news & politics:discussion

[steviewevie]

4 minutes ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

I think the Kurds would have something to say about that.

yeah...ok...but that wasn't the reason given for invading.

[lost]

I still remember being on the stop the war march. I think its still to this day the biggest protest in UK history.

It felt like the David Kelly , Robin Cook stuff damaged the labour party more than the actual war.

 

[steviewevie]

4 minutes ago, lost said:

I still remember being on the stop the war march. I think its still to this day the biggest protest in UK history.

It felt like the David Kelly , Robin Cook stuff damaged the labour party more than the actual war.

 

yeah, that David Kelly thing was grim. 

The invasion was actually over relatively quickly...it was what came after that was the disaster...and that they couldn't find any wmd that was the main justification for the invasion in the first place.

I was travelling that year and was in Vietnam when invasion started which was kind of weird.

Anyway, that war totally tarnishes Blair and was completely avoidable...US would have still invaded whether we were with them or not.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

Best PM in my lifetime  (Thatcher to Sunak) but the competition is low. You have to put Truss bottom , but struggling to rank the others!

He’s definitely the best in my lifetime that’s for sure (I’m the same timeframe as you). New Labour did so many good things for the country and look at what’s happened since. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, lazyred said:

Plus Surestart centres, minimum wage and a propery funded NHS. How do you weigh one single policy against another?. Blair/Brown were better than the tory governments before and after and that's enough for me.

Specifically on the Iraq wars, we tried just using air cover to help topple Gaddafi in Libya then did nothing to help the opposition in Syria. Are the results in Syria better than the results in Iraq? They are all a mess with thousands dead.

This is exactly how I feel, the Iraq War shouldn’t invalidate any of the very real improvements his government made. 

[Rufus Gwertigan]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

yeah, that David Kelly thing was grim. 

The invasion was actually over relatively quickly...it was what came after that was the disaster...and that they couldn't find any wmd that was the main justification for the invasion in the first place.

I was travelling that year and was in Vietnam when invasion started which was kind of weird.

Anyway, that war totally tarnishes Blair and was completely avoidable...US would have still invaded whether we were with them or not.

The invasion wouldn't have happened if the coalition had done the job right in the first place I.e. Gulf War. We shat on the kurds and Shi'tes. We had everything in place to just push onto Baghdad yet apparently decided to stick to the UN resolution. Rumour has it that the French Foreign Legion did a flanking move and was a few hundred k away.

Guess we have Major to blame for that though.

[lost]

36 minutes ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

Guess we have Major to blame for that though.

In hindsight I think its probably the Major generation who were the last ones before the ladder was pulled up. Free university education, house prices bottomed in 1996 at 2.7 times average income and then steadied at about 3 times plus final salary pensions still existed in the private sector.

Not that I'm blaming labour for any of that its mainly been driven by changes in demographics.

[steviewevie]

30 minutes ago, lost said:

In hindsight I think its probably the Major generation who were the last ones before the ladder was pulled up. Free university education, house prices bottomed in 1996 at 2.7 times average income and then steadied at about 3 times plus final salary pensions still existed in the private sector.

Not that I'm blaming labour for any of that its mainly been driven by changes in demographics.

yeah, Major...best PM ever.

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

The invasion wouldn't have happened if the coalition had done the job right in the first place I.e. Gulf War. We shat on the kurds and Shi'tes. We had everything in place to just push onto Baghdad yet apparently decided to stick to the UN resolution. Rumour has it that the French Foreign Legion did a flanking move and was a few hundred k away.

Guess we have Major to blame for that though.

I get all that. You can argue for the invasion, Hussein was a tyrant c**t...but at same time there was just a total lack of understanding about what could come after the invasion...that was the biggest crime. You can't just go in somewhere like that, rip it all out, and then wonder why there's so much chaos.

[lost]

13 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

yeah, Major...best PM ever.

Only ex-PM Labour or Tory not to wish Boris well whilst he was in hospital with covid apparently.

[steviewevie]

3 minutes ago, lost said:

Only ex-PM Labour or Tory not to wish Boris well whilst he was in hospital with covid apparently.

Respect

[Guest]

Rats fleeing the sinking ship. 

[Neil]

4 hours ago, lazyred said:

Plus Surestart centres, minimum wage and a propery funded NHS. How do you weigh one single policy against another?. Blair/Brown were better than the tory governments before and after and that's enough for me.

Specifically on the Iraq wars, we tried just using air cover to help topple Gaddafi in Libya then did nothing to help the opposition in Syria. Are the results in Syria better than the results in Iraq? They are all a mess with thousands dead.

they are akll a mess cos they all had sh*t strategies.

[Neil]

Just now, Ozanne said:

Rats fleeing the sinking ship. 

hes after the nato job.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Neil said:

hes after the nato job.

He got rejected for that. 

[Neil]

5 hours ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

Or you could just bulldoze Birmingham.

No one would know that it's been bulldozed.

[Crazyfool01]

46 minutes ago, Neil said:

No one would know that it's been bulldozed.

I would ... there would be no venue for todays T20 cricket final 

[Guest]

 

 

[steviewevie]

Labour promises to do f**k all because there is no money

 

[squirrelarmy]

2 hours ago, steviewevie said:

I get all that. You can argue for the invasion, Hussein was a tyrant c**t...but at same time there was just a total lack of understanding about what could come after the invasion...that was the biggest crime. You can't just go in somewhere like that, rip it all out, and then wonder why there's so much chaos.

If you really need to assign blame then it’s still on us back in 1920. Tribal lands were suddenly given borders after the fall of the Ottomans. 

[Guest]

 

Rishi Sunak remains very bad at politics.

[steviewevie]

Edited July 16, 2023 by steviewevie

[steviewevie]

 

[steviewevie]

we're rich!

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

All seems fairly reasonable.