Off Topic Political Debate

Oh the irony of this...



Of course, the obvious response - which would no doubt go straight over his head, or through his ears - would be -

“We cannot be a colony of Britain any longer, accepting new laws that are made without any say-so from the Scottish people, parliament or government…that is being a vassal state of Britain”
​

 

According to 3 years of research by the British Conflict Armament Research (CAR), commissioned by the EU. Painstakingly photographing all remains of ammunition and weaponry which could be found in Syria and Iraq, which had been used by IS. and then tracing the origins of over 40,000 pieces, they have found that the vast majority of weapons used by IS. were 'Made in Europe'. It has also been found that this is not confined to the war zones of Syria and Iraq - but that dozens of other militia groups, Worldwide, are using weapons which originated from the EU. These weapons appear to have arrived either via the USA or via Saudi Arabia - sometimes with the knowledge of EU. governments. After the USA. and Russia the largest producers of weapons are Germany, France, the UK. and China - so it appears that some of the IS. fighters may not just be from England, but are also using British weapons. Is it not time to stop this charade of pretending to want peace but arming the World for war ? This charade of appearing to help refugees on the one hand, and providing the weapons which are destroying their countries on the other. We need to ban all exporting of weapons before we can take any moral high ground whatsoever.

 

It would be good if the EU countries did make some attempt to slow or even stop arms sales, but I doubt that they could get the US, China and Russia on board when you look at the value of the sales. I would actually fear that the UK out of desperation once it has left the EU will actually try to increase these sales. One of my daughters did work at one time for a company that organized weapon fairs, and she was staggered at the amount of money spent just to be at one of these events. It is a huge market, and despite the UK governments of both major parties saying how closely they regulate sales, they in reality do very little apart from rubber stamp the paperwork. For any success in reducing such sales it has to be by global agreement, probably the only structure being the UN, but sadly when you look at the "Big Boys" there, it is against their own interests to even try.

 

Sadly Britain is increasing its arms sales even without Brexit, although I fear you are right on this. Arms exports from the UK. have increased by 26% over the last 5 years, and two thirds of those are going to the Middle East. The same region also accounts for 40% of American arms exports. Yet we will shake our heads when it comes to caring for the victims of this. We will not make the connection that the refugee looking to us for help may have been bombed out of his home by a British or American weapon. It is also meaningless to talk about a ban on nuclear weapons as long as conventional weapons are not included in this - If my perceived enemy has an army 20 times bigger than mine, 20 times more planes and all of them modern, then the only short cut which preserves my safety is to have a nuclear weapon - and this just may be the logic of Iran or North Korea.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/lib-dems-electoral-commission_uk_5a38df63e4b0860bf4aac5d7

LibDems fined for election 'spending irregularities'. If memory serves me well, that leaves just the one political party in the UK with a 'clean sheet' in this regard. Strangely, it's the one party accused by all the others, plus the msm, of dishonesty, incompetence and just about everything else that ails the nation - the one I'm proud to be a member of, SNP.

 

"The only clean sheets are those which haven't been used..." (Old Chinese proverb...perhaps!)

 

SNP councillor suspended after 'irregularities' probe - The Scotsman

SNP MP Chris Law held over alleged financial irregularities | Politics ...

EU suspends £45m cash for Scotland over 'irregularities' - Telegraph

Sturgeon backs third SNP MP probed over financial dealings | UK ...

SNP hit by another MP investigation - Financial Times

 

Damian Green, Theresa May’s most important ally in Government, has resigned as the First Secretary of State after admitting he made “misleading” statements about pornography found on his Commons computer in 2008.
The resignation will also prompt questions over the future of his Cabinet colleague David Davis after allies of the Brexit Secretary made clear he would quit his post if Mr Green resigned over the allegations of pornography.

 

Probably wants to spend more time with his laptop...

 

Seems that this could have come out before PMQs, but of course they are off on their holidays tomorrow.

 

And here he is, packed and leaving...

 

"Result a severe blow to the Spanish government which had hoped the vote would halt the push for secession" A headline from one daily paper.
This is the second National leader this year to get it badly wrong. May thought she would get a thumping majority that would give her a free hand to do as she wished, and we can all see how that ended up.

 

Severe blow is a bit of an understatement and who knows what will eventuate after what can only be described as Rajoy's resounding defeat. After imprisoning elected officials (still doing it today too, I notice), denying Catalonia access to its own funds and letting loose his goons to batter innocent citizens as they dared to carry out their democratic right to vote, he is probably left with just two options - continue/escalate the oppression or resign.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear that TM is spending Christmas in Spain, attempting to negotiate a lucrative arms deal.

 

I thought that David Davis said he would go if Damien Green did. Presumably what he actually meant was there are a variety of ways to show solidarity with your colleague and resignation was just an example. You could call it hard or soft friendship I suppose...

 

With Damien Green's reputation, I'd rather avoid a hard friendship.

 

I love the way the Tories have made this all about the officers concerned not about the cover-up and lying of the UK No2 (and what a filthy, lying No2 he is).

 

Following on from #BluePassportDay - the Tories reveal their next icon to be reintroduced in an effort to make the UK a proud, great nation...

 

I can't actually bring myself to like this but yeah -it's bang on.
This whole Brexit thing has hacked me off no end. I like compromise and consensus. As a nation we did well, by and large, out of having a system where diverse groups could sit around a table and come away with a fair bit of what they wanted. We're binning that to go and live in a world where it's winner takes all and the loser can go whistle. And we are doing it on a playing field where the opposition is Zoff, puskas, beckenbauer, Zidane and Ronaldo. We have Alan Rough, Keith Dublin, Carlton Palmer, Geoff Thomas, Jordan Henderson and Gary effing birtles. And if there is a Russian linesman we won't be getting the same result as 1966. Merry Christmas.

 

Is this the old Dan Starkey ? If so welcome back If not, then welcome