General News Thread

[Lionator]

6 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

It’s not really a new war though is it? America has had a long history with Iran, especially around their threat of nuclear weapon production. I don’t think many nations will be too concerned about this move, possibly secretly a few will be fairly supportive of it, as Starmer has been. I don’t think there will be a massive fallout following this strike. Potentially may be going forward if the conflict continues, but I don’t think Iran will retaliate, to be honest, they’ll end up being pummelled from both Isreal and the US….

A rational post. Nobody is going to fight on behalf of Iran. US very likely informed Russia in advance too. All it does is weakens Iran and boosts Israel, Saudi and the gulf states (who have no love for Iran). What would be stupid would be a campaign or a ground invasion but that seems highly unlikely.

[leicsmac]

5 hours ago, bovril said:

It won't be because Britain isn't America. It'll just be more of the decline of the last couple of decades, but even faster and deeper. 

 

2 hours ago, Sampson said:

While I agree there are cultural differences, the ideas will be the same, just dressed up in a way that’s more palatable for British people. But the same fundamental ideas of taking on the checks and balances that hold up democracy- the education system, the courts, the law, the HoL, random performative cruelty against immigrants, shutting down any protests with force, the peddling of conspiracy theories, anti-science, claiming to be the party of free speech while fundamentally shutting down anything “woke” or anything that opposes them, fundamentally telling people to ignore their eyes and ears and declaring any objection to be fake news, crisis actors etc. will be there. 

This. 

 

And I'll add that the more nations in which the above ideas (particularly the anti-science part) have that power, the more at risk our species is of turning down a very, very dark road. Within the lifetimes of most people who contribute on here. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

6 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

 

This. 

 

And I'll add that the more nations in which the above ideas (particularly the anti-science part) have that power, the more at risk our species is of turning down a very, very dark road. Within the lifetimes of most people who contribute on here. 

Within the next five years?! 

[leicsmac]

On the general topic, the whole US strike seems very controlled and calculated, but the thing about warfare is that it all seems planned and controlled - up until that moment it isn't. 

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Within the next five years?! 

I did say "most". 

[Pliskin]

5 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

 

This. 

 

And I'll add that the more nations in which the above ideas (particularly the anti-science part) have that power, the more at risk our species is of turning down a very, very dark road. Within the lifetimes of most people who contribute on here. 

And not to forget (which isn’t anything new as a lot of MP’s lie) but there’s massive integrity issues within Reform. They happily promote fired/disgraced police officers and support anyone with outdated views, policies, and opinions. But surely people can recall Farage’s Brexit campaign? Fuelled by lies and misconceptions? So why would it be any different this time around? It probably won’t…. They won’t deliver on half of what they promise, and anything they do deliver on will set us back decades. 

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

And not to forget (which isn’t anything new as a lot of MP’s lie) but there’s massive integrity issues within Reform. They happily promote fired/disgraced police officers and support anyone with outdated views, policies, and opinions. But surely people can recall Farage’s Brexit campaign? Fuelled by lies and misconceptions? So why would it be any different this time around? It probably won’t…. They won’t deliver on half of what they promise, and anything they do deliver on will set us back decades. 

Depending on the topic, it may well be more than that. In much more than one place, too. 

[st albans fox]

44 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

It’s not really a new war though is it? America has had a long history with Iran, especially around their threat of nuclear weapon production. I don’t think many nations will be too concerned about this move, possibly secretly a few will be fairly supportive of it, as Starmer has been. I don’t think there will be a massive fallout following this strike. Potentially may be going forward if the conflict continues, but I don’t think Iran will retaliate, to be honest, they’ll end up being pummelled from both Isreal and the US….

someone on sky news actually said something intuitive this morning 

 

if Iran can keep making these 20/30 salvo barrages each day (of which 2 or 3 are statistically getting through defences), then Isr population will tire of this before the Iranian authorities (their population doesn’t have enough influence to change policy).  Whilst isr public opinion was split re existing wars in the region it is strongly supportive of the Iran strikes.  After several weeks of rushing to bomb shelters several times a day this could easily dissipate, especially if Iran’s ‘immediate nuke threat’ has been removed. 

