Ya Bass

Laughland re-appears in the Guardian with an article on the situation in Uzbeckistan. For a bit of background: John Laughland is a trustee of British Helsinki Human Rights Group - who have a rather different interpretation to the words "human rights" than most other groups. Despite the Helsinki in their name, it's not an official Helsinki Committee - which is a deliberate fudge on their part so they can be taken "seriously" - but this has has prompted the International Helsinki Federation to publicly disclaim any connection with the BHHRG. They supported Milosevic, argue that the government and electoral process in Belarus meets all democratic standards, campaign against immigration to the UK and Laughland has written articles over the last few years which are very supportive of the likes of Mugabe, Milosevic and Le Pen. More recently he's been writing in the Guardian comment page whenever democratic change has been an issue in Georgia, Ukraine and now Uzbeckistan. To sum up his views: Repressive regime good and getting a bad press from a biased media - the popular opposition is not popular opposition at all just fronts for American stooges seeking to help the US imperial project.

With the current situation in Uzbeckistan (which i've written on briefly here) he's had to amend the argument slightly as Karimov has had the support of the US over the last couple of years. But that's not a problem for Laughland, that support is only superficial and a construct so those with anti-war and anti-US sentiments can get behind the opposition to Karimovs authoritarian rule and support "regime change".

The twist this time is that President Karimov of Uzbekistan is presented as a pro-US tyrant rather than a Soviet-era throwback - so anti-war left and liberal commentators have been co-opted into baying for his blood.

This coming only a week after the tin foil hat nonsense by Al Kennedy and most importantly the departure of their best columnist David Aaronovitch there seems to be a worrying slip of standards at the Guardian.