PM Ques 23rd July 2025, PMQs comments and insight

Recess Special

“This cruel Afghan war, which has been the ruin of very many, is still raging,” began a letter from General William George Lennox when he was a young officer en route to Kabul in 1842.

European armies don’t fare well in Afghanistan. The British learnt that but still returned with the second Afghan war in 1878. The Russians arrived in 1979 and the USA went in in 2001 with Britain in support .

The forward policy and the great game were better ideas, but time passes and lessons are forgotten.

The super injunction that covered up the awful error of emailing out a list of persons at risk from the Taliban has generated much anger with accusations against the government, previous government and individuals plus suggestions that some Afghan migrants should not have been eligible to relocation or, worse, could include supporters and representatives of the very regime from which those on the list were fleeing for their lives. The British public, in the midst of an immigration crisis are not in the mood for letting anyone off the hook, so scapegoats must be sacrificed it seems.

People are busy as always looking for someone to blame. Conservatives or Labour. The former being easy meat in “14 years of Tory misrule” world (harking back to the 13 years mantra in the 1960s). However, maybe we should go a little further back in time to find someone to blame for the situation getting to this point. Joe Biden for pulling out in disarray in 2021, possibly, or George W Bush for invading Afghanistan in the first place? Tony Blair for backing Bush?

The Americans and us for backing and supplying the Mujahideen and Al-Qaeda, the beast that they created and then had to deal with later) to fight Russian forces plus the Taliban that took over until they were displaced by Bush. Then there were the communists who had pushed out Mohammad Daoud Khan who ran the one party state that had deposed king,

Mohammad Zahir Shah, who had previously united the country and ruled it in peace and harmony for decades. Then there were the Americans who decided that the king should not return as constitutional monarch and provide the focus of national unity that stood a good chance of providing the stability required to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban, because they did not want to upset the Pakistanis. A restoration was probably needed rather than an imposition though.

So, a Cold War proxy war became a new world order proxy war and then a ‘war on terror’ geopolitical conflict. However, Afghanistan had had one of its most peaceful, stable and tolerant times in its history under a constitutional monarch. Unfortunately constitutional meant an inability to prevent political division and a coup.

So, who to blame for a *** up when the West announced to the world its inability to win wars or establish peace and human rights?

Really everyone who sought to control the country following the ousting of its rightful king and father of his people.

Schahe ghajur-o-mehrabane ma

Meanwhile, MPs are off on their holidays and preparing for conference season. What will be left of the British economy by the time of their return? Who can say? Not much we suspect.

Next post will be later in the Summer, with a special and/or during conference season prior to the return of Parliament and the next PMQs.

Meanwhile, in a London borough near London you the Context Cast News magazine is getting its finishing touches.

Have a pleasant break wherever you spend it.

The Context Cast team.