At some base level, all dictatorial types are hypocrites. Aggrandizing power involves a certain amount of demagoguery, and keeping that power usually involves projecting the societal problems that arise from totalitarian rule on a predictive bogeyman. Whether it’s Hitler and the Jews, or Sharia law, or Pol Pot, it’s always the blame game.

So long live the hypocrisy of Robert Mugabe, “president” of Zimbabwe

Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since independence in 1980, is under heavy international criticism for the delay in releasing results from a March 29 presidential election, which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says was won by its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

But the President was characteristically defiant in his speech, repeating a familiar line that Britain, not the MDC, was the real enemy. “Today they have perfected their tactics to a more subtle form by using money literally to buy some people to turn against their government. We are being bought like livestock,” he said.

Having been in power since 1980, Mugabe is a veteran of the tactic. Nevermind that things have gotten worse since Mugabe took over power from the British since … 1980. Last year the Zimbabwe economy shrunk by over five percent. Inflation is nearing 8,000 percent (yeah, that’s three zeros), and with a population of approximately 13 million, can only muster a miserly GDP of $400 million (do that math!).

Robert Mugabe is a disaster, and it’s all the Brits’ fault. Even by African standards, he has run his country into the ground.