Aircraft Carriers and JSF

Another week and another vainglorious and ill-informed Hollywood actor wades into a serious political issue only to make a complete twit of himself.

Sean Penn thinks Britain is being ‘colonialist, ludicrous and archaic’ about the Falkland Islands, and insists we must accept some sort of sharing agreement with Argentina, or he will be very cross with us.

Well, the chaps aboard HMS Dauntless must be quaking in their hammocks.

But far from proving his heavyweight moral and intellectual credentials, as he evidently hopes, Penn has merely proved what we suspected all along. Actors should speak the lines that somebody else has written for them, and then shut up.

Instead, all too often, they glimpse something important on the horizon and dash after it — only, with wearisome predictability, to grab completely the wrong end of the stick.

They are like simple-minded spaniels, only not half so cute to watch.

Even by the usual standards of pompous pronouncements from unelected and unqualified celebrities, Penn’s latest outburst is toe-curling.

The status of the Falkland Islands, unusually in a wider world full of competing claims, half-truths and awkward compromises, is remarkably clear-cut.

The Falkland Islanders wish to remain British. As long as that is the case, there is simply no need for further discussion.

The involvement of Mr Penn, however, raises all kinds of interesting questions. He’s a celebrated actor, a double Oscar winner and a relentless campaigner for world peace, but has been found guilty of domestic violence towards Madonna during their brief marriage, and of beating up photographers who displease him.