That doesn’t strengthen your argument one bit Strolls. By offering higher wages, for supposed menial/low paid jobs whilst also making it more beneficial for people to work through things like child care benefits…then these type of jobs become more attractive to people. The fact that higher wages could lead to higher prices and not pay cuts for bosses is what trade unions should be campaigning for.
Mate I agree with you…..and again that’s part of the enemy…the press that seeks to divide us and stoke up hatred. Along with those on the left who have an obsession with ‘identity politics, stoking up strife between black and white, gay and straight, male and female….it’s all being done to subjugate us. I’m fully prepared to become a target by taking industrial action if my union and colleagues vote for it…and prepared for the hatred and abuse that will be coming my way. I just can’t see how being in the EU (or what it has become with its own flag and anthem) helped the working class people of this country. That should be, and hopefully will become, the job of a strong trade union…not some champagne swilling pig, eating from the trough in Brussels.
Seems to be some speculation, at least in Kabul, that some of those killed and wounded at the airport were shot by soldiers, probably US soldiers, the casualties weren’t only killed by the bombs. It’s pretty evident by now that Biden couldn’t care less, no American servicemen killed for 18 months, now 13 in a day on his watch, but hey, he’s going to hit a self imposed propaganda deadline, copied from Trump. Apparently when asked backed in 2010 about the moral obligation the US has to support the Afghans, Biden, the Vice President, replied ‘**** that’. His Secretary of State has set out American foreign policy as being about the impact on American workers and their families and what makes them (the Democrats) stronger at home. Inspiring. And we, proud, independent, sovereign player on the world stage*, will meekly follow, leaving behind British citizens as well as those who worked for us, and waiting to be told what to do next. *copyright B Johnson
I read in the Guardian (yes I know) that the British Embassy Afghan security staff who were employed via a third party cannot now be evacuated even after the U turn by the British Government earlier in the week. Now they are being told to destroy all the paperwork necessary to prove their eligibility for evacuation 'to ensure they are not compromised' once the evacuation deadline has passed. The concept of moral responsibility seems lost on our political leaders and should these poor souls and their families endure a terrible retribution at the hands of the Taliban, their fate should rest at the feet of Johnson and Raab, to their eternal shame It's not often I comment on such matters but this terrible situation was foreseen and involves real people's lives
Biden is some kind of sick joke. Unbelievable that he's the best the USA could come up with after Trump.
That's because he was the only other option to Trump Col Not the best, just the last man standing Biden is just the building society branch manager who was passed over for promotion repeatedly but after 57 years of waiting got lucky He's a weak, 'by consensus' man
The great shame was that Bernie Sanders didn't win the Democrat nomination in 2016. He would've beaten Trump and there would have been in an entirely different argument in 2020. The consensus in the US was to get their troops out. Both Trump and Biden stood on that.platform, but maybe Trump's capitulation wouldn't have been quite so chaotic and tragic. Who knows? The US would have withdrawn anyway and their British poodles would have followed suit. It's a massive ****-up, but the biggest mistake was to go there in the first place.
