[Abernathy]

To say nothing of “If you would pursue peace, prepare for war” .

Not sure who said it. Might have been Enoch Powell. Or Frankie Howerd.

[Oboogie]

To say nothing of “If you would pursue peace, prepare for war” .

Not sure who said it. Might have been Enoch Powell. Or Frankie Howerd.

Either of those might have quoted it (and I'm pretty sure Churchill did too) but the phrase originates with Vegetius in his 4th century Roman military manual.

[Andy McDandy]

Daniel Craig in Layer Cake.

[The Weeping Angel]

Ha ha ha ha.

What's the biggest power in NATO? Any developments there recently that might call into question the readiness of that power to defend Europe?

The Green Party are waffling pretty spectacularly too.

Green party urges government to boost aid spending as means of avoiding international conflict
The Green party has described the strategic defence review as too militaristic, and urged the government to focus more on development. In a statement, Ellie Chowns, who speaks on defence matters for the party in the Commons, said:

Security is not just based on arms expenditure and threats, but on real leadership that uses diplomacy and development too. There must be a real commitment to an international order based on human rights, equality and genuine cooperation.
To avoid the horrors of war and armed conflict, we need to look at the deeper causes of insecurity, including poverty and climate breakdown. This is why the Green party strongly supports the restoration of the international aid budget to at least 0.7% of GNI. And we will continue to argue that real patriotism means ending UK-made weapons or components being sold to dictators, human rights abusers or for use against civilians anywhere in the world.
The prime minister has talked up the boost to jobs and the economy through increased defence expenditure, but there are many more jobs to be created in the clean, green - and peaceful - economy, a sector growing four times faster than the rest of the economy. This is where the government’s focus for investment should b

I'm surprised she didn't propose hitting Russia with a major, and I mean major leaflet campaign.*

*That's a Red Dwarf reference.

[Youngian]

Security is not just based on arms expenditure and threats, but on real leadership that uses diplomacy and development too.

Threatening military hardware backing you up does wonders for leadership and diplomacy.

[Oboogie]

I'm surprised she didn't propose hitting Russia with a major, and I mean major leaflet campaign.*

Are Greens permitted to criticise Putin?

[mattomac]

Another betrayal….

[Boiler]

Has this been posted before? I know people who question the independence of "fact checking" organisations, but:

https://fullfact.org/government-tracker/

[Tubby Isaacs]

Security is not just based on arms expenditure and threats, but on real leadership that uses diplomacy and development too.

Threatening military hardware backing you up does wonders for leadership and diplomacy.

Yeah, especially in the context of other countries threatening your allies.

I think this stuff is going to be a real problem for the Greens. Ellie Chowns is floundering here, God knows what happens if the Zack Polanski wing start making all the decisions.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I was referring to this being done by the government because of Reform.

Think they're probably prepared to borrow more for investment because of immediate pressure from Reform. I hope they don't overdo that because I do see a risk.

[Bones McCoy]

To say nothing of “If you would pursue peace, prepare for war” .

Not sure who said it. Might have been Enoch Powell. Or Frankie Howerd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum

[Tubby Isaacs]

Reeves to announce lots of non-London infrastructure apparently. I'm a fan of putting stuff together in a way that adds up to a "narrative", but they should be wary of jumping the gun on stuff which will cost a serious amount of money and have to be cut back later because that'll feed more cynicism.

One interesting aspect is that the high speed route from Liverpool to Manchester is supposed to be going ahead. There's really no economic case for this unless you can reuse a big chunk of it for HS2, in which case it would have trains fro. So is this being (cryptically) announced too?

[Andy McDandy]

At the moment, it's faster to take the M62 between the two cities. And there's a lot of local demand for a Lime Street - Piccadilly/Oxford Road shuttle service that doesn't see you going round seemingly every suburban station.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It would be- what?- 3 trains per hour? That's not that much for something so expensive, with all the tunneling and demolition. Yet add HS2 to it and you've probably got another 2 trains per hour to London and another 2 to Birmingham. So I think HS2 might well be happening as well, which would be great.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Someone on Bluesky pointed out that this is all a bit Withnail. "We've built HS2 by mistake". But I can see why they'd choose to present it like this. Could be a masterstroke.

[Andy McDandy]

Yeah, HS2 is pretty toxic, but all these little bits of high speed that...just happen to link up...well, who could object to that?

[Tubby Isaacs]

They've also not sold back the land that's been compulsorily purchased for the bit that's been cancelled. That might be a clue too.