Kendall:
"..Finland, for many years, was the only country to pay their debt. Why did it take the UK so long? "
The aid given to Britain was "Lend Lease" and I would imagine amounted to a damn sight more than the aid given to Finland under the Marshall plan.
There is a saying that states something about people in glass houses. Perhaps you can offer some sort of explanation about America's outstanding account with the United Nations.
McGrath of Harlow:
"These thing always seem to start with denials anything happened, and then with suggestions that it was the other guys fault and so forth. And then gradually the truth leaks out. Not just Americans - the English do it, the Israelis do it."
British, MoH, British. The only thing England has done independently from the other constituent parts of the United Kingdom since 1707 is field sports teams.
Also:
"This isn't a wartime mistake. The people who made it aren't living on their nerves in fear of imminent death."
Considering the conditions and operations being conducted, your sentence, quoted above, clearly indicates that this is a situation you have never been in - I have.
American and Afghan investigators are now on the scene - one of the things they have commented on is the lack of graves to support the numbers reportedly killed (only five found). Burials normally take place within 24 hours of death in Islamic countries - could be they were all at the point of contact and "vapourised", that doesn't square with the FO's statement of were the stray bomb landed.
"There was a short war in Afghanistan, but that's over. "
Don't you believe it. The border with Pakistan is like a collander, and when things got tough for the Taliban and Al Qaeda they slipped into Pakistan. The type of operation required to ensure that those groups do not reform and become a threat to the people of Afghanistan is similar in nature to the operations mounted in Malaysia, those lasted from 1949 to 1964. The harder and longer you pursue them the weaker they get, while at the same time the government of Afghanistan gets stronger and more stable - to the benefit of the Afghan people as a whole.