Edward

hahaha thank you! but no this is a Slacktivist post: www.patheos.com/blogs/slackt...

Yeah, not a great sign when they don't think their bosses will listen so go to the press to try to get them to force said bosses to listen

In the NI context, it would obviously be the single best thing you could do to fight sectarinaism and promote integration, but if I'm honest the main reason I support it is because it would halve the number of school buses we need so there'd be a lot more of them available for commuter services.

I don't especially mind religious education in schools (provided it's actually education not indoctrination) but I don't see why they need to administer the schools. Sure, they can, but they can also run hospitals and we don't let them do so in the UK.

Kemi Badenoch posing in front of a tank and promising to get Britain "war ready"

She's seen that image that goes round every so often of countries that England has supposedly never invaded and decided to attack Sweden.

Depends if it's Lammy's reckons or him relaying the Attorney General's advice. Hermer would probably have been involved in that case in the 1980s if he was a decade older.

I do think, if I were to be perfectly honest, the reason Kemi drives me up the wall but I'm also kind of obsessed is that she is utterly impervious to introspection. Every position she holds is her first impulse on the topic and she will stick to it regardless.

I would tend to agree with this, but thus far the only UK base that has been attacked is Akrotiri, and that was from Lebanon (and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and bombing means that the chances of a major recurrence are not huge.)

So I think legal and required are different categories here.

But the second test for involvement Starmer set out was whether there was a viable plan for UK involvement, which realistically means that a) it has to mean the us intercepting missiles is not enough and that b) it has to be us, not the Americans doing it. I'm not sure that's met yet.

Possible, but I don't think this has to follow - the statement of the legal position is pretty cursory, but I guess if the AG's opinion is that it's legal for the US to use UK bases for retaliatory strikes then it would be legal for the UK to do so.

Purple, even.

I think as the question is worded, specifically asking about the UK military, it's blue. As most questioners read it, asking about what an appropriate response is from western powers to the situation, it's between the two.

PM statement on Iran: 1 March 2026 Prime Minister Keir Starmer's statement on Iran.

Did he? The transcript from his statement is here: www.gov.uk/government/s...

"We are not joining these strikes, but we will continue with our defensive actions in the region." Sounds pretty clear to me that we might shoot down missiles but we aren't hitting launch strikes ourselves.

OK, but I'm not sure that public support affects whether this is a correct decision? It affects the electoral calculus, but not whether it's actually the right thing to do.

I'm also not sure that I would count it as the blue option when it's not UK forces carrying out the retaliatory attacks.

careful?

It's been a weak, it's way too soon to say that. There's barely been time for polling to pick it up, there hasn't been time to organise big demos against it.

The media care less, but that's a function of them being in a bubble.

- anonymous LGBT delegate, Petrograd, 1917

The head at my grammar was called Ken. He was nicknamed Kung Fu Ken and the rumour was he was able to do press-ups whilst clapping his hands behind his back.

This is the face of a creature that is shocked and offended that you have accused it of something it definitely did.

It's indicative (a bit like the LD church roof comment) of a world view that thinks politics is about holding positions not doing things.

Truly, the poaster's politician.

Long term I agree, but that's still to come whereas fuel is a reminder every time you go by a petrol station.

(Except for those of us on heating oil, who have definitely already noticed prices doubling since last week.)

Mostly the SW1 bubble is out of touch with the country in a reactionary direction, but the one exception is that purely by working in London they're less likely to drive regularly and probably less likely to react to that sudden hit.

Worth noting that the polling showing only about 8% of the country supported Badenoch's planned approach was mostly conducted before petrol prices went up by about 20-30p a litre.

Cost £10bn, save £10bn, what's the difference? The public are tired of experts who know the difference between a positive and negative number, which is why Labour's polling went up in the general election.

An image of a marten.

#marten #mustelid

Oh wow, it's literally like reading the Cass report

Though the time taken to find new exploitable reserves and begin extracting is likely about the time it takes to improve battery tech enough or bring on enough new nuclear to provide the baseline that wind and solar can't.

I defer to you on local knowledge - my knowledge of the town is limited to one evening's visit and one time driving through.

Though if you get ILR a decade ago and have stuck around you've probably put down decent local roots and potentially come up in the world, so there's a decent chance you can afford a slightly posher bit of town.

Wealthy Dubai residents race back to UAE to avoid tax bills Some risk spending too few days in the emirate and too many in the UK

Tax exiles stuck in London desperately trying to get *back* to Dubai to avoid becoming tax resident in the UK? Just great stuff. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...