What the government won't tell you: we are losing Afghan hearts -- By Adam Holloway

The Taliban cannot beat our brave and committed Armed Forces in any sort of conventional military engagement. But the Afghan people also trusted us to provide security and reconstruction: as they see it, we are providing neither. --- In Helmand I learned that while the Afghans want us there, it is so that we provide precisely that reconstruction and security. We the British talk a good plan in terms of development and governance. --- The only problem is that we are not delivering our "comprehensive approach". The Department for International Development's contribution has been woeful. ---"They sit in their office in the British base and write reports for London," said one local.