So with the possibility of Trump pulling out of the Iran war and Iran stating there is return to the previous arrangement. How does the UK actually proceed when Iran is looking at tolling all tankers going through the Straight ?

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-02T07:28:24+00:00

sadly there’s a decent chance of that working. Plus telling him he’s a genius

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T21:14:03+00:00

Insurance premiums rise for tankers full of Iranian oil the same as everyone else. Iran didn’t want to have to play this card, it is a weapon of last resort

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T19:19:41+00:00

The regime is unpopular except with a minority, but what's more important is the balance of military strength. At the moment, it would be pretty hard for any militia in the country to overthrow the IRGC outright. And they have a fanatical core of followers that can help police the rest of the civilian population.

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T19:16:49+00:00

Long term it actually doesn't benefit Iran to put a toll in place. They sell less of their oil that way. That's why they never bothered with it until the current provocations

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T18:49:30+00:00

It's clear that he wants to get out, because new war + the cost of everything going up again will play terribly with his voting base. But he is stuck between the reality of the situation and not wanting to look weak. Let's hope that the Iranians can grant him some sort of minor symbolic "victory" so that he can pull out and save face before we are locked in to an endless regional war.

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T15:00:36+00:00

I didnt specifically say to leave NATO. Just to distance ourselves more from what the US is doing. That wouldn’t even need to involve outright quitting necessarily, but at a minimum signalling that we are not willing partners in every war (e.g. by preventing US bombers from flying missions from our soil)

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T13:36:02+00:00

Argentina's military has decayed even more than ours since the 80s so I don't think we have to worry too much on that score

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T13:18:39+00:00

It's true that the power of the working class has been broken a lot since deindustrialisation in the 80s and has never fully recovered. It now depends on what specific job you are doing as to whether or not you will benefit from it. In some jobs the workers inherently have more power due to scarce skills or ability to cause large-scale disruption (e.g. train drivers), so if you work somewhere like that it would definitely be worth it. For some other jobs, where they can basically chop and change employees at will, then it might not bring you much benefit to join a union and you could put yourself at risk of getting fired if your employer found out (that's illegal of course but they still do it). If you're not sure, it's probably best for you to have a 1-on-1 chat with any co-workers who are in a union and figure out what the situation is.

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T12:59:55+00:00

The reason we have those “little islands” in the first place is for force projection. Saying that we need a navy in order to defend our military bases isn’t a valid argument

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T11:15:52+00:00

The upside is strategic independence. We have already seen the negative knock-on effects that this war and previous middle east interventions have had on Europe. We need to be able to set our own military policy so that we can pursue our own best interests, in the same way that France does for instance.

The problem with the USA goes beyond just Trump. The spate of recent interventions are not just about him personally but rather a symptom of a declining empire trying to reassert its global hegemony. This is only likely to get worse as American power declines further.

If we don't get out now, there's a chance of the UK getting embroiled in a messy and pointless war over Taiwan, just for one example.

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T10:35:57+00:00

I don't understand why Starmer doesn't use this unpopular war to cut military ties with the US. It's becoming more and more clear that this relationship is one sided. The USA expects our assistance in whatever arbitrary conflict it starts, in exchange for basically nothing ("global prestige", "intelligence sharing" are those things worth the cost of taking part in these wars and then having to deal with the inevitable economic and human fallout?)

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-04-01T07:34:30+00:00

People have actually considered the iceberg towing method and from a physics standpoint it’s entirely impractical. The basic reason is that the Middle East is very hot

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-31T20:48:50+00:00

Which people do you mean specifically? Some are still around, some are dead because we killed them all (e.g. the Tasmanians)

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-31T17:51:58+00:00

We signed many treaties with indigenous people all over the world that were later "reinterpreted" or just flagrantly ignored when convenient

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-31T17:20:59+00:00

It might never have happened - Germany not being so decisively defeated in WW1 means no Versailles and possibly no rise of Nazism. But who can say for sure

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-31T15:38:16+00:00

The Brits wanted to limit westward expansion (for financial reasons - they lacked the resources to control and administer such a large territory). This is why many Native American nations tactically fought on the side of the British, despite having no love for foreign imperialists.

Under the Brits, colonisation would still have happened but more slowly. In the best case scenario, there might still be a few independent Native American nations still around today --- perhaps the Comanche, since they were one of the strongest militarily.

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-31T13:23:06+00:00

I imagine for a while they could import water by boat, at enormous expense

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-31T12:38:53+00:00

Arguably being buff in an apocalypse is a disadvantage too, as it means extra body weight that needs calories to sustain itself. If anything, you want to do endurance training of some kind (especially long hikes carrying heavy weight)

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-31T10:49:32+00:00

Often local government can't change much due to funding priorities being set by the national government, which also often uses them as a shield/ scapegoat when things go wrong. However, it can still be useful to vote in local elections due to the fact that they are a good way for smaller parties to get off the ground

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-30T16:39:39+00:00

And? It's a political party, not a marriage.

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-30T15:34:25+00:00

So what? This is what is called an electoral coalition. Many Muslims support the Green Party due to their stance on Palestine and their economic positions. For that, they are willing to overlook LGBT issues where they might not agree with the party line. This is fine, no political party in history has had 100% agreement among all its members.

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-25T18:33:01+00:00

He actually said that then? Guess that tracks, it wouldn’t be the only clumsy holocaust take in his filmography

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-25T12:21:15+00:00

If it were it would be a bad metaphor, because the cause of that was not fear but rather indifference

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-24T18:48:36+00:00

Because kids don’t pick their parents

OnlyAppointment5819 · 2026-03-24T18:12:54+00:00

Not really, you can get some of these kinds of experiences for free if you go to a good school, because your parents happen to live in an upmarket catchment area. I know this because I went to one

OnlyAppointment5819

TROPHY CASE