P.K.

I suppose it does say something about my sense of humour... In this case the civilian population are being used as "human shields". Of course, the reason this is done by Hamas is simply because they hope it might give the IDF pause. Because they know that all the IