Meanwhile back in the big bad world

Later today the Nobel Peace Prize will not be awarded to Liu Xiaobo because he happens to be in a Chinese prison for publishing material that the Chinese Party and Government did not approve of. I expect he would quite like to trade place with Mr Assange but, alas, that is not going to happen. Nor is he going to get any support from Mr Putin, whose representative will not be present at the ceremony along with a number of other worthies. Ms Khan has not offered to put up bail for the Chinese dissident but then Ms Khan has not, so far as I know, spoken up for Mr Wilders or for Elisabeth Sabbaditsch-Wolff either.

Another person who has announced that she has a prior engagement that she had not realized before is Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. And so I should think. We can't have the UN human rights supremo appearing in support of Chinese dissidents. The idea! Nevertheless, UN Watch and 23 other NGOs have called on her to attend. Ms Pillay, however, is too busy expressing her shock at the targeting of WikiLeaks to spare a thought for Chinese dissidents and their families.

Oh yes, nearly forgot: SecGen Ban Ki-moon will not be there either. Inner City Press thinks this may have something to do with both of them wanting a second term in their respective jobs and knowing that China could block that. Surely not!

UPDATE: Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia is not in Oslo either. She is under house arrest.