Best Of

I expect the bill to pass tomorrow, but am I correct that it will not come in for 4 years ?

Also Beth Rigby of Sky on Iran:

'I have just spoken to the French ambassador to the UK - who very rarely does anything on camera - to talk about the need for de-escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict amid growing concerns the US will get involved.

It's a moment of great jeopardy for all European allies, our prime minister, and all European leaders pushing for de-escalation.

The message from the French ambassador today is to step back and de-escalate.

There will be talks in Geneva tomorrow between Iranian officials and Europe's leading politicians - David Lammy, as well as the foreign ministers of France, Germany, although no country formally confirming.

It is all an attempt to find a solution.

The big question is: will Donald Trump listen?'


Has there ever been a time when the leaders of Europe, including Starmer have ever looked so out of their depths and impotent ?

The only players in this are Trump and Netanyahu and the danger for these leaders is they will look utterly helpless if US and Israel do take out
Iran's nuclear capability

Utterly pathetic response from the UK and EU.
Talking to Iran will embolden them to dig in

Ex-head of MI6 this morning said a negotiated solution would not be possible as no one should or would believe the Iranians would negotiate in good faith.

And there was a good case for the US to bomb the facility.

But of course what would he know.

We've spent at least a couple of decades trying to divert North Korea and Iran from building a bomb. We failed in NK's case, and Iran has shown very poor faith.

Does anyone (aside from @Roger) believe that Iran doesn't want to build a nuclear weapon?

I think that, for many years, Iran has not wanted to build a nuclear weapon, but has wanted to be close to be able to build a nuclear weapon. That almost zone has worked well for them. As @rcs1000 suggests, are actions now pushing them (and indeed other countries) into wanting a nuclear weapon now?

Or Iran have been trying for the bomb, and international actions have stayed their hand.

Why do so many on the left - such as you - give the Iranian regime so much good faith?

The event that really will convince countries to go for the bomb is Russia vs Ukraine. They will see that Ukraine gave up nukes, and Russia is successfully using the threat of nukes to get their ow way. The American response - and I include Biden in this - is utterly counter-productive in the long run.

Yep: we are almost certainly heading into a period of nuclear proliferation. And - as you say - the proximate cause was the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

I expect the bill to pass tomorrow, but am I correct that it will not come in for 4 years ?

Also Beth Rigby of Sky on Iran:

'I have just spoken to the French ambassador to the UK - who very rarely does anything on camera - to talk about the need for de-escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict amid growing concerns the US will get involved.

It's a moment of great jeopardy for all European allies, our prime minister, and all European leaders pushing for de-escalation.

The message from the French ambassador today is to step back and de-escalate.

There will be talks in Geneva tomorrow between Iranian officials and Europe's leading politicians - David Lammy, as well as the foreign ministers of France, Germany, although no country formally confirming.

It is all an attempt to find a solution.

The big question is: will Donald Trump listen?'


Has there ever been a time when the leaders of Europe, including Starmer have ever looked so out of their depths and impotent ?

The only players in this are Trump and Netanyahu and the danger for these leaders is they will look utterly helpless if US and Israel do take out
Iran's nuclear capability

Utterly pathetic response from the UK and EU.
Talking to Iran will embolden them to dig in

Ex-head of MI6 this morning said a negotiated solution would not be possible as no one should or would believe the Iranians would negotiate in good faith.

And there was a good case for the US to bomb the facility.

But of course what would he know.

We've spent at least a couple of decades trying to divert North Korea and Iran from building a bomb. We failed in NK's case, and Iran has shown very poor faith.

Does anyone (aside from @Roger) believe that Iran doesn't want to build a nuclear weapon?

I think that, for many years, Iran has not wanted to build a nuclear weapon, but has wanted to be close to be able to build a nuclear weapon. That almost zone has worked well for them. As @rcs1000 suggests, are actions now pushing them (and indeed other countries) into wanting a nuclear weapon now?

Or Iran have been trying for the bomb, and international actions have stayed their hand.

Why do so many on the left - such as you - give the Iranian regime so much good faith?

The event that really will convince countries to go for the bomb is Russia vs Ukraine. They will see that Ukraine gave up nukes, and Russia is successfully using the threat of nukes to get their ow way. The American response - and I include Biden in this - is utterly counter-productive in the long run.

The only players in this are Trump and Netanyahu and the danger for these leaders is they will look utterly helpless if US and Israel do take out
Iran's nuclear capability

There's also Russia & China:

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about the situation in the Middle East and condemned Israeli attacks on Iran, a top Russian official said Thursday.

Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that “both sides have identical approaches — strongly condemning Israel’s actions that violate the U.N. charter and other norms of international law.” He added that the two leaders say the issue of Iran’s nuclear program “does not have a forceful solution.”

In its summary of the phone call, Chinese state media reported that Xi said a ceasefire was imperative and that “the parties to the conflict, especially Israel, should cease fire as soon as possible to prevent the situation from escalating in turn and resolutely avoid the spillover of war.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/06/19/israel-iran-strikes-live-us-trump/#link-GMOT72MYJBAB7MEMWXFVUX6LWY

Abortion is in principle a bad thing, but isn't in practice.
Banning things you don't approve of leads to all manner of negative outcomes.
Many of which you may approve of even less.

The goal of a civilized society should be to make abortion unnecessary.

It is a terrible shame that many of the opponents of abortion are also so vehmently against -say- sex education or support for single parents.

A goal of a civilised society should ne to allow people to have full control over their fertility. Abortion is, with current technology, a necessary part of achieving that aim.

What possible technology could supersede the need for abortion?

The condom?

Big car crash on parkway, Camden

Hardly unknown


What makes this special: it looks like some kind of very high spec BMW. Almost a super car. And there’s two fire engines and several cop cars. For one crash?

And they are dismembering the vehicle in the street. Huge tools ripping open the engine etc. Why on earth would they do that?

Why not just lift and tow it?

Errr, is there someone trapped inside it?

No. This is the bonnet they’re ripping off. And the wheel casing. No space for a person

Drugs? Guns?

Perhaps getting at airbags and other dangerous items that need to be disabled. Car manufacturers give fire brigades special cars to show them what to disable.

But there's an expert on such matters on PB...

Ah. A good guess. Yes

could easily be someone stuck inside and they need front off to get at stuff holding his legs, steering column , etc

I once watched a demo of the fire brigade dismantling a car. Very impressed and lots of stuff I hadn't thought of. Not much left of the car afterwards.

Parking in Liverpool achieves much the same results.