DOMINIC Raab’s performance before the foreign affairs select committee and a second independence referendum were debated by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Henry Deedes said the foreign secretary had insisted the Taliban’s capture of Kabul caught everyone unaware.

“Palpable nonsense, of course, though it helps justify his decision to decamp to Crete and slurp pina coladas just as all hell broke loose,” he said. “Up stepped Chris Bryant (Lab, Rhondda). Mr Bryant likes to treat Raab the way an exasperated teacher might treat an idle pupil of whom he expects so much more.

“He gave him a rough old time yesterday, particularly over that ill-judged vacation. Raab, meanwhile, dismissed talk about his holiday as a ‘fishing expedition’ and ‘partisan.’ Weak.”

He said Lt Col Tugendhat reiterated Afghanistan was our worst foreign policy disaster since Suez.

“Raab huffily asserted he ‘struggled’ with that analogy. And with a brusque shuffle of papers, he was off and away from the Westminster swim. He may find the mean streets of Islamabad mildly more agreeable.”

The Guardian

Katy Balls said Raab’s appearance before the foreign affairs select committee was more notable for what he didn’t say than what he did.

“In a tetchy appearance, Raab refused to be drawn 10 times on when exactly he went on holiday to Crete, could not put a number on the number of Afghans eligible to be resettled in Britain who were left behind, and blamed military intelligence failures for his being taken by surprise by the speed at which Kabul fell,” she said. “Raab’s own holiday – regardless of whether he took all his meetings from the hotel he was staying in – has become a metaphor for a government that has lost its focus. MPs complain that the government does not appear sufficiently serious.”

The Daily Express

David Green, director of Civitas, said Nicola Sturgeon did not speak for all of Scotland.

“In September 2020 Shetland Council voted 18-2 in favour of exploring options for independence from Scotland,” he said. “The constituency of Orkney and Shetland consistently votes for the Liberal-Democrats, a unionist party. Arguably the people just north of the border have more in common with England than Sassenach-hating SNP zealots.”

He said the three constituencies closest to England consistently vote Tory.

“The petty-minded sectarian nationalism of the SNP is no foundation for a free people. Scotland has plenty to be proud of, but the brand of divisive identity politics promoted by the SNP is not compatible with our heritage of liberal democracy, built as it has been on our common humanity and shared citizenship.”