He’s not the messiah, he’s a very….

A storify on the debate in the HoC on Syria.I mention Hilary Benn’s summing-up speech, its reference to the international brigades & the quality of the Tory anti-speeches. I remind myself and others that to be legal, military action must be effective; you can’t just fuck things up because you’re cross.

 

Originally created in Dec 2015, and published in this blog in Nov 2019. It was after writing this story, that I came across Professor Paul Preston and his work on Spain and the International Brigades. …

Recreational bombing

I don’t think anyone used the term #recreationalbombing. Parliament don’t seem to have learned the lessons from the history of the decision to go to Iraq; this decision will haunt Cameron, although he’ll be gone in two or three years. Someone said, “Cameron doesn’t do strategy”, he was right, and those who trust him for it have made a big mistake. …

Scent

Over the weekend, Mrs. L had exercised the dog thoroughly over the previous two days and planned to give her a rest on the Sunday; she had other ideas, one crack in the door, and she’s off like Flynn, using her superb sense of smell to track Mrs. L. down despite a half mile start. …

Police powers

A nice note on a TOR attack conducted by a University on behalf of the FBI and questioning the ethics due to the collateral damage, by Matthew Green. In the UK, the new DRIP law legalises otherwise illegal activity by the intelligence services. The author of this article assumes that mass surveillance is bad, and that despite the fact that they have broken TOR and found evidence to make two serious prosecutions, no one knows how many privacy violations have been made. …