Richard Ratcliffe ends hunger strike for Nazanin after government pays no attention at all
Action not words: and Boris Johnson’s government has done absolutely nothing.
This Writer is relieved. If he had gone on any longer, who knows how badly his body could have been damaged?
Richard Ratcliffe has ended his hunger strike to highlight the plight of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, after 21 days.
Nazanin has been imprisoned under false charges in Iran since 2016.
Boris Johnson famously mistook the accusation against her for what she did, providing the Iranian authorities with justification, not only for having jailed her, but for jailing her for an indefinite period to come.
then Johnson turned Nazanin’s freedom into a bargaining chip in an argument between the UK and Iran over around £450 million owed to the Middle East country since the Shah was overthrown in the late 1970s.
That gave the Iranians reason enough to find another charge on which to keep her imprisoned for another year.
Mr Ratcliffe, after having entrusted his wife’s well-being into the hands of the worst clown ever to hold high office, may have started his hunger strike in the belief that nothing will change unless there is a genuine threat to health and life.
But he has discovered that the Conservatives don’t even care about that. Current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will have passed him on the street (he was camped outside the Foreign Office) to attend Parliamentary votes. She never even asked how he was.
He said he had started to get pains in his feet overnight and after discussion with his doctor he ended the hunger strike.
According to the BBC, he said he “didn’t want to go out in an ambulance”.
“I want to walk out with my head held high,” he said.
He was likely to have caused permanent damage to his body from the 15th day of the hunger strike onwards.
So the end of this hunger strike is a good thing. It wasn’t changing any Tory minds because they simply didn’t care whether Mr Ratcliffe lived or died. Their only interest in his wife is as a bargaining chip in negotiations over money.
This is not a defeat for Richard Ratcliffe. It is disgrace for Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and the pathetic excuse for a government that they front.
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Heaven knows we have seen the Tories – and this is a gross understatement – stoop lower than a snake’s belly over the past years, but this is just heartbreaking.
Richard can indeed hold his head high – unlike Alexander de Pfeffel Johnson or whatever his bloody name is, along with Johnson’s Cabinet members, MP’s, members of the Tory Party and all those enabling these evil spivs and chancers.
The money to pay off the debt to Iran would probably dwarf the amounts gone to the Government’s mates during the pandemic without any oversight whatsoever – and Geoffrey Cox for example could pay it out of his estimated £6 million earnings over recent years and treat it as pocket money. And please let’s not have any excuses about ‘sanctions’ preventing payment. Also let us not forget the other half dozen or so British or dual nationality citizens also imprisoned in Iran but who have not had their cases publicised.
My heart goes out to Richard, Nazanin, their daughter and family.
It’s a considerable amount of money – £400-450 million – but nothing like as much as the billions wasted on friends of the Tories at the height of the Covid lockdowns. I don’t think any Tory MPs could pay it out of earnings from second jobs.
I just used the figure for Geoffrey Cox’s ‘earnings’ (and I use the term loosely!) as an example – and yes c£4m really is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions siphoned off to mates and wasted.
It’s a sum of four HUNDRED million pounds that are owed – at least.
This Government is beyond belief they are disgusting. To hold Nazanin`s life as ransome is barbaric.
It is criminal that politicians mess up people’s lives through their ignorance, arrogance and stupidity. Richard, we cannot feel your pain but we are very angry that you and Nazanin find yourselves in such an unenviable position. Let’s hope you get a result very soon.
Your daughter must be very proud of you.