Boris as PM

slowmart

It looks likely he’ll be PM next week

His first test?

The Iranians and the missing oil tankers

I mean , what could go wrong?

That’s not even thinking of the high quality and grounded individuals he’ll pick to make up his cabinet who’ll be his political lackeys rather than individuals based on merit.

robert88

The prospect is a kind of inverse of the middle of the last century.

The EU will be the good guys and we will ally ourselves with an increasingly far-right US regime. Russia is the elephant in the room. Boris will be the court jester to King Donald.

cougie

Doomed.

bongobiggins

cougie wrote:

Doomed.

We were doomed anyway. This has just accelerated it.

Matthewfalle

its going to be a (please pardon my French) fukkin@$g disaster.

i'm starting to think about packing my bags already.

#disasterwaitingtohappen

surrey_commuter

In fairness to Boris his predecessor is probably wishing she had checked if any British registered oil tankers went anywhere near Iran before seizing of of theirs

Stevo_666

Great, another political thread - because Cake Stop doesn't have enough

Surely there one or two options on here already for this topic?
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=580
or
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12780147&start=20

Matthewfalle

Surrey Commuter wrote:

In fairness to Boris his predecessor is probably wishing she had checked if any British registered oil tankers went anywhere near Iran before seizing of of theirs

she is/was useless as well. Johnson is even more useless, if thats possible.

#frombadtoworse

shortfall

Stevo 666 wrote:

Great, another political thread - because Cake Stop doesn't have enough

Surely there one or two options on here already for this topic?
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=580
or
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12780147&start=20

More opportunities for people to bloviate in the echo chamber.

robert88

Shortfall wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Great, another political thread - because Cake Stop doesn't have enough

Surely there one or two options on here already for this topic?
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=580
or
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12780147&start=20

More opportunities for people to bloviate in the echo chamber.

And your problem is?

slowmart

Stevo 666 wrote:

Great, another political thread - because Cake Stop doesn't have enough

Surely there one or two options on here already for this topic?
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=580
or
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12780147&start=20

Corbyn is no better but he's not entering the most powerful office in the land next week with some profound and pressing issues to deal effectively with. He doesn't do detail, he flops to public opinion and lies to suit his own agenda.

It not politics Stevo, its a genuine concern we are all on train Boris, barrelling to a head on collision and the driver hasn't a clue how to control the situation or use the tools at his disposal.

FFS his own campaign team kept him from public scrutiny during the leadership campaign for fear of him dropping himself in it.

motogull

Slowmart wrote:

The Iranians and the missing oil tankers

I mean , what could go wrong?

Nothing. A quick "Now stop being naughty piccaninnies" will sort it.

Stevo_666

Slowmart wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Great, another political thread - because Cake Stop doesn't have enough

Surely there one or two options on here already for this topic?
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=580
or
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12780147&start=20

Corbyn is no better but he's not entering the most powerful office in the land next week with some profound and pressing issues to deal effectively with. He doesn't do detail, he flops to public opinion and lies to suit his own agenda.

It not politics Stevo, its a genuine concern we are all on train Boris, barrelling to a head on collision and the driver hasn't a clue how to control the situation or use the tools at his disposal.

FFS his own campaign team kept him from public scrutiny during the leadership campaign for fear of him dropping himself in it.

Its a free country and you can raise these concerns of course. I'm just pointing out that we have threads for this stuff already. And pretty much every political grievance going.

Midnight

"Its a free country and you can raise these concerns of course. I'm just pointing out that we have threads for this stuff already. And pretty much every political grievance going. "


+1 yet again

robert88

Stevo 666 wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Great, another political thread - because Cake Stop doesn't have enough

Surely there one or two options on here already for this topic?
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=580
or
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12780147&start=20

Corbyn is no better but he's not entering the most powerful office in the land next week with some profound and pressing issues to deal effectively with. He doesn't do detail, he flops to public opinion and lies to suit his own agenda.

It not politics Stevo, its a genuine concern we are all on train Boris, barrelling to a head on collision and the driver hasn't a clue how to control the situation or use the tools at his disposal.

FFS his own campaign team kept him from public scrutiny during the leadership campaign for fear of him dropping himself in it.

Its a free counry and you can raise these concerns of course. I'm just pointing out that we have threads for this stuff already. And pretty much every political grievance going.

Does that mean we have your permission?

Officially speaking?

