Keegan is the most obdurate of remainers:
So much for Global Britain. The fiasco and tragedy of the retreat from Afghanistan have laid bare the folly of the Brexiters’ Faustian pact: choose the irresponsible but vote-winning Boris Johnson as your leader; say “goodbye European Union, hello world”; and, oh dear, it turns out not to be the triumph they promised.
The EU’s reaction to – influence in – Afghanistan is what?
Willie is 83 and the fictional character he most reminds me of is Nuggan.
His brother, Victor, I have a lot of time for – although no contact in well over a decade now I guess. So perhaps not that much time but still. He used The Guardian to campaign for the abolition of agricultural subsidies in order to aid poor countries. They could – should – be growing food for rich folks to make they, themselves, richer. As he pointed out once, to be against this is to miss the founding ethos of the paper itself, that background in Cobden etc.
He’s obviously correct but think of the brass balls needed to make that argument at The Guardian…..
It seems that it’s Remainers, not Leavers, who long for the return of Empire.
So when we voted for Johnson, we got an imbecile in the white house? A twofer, as it were.
Afghanistan was run by the government. Chances of it being a disaster were pretty high, especially as it failed the simple Sun-Tzu test of having a clear, measurable objective.
The chicken situation is mostly about a lack of workers. Maybe Nando’s need to raise their prices. Maybe the general public need to fucking cook for themselves rather than going out for that crap (I would rather eat in KFC than Nando’s).
And I know remainers still think the war is going on, but this is lost because of geography. Britain is not like most of the rest of the EU. Poor agriculture made us more of a service economy. The channel creates cost and time barriers to EU trade and makes global trade more competitive. English language connects us to more of the rest of the world. The UK has a much higher percentage of exports outside the EU than the rest of Europe. It’s why I think Ireland will be next. Since the UK left the EU, more of Ireland’s exports are to the rest of the world, and that’s growing.
It would help if Nando’s staff didn’t keep on being deported. I was in one once, when Immigration officials raided it and nicked all the kitchen staff ( Angolans I believe).
Victor Keegan had the right idea – trade not aid.
WTF does Brexit have to do with the US cocking up the withdrawal from Afghanistan? These people are genuinely deranged.
I’ve lost track of the numbers of articles which claim a causal link between Brexit and everything else which upsets them, from COVID to erectile dysfunction.
@BoM4 Re: Britain is not like most of the rest of the EU.
Something I referred to in a recent comment. I’d say Brits respond to change rather better than most Europeans. It’s the other face of why I’m inclined to regard them as craven in the face of their government. Brits adapt & mitigate rather than resist. Look at immigration. Britain’s coped with it remarkably well. It’s one of the few countries it hasn’t spawned an anti-immigration political movement of either right or left.
I suspect it’s having gone through the industrial revolution a century earlier than most Europeans. There hasn’t been anything really “traditionally British” for well over a century or more. Agriculture modernised, which severed the link with the land. Trade made the economy more open. Brits are just used to it. Only Brits could have done a Brexit (although it wouldn’t surprise me if other European countries follow its lead)
Brexit and Afghanistan? Deranged is too mild.
The retreat from Afghanistan also marks what should be the end of the Blairite interventionism in the rest of the world. The idiotic idea that the West should intervene in defence of “human rights” was a bizarre idea.
Getting sick of people saying that NATO did some good in Afghanistan such as on improving girls education.
These people just can’t get their heads round things. Even the UN produce reports showing the gap in education years between boys and girls has closed or even gone the other way in every region of the world since globalisation. Afghan had a far bigger gap than most, so considering all the other places had no NATO intervention then not impossible to think it would have narrowed without intervention in AFG.
But a significant portion of the population think it’s only good if it happens through government, our government in particular, and that the good thing would not have happened otherwise even though it happened everywhere else.
It has been increasingly difficult to take anything Willy writes seriously ever since Lonrho took over the Observer and he started shilling for Tiny Rowland. He has obviously gone further now and descended into extreme lunacy. Perhaps Spud should set up in business with him
BoM4 +100
Nandos tastes like somebody basted a chicken in curry flavoured
diorreahdiareeahpoo.A fatwa on this sort of thing.
BiS says: Look at immigration. Britain’s coped with it remarkably well.
If you mean politely not talking too much about the rape gangs, drive by shootings, and unsustainable multi-generational welfare parasitism of hordes of economically useless people who also hate our guts and mean us harm, while the organs of the state run urgent statue reviews and inquiries into how much more expensive free shit we should be throwing at the Mos Eisley tower blocks in London, sure.
But to my mind this is like congratulating a sexual assault victim for not kicking and screaming too much. Demographic replacement is, in fact, the worst manmade disaster that could befall the English or any other people. Even nuclear war would be less destructive, as the city fathers of Hiroshima could show you.
Re: Global Britain, that was always an Establishment bait-and-switch. “Ok guys, we hear what you’re saying… you want us to leave the European Union so that absolutely nothing of substance actually ever changes…”
We should celebrate its demise, stuff its mouth with garlic, and ensure the coffin is sealed in concrete. The senile gerontocracy in Washington and the robust religious enthusiasms of the Taliban have done us a great service by exposing the ridiculous fantasy that is liberal internationalism.
Doesn’t matter how many technological terrors the Empire proudly constructs, the Ewoks win AGAIN. Yub nub, motherfuckers.
Good chicken piri piri is lovely. The actual name “estilio de Guia” comes from the next village along the road here. A truly excellent example comes from the next place after that, in Silves.
Nandos is the same idea but filtered through Portuguese Mozambique, transplanted to S Africa, then back up to Britain. No wonder it went a bit wrong.
As it happens was in a shop, in Guia, on Friday. Iceland actually – which was selling bottles of Nando’s peri peri sauce – in Guia? This is peat to Newcastle sorta stuff.
@ BiS:
What Steve said +100.
WTF does Brexit have to do with the US cocking up the withdrawal from Afghanistan?
Yes, as any fool at CBS News knows, the return of the Taliban was fuelled by climate change.
Looking in our village shops and the M&S in the next town, I can see no gaps on shelves (though the M&S had run out of 1kg Greek yoghurt, so I had to buy 4 x 500g – grrr). Is this just the usual metropolitan reporters, who think because the Islington Waitrose is out of organic quinoa, the world must be ending?
Not sure what Joe Biden fucking up in Afghanistan has to do with Boris Johnson and Brexit, but hey, if that’s what it takes to get you through your day, go for it.
I think other commentators are confusing the two Williams.
W Keegan writes lunatic drivel and is always wrong. As our host points out being in the EU wouldn’t have changed our “influence” in Afghanistan.
W Hutton writes lunatic drivel and is also always wrong. In this week’s Pravda, sorry Observer, he does at least admit he was wrong about the strength of the bounce back of the British economy after lockdown.
I don’t know where others shop but the shelves in Sainsbury’s have been denuded for weeks.
Steve, I’d agree with you 100%, as well. Adapting & mitigating is not always the best solution. Not if you’re moving in a direction doesn’t benefit you.
@Battery Chicken
That’s standard for Sainsbury’s! I do the “top-up” shop at Sainsbury’s because their own-label stuff is (to my mind) consistently better than the others’, but if you go in with a list of 20 items, you’re doing well if you come out with 16 of them.
When there are empty shelves in Tesco it’s time to start worrying.