Idiot of the Week Number 1: Sir Mark Thatcher

It really helps to have friends (or mothers) in high places! Sir Mark Thatcher has managed to plead guilty, or so it is reported, to bankrolling a coup attempt in Equitorial Guinea. He says he thought the business deal was a bit dodgy, but was told the money was going to fund "air ambulances" so didn't ask too many questions. In return for his guilty plea before a court in South Africa, he pays £300,000 and has to leave the country for a certain period.



If you haven't guessed, Sir Mark is the son of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister. Her presence in South Africa the past few months and the light slap-on-the-wrist sentence he is receiving surely are no coincidence.

Not only does he get away basically scot-free, but he's off to live in the US after the court hearings are all over. His wife, coincidentally, is from Texas. Now, I seem to remember from my own personal experience that once you've been convicted of a crime, the US says, "Nope, uh-huh, you ain't coming here". I now live in the UK after my British ex-husband couldn't get a visa to live in the US because of a relatively minor conviction on his criminal record. It's definitely relatively mild in comparison to plotting a coup attempt!

I suppose Sir Mark's involvement with mercenaries wanting to take over oil-rich Equitorial Guinea make George Bush's government sympathetic to his involvement, especially after their own involvement in oil-rich Iraq. It's just another case of "it's not what you know, but who you know".

Just think about it. Margaret Thatcher was PM during the Reagan administration, and who was the Vice President of the United States during Reagan's Presidency? George Herbert Walker Bush. She was still PM when George Herbert Walker Bush became President himself. Their acquaintance goes way back. It seems too much of a coincidence that one of their sons has made allowances for the son of the other.