Westminster Politics

Buster15 said:
The UK policy regarding China is very interesting.
Only a short time ago, we were happily talking about a new era of trade a cooperation with China.
How quickly things can change.

Not only the about turn on allowing Huawei working on our 5G network; a rediculous decision in the first place, but now we are sending our Aircraft Carrier to the area as an old fashioned Imperial show of force.
I wonder what we would say if they had done the same.

Something most children learn quickly who to not pick fights with.
China is a true global superpower.
The UK, despite being a nuclear power is not.

We barely spend 2% of GDP on defence. A GDP which is now a full 20% lower than before.
I doubt very much that China is quaking in fear.

We need to remember who is finding our new nuclear power station at Hinkley.

I am not impressed with the behavior of China on many levels.
But we must be careful not to make ourselves look stupid.
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Things have changed since George Osborne was promoting the UK as China’s main partner in Europe. Covid, the HK takeover etc. Even if it has come about by accident, we needed a major re-think about our relations with that country. And if Australia can stand up to them, with an economy consisting of mineral exports to China plus a Chinese-fuelled real estate bubble, I’m sure the UK can manage.
 
The whole Huawei decision is bullshit anyway. Just the UK and US trying to slow down the great Chinese superpower.

Posted from my Huawei. All hail Emperor Pooh Bear.
 
MoskvaRed said:
Things have changed since George Osborne was promoting the UK as China’s main partner in Europe. Covid, the HK takeover etc. Even if it has come about by accident, we needed a major re-think about our relations with that country. And if Australia can stand up to them, with an economy consisting of mineral exports to China plus a Chinese-fuelled real estate bubble, I’m sure the UK can manage.
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Understand that.
And I have been all in favor of the international community taking action against China for their biggest export; corona virus.

I just think it too early to start sending our Aircraft Carrier out there.
This cannot be a military issue but a political issue.
 
Buster15 said:
Understand that.
And I have been all in favour of the international community taking action against China for their biggest export; corona virus.

I just think it too early to start sending our Aircraft Carrier out there.
This cannot be a military issue but a political issue.
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I think the carrier trip was planned long before the latest Hong Kong developments and Huawei u-turn. It's no doubt a statement to allies in the region that the UK has Pacific capability as well as the US, but its not a direct response to recent events.

For the record I'm for strong military spending, but I didn't agree with building the carriers. Just floating targets and disasters waiting to happen for me, I'd have spent the money in other areas.
 
711 said:
I think the carrier trip was planned long before the latest Hong Kong developments and Huawei u-turn. It's no doubt a statement to allies in the region that the UK has Pacific capability as well as the US, but its not a direct response to recent events.

For the record I'm for strong military spending, but I didn't agree with building the carriers. Just floating targets and disasters waiting to happen for me, I'd have spent the money in other areas.
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I too am in favor of strong military spending. In particular the Airforce.
And very much like you, I question the real need for the aircraft carriers.
It smacks of our colonial past when the navy was the senior service.

And because of that, we have purchased the most expensive and least capable F35 jets.

The biggest problem with carrier based jets is that they need refuelling aircraft to give the jets any sort of range.
Take out the refuelling aircraft and the F35 are useless.
 
It seems very convenient timing that on the day it's announced the Russian report will be released that Raab is suddenly out saying Russians interfered in the GE to Labours benefit.
 
Smores said:
It seems very convenient timing that on the day it's announced the Russian report will be released that Raab is suddenly out saying Russians interfered in the GE to Labours benefit.
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Came here to post exactly the same.
 
Yup, crooked bastards are trying to get ahead of the story and shape the news cycle. The report must be bad for them.
 
