I followed the advice. I take responsibility.
That was how William Hague dealt with criticism that the Foreign Office had successfully got an aircraft into Libya - unlike it's failure to get any in two weeks ago - only to see the special forces and alleged spy onboard instantly arrested.
The foreign secretary appeared demoralised or, perhaps, bored by the attacks on him for what has gone wrong in recent weeks. He simply absorbed the blows which came from both the opposition and his own side without hitting back.
The shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander attacked the "serial bungling" of the Foreign Office and - in a risky but effective parliamentary mission - played Hague at his own game. Alexander mocked the weekend mission pointing out that it was just two miles from the safety of the Royal Navy to the Libyan courthouse where the SAS landed their chopper. If neighbours moved in next door to the foreign secretary, he asked, wouldn't it be better to ring the doorbell to say hello rather than to climb the fence in the middle of the night?
Sir Menzies Campbell called the mission this weekend "ill-conceived, poorly planned and embarrassingly executed" and asked what could be done to restore the credibility of the Foreign Office.
Tory backbenchers Sir Malcolm Rifkind, John Redwood, Edward Leigh, Julian Brazier, John Baron and Rory Stewart all warned against a no fly zone or any military intervention at all.
The only person who rose in support of an embattled Hague was Bernard Jenkin who told him to take credit for what went right as well as blame for what had gone wrong. It was, joked Hague, a concept he was unfamiliar with after four years as Tory leader. If he is beginning to compare the stress of being foreign secretary with being the first Tory leader to face a triumphant Tony Blair the government has a problem.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/03/resigned_but_no.html
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