SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS....

Audition for a horror film?

The speech sounded like Tony Blair, or his people, wrote it.

It's pretty logical, isn't it?

However, because British Bombs are dropped with British Values, they won't cause any problems at all. And they are so clever, these bombs, that they know not to kill innocent children.

Or peace, really?

People say the Qur'an is full of violence and hate, and there's a lot of that in it, but no so much as in the Bible, it seems.

Syria: Not going to win any tourist prizes, is it?
Bound to make them tow the line though, huh?
I mean it would work here wouldn't it?

Well, of course it wasn't. Christians don't kill millions of Jews, disabled people, homosexuals nor do they idealise exclusively blond super people, but it's worth remembering that when muddle headed morons like Trump demonise all Muslims. "You ain't no Muslim, bro".
Someone might have said to Hitler: "Sie sind kein Christ, Bruder"

Not-so-smart bombs, clearly dropped by anyone other
than Mr Fallon's team.

Led by the BBC. That bastion of decency and fairness.
How are the charter renewal negotiations with the English Culture Secretary going? 

That's a thought...

That's the kind of face you get, if you lived the kind of life he led.

Serves the bastard right.

Oh ...and veterans have been protesting about the war by throwing their medals back at Downing Street, but strangely, there appears to have been very little coverage of it on the BBC. (As I don't watch tv, I've relied on Twitter for this information. But I've checked and there is nothing in their website at the time of writing).

Medals returned to Downing Street...

NO GRASP OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE, HUH?

I'd have brought you the scoffing tweet from the Noble Baron ffoukes, but much to my delight and indeed pride, his magnificence, the old duffer, has gone and blocked me on Twitter. Must be something I said about Labour aristocrats being ever so slightly oxymoronic. 

He's a snappy dresser is George. Look how his tie goes with his nose.

I believe that Scottish Labour's answer to Einstein, James Kelly, also had fun mocking the new crossing. He called it an SNP vanity project, and Elaine Murray said that the case for the bridge was overblown, was sucking up a great deal of money and had only been built so that the SNP had something they could show that they delivered.

Of course engineers had been saying for a long time that the bridge was doing far more work and carrying far more weight daily than had ever been envisaged when it was built in 1964.

Turns out that the engineers were right and the combined wisdom of his Baronness (as opposed to baroness), Mr Kelly, Ms Murray and Mr Hothersall, were wrong. I suspect that, had we had a Labour government when the first problems of the bridge came to light, we would now be looking at a very different picture for the economy of Edinburgh and Fife.

SOPPY SUNDAY

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THEY ARE EVEN MAKING JOKES IN AMERICA ABOUT THE LITTLE UPSTART FANTASIST

THEY'VE DONE IT: PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT TO THE GATES OF HELL

Oh well, it is done... The British Empire is yet again at war.

And how they cheered and they clapped, although clapping used to be, or so we were told, discourteous. Perhaps we misunderstood, and it's only discourteous when second class members of the house of Commons do it. Fine when Eton and Oxford Toffs do it.

So, they voted with their consciences, and that's all you can say. And if or rather when, it all goes wrong, I hope their consciences are strong enough to take it. it's on their shoulders.

As Alex Salmond said (see Wings article), there were many good speeches. I was impressed by people who were asking why, as Salmond and Corbyn did, we weren't trying to deny Daesh their finance, their weapons, their communications systems. People from opposition and government benches alike.

At the end of the debate in scenes that will be broadcast around the world, people saw our Hooray Henrys cheering and shouting for joy because they're off to kill people from the Middle East again. Well not them obviously... the plebs do that for them.

I suspect that this scene may be used in the recruitment material of the Daesh movement. 

Scotland voted 57-2 NOT to go to war, but hey ho...there we are again pooling and sharing the vast financial expense of punching above our weight while our people queue up at food banks and our OAPs have the second worst pension in the developed world, leading to deaths for malnutrition and hypothermia. And now we'll also have to pool and share death and destruction.

I'm not sure at the moment how Wales or Northern Ireland voted, but I know that this is not being done in Scotland's name. Of that much I'm proud. 

Of the rest I am deeply deeply ashamed.

TODAY IS THE DAY ... LET'S HOPE PARLIAMENT MAKES THE RIGHT DECISION

This blog has from time to time been accused of being 'peacenik' or pacifist.

In my opinion it is nothing to be ashamed of, and I make no apology for it. I'd certainly rather that than be a warmonger.

There are, I have no doubt, times when war is inevitable, but in view of what war does to its participants and to innocent bystanders, it seems that every other possible solution must be addressed before bombs start falling.

That is true of any war. Even in a clear cut situation where there is one enemy to defeat, a clear plan for defeating "him" and a simple exit strategy.

The current conflict in Syria seems to me to be as complex as it can be. 

There is not one enemy. There are a bunch of disparate groups who want to overthrow the Assad regime (as there were in Libya). 

Among them, of course, are Daesh, without a doubt an evil and wicked organisation. But who funds Daesh? And who arms them? Who provides the bombs to blow up Russian Airlines, Beirut buildings, French theatres, Tunisian beaches, and in what way are they allied to Al Qaeda, or Boko Haram, or the group that was responsible for the hotel bombing in Bamako?

What do the other groups consist of? George Galloway talked about them as being a mixture of fanatical Islamists and not quite so fanatical Islamists. Some, as he said, who would only chop half your head off! 

The results of our last escapade.

Cameron talks of 70,000 ground troops who are ready to fight for Assad on our side. But to which groups do they belong? Are some of them people that will only chop of half your head? And I've not heard one other commentator agree that there are 70,000 of them. And one suggested 700 might be nearer the truth. How can we go in to a war situation with such unreliable knowledge about the ground force back up?

And we have to know if it is true that Daesh are selling stolen oil to Turkey (our ally)? Is it true that Saudi (our ally) is funding them? And if it is where does that leave our moral case for being on the same side as these countries which are aiding the "enemy". Could a war be avoided if we insisted on "following the money", and starving the rebels of funding?

And why did Turkey (our ally) shoot down a Russian (our ally) plane for trespassing for 10 seconds over its territory? Are they not supposed to be allies too? Will they shoot down British planes if they make an error for a matter of seconds?

And if and when it is all over... in ten years' time... what will be the settlement?

You see, as I understand it, we want rid of Assad, but our allies, the Russians, want Assad to stay. So do their allies, Iran.

Homs

All of us allies will have to contribute to a massive rebuilding plan for Syria.

Will we be happy to pay for reconstruction under Assad to please the Russians, our ally) or will we bow to the demands of the Americans (our ally) who will may want to replace him?

Too many questions. Not sufficient answers.

Cameron is not a man to be trusted. He seems to feel that it is Britain's duty to keep its place in the world by getting involved. More of less regardless of the outcome. I suspect he worries that America may favour the French in the future if Britain doesn't get involved. Once again, it's all about status and Empire for the likes of him... and his comments to Tory backbenchers yesterday about the fact that those of us who are much more cautious about sending our soldiers to die and to kill others, many of them civilians, children even, are terrorist sympathisers, was him at his revolting Flashman best. 

I'm no terrorist sympathiser Cameron. You on the other hand are a warmonger.

Cameron's really not prime ministerial material and we await an apology form him, although I see he has refused to oblige.

I hope he remembers our warning when the inevitable retribution occurs.

IT'S GOOD TO KNOW OUR MONEY IS IN SAFE HANDS...