Be nice if someone could answer an email ‘We feel hopeless now’: the British nationals left behind in Kabul UK passport holders describe feeling abandoned as the end of the evacuation nears Fear and fury in Kabul as thousands face being abandoned by UK UK Afghans and stranded relatives speak of anguish as time to leave ebbs please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Amelia Gentleman @ameliagentleman Fri 27 Aug 2021 18.51 BST British nationals stuck in Kabul have described feeling abandoned by UK officials as it became clear that the promised help with evacuation was looking increasingly unlikely after the news that repatriation flights will soon be suspended. Nine British citizens who had hoped to be evacuated this week said they had heard nothing from British officials since late on Thursday, and were feeling increasingly hopeless about the possibility of getting back to their homes in the UK. One described the evacuation operation as “hugely mismanaged” and a “shambles”. All said they were increasingly concerned about their safety. They voiced frustration that it had become impossible to get through to the Foreign Office’s Afghanistan helpline and said emails to the dedicated Afghan assistance account were not being answered. It is not clear how many British passport holders remain stranded in Afghanistan or how many eligible people are still waiting for evacuation. Ministers said there were only 1,100 people left to be rescued, but it seems likely that this figure significantly underestimates the total number of people who have been promised emergency visas. One British citizen, who runs a gift shop in Canterbury, said he had spent the past two days hiding in a basement. “We think the Taliban are searching house to house, targeting anyone with a foreign passport. I’m scared for my life. I hope the Foreign Office contact me soon,” he said. Evacuating Afghanistan: a visual guide to flights in and out of Kabul Read more Earlier in the week he had been advised by British officials to go to the Baron hotel processing centre with his wife, their three-week-old son and two-year-old daughter. Although he is the only British passport holder, he was told they would all be permitted to travel to the UK. However he was unable to get close enough to the gate of the hotel to tell officials who he was. “It was madness. There were thousands of people gathered there, pushing each other backwards and forwards. Most of them didn’t have any documents. “We waited there for 13 hours but my name was never called,” he said, adding that the British officials should have done more to try to identify the UK passport holders in the crowds. He wondered if Afghan-born British nationals were not seen as a priority. “They didn’t make a line, or try to separate British citizens from the others. If I was born in London, I wouldn’t have been treated like this. The Foreign Office has to answer that question.” please log in to view this image British soldiers secure the perimeter outside the Baron hotel in Kabul, which has now ceased processing evacuees. Photograph: Marcus Yam/LA Times/Rex/Shutterstock An Uber driver from London was also dismayed that UK officials at the airport had not come out to search for British passport holders in the crowds this week. He had spent several days queueing with his family outside the airport, and was very grateful to have had an email from the Foreign Office warning that an attack was imminent on Thursday, so he avoided the blast. “We were there for several days before that, calling out ‘I am British, I am British’, but no one came to help,” he said. His alarm was echoed by a 42-year-old minicab driver from south London, who said he had felt despair when he read that evacuation flights were going to end. “We’re thinking that we might go by road, but we need advice about where to go. We need to make plans, but when we call the [Foreign Office] numbers, they aren’t responding. We feel clueless,” he said. He said he felt that friends with German and Australian passports had received better assistance to get to the airport earlier in the week. “They were calling their citizens to gather at a certain spot in the city, and sending buses for them. No one contacted us.” He had compiled the names of 34 British citizens he was in contact with who were stranded in Kabul. “No one has been in touch to say they have been evacuated today, so far as I know they are all still here. There may be hundreds of others we don’t know about,” he said. A BBC World Service reporter in Kabul said he had received a repatriation letter earlier this week and was told that transport would be arranged to the airport because he had a three-month-old child. He managed to get on a bus to the airport on Thursday, but the evacuation was cancelled after the explosion, and he was told to return home and wait for news. “The last contact I had was at 12.30 last night. They said they would contact me immediately as soon as something is arranged. They didn’t even mention that it might not happen. “When I call the helpline they give only stock answers – wait for someone to call you. The local Afghan UK embassy number has not been working for days. I’ve sent over a dozen emails to Foreign Office accounts, to the email accounts they asked me to contact, and I haven’t had a single response from any email, which is shocking. “This is an absolutely disastrous scenario for me and my family. Reprisals have started and the Taliban are targeting individuals. I’m well-known in Kabul. If the government doesn’t come up with a plan to help us, unfortunately lives will be lost.” A 31-year-old factory worker from London said he too felt very lucky to have narrowly avoided the attack, after spending three days and nights trying to show his British passport close to the scene of the explosion. “We feel depressed and hopeless now. We don’t know if they are going to leave us like this or if they are going to make a way to take us from here,” he said. please log in to view this image Crowds of people attempt to show their documents to US troops outside the airport in Kabul. Photograph: Reuters Another British citizen, a 32-year-old mechanic from Derby, was also waiting for instructions about what to do next. “They’ve told us to stay somewhere safe and wait for further advice. We’re in a horrible situation; we’re very scared and can’t go out.” He was thinking about trying to drive across the border, but his wife and children do not have passports, and he was uncertain about whether they would be allowed out. The guards who provided security for the British embassy in Kabul were also pessimistic about their chances of fleeing Afghanistan on Friday, after a failed attempt by the international security firm GardaWorld to evacuate them. “We successfully gathered 185 families of British embassy workers, about 1,000 people in total, and got them to the airport, but we were not allowed in,” the guards’ supervisor said. “Right now for us there is no hope.” Oliver Westmacott, the GardaWorld president for the Middle East and Africa, said attempts to get the guards out would continue either overland or on commercial flights “once things calm down in the coming months”. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “More than 13,700 people including British nationals, our Afghan staff and others at risk have been evacuated from Afghanistan by the UK since Saturday 14 August in one of the biggest operations of its kind in history. “We will continue to do all we can to deliver on our obligation to get British nationals and eligible Afghans out of the country while the security situation allows.”
