The above clip is of the then LAB PM, Jim Callaghan arriving back at Heathrow in early 1979 being questioned about the then industrial and political situation where his party no longer had a majority. The months that followed this were later called “The Winter of Discontent”. The Sun front page the following day ran the headline “Crisis – What crisis” although as can seen in the clip he never used those words. The reason I put this up is…
The Daily Mail gets its teeth in As I indicated in my post yesterday I thought that Raab would survive as Foreign Sec following the revelation that he did not make phone calls to his Afghan opposite number in order to protect the Afghan interpreters at the UK’s embassy there. This was followed yesterday afternoon by a PR stunt with Raab sitting at his desk apparently making phone calls from his desk – a move the Mail is calling risible….
As can be seen in the latest WH2024 betting Biden has taken a bit of a tumble following the blistering criticism that he has been under after his Afghanistan withdrawal decision. It looks as though he has failed though it was his predecessor, Trump, who reached a deal with the Taliban. When you have had military involvement on the scale of the US in Afghanistan over the past two decades then inevitably this will impact on the position of the…
After yesterday’s devastating emergency debate on Afghanistan Johnson’s government looks more bruised than ever and he needs to do something to re-assert his fading authority within the party. But in his whole career Johnson has found it difficult to sack people that he has appointed even when this appears necessary. There’s little doubt that the PM’s authority has taken a beating and he needs to act soon to make sure that it is not his head that is on the…
In 2019 the US President decided to withdraw US troops from the Syrian-Turkish border, a move seen by many – and certainly the Kurds, who were heavily involved in fighting and defeating IS in Iraq – as a betrayal. In February 2020 the US reached an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, release Taliban prisoners, lift sanctions and facilitate economic co-operation in return for a promise that the Taliban would not allow Afghanistan to host terror…
There’s been a little of movement on a few betting markets in reaction to the latest developments in Afghanistan. Probably the most significant is above on the outcome of the next election. As can be seen an overall CON majority was the odds on favourite in the aftermath of the vaccine bounce. That is no longer the case and other factors like Afghanistan have come into play. There’s been no movement at all in the Johnson exit date betting where…
The Tories largely without masks – in contrast to those on the opposition benches This morning’s emergency debate on Afghanistan is the first time that we have seen a largely packed House of Commons since the first lockdown came into force in March last year and it has been a big reminder of how abnormal politics has been. It was also Starmer’s first taste of being opposition leader in a big debate in front of a full House of Commons…