POLITICS CORNER

[Tizer]

The media will try to spin it that the Americans waited until the majority of the UK government were on holiday, of course they won't say it like that, before they sprung the surprise they were withdrawing.

Let's not forget that the Taliban too knew that the West would be on holiday - and the West went on holiday in the middle of the traditional Afghan fighting season.

Just think how easy it would have been if Bagram had still been open. All that money and we walked out and left us relying on Kabul Airport.

We couldn't keep Bagram open without the support of the Americans.

[plaques]

Another Brexit dead line moved back. The manufacturing conformity certificate 'CE' finished Jan 2021 but an extension was agreed with the EU for another year until 2022. As normal we won't meet this dead line so another year has been agreed. As a third country the UK must have its own certification. 'UKCA' but exporting to the EU it still needs to meet CE standards, which may over time change to a higher standard. The UKCA can remain static but goods can only be sold in the UK or countries which will accept it. The easy way out would be to accept CE conformity but we know better than Jonny Foreigner and we would rather go to the expense and delay of using two different standards. All down to the EU red tape we we were happy to use when we were in the club but now we are out its the EU imposing restrictions on us. The do nothing government strikes again.

[Stanley]

As I keep saying, the full effects of Brexit have been clouded by Covid but gradually the full story is being revealed. As I have always pointed out, there is a little known law of unexpected consequences and we are beginning to see it kicking in. I think it will get much worse.

[Tizer]

I mentioned above that we couldn't keep Bagram air base open without the support of the Americans. This morning the BBC provided this article which refers to Kabul airport but the same reasons were even more relevant to Bagram. The whole Afghanistan project was dependent on the American support systems, not ours.
`Afghanistan: Why can't the UK hold Kabul airport without the US?' LINK

[Stanley]

Yes I understand that but Bagram was voluntary and at speed as part of the troop evacuation. It could have been postponed and used in a repatriation programme if one had been in place and not a 'hostile environment'.

[Tizer]

The Times has been reporting on the Panjshir Valley since before the Taliban entered Kabul but it was no use me giving links to their web pages because they're subscriber-only and I'm not a subscriber. Now the BBC has got around to mentioning the valley so here's their take on it. It will be interesting to see what happens there...
`Afghanistan: The 'undefeated' Panjshir Valley - an hour from Kabul' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard that Peter and thought 'What a prospect!'.
Now we have ISIS and suicide bombings in Kabul, 90 killed and many injured. It's like a vision of hell.

[Stanley]

The death toll caused by the suicide bombing at Kabul airport is now said to be 170.
Johnson and Raab are keeping their heads down.
See THIS BBC report on the embassy papers. What does 'working at pace' to destroy documents actually mean? Weasel words and spin and meanwhile it seems that documents were left. Later we hear that Dominic Raab is being blamed for telling embassy staff to leave earlier than was necessary.
I see the government has refused to allow EU drivers into the country and told the industry to employ British Drivers. I don't think they realise how long it takes to get a driver up to the level where he can be safely put in charge of 40 tons of road vehicle.

[Big Kev]

I don't think they realise how long it takes to get a driver up to the level where he can be safely put in charge of 40 tons of road vehicle.

Safely is the 'buzz' word here, you can get an LGV licence in less than a week.

[plaques]

How long does it take to organise a bon fire. Empty the filing cabinets and a couple of gallon of petrol should do the trick. Even Hitler and Eva did it and they were dead. Then you could always torch the complete building unless you expect to get back there in short order.

The lorry driver shortage is what we voted for several times. Its all Jonny Foreigners fault for not helping us out. Just because we said they are not welcome and make it difficult for them to come to the UK its no reason not to help us out. Anyhow when we start trading with our special relationship neighbours like America we won't need lorry drivers coming from the EU because the Americans will be using their drivers who they will hire from the EU. All part of the buffoons master plan.

[Stanley]

They've made it clear that jobs like LGV drivers and abattoir workers are not skilled, hence considering setting prisoners on to solve a shortage in the food industry. Being a politician is obviously a very skilled job.

[plaques]

First its chickens now its pigs. Using prisoners sounds like going back to Stalin's gulag system. Put people in prison on some trumped up charges, offer them a job in the husbandry / abattoir industry and get the economy going again. Good idea? until they examine the detail of how to select the prisoners. Minor offences prisoners who live miles away from the work area needing accommodation ready to be released anyway. On and on it goes a typical buffoon nonstarter. The Express / Mail readers will nod their collective empty heads and think problem solved. Good old Boris. Get Brexit done, That's the way to do it.

[Tizer]

Anthony Loyd has some good articles about the Taliban and ISIS in today's copy of The Times. In particular he tells the history of ISIS-K, the specific group that's responsible for the terrorist attack at Kabul airport. They emerged in 2014, passing themselves off as migrants fleeing from persecution in Pakistan, over the border and into the local Afghan villages. The Afghans protected them in their houses, the men seemed OK and blended in. This went on for about a year until another group came over the border carrying weapons. The earlier arrivals immediately brought out hidden weapons and they started imposing their strict regime on the locals and went to war against the Taliban. A Taliban leader explained to Loyd how ISIS-K were far more brutal and extreme than their own fighters - the descriptions make harrowing reading - and they began to be successful. Eventually the Taliban's better organisation began to show and they were able to push back the ISIS fighters. This went OK until the last year or so when the more extreme fighters among the Taliban started to lose confidence in their own leaders and drifted to join ISIS-K. This accounts for the rise in ISIS terrorism now.

