I am aware of the differences in the two issues. I am aware this is your Foreign Office. Let's just say those differences don't seem to matter much right now. Not when the word hypocrite has been thrown about this drawing room.
Let me see if I can do this the way it is done by the majority in this drawing room. It goes against my grain, but I will put forth my best effort.
HOW DARE your government not get help to these people immediately?
Has this woman been discriminated against because she was Swedish? (Is it not irresponsible for the Swedish in Briton to not produce a rap song about your leader not caring for the Swedish people?)
Slow to evacuate Britons and repeatedly failing to answer pleas of assistance from them?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only 100K away?
Yes, many things could have been done better in America's emergency response to Hurricane Katrina. I, as an American, are aware of that. I am also aware you don't have a disaster of this magnitute and expect perfection from anyone.
And since I expect (quite frankly, I base this expectation on experience in this drawing room) many to say that my pointing out your government's failing your people does not make our government's actions right...keep in mind that the use of the word 'hypocrite' blew that line of reason all to hell.
Foreign Office failed tsunami victims
Gaby Hinsliff and Mark Townsend
Sunday September 11, 2005
The Observer
The Foreign Office was accused last night of failing Britons abroad as details of its treatment of victims of the Asian tsunami were laid bare by The Observer.
Families who survived the tidal wave accused officials of a catalogue of errors - among them being slow to evacuate Britons and repeatedly failing to answer pleas for assistance - raising questions over the service to UK citizens abroad.
The Foreign Office said it had 'apologised unreservedly' to one survivor, Michael Holland, son-in-law of the film director Lord Attenborough, whose wife, mother and daughter died in the Boxing Day disaster last year.
Article continues
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It has also admitted failing to give proper help to Kate Rage, a widowed British mother. She was turned away when she asked officials for help, because her husband was Swedish and the three children had Swedish passports.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, faces a parliamentary grilling next month over the care given to survivors and the future of consular services, supposedly the first port of call for Britons in trouble abroad.
Politicians said the scandal raised serious questions about the resilience of embassy services in the event of another disaster. British families caught up in Hurricane Katrina also say UK officials did nothing to help them in the key first hours of the New Orleans floods.
'The government said the Bali bombings had been a wake-up call for consular officials, yet the tsunami caught them napping. According to those caught up in Hurricane Katrina, they remain fast asleep,' said Liam Fox, the shadow foreign secretary.
The families interviewed by The Observer had all been staying in Khao Lak, which bore the brunt of deaths; the British consular team based themselves more than 100km away in the resort of Phuket.Read the whole 'bloody'' story here.
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