Afghanistan and the lessons from history. Letters in The Week.

The letters below appeared in The Week published on Sept 4 2021.  Each show an interesting take on the lessons from history which have, or should that be haven’t, been learned from events in the graveyard of Empires.

Afghanistan: Lessons from history.

To The Guardian

One can perhaps forgive Americans for botching the Afghanistan campaign, but the British, who fought the Afghans three times (1839, 1878 and 1919), should have known better.

When, before the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839, Lord Auckland, the head of the British invading force, asked the Maharajah Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of Punjab, to undertake the responsibility of invading Kabul, the Maharajah refused; he knew only too well that they were easy to conquer, but difficult to rule; that they were a mosaic of competing tribes, which ensured that no strong central authority maintained its power over them for too long.  It is a pity that Western leaders could not foresee in 2001 what Ranjit Singh could in 1839.

Randhir Singh Baines, London.

Obviously the Sikhs knew the Afghans far, far better than the British, or anyone else for that matter.

 

To the Financial Times

The British Army’s retreat from Kabul in 1842 was chaotic and ignominious, resulting in the deaths of 16,000 troops and support staff.

However, Britain still had a plan: imperial expansion.  This plan meant the retreat was a minor sideshow.  Britain’s retreat from Kabul today is existentially significant because Britain has no plan.  Having been abandoned by the US and having rejected the possibility of achieving national fulfilment as leader of the EU, Britain, unlike in 1842, stands in self-inflicted desolation.

Professor John Martin, University College London.

This letter arranges and distorts facts in order to make a very thinly veiled attack on Brexit.

To The Times

You report that the air evacuation from Kabul is the biggest since the Berlin blockade in 1948-49.  It is more appropriate to mention the airlift from Kabul in winter 1928-29, the first mass air evacuation by the RAF, in which 586 British and foreign nationals were flown to Peshawar to escape the take-over of Kabul by Bacha-i-Saqao, also known as Habibullah Klalakani.  The operation was co-ordinated by the British legation in Kabul.  Operating in overladen, underpowered aircraft, then flying through the North-West Frontier was no mean feat.  Politicians ought to do more historical research.

Geoff Cowling, British vice-consul, Kabul, 1970-73.

I thought the Berlin blockade of 1948-49 was a matter of supplies being flown in rather than people being flown out.  Be that as it may, a remarkable effort by the RAF on both occasions.

Brexit came too late for the Cadburys factory at Keynsham in North East Somerset. A letter in the WDP.

A letter in the Western Daily Press on February 6.

Cadbury move too late for SW factory.

It has been reported that Cadburys is bringing Dairy Milk chocolate bar production back from Germany and other sites in Europe to its Bournville site in Birmingham.  Very good news for workers in the Midlands, but we should spare a thought for those who were employed at the Cadburys factory in Keynsham near Bristol who lost their jobs in 2011 when the factory was closed and the machinery shipped to Poland.  Brexit came too late for them.

S.W.

Ilminster, Somerset.

Will breaking the Brexit withdrawal agreement damage Britain's reputation? A letter in the Western Daily Press.

 Letter in the Western Daily Press 22 September 2020.

Treaties only last while they last.

It is all very well for Geoffrey Cox MP, the former Attorney General, to say breaking agreements and treaties does “unconscionable” damage to Britain’s reputation, but there are circumstances when standing by them can be disastrous.

In 1914 those in government didn’t want conflict with Germany, but because they did not wish to break the treaty which guaranteed Belgian neutrality ministers reluctantly decided war had to be declared when German troops marched into Belgium.  They felt it was a matter of upholding Britain’s honour and reputation to do so.

Devastatingly, to put it mildly, World War One cost Britain and The Empire millions of dead and wounded to defeat Germany and her allies.  That victory lead to an unjust peace, the rise of Nazi Germany, and another world war.

With the benefit of hindsight one might think fighting for Belgian neutrality and maintaining Britain’s reputation came at too high a cost.  

Perhaps, in present circumstances, Mr Cox might consider the words of President de Gaulle: “Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.”

S.W. 

Ilminster, Somerset.

Remainers undermining the principle of democratic consent? A letter in The Week.

The letter below, published in The Week (October 19), suggests the Remain-backing establishment risks undermining the principle of democratic consent.  In my opinion they have already very seriously damaged the principle of democratic consent, and if the vote to leave the European Union is set aside they will have destroyed it.

