The following article posted on the Mail online today just about sums up this government' s priorities and incompetence
An abject lesson in making a laughing stock of Britain
By Roy Hattersley
Were it not a potential tragedy – Britons stranded in the desert surrounded by rebellious tribesmen and families abandoned in the chaos of Tripoli airport – the Government’s pathetic attempts to evacuate citizens from Libya would be the farce of the year.
The Right Honourable William Hague, Her Britannic Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, appeared on television to explain that he had encountered some difficulty in chartering a rescue flight and that when a suitable plane had been hired, it was found to have mechanical faults.
So while British subjects sweated it out in the shadow of Colonel Gaddafi’s tyranny, the aircraft which was supposed to bring them home was stranded on the runway at Gatwick. Government officials were left searching for alternative flight companies like a tourist in a bucket shop looking for a bargain.
Elsewhere, a frigate (on its way to the knacker’s yard because Britain can no longer afford a proper Navy) was dispatched to the north Libyan port of Benghazi.
Meanwhile, ministers competed for the title of buffoon of the year.Hague himself – inexplicably and unforgivably – had earlier raised hopes and risked lives in Libya by announcing that he had information to suggest that Gaddafi was fleeing the country and was on his way to Venezuela.
But his irresponsibility was matched by the Prime Minister who, as stranded Britons feared for their lives, enjoyed the hospitality of other Middle East tyrants – men who may soon face the sort of popular uprising that, God willing, will topple Gaddafi.
And, having learned nothing from the disgrace of Britain’s previous weapons exports to Libya, he took with him a selection of arms salesmen.
Then David Cameron announced: ‘Just because I’ve left the country doesn’t mean I am not in charge.’ He may have been within mobile range of London, but he was clearly out of touch with reality.
What the performance of the Government confirmed was that nobody was in charge of the Libyan rescue operation – certainly not the bumbling Foreign Secretary nor the risible Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg who had gone on holiday to Switzerland and admitted that he had ‘forgotten’ that, in Mr Cameron’s absence, he had special responsibilities to discharge. Anyway, he could deal with things using his BlackBerry.
The whole government seemed to be in paralysis.
Yesterday, Mr Cameron switched from bluster to his most pious manner, apologising for what he described, in a magnificent understatement, as a ‘poor performance’.
No doubt his public relations training had convinced him that humility – not his most natural emotion – was the best way to limit the damage. But his confession of failure did not answer the crucial question which, sooner or later, must become the subject of a judicial inquiry. Why were the French, the Germans, the Turks, the Bulgarians and even the Chinese from the other side of the world able to rescue their nationals while the British were not?
Some of the blame must undoubtedly be heaped on the Foreign Office, the Rolls-Royce of government departments that recruits only the elite candidates for civil service employment. But because its men and women – often with justification – believe in their ‘effortless superiority’, the Foreign Office is a law unto itself unless ministers take firm control.
When I was a Foreign Office minister, I was told by Sir Oliver Wright (a diplomat of great distinction who had served Britain nobly in peace and war) that a policy I wanted to pursue ‘may be government policy, but it is not Foreign Office policy.’
Like a Rolls-Royce, the Foreign Office needs a strong hand on the steering wheel. Clearly, when the Libyan crisis arose, it was allowed to decide its own direction. And it failed abysmally to take the route marked ‘Get the Britons out as quickly as possible!’
In my time as a Foreign Office minister, Turkey invaded Cyprus and I watched and listened as our diplomats urged the Foreign Secretary to avoid any action that, in their jargon, ‘compromised British interests in the region’.
Too often the message is ‘be careful not to offend’. In those days we weren’t to offend either the Greeks or the Turks. It seems nothing has now changed and that we must do nothing to offend Colonel Gaddafi in case he manages to cling on to power and the oil that goes with it.
Yet sometimes in life, offence is morally unavoidable.
Jim Callaghan, in charge of the FO in those days, insisted that the safety of British citizens was our priority. Ten years later, Margaret Thatcher had the same attitude when she saw that the wish of the people of the Falklands to remain British was more important that maintaining good relations with Argentina or risking offending the United States.
I suppose that, as a party politician, I ought to take some comfort from Messrs Cameron and Hague cringing in front of the television cameras. But I take no pleasure from their humiliation.
Douglas Hurd, a good Tory foreign secretary, used to say that his job was to make Britain punch above its weight. This week we have looked too feeble even to protect our own people.
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