Much has been made this week by Nick Clegg of the lack of a strategy in Afghanistan and equipment shortages. He has taken the high moral ground and has started questioning why we are in Afghanistan, full stop. He's right to do so.
What a shame therefore that the two LibDem members of the Defence Select Committee couldn't be bothered to turn up for a meeting this week of the Committee on Wednesday, when ministers from the FCO, MoD, Dfid and senior military civil servants were giving evidence on operations in Afghanistan. Step forward Mike Hancock and Richard Younger-Ross.
Perhaps the LibDem chief whip might like to ask them what they were doing which was more important than quizzing government representatives on our strategy and military operations in Afghanistan.
30 comments:
The Lib Dems are really starting to get on my nerves lately. They seem to make a lot of noise but then when it comes to actually turning their words into actions they generally seem to disappear.
It gets on my nerves because I'd like to see them do more with what limited presence in the House they've got.
It would be like turning up to an alchemy meeting on gold transmutation. It's not going to work, let it go. There are plenty of more useful things they could have done with their time.
@ Duncan Cookson. If LibDems believe your statement is correct, then why be send Mssrs Handcock and Younger-Ross to the Defence Select Committee in the first place? For a start, they could have questioned the absence of the CoS and Senior Army Officers from the meeting, highlighting the poisonous relationship between the uniforms and the politicians. Select Committees are there to bring light into the murky corners which the Gov.t would prefer to be ignored. LibDems can be very good at that.
Iain, When will David Cameron stand up and speak UP against this unwinnable 'war' in Afghanistan.
How many more fine young men and women must die before we face the inevitable and pull out our troops...as we did 100 years ago and as the Russians were forced to do!
If it is to make our streets safer, then I think a much firmer line on immigration and illegal immigration must be taken.
Whilst we have home grown, taliban sympathisers, the problem is already on our streets. So that makes a nonsense of Brown's quite ridiculous statement.
If it is just to show our support of the USA, then we need far more troops there and a greater financial commitment in equipment etc. for our brave men and women.
Brown and Blair should never be allowed to forget the blood they have on their hands.
When we read that one lad that came home yesterday in a coffin was eighteen! and was killed on his first day out there- it makes my blood boil.
As more and more coffins come home, the British people will make the decision for our weak politicians, believe me.
Cameron should grab the rising anger and demand an end and promise that he will bring our troops home!
Clegg often does this - makes a big impact with a genuinely radical statement (or at least an announcement which is not expected for a party leader) and then fails to follow it up with any more action.
There is a real chance that Labour and the LibDems will meet at the same level in future opinion polls but with increased support comes the requirement to be a Hell of a lot more credible than they currently are. And I'm a LibDem - I want Clegg to keep up the momentum. Just wish he did...
They were probably campaigning in Norwich North in tax payers time.
Distraction to concentrate on attendance at toothless select committees.
The issue is voting for or against War period. At least on Iraq, Lib Dems have an honourable record of opposing the occupation and invasion
The Libdems do not really like the armed forces. Not REALLY...
And the Libdems at prayer(The Gruaniad) might be wishing it had never ran with the phone tap story...
Guardian sold a pup? More expenses allegations! Smith argued with husband over porn
The shocking news is that 8 soldiers have died in one day. I am afraid this is something of the inevitable disaster that I have been predicting for some time and which the govt have been lax in preparing the public for. 5 were killed in one ambush.
Quite frankly we are lucky it was as low as that but we do not know how many are injured.
it is not the war on the ground that needs to be won it is the battle for the nations will that the Taliban are winning and the govt have casually thrown away.
Someone in opposition should be demanding that John Reid the former Defence Secretary who sent Trops to Afghanistan with words along these lines ringing in their ears: "We may well accomplish our mission in Afghanistan without firing a shot in anger", apologise.
This under-estimation of the dangers our Troops face continues to the present day as this apology for a Government plays catch-up 8 years later on getting vital life saving equipment to our troops. For this the Government should be offering an apology and not a few resignations. Included amongst the resignations should be every one of the pen-pushers whose "altered specification(s)" led to the purchase of 8 Chinook helicopters that cannot fly.
This war is unwinnable and it is being fought to keep a puppet Government in power in Kabul. It is also one of the most corrupt regimes in the World any suggestion it is working towards democracy in Afghanistan is laughable it is their actions that lead to more and more people turning to the Taleban for help.
