The moral high ground

Subject: The moral high ground

If we applied a moral aspect to all our relationships with countries throughout the world we will fast reduce the number of countries we can do business.
The latest is the "hit" on the Russian spy and his daughter is believed to trace back to the Russians and Mr Putin. Putin had famously decried the people who had been released in a spy swap (which included the man who was poisoned)  where he said Russians who had betrayed their country for "pieces of gold" and could expect to  meet their end in ways they would not envisage.
What ever the outcome of the investigation the use of assassination to get rid of people who oppose Putin is an open secret. As a Mafia boss he would rank with the best and yet we are unable, because of the economic situation we find ourselves, to raise other than the most benign condemnation.

Today the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is to pay a fully sanctioned visit with the highest protocol' a meeting with the Queen, the chattering classes including, Mr Corbyn have been inflamed by the visit. Yemen, the latest human atrocity to unfurl in the Middle East is being blamed on The Saudi House whilst my own reading of the conflict is that the uprising in the north was led by a group promoted by the Iran. Iran seem to be a far greater candidate to have blood on their hands with their proxy Hezbollah, the Shia religions private army, who are in conflict all over the place. Non of these 'patriarchal religious ideologies' seem to have much of a civilising agenda and therefore we should in theory step away from the lot of them. Unfortunately they represent a sizeable segment of the Muslim Diaspora, probably getting on for a quarter of the worlds population and now a days a significant section of our own population in this country as well. How do we differentiate our trade from our morals or do we simply close our eyes or worse, sell them arms each to obliterate the other.

If we hold the moral high ground, which of course we don't then we will soon find ourselves in a right pickle. The religious conflicts have been pursued since antiquity and there is nothing we can do to stop the deep religious contempt each side feels for each other.
Whether we should pour fuel onto the conflict is relevant but in the long run we seem to be running out of mainstream trading blocks to trade with and the scraps which are left are mainly all we have.