Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy.

[Workingman]

I remember a time when something like the latest incident involving Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, would have been covered by 'D' notices and kept out of the public domain, at least until what happened was know. Maybe we would be better off with a return to such times.

This latest incident has been a media blamefest based largely on conjecture and one that has forced the government into a corner and created a mini international crisis which could escalate badly. IMO it would have been much better to let the authorities carry out their investigations behind closed doors whilst at the same time keeping us up to date with what they were doing. Only when the full facts were known and the perpetrators identified should fingers have been pointed.

There are a few times when full transparency is not a good thing - this could be one.

[Kaz]

Agreed!

[cromwell]

I agree too. This is serious stuff. Everyone wants to calm down and take a step back. The most serious accusations are being thrown about which could have the most serious consequences and the press is treating it on the level of the Kardashians.

Every day a new "fact" is placed before us. The Skripals were attacked in the street; in the restaurant; in the pub; oh no the nerve agent was smeared on the door handle of the car. Today the nerve agent was inside the daughter's luggage.

I don't even know if it was the Russians. They are certainly capable of it; they killed Litvinyenko a few years ago.

But this is all too pat for me. There has been an anti-Russia campaign going on since Putin kicked out George Soros's NGO's out of Russia and since they sided with Assad a few years ago. Since then we've been told that it's all Russia's fault that Trump was elected, that the Russians meddled in the Brexit election and that it's their fault that populism is on the rise in Europe. Everything is Russia's fault and now this. I'm not buying it.

All Corbyn has asked for is proof and he's been treated like a raving Commie supporter.

It is all getting too heated for me, I don't like this at all.

[Workingman]

I am glad it is not only me.

Leaving aside the media circus I do not like the way the government has handled things - at the scene. As soon as it was known that the Skirpals had been subject to a nerve agent Salisbury should have gone into lockdown. It should not have mattered what type the nerve agent was confirmed to be. You do not mess with these things, you take them extremely seriously.

All the places the Skirpals had known to have visited should have been sealed for a forensic search for traces and, even if confirmed clear, decontaminated. Anyone who had been at those places and anyone who thought that they had been in contact with the Skirpals on the day should have been asked to go to a designated control area and to take the clothes they were wearing with them in a plastic bag. They too should have been checked for traces and decontaminated. Their clothes should have been soaked in chlorine and then incinerated at a high temp as a precaution.

IMO the government were very sloppy in the immediate stages and are now trying to catch up.

[Suff]

I agree, it was not handled well and the press is having a stupid brain dead media fest over it. Nerve Agent is not something you take lightly. Ever.

On the other hand, Russia has not helped the situation at all. The "other press" outside of the UK and the US, has been highlighting the fact that Russia internationally decommissioned its stocks of chemical weapons and it was signed off by UN weapons inspectors; they could simply have told the UK to go talk to the UN. Especially as we know how the whole Iraq thing unfolded. The fact that Russia did not makes them suspect #1.

These weapons are like Nuclear, they have signatures from their place of manufacture and the process used. That means the Government is 100% sure it is Russian Nerve agent and it can be validated from the samples taken by the UN when they certified the Russian stocks destroyed. What our government does not know is that this Nerve Agent actually came from the Russian government.

The circumstances surrounding prior Russian behaviour, a weapon only made there and a truculent Russia refusing to engage does not make a totally watertight case. Although the evidence is more than circumstantial. Russia signed off that these weapons were destroyed, that included confirming that none, anywhere, were left. At best it is a poor security issue in Russia post the Berlin Wall collapse. At worst it is what it is being called.

As for Corbyn? Round 1 he tried to use it as a political stick to beat his political rivals with. Resulting in condemnation from everyone but his closest allies in the Labour Party. His second attempt was much better but, given his first attempt, lacks sincerity. Corbyn gets a "do over".

The Government does not have that luxury and Corbyn does not have a hostile media breathing down his neck.

[Workingman]

All of that is likely true, but the rules of the game are that the Foreign Secretary of one country does not publicly name the leader of another country as "overwhelmingly likely" to be the culprit. Well, not unless they want a punch up.

That is what the idiot, Johnson, has done and it is a dangerous path to walk down.

[Suff]

Very true. But then Boris was never one to shy away from a punch up.

Here's a thought. The vast majority of Mainland Europe cannot do without the piped Gas from Russia.

It is true that the "game" of public relations is played very differently than our dear Boris wants to play it. The most interesting thing about that is the fact that everyone thinks that pussyfooting around is far better than actually telling the truth as you see it.

If the meeting with NK and USA actually has a real solid direction behind it for the better; then Trump's "in your face", antagonistic politics, may just become more of the norm. Leaving the UN out in the cold.

Our world is changing and what was once deemed "tolerable" in the name of keeping the peace may no longer make the grade. Russia is not going to attack anyone. Neither is China nor the US. The people to watch are NK, Pakistan and a whole raft of African countries.

[Suff]

The Mirror is not very impressed with Corbyn over this either.

They make a very good point.