Death of a tyrant: much missed, apparently

World leaders from around the world have cleared their diaries and are converging on Saudi Arabia as we speak to mourn the loss of their great King Abdullah. At home flags on public buildings are flying at half-mast: a sign of respect offered to the passing of any monarch, no matter how unjust the regime they may have presided over.


Let us be in no doubt: the current situation in KSA resembles that in Britain in the 16th century: one family in absolute power, prepared to behead anyone they don't like the look of. Agreed, you might say, but we need their oil, right? Wrong. If we expanded our sustainable energy production and worked harder on conservation and the avoidance of waste we wouldn't have to kow-tow to these despots. OK, how about their critical joining with the West in the fight against Islamist militants?  Wrong again. These Islamist militants espouse a form of Islam identical to the type practised in KSA, hence their sponsoring of the Taliban in Afghanistan since the early 1990s, and their active (though largely unpublicised) support of ISIS.


The Saudi Royal family is huge, comprising nearly 11,000 members (which puts our own Royals in context, with barely 100 members). They constitute an elite which is essentially above the law. They are free to behave as they please, gamble, whore, drink alcohol and use drugs: that is to say generally indulge in obscene excesses, all of which as I understand it are specifically proscribed by the Koran. These excesses include treating women as slaves and depriving them of nearly all of the freedoms they appear to enjoy so much.


So farewell, King Abdullah. You will not be missed outside your own family. Not really, even though right now we're all pretending we do.