Secret Foreign Office Plans

On Wednesday, I expressed by doubt as to whether the Foreign Office had any plans to evacuate British Citizens from the Gulf States in the event of any repetition of the events in Libya.
I was clearly wrong as a mole has sent me a summary of the plans in the form of this Memo of Understanding between the Foreign Office and the Admiralty.

"Following a review of the situation following the end of World War 2, it has been necessary to update our contingency plans in respect of the action to be taken to protect British interests in our Gulf State protectorates and adjoining countries.
"In the event of  a request for assistance from the British Authorities in any of the states concerned, the following action will be taken:
"Naval units of the Royal Navy's Indian Ocean fleet that are at sea will make their best speed to the affected area and will be supported by heavy units from the Royal Naval Bases at Aden and Trincomalee in Ceylon which should be able to sail at 24 hours notice.
"Units of the Mediterranean Fleet, presently in the eastern Mediterranean, will also make best speed for the Suez Canal and will take passage to replace vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Other units will sail from Malta Grand Harbour and Gibraltar towards the Eastern Mediterranean and should be prepared to transit the Suez Canal to provide additional support if necessary.
 "Ships of the Atlantic Fleet, based on the Falklands will be put on readiness for deployment if required"

Evacuation from Libya

I've just been watching William Hague on TV being interviewed about the evacuation of British Citizens from Libya and I was very far from impressed.
France, Russia, Ireland and a number of other countries have got their citizens out, but so far no British Citizen has got out other than by his own endeavours.
One plane stuck at Gatwick, others awaiting permission and worries about civilian crews. What's happened to the RAF? It still has trooping planes at Brize Norton. And even if they aren't available and civilian crews are unwilling to fly, I'm sure the government has the powers to requisition suitable aircraft and could find crews, RAF or otherwise.
Waiting permission? Well why haven't the aircraft  already been positioned in, say, Malta ready to go in at a moments notice? And as for permission, the French and Russians didn't bother and a couple of fighter aircraft would dissuade the Libyan air force from doing anything silly.  
Lots of the British are in remote desert camps. Where are our helicopters? Whoops, sorry, I forgot, the MoD still have them on order. Even so, I would have though many of these remote camps have some kind of airstrip, if only for light aircraft, but anything is better than nothing. What about desert convoys and dropping our paras as an escort. Isn't that why we have paras so we can put troops into such places. Somehow, if the government stopped worrying about what the Libyans think, it should be possible to organise evauation to Egypt.

The reason that I believe this country should have a strong military is so that we can, in the limit, defend our country, but  more importantly so that we can assist and protect British citizens abroad should the occasion arise, something the military, and particularly the Royal Navy with the Marines, used to do extremely well.

We have now shown how incompetent we are (other dictators please note) and have let down our citizens, not only in Libya, but elsewhere in the world where trouble could erupt. We have maybe thousands of ex-pats and holiday makers in the gulf states, I wonder if Hague and the Foreign Office incompetents have even considered what to do if the trouble spreads to these from Bahrain.