http://www.theguardian.com/media/20... v2&utm_term=137612&subid=2721127&CMP=ema_546 This is what Mandelson has to say on the UK press and specifically that Lord Rothermere (Mail, Metro), News UK/Rupert Murdoch (Sun, Times, Sky, Scottish Sun) and the Barclay Brothers (The Telegraph, The Spectator) are all tax-dodgers (which they are) and as a result of their fear of Corbyn's proposed changes to corporate tax avoidance and changes to make everyone pay their fair share of tax, reducing tax dodging in millionaires - they are running a smear campaign against him.
Don't normally post on these boards, just have a wonder and brief read about varying degrees of opinions on Arsenal and so forth. But I have to admit so many bigots come out of their wood work on social media and so on, when something like this happens, sadly innocent people on both sides suffer but we seem to mourn and think western life is worth more than those pesky Muslim's in those countries, where we drop the bombs, train/arm the rebels (until they go against the west), use drones and back countries who have a open prison (Palestine) and create mass refugees but that's not a problem or a reason why people turn to extremism oh no its the teaching of Islam. We should not just mourn and show outrage for the innocents of one side because they are killed by ISIS and forget the others because they are killed by West or our friendly rebels. There were some opinions going around that Muslim's should be all grouped together in one area of the UK, like it was in WW2 for Nazi supporters until ISIS have been dealt with or they should go back to their ancestral countries! I mean seriously? second, third and fourth generations don't belong here they say and at the same rate complain Muslim's don't integrate? I mean really how does one integrate and become part of Britain? Also what about the Muslim's that are not of the "Brown Skin" but are born and bred English, do the become foreign as well as soon as they change their faith or non-faith to faith? On the note of integration, does that mean all American's, Australian, Kiwi's and so on who haven't changed their life style to the same way as the natives they should go back to their ancestral lands? I hope not otherwise UK, would have a massive problem housing them! I also get irritated when people say our forefathers fought for our freedom and made the country what it is today not for the Muslim's to come and take over, if recall correctly the Muslim's fought for this country too sacrificing their lives and settled here with their families and others were invited to come and build the infrastructure after the WW2 in UK, now all of their family, kids, grand kids and so on are un-welcome because they happen to be Muslim's. you cannot boast about freedom of choice and free to live as you will for law abiding citizens and then complain they are not like us, they live differently, dress differently and have alien faith, don't forget once upon a time Christianity was Alien here too, most of the ones that say they are the natives, you will find their ancesters have emigrated here from elsewhere at some stage.
Good post, and eloquently expressed (for a Gooner). You should post more often, hopefully at happier times.
I would but generally bored of the two extreme as there really isn't a happier times! There is Arsene is great ( Because we won) or Arsene don't know what he is doing
Good read-article by Martin Samuel: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...l-1-0-Paris-attacks-results-Just-not-win.html
In regards to the video, he is spot on for the most part, the last attack though, these guys were directly linked and orchestrated by ISIS, not the random ****tard type. The thing with ISIS though, they can be defeated quite easily I think if an army decides to attack them and take their territory away, they are a paper tiger ISIS. But they would still thrive by other means, which is what they were doing before they started gaining territory, they would just resort to a terrorism campaign of daily or near daily bombings and attacks, to disrupt normal life, bring chaos-instability, and then again slowly build up and when the world doesn't really give a **** anymore, they will take hold and come back out of their holes. The real way to defeating ISIS is not through bombs and guns, that tactic has been a failure for more than a decade now, (ISIS used to formerly be known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq before morphing in the Islamic State of Iraq and then the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and to now Islamic State-Caliphate). The way you beat ISIS is by having a political solution, one whereby you quit helping put in backward ****tards like the previous Iraqi government and security services in power, and you support legitimate politicians who actually represent the will of the people. A political process isn't easy and will take time, but if there's a will and a real intent, it will happen. So far though, there isn't, just a lot of talk.
Couldn't agree more - especially the last paragraph. I do feel that bombing the **** out of Syria, a country already on it's knees because of constant shelling, fighting and civil war, is just going to displace/kill millions more of it's innocent civilians and increase the refugee crisis to the surrounding countries such as Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon who are struggling to cope, and of course the trickle will increase into Europe, leading to more racial tensions and increased calls to disband the EU and close doors, allowing a fertile ground for ISIS recruitment (forced or through radicalisation) and further exacerbating things
No worries, he seems like a good guy, but it was my missus who saw it and showed it to me, so she deserves the thanks
I feel that one of the main issues we have is that we always talk about humanitarian aid - who is going to take in the refugees, we need to give funding and build schools etc, rather than a political solution - and the political solution to resolving the Syrian crisis is overthrowing the tyrant and dictator Bassar Al Assad. That is the crux of the issue. Once he goes, then a massive obstacle to restoring democracy is removed.
True, but it's difficult to build schools etc when whole towns are being threatened and blown up and millions of people are being displaced both from conflict and drought. The end game is of course a stable Syria and stable ME with no dictators and no ethnic cleansing. But in the meantime we have millions of people in poorly provisioned refugee camps and desperate people across thousands of miles from Lebanon to Calais who need help before they starve or get prayed upon by criminal gangs and extremists.
Absolutely. I don't disagree with any of this. But in the long term, there can be little doubt that Assad has to go and it's only until he goes that we will see a better chance for a more stable and democratic Syria.
Assad isn't the only tyrant and dictator in the Middle East but for some strange reason he is the only one the West want removed
Assad isn't the only dictator and tyrant in the ME, but he has still been a truly horrendous individual with no regard for human lives and the safety of his people. Why do the West want him removed? Because it's not in their interests to have him as leader.
Assad is a **** but I would take issue with your argument that he has no regard for human lives and the safety of his people.Assad's dictatorship is at least secular so the religious minorities are protected.We can all see how daesh treat the Christians,Yazidis,Shia etc.
I agree with this, his secret police are very scary and abhorrent - they have terrorised the population for years/decades and indeed during the 'War [witchhunt] on Terror' UK and USA suspects were routinely handed over to Assads secret police, as they could get away with more torture than we could.... As you say, it's in our interest to have the Saudi royal family and Prime Minister Netanyahu in charge, in a similar way as it was in USA interests to support a military coup in Pakistan (allowing them to base troops and strategic weapons there). But we need to get rid of Assad, but we also need to involve the Syrian people, to depose Assad in a political way so that the country is stable and what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq doesn't happen to Syria, and considering the influence of ISIS and the remnants of the Free Syria Army still running around, with air strikes already pulverizing the country, is a much greater risk.
ISIS were actually formed via an incarnation of the Free Syrian Army, not Al-Qaeda. This is how they managed to get so many heavy weapons, because the CIA armed and trained the FSA when they thought they they were the most organised group to topple Assad. Add to that, the weapons that the US gave to the Iraqi army that folded when ISIS attacked Mosul etc. I agree that the solution is not bombing the **** out of Syria and Iraq, that approach shows that it's actually civilians and infrastructure that suffers, but I do think that ISIS need to be fought on the ground in the territories that they hold, because their 'califate' is only based on the territory that they hold and the resources (oil) that they control. (an aside is why does the western banking system support the transfer of oil money from ISIS to their buyers, but that is a whole other debate)