Russian official figures put military losses in Afghanistan at 25,000, other sources put it at 100,000. How many more under-equipped troops is this Government prepared to lose before they see what an examination of any number of history books could have told them: Afghanistan has never accepted uninvited foreigners on their soil and in their faces.
Your pathological hatred of the Lib Dems makes you look extremely silly.
Umm. Presumably - at a by-election?
I haven't missed them.
Hancock is only there when Portsmouth Naval Base is being discussed.
This is a scandal.
Take a looat TrueBlueBlood....he asks some critical questions today of this Government.
I must say I had not thought as deeply about what TBB says but he/she is right....what is our mission in Afghanistan? What is our exit strategy etc?
Take a look iain....
Afghanisatn should be a big issue for cameron to raise on the national stage for discussion.
Johnny Norfolk-North
iain does not hate the Lib Dems.
God your comments are insane and immature Johnny. Why don't you go and look at the Cbeebies site instead
May I recommend to all to read Mathew Parris's excellent article in today's TIMES on his experiences in Afghanistan.
I urge Cameron to call Mr Parris and arrange a conference with him, William Hague and Dr Fox to discuss Conservative policy on Afghanistan.
I am sure, after reading this article, many people will wonder why our men and women are losing their lives propping up such a regime!!
Bring our troops home!
Lib Dems say one thing and do another. Nothing new in that! The pious selfinterested Liberal Democrats! Say one thing and do another, claim to be Liberal but are the reverse!
One week they are for higher taxes then the next lower taxes. A Penny on Income Tax becomes Four Pennies off and then they have no policy at all!
One week they are for Military action the next week they are against.
They start off supporting Labour even joining cabinet select committees and then once leaving claim to be the real opposition.
Just like the By-Election the falshood on where a candidate lives goes on and we discover the LD does not live in Norwich but on the Suffolk border surrounded by a moat!
Labour and Liberal Democrats are Two cheeks of the same rear end and the reason LD have to Smashed harder than Labour is they are a road block to Good Government!
Obsessed with Lib Dems much?
There have been more posts on this blog lately about a party which never has been, and probably never will be, in government at Westminster than there have been about a massive phone-tapping scandal with personnel links to Tory HQ.
Perhaps I shouldn't say this a loyal Tory but poking fun at the Lib Dems is a pointless exercise, whilst making some valid points about Afghanistan would be worthwhile.
Maybe Mike Hancock is busy being Cabinet Member for Planning, Regeneration and Economic Development, as well as being Councillor for Fratton Ward. Would this come under a second job?
He tells his constituents for his council ward they can call him at the House of Commons...
Oh gawd Martin dare not post under his real name Day here again with another pseudonym and more libellous comments about LibDems .
"He has taken the high moral ground and has started questioning why we are in Afghanistan, full stop. He's right to do so."
Sorry, Iain, but he is not right to coin defeatism out of the deaths of our soldiers and the difficulties of war. It'd be like saying in 1944 that we should withdraw from the European mainland because Operation Market Garden was a disaster. Nobody who was resolved to win the war of which they're speaking would ever propose that argument.
Politicians should be competing to demand victory in Afghanistan, not outbidding each other to see who can surrender the fastest.
Where were they? Obviously at Norwich North. As for their Chief Whip knowing, he probably sent them there!
They are beginning to grate on me at this by-election with their filthy campaign. It would be delicious if (probably that should read 'when') Labour keep them down in 3rd place, despite their non-starter of a campaign.
'The Libdems do not really like the armed forces' yes that Captain Paddy Ashdown bloke was really anti forces, and what about that bloke in the Lords, Air Vice Marshal Gardener.
Wheres Daley Dozen.
How I miss that feature...saves me trawling through all these blogs
Richard Younger-Ross wasn't missing from Teignmouth Veterans Day. Shame the two Tory county councillors were missing.
@ Anon 7:20 PM
Sadly, Tim Garden died on 9th August 2007.
We seem to get the same old mantra from all our politicians that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the national interest and that it is the only way to defeat terrorism.
Please provide the evidence.
No politician from any party has done so, nor for that matter has the army or the media.
What the bloody hell are our troops doing out there!!!
We are fighting terrorism in other parts of the world, but sadly not on our borders. I would prefer the vast amount of monies being spent fighting abroad, put into more stringent and effective border control. It appears to me that too many people can travel into and out of this country, to, shall we say, countries who support terrorism, with relative ease.
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