Stevo_666

Robert88 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Great, another political thread - because Cake Stop doesn't have enough

Surely there one or two options on here already for this topic?
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=13100964&start=580
or
https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12780147&start=20

Corbyn is no better but he's not entering the most powerful office in the land next week with some profound and pressing issues to deal effectively with. He doesn't do detail, he flops to public opinion and lies to suit his own agenda.

It not politics Stevo, its a genuine concern we are all on train Boris, barrelling to a head on collision and the driver hasn't a clue how to control the situation or use the tools at his disposal.

FFS his own campaign team kept him from public scrutiny during the leadership campaign for fear of him dropping himself in it.

Its a free counry and you can raise these concerns of course. I'm just pointing out that we have threads for this stuff already. And pretty much every political grievance going.

Does that mean we have your permission?

Officially speaking?

No you can't. You need to go and start yet another centre left whinge thread. You'll get more right on gold stars if you do.

chris_bass

I think political threads should have a max number of pages and once it hits that it is closed and a new one is started, a bit like having elections every 5 years.

or if 52% of posters say so it is closed

robert88

Surrey Commuter wrote:

In fairness to Boris his predecessor is probably wishing she had checked if any British registered oil tankers went anywhere near Iran before seizing of of theirs

It seems that the UK action was taken in response to Intel from the USA and was in line with the EU stance. Unfortunately the US and EU have not acknowledged their role and no EU endorsement has been received.

The tanker seized by Iran is British because of its port of registry nothing else about it is British. Nevertheless we sent a gunboat in its defence and it was too far away.

We will have new pm in a few days and if it's Boris Johnson his record as foreign secretary suggests he will be all at sea even if the tankers are not.

kingstongraham

Is Philip Hammond a centre left whinger now?

tangled_metal

Surrey Commuter wrote:

In fairness to Boris his predecessor is probably wishing she had checked if any British registered oil tankers went anywhere near Iran before seizing of of theirs

Does that really need checking? Oil producing region. Oil moved by tanker. Britain is a popular flag of convenience for shipping. Like the number 5 bus, wait long enough you'll get a few British flagged tankers going through there.

Flag off convenience puts British ranking at just outside 10th place I believe. When you include British interests in vessels flagged elsewhere British shipping interests goes even higher.

tangled_metal

The stena vessel is actually run out of Scotland, as in managed. That employs more than a few people up in Scotland to do that. Just saying, there's more than a paper registration linking the vessel to the UK.

robert88

Tangled Metal wrote:

The stena vessel is actually run out of Scotland, as in managed. That employs more than a few people up in Scotland to do that. Just saying, there's more than a paper registration linking the vessel to the UK.

Northern Marine Management is a subsidiary of the Swedish company Stena so not a British outfit. It might employ Scots but then the crew of the ship were a mixed lot. I doubt the Scottish link was part of the Iranian motivation, they just saw the Port of Registry and Red Duster.

Anyway, must go and fill the cars up. Fuel's a bargain right now.

surrey_commuter

Tangled Metal wrote:

Surrey Commuter wrote:

In fairness to Boris his predecessor is probably wishing she had checked if any British registered oil tankers went anywhere near Iran before seizing of of theirs

Does that really need checking? Oil producing region. Oil moved by tanker. Britain is a popular flag of convenience for shipping. Like the number 5 bus, wait long enough you'll get a few British flagged tankers going through there.

Flag off convenience puts British ranking at just outside 10th place I believe. When you include British interests in vessels flagged elsewhere British shipping interests goes even higher.

Surely if they had checked they would have realised p1ssing off the Iranians would leave us very vulnerable

slowmart

I find it hard to believe the UK sanctioned the interception of the Iranian tanker. I would like to understand the reasoning behind such a decision when the region needs to de-escalate and reduce conflicts points.

We need to project strength as a nation and need political leadership to lead, but I fear Boris has neither the intellect, gravitas or character to anything other than follow the US lead

Matthewfalle

Slowmart wrote:

I find it hard to believe the UK sanctioned the interception of the Iranian tanker. I would like to understand the reasoning behind such a decision when the region needs to de-escalate and reduce conflicts points.