Loyd didn't mention this but the thought struck me that Trump's cosying up and doing deals with the Taliban leaders may be what really pushed those Taliban fighters to join ISIS-K and that may mean that even the Taliban won't be able to control Afghanistan now. Another difficulty is that ISIS-K were being kept in check by American intelligence operations providing information to the Afghans but that's gone too.

[Stanley]

All very plausible Peter and I have no doubt there is some truth in it but what evidence like this really shows is that Afghanistan is a hotbed of different loyalties, political, religious and tribal. Think of what is happening behind the scenes to achieve things like the US drone strike on the ISIS target. Who gave them the intelligence? Is it possible that the US could end up using Taliban information to attack ISIS and would that mean that the Taliban could be using the US to do their dirty work for them.
I'm not saying this is happening but there is the potential for it to become reality. That's how complicated and disparate Afghanistan is.

[Tizer]

The Telegraph front page notes that computer systems controlling signs on `smart' motorways have been given the nickname `Die Now' because they became `unusable' three times in just four days.

[Tripps]

I heard an interview with a campaigner against them this morning. She was impressive, and said they the Government had proceeded at pace during lockdown, so as to be able to say thet so much money had been spent that they could not change direction now.

Grant Shapps (Mr Green) seems to be in charge.

I think this is her organisation Smart motorways kill

PS My only encounter with them was the drive back down the M6 from Stanley's in October 2018. Dark and raining - I resolved not to repeat the experience.

[PanBiker]

I have been banging on about this since the first ones became live. Death traps, no other words for them.

[Stanley]

On another matter I see we have withdrawn from Afghanistan after twenty years in which we have made a significant difference and everyone should be proud. This from the Buffoon video.
Followed by Tom Tugendhat who said that he was sad angry and ashamed. I think you can guess who I respect most. No mention of defeat and thank God, nobody has mentioned Dunkirque.

[Stanley]

THIS piece by John Simpson is worth a read. I trust his reporting.

[Tizer]

So do I, he's another like Anthony Loyd, people who knew what was really happening in the country but the politicians wouldn't listen. In particular the sentence `It was the announcement of the deadline for pulling out the Western troops that led to the sudden Taliban surge and the capture of Kabul' is exactly what Loyd was saying and yet the politicians and diplomats still claim it was all a sudden shock.

[Stanley]

Another person I trust, Rory Stewart, said yesterday that Johnson's plan for getting the Taliban to cooperate by threatening to withdraw aid and impose sanctions is madness. He said the Taliban won't see the need for aid and don't travel and shop in the main cities of the world so the usual sanctions like closing bank accounts and barring travel will have no effect at all.
The Foreign Office swear that they started the discussions on getting our Afghan helpers home on April the first. That's the point lads, all you did was talk about it, others were evacuating by May while we were still 'looking at' our hostile attitude.

[plaques]

Comments on the evacuation of Afghanistan.

"We should be proud of our armed forces, welcoming to those coming for a better life and sad for those left behind," Defence Minister Ben Wallace said after the final British flight.

Wallace estimated on Friday that between 800 and 1,100 Afghans who had worked with Britain and were eligible for resettlement would not make it out by air, and pledged to help them if they could leave by land.

No problem there then. Just catch the next bus out and its all sorted. What could go wrong?

[Stanley]

The spin department has been in overdrive. I'll bet there has been a stream of briefing notes and key words going out. On the verboten list will be defeat, Dunkirk, retreat, Saigon and Vietnam. This has been a strategic withdrawal and many goals have been achieved. Funny how the people who actually had to do the dirty work there use words like ashamed and disaster.
News from the US that Biden says the evacuation was a triumph and US aims were achieved as al-Qaeda was defeated. He argues that terrorism has moved on and the strategy must follow. He has a point and may be right.

[chinatyke]

The spin department has been in overdrive. I'll bet there has been a stream of briefing notes and key words going out. On the verboten list will be defeat, Dunkirk, retreat, Saigon and Vietnam. This has been a strategic withdrawal and many goals have been achieved. Funny how the people who actually had to do the dirty work there use words like ashamed and disaster.
News from the US that Biden says the evacuation was a triumph and US aims were achieved as al-Qaeda was defeated. He argues that terrorism has moved on and the strategy must follow. He has a point and may be right.

This morning we were treated on CGTN to a propaganda program about the worst warmongering nation in the World. Guess who? And apparently 98% of the World's population would agree with you. The Chinese aren't going to miss an opportunity like this to rub their noses in it! Pity you can't get CGTN in the UK. US expenditure was 300 million dollars every day (2.19 trillion) whilst they were in Afghanistan whilst most of the local population were surviving on <2 dollars per day.

[Stanley]

What good would 'rubbing their noses in it' do? If Biden is correct and this is the end of US 're-making' other countries that's a result that will be good for everyone. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq were all down to the US 'spreading democracy'.
Later... I see Ben Wallace has ignored the briefing and referred to 'Dunkirk by Whatsapp'. (LINK)