Lily Allen has been heavily criticised for apologising to an Afghan boy at the Sangatte refugee camp outside Calais: ‘On behalf of my country, I’m sorry for what we have put you through. We’ve bombed your country, put you in the hands of the Taliban and now put you in danger of risking your life to get into our country.’
Conservative MP, Philip Davies branded Allen a ‘luvvie’ while Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan in 2003, said ‘she clearly does not have any understanding of the situation.’
It’s true that Lily Allen has no mandate to represent the British people, so I can see why Mr Davies might be irritated – that’s his job after all. But I’m frankly alarmed by Colonel Kemp’s remarks because they expose his own lack of understanding – and he’s supposed to be an expert.
It seems to me that Lily Allen understands the situation perfectly. In the early days of the campaign British airstrikes devastated many towns and villages in Helmand, causing high civilian casualties and forcing the local population they were supposed to be protecting to flee. Today, almost all the ground once controlled by British troops has been ceded to the Taliban with Lashkar Gah, the former headquarters for Task Force Helmand under siege.
She might be a luvvie but if you ask me Lily Allen knows what she’s talking about.
SPIN ZHIRA: Old Man in Helmand is the unauthorised, unvarnished and irreverent story of one man’s midlife crisis on the front line of the most dangerous district in Afghanistan where the locals haven’t forgiven the British for the occupation of 1842 or for the Russian Invasion of 1979. Of course, all infidels look the same so you can’t really tell them apart.
A JOURNEY OF LOVE, SERVICE AND ADVENTURE. EXCELLENT!
A MODERN WARFARE LITERARY CLASSIC! OUTSTANDING READ.
ENTERTAINING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND COMPULSORY TO READ.
SPIN ZHIRA 