Afghanistan failure out of sight out of mind for UK Government uninterested in repercussions

Afghanistan is back in the news, meaning we all have to feel horrendous about it again.

Because, unlike those our governments abandoned to be left to the Taliban, we can simply switch off from it.

I personally felt sick for days when the situation was unfolding, but truthfully it’s not crossed my mind for weeks. It consumed me, then it was over.

It’s the reality of Great Britain and the US, supposed superpowers, leaving those that helped us at the mercy of thugs with machine guns.

People at an Afghan solidarity rally in Trafalgar Square, London, to oppose the Taliban.

This is not a political statement, nor even analysis. It is the facts of the situation.

And now a whistleblower has suggested the failure was even worse than thought.

It is claimed thousands of emails went unread, despite Dominic Raab's private office insisting they were processing them.

It was estimated that of the 150,000 who applied for evacuation, fewer than 5 per cent got assistance.

We heard about a lack of staff and equipment, prioritising of evacuees being "inconsistent and misleading" and staff continuing to work normal hours while people raced to escape.

The Prime Minister himself is accused of intervening to save animals at "direct expense" of those at risk of being murdered.

To be this incompetent is not an accident. It suggests a callousness from those capable of saving more lives than they did.

Let us not forget that at the time the Taliban were marching on Kabul, Mr Raab was more concerned with topping up his tan than topping up the numbers who could get out.

It’s important to stress Government figures have dismissed the whistleblowers’ claims, but avoided specifics.

Ultimately as damning as the claims are, it has been clear for some time that consequences are not something this Government recognises.

They already knew the handling of Afghanistan was a failure, the public being informed as to how it happened won’t stop the UK Government standing by their man.

Boris Johnson stood by Priti Patel, ignored Dominic Cummings rule break, tried to let Matt Hancock get away with it, and while there will be further discussions, nobody is going to resign over this.

We’ll be angry for a bit and move onto the next scandal. Those we left behind are not so lucky.