[Oboogie]

"pets"? what fucking pets?

More importantly, what about his team or are they not cute enough to be allowed to live?

[Boiler]

I find it worrying that it won't be 150,000 dead from Covid, an attitude towards Brexit undoubtedly the same as submitting his essays at fucking Oxford or the collapse of the NHS that'll undo Johnson, but how he handles getting an ex-Marine and a load of mangy animals back to the UK.

[Bones McCoy]

"pets"? what fucking pets?

More importantly, what about his team or are they not cute enough to be allowed to live?

It's Tommy this and Tommy that and Tommy mind the cats.

[Youngian]

Does anyone know the Taliban’s views on dogs? Probably not high on their hit list.

[Oboogie]

Does anyone know the Taliban’s views on dogs? Probably not high on their hit list.

I bet Afghans who worked with ex Marines are though. He left without his staff.

"Pip Tomson
@PipTomson
I can confirm that Pen Farthing is heading back to UK with his rescue animals (not pets!) His staff are not with him. Efforts continue to evacuate them too."

[The All New KevS]

I'd be intrigued to know why, and I'm sure he's hacked off himself, but now watch it plunge down the news order as the animals are thankfully safe.

[RedSparrows]

As long as the fur babies are safe, all is well, cried Britain, dabbing its blotchy, swollen face on a tattrweed copy of, oh I dunno, Alexander Pope's collected works, before chucking it in the bin and giving a satisfied sigh.

[Samanfur]

I'd be intrigued to know why, and I'm sure he's hacked off himself, but now watch it plunge down the news order as the animals are thankfully safe.

The US changed the rules on the necessary documentation for Afghans to leave the country, whilst Farthing and his staff were waiting to be allowed into the airport.

According to the interview he gave to Ros Atkins on the BBC last night, Farthing's staff were the ones telling him that he'd done all he could for them within the rules, but if the rules'd changed, then he needed to take the animals and go.

[The All New KevS]

I must admit, I didn't think he'd willingly leave them in the lurch and will no doubt be leaping up and down trying to get them out, but for some people that will now be the end of the story.

[Youngian]

but for some people that will now be the end of the story.

Unless he's planning a Rambo mission with his army buddies to get them out. You can't just get the white guy out in a modern action drama.

[davidjay]

However, and this may be me being overly cynical due to sleep deprivation (See posts passim), but there's this nagging doubt in my mind that wonders if some people would be so vociferous if you took the animals out of the equation, and he was just trying to get his Afghan staff out.

And I hate myself for thinking that.

You're not wrong, though. That is undoubtedly true. There are some very odd people (invariably female, I have to note) in the UK who get passionately vociferous and even militant where your dumb animals are concerned. I've always found it very, very strange.

And some of the more pro-animal rights ones are very often against human rights. Well, rights for one particular type of human.

My people...

[Boiler]

There's an element of truth in that, unfortunately.

[kreuzberger]

I'll preface this by saying that I broadly support the aims and usually the actions of the Sabs. I was also a veggie for over 20 years until a mishap with a skin-full and a lamb bhuna about 15 kilos ago.

I find the whole Farthing business absolutely pathetic and yet part and parcel of the leopards doing what leopards do.

On the one hand, he we have this deranged, messianic dog-walker who plies his trade in a fucking war zone and is bleating for special treatment which, seemingly, he has been granted on the back of having been a member of the Our Boys club at some stage in his past.

On a wider note, we have the Tugenhats, Stewarts, Mercers and co who were quite happy to vote through some of the most inhuman policies ever forwarded and who are, now that the misery-mobile footage is leading the news, grasping for shreds of compassion deep within their darkened souls. Whether these are Damascene conversions, I guess we'll never know. Granted, few of them are Johnson fans but what the hell did they expect from a tory leadership which, in the last eleven years, has proven itself to be bereft of planning, foresight, and keenness to do a hard days' graft unless their own close chums are set to benefit? Grenfell wasn't an accident, it was a consequence. The same can be said of black-on-black youth crime.

The victims are non-PLU writ large. As are the language-wallahs, the female attacking midfielders, and the desperate souls who tried to scratch together a living by cleaning the bogs at the embassy.

Who ultimately pulls the trigger is not really relevant because it could never have happened without Tory institutional indifference.

[Boiler]

Fenton has picked up on this:

https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2021/0 ... ories.html

[Boiler]

It has been brought (forcefully) to my attention that Farthing's flight is a civil charter, so "has nothing to do with the Government".

Aye, right.

[The All New KevS]

"Where will these refugees live?" always comes the cry "Who will pay for them?"

Well, surely you could ask the same question here, or are people expecting that the assorted cats and dogs will be just released as soon as they reach Brize Norton with a shout of "Go! Return to the nature you love!"

Let's get something straight. If you abuse animals, you're a worthless piece of shit. And we should do want we can to keep them safe. But when push comes to shove, then I'm afraid, you go with humans. And that's a dreadful decision to take, but one you have to. If you're driving along, and a child runs out into the road, but you can see that there's a cat in the only place you can swerve to, then, I'm sorry, than cheerio Tiddles.

Also, I do wonder how many of these screaming for the animals welfare then enjoyed a dinner of pork chops, or sausages, or a KFC or etc etc etc.

[Youngian]

Let's get something straight. If you abuse animals, you're a worthless piece of shit. And we should do want we can to keep them safe. But when push comes to shove, then I'm afraid, you go with humans. And that's a dreadful decision to take, but one you have to. If you're driving along, and a child runs out into the road, but you can see that there's a cat in the only place you can swerve to, then, I'm sorry, than cheerio Tiddles.

Captain Kirk would always find a third way to avoid a difficult dilmena and that's where a lot of this debate has centred. Various reasons have been given as to why taking pets wouldn't impinge on human space. Suggesting if push comes to shove Tiddles would go.

[Oboogie]

This what we're up against...

[Youngian]

The sinister hand of Nick Clegg at work?

THE TALIBAN SPOKESMAN, Zabihullah Mujahid, emerged from the shadows on Tuesday and devoted part of his first press conference to a rant about Facebook, in which he accused the tech giant of violating the Islamist group’s right to free speech by banning them from all its platforms. https://theintercept.com/2021/08/17/tal ... ing-group/

[Boiler]

Afghanistan, as was;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014 ... index.html