Julian Assange is a rather large embarrassment for the UK government, but one wonders why this should be.
Mr Assange has committed no offences in the UK and this country's only involvement in his convoluted story is as the recipient of an extradition warrant from Sweden. That the Ecuadorean government has decided to give Assange asylum should surely be the end of our dealings with the man.
Assange has been accused of various offences in Sweden and everyone knows that the yanks would love to get their paws on him. What has any of this to do with us ? The Swedish charges have yet to be tested in court so the man is innocent, at least for the time being. The Americans want him for supposedly damaging their national security though, if they were less paranoid, they'd surely not be quite so sensitive about such things. Regardless, Assange is not American and does not live in America, making any charges against him somewhat dubious in any sane world.
It is, of course, possible that the Swedish charges have been largely invented in order to assist in an eventual extradition to the US. This is what Assange fears and, in the Ecuadoreans, he has found allies who have no liking for the way in which the US generally throws its weight around. Sadly, the UK government generally does whatever it's told to do by its supposed friend, producing something of a stalemate. William Hague's recent suggestion that the UK might temporarily remove diplomatic status from the Ecuadorean embassy was, without doubt, one of the most stupid political statements of recent years and will never happen.
What should now happen is that Assange should be allowed to leave this country and travel to Ecuador where he will have to spend the rest of his life. If that won't be much the same as being imprisoned for his supposed crimes I don't know what is.
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