Best Of

Bob Worcester has died (and there's that man again):-

Sir Robert Worcester, doyen of opinion pollsters who advised Wilson and Callaghan and founded Mori
He was held responsible for Callaghan’s disastrous delay to the 1979 election, and was later sacked as Labour’s pollster by Peter Mandelson
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/db0290296e2c846f

Gift subscription, not paywalled.

So Putin has concluded (correctly) that he's faced with the weakest most naive and clueless American president in history and is acting accordingly. Dangerous times.

It's not just about Trump. It's also that European leaders are scared to act without American support.

We can't afford to let this be about Trump. Europe has to determine its own fate.

A bit of bellicose ranting on here and nobody wants to go where that might end up.

I'm happy to concede Russia might not have the control over its drones we imagine and while Belarus might have no objections, Poland has quite rightly chosen to defend its airspace.

I doubt it's any kind of serious "test", more logistical bumbling and technological over-reach in Moscow. Had Polish planes shot down drones over Ukraine, that would be different - Ukrainian anti-drone technology is doing no more than the Poles have done.

This conflict has seen the unprecdented use of drones in warfare and as with all new battlefield technologies, they don't always work.

Once again, we can rely on the media (both old school and social) to create a mountain out of a molehill and a crisis out of a small drama.

What an utter fool you are.

Russia does everything it does - not just last night, but all of the political interference in western democracies, the attacks on Ukraine, Georgia etc - and you accuse *us* of being bellicose.

I sometimes wonder what Russia would have to do before some idiots say: "Okay, Putin's gone a little too far..."

A hell of a lot more than flying a few drones over Poland. A 100 division armoured invasion towards Warsaw would do it but are we seeing that? No.

Yet there are people on here openly advocating some sort of retaliatory strike into Russia - seriously?

And you accuse ME of ridiculing the term "beliicose".

Russia won't ever send divisions into Poland. It will be kilometre by kilometre, coup by coup. Boiling frog syndrome - at every stage it won't be rational to respond with force, but they'll keep on creeping up towards Berlin/Vienna/Helsinki.

I think sending cruise missiles into Russian drone factories would be a proportionate response to their drone attack on Poland last night, and would make it unlikely Russia would attack NATO with drones again.

If we brush it off at no big deal they will attack again and escalate further.

My suggestion FPT was to bomb the Kerch Bridge, but taking out the Shahed factory also works.

For sh!ts and giggles, get Trump to fly a fly a B-2 bomber over the top of Moscow, and have it take some photos of the Kremlin to send to Putin. We know their air defences are shot, and the same aircraft got into and out of Iran a couple of months back before their (Russian-made) radars even knew it was there.

So Putin has concluded (correctly) that he's faced with the weakest most naive and clueless American president in history and is acting accordingly. Dangerous times.

It's not just about Trump. It's also that European leaders are scared to act without American support.

We can't afford to let this be about Trump. Europe has to determine its own fate.

A bit of bellicose ranting on here and nobody wants to go where that might end up.

I'm happy to concede Russia might not have the control over its drones we imagine and while Belarus might have no objections, Poland has quite rightly chosen to defend its airspace.

I doubt it's any kind of serious "test", more logistical bumbling and technological over-reach in Moscow. Had Polish planes shot down drones over Ukraine, that would be different - Ukrainian anti-drone technology is doing no more than the Poles have done.

This conflict has seen the unprecdented use of drones in warfare and as with all new battlefield technologies, they don't always work.

Once again, we can rely on the media (both old school and social) to create a mountain out of a molehill and a crisis out of a small drama.

What an utter fool you are.

Russia does everything it does - not just last night, but all of the political interference in western democracies, the attacks on Ukraine, Georgia etc - and you accuse *us* of being bellicose.

I sometimes wonder what Russia would have to do before some idiots say: "Okay, Putin's gone a little too far..."

Well, he could steal 100k children and have them brought up as Russians. Nope, tried that one. He could use deadly poisons in public places in the UK at great risk to our public. Nope, done that too. He could murder many people who have displeased him in some way by chucking them out of windows. Nope, already done that. he could launch by far the largest war in Europe since WW2 resulting in over 1m deaths. No, apparently that is not enough either. He could fire drones at a NATO country. Decision on that is pending.

As I have said otherwise we do not want to go to war and should not be looking to escalate matters with missile attacks. But neither can we fail to respond firmly.

So Putin has concluded (correctly) that he's faced with the weakest most naive and clueless American president in history and is acting accordingly. Dangerous times.

It's not just about Trump. It's also that European leaders are scared to act without American support.

We can't afford to let this be about Trump. Europe has to determine its own fate.

A bit of bellicose ranting on here and nobody wants to go where that might end up.

I'm happy to concede Russia might not have the control over its drones we imagine and while Belarus might have no objections, Poland has quite rightly chosen to defend its airspace.

I doubt it's any kind of serious "test", more logistical bumbling and technological over-reach in Moscow. Had Polish planes shot down drones over Ukraine, that would be different - Ukrainian anti-drone technology is doing no more than the Poles have done.

This conflict has seen the unprecdented use of drones in warfare and as with all new battlefield technologies, they don't always work.

Once again, we can rely on the media (both old school and social) to create a mountain out of a molehill and a crisis out of a small drama.

What an utter fool you are.

Russia does everything it does - not just last night, but all of the political interference in western democracies, the attacks on Ukraine, Georgia etc - and you accuse *us* of being bellicose.

I sometimes wonder what Russia would have to do before some idiots say: "Okay, Putin's gone a little too far..."

A hell of a lot more than flying a few drones over Poland. A 100 division armoured invasion towards Warsaw would do it but are we seeing that? No.

Yet there are people on here openly advocating some sort of retaliatory strike into Russia - seriously?

And you accuse ME of ridiculing the term "beliicose".