 

Also, does anyone seriously believe that if Iran has enriched uranium between 60/90%, then it hasn’t removed some of it to somewhere secret ahead of possible American destruction of known sites ???

Edited 22 June 2025 by st albans fox

[Md9]

All of maga praising hegseth for no leaks like it shouldn’t actually be part of his job to not leak important information 

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 minutes ago, Md9 said:

All of maga praising hegseth for no leaks like it shouldn’t actually be part of his job to not leak important information 

Very much a bronze trophy which 98% of users have attained.

[Lionator]

A few analysts seem to think this is quite a limited ‘symbolic’ strike with outcomes exaggerated and is Trump signalling that he wants a deal still. 

[Vacamion]

 

The US President saying during his announcement to the nation he wants to thank God for the attack, because "We love you God" (bit weird), provokes the same feelings as a Mullah on Iranian TV raving about eternal punishment for The Infidels.

 

They are not good feelings.

 

 

 

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

The US President saying during his announcement to the nation he wants to thank God for the attack, because "We love you God" (bit weird), provokes the same feelings as a Mullah on Iranian TV raving about eternal punishment for The Infidels.

 

They are not good feelings.

 

 

 

"Nothing worse than a monster who thinks he's right with God." - Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly

[st albans fox]

33 minutes ago, Lionator said:

A few analysts seem to think this is quite a limited ‘symbolic’ strike with outcomes exaggerated and is Trump signalling that he wants a deal still. 

why did he wait the extra few days?

to give Iran time to remove what they wanted/needed to? 
to give time to his air force to get things in place and for bases in the region to get additional defences in place ?

to allow Friday’s meeting to take place and Iran to make a change to their position ?

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

My mate works in the flags department and he says he's never had it so easy.

Absolutely transformative policy on flags 100% delivered. 

 

I fear this may be the high water mark though. They're going to struggle to do anything positive as there's no money, and it's difficult to cut anything when everything's been cut to the bone already - often literally down to the level of what you can get away with without breaking the authority's legal obligations. 

 

That's going to be the same for any administration, but any idea that Reform is the change the country desperately needs is probably going to be a bit undermined by the first experience of them getting hold of any of the levers of power being all a bit meh

[Lionator]

18 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

why did he wait the extra few days?

to give Iran time to remove what they wanted/needed to? 
to give time to his air force to get things in place and for bases in the region to get additional defences in place ?

to allow Friday’s meeting to take place and Iran to make a change to their position ?

 

Who knows, maybe all three things? 
 

We’ll only know how impactful this has been in a couple of weeks at the earliest. People have reactionary hot takes but nobody actually knows how this will play out. 

[Lionator]

Annoying thing is that the Iranian President and foreign minister seem like very competent, ideologically sound people. It’s a shame that there’s nutty clerics above them calling the shots.

[Sly]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

someone on sky news actually said something intuitive this morning 

 

if Iran can keep making these 20/30 salvo barrages each day (of which 2 or 3 are statistically getting through defences), then Isr population will tire of this before the Iranian authorities (their population doesn’t have enough influence to change policy).  Whilst isr public opinion was split re existing wars in the region it is strongly supportive of the Iran strikes.  After several weeks of rushing to bomb shelters several times a day this could easily dissipate, especially if Iran’s ‘immediate nuke threat’ has been removed. 

 

Also, does anyone seriously believe that if Iran has enriched uranium between 60/90%, then it hasn’t removed some of it to somewhere secret ahead of possible American destruction of known sites ???

I mean, maybe they moved the facility deeper! We saw how this played out in Top Gun 2 though. 

[Sly]

5 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Absolutely transformative policy on flags 100% delivered. 

