Sep 082015
 

The big story of the day is the news that a UK drone strike took out an ISIS terrorist in Syria; one who used to be a UK citizen. After all, ISIS claims to be a nation state and so their "fighters" (actually terrorists) could be said to have given up their previous citizenship.

Arguing about whether it was justified is completely pointless without access to all of the relevant information which we won't get. It would be a very good idea for someone sensible (i.e. not a sleezy politician) outside of the intelligence community to review that secret information and to be the one authorising such activities.

But is a drone strike self-defence? It may well be under military terminology or even under international law.

In terms of ordinary understanding of self-defence, it is not – in terms of someone assaulting you, it is self-defence to break someone's arm as they are striking you; it is not self-defence to break their arm because they have promised to assault you tomorrow.As ordinary people understand the term, a drone strike is not self-defence.

It might be somewhat less contraversial to call a spade a spade and term this attack a "pre-emptive defence againt an imminent mass terrorist act" (or whatever phrase would fit the facts). On the face of it, using a drone strike to kill two terrorists only who are about to launch a terrorist attack, is the least-worst action. 

That does not justify so-called "collateral damage" (in honest spade terms, that would be the indiscriminate murder of innocent civilians), and anyone who authorises drone strikes that results in murder should be prosecuted.

Sep 032015
 

The news has been filled for a few weeks now with stories about "immigrants" making their way into Europe through various routes – across the sea to the Greek islands, and across land through Hungary. Of course technically they are all travellers until they stop moving and set up home (at which point they are immigrants unless they stopped moving before they left their home country.

It turns out that most of the travellers are from Syria or from Afghanistan which makes them refugees.

This is a special category of migrant, and such migrants have the right under international law to seek and enjoy asylum.

child_sea4

Anyone trying to limit that right of asylum is almost certainly a criminal under international law, and morally bankrupt to boot. Those thinking that we can't take any more should take a long hard look at that dead child above; you are as responsible for that death just as much as if you beat that child to death personally.

There is no refugee crisis except in the sense that the refugees are not being treated properly. The fact that Europe was going to see an increase in the number of refugees was entirely predictable given the situation in Syria; particularly given that Turkey is hosting 1.7 million refugees. If anything there has been a crisis of political leadershiop amongst European politicians, and a failure to take a strong moral position. With a handful of exceptions.

The UK government is busy playing osterich games by pretending that by dealing with the Syrian crisis in Syria will make all the refugees disappear. Yes the ultimate solution is to sort out the situation in Syria, but in the meantime there are refugees dying. 

The EU needs to start funding the cost of dealing with refugees so that the countries least able to afford to don't have to pay a disproportionate amount (i.e. Greece).

The EU needs to set up safe, secure, and comfortable refugee centres where refugees can be accommodated, assessed, and then allocated a new country to go to.

The EU needs to allocate refugees out amongst all of the countries of the EU on a fair basis, and need to shame the reluctant into accepting their fair share.

And we all need to slap down those who oppose treating the refugees properly.

 

Aug 272015
 

So there has been another senseless killing in the USA, and the world has reacted by asking Americans to "Please stop killing each other". If you read this blog religiously, you will probably recall previous occasions when I have mentioned gun control (and related issues), but bear with me. One slightly tacky thing to point out is that this senseless killing onl made the news because it was shown on live TV – senseless killings in the USA are so common (I could probably link to hundreds of similar articles) that this would not ordinarily be newsworthy.

The gun control fans have of course emphasised that the USA needs proper gun control, and I'm not going to disagree. 

Any society as sick in terms of violence as the USA needs strong gun control because it's citizens cannot be trusted not to run amok.

Those who want to hang onto their guns need to come up with a solution to the problem of violence in the USA and they need to stop parroting ridiculous excuses for why guns should not be controlled.

Aug 122015
 

A link to the story in the media.

Because without a link some people might believe that this is all a conspiracy story. After all, I'm fond enough of commenting on stories of corporate greed, and this one is pretty unbelievable.

Apparently retailers have been cunningly claiming back VAT on purchases made by consumers who are travelling outside the EU. Perfectly legal, except that the total price that the consumers are paying is not reduced.

If you look at a invoice or receipt, it will usually have a line for each item listing the cost, and another line at the end totalling the VAT due. That charge for the VAT is supposed to be paid to the government. If VAT is not payable, it is not unreasonable to cross out the VAT line, deduct it from the total payable, and pay the reduced amount.

It would be amusing to try this in an airport shop.

One additional detail that has a bearing here, is that to claim back the VAT, the shops have to produce a copy of the boarding pass from people leaving the EU in order to claim the VAT back. Apparently the shops have been demanding a copy of the boarding pass from everyone and sometimes claiming it is for security purposes (which of course carries the unspoken threat of being arrested and if the airport police are bored, being prodded with automatic weapons and given a free body cavity inspection).

The retailers are claiming that it is too much like hard work to charge two different prices (one with and one without the VAT), which may well be a reasonable objection. If they don't claim the VAT back.

Now if there were a likely looking geezer speaking in a Cockney accent, hanging around the boarding gate for flights to the USA, and demanding a "Kray tax". And waving at someone dressed in a police uniform and carrying a machine gun, and saying that you uneed to pay or you'll get arrested, it would be something not entirely unreasonable to call it robbery.

So would it not be reasonable to call what these shops are doing robbery too?

 

Jul 272015
 

With all the fuss about Jeremy Corbyn being nominated for election as the Labour party leader, anyone would think that the mainstream (read "parliamentary") Labour party is terrified that the slightest whiff of a genuine left-wing agenda by Labour will make them unelectable.

Perhaps so. Anyone who remembers the height of the Thatcher era when Labour was unelectable could well be worried that Labour might again make itself unelectable. And some of that distant past unelectability may well have been caused by the policies.

But not necessarily the 'left-wing' part of those policies.

In the recent election approximately 1/3 of the electorate chose to vote for the Tories which means that 2/3 did not. And that does not inlcude those who failed to find somebody worth voting for. And given the widespread revulsion at the early plans of what the Tories plan to inflict on us indicates that people could well be interested in a genuine alternative.

And that alternative is not "Conservative-light" (I refuse to use the trendy spelling of "light"; apart from anything else, there's a word for someone as old as I am trying to be trendy … and that word is "pathetic").

There is nothing more repulsive than a politician pandering to the lowest common denominator, and modifying their principles to make them more appealing to "middle-England". Perhaps this is why Labour is loosing their core work-class support.

Labour should be for the working classes, but the working classes including everyone who isn't a member of the idle rich which includes many people who don't traditionally think of themselves as working class. Such as doctors, solicitors, surveyors, bank managers (not "bankers"), etc. 

Take a look at the results of the Green party – a genuincely progressive party with left-wing policies – who went from 1% share of the votes to 3.8%. Despite being an unelectable fringe party with no hope of being elected, they massively increased their share of the vote. 

Perhaps a Labour party with sensible left-wing policies would not be electable, but at least it would be honest. And who knows? Maybe it would be electable after 5 years of Tory mismanagement and punishment for those who weren't born with a silver spoon.

Elements Have Their Way