My eye was caught by a phrase in a report from Julius Cavendish in Helmand Province: “Amid the rose bushes & machine-gun towers …”
This evoked the memory of a vivid headline from the Falklands War: “Dug in behind the lupins, Stanley waits” & I read on
And so I learned another fascinating fact
The leader of the ‘host of British civil servants … on hand to fill the political vacuum’ is 40-something Hugh Powell, dubbed by unnamed sceptics ‘the Viceroy of Helmandshire’
Tipped as a future aide to fellow Old Etonian David Cameron
Son of Lord (Charles) Powell, Mrs Thatcher’s Private Secretary & Lady (Carla) who recently played host to Lady Thatcher on the trip during which she met the Pope
Nephew of Jonathan, Tony Blair’s erstwhile Chief of Staff in Downing Street
And also of Sir Christopher, who disliked the limelight, despite having been head of a major advertising agency & sometime adviser to the Labour Party
