the day after the deadline: can the union survive brexit and other deep questions

*skreeeeeeeeee*

https://i.redditmedia.com/4hh0QRzPkWMIMCIDu7euWGP-JKBzhXZwvYsWMaWy49o.png?w=592&s=b5aeb68b4d952f08f52a3691579a459a

what can you say, the man's a conviction democrat

in the sense that he should be convicted on numerous counts of war crimes, v much agree

TBF I have absolutely no idea what should happen wrt Syria now and I don't believe that 99% of people on this board do either, but Blair is the last person I'd go to for advice.

― Matt DC, 10. april 2018 09:38 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fred is the 1%

― xyzzzz__, 10. april 2018 09:56 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep, exactly.

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), 10. april 2018 09:59 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Aw, thanks guys :)

Bit of sleight of hand there Fred, you missed out mfktz's xp.

I have no opinion as to whether Fred is a Blairite but I now know him to be a fraudster

Hey, I think you're great as well, Fred

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), 10. april 2018 14:58 (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Aw, stop it :)

to paraphrase Jeremy Hardy's comment during the Yugoslav wars - "bombing will only make things worse. When people ask me 'well what would you do then?' my response is 'not make things worse'"

In a better world T Blair would know exactly how unpopular he is, and this would be a canny bit of reverse psychology to get T May to consider how she wants to be considered by history.

all i know is that it's better to blast those syrian kids into undifferentiated globs of human tissue rather than offer them refuge here in our glorious united kngdom

AFAIK air strikes weren't terribly effective in Kosovo, it was the threat of ground troops that caused Milosevic to reconsider. But in Syria's case we've kindly offered to bomb two conflicting sides now so it's tempting to put this down to the Something Must Be Done tendency.

http://i.imgur.com/F8ZXT5h.jpg

incoming missile fire is the only language those starving orphans understand

AFAIK air strikes weren't terribly effective in Kosovo,

Pretty effective in wiping out the Chinese Embassy tbf.

I'm too much of a space cadet type of peacenik to have a coherent argument why I think the UK piling on to an already clustered proxy war site is not going to make a difference, but good old Blair always has a platform on the BBC to remind me of what a cunt he is and how I might just be on the right side of the argument.

Any good analysis of the situation on the ground/likely form and effect of a british intervention? Gonna have to read up on this shit now.

Would we be going in against or alongside the Russians and is this all to do with the nerve agent

The Times is reporting May has demanded more evidence from the US before signing off on any bombing, which you can take with as large a pinch of salt as you like.

if there's one thing we can rely on before making our decision on military action, it's reliable evidence from the us

http://slugtales.com/powell%20bumperstickers.jpg

At the very least it suggests they think Corbyn’s caution about evidence played better than they thought it might.

Where does this idea that Corbyn is in thrall to Assad/Putin actually come from? Besides CCHQ obvs.

The Labour back benches, usually.

I hope never liked a post by the person using the ironic Follow Back Putin Enthusiast handle on my Twitter.

corbyn is a filthy communist, as is putin, who is propping up assad, therefore corbyn is a stooge for the ussr

i mean it's pretty simple if you ignore facts, logic and reason

somethign something backchannel to czechoslovakia

A national scandal. >> Deaths of UK homeless people more than double in five years. Human beings left to die in supermarket car parks, church graveyards and crowded hostels. https://t.co/Mqck26UCJt

— Frances Ryan (@DrFrancesRyan) April 11, 2018

if they didn't want to die on the streets they shouldn't have become homeless iirc

Lifestyle choice.

There were reports a while ago of Corbyn having recieved a "briefing" on Syria from a pro-Assad anti-White Helmets conspiracy theorist but they didn't gain much traction, possibly because the dude in question was the one trumpeting it and there's no indication Corbyn gave him much credence.

He's fairly likely to have some loose associates with extremely dodgy opinions here and the likelihood of one of those stories blowing up sometime soon is very high.

xp
But they wouldn't even sub them a one-way ticket to Dignitas ffs!

I think they've blown it with Corbyn, short of him being revealed as a PIE enthusiast, I think ppl are developing a fatigue for whatever evil he is up to his neck in this week.

The Times is reporting May has demanded more evidence from the US before signing off on any bombing, which you can take with as large a pinch of salt as you like.

Yeah, irony. I'm getting the impression May is not exactly in a rush to get involved in this mess. Unlike Emperor Macron.

I think they've blown it with Corbyn, short of him being revealed as a PIE enthusiast

i believe we've already esatblished itt that there's nothing wrong with being interested in news for professionals in international education

Fatigue or not, that won't stop them.

May doesn't seem to be shamelessly rinsing the Syria situation to look authoritative and strong, so that could suggest doubt.

One Russian paper today asks "Is macho Trump starting World War 3?" & warns that a US missile strike on Syria "...risks spilling over into open conflict between nuclear powers." Today's Russian press review. pic.twitter.com/cvPNMvxfNg

— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) April 11, 2018

i hope she's taking into account that her government has achieved literally nothing of any note since last summer and is still in the process of comprehensively fucking up brexit, so adding a war into the mix is probably a bad idea

gotta balance that against all those conservative donors in the defence industry jizzing themselves at the prospect of sexy night-vision footage of their missiles raining down on syrian women and children tho i suppose

Syria is a former French mandate, so yeah, it speaks to a sense of French imperialism, like Mali did.

He's fairly likely to have some loose associates with extremely dodgy opinions here

every politician associates with people who have extremely dodgy opinions on foreign policy

Yes but only Corbyn gets attacked for them.

by a media which continually weakens its position with every new bit of rubbish

I think he should have sacked Gardiner by now. Couldn’t get over his cavalier comments about the border, and can’t imagine him commenting that the 6 Brexit are “bollocks” is doing anything for the party mood.

I like Gardiner, it was a bit careless of him, but what the hell - shame the devil!

Anyone shit-talking the Good Friday Agreement needs to go really.

i missed that one tbh.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/09/barry-gardiner-good-friday-deal-played-up-for-economic-reasons-labour-brexit-hard-border-paramilitary

ok not good, but he always seems so decent on AQ. Probably not best measure of a politician tho!

He has a nice voice, I say keep 'im.

The Times is reporting May has demanded more evidence from the US before signing off on any bombing, which you can take with as large a pinch of salt as you like.

― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If any of that is true it would point to May's reluctance to go anywhere with Trump on this, just too unpredictable. strong and stable

Getting in the middle of a proxy war between Trump and Putin without any guarantee of improving the situation on the ground in Syria, with Brexit on top. I don't think she wants to turn into a combination of Blair and Major with her hold on power as fragile as it is.

I wouldn't bank on her being able to resist any pressure from her own benches, especially when Boris Johnson inevitably starts shooting his mouth off.