We need to project strength as a nation and need political leadership to lead, but I fear Boris has neither the intellect, gravitas or character to anything other than follow the US lead

britain is dramatically lacking the political, industrial, military, cultural and intellectual power to project any strength anywhere.

robert88

Slowmart wrote:

I find it hard to believe the UK sanctioned the interception of the Iranian tanker. I would like to understand the reasoning behind such a decision when the region needs to de-escalate and reduce conflicts points.

We need to project strength as a nation and need political leadership to lead, but I fear Boris has neither the intellect, gravitas or character to anything other than follow the US lead

We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do,
We've too few ships, we've very few men, we've run out of money too,
We've fought Iraq before, and while we're Britons true,
We wish we bloody hadn't as we hadn't thought it through.

FocusZing

Matthewfalle wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

I find it hard to believe the UK sanctioned the interception of the Iranian tanker. I would like to understand the reasoning behind such a decision when the region needs to de-escalate and reduce conflicts points.

We need to project strength as a nation and need political leadership to lead, but I fear Boris has neither the intellect, gravitas or character to anything other than follow the US lead

britain is dramatically lacking the political, industrial, military, cultural and intellectual power to project any strength anywhere.

We did well in the Cricket!

john80

Here is the range on the Iran situation that was on display on Radio 2 today. Do nothing, not our problem let them evade sanctions with their mate Syria. Obviously with this sort of approach the advocates of this style of leadership seem unfazed that international law and sanctions are for others to enforce. The reverse is the take the tanker as it is breaching sanctions and they keep taking Iranian assets 10 to 1 until they wise up and essentially engage in maritime warfare any time Iranian forces leave Iranian waters. Better get those warships on order.

Maybe it is time to realise that we are dealing with the ultimate facts don't matter state. Radcliffe is a spy and apparently this tanker ran over a fishing boat in international waters and did not stop to assist. It is all lies from a nation that are the masters in lying. I wonder where our great Euro allies are? Oh sorry they have given a glib statement of support for us being the only country to actually enforce sanctions and international law. I wonder why Iran has not provided a credible end location for the millions of barrels of oil within the bowels of the tanker arrested in Gibraltar.

surrey_commuter

You think we will be able to seize Iranian assets at a rate of 10:1?

The realists on this thread are pointing out that a lot of our assets have to steam past Iran and we have two men and a dog to protect them.

Many of our European allies are landlocked and many of the others do not live in a fantasy land when they are still in their glory days.

slowbike

Surrey Commuter wrote:

You think we will be able to seize Iranian assets at a rate of 10:1?

Without checking the ships register - I have no doubt that our Navy & SBS could easily seize more Iranian assets

Surrey Commuter wrote:

The realists on this thread are pointing out that a lot of our assets have to steam past Iran and we have two men and a dog to protect them.

Well - quite, and we're British - so we will (quite rightly) do things by rule of Law - and not result to piracy.

It may be "nice" to "flex our muscles" in a US type way - but we're a bit more circumspect than that - taking ships on a tit-for-tat measure would quickly escalate - and quite likely lose the support of our European neighbours.

Personally, I'd be upping the warship presence in the area and probably start co-ordinating convoys of UK flagged vessels with warship/aircraft guards and blasting anything Iranian out of the water ... ok not the last bit, but it would be satisfying* to do so...

*totally ignoring that the Iranian guards have family too and are probably just working to the commands of their leaders, just as ours do.

john80

Slowbike wrote:

Surrey Commuter wrote:

You think we will be able to seize Iranian assets at a rate of 10:1?

Without checking the ships register - I have no doubt that our Navy & SBS could easily seize more Iranian assets

Surrey Commuter wrote:

The realists on this thread are pointing out that a lot of our assets have to steam past Iran and we have two men and a dog to protect them.

Well - quite, and we're British - so we will (quite rightly) do things by rule of Law - and not result to piracy.

It may be "nice" to "flex our muscles" in a US type way - but we're a bit more circumspect than that - taking ships on a tit-for-tat measure would quickly escalate - and quite likely lose the support of our European neighbours.

Personally, I'd be upping the warship presence in the area and probably start co-ordinating convoys of UK flagged vessels with warship/aircraft guards and blasting anything Iranian out of the water ... ok not the last bit, but it would be satisfying* to do so...

*totally ignoring that the Iranian guards have family too and are probably just working to the commands of their leaders, just as ours do.

Do we have any support of our European neighbours given they seem happy to let Iran do whatever they want? Spain could have for example dealt with this issue but chose not to. Damned if you do and damned if you don't it would appear.