Referendum Confusion

To The Daily Telegraph

I am yet to hear a single advocate of another EU referendum explain why anyone would trust Parliament to implement the result.  If the first referendum was advisory and the electorate did not understand the question, why would a second referendum be binding and clear?

Moreover, since the Remain side has already been defeated by the massive margin of 1.3 million votes, the only democratic choice available on a hypothetical ballot paper would be between the Withdrawal Agreement and leaving with without a deal. 

Britain’s Remain-backing establishment risks undermining the principle of democratic consent with its determination to overturn the result of the “once in a lifetime” referendum.

Philip Duly, Haslemere, Surrey

Frederick Forsyth and the true meaning of "no-deal" Brexit. A letter in The Week.

I came across this interesting letter from best-selling author Frederick Forsyth which focuses on the meaning of words, and not what people would like or think them to mean. The letter, reproduced below, was first published in The Daily Telegraph then published in the 12th October edition of The Week.

Another Brexit casualty

To The Daily Telegraph

Among the many casualties of the litany of incompetence befalling our country, we now count our national language and the meaning of words.  We are told that “no-deal” must be swept off the table.  But “no-deal” is not a presence, it is an absence and by definition you cannot abolish an absence.

The only deals realistically before us are “no-deal” or Michel Barnier’s deal, which he has told us many times is not for variation by so much as a comma.  And that deal requires the UK to live on its knees forever.

I never cease to be surprised at the number of mediocrities in high office who seek my vote (when I am allowed to have one) to support them in this grovel.

So please let us have our general election as soon as possible so that we may, with silent votes rather than placards, usher the appeasers back to that oblivion for which nature so amply equipped them.

Frederick Forsyth, Buckinghamshire.

The Social Democratic Party, seemingly a patriotic party with a social conscience believing in a nation-state independent of the EU.

I just came across the Social Democratic Party website and had a look at their policy pages.  Among the policies listed the call for an English Parliament caught my eye.  On the same “Constitution” page was advocated the abolition of the House of Lords, proportional representation and a statement saying “No public sector employee should be paid more than the Prime Minister”.  Any English patriot should be delighted with such policies!


Reading further I was delighted to find that on animal welfare the SDP calls for a ban on non-stun slaughter “as requested by the British Veterinary Association and the RSPCA”.


The SDP advocate a cap on net AND gross immigration while current arbitrary spending on Foreign Aid would be scrapped - a common sense approach to both issues.


On land the railways would be re-nationalised and funding for regional and rural bus travel would be increased.  Meanwhile at sea the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers appear to have top priority with regard to defence spending.


The Social Democratic Party seem to me to be a patriotic community-centric party with a social conscience which believes not in nationalism, but nationhood with the nation state being independent of the European Union.


I will seriously consider voting for them if given the chance, and if I was not too old I might even be tempted to join them!

Parliamentarians flummoxed by the possibility of a post-Brexit traffic jam at the Port of Dover.

I had a letter published in the Western Daily Press on September 19th.  The editor gave it a rather odd title, but otherwise it was un-edited.

Brexit needs help of our world war heroes.


After over two years of slaughter World War One had reached a stalemate when David Lloyd George became Prime Minister in December 1916.  With ministers of the calibre of Winston Churchill, Arthur Balfour, Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin serving in his Coalition Government he refocused the nation’s efforts and set Britain on the road to a victory achieved less than two years later. 

Today, nearly three and a half years after the people voted for Brexit, with modern communications and other technologies Lloyd George and his Government could not have dreamed of, our politicians seem totally flummoxed by the possibility of having to deal with a post-Brexit traffic jam at the Port of Dover. 

Thank goodness none of our present crop of shallow parliamentarians was in office when this country was involved in a World War.

S.W.
Ilminster, Somerset.

After 46 years in the European Union the United Kingdom is no longer a bastion of democracy.

My  letter in the Western Daily Press September 16th.

UK no longer a bastion of democracy.


What nation has a Parliament which refuses to uphold a referendum result, does not allow a General Election, passes a law which could see a Prime Minister sent to prison, and votes to intercept the private communications of political staff? 

Communist China or perhaps Putin’s Russia?  Maybe a failed Third World state or a despotic Middle Eastern regime?


No - the United Kingdom.  It is obviously no longer a shining example of democracy or a bastion of personal privacy.  Being a member of the European Union for 46 years has brought the nation to this.

S.W.
Ilminster. 

Update 29 September. 

Apparently this letter also appeared in the Bath Chronicle on September 19.

The EU Referendum, Brexit and the broken promises of Labour and Conservative politicians.