 

I fear this may be the high water mark though. They're going to struggle to do anything positive as there's no money, and it's difficult to cut anything when everything's been cut to the bone already - often literally down to the level of what you can get away with without breaking the authority's legal obligations. 

 

That's going to be the same for any administration, but any idea that Reform is the change the country desperately needs is probably going to be a bit undermined by the first experience of them getting hold of any of the levers of power being all a bit meh

I think we’d be surprised how much wastage the council has. 
 

It might not have a money tree, however maybe it can find some down the back of the sofa by cutting out stupid spending. 

[ian__marshall]

DT is a liability with no restraint. Just lost for words...

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, Sly said:

I mean, maybe they moved the facility deeper! We saw how this played out in Top Gun 2 though. 

You’d explain the important stuff to be sited at the deepest levels. 

sky showed a satellite image from yesterday showing a long line of trucks at the facility- could have been bringing stuff in from less secure facilities or taking stuff out that they wanted to put somewhere less known to the Americans. 
 

the isr seem to have good intelligence within the Iranian establishment - reckon they’ll know how much damage has been done within a week.  can’t see how this ends swiftly though because the Iranians won’t negotiate to have no enrichment on their territory and that’s currently the American starting point. 

[davieG]

4 minutes ago, Sly said:

I think we’d be surprised how much wastage the council has. 
 

It might not have a money tree, however maybe it can find some down the back of the sofa by cutting out stupid spending. 

The problem with cuts is the people in charge deciding where to make those cuts have no idea where to make them. I've been involved on both sides in industry and a casualty of cuts at County Hall and seen some classic cock ups.

 

When I was made redundant from one of my industrial jobs the just pretty much forced everyone over 50 to take early retirement along with their redundancy one of the guys the forced out was the H&S officer who they thought they could replace with some junior. A month later they had to bring him back as they had no one authorised to sign off a lot of the work we did.

 

They are too far from the rock face to know where any waste might be.

 

[Sly]

Just now, davieG said:

The problem with cuts is the people in charge deciding where to make those cuts have no idea where to make them. I've been involved on both sides in industry and a casualty of cuts at County Hall and seen some classic cock ups.

 

When I was made redundant from one of my industrial jobs the just pretty much forced everyone over 50 to take early retirement along with their redundancy one of the guys the forced out was the H&S officer who they thought they could replace with some junior. A month later they had to bring him back as they had no one authorised to sign off a lot of the work we did.

 

They are too far from the rock face to know where any waste might be.

 

Yes, it’s not always about people. Forcing people over 50 out is bonkers. Bizarrely, I always think if you ask your employees then give them even 1% of the savings, you’d have so much buy in. You’d be inundated with ideas. 

[Sly]

8 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

You’d explain the important stuff to be sited at the deepest levels. 

sky showed a satellite image from yesterday showing a long line of trucks at the facility- could have been bringing stuff in from less secure facilities or taking stuff out that they wanted to put somewhere less known to the Americans. 
 

the isr seem to have good intelligence within the Iranian establishment - reckon they’ll know how much damage has been done within a week.  can’t see how this ends swiftly though because the Iranians won’t negotiate to have no enrichment on their territory and that’s currently the American starting point. 

I’m just watching this press conference on Sky News now. 

 

I can’t see really see how this plays out.

 

My logical brain tells me that Iran drops back and falls inline. They have no natural allies as such, unless they join forces with the likes of North Korea, Russia, Belarus etc
 

However they’re slightly isolated as they have no friends in the Gulf. 

[Sampson]

4 minutes ago, Sly said:

I’m just watching this press conference on Sky News now. 

 

I can’t see really see how this plays out.

 

My logical brain tells me that Iran drops back and falls inline. They have no natural allies as such, unless they join forces with the likes of North Korea, Russia, Belarus etc
 

However they’re slightly isolated as they have no friends in the Gulf. 

Russia and Iran *are* allies. Russia is just too occupied that I don’t think anyone expects them to help them right now, as was the case in Syria (also Russia’s ally).

Edited 22 June 2025 by Sampson