backbench Tory John Baron and the Foreign Secretary is also worth noting:
Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay): "Apart from the irony of sending a British warship named after a pork sausage to rescue Brits from a Muslim country, is not the real lesson from this situation that we should stop meddling in other people's affairs and be very careful before we lecture countries on democracy when we have armed their autocratic rulers with crowd-control weapons?"
Mr Hague: "I differ a little from my hon. Friend on that point. When we had to evacuate British nationals from Benghazi, it was important to send the nearest royal naval ship available, irrespective of its name. That is not the only vessel that has been involved. HMS York has also been there, and my hon. Friend will understand that I am particularly proud of that as a Yorkshireman. I hope he has no difficulty with that. Those ships have been there not to meddle in anybody else's affairs, but primarily to take humanitarian aid and to evacuate our nationals and the nationals of many other countries out of harm's way."
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