Blogscrape

It was January 26, 2006, when Britain’s Defence Secretary announced the decision to send 3,300 troops to southern Afghanistan on a stabilisation mission. Two months later, John Reid uttered the fateful hope that the task force would return home after three years “without a shot being fired”.

The US Government warned Britain that it was going into Helmand province in 2006 with too few troops, The Times can reveal.

The US Government warned Britain that it was going into Helmand province in 2006 with too few troops, The Times can reveal.

The man sent to command the first British deployment in Helmand considered resigning even before he arrived.

The man sent to command the first British deployment in Helmand considered resigning even before he arrived.

A New Age monk, a former soldier who lost both legs in a bomb blast and a girl who believes that she was an elf in a former life are three of the 14 housemates in the final series of Big Brother.

Simon Hughes was elected as Liberal Democrat deputy leader last night and given the role of reassuring the party’s unsettled elements. Mr Hughes had the backing of Nick Clegg and most of the party’s ministers, according to Lib Dem MPs. He replaces Vince Cable, who quit to concentrate on his job as Business Secretary.

When senior Pentagon officials paid a visit to London not long before the British deployment to Helmand, they came with a recommendation that the planned force might not be strong enough. Their words went unheeded.

It was a flag-waving PMQs. Of course we are in an In-ger-land situation but it was as if everyone was using the World Cup as an excuse to wave their own little flags. The only exception was the Lib Dems who, in the new politics, aren’t allowed their own flag. Already, a samizdat Lib Dem movement has sprung up, with members wearing bits of yellow to signal their allegiance.

Rescue workers stood for more than an hour on the shores of Loch Awe in Argyll, listening to the desperate cries of two drowning fishermen, but were unable to help because no rescue boat was available.

Prince Charles’s colourful lamentations on anything from modern architecture to medical science are a constant of public life. But his diagnosis that the West faces a “crisis of the soul” is a case apart. When the Prince argues for homeopathy you can at least understand the case he’s making and respond that there’s nothing in it. His call for the recovery of the soul to the mainstream of scientific thinking is, by contrast, pure mumbo-jumbo.

The Prince of Wales has blamed a lack of belief in the soul for the world’s environmental problems, and said that the planet cannot sustain a population expected to reach 9 billion in 40 years.

Four white, middle-class males and one black, middle-class woman. The Labour leadership contest is under way. That Diane Abbott, the left-wing woman candidate, got into the race at all was only because the other leftwinger, John McDonnell, pulled out and her male opponents told their backers to nominate her.

Four white, middle-class males and one black, middle-class woman. The Labour leadership contest is under way. That Diane Abbott, the left-wing woman candidate, got into the race at all was only because the other leftwinger, John McDonnell, pulled out and her male opponents told their backers to nominate her.

Gun laws will be reviewed after the West Cumbria shootings, David Cameron said today, although he cautioned against “leaping to conclusions”.

The wife of the Deputy Prime Minister has accepted a board position with a Spanish company with interests in developing Britain’s infrastructure.

The murderer of the schoolgirl Sarah Payne has had the minimum term he must spend in jail cut from 50 to 40 years.

The murderer of the schoolgirl Sarah Payne has had the minimum term he must spend in jail cut from 50 to 40 years.

He has been the Sir Alex Ferguson of British retailing — the man who turned a sleeping giant into a winner, the most feared and sometimes the most hated competitor in its field.

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