The foreign secretary was on the beach when the Taliban took Kabul. Welcome to Global Britain
What is the role of foreign secretary in the era of Global Britain? News that Dominic Raab was spotted lounging on a beach in Crete on the day Kabul fell certainly sends a message. The suspicion must be that the position of foreign secretary has key similarities with that of England football captain, which is of course a non-operational role roughly on a par with that of regimental goat.
For many years, people were positively obsessed with what sort of person should be England football captain, as though it remotely mattered which player pulled on the armband. It’s not cricket, or even rugby. The position of England football captain has simply never been used to influence a football match, yet as recently as a decade ago was being discussed as though it were one of the great offices of state, with its holder saying as much about our place in the world as about whether “the lads” had or hadn’t given it their all “out there”. The Italians simply give the captaincy to the oldest player on the pitch, which is perhaps something the British government might consider with the Foreign Office.
