chrisp65

I obviously don't have any great handle on the region and it's tribalism. But I know enough, to that I don't know enough. The version we were sold was a very dangerous man, he could attack in 45 minutes, he needs to be stopped 'today'. When in reality, that Robin Cook statement says quite a lot about our mixed up thinking. If he had weapons and know how, it was only what we'd sold him twenty years previously. If he was a genuine imminent danger to us all, why did we think he was so weak we could put together an army on a budget to topple him. I understand that we can't police the whole world. We can't get rid of Putin, we can't force democracy on China. But for some reason we fixated on Saddam Hussein and talked ourselves in to believing that getting rid of him was the top middle and bottom of our problems. It so obviously wasn't. Why couldn't we wait another 3 months? What would have changed? Why couldn't we persuade any of his staff that if he was gone, they could be funded like Egypt or tolerated like Burma on a very very slow move towards what the west wanted? There was a strong element of lashing out in revenge by the USA, coupled with Blair writing to Bush and promising to be by his side whatever. We decided that politically, we needed to be best mates with Bush's USA. Whatever they chose to do. That's a ridiculous position to put your country and its servicemen in. Poorly equipped, no plan, but a promise to follow Bush over the top. There is definitely negligence or bloodlust there, for what? The hope of some pay off? Cheaper fighter aircraft in the future? Better trade? A lucrative talk circuit deal? The situation was contained within Iraq's own borders. Nothing new was happening that we hadn't seen for many years. But our best mate was bursting for a fight. Years earlier, Israel had all but demolished Iraq's nuclear ability with bombing. If we were so sure we knew where the WMD was, why didn't we simply raise those areas to the ground. Plus a couple of palaces. Absolutely no need for full invasion. Why dismantle a country's entire infrastructure? Revenge. Worse, knowingly misplaced revenge. The lack of any plan for 'day 2' tells me that Blair wasn't considering the greater good of the Iraqi people as he still claims today. It doesn't take a genius to work out a country needs electricity and food supplies, law and order. When Germany was dismantled after WW2, we didn't leave them grubbing around in the dirt shooting each other for food. We knew the country would be more harmful left as some Lord of the Flies experiment. So we kept a police force, we organised power and got people to work. Then stepped back. Why couldn't we imagine such a path for Iraq? If Germany is too different an example, how about Sierra Leone? We didn't bomb that to the ground and then leave hoping for the best. Revenge. Revenge on a budget. We could have sponsored a UN force to be ready. The UN is far from a brilliant peace keeper. But given the choice of UN police or some Mad Max zombie apocalypse, I'd head for the UN zone.

NLEOMF this isn't meant as any sort of apology or excuse for anything, but it is something of a 2 way street, albeit 9:1 in one direct if you know that as a police officer, one of your colleagues is killed every 61 hours, and you have a gun, and you have to go and deal with people that have guns..... It's obviously a massive problem, but I wouldn't want to be on patrol at night in Baton Rouge and get told some guy is on the street threatening people with a gun. Just sticking a bit of perspective in there, not defending anyone on either side of anything.

Perhaps the secret is to enter a tournament with very low expectations? As opposed to having pundits announcing that they have a funny feeling 'we' could win it. I think the highlight for me was having so many friends over there that I was able to experience a lot of the atmosphere vicariously through their constant texts and photos and, something I hadn't even been aware of previously, periscope. To sit in a clubhouse full of mates being sent back pictures via skype etc made it all very immediate and very real. We went from never having a real interest in such tournaments to being represented at every stage right up to the semi finals. Fantastic. To see pictures on the TV of our local club players in the crowd. Freeze frame, text it across to them in the stadium and get live pictures back. The number of shirts, badges, stickers and flags that have been traded with people from all over (Belgium in particular as it happens) has been truly heart warming. Then stuff which is 'nice' but totally out of anyone's control really. South Wales Police have been over in France for the whole tournament and are currently saying that there wasn't a single arrest of any welsh fans at any stage of the tournament. Now, you leave yourself a hostage to stats if you believe that and boast about it. But as a piece of mood music, issued by the police, it's great. By the end of the tournie, whoever was running the South Wales Police twitter account over there was clearly very much, erm, in the spirit of things. The actual games? I thought we had two stand out games, Belgium and Russia. We had a few great goals to look back on. We proved we weren't a one man team, clearly there are at least two or three. It wasn't technically excellent as a tournament, but hey, I watch a lot of non-league so it looked pretty bloody good to me. The one thing I would say, is that I eventually got to watch a few games on a few different channels. The BBC coverage at the group stage was depressing, mostly just Shearer mumbling about how poor England were and their panel of experts just not appearing to enjoy football. ITV were hamstrung by constantly needing to cut away from anthems or celebrations of the moment to sell beer and gambling. S4C clearly made a decision to crank up the crowd noise and that really added to the atmosphere. BBC tried that last night, or somebody somewhere did, turning the crowd noise up, down, on and off. It was like they'd put Lee Scratch Perry in charge of sound quality. So hats off to S4C for best coverage. Couldn't understand much of it, which probably helped no end. Most importantly of all, most importantly, it's narrowed down the gap between seasons..

He, Saddam, was clearly a spectacularly evil force in the region. A manipulator and somebody that had the potential to spread his murder out beyond his borders. Either with more direct war on neighbours, or by selling weapons and know how to terrorists. Then within his own country he had a proven track record of murdering tens or hundreds of thousands of people. But there is an obvious middle ground between war with no plan for the day after, and 'ok crack on son'. There is time. There is protection of geographical regions that are being persecuted. There is a basic level of common sense that tells you taking out the entire infrastructure of a nation already at war with itself and others is going to lead to absolute year zero meltdown. I feel sure that every happy amateur on VT could forecast the result of taking out all management of everything in Iraq. To go in with half a plan and hope that somewhere in Iraq there was a silent and secret million people ready to organise themselves peacefully, keep the lights on and the water running, staff the schools and the hospitals and the police stations on a voluntary basis and hopefully bid for some fast food franchises.....well that was either absolute insane incompetence or deliberate revenge and criminal negligence. I'm fairly easy on whether people want to label Bush and Blair either insanely incompetent or criminally negligent.

yeah no Ramsey and Joe Allen having a quiet night made it a game too far but I've thoroughly enjoyed it must do it again some time

fair play, every single game

I haven't been this nervous about a semi since I watched Brokeback Mountain.

The alternative to people with actual beliefs is the conveyor belt of empty vessels in sober suits who's job it is to retweet whatever this week's on trend bland message is. I'm thinking here of a specific example, newly elected MP for Ogmore, Chris Elmore. Never has a more vacuous waste of an M&S suit got such a well paid position for basically being a good boy. But I'm sure up and down the land every one of us has an 'Elmore' in waiting. The local councillor with spectacularly conformist views and a good eye for a photo opportunity in the local paper. Devoid of any personal opinions, he will delay and defer answering any direct question on any subject until he has had time to consult on what the correct answer is. But there's nothing about Elmore to scare the horses. He'll passionately believe in whatever he's told to. He'll eventually get a shadow cabinet post. He'll rise by default. One day, if he's a good boy, he'll be a contender for some sort of office. Who knows, if he can keep the safe seat he was gifted, he might eventually be Lord Elmore, a reward for all that top quality public service and a lifetime of compliance. Your local version of Chris Elmore is not going to change the world. But I can also see that an idealist that doesn't get elected or can't carry 330 other MP's with them might also not change the world. Plus, just to do the full 360, as much as may rail against empty suits, I'm also very wary of 'charimatic' politicians. I've been conned in my yoof by the charismatic types that flirted with Militant and the SWP. I think that's where a Corbyn like figure could have / should have really appealed. Actual real opinions, but no cigar and fedora combo.

