Reflex appeasers
British attitudes to the Soviet Union really are a bit odd, if Brian Redhead of the BBC's Today programme is anything to go by. For on the morning after the announce- ment that three Soviet diplomats had been chucked out for spying, I heard him asking Mr Malcolm Rifkind, a Foreign Office Minister, whether chucking out Soviet spies is consistent with his Government's professed desire to improve Anglo-Soviet relations. Surely any normal person might feel that the act inconsistent with wanting to improve Anglo-Soviet relations was the original act of spying, rather than the British Government's reaction to this pro- vocation. But when the Soviet Union is involved, commonsense seems to give way to sycophancy to a degree that has to be heard to be believed. Nor is this the work of dedicated appeasers, as was the case with Geoffrey Dawson, editor of the Times before the war, who always gave Nazi Germany the benefit of the doubt. So far as Brian Redhead, and many others on the BBC, are concerned, appeasing Russia has been going on so long as to have become almost instinctive, like a reflex action.
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