We are "how the other half live". We can blow billions on track & trace, fight "culture wars" & get animated about Brexit details and invade countries to give Presidents & Prime Ministers something to do.

Now we have thrown our Afghanistan toy away thousands of the worlds poorest will die because of our life of luxury games. The UK & US have a moral duty to take as many Afghan refugees as necessary because this is our fault.

Well said, Wyot. What's happening in Afghanistan is terrible. An Afghan women's rights activist was interviewed on TV the other night in tears about how everything is unravelling. Rory Stewart, who's apparently now a fellow at Yale, was on the BBC this morning, again speaking sense, I think. Like others, he's foreseeing civil war.

Rory Stewart: Afghanistan is a betrayal and catastrophic failure

Afghan-born Yalda Hakim did a report the other day comparing the smooth talk of a Taliban representative in Doha to the words of a Taliban commander in Afghanistan intending to reintroduce the brutalities of their old regime.

Afghanistan war: Do the Taliban want to conquer or compromise?

It is a dreadful situation Jo and what is more entirely forseeable. What did the egomaniac fools who sanctioned invasion and occupation think would happen - the country would turn into a Christian democracy?! Civil war is almost inevitable now. The Afghan people were not part of the equation when we bombed their country; and they aren't now. I wonder what they make of Australia locking down states because of 1 Covid infection...Probably that us "other half" have no idea what a problem is but create plenty of very real ones for other people.