Britain’s Shame.
The US steamed the nearest US cruise ship into Tripoli harbour and picked up their US citizens and their entire embassy staff. With a week’s warning of the volatility in their least favourite madman’s benighted country, they had made sure they had such a vessel close at hand.
The Chinese sent in one of their national airlines to collect Chinese workers from halfway round the world..
The Turks managed to stop arguing long enough to organise a flight to collect their workers.
Lufthansa kept up their commercial schedule and took out all the citizens that could make it to Tripoli airport – although sadly they still have many workers in the far flung oilfields that they haven’t been able to reach.
Britain – I would say ‘dear old Britain’ but the situation is too serious for that sarcasm, has managed to negotiate with Stavros at Easyjet or Ryanair or someone for a charter flight that is still sitting on the tarmac owing to ‘technical problems’ – British Airways having ceased scheduled flights.
We couldn’t even manage to get a coach to Portugal to collect stranded Britons, now we have oil field workers e-mailing the Foreign Office for help – and the foreign office doesn’t even answer their e-mails.
Where are the Hercules? Why haven’t we commandeered one of British Airways planes? Come to that, where is the SAS – 170 men out in the desert, and we know where they are – being terrorised with AK47s in the hands of God knows who – and all we can do is apologise for the ‘technical problems’ that have delayed our charter flight!
Why is it that we have a compassionate world wide reputation for feeding and housing every waif and stray in the world, and yet we can’t look after our own citizens?
Cameron is strutting on the world stage, helping to whip up enthusiasm for more arms sales to more unstable countries, meanwhile, back at the ranch, Hague is telling us that he hopes to get this ageing bi-plane off the ground soon. Catherine Ashton is muttering about sanctions – if the UN agree. Some time next month, maybe next year.
The BBC coverage has been abysmal – an interview with a patently terrified oil worker explaining that they only had food for one day was greeted with the lame response ‘Oh Dear’!
‘Oh Dear’ – that just about sums up the Britain of today.
I try to flash my British passport with pride, but it just gets harder and harder.
Perhaps if the SAS do go in, they will have the sense to bring al-Megrahi back with them – a small trophy to restore British pride.
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February 23, 2011 at 19:20 -
Piss up, brewery springs to mind.
Just over half a century ago the British were leading the line in giving the Afrika Corps a good kicking in that desert, now we can’t even get one plane to take off.
Hague was on Sky earlier pointing out that other countries have yet to spring to into action as well. Oh, well, that’s fine then.
Britain, not quite as badly organised as Paraguay and Tuvalu.
There’s a strapline to make you proud.
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February 23, 2011 at 19:49 -
‘I try to flash my British passport with pride’, That’s your first mistake.
The British passport as recently as 1995 was a respected document but since they were handed out free as long as you promised to return to the immigration office for further inquiry’s they are as much use as Hague’s hairbrush.
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February 23, 2011 at 19:49 -
I just don’t know what the hell is going on. Cameron can get to Egypt but he can’t get British Nationals out of Libya. But this is all academic anyway. No ships, no planes, so stand by for World War III. Britain always manages to be without defence when a disaster happens.
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February 23, 2011 at 19:56 -
The country is fast becoming a joke.
Even as a raw recruit back in the mid ’80′s I had to run about shouting “BANG” as we had no blank rounds to train with before the first gulf.
It makes no difference which party is in temporary charge, they are all out to get as much as possible before being kicked into touch.
Hague is a vapid excuse of a foreign secretary who looks like he is more at home in B & Q than on the foreign stage.
Cammerclown is off flogging arms to the middle east while leaving British nationals in Lybia.
What this country wouldn’t give for an aircraft carrier to help get our own people out of such trouble spots… -
February 23, 2011 at 20:03 -
Fixing broken Britain. Jeez, give me a tough problem to solve.
The impression with both Cameron & Hague is that they’re not, to use an old expression, ‘hungry enough’ to be in the job. It means someone who coasts along with no ambition or drive. Cameron’s background in PR aggravates the situation as he seems to have the Blairite habit of thinking that there are no cockups only a “failure to get our message across”. It’s widely speculated that Hague is just marking time until standing down at the next GE to resume his lucrative career as an author.I have to say that when decisive action is needed the French tend to be more ruthless as they don’t give a stuff about world opinion.
