Well why don’t you fucking volunteer to go Ukraine then if its so important.

I’ll tend your wounds when you’re home sweetie

The Uk is between a rock and hard place geopolitically. It seems that joining the eu is political suicide but aligning economically with the Usa means selling off the nhs.

I guess the best we can hope for is going our own way and hoping for some economic miracle . Maybe we’ll discover some more north sea oil…

Im not sure what you’re referring to but i do know that USA has been interfering in the Ukraine which Russia considers its backyard. Imagine if Russia started arming and funding militias in alaska or mexico? (I know you’re probably going to bring up Russian bots but that isnt the same, and the USA does that kind of shit all the time).

Would we have had a couple hundred thousand dead if we hadn’t armed Ukrainian military? No the war would have ended if Russia just took the corridor it seems to want. If Russia had taken the whole country there would have been many resistance fighters but nowhere near the scale we’ve seen.

In any case , while we’ve been talking the russian minister at the talks with trump has said they wont accept peacekeeping forces anyway. So this is all futile speculation. There won’t be peacekeeping forces unless you want to prolong the war.

The USA invaded iraq - they didn’t have any intention of making it sovereign territory. That’s not enough evidence of intent.

Yes i also did gcse history and learnt about Chamberlain

Perhaps we could avoid war instead by making Russia a geopolitical ally rather than continually making them an enemy? Its not like we have any trouble making strategic alliances with other disreputable states.

No this chat by starmer is sabre rattling stupidity , what i dont fully understand is why they do it. The USA will be taking all the spoils from this war.

Any evidence for this?

Right i see why you think that, its a very seductive argument. We are in the right, we protect the weak, therefore what could possibly be bad about our presence?

However, thats not how real politics works. Russia will undoubtedly see this as a threat and it will escalate the war further. It doesn’t matter if they are correct to view us as such, but they will.

Unless Russia agrees to some unilateral peacekeeping arrangements as part of a peace deal, which seems unlikely, then why should we poke the beast?

There is also the fact that peacekeeping is not our forte, remember iraq, Afghanistan? Do you really think that pro-russian militias won’t retaliate? It doesn’t matter that we are in the right, our presence will not lead to peace.

I think Einstein said you can’t simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. Its time to choose which you want.

Regarding your Palestine comment, its just a completely different situation. Im not sure its comparable. Peacekeeping forces might be part of a settlement reached by hamas and Israel but it would have to be acceptable to both parties otherwise it leads to more violence.

Well yes you’ve discovered the problem of means testing any benefit. Its much better in general just to give everyone the option instead of farting about with the admin of deciding who is eligible.

So in order to get peace you want to escalate the war?

There is no sense in this argument. When has increasing the presence of troops ever led to fruitful peace talks?

From their perspective it just looks like we’re about to invade Russia for a regime change

“The additional appointments were delivered in part by extra evening and weekend working, the government said.”

This is very sensible and sustainable. Although i recognise that it’s not possible to train more staff in time to get through the backlog , there’s no indication that enough staff will be trained or maintained (many trusts have hiring freezes, no decent pay rises).

This target has been met sure but where is the plan to stop it happening again?

Thank god they dont appease MBS or Netanyahu!

British troops in Ukraine would absolutely be unacceptable to any peace agreement that Russia is likely to sign so whats the point of making all this noise.