Biden refused to return Johnson's calls for 36 hours during the chaos. To give unconditional withdrawal orders without consultation with America's allies, is criminal and won't be forgotten the next time the US is looking for a military coalition. He's leaving $85 billion's worth of US military equipment in the hands of the Taliban. God knows what damage they will do with that in coming years. Even the Democrats are turning on the buffoon. But if he gets kicked aside, we end up with Kamala Harris. And then Trump back after that. Rocky road ahead.
From the new York times NEWS Biden ignored Boris Johnson for 36 hours as Afghan chaos grew: report By Samuel Chamberlain August 19, 2021 | 11:42pm please log in to view this image Joe BidenPhoto by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images President Joe Biden ignored British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempts to contact him for approximately 36 hours as the Taliban cemented its control over Afghanistan, a report said. Johnson tried to reach Biden on Monday morning, UK time, but wasn’t able to get him on the phone until 10 p.m. Tuesday (5 p.m. Washington time), according to The Daily Telegraph. The lengthy wait took place as desperate Afghans swarmed Kabul’s international airport in the hope of catching evacuation flights out. The White House had no immediate comment on the report, but on Tuesday afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that the president had “not yet spoken with any other world leaders” about the Afghanistan catastrophe. “Myself, Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken, several other senior members of the team have been engaged on a regular basis with foreign counterparts, and we intend to do so in the coming days,” Sullivan added. [ Once Johnson got Biden on the phone, the Telegraph reported, the British PM urged the American president not to throw away “gains made in Afghanistan,” an apparent response to Biden’s insistence in remarks from the White House Monday that the US “mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building.” please log in to view this image Johnson and Biden weren’t able to talk to each other until Tuesday night. Photo by Daniel Leal-Olivas – WPA Pool/Getty Images A White House readout of the call states that Biden and Johnson “discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward” and agreed to hold a virtual meeting with other leaders of the G7 nations next week. On Wednesday, British lawmakers united across party lines to condemn the botched withdrawal as well as Biden’s remarks defending it, using some of the strongest parliamentary language toward an American president in memory. with the Taliban to President Biden’s decision to proceed, and to proceed in such a disastrous way.” Johnson also came in for criticism, with his fellow Tory and predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May, recalling that he and Biden had said as recently as last month “that they did not think that the Taliban were ready or able to take over control of the country.” please log in to view this image Armed Taliban militants in Mehtarlam, Afghanistan on August 15 “Was our intelligence really so poor?” she asked. “Was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak? Was our knowledge of the position on the ground so inadequate? Did we really believe that, or did we just feel that we had to follow the United States and hope that, on a wing and a prayer, it would be all right on the night?”
Anyone who honestly thought the Biden would be any different is either very stupid at very naive. He was always gonna be putting America first and **** the rest of the world. At least Trump was honest in his views, however repugnant they were
1250 too many of course, but where are the headlines praising the successful evac of 15k or more people?
But of course, some will always blame Brexit alone for not being able to get their Banana milkshake from Maccie D’s