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February 23, 2011 at 20:04 -
The Med is full of cruise ships with capacity for most of them being 1000 and a great deal of these are British run. What do we do? … send a frigging frigate to sit looking pretty in the sunshine in the Med!
One assumes that getting permission for a warship to dock is a damn sight more difficult than getting permission for a cruiseship … many of which already have permission because Tripoli is one of the cruiselines destinations! Bah!
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February 23, 2011 at 20:13 -
Stop talking sense, Smoking Hot! We shall conduct this little affair in a PC, non-threatening way as we have become accustomed to of late.
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February 23, 2011 at 20:15 -
I receive the Twitter messages of @GreyFunnelLine. Every other tweet seems to be along these lines :
GreyFunnelLine RFA Fort George leaves Plymouth for the final time. http://bit.ly/hk0hIF
ΠΞ
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February 23, 2011 at 20:19 -
It does beg the question though, who pays to repatriate those workers earning fortunes in far-off, politically volatile countries?
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February 23, 2011 at 20:20
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February 23, 2011 at 20:19 -
It does indeed make you ashamed to be associated with what has become such a shambolic and useless country.
And you are right about the French, despite the way we English make fun of them they do right by their people in a crisis.-
February 23, 2011 at 20:21
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February 23, 2011 at 20:45 -
Look Cammy’s busy selling democracy to all of these dictatorships bribing them with buy 2 get one free offers on armaments, “Its the economy stupid” is all that Westmidden cares about.
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February 23, 2011 at 20:46
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February 23, 2011 at 20:53 -
I do not think it is wise to speculate on what the government is, or is not, doing. Should they be actually organising anything sneaky or clandestine, we would not want the evil ones going looking for what may be going on. Let us wait, and when the fuss is all over, we can pontificate with at least some knowledge of what happened, or maybe, what went wrong. The truth hits home harder when we know it is the truth.
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February 24, 2011 at 07:11
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February 23, 2011 at 21:23 -
“A charter flight that is still sitting on the tarmac owing to ‘technical problems’”
A no-frills Airline suddenly realises what it’s let itself in for?
“Oh dear, we’ve found, er, a technical fault. Um, we’ve ordered a spare part.” -
February 23, 2011 at 21:45 -
I try to flash my British passport with pride…
At the risk of sounding petulant/cocky/smart-arse I would just say that “you obviously don’t travel much” or not for a while.
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February 23, 2011 at 21:48 -
Eleanor
No ships, no planes, so stand by for World War III.Fear not…it was the same before World War II…d’oh.
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February 23, 2011 at 21:50 -
Not in the least surprised…..Britain is an even thirder world than Libya which at least tries to get rid of its rotten elite. If we did that we might miss X Factor or Eastenders or whatever…and that would never do.
As for Brits living/working abroad it’s their own bloody fault for scarpering, innit.
God help us because we are incapable of doing it ourselves. -
February 23, 2011 at 23:00 -
Caption for the pic…”Thanks for the invite Colonel, Cherie and I were stumped where to go for our holiday this year and I don’t have to fill out any tedious forms for members interests now I’m no longer an MP”
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February 23, 2011 at 23:47 -
Steady on chaps (and mesdames) thats just not cricket.
I heard from some bod in the Foreign Office thingy that good old Haguey had his best pith helmet on- you know the one with the Ostrich plumes and the gold chin strap- and he was on the the blower to the assistant deputy under-secretary of Tristan de Cunhas foreign Affairs dept, PR man’s secretarial clerk and gave her a right rocket, told her to get in touch with Gaddafi, Quuddafi (or however he calls himself this week) and told her straight.
I demand you relay this message in the most diplomatic tone possible.
Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State (good old Haguey doncha know)
Requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty (or Lizzie as all the chaps call her) all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer (of a united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland-european union passport) to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.You don’t think that won’t cause the camel-jockeys to sit up and think, they are dealing with a serious threat? And if the buggers ignore that well they deserve all problems that they create for themselves. We’ll call in the Aussies and Canucks and Kiwi’s to give them a good-hiding, buggers won’t know what hit ‘em. (just like bloody El Alamein, those were the good old days)
Personally I advised we send a gunboat up the Nile, but some young damnfool whippersnapper said we didn’t have any, how the hell can Haguey practice diplomacy without gunboats?
Or perhaps we can send Lenko over there he seems to still have much regard for British might and pre-positioned military assets.
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February 24, 2011 at 00:08 -
Couple of points…
1. It’s mainly AK45s rather than 47s apparently
2. It’s unclear how many of the UK people in Libya would have registered with the Embassy
3. We’ve still got a few C130s who have rough field landing capacity and could land in the middle of the oil field to collect people
4. If the THEM from Tern Hill are going to visit Tripoli, might anyone be the slightest bit miffed if they accidently-on-purpose slotted al-Megrahi?
Much as I’d love for this to end well, I fear it will not…
John
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February 24, 2011 at 00:48 -
and
5.For each ex pat working in Libya he will be supporting at least 10 Uk jobs in manufacture, service etc
6. The guys working in Libya know the risks but were probably assured of a quick exit if there were any problems. It woud have made them more amenable to working in such a harsh environment.
7. Do you really think they would have taken the jobs if they thought they would be dumped at the first sign of trouble ? They would have settled for the dole if that was what they were told. -
February 24, 2011 at 06:55
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February 24, 2011 at 07:09 -
I live in Cyprus.
It is common knowledge that the ‘air bridge’ that is supposed to being our troops back from Afghanistan en route to the UK is woefully unfit for purpose. It breaks down more often than not leaving the guys stranded… “Our eight hour flights has taken three days…”
We have a RAF base in Cyprus on Sovereign Territory yet we can’t rustle up an aircraft or two to rescue British Passport holders in Libya…
Shame on us…
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February 24, 2011 at 07:23 -
Why the sudden shock that Britain has declined? It has been in decline for a very long time.
I have bad news for you all. You may not like it – we’ve lost the Empire. Even worse, the Commonwealth don’t think much of us either. And if that’s not bad enough? The US have military bases on our soil, we are going to use the French Navy and we are under pressure to obey European laws.
Save yourself the high BP – The UK is now a two-bit insignificant nation in a big, big world. If we can come to terms with that we might start thinking how we can pull it back.
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February 24, 2011 at 07:36 -
XX Perhaps if the SAS do go in, they will have the sense to bring al-Megrahi back with them – a small trophy to restore British pride. XX
Last I heard, they have cut the SAS to the bone as well.
Also rumours heard, that they have “outsourced” their training to the Scouting association.
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February 24, 2011 at 10:54 -
” The UK is now a two-bit insignificant nation in a big, big world.”
Due to deliberately insignificant interest rates, coupled with deliberately high inflation caused by QE or money-printing to keep the bankers happy, we are now a 0.15-bit (and falling) insignificant (tending to invisible) nation. -
February 24, 2011 at 11:12 -
All you people winging about the shortage of armed forces to rescue people from Libya. You did not say a word when the last Labour government cut the surface fleet in half, and did not order new frigates/destroyers in time to replace the clapped out fleet that they left for this government to sort out. Any cuts that this lot make have not taken effect yet. Sea Harriers taken out of service in 2008 withuot a murmor from the press. C130 hercules replacements not ordered. It will take at least 2 years for this lot to start to turn round the last 13 disasterous years.
Any complaints about the current state of the armed forces should be directed at Blair, Brown and their disasterous bunch of incompetants.
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February 24, 2011 at 12:04 -
Derek..
You seem to be under the impression that we support Labour.
We agree that they’re all incompetent and we went on ad nauseum about Labour cuts.
At least we can spell incompetent
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February 25, 2011 at 10:52 -
Oops typo I missed. Other things on my mind at the moment. Perhaps I was thinking of pedants.
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