Ah ok, didn’t know that. And yeah, the numbers just don’t make sense at all! 😁

No, VAT is 20% (except maybe on a few very specific products)

Can’t speak for this specific instance of course, but in the UK you occasionally get people flying messages over football ⚽ grounds or whatever, and I have read more than once that the company doing the flying don’t actually know what message they are pulling - they just get the packaged up message and fly it where the customer asks them to.

Don’t know if that’s true, though and it’s arguable whether that absolves them completely of responsibility for the message being shown.

EDIT - that being said, the first example I found contradicts me - here, the message was known by everyone, including the pilot!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/26783751

EDIT 2 - a particularly nasty example here, where someone mentions banners not being checked. They definitely should have been.

https://news.sky.com/story/outraged-airport-bans-banner-flights-after-white-lives-matter-burnley-stunt-12013293

“Due to the nature of the activity, banners are not checked before take-off and the content is at the operator’s discretion.”

Claaaaaaaaaammmmmmmp!

Clamp!

CLAMP CLAMP CLAMP.

Wow, I think you’re right, I hadn’t even thought of that. Probably saved his life. Blimey.

Amazing. There’s a single frame in which you can actually see the missile just above the road. He was incredibly lucky.

As far as I know, American planes didn’t even get to take off from any UK bases.

And now they are to be allowed to do that. FFS.

BBC News - UK will allow US to use bases to strike Iranian missile sites, PM says https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj9g11p1ezo

Ok, but other than just making assumptions, we have no evidence that the UK did even that here.

My main point is that OP seems to think that trying defend troops already stationed in the region (whether they should be there or not) counts as being part of this attack. Which it really doesn’t. As far as I know, American planes didn’t even get to take off from any UK bases.

The UK government/military has done plenty of heinous shit over the years, not least Iraq. I’m not pretending otherwise - but on this one, so far, it doesn’t seem like they’ve really done anything.

They haven’t condemned it either, of course, but from what we know so far, it’s simply factually incorrect to say the UK joined in on this particular attack.

I think defense is part of offense

It certainly can be. But it can also just be defence - if they’re sitting there with Iranian missiles heading at them, it’s hardly surprising or unreasonable for them to try and intercept and prevent.

Those are fair questions - but neither of them make it the case that Britain “joined” this attack.

How is that joining with what the US and Israel did?

It’s protecting British personnel from any attacks that may come as a response to the US/Israel action.

But the statement explicitly says “The United Kingdom played no role in these strikes.”

Starmer is also catching criticism from the Conservatives and Reform because the UK hasn’t been involved

On the UK 's response to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel told the BBC she found it “absolutely astonishing” Sir Keir had not been more proactive in its support.

And from here

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, wrote on X: “The Prime Minister needs to change his mind on the use of our military bases and back the Americans in this vital fight against Iran!”

Meanwhile Emily Thornberry, a senior Labour MP and often critic of Starmer said:

"I am pleased to see the UK is not involved in these strikes on Iran. They are ill-advised and illegal.

https://youtu.be/kywqudj4dfs

One of them calls me Betty.

“Cartel de los Soles” is not a verifiable organization but a slang term coined by Venezuelan media in the 1990s to describe corruption among individual military officials — not a structured cartel.

Same approach as they have done with Antifa - the notion that a descriptive term can be repurposed as a (non-existant) oppositional entity is perfect for people who want to scare their followers with bogeymen.

See also the absurd misusage of “woke” to encompass anything that isn’t hateful sexism, racism, etc.

Removed by mod

Outrageous. Impeach him.

Only stupid and ill-informed Brits.

Unfortunately, that may be the majority of us.

I don’t think they were calling you the dimwit, definitely aimed at RFK I think.

This drives me up the wall, anywhere I encounter it. Bastards.