POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK

POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK by Rajpal Abeynayaka

Jolly old conservative types
The Ministers trooped in and out of number 10, Downing Street, and from the way they looked they were not quite clear whether Sri Lanka was still under British rule or wasn't. Probably the weather, what?

Tony Blair shook hands with Ranil Wickremesinghe and he looked as if he was in the wrong picture. He would have given anything to be photographed in front of a dump of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' saying "I told you so," but instead, fate had decreed that he be shaking hands in front of the cameras with a Prime Minister of a country which is, in fact, saying there is no such thing called terrorism.

Both Prime Ministers offered limp handshakes, and the body language was polite but the chilling effect of the picture was that there was hardly any warmth, even though both Prime Ministers managed half a smile. Compare and contrast that with Ranil Wickremesinghe's meeting with Ian Duncan Smith, the bald headed charmer leading the Conservative party.

But then, Wickremesinghe had that weakness always for the Conservatives. Maybe he comes from the same conservative mindset, and maybe his kind of chic political theatre, is what the Conservatives are closer to in London.

Anyway he has a weakness for bald-headed Conservatives -- I mean a weakness in a political sense. The last bald headed Conservative who was here, William Hague, if I have a vague recollection, was taken to the Mustangs Tent at the Royal Thomian cricket match by Wickremesinghe. They had a rollicking time, which a new Labourite like Blair might not even relate to. So when Wickremesinghe met Ian Duncan Smith, it was deja vu time, and he got stuck into it.

It may have also given him some pep and verve, and maybe there was a fleeting recollection in his mind of the good old days when he could only criticise and not take responsibility, because he was gloriously in opposition. Bald Mr. Ian Duncan Smith is still in the Opposition, and hence, Wickremesinghe may have identified with the good old times being an opposition loose cannon -- something which Blair probably cannot even remember, let alone relate to.

Wickremesinghe was therefore buoyed when he met Ian Duncan Smith. Given the type of thing that Blair is proud of (winning the war on Iraq) Ranil Wickremesinghe was almost looking as if he was happier to be with the loser (Ian Duncan Smith.) So they laughed, and it was almost as if Wickremesinghe was forgetting that this was not the Mustangs tent -- -and he was with Ian Duncan Smith and not Willliam Hague, granting that that does not make a world of a difference.

With Ian Duncan Smith, Ranil Wickremesinghe was flesh and blood, but with Blair, both Prime Ministers were looking like waxworks at Tussauds. Wickremesighe may also be in the shadow of an iron lady back home, and so is Ian Duncan Smith, who is in the shadow of a Conservative Iron Lady who is retired. Wickremesinghe may have thought he prematurely retired the Iron Lady here in Colombo, but she keeps popping up, especially when there are problems with the Tigers, which Blair says he will help Wickremesinghe solve. All very good in theory, but the body language says Wickremesinghe is one happy dude pumping it up with the Conservatives, than when he is doing statecraft with the new Labour lads...

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