A rather nailed on set of observances here:
Ian Dunt on yesterdayâs Afghanistan debate:
If you listened closely, you could hear the world changing. The Commons returned from summer recess on Wednesday to discuss the disaster in Afghanistan, amid an overwhelming sense of shock and humiliation. MPs with stricken faces â some visibly shaking with rage, some seemingly on the verge of tears â were suddenly aware that they were living in an epoch-defining moment. They were witnessing the decline of the West, its retreat from the world, and the consequences which follow from that.
There were three ideas hanging over the proceedings. They were often left unspoken, but dominated every word. The first was that the special relationship with the US is clearly a fiction, and has been for longer than the UK foreign policy establishment cares to admit. The second was that Brexit had burned bridges with the other Western powers to whom Britain might now naturally turn. And the third was that the Government is utterly unable to demonstrate the level of competence the situation demands of them.
President Joe Bidenâs speech on Monday was still ringing in the ears of MPs. He had demonstrated no regret or sorrow for the situation he had helped create, nor for the lives of those who have been sacrificed as a result of it. He had shown no interest in how Europe or Britain might be affected.
Perhaps if it had come from Donald Trump, people would have been less mortified. He was at least a known quantity. But this was not Trump. It was a Democratic President. America First was evidently no longer a Republican policy. It was the defining feature of US foreign policy across the main parties.
You could see a fundamental change in peopleâs geopolitical assessments happening almost in real-time. âWe can set out a vision,â Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said plaintively, like a man reaching for a life raft, âfor reinvigorating our European Nato partners, to make sure weâre not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leaderâ.
But the reality was much more severe than that. Britain has spent the last six years destroying its relationship with Europe. It has treated some of its closest allies like a foreign enemy. It has placed itself in a self-imposed continental exile in which animosity, not cooperation, is the order of the day.
The former Prime Minister, Theresa May, told MPs that âRussia will not be blind to the implications of this withdrawal decisionâ and âneither will Chinaâ. Thatâs true. But what she did not say was that Russia and China were also happy to see the UK break itself off from Europe, that the worldâs authoritarian leaders had looked on in bemused satisfaction as Britain helped to tear up the rules-based liberal world order which it had done so much to create.
Downing Street would have been quietly satisfied if the outrage was restricted to Biden. But that did not happen. It was also directed towards the Government. And that did not come exclusively from Labour MPs, but from right across the Chamber.
This was hardly surprising. The UK response to the Afghan crisis has been an object lesson in ineptitude, obfuscation and moral bankruptcy. The Foreign Officeâs Rapid Deployment Team, which was despatched to Kabul to assist with evacuations, spent days stranded in the Middle East, far from the country. The Government applied restrictions on resettlements which put thousands of Afghan allies at risk of Taliban reprisals. On Saturday, as the Taliban approached the capital, the Prime Minister went on holiday. On Sunday, when the city fell, the Foreign Secretary spent most of the day sunbathing on a beach in Crete.
âThe response of the British Ambassador to the Taliban arriving at the gates of Kabul was to personally process the paperwork for those who needed to flee,â Labour leader Keir Starmer told MPs. âThe Prime Ministerâs response to the Taliban arriving at the gates of Kabul was to go on holiday.â
It was the kind of thing you might expect the Leader of the Opposition to say in the circumstances. But what was notable was the lack of pushback from the Tory benches. There was barely a murmur of protest. And that silence seemed to indicate a tacit acceptance of Starmerâs argument. In the wake of his speech, Tory MP after Tory MP stood up to attack the Governmentâs performance.
âWas our intelligence really so poor?â May asked. âWas our understanding of the Afghan government so weak?â Tory MP Tobias Ellwood expressed his âutter disbeliefâ that No.10 had made âsuch an operational and strategic blunderâ. He looked over at the government front bench. âIâm sorry thereâs no vote here today,â he said gravely, âbecause I believe the Government would not have the support of the House.â
Most Tory MPs know that Johnson is demonstrably unfit to be PM. In private, they will admit it. But they consider him to have a kind of electoral magic, so they tolerate it on the basis that it helps them keep their seats. But today, in the Commons Chamber, you could see in their faces a recognition of what that calculation entails.
It felt like a funeral. Usually the Chamber is full of cheers and mockery, but today it sat in stony silence. And in a way, it was a funeral. Now, finally, MPs were realising that the West was fracturing â unable to cooperate, wrecked by populist self-interest, lacking in urgency, patience, or basic moral stamina. But they had nowhere to turn.
