Editorial: Regret is not enough

OPINION: It is to be hoped that British politician Godfrey Bloom spoke only for himself when he congratulated France for sinking the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour.

That 1985 violation of New Zealand sovereignty was an act of state-sanctioned terrorism. Mr Bloom, a member of the European Parliament, former Tory cabinet minister and outspoken non-believer in man-made climate change, applauded the bombing while at the Copenhagen summit.

Exposed in a YouTube film clip, he at first said he didn't know that the sinking had killed Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira and then that he had forgotten.

Now he has apologised. "I think it's a great shame that you lose any innocent lives in something like this, I deeply regret that," he said.

Not good enough, Mr Bloom. Of course Mr Pereira's death was the central tragedy of the bombing carried out by French secret service agents, two of whom were convicted of his manslaughter.

But had there not been a death France would still have been guilty of an outrageous act committed in the territory of a friendly nation.

It cannot be excused – by Mr Bloom or anyone else. He need only ask himself how he would have reacted if France had sent its agents to blow up a vessel at a British port to see how his extreme dislike of Greenpeace's activism has warped his sense of right and wrong.

- © Fairfax NZ News