Pots and kettles

The UK government, in the shape of the ex-Secretary of State for Wales, William Hague, has chided Iran’s leader for suggesting that Israel should sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.  It is, according to Hague, inappropriate for a country which has an advanced nuclear programme of its own to tell another country to give up nuclear weapons, unless it first does so itself.  So Iran must act first, was his basic message.

But if he’s right in his basic position, on what basis does a nuclear-armed state such as the UK, which is itself in breach of treaties over nuclear weapons and planning to breach them even further by building a new generation of weapons and delivery systems, have any right to tell either Iran or Israel what to do?