Brown visiting Afghanistan troops

[LFFC]

From the BBC website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6509327.stm):

Chancellor Gordon Brown is in Afghanistan on a surprise visit to British troops.

Mr Brown is visiting Camp Bastion in Helmand, southern Afghanistan, on what is his first visit to the country.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42745000/jpg/_42745135_brown203.jpg

I wonder how he'll be received?

---------------------------------------

I hope he gets to see it all because I'm incredibly proud of our people out there! Treating the injured under Taleban fire (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6508409.stm)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42744000/jpg/_42744017_helicopter_bbc203b.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42744000/jpg/_42744019_audrey_bbc203b.jpg

[Razor61]

Get him out on a typical patrol and let him see what it's really like and then show him all the limited equipment and sit him in a wolf without any armour...and then let him see the Chinooks overstretched and then make him come home in an aeromedical C-130.

[nimblast]

inbetween the Chinooks overstretched and the aeromedical C-130, let him fly a AAR trip in a nimrod (they are safe after all!!!!)

[BellEndBob]

He'll be surrounded by staffers and given presentations by senior officers telling him how well everything is going. Quick photo call, back home 'they are all doing well, we love them'.

Forgotten by Sunday.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[dallas]

Mr Brown paid tribute to the work of the British forces who, he acknowledged, are working in a difficult environment and making many sacrifices. "You are doing an essential job," he said "ensuring the people of Afghanistan no longer have to live under the brutal Taleban regime." Mr Brown was also briefed by senior officers at Camp Bastion, who told him that despite many critical media reports, equipment was performing and troops on the ground had everything they needed.

See, he needn't have gone - I wasn't there and managed to write this story. :hmm:

[toddbabe]

He's the Chancellor what the **** is he doimg out their? none of his buisness

[Archimedes]

Disagree, toddbabe. He's the chap who provides the funds, so many of the problems faced can be traced to his door just as easily as to his neighbour's more famously numbered abode.

Also, if - as seems probable - he's going to be the next PM, it doesn't seem unreasonable to get him out there to see what's going on. It might even prompt him to consider whether more money is needed. Yes, most unlikely, but stranger things have happened (who' 20 years ago would've imagined Prescott taking PM Questions, for instance?)

[snapper41]

Yet another erudite and spell-checked input from toddbabe, I see:hmm:

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

Maybe they should fit in a trip out to the CORNWALL. He could then see first hand the results of an under-resourced Navy.

[Archimedes]

Good idea - perhaps Tony could exchange him for the 15 personnel... :E

(ah - hang on - might constitute an act of war to inflict Gordon on the Iranians).

[cornish-stormrider]

maybe we could ask the Taleban so have a sniping competion on his pompous, arrogant arseand see if they can deflate the windbag......:ok:

[samuraimatt]

So you want to take a contract out on the Chancellor of the Exchequer and you want the Taliban to do it?:hmm:

[MReyn24050]

Archimedes wrote:-
"Disagree, toddbabe. He's the chap who provides the funds, so many of the problems faced can be traced to his door just as easily as to his neighbour's more famously numbered abode.
Also, if - as seems probable - he's going to be the next PM, it doesn't seem unreasonable to get him out there to see what's going on. It might even prompt him to consider whether more money is needed. Yes, most unlikely, but stranger things have happened (who' 20 years ago would've imagined Prescott taking PM Questions, for instance?)"
It seems he has already decided whether more money is needed and it is certainly not to provide more resources for the Services. It was reported earlier today that the Chancellor will announce that the UK will provide an additional £15 million for economic development, which will be used to support the Afghan government's National Solidarity Programme.

[cooheed]

http://www.shephard.co.uk/Rotorhub/NewsAnalysis.aspx?Action=745115149&ID=adcd03f2-1cd7-4acf-9244-aa3f3503282a

No mention of extra staff to fly and maintain

[JessTheDog]

I always love it when the Taleban are described by politicians as an "undemocratic theocracy", usually accompanied with descriptors such as "repressive" or "brutal".

What about that other "undemocratic theocracy" which stages regular public decapitations and stonings and at whose behest the UK stopped a Serious Fraud Office investigation into BAe....

[toddbabe]

Snapper I have better things to do than care if my posts are spelt correctly, I just write what I think and press enter, I think you get the point. Self righteous pompous prick springs to mind!
Disagree that the chancellor has any need to go out and see where his money is going, that is what the military bosses are meant to do! have said it before PM, Foreign Sec, Defence Sec are the only people who have any need to be out there, the ONLY reason he is there is to polish his act for his forthcoming leadership campaign, to try and make him look like a statesman!
Until he gets the Job he should keep his nose out or we might as well let every tom dick and harry wannabe from the Labour party get their face on the telly with the troops.

[Archimedes]

MReyn, true, but he can raid the contingency fund if persuaded. It's happened before.

Toddbabe - fair point, but if we're being constitutionally pedantic, a legitimate case can be made for the Leader of the Opposition to go out there- as, indeed, he did. Since Brown is more likely to be the next PM than Cameron (unless the Labour party does the unexpected and chooses someone else), then it seems a bit odd to exclude the Chancellor who's far more important at the moment governmentally speaking than Cameron.

Furthermore, which is better - the military leadership telling the Chancellor his money is being spent appropriately, but more would be nice, please, or the Chancellor going out and seeing with his own eyes that the MoD (contrary to perceptions in the Treasury) can spend money effectively, and deciding that more would be justified? While I never, ever thought I'd ever finding myself offering a defence for Gordon Brown in this case, I don't think that his visit can just be dismissed as nothing more an outrageous publicity stunt that's going to be of no value to those fighting out there.

[toddbabe]

I will concede ground on the fact that he is most likely to be the next PM and therefore has a reason for being there on those grounds, but I am truly cynical that he was visiting in any capacity as Chancellor.
He was there to make him self look good in the publics eye for when he takes over for the remainder of labours rule.
He ought to make the most of it because I truly think that Labour have lost the public over the war and the Conservatives will get in next.