Kentonio said:
Yup, crooked bastards are trying to get ahead of the story and shape the news cycle. The report must be bad for them.
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The report will come out just before they bugger off for the summer and by the time everybody is back it will be old news
we will either have a second wave of CV19 which will take over completely or we wont in which case people will be pushing for the enquiry
Plus probably the EHRC report will come out Id guess about when MP's come back
and we will only have a few weeks left to negotiate brexit
the report into patel bullying will no doubt come out over the summer as well
its a cheap trick but its effective and I think beyond a few days headlines and perhaps two or three quiestions at PMQs next week it will come to nothing
 
sun_tzu said:
The report will come out just before they bugger off for the summer and by the time everybody is back it will be old news
we will either have a second wave of CV19 which will take over completely or we wont in which case people will be pushing for the enquiry
Plus probably the EHRC report will come out Id guess about when MP's come back
and we will only have a few weeks left to negotiate brexit
the report into patel bullying will no doubt come out over the summer as well
its a cheap trick but its effective and I think beyond a few days headlines and perhaps two or three quiestions at PMQs next week it will come to nothing
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True but a lot is going to depend on quite how bad the report is. If its really brutal, then despite their best efforts its still going to be a firestorm. You're right though, the cheap and very obvious tricks they're pulling do tend to be quite effective, it'll be interesting to see how Starmer and more importantly the media deal with things.
 
Kentonio said:
True but a lot is going to depend on quite how bad the report is. If its really brutal, then despite their best efforts its still going to be a firestorm. You're right though, the cheap and very obvious tricks they're pulling do tend to be quite effective, it'll be interesting to see how Starmer and more importantly the media deal with things.
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dunno a quick drive to barnards castle to check if somebody is blind should be sufficient to distract
 
SteveJ said:
Neither, apparently. Which is handy for some...
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will it cover being a paid mouthpiece for Russia Today?
c3.jpg

https://www.politicshome.com/news/a...suggestion-labour-should-boycott-russia-today
 
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Smores said:
It seems very convenient timing that on the day it's announced the Russian report will be released that Raab is suddenly out saying Russians interfered in the GE to Labours benefit.
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Did he say that? What benefit? They got smashed in the election :wenger:
 
Compton22 said:
Did he say that? What benefit? They got smashed in the election :wenger:
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Well Labour used the materials (rightly) within the campaign so it was to their benefit even if they didn't win. It's not even news though is it? They said at the time it was russia but no one gave a feck because it was just deflection from the content.

The new report could link Vote Leaves actions directly to Putin and explicitly say they all knew Brexit was shit and i don't think brexiteers will care.
 
Smores said:
It seems very convenient timing that on the day it's announced the Russian report will be released that Raab is suddenly out saying Russians interfered in the GE to Labours benefit.
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It's so obvious too, they really don't think much of the people in this country if they think people can't see the desperation.
 
NWRed said:
It's so obvious too, they really don't think much of the people in this country if they think people can't see the desperation.
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Joke isn’t it, oh let’s try and bury Corbyn with Russia links before the report links us.

They are so transparent it’s pathetic.
 
NWRed said:
It's so obvious too, they really don't think much of the people in this country if they think people can't see the desperation.
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hey its dump week - all the stuff they want to bury is going to flow out next week (mostly after PMQs probably so they face even less scrutiny) this is sadly standard operations - get in a hit now this week (Id expect a few more at the start of next week to give boris ammunition for PMQ's) then all bugger off on Thursday afternoon, turn the phone off and dump all the stuff you dont want to get asked about... TBF I'd expect any party in power to do the same it would be politically stupid to make life harder than it needs to be
 
sun_tzu said:
hey its dump week - all the stuff they want to bury is going to flow out next week (mostly after PMQs probably so they face even less scrutiny) this is sadly standard operations - get in a hit now this week (Id expect a few more at the start of next week to give boris ammunition for PMQ's) then all bugger off on Thursday afternoon, turn the phone off and dump all the stuff you dont want to get asked about... TBF I'd expect any party in power to do the same it would be politically stupid to make life harder than it needs to be
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All true, except I wouldn't expect any main stream UK political party to have links with Russians and Russian money that they're worried people will find out about.

My guess is the report details how the Russians influenced the EU referendum result and they were hoping to delay it until after the end of the transition period so there'd be no arguments about delaying etc.
 
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