In the news

Have we ever armed another country and not come to regret it?

Loads of times. Usually the outcome is deaths for their neighbours or own populations so isn't that much of an issue for the UK government. Saddam would have been fine if only he hadn't messed with oil; there was adequate proof that prior to Kuwait, nobody gave a shit about his human rights violations.

Saudi?

They're a lovely little earner.

Saddam would have been fine if only he hadn't messed with oil

I'd argue that Hussein would have been fine if he hadn't unilaterally destroyed his WMDs (and executed those who destroyed them). The UK would never believe that he had destroyed the thing he had spent billions creating and he couldn't admit that he destroyed them because Iran might have invaded.

Either way, what a fucking shit show. We sold them to him (huge generalisations I know). He destroyed them and painted Iraq into a corner. Our intelligence services somehow didn't consider this as a possibility.

I'd also add that while oil security was a factor, there was an evangelical fervor that went beyond that. The drive to tie 9/11 to Iraq for eg

It's a good eg of human agency in history. I'm not claiming that another president wouldn't/couldn't have done the same. But being the child of Bush snr had an impact.

Yeah good point, I hadn't even mentioned the insane war on terror angle to Iraq. Almost as if aggressive foreign policy rarely works out well for anyboy other than the Haliburtons of the world.

I can't remember who was talking about it, but I remember hearing an insider referencing the general cultural predisposition towards war in Washington.

This was in relation to Libya, but I thought it was an interesting insight in general.

In The Loop is a very insightful documentary into the period.

PC Declan Jones found dead by his parents at Worcestershire home
He was sacked from West Midlands Police after being found guilty of assault
He was filmed pulling black cyclist to the floor before punching and kicking him

My sympathies to his parents.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/nicola-sturgeon-hogmanay-party-arrests-b1981837.html?amp

Seems a gross abuse of power.

Are you kidding?

Nice to see Leveling Up in action, don't @ me about the source
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10351027/Virile-Viscount-levels-driveway-330k-money.html

No.

Why do you think it’s a gross abuse of power? He literally got her address and tried to get thousand of people to go there, that’s fucking terrifying.

Arresting someone then releasing them at 330am.

It’s a scare tactic and an abuse of power.

You reckon sturgeon ordered that then?

Directly nah, considering the recent discoveries within the SNP and Police Scotland indirectly yes.

I come from small town Cumbria, this was standard practice in the 90s. Arrested on a night out, taken 30 miles up the coast and let out at 3am with no way of getting home. Sometimes without your shoes.

What does indirectly mean in this case? That the SNP/sturgeon did nothing?

Johnson's asked where he's been, gives a weird answer:

https://twitter.com/bestforbritain/status/1476147489447284743?s=21

He published a politician's private address and tried to instigate thousands of people who oppose her to turn up there, during a pandemic, in a country where 2 MPs have been murdered by members of the public in the past few years. Have a word with yourself.

And this is good policing?

I wrote a long reply to this then safari crashed so the short version.

Different country completely.

I view this is a more bully tactics by the SNP against opponents of their policies and you view it as a slippery slope to murder. We can agree to disagree and both be right.

What about to organise something at Buckingham Palace and see how the English would deal with it?

Lots of protests happen there, probably one today for all I know. Ones I agree with, ones I don’t.

I do believe in freedom to protest mostly and as such believe this is an abuse of power to stop that.

I kept seeing some facebook 'event' about a party at 10 Downing St. Didn't look into it, assumed a joke, people clicking 'attend' but no actual real life event or party, everyone knows the address anyway. Is this similar? Any consequences?