Deaths in Afghanistan

MOD: Reports that two UK Soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, the Soldiers were from the "The Royal Dragoon Guards and the 1st Battalion Scots Guards ". Thus since 2001 the UK has lost 324 of its Armed Forces Personnel in Afghanistan, of that total it has lost 285 in combat operations and 39 due to illness, accidents and other incidents.

Iraq War " illegal " - Nick Clegg

Guardian: Reports on the remarks by the DPM Nick Clegg that the War in Iraq was illegal while he was standing in for PM Cameron at PMQs. As the article notes 10 Downing Street has stated that this is not the view of the Coalition Government, just the personal view of Nick Clegg the DPM of the Coalition. This might look like a mistaken comment but it helps Nick Clegg with his own Party. It shows that the Lib Dems have not been taken over by the Conservative Party, lets face it the Iraq War was not that popular with the UK voter. One can postulate that Cameron and Clegg have a common view on Afghanistan and Iraq but that the Conservative leader cant state such left wing views due to the right wing of the Conservative Party. Also Iraq is down to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, helps the Coalition to divert attention back on the major mistake of Labour while in power. Spin within Spin folks.

Hollow US sanctions against North Korea

Fox News: Reports that the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has placed even more sanctions on North Korea. The aim of these sanctions is to prevent the development of the nuclear programme of North Korea by hitting its funding. Folks its simple, North Korea is a nuclear armed power, without its nuclear bombs and its short range missiles who would care about North Korea if they didn’t have the bomb, they are experts at poker, they have rolled every President since Bill Clinton when it comes to their nuclear ability. At the end of the day the West will have to make a deal that is not great for the West, it will have to feed the people of North Korea, it will have accept the fact that North Korea is never going to give up its nuclear programme, the only deal that can be gotten is that North Korea does not sell the technology to Iran, as it sold it to Syria. The US cant launch a military strike on North Korea as its million man army will walk within a second in to South Korean Capital. Also China will not allow North Korea to fall apart, it does not need the millions of North Korean flooding its border. In essence a draw folks, and no one is happy.

Gordon Brown and the Polls

Guardian: An interesting blog post on Gordon Brown’s pollster in the guardian, on how Gordon Brown dealt with poll findings. In essence any aspiring politician should do the reverse of Gordon Brown, but it does have an interesting comment on Labour supporters in the 1980s, it seems they were “… all a bit weird…” As a life long Conservative supporter it did not take a pollster to tell me that Labour voters and supporters had the above profile, they elected Mr Foot as leader, he lead the Party to its worse election result in living memory. I would have replaced weird with out and out nuts, in need of prozac.

DP Clegg at PMQs

Telegraph: Nick Clegg the Deputy PM in the Coalition Government stands in at Prime Minister Questions while PM Cameron is in Washington D.C. A Telegraph review gives the thumps up to Mr Clegg. Mr Clegg does have polish in the House and is a safe pair of hands, on the whole good first stand in, Mr Clegg should be expected to be hated by the Labour Party. The political future for Mr Clegg is with the Coalition Government and the Conservative Party, the Labour Party will never do a deal with Mr Clegg as leader of the Lib Dems, thus a great political gambit by Mr Cameron, he has tied in the Lib Dems and even more important Mr Clegg needs Mr Cameron more than Cameron needs Clegg.

Conditions Based WITHDRAWAL in Afghanistan of UK Troops - 2011

BBC News: Reports on comments by the UK Coalition PM David Cameron that the UK could start to withdraw from Afghanistan next year based on conditions on the ground. Lets be honest here folks, PM Cameron wants out of Afghanistan, yes we have to keep the US happy but why should the UK lose one more soldier for a decision that has already been made to get out of Afghanistan. Lets get out next year, declare victory and leave Afghanistan to President Obama.