RUTHFULLY YOURS

1. SEAN PENS HIS CASE FOR LAS MALVINAS

Sean Penn, self-styled defender of civil liberties, once wrote an open letter to George W. Bush criticising his ‘simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil’. It seems that he’s now taken a hiatus from his role as philosopher-at-large. Or maybe he’s just a bit of a hypocrite.

Either way, he’s waded into the Southern Atlantic debate with his own two cents.

Asking for Sean Penn’s honest opinion on the Falklands is pretty much like asking for John Galliano’s candid thoughts on the Holocaust – you can guess what you’re going to get, and you can guess that it ain’t going to be pretty.

Pretty it was not. Making a passing reference to the Falkland Islanders wishes to remain British, and conveniently ignoring Article 1.2 of the UN charter, Penn, true to his thespian roots, wasted little time in revealing his ugly motivation: oil.

‘My oh my, aren’t people sensitive to the world colonialism, particularly those who implement colonialism?’ crowed the Hollywood actor – reportedly worth $150 million – who seemed unusually unconcerned with civil liberties in this instance, instead keen to focus on the need for Argentina and Britain to hash out some kind of sharing agreement over the island’s natural resources.

So, let’s get this straight; Sean Penn is sabre-rattling, arguing in favour of a breach of sovereignty, for the purpose of securing oil reserves. I wonder, will his left-wing, anti-Iraq War chums pipe up on this one? Not a chance.