This week, it’s not gone unnoticed that the BBC have given Fidel Castro’s death a lot of air time and a lot of tributes. As Andrew Roberts noted over the weekend, BBC News described him as ‘one of the world’s longest-serving and most iconic leaders’ only mentioning in the fourth paragraph that ‘Critics saw him as a dictator’.
So, Mr S was unsurprised to hear that a BBC presenter had hit out at the ‘imperialist lies’ being spread about the late Cuban dictator. However, on closer inspection it turned out to be a rather refreshing analysis of Castro’s legacy. On This Week, Andrew Neil attempted to set a few things straight about Castro:
‘Now I realise that there have been reports in the media that the human traffic is in the other direction and that over the years about 20pc of Cuba’s population has fled to America but that’s just an imperialist media lie.
Those running dogs of journalism never explain that Cubans only ever end up in the US because they’re always lolling around in their state provided yachts off Cuba’s beautiful beaches, during the 12-week fully paid holiday only to be swept to Florida by the hurricanes that regularly hit the Caribbean.
After all, who would volunteer to go to America? Where they can barely speak English never mind Spanish — and where an ambulance will leave you bleeding in the gutter unless you can produce a platinum American express card. At least, that’s what Fidel told us so it must be true.
We can assure the brave boat people off the coast tonight that the work of comrade Castro who struggled so manfully to serve his full democratically mandated 50 year term is not being undone.
Cuba will still boast a world class education system that doesn’t just teach literacy but helpfully tells you what you can and cannot read. And a world class health system that has banished disease to such an extent that 50pc of Cuban doctors now work overseas.’
Viva La Revolución!
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