General Election June 2017

Still! Corbyn should be bang up for nuking them first, just in case.

Big shout out to the young woman who followed that by calling out the stupid angry men on their lunacy before asking her question.

He should still have a better answer ready though. It's obvious he's going to be asked about it and that any equivocation is going to be pounced on.

Yes, she was wonderful

Agreed. Was his only real stumble of the evening and he should have been ready with a snappy one liner that allows him to move on. Aside from that he did pretty well I thought.
May was spluttering variations of her favourite slogans every time she got flustered.

Good job that people held Comrade Corbyn to account on his policy of not killing every last human on earth. When will these lefty scum realise that nuclear missiles create jobs.

Missed it. She sounds ace

North Korea's capability is consistently vastly overstated.

E.g. all tests of Musudan have failed except two. Google it but I'm pretty sure the furthest they've ever gone is about 500km. The ones that have been paraded are believed to be mock ups.

So less Parcel Force and more Yodel.

He should still have a better answer ready though.

Agreed and it doesn't need a great deal of analysis to pull it apart.

a) There are no conceivable circumstances in which the UK will be the sole target of a pre-emptive nuclear strike by a conventional force.

b) That being the case, there are no conceivable circumstances in which the US wouldn't deploy it's vastly superior nuclear arsenal against the aggressor (because they would also be threatened).

c) So our "nuclear deterrent" is 1) no deterrent and 2) unnecessary.

Our "rational" enemies (Russia and China) are so vast in terms of both geography and population, that even the total deployment of our nukes is of no concern to them.

Our "irrational" enemies (Iran, Pakistan and North Korea) either lack the capability to attack us or don't consider us a primary target (Iran/Israel, Pakistan/India, N. Korea/S. Korea or Japan).

The most pertinent threat of a nuclear attack against us comes from terrorists deploying an unconventional nuclear weapon, ie a "dirty bomb", against which Trident is neither effective nor a deterrent: how do you launch a nuke at stateless individuals for whom their own death and the deaths of others is of no concern?

Our nuclear capability is preserved to maintain the façade of our position as a "global player" predicated on having been on the winning side in WWII (cf the permanent members of the UN Security Council) and as a result of politico-corporate circle-jerks.

The argument that we should prepare for the unknown future (where nukes somehow become relevant and necessary), ignores the known present: it's the Poor Bloody Infantry who have borne the brunt of our recent interventions and yet it's the PBI who have suffered the brunt of cuts in defence spending.

It's a nonsense to argue that billions should be spent on "what if", at the expense of known, immediate requirements.

Goddamn, that is a proper post. Chapeau. (Are we still doing chapeau?)

I think it's now chapvfefe.

You guys are on fire tonight

You're all missing the point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOvkWZ4-cf8

The Guardian comes out for Labour:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2017/jun/02/the-guardian-view-on-our-vote-its-labour

Perhaps an aside from the lofty conversations of economics and nuclear deterrents, but why does Theresa May alternately look like a bad Grayson Perry impersonator and a scarecrow that's been shagged by the farmer?

Certain and clear answers on a strong and stable postcard please.

How many of me are there?

I don't get why Corbin is condemned for having met with IRA bombers yet is now being condemned for not wanting to join them.

It is also noteworthy that the Germans manage very nicely without nukes. Indeed it might be said that by embracing the EU they exert more influence than we do with our missiles. Perhaps there is a clue for us there.

The nuke question to me also seems to expose a paradox in our electorate: the notion that we should be a nuclear superpower on the global stage, up there with America, Russia, India and China; at the same time we should brexit-retreat back into our little island, happy in the notion that we 70 million (preferably 50m if we can get rid of all those darn foreigners) should have a nuclear sabre to rattle along side the big boys.

As @Scilly.Suffolk pointed out above, having Trident is very much like bringing a palette knife to a gun fight when we are talking about nations with populations that are measure in hundreds of millions if not billions.

New world order and globalisation has, again, run ahead of us and we should adapt. Embrace change. Let's sort out our own house and let go of this Post-Deco fantasy of world leadership.

When I was growing up, watching Ethiopian children starve I felt so lucky that I had been born in the UK. I could not conceive of a better place to live. Although I still feel ridiculously lucky and privileged, I sometimes now wish I was Scandinavian or Dutch. Their sense of contentment with their place in the world is something to envy.

Conflict​ has changed. I remember an article in the guardian about how submarine nuclear launch​ pads are useless. And being targeted by drones.
It was quite interesting.

Love that the dads are on already.

awkward.

https://twitter.com/WillBlackWriter/status/870670317227737089

Yep. I never seem to be on here when the action happens...

S'updog....

Got a lie in today?