EU travel bans

Tim Worstall has conducted a thorough, and thoroughly admirable fisking of the Independent's risible "50 reasons to praise the EU".

At number 18 the Independent would have us believe that we should love Brussels because of "Europe-wide travel bans on tyrants such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe".

"So?", replies TW. He might better still have responded "Bollocks!", (as he does to several of the other spurious claims of the Indy. Why? I hear you ask. Because of this:

Edward Chindori-Chininga, one of more than 100 Mugabe regime figures banned from traveling to the EU was observed slipping out of Brussels. He received a visa simply by omitting his middle name on the application, according to the Telegraph.

 (H/T Belmont Club)

But, I hear you say, this was just an isolated error.

Not so. The Telegraph also tells us that

Mr Chindori-Chininga is believed to be a regular visitor to France despite the EU travel sanctions.

Indeed, and didn't that dear little socialist, Mr Mugabe visit Paris a few years ago despite the travel ban? Certainly the EU was in favour of the visit.  I can't remember if the British government managed to veto it or not. Mugabe certainly went to Rome  at one point too. 

Bollocks it is, therefore. Or as TW might ask: don't these people have editors?