Off Topic The Politics Thread

Forgive me I'm wrong Col but I get the impression you'd vote for a turd wearing a blue rosette regardless of the Labour option.

 

The current way of assessing terrorist threats was started in 2006. Since then the level has been at 'substantial' for 3 years and 5 months in total. All the rest of the time it has either been severe or critical (mainly severe, we seem to go into critical briefly after an attack). Both substantial and severe mean there is a heightened chance of an attack, either possible or likely.

In these circumstances cutting 20,000 police officers, more than 15% of the total number, seems more than a mistake to me, it seems ****ing negligent.

There is good reason not to trust or have confidence in Corbyn/Abbott on security, I certainly don't. But May has a track record of not being trustworthy on it as Home Secretary and Rudd is her creature. The reason we have troops on the street today is that there are not enough police officers. If we need the troops to keep us safe, they should be there, but let's not pretend it's about anything other than capacity.

At the appropriate time it will be interesting to see an independent review of this latest outrage. We know the perpetrator was known to the police and intelligence services. Did they simply underestimate the threat he and his gang posed or did they not have the resources to monitor him properly? And if the latter will the deaths be laid directly at May's door, just like the deaths of British servicemen in Afghanistan and Iraq are laid at Blair's?

 

I wasn't aware that I was complaining or moaning about the deployment of these two officers, Col, merely questioning why stick 'em on the graveyard shift with seemingly no daytime equivalent. Sure, you may well be correct in there being some secret intelligence that the public aren't aware of, but this didn't seem to be the case in this particular instance. The two officers seemingly agreed with my thoughts that their nighttime shift appeared at odds with what they were trying to deter or prevent.

I stand by my opinion that it was a pretty pathetic measure to guard an empty railway station throughout the night, then vacate the place just when it starts to become busy with commuters and students. I have no problem with what you are suggesting, i.e. that they are a visible presence whenever I travel (though perhaps only during heightened security times such as now) but I'm sure neither of us would draw much comfort in the knowledge that they're retiring to their quarters just as we're starting our journeys.

By the way, I'd never knock the frontline security professionals, Col, but I'll admit to a measure of cynicism when it comes to the motives of those actually making some of the decisions from behind their bureaucratic desks and political hustings.

 

I'm not sure Alan Duncan is his MP, Watford...

 

That's Sir Alan to you.

 

This was a major failure of the type predicted by the Police Federation to be the likely result of the drastic cuts in police numbers. May described their protestations as 'scaremongering'. The excuse given is that there hundreds of such people out there and they can't all be constantly monitored. Well with 20,000 less police officers it's going to be more difficult isn't it? This scumbag seems to have been such an obvious danger, I dread to think how bad the people are that we are monitoring.

 

Bliar x1000 more responsible than May

 

Maybe. We aren't in a position to vote Blair out though. How long do the Tories have to be in power to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions?

 

How?

 

I'm a little sceptical about those numbers Nines, but if they are correct it's even more scandalous to have cut police numbers so drastically isn't it?

 

very good of us to let potential child killers know we may be watching them
that wont put some of them on their guard

why do we give so much information away

 

1 pound 70 and no free cd

 

i suppose they are not all successful sb

 

Hoorah, no more stressing on what thread to post on!
Here's Jonathan Pie to celebrate with a particularly good rant.

 

Stupidly I looked this up. There are plenty of suicide bomber fails on YouTube but they all seem to succeed in blowing themselves up, just miss their targets, sometimes because they are in their own garden. Not pleasant viewing though, stopped after one. But did remind me of this, from the excellent Four Lions:

 

I was going to post some scenes from that film in the movie thread, but felt it was a bit inappropriate - fits in nicely on this thread though....

 

Completely wrong. If Labour were full of people like Andy Burnham I'd be more inclined to vote Labour, as I have in the past.
I wouldn't vote for Corbyn, Abbott, McDonnell & Co if they were the only option on the paper.