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Batting for Britain

William Waldegrave, on the subject of arms sales. to the Scott 'Arms to Iraq' enquiry - "There is in this country a certain ambivalence. People want the jobs they do not always want to think about. Whenever Mrs. Thatcher or Mr. Major comes back, having batted for Britain and won a great deal, everyone says 'Hooray'. They are heroes on the front page.

About the painting
Oil on canvas (8' - 6') Painting weight = 90kg
E.N.C. has no desire to be obscure.

 
Soeharto holds a samurai sword and has a foot on a GO board because of his Japanese connections. GO is a territorial game of extreme complexity. To stand on the board is the act of a barbarian.
 
Blair's sheepskin coat, the contracts in his pockets and the burning book of New Ethics are self explanatory when one remembers how, before the election, the public was conned into believing that a change in National Policy re: arms sales was about to become a reality.
 
The FRETILIN flag, the flag of the independent democratically elected government of East Timor, flies at half mast in honour of their 250 000 slaughtered compatriots.
 
The fence of Legs is an Indonesian military tactic of brutal viciousness. It consists of using the population as beaters to flush out the fighters in the Falintil resistance. One wonders which military training college came up with that idea?
 
The Hawk (BAE) needs no introduction. Thatcher's bat is one of those stunning electric batons so necessary for keeping revolting indigenous natives in their place. As a sop to bleeding heart liberals export of the bats has been discontinued. No doubt when Blair steps to the crease he will be swinging a Heckler & Koch, courtesy BAE. The flower petals fluttering around are a memento mori of our heroine's visit to the little weapons' quartermaster Habibie. Children were lined up to throw flowers and chant her name. At that moment she realised she was famous throughout the World. So overcome was she that a trade and arms deal worth? £2.5? Billion was arranged, though she noted in passing that there were serious human rights abuses in East Timor. At that time approx. 150 000 had been slaughtered.
 
See the 'ennobled' Sir Henry Kissinger, Hero of the illegal carpet bombing of Cambodia in which 750 000 non-existent* economic irrelevancies were pounded to pieces on a daily basis over nine months by freedom flyers of the U.S.A.A.F. Hero also of the nine year stone-ageing of Laos, in which a greater tonnage of explosives was dumped on a third-world country than was dropped on Germany in WW2. The Dresdening of Hanoi, the multiple My-Lais of Vietnam and not forgetting the orangeing of the countryside which has led to so many interesting genetic mutations (take a bow Monsanto). The death of Allende and the cleansing of Chile with the Parrillian* pinpricks of the unknown* Pinochet etc. etc. etc.
 
Here he is seen as chief facilitator of the new sea laws of the early 70's when it became necessary to seek permission to traverse territorial waters. He clutches a US nuclear submarine, which his government is wont to trundle through the deep-water channel of the Ombai-Wetar Strait above East Timor. Why bother to get the OK from some new, hick, possibly socialist country when the generals the CIA installed in Jakarta in '65 will allow you free passage in exchange for weapons and the oil of Timor? His wink is already explained. The domino he so insouciantly tosses refers of course to that profound theory of Eisenhower. Briefly, it posits that if a country adopts socialism and is seen to be successful it may encourage others to follow suit. Quite. It therefore becomes necessary to prop up such countries economically and militarily. Indonesia has been and still is in receipt of the IMF's 'rescue packages', which buy all the weapons the unelected gangsters require.
 
The butterfly on the flight brochure has a number of associations, the main one being chaotic.
 
As to the blank TV? How many viewers have heard of East Timor and what has been allowed to happen there?
 
Finally, however, the focal point of this triumph is of course the oil and the money. The latter (mainly US &UK) are the currencies of civilised western countries that have been only too happy to boldly go and freely flog their weapons of death, destruction and control. The Australian coin dated '85 is when Canberra officially 'recognised' Indonesia's 'annexation'. Something the UN consistently refused to do for twenty-four years.
 
So, not really cricket is it? But what a nice little earner.
 
NOTES:
 
NON-EXISTENT*. According to Sir Henry, whom we must believe for he is an honourable man. He was assured of their non-existence by Prince Sihanouk, another honourable man, who was often to be found trudging the border areas in those days searching vainly for his people.
 
PARRILLA*. State of the art, if low tech, instrument of persuasion much favoured by the Chilean armed forces. It consists of a metal sheet to which the subject is strapped. Electric wiring is attached to genitals, nipples, mouth and anus. Another sheet is placed above the subject onto which mother/father/husband/wife/lover or child is similarly secured. Current is then administered so that each client may hear and appreciate the other's agony. This was a remarkably effective method for diffusing opposition to the socio-economic structure desired by the Junta. It also saved on grave digging or aircraft fuel (dump 'em in the sea) and the running costs were negligible so I.M.F. approval was assured.
 
UNKNOWN*. To the honourable Sir Henry who, as National Security Advisor, would have been kept totally uninformed as to what was occurring in Chile.
 
Below is a detailed copy of the painting Batting for Britain / The Ashes of Honour, due to the painting being of such large proportions, the image shown below is made up of several scanned images while every precaution has been made to replicate the original painting, there may be slight discrepancies in colouration.