Duncan of Benghazi

Junior ministers rarely get to influence high-level policy or be seen publicly to have done so. So Development Minister Alan Duncan must feel particularly pleased that his brainchild, the so-called “Libya oil cell”, was set up to block fuel supplies to Tripoli; and that its work – as well as the Tory MP’s role – has now become public. On the day that David Cameron jets off to the Paris Conference no less.

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Ross Clark

Britain is living beyond its means

The BBC reports that a six person team was set, taking in people from the Cabinet Office and the MoD, but working out of the Foreign Office. The team focused on depriving Gaddafi’s regime of oil by cutting off smuggling routes and operations in order to cripple the Libyan military machine and create popular pressure on the government. Until then, there had been credible reports of smuggling over land from Algeria into Libya – something Coffee