Steerpike

Ben Wallace's week goes from bad to worse. Amid continuing criticisms of the botched evacuation from Afghanistan, news reaches Steerpike that talks have begun about making the story of Operation Ark into a Hollywood film. It was said that the story of Penn Farthing's evacuation of his animal sanctuary from Kabul had every thing: drama, tragedy and a rich cast of heroes and villains. And now that story could be told with the rest of the world, judging from the interest already being expressed. Animal welfare campaigner Dominic Dyer, a close friend of Farthing, told Steerpike that while the immediate focus had been on the evacuation of the at-risk animals, discussions have already begun about dramatising Penn Farthing's tale.

Fresh from his Crete holiday, Dominic Raab appeared at the Foreign Affairs Committee looking tense and awkward. The Foreign Secretary has been dragged to an extraordinary meeting of the panel specially convened in spite of the parliamentary recess to answer questions about the collapse of Afghanistan and rushed evacuation of the Western powers. Raab's session overstretched to almost two hours and saw a range of hostile questions from right across the House. A glowering Tom Tugendhat ambushed the embattled minister with his department's principle risks report from July 21 warning of collapse of Afghanistan while a deluge of questions about the Crete holiday were met by Raab's insistence that such queries were just a 'fishing expedition.

Oh dear. For years Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been at pains to prove his feminist credentials. Whether it's correcting a woman for using the word 'mankind' or promising to turn a 'she-cession' into a 'she-covery,' the hereditary premier has done his damnedest to prove he's the wokest leader in all the West. But now Tudeau has unwittingly followed in the footsteps of one woman whose example he would not want to follow: another onetime embattled PM Theresa May. A fortnight ago, Trudeau called a snap election to improve his precarious parliamentary majority but the move looks to have backfired spectacularly.

Concerns in Westminster are growing about the impact that a string of recent takeovers will have on Britain's sovereign capability. In recent weeks deals have been agreed by foreign firms to take over two leading UK defence manufacturers – Meggitt and Ultra – despite doubts about the impact such moves will have on the UK's manufacturing ability. There are fears that it could mean that the next generation of aircraft for the iconic Red Arrows will not be built here in Britain. Coventry-based Meggitt supplies wheels and brakes for fighter jets used by the Royal Air Force and is the subject of two bids from American firms Parker Hannifin and TransDigm for £6.3 billion and £7 billion respectively.

Downing Street's Union Unit has tried many ideas to keep Scotland in the UK – but even they can't have thought of this. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove was spotted in the early hours of the morning dancing in a popular nightclub in Aberdeen, the city of his birth. Gove, a veteran of the Whitehall jungle, turned up shortly after 1 a.m. at O'Neills pub – a place 'where you can enjoy the craic' in its own words – before heading on upstairs to nightclub Bohemia. One gob-smacked punter was quoted in the Daily Record as saying:  'Michael Gove walked into O'Neills at around 1.15am, the pub was just about closing. I'm almost sure he was by himself.  I heard people saying, 'he's a Tory MP' others asked 'Who's Michael Gove?' and were Googling him.

September is shaping up to be a big month for Liz Truss and the Department for International Trade. While the minister herself has been tipped for higher things in the long-awaited reshuffle, she and her officials have been busily working away this recess to seal another trade deal. Wine-lovers across the country will be delighted to hear that a deal with New Zealand is looking likely within weeks, with hopes that it will be agreed by the Tory Party conference at the beginning of October.  As well as improving trade between the two countries – worth some £2.3 billion last year – a deal could expedite Britain's admission to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which it applied to join in January.

It's been a sobering fortnight for fans of America's septuagenarian president. Even before he took office, Joe Biden was telling the world 'America is back' – a refrain he repeatedly returned to both in official speeches and on his personal Twitter account. But as the scenes of Afghanistan's rapid collapse have appeared on timelines and televisions across the West, such confident assertions have curiously disappeared from the rhetoric of the supposed 'leader of the free world.' The embattled Democrat has repeatedly refused to extend the timetable of America's withdrawal ahead of the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 despite the failure to evacuate all those Afghan's most at risk of reprisals.

'Jaw-jaw is better than war war' according to Churchill. And with the failure of last night's G7 summit, diplomacy is the only option left to the West as its leaders come to terms with the Taliban's triumph. Downing Street has denied reports that sanctions will be imposed on the new regime, with the billions of pounds in frozen Afghan assets overseas intended to be used as leverage. And so Ed Davey's much-mocked proposal of 'tea with the Taliban' has now become de-facto government policy as Britain desperately negotiates to evacuate refugees. Steerpike wonders what exciting role the militant Islamists will play in the wider international community.

The re-opening of 19 July was greeted with joy across the country and nowhere more so than in Westminster. The newly updated register of members' interests show how MPs have been enjoying the restoration of their liberties as donations of gifts, directorships and various gigs flooded in. A total of £56,000 was recorded in hospitality by 42 MPs over recess – £46,000 of which was registered by 31 Tory MPs. Kicking things off is the minister of state for Asia Nigel Adams who managed to bag tickets to three hotly contested Euro 2020 tickets worth some £6,038 to take his tournament total to £8,037. Good thing not much else was happening at the Foreign Office during that time.