The impossible has happened - Trump has made me a Keir Starmer supporter!

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

'This is not the age of churchill'

Thank God. Fucking orange twat.

But it WOULD have been capable eventually possibly soon and then be like North Korea but much worse (no having non expansionist policies)

The RAF will not be actively shooting down missiles or drones launched by Iran against our airbases because quite simply it doesn't have any equipment or capabilities to do so.

Instead it will have to rely on HMS Dragon which is currently sat in a dry dock, will
firstly need to be replenished and will then have to make its way down to Cyprus.

If the RAF need to rely on the Royal Navy for air defence, what do they do about airbases that are inland?

You don’t know that. Iran has been getting weaker and weaker not stronger! The regime was on the brink of collapse on its own.
You can’t just launch an attack on someone based on what they might one day do.
If Trump really wanted what was best for Iran and global security long term he should have waited until there was a clear plan and a credible and organised opposition to the regime who were ready to take over. Instead they have beheaded the monster which is likely to regrow many heads and be even more destructive that its predecessor.

@Ihavelostthegame "Iran was at the negotiating table for gods sake!"

So please tell us what they wished to negotiate?

Whether to erase Israel from the map tomorrow or next month?

That regime has been murdering its own citizens since 1979, so most people wouldn't trust them if they said the earth was round.

Funnily enough a lot of people think the same about the presidential succession, especially if it is triggered by a death in office.

My understanding was that we have fighter jets in the area capable of shooting down drones and missiles in the region?

We might not be able to do so from the ground but the aircraft presumably can?

I don't know who or what that is. 'Many people' and ' numbers don't mean everything' seems a contradictory statement,

The US seems to have been completely taken by surprise by Iran's retaliatory attacks on third countries.

Trump has repeatedly said he's amazed at them.

OK Trump saying it doesn't mean very much, but we can see by US actions the US weren't expecting such attacks. They pulled out non-essential embassy staff from Lebanon and Israel in late February, and told their citizens to leave Iran, but it's only today that they have ordered non-essential staff out of UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan.

The UK also pulled staff out of Iran and advised against travel there in late February, too, but I don't think there were travel advisories against going to the rest of the Gulf states (never mind Cyprus!), unless I've missed something. (I might have.)

The drone attacks don't seem to have been foreseen at all.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-pulling-non-essential-staff-embassy-beirut-amid-iran-tensions-2026-02-23/

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-diplomatic-staff-withdrawn-from-iran-as-us-considers-strike/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-orders-non-emergency-staff-leave-bahrain-iraq-jordan-2026-03-03/

[editted to tidy]

I hate Trump and I'm sorry to have to correct you but Trump put the bust of Churchill back into the Oval Office. Either Obama or Biden removed it.

You said it first! 👏

We’ve already established that I can’t keep track of it because it’s come and gone so many times! 😂

I'm dizzy 😜

And Churchill wasn't a good egg either. So there is that.

Me too!

Nope - the fighter jets are too fast for slow moving drones and too slow for fast moving missiles.

You need an integrated anti missile system like Iron Dome to stop missiles and drones.

I think the area where Trump has been most foolish and shortsighted has been in alienating allies in international relations. He likes to throw his weight around and make like he has no need of allies, but the fact is that nations, even the US, will need international relationships. And he has done this for really no good reason, he could easily have kept things more civil.

So now he is struggling to find friends when he needs them, and it's his own fault. And it's very appealing when your leader stands up to someone who acts that way - Justin Trudeau, my PM, ran with that to bolster his popularity for a few years with some success.

However, that doesn't mean that refusing the Americans is pragmatically the best idea. Not just in terms of what they might do - it does not mean that what they are asking is wrong.

I think that Starmer may have made the wrong choice here, perhaps thinking of Blair's error, or perhaps appeasing factions in his own party. But this is not the same situation and has to be judged on its own merits. As a Canadian, I don't love everything about Mark Carney, but I do rate his higher than Starmer in terms of political nous and pragmatism and insight, and I think his response on this has been more sensible.

Ok I didn’t realise that. It does seem odd that we don’t have any Naval assets in the area. Where the hell are they? It’s been an open secret that the US were planning something on Iran. Surely we should have had something there for if/when things kicked off.

But two out of the three drones aimed at Akrotiri were intercepted.

Footage published today of UK F-35 shooting down a drone over Jordan. Same article says a Typhoon took one down heading for Qatar.

It's a quote from the Churchill Papers. His words, further qualified but still his words.

Just moving troops threatens the financial markets.

HMS Dragon is currently just about to leave dry dock in Portsmouth.

@1dayatatime this seems to contradict you. It seems our jets are capable of shooting down drones

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g74npdwnyo

@maudelovesharold Can’t help thinking this is splitting hairs. I wish our ‘lack of co-operation’ was as unequivocal as Spain’s.
I was lamenting that Keir had not made a simple speech like Spain did. I was criticised. I was really thinking of Mark Carney at Davos.
Starmer has still hardly mentioned Israel in this. It is Netanyahu who is the leader of this.

Whilst it's certainly possible, shooting drones down with a fighter jet is more difficult and more expensive than using a proper anti missile/ anti
drone system ( which is equally much more expensive than the cost of an actual drone!)