Finally, Chilcott can crack on with triggering article 50.

the give away for me is right at the start you hear him tap the mic and say 1,2 1,2....

UEFA killjoys to be filed under 'couldn't make it up'.

I'll preface this by saying it's a long time since I voted Labour in any election, but a quick google would suggest that Corbyn.... is against PFI supports raising income tax for the highest earners is against further tax cuts for the wealthy whilst cutting benefits for the poor wants to invest in HMRC to allow them to get back unpaid taxes from the wealthy and large businesses more money for public housing schemes abolition of the state opening of parliament disney parade democratic reform of the House of Lords less bombing of random bits of the middle east without a plan for the next day so I guess a lot of people see him as a person of good principle that would be a better 'guide' or leader than some suit that has private audiences with Murdoch to find out what to think and thinks radical policy is to tweek tiny little edges of tory benefits cuts but I would stress, I'm not an expert, and don't currently vote Labour

we all need a hobby

Tom Watson is a popular Labour figure and a good communicator. He's comfortable in a tie, he's northern, he has done front bench work If only there was some sort of way of getting him a job title where he could do a lot of the communicating of ideas and rallying of the not quite committed. He could be some sort of 'aid' to Corbyn, letting Corbyn do the things he's good at whilst Watson did the stuff that the media and career MP's need someone to do. Just a wacky idea.

There was a thing a couple of months ago up in a hotel around Bakewell and some German guys turned up with these... well the room was only this big... so they didn't get completely built, the basic carcass was more than enough, rigged up to... 'twas geek city but for all the money in the room, anybody could play any record they brought along, surprising amount of dub and Joe Gibbs in the room anyway, @ccfcman don't worry about responding to your own posts, I set up my thread to dick about with welsh football

Sir John Chilcot‏@JohnnyChilcot Oh God please no

SNP 64% = success Labour 63% = failure requiring resignation it's a tough world out there

probably MEP's

he did not lose the support of Labour voters

A man who publicly stated it was good for public sector staff to live with 'fear'. The man that egged thatcher on to push through the poll tax. The man that blamed low morals amongst the poor and the blacks for the Broadwater Farm Riots. The man that thought it would be a good idea to cut billions and billions from public spending whilst putting repairs to his private tennis court on his expenses. Old school nasty party.

if any of the Angela Eagle coup brigade would like to challenge any of the facts or stats in that video I'd be interested to hear it should be campaigning on schools and jobs and stuff people are interested in and impacted by, not dicking about looking for the next smart suited war criminal

I shall have a go at that shortly. My headphones are in the other room and I think I've used up all my fetching and carrying favours in the hour since my missus has come home. (my leg is in shreds, torn muscle, poor advice from the doctor, over excited Vokes quarter final goal celebration)

There was some civil servant bod on Radio 4 a few afternoons ago stating that we had about 20 that could do the job today and another 20 or so that could probably be brought up to speed quite quickly but would need to be taken off other duties within other departments. They estimated we'd need a few hundred and might actually need to 'borrow' whole teams from other countries. The irony of which was completely lost on the presenter who let that comment slip straight on by. I'm not convinced borrowing a negotiating team and quickly training up a few of our own will put us in a very very strong position. I'm beginning to think the whole thing hasn't been thought through beyond bus slogans and casual (not quite) racism. I'm sure the USA will drop some staff from their TTIP team to give us a hand and Australia can send us their finest to help out getting things like steel sorted. Ahh yes, steel. I trust that's been saved by the top notch team we already have working on that. Javid, Crabb and Cairns. **** me, this could get grim.

The population of arab north Africa is something like 360 million people. The population of Pakistan is 182 million, Bangladesh 150 million. I haven't looked up figures for Afghanistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillippines.... We cannot currently plan and fund worthwhile activity for the few thousand people in our own prisons that have already gone through 16 years of the UK education system.