After some considerable time I have resumed writing letters to the press.  I had the one below published in the Western Daily Press today, September 12th.

Promise not worth paper it's written on.

It’s now over three years since people voted to leave the European Union, and over two years since a General Election in which both the Labour and Conservative parties pledged that they would uphold the 2016 referendum.  Events have proved that party manifestos and leaflets containing such promises were not worth the paper they were written on.
With the Battle of Britain Day approaching perhaps I might take the liberty of saying, in the style of Churchill: “Never in the field of democratic politics have so many been deceived by so few”.  

S.W. 
Ilminster, Somerset

The British Political Establishment - not delivering what you voted for!

I came across an interesting article from Vernon Bogdanor in The Guardian this week.  He makes the interesting point that MPs could connive to block Brexit indefinitely.  This is what he had to say:

 “. . . were Parliament to pass legislation preventing Britain leaving the EU without a deal, Brexit could be delayed forever, since the Commons would then be free to reject every deal presented to it”.

He also writes:

“ Looking at the sorry performance of the House of Commons elected in 2017, it is difficult to avoid remembering Winston Churchill’s condemnation of the parliaments of the 1930s as being “ decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent”.  Parliament has shown itself not to be the solution to Brexit but the problem.”

Here is a link to the article:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/29/parliament-brexit-prorogue-mps-alternative-no-deal

Meanwhile, on a similar theme, this was my favourite letter of the month taken from the August 24 edition of The Week.  It was originally published in The Sunday Times.

Getting what you voted for.

To The Sunday Times

Michael Heseltine and Betty Boothroyd get into an awful lather about the “subversion” of Parliament as they attempt to stop us leaving the EU.

They overlook the facts that MPs voted in favour of holding a referendum; that the majority of MPs were elected on manifestos that pledged to honour the result of that referendum; that MPs voted to trigger Article 50 in the knowledge that it committed us to leaving; and that it was MPs who voted down the deal that was negotiated with the EU – on three occasions. 

If the result of all this is the UK leaving on 31 October with no deal, that is the result of decisions made by Parliament.  Where is the subversion?

Eileen Haxby, Harrogate.

Three local by-elections give cheer to the new parties of the right.

The Liberal Democrats had a good day yesterday gaining two council seats in Gloucester, one from Labour and one from the Conservatives. 

However, it is interesting to note the performance of the new parties of the right.  The Brexit Party stood candidates in the two contests in Gloucester receiving 10.5 per cent of the votes in one and a very respectable 16.4 per cent in the other.    

In the Labour Party bastion of Hartlepool, on the North Sea coast of County Durham, Labour won a council seat with only 30 per cent of the vote while Anne Marie Waters’ For Britain Movement must have been encouraged by garnering 13.8 per cent.  Remarkably the For Britain Movement and UKIP received a combined 23.3 per cent of the vote. 

In general the three results suggest the Labour vote is being chipped away on the left by the Liberal Democrats and on the right by The Brexit Party and the For Britain Movement.

I suspect, now Boris and his Brexiteers are in government, the Conservative Party may stabilize somewhat in the polls until its fate is decided on November 1.

Tim Montgomerie on Ian Dunt. My favourite tweet of the month,

On the 23rd July Tim Montgomerie, British political activist and columnist, tweeted:

"Delivering Brexit isn't just about delivering Brexit anymore.  It's a culture war.  It's about defeating foul-mouthed anti-democrats like Ian Dunt who think that the views of the elite matter more than the views of the majority."

Mr Dunt, editor of politics.co.uk  is a regular on Sky News, which says a lot about that channel's standards.

Incidentally, also on the 23rd BBC presenter Nick Robinson tweeted this, perhaps the daftest tweet of the month:
""You broke it. You own it".  As true for Boris and Brexit as it was when Colin Powell warned George W. Bush about invading Iraq."

However difficult and chaotic Brexit might possibly be, comparing it to invading Iraq is just plain silly.

Brexit Party MEPs turning their backs on the EU anthem was crass, but comparing them to Nazis is preposterous.

The act by Brexit Party MEPs of turning their backs as the EU anthem was played at the opening ceremony of the European Parliament was crass, but comparing it to how the Nazis behaved in the Reichstag is preposterous.

One moment Brexiteers are accused of being “Little Englanders”, the next Nazis.  However, I doubt Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party want to invade Poland and France, march on Moscow, conquer the world and build concentration camps on Dartmoor!

