Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

UK Parliament is to be recalled on Thursday to discuss response to alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.

No surprise here ! - Tony Blair: military intervention in Syria vital to prevent 'breeding ground for extremism'

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has backed a military strike on the Syrian regime, saying international action is required to prevent the country from becoming a “breeding ground for extremism”.

It is not really clear who is fundamentalist or extreme here. Syrian regime or the oppositions - they consist of so many small groups, apparently one of them is proud of eating human organs while the person is alive.

i still find russia's stance, or at least its public one, to be totally baffling

we all know about the russian naval base in syria and also, of course, russia's wish to keep a stranglehold on gas supplies, but even so

Syria is Russia's only sphere of influence in the ME.

that is true, but nevertheless i wonder if the public face matches with the diplomatic one

what does the board think would be "appropriate action" against syria (assad)?

Assad should be culled along withe the badgers.

leaving aside the legality issue, what do you think would be the effect of such a move?

Defence secretary has said American forces are ready to launch strikes. Obama has indicated that there will be a response within a few days.

and????

Saudi and the Arab League have come out for a strike.

where did you spot that?
is that a unanimous call from AL (bet it's not) and a strike at what level?

i'm not a great jamie oliver fan, but here, he hits the nail on the head .....

Jamie Oliver has said he struggles to talk about modern poverty after seeing families living on junk food but spending money on enormous televisions.

i took up this cudgel myself on this board a few months back and got rubbished as expected by "pre-packed, frozen fishfinger"

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further down the jo article, i also came across this piece of absolute nonsense .....

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) insisted low income could be a barrier to healthy eating ..... they spent more on healthy food if their incomes rose.

the true fact is that "poor" families in the uk will not moderate their eating habits one iota given a higher income .... indeed, to my mind, it's a complete contradiction

The Arab League said on Tuesday that those behind the chemical attack in Syria should face international justice, and called on U.N. Security Council members to overcome their differences and take action to end the killing there.

and where are the signs of ACTION from the arab league itself?
as usual, there are none, for they (saudi et al) would much rather others got their hands dirty

The Arab League are as bad as the UN. It is always too little and too late.

i would expect little more to happen than some well-targetted air strikes, but quite what that will achieve is another matter ..... all it will effectively be is a slap on the wrist, though i really do not see what else can be done without getting stupid

If they are going to strike then it has to be something important to Assad such as command and control or planes on the ground.

Air strikes well-targetted cynic - you mean as well-targetted as during the war with Iraq when many innocent people and children were murdered and Baghdad was reduced to rubble.

air strikes are never going to 100% accurate, but then nor are they necessarily as inaccurate as portrayed by those targetted

and if you don't like that idea, what do you propose?

I think this country should stay out of it, full stop. If the gung-ho USA want to start throwing their weight around, yet again, then let them get on with it. I don't know why our small country needs to get involved in all these conflicts, it is utter madness in my view, a total waste of lives and money. Could anyone explain to me, at the end of the day, what does it all achieve ? You have Robert Mugabe, on the other hand, getting away with murder and what has been done about his antics - absolutely nothing.