Cometh the Hour: Goeth the Man: as the Wootton Basset Cortège Lengthens time is running out for Gordon Brown

I apologise for this somewhat gloomy article but as I sit here on this hillside with the mist still clinging to the fields this is the political landscape I see. These things will pass and some sunlit uplands will eventually appear. When that will happen and how it will be achieved is not for my failed generation to determine. Any ideas, especially from those involved in the political process, would be welcome.

As I predicted in a post some months ago (Sunday, 19 July 2009 Gordon, do you Remember Vietnam?) , as the number of deaths in Afghanistan mounted so too would the pressure on Gordon Brown. With the latest loss of life and further concerns about inadequate supplies of equipment we are assured by the Prime Minister that he has done his best. Unfortunately at some time or another we all have to recognise that our best is not good enough and I am afraid that, judging from his demeanour, he is beginning to realise this. His administration seems to be sleepwalking into an election without any real clue as to what it is doing and with no hope of winning. Is this a parallel with Afghanistan? Whilst we probably have some sympathy for a man that has been severely damaged by the failures of Blairite New Labour I can still find it in my heart to have some sympathy for the poor devils who will inherit the Brown portfolio of muddle and indecision. Will they do any better? I have my doubts.

It should not be forgotten that the funding and procurement strategies which have lead to the present peacetime budget for a war all started when Gordon was running a tight ship at the Treasury which was cutting back on defence budgets. The procurement of unsuitable equipment has been known of since the Iraq War and now the consequences showing in another. It is therefore no surprise that support for the Afghan War is fast evaporating and that the Sun newspaper is now starting to turn the electioneering screw.

As the public contrast all this with the support which has been given to the bonus junkies, previously known as bankers, with the increased taxation for the rest of us, they will see that the New Labour train, now in its Brown livery, is fast heading for the buffers. It is remarkable that within this decline time is still being found to emasculate Parliament and bring in changes without debate. MPs still allow a hyper-active Executive to undermine an increasing number of our civil liberties in the retreat from Democracy to Bureaucracy. Sleep walking into disaster seems to be catching with so many MPs no longer conscious of the fact that they are supposed to scrutinise legislation. So much so that their nods have now rubber stamped a vast volume of guillotined measures at the behest of the Home Office and the Association Chief Police Officers.

With a hopeless Government comes a hopeless electorate in the sense that they will have lost both the will to vote and any belief that our democratic system can be taken seriously. Our present Secretary of State for Defence for example is now putting forward the nonsense of a policy which will no longer defend vast tracks of Afghanistan but will concentrate resources to defend populated areas. This is not defence, but a managed retreat, and presumably proceeds on the assumption that the nice Taliban will not congregate in large numbers in the vacuums thus created, before encircling prior to delivering the fatal blow. It should be noted that the Taliban’s choice of transport, the small motorcycle, is already an improvement on the push bike of the Vietcong.

If our political leaders cannot properly support our armed forces, then why should the British public support the war? We have now come to the point where leading military men are doing the work of government in telling us that the war is necessary to prevent terrorism in the UK. This is not their job. Our so called elected leaders should be doing this but it would seem that even this is now beyond their limited talents.

Unfortunately we now have to watch the dying stages of this Rump Parliament and this incompetent Government with all its dreaded consequences. Our political classes have failed and there is little chance that we will get anything more than a bunch of apparatchiks to replace them who have got to Parliament by the modern route of party worker or research unit placeman. No wonder the details of the election debate cannot yet be faced by any of our political parties. They all know that whatever the outcome the result will be unpleasant. In the meantime I fear that Al Qaeda will have moved to Somalia and that British Democracy will still be waiting for a bed in Intensive Care.

Gordon, do you Remember Vietnam?

I know Bew Labour politicians are not too hot on history but our author PM, especially one who has written a book on Courage, should be a bit more locked into what is going on before his eyes, day after day, week after week and, sadly, month after month. Why Vietnam should be remembered is because it was the home coming body bags that proved the last straw for the American public in the undermining of the war effort. Warriors on push bikes were difficult to defeat. The Taliban are fond of their lightweight motor bikes and Improvised Explosive Devices and the region is well known for it’s artisan gunsmiths. Thank goodness the huge losses the Americans took in Vietnam have not happened but I would have thought that if the PM wanted to win this war he ought to listen to the people who know an awful lot about that unpleasant business and to have some regard for history.

Some nameless characters got the procurement of helicopters wrong some time back now, not the commanders trying to cope in Afghanistan now, and it wasn’t them who decided to cut expenditure on defence. The reason we haven’t got enough Chinooks lies somewhere within a government which has cut back on defence spending in time of war to near 2.2% of our Domestic Gross Product. If this bloody war, and bloody it certainly is, is so important to maintain a terrorist free Britain then we ought to start listening to those who know how to fight a war and starting to pay for it through the anonymity of the tax system. Instead we are paying with the lives of youngsters and top notch soldiers who sadly will never be nameless now their names are being carved on memorials and written in Books of Remembrance throughout the land.

Gordon Brown is now well established in our political history as the dithering PM. At the moment we are again witnessing the denial stage. How long will we have to wait for the next stage, a belated change of policy, when we a shift from the ‘Land Rover War’ to the helicopter war? Since conjuring up helicopters can’t be done immediately the Government is cornered and I would estimate that we will have to wait for about another 50 respectful homecomings in Wootton Basset, before we see a new policy which seeks to get Gordon out of a corner his old Treasury department gas created. It might be sooner if that rate increases, but without helicopters any new policy will have to be pretty good.

Gordon, I would suggest that a quick call to your predecessor in his Ivy League college would probably allow even him to do some research for you on the body bag count and its political consequences for the US Government as it came to terms with defeat in Vietnam. I would also suggest you buy one of those new combined moral, political, historical and financial compasses, as your present model is clearly not up to the job. You should also remember that Iraq and Afghanistan are first wars where are fallen are being brought home to remind us youngsters are being killed. There is still a slim chance that we might win this war which you claim is so crucial. If not, then you had better line up the air troop transporters for an ignominious withdrawal, or should that be a fleet of buses for the overland journey. Going by coach is so much cheaper.

Dacier