Where vultures circle there are corpses …
They’re at it again. Not the Taliban, displaying their old, well-known cruelty, surprising Western journalists not present in Afghanistan by not being the cuddly, modern version as depicted on Twitter. No – it’s our beloved Westminster cabal, that toxic mixture of self-serving MPs, civil serpents and the know-it-all-betters in the MSM. As far as they’re concerned, ‘a culprit’ for the mess in Afghanistan must be found – and they’ve found one.
Sorry, it’s not Biden. Yes, the pages are full of reports on his disastrous TV interviews, his absences mental and physical – for non-paywalled articles look here, here, here and here, There’s also an article by Douglas Murray in the DT (paywalled link), telling us that Biden ‘was always unfit to be president’ but was ‘sheltered’ by the US media.
Funny – that’s what people like us who have shunned the Westminster MSM and have looked elsewhere to inform ourselves have been saying ever since the presidential election kicked off last year. But it was wall-to-wall ‘Trump bad’ and that was that. Even politicians and opinion makers labelling themselves ‘conservative’ were bowing to the ‘Trump bad’ song. The ordinary people who didn’t bow, the voters in the USA and the comment post writers in the MSM over here, were labelled ‘extreme far right ultra racist neo-nazis’.
Well, all I’ll say is that the Biden supporters got what they voted for: tough luck. It’s only a pity that innocent people on the other side of the world have to pay for the mess created by the US media plus Washington-swamp critters plus ‘progressive’ politicians and the Dem Party plus the MSM over here. Perhaps it’s too much to hope that the Biden-promoting media figures will get their come-uppance. But I digress …
No – the real culprit for all the mess is much closer at home. According to the MSM, slobbering like dogs over a juicy steak in front of their noses, the only one responsible is the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. According to ‘sources’ in Westminster, in the FO, the Tory Party and of course the ‘loyal opposition’, ‘he must go’. It’s a picture-perfect example for unsavoury, hostile briefings. By now the whole country knows that Mr Raab was on a ‘luxury holiday’ in Crete, sunning himself on a beach, when the proverbial hit the fan as Kabul fell … how could he!
Savour the exquisite words in the Times whose editors are still flushed with pride of having ousted that other Dominic, the Cummings one. The headline of their article, “Tory MPs turn on Dominic Raab after a week of chaos and carnage”, is a perfect example of how to hide a Whitehall campaign by making it look as if the Tory Party has turned against Raab. This ist he lurid picture they paint:
“As Johnson was making his way back to London Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, was still on the beach at a five-star hotel in Crete for the last day of his holiday. Witnesses say they saw him swimming and using a paddleboard.” (link, paywalled)
Good grief! ‘Witnesses say’! Now look at BJ who was holidaying in the West Country! Well, cynical old me thinks that his green and pregnant wifey might not have wanted to go on foreign holidays, what with flying, covid tests and all that jazz. Still, it wasn’t just the ‘luxury holiday’, the heinous ‘failure’ of Raab was that he delegated:
“Last Friday, while he was abroad, Raab was advised by officials to interrupt his holiday to urgently contact his Afghan counterpart. The foreign secretary failed to make the call and it was “delegated” to Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, a junior minister. In the chaos that followed the call was never made. Raab defended his decision not to call his Afghan counterpart yesterday, arguing that he had prioritised “security and capacity at the airport” and so delegated the call to a junior minister.” (link, paywalled)
Why shouldn’t he “delegate” making that call when he’s in a foreign country? After all, surely a phone call from a Lord is sufficiently impressive? Isn’t it odd though that nobody in the Westminster cabal is asking why Lord Goldsmith (‘Friend of Carrie’) hasn’t made the call.
We’re reminded in passing that the ‘sec perms’ – a lovely new expression, standing for ‘permanent secretaries’, i.e. the top mandarins – in the FO, HO and the MoD were all away. Did they come back immediately? We’re not told, probably because the Whitehall ‘sources’ on which our MSM depend, prefer to keep quiet about their own failures.
Instead, ‘sources’ are providing the MSM with hostile briefings against Raab. They want him gone. One speculation is that a certain Mr Javid hopes to become the new Foreign Secretary. He doesn’t seem to like it at what was the Hancock pitch.
To me, this looks like another attempt of Whitehall mandarins trying to get rid of an uncomfortable minister. With Ms Patel it was ‘bullying’. She has now been completely domesticated, spouting press briefings about immigrants, illegal or Afghan, without ever doing anything about it.
The civil serpents’ issue with Raab is his alleged ‘laziness’. According to ‘Whitehall officials’, he ‘only reads 20% of the papers in his Red boxes’ (link). Oh. Also, he’s said to be ‘cold’ because he’s a lawyer by profession. Apparently, being touchy-feely is now a prerequisite for a minister.
Former Labour Foreign Secretaries are suddenly vociferously damning Raab (link). They would of course have done so much better, talking not just to that Afghan Foreign Secretary but certainly also to the Taliban leaders. Even though Biden unilaterally steamed ahead, not informing BJ or any of the NATO Allies in Afghanistan, those former Labour FO Secretaries would’ve known it all anyway.
Regarding that accusation of ‘laziness’, how come others say Raab is a workaholic? This refutation comes from an article in the DT with the lurid headline: “Vultures circle the Foreign Office as Dominic Raab looks ever more like the fall guy” (paywalled link). I suggest that these are not just FO vultures but also Tory Party vultures circling Raab, for example those who wish to replace him:
“To his political enemies, Dominic Raab is a lazy bungler whose incompetence has cost lives. To his friends, he is a workaholic who has been set up by opportunists within his own party or department. Wherever the truth lies, Mr Raab is currently fighting for his job as Foreign Secretary, and there is a risk that the briefing war currently going on in Westminster, rather than the facts, could prove decisive. Mr Raab has never had much time for ministers who brief against each other, shunning dirty tricks in favour of the moral high ground.” (paywalled link)
A party in decline under an inept (I’m being polite here!) PM is like manna for all with scores to settle, especially in Whitehall. The truth of the matter is irrelevant, even if known by us peasants outside the charmed Westminster morass. Deflecting from their own mistakes is more important to those vultures – after all, they have their careers to think of! Here’s how and why they do it:
“Mr Raab’s friends believe score-settling, jealousy and blame-shifting are all ingredients in the toxic miasma currently swirling around the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Much of the briefing against him has emanated from the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office, both of which have their reasons to want to target blame at Mr Raab. “The more they brief against him, the fewer questions they are having to face about their own conduct,” said one ally of Mr Raab. “The Home Office doesn’t want people to be talking about how many Afghans they are allowing into the country and the MoD doesn’t want to talk about why the fall of Kabul took them by surprise.” (paywalled link)
There’s lovely: ’tis nought but a skin-saving exercise by ‘colleagues’. Expect more to come because, instead of working flat out, ”inside the Foreign Office a briefing war has begun over leaked details of his holiday.” (link, paywalled) – that’s civil serpents for you!
Cynical old cow that I am, I suspect that Raab will be made to resign and that he’ll be replaced not by Mr Javid – BJ ‘dislikes reshuffles’, remember? – but by Raab’s ‘junior minister’. This is the one who should’ve made the call but didn’t, the one whose name isn’t mentioned: Lord Goldsmith, the very good and green friend of Carrie.
Dontcha just love politics!
KBO
Apparently Dominic Raab was a keen Brexiteer too.
Wasn’t he one who got knocked out in the early rounds of the leadership contest?
Well, if ‘The Party’ is in disarray, who knows what may hap.
That analysis sounds about right Viv.
It seems to me given the total cockup the US made of the troop withdrawal, nothing could have been done to alleviate the situation.
It WAS Biden’s fault and no-one else’s.
Harryagain…..so you’re making lame excuses for your old mate Boris Johnson again are you, after all he doesn’t make many mistakes himself does he. Come on Harryagain get real. Johnson when it came down to it didn’t have to fall in line with Biden/US, but he did. He could have liaised with the French and Germans and other members of NATO and discussed an alternative strategy, but as we know he didn’t. Why didn’t he do so? My guess is that he is too laid back and lazy and prefers others to take the initiative. Harryagain unless you too like your old mate Boris have got your head permanently stuck in the sand, there have been a multitude of cock ups, and indifference to issues that concern the average man/woman in the street since he and the Conservatives have came to power in 2019. The EU Trade Deal allowing the European Commission to annexe Northern Ireland so that their have custom protocols are different to the rest of the UK, the continuing and ever growing English Channel migrant crisis where very little id being done to stem the flow, and the relaxation of tried and tested planning controls giving the developers the upper hand over residents, to name but a few.
Dontcha just love politics!
Nope!
Mostly it stinks and there is a lot of it about.
Sounds like Raab is being taken down a notch to curb his leadership ambitions. Meanwhile, the the cost in lives and financial losses incurred are forgotten, as well as the huge numbers of Afghans already in England and those on their way. Snakes and ladders in the house of horrors.