Dominic Raab

Agree. And the argument about WFH doesn’t wash with me. He needed to be back and seen to be back. Zoom meetings can have technology that fails, on the spot meeting s can’t.

Just when you think that this shower couldn’t get any worse.

Meanwhile our ambassador Laurie Bristow is tirelessly working his backside off to repatriate folks.
I was going to say he deserves a knighthood, but he already has one.

I think a shower is too nice a word Fanny after all, showers are usually welcomed, especially after a dry spell

His not returning does seem bad but I can't help wondering whether it would have made any difference to the utterly dire situation.

Raab's holiday was much more important to him than the serious situation in Afghanistan.
Biden has caused the situation by withdrawing US troops but you would think Raab may have realised problems would ensue and been prepared to deal with them.

When people's lives are depending on you doing your job properly, you pack up and come back from your holiday immediately. I have known a member of our family leave the campsite in France and fly home on the next flight for a far less serious issue at work. Raab is too arrogant, it is out of order to have him as our foreign secretary.

He could have dealt with it from wherever. However, not to do it yourself I simply can not identify with. To say it was an important conversation is an understatement. I can not understand how he could even think of trusting someone else to do it.

You have to remember he was contributing to the well-being of the UK by supporting the travel industry.

I love” pusillanimous “ as a word and it describes Raab and Hancock to a T.
Say what you like about Boris (and we all frequently do) but even although he was only in the West Country, he was apparently seen at Taunton station the day after they arrived, getting the train back to London when the Afghan crisis broke.

Yet another member of the Cabinet who lacks experience and is woefully incompetent.

MawBe

I love” pusillanimous “ as a word and it describes Raab and Hancock to a T.
Say what you like about Boris (and we all frequently do) but even although he was only in the West Country, he was apparently seen at Taunton station the day after they arrived, getting the train back to London when the Afghan crisis broke.

a fair comment about the threesome lucca

though hancock was off the hook to have been seen happily holidaying in Port Isaac last week

sorry mawbe not lucca

love0c

He could have dealt with it from wherever. However, not to do it yourself I simply can not identify with. To say it was an important conversation is an understatement. I can not understand how he could even think of trusting someone else to do it.

I don’t agree. Zoom calls are ok for regular stuff but not for a crisis. Quite apart from how bad it looked.
The Times report says he was told to come home on Friday by the FO but Boris said Sunday was OK….??

If I was in such a position of power (it will come as no surprise to learn that I’m not ) I honestly would not go on holiday.

They only have a the job for a relatively short amount of time, and when they’re not in power certainly have enough time and opportunities to reap the benefits.

It shows how little respect Raab and the rest of the absolute shits (is that better BlueBelle?!) have for their positions and responsibilities.

They honestly disgust me

His majority has been steadily decreasing I suspect he will lose his seat next time around.

Baggs

His not returning does seem bad but I can't help wondering whether it would have made any difference to the utterly dire situation.

This.

Being on holiday looks bad politically but being somewhere other than home and in constant contact with his dept mitigates this.
One phone call to a Minister in the Afghan government ( who in all likelihood wasn’t even at his desk) wouldn’t have made the slightest difference.That Minister would be pondering and planning his own escape and future, not about to work tirelessly to get any Afghans out of there.
If anyone is casting around for somebody to blame, Biden fits the bill nicely.

lemongrove

Baggs

His not returning does seem bad but I can't help wondering whether it would have made any difference to the utterly dire situation.

This.

Being on holiday looks bad politically but being somewhere other than home and in constant contact with his dept mitigates this.
One phone call to a Minister in the Afghan government ( who in all likelihood wasn’t even at his desk) wouldn’t have made the slightest difference.That Minister would be pondering and planning his own escape and future, not about to work tirelessly to get any Afghans out of there.
If anyone is casting around for somebody to blame, Biden fits the bill nicely.

You're just confirming the uselessness of our government, lemon

news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-ministers-accused-of-ignoring-warning-from-influential-house-of-lords-committee-12385551

If a phone call from Raab would not have made the slightest difference, not even as a gesture of support, then we do have to accept that the UK is a nothing and a nobody on the World stage. Raab should have come back if only to be seen as doing something in the eyes of the public. There is a word for that , opticals, I think.
Still it frees the government up to concentrate on domestic issues. We can’t blame anyone else for any failure there, can we?

The phone call he was asked to make was to a member of the Afghan govt to agree a strategy to get people out of Kabul. That was on the Friday just before things kicked of totally.
Did you notice the expression on his face when Starmer was speaking in the debate — if looks could kill certainly fitted the bill there!

Parsley it’s ‘optics’. Other than that you’re spot on!

FannyCornforth

Parsley it’s ‘optics’. Other than that you’re spot on!

I thought they were the upside down bottles along the back of a bar?
(Lowering the tone as usual ???)

Lucca The whole point of my post has gone completely over your head. You think he should have been at home in England to make the call. That's fine but that was not what my post was really commenting on, was it.

Whether or not the phone call would have made any difference to the unfolding tragedy of Afghanistan, the point is that he, Raab didn't bother his backside to do it. His staged photograph surrounded by flags and telephones on his return was truly pathetic. I think his own department are plotting his downfall, lots of things leaking out. It gets more like the dying days of Henry 8th's court every day.

He is a bloody disgraceful little worm. His boss should have sacked him for not resigning. Weak self-serving twerps.