Gavin Esler, former BBC Newsnight presenter and EU Parliamentary candidate for Change UK, said the Brexit Party had ‘shamelessly copied the Nazi Party’, on the basis that the Nazis once turned their backs on a Jewish speaker in the Reichstag in 1930.

Mr Esler is a member of the Remainer elite that are absolutely committed to stopping Brexit, even if the EU Referendum result of 2016 has to be set aside and faith in democracy shattered as a result.

Be that as it may, I sent the letter below to the Western Daily Press, I haven’t seen it published yet!

Dear Sir,

Brexit Party MEPs turning their backs as the EU anthem was played at the opening ceremony of the European Parliament was a boorish act, but not as boorish as Liberal Democrat MEPs wearing yellow vests emblazoned with “Bollocks to Brexit".  MEPs, whether Brexiteers or Remainers, should set high standards of civility, and not exhibit such oafish behaviour. 


Update September 9th.

It seems the above letter found its way into the Western Morning News on July 8th!  

Taking the Brexit buscuit and leaving the crumbs. An exchange of letters from The Week.

I enjoyed this exchange of letters in the The Sunday Telegraph which was republished in The Week magazine on June 15.

Taking the biscuit . . .

To The Sunday Telegraph

If 52 per cent of the electorate say they like biscuits, it does not tell us what proportion favour particular varieties, such as garibaldi or nice.

Apply this to Brexit, and the vote does not indicate a majority for any particular deal.  In such circumstances, surely the democratic process demands public confirmation of any deal accepted by Parliament.

Robert East, London

 . . . leaving the crumbs.

To The Sunday Telegraph

Mr East’s analogy is flawed.

It makes no sense at all for those who don’t like biscuits to choose which ones should be eaten by those who do.

Michael Maughan, Tynemouth, Northumberland

Martin Durkin on Europe's university educated snobs, my favourite tweet of the month!

This must be my favourite tweet of the month from Martin Durkin pro-Brexit producer and director.  On 27th June he tweeted:

"The EU is the ultimate expression of Europe's university educated tax-munchers and snobs.  It is their Mothership, their source of power.  Brexit is an existential  blow to them.  That is why, three years on, the frothing apoplexy of the Remainers has not subsided."

Jenny Knight and Mike Blundell step up to the plate for the English Democrats in the South West Region's European Union Parliamentary Elections.

I have come across very little in the West Country papers referring to the policies Jenny Knight and Mike Blundell are advocating as they step up to the plate for the English Democrats in the South West Region in the EU Parliamentary Election – an election that this country would not be participating in had the British Political Establishment honoured the result of the 2016 EU Referendum.  

However, I did find this from the North Devon Gazette:

English Democrats

The English Democrats firmly believe in leaving the EU and 'putting England first' - including campaigning for the creation of an English Parliament.

It is putting up two candidates for the South West - Jenny Knight and Mike Blundell.

First candidate on the ballot, Mrs Knight, said: "I am from a Devon military family from Great Torrington and went to school in Bideford, North Devon but now live in Somerset. I am a local historian having written guide books on Bath.

"I am standing for the English Democrats Party whose manifesto includes leaving the EU and Putting England First. We also campaign for England to have her own Parliament to equalise that of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"I am also supporting those women born in the 1950's who suffered financial hardship when the state pension age was raised for women from age 60 to 66, with little or no notice and implemented through the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Acts. Thousands of women in the South West were affected, losing in general up to £45,000 each.

"If elected I will campaign with Pension Reformers United for all those women across the South West who, quite rightly, feel they have suffered an injustice at the hands of successive Governments and deserve recompense."

Second candidate, Mike Blundell, said : "The European Union is an inward looking, authoritarian and inefficient institution. The sooner we are out of it the better.

"I am a family man, living and working in Bristol for more than 30 years. In that time I have experienced the decline in the quality of our public services.

"We should be spending our taxes on improving our hospitals and schools and not being forced by the European Union to have them spent funding subsidies for tobacco, wine and sugar. We can add to this slipper farmers, receipt free MEP expenses and the endless travel between Brussels and Strasbourg.

"The EU is outdated, it is the past. Time to say goodbye."

Good for them for standing.  In present circumstances, they will have done well if they receive more than 10,000 votes.

Here is a link to the whole article:

https://www.northdevongazette.co.uk/news/politics/euro-election-south-west-candidates-1-6056398

A Green Party supporter raises the standard of political campaigning in Ilminster, South Somerset?

I was driving through Ilminster yesterday when my wife saw what appeared to be a Green Party election poster attached to a telegraph pole.  I went back and took a photo.  Obviously this local supporter of the Green Party wants to raise the standard of political campaigning?

A Green Party supporter raises the standard of political campaigning in Ilminster, South Somerset?

The poster may persuade some to "vote Green", but it did not persuade us!

UK EU Parliamentary Elections 2019. The Brexit Party, English Democrats and UKIP take part, but the SDP and For Britain Movement are absent.

The British Political Establishment, which obviously believes in democracy only when doing so suits its purpose, has ducked, dived, dodged and weaved to such a disgraceful extent that Brexit has now been delayed and betrayed.  Three years after the EU Referendum we are still in the European Union and about to take part in the EU Parliamentary Elections on May 23.

The establishment parties in Westminster are dominated by Remainers, so who should Brexiteers vote for?

The obvious choice is Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party which has burst dramatically upon the scene and rides high in the opinion polls.   It will stand in all the EU’s Parliamentary Constituencies in the UK, except Northern Ireland. 

Without Farage UKIP seems to be in chaos having courted Tommy Robinson and his followers only to see him stand as an Independent. 

The English Democrats stood in all of England’s constituencies in 2014.  They are standing in only four constituencies this time; the East of England, North West, South West and Yorkshire and Humber.  A gallant effort to promote English Nationhood, but they will lose £20,000 in deposits and will have done well if they gather 40,000 votes.

Meanwhile the other minor Brexiteer parties, the SDP and Anne Marie Waters’ For Britain Movement are nowhere to be seen.

I will vote for either Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party or Robin Tilbrook’s English Democrats, and make my decision in the polling booth!

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, bids to prove in the High Court that the UK has already left the EU.

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, is using the Gina Miller case to show that the United Kingdom has left the European Union and that the Prime Minister had no legal authority to extend Article 50 without an Act of Parliament.  He has served papers, in person, to the High Court suggesting that the UK has already left the EU which, if upheld in court, would mean that the government is proceeding with negotiations as if we are still members when in fact we left on 29 March.   

Sir Richard Aikens, a former appeal court judge, has previously said that the legality of Theresa May’s delay to Brexit should be tested in court.  It will be interesting to see if those in the British legal establishment find any illegality with the British political establishment’s Brexit shenanigans.

Mr Tilbrook’s action has been lengthily reported in the Daily Mail, below is a link to the article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6879215/English-Democrats-begin-court-battle-prove-UK-left-EU.html

Here is a link to the English Democrats’ website.

https://www.englishdemocrats.party/

Recent opinion polls and local council elections results. A sign of things to come?

There was an interesting ComRes poll carried out between 15 and 17 March, the week before the Prime Minister made her latest trip to Europe to plead for more time to kick the Brexit can even farther down the road.  Its results showed that the Labour and Conservative parties were neck and neck, but could not manage 70 per cent between them!  TIG was on 7 per cent and UKIP on 6 per cent, the Liberal Democrats, longstanding opponents of Brexit, were in the doldrums on 8 per cent – presumably there was no prompt for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.   And, don’t forget, this poll was taken before Mrs May’s foray across the English Channel to delay Brexit.

Following the ComRes poll there were some real ones last Thursday when a cluster of council by elections took place. No earthshattering upsets, but a trio of results caught my eye. 

In two wards UKIP had candidates.  In Kensington and Chelsea’s Delgano ward UKIP had 5.7 per cent of the vote, not having stood a candidate last time, and in Newcastle-under-Lyme’s Holditch and Chesterton ward their candidate increased their vote by 2.6 per cent to 12.3 per cent.

Meanwhile in Essex, Anne Marie Waters’ fledgling For Britain Movement fielded a candidate in Southend’s Milton ward and polled a respectable 5.3 per cent.

None of the aforementioned candidates came anywhere near winning, but the percentages achieved can make all the difference to other parties’ candidates winning or losing.  You don’t need to win to have influence!

Remember, these opinion polls and real polls took place while the UK Government is still supposed to be delivering the 2016 Referendum result.  If MPs overturn that result they will prove that they only believe in democracy when it suits them to do so.  They will eventually have to face the consequences of such action at the ballot box.  

Should Brexit be revoked I suspect a goodly number of those 17.4 million people who voted to leave the EU will be looking for somewhere, if they ever bother voting again, to put their X in protest.  Gerard Batten’s UKIP, Anne Marie Waters’ For Britain Movement and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party will be there to accommodate them.  If these insurgent parties prosper at the polling booths it will be thanks to the hypocritical manoeuvrings of the Conservatives, Labour, TIGs and Liberal Democrats.