Ali risked his life to escape Afghanistan — and now teaches Britons how to survive there

‘Brown is very good — no Cameron. David Cameron no good,’ he said. Just in case we weren’t sure what he meant, he repeated, ‘Brown I like. Labour government I like. I like the Brown. I like the Tony Blairs. David Cameron no good.’ It was such an odd thing, to hear praise for Gordon Brown, and doubly so because it came from an asylum-seeker who had never been to the UK. He was talking to Michael Goldfarb in Calais, while trying to find a way to get across the Channel.

It’s almost four years since Brown left office. His tenure as PM is rarely, if ever, talked about in the UK. Yet here he was on a pedestal, above even Tony Blair, and put there by a refugee from the Afghan wars who could hardly speak English.

Yet it was not the oddest moment on From Kabul to Kent (Radio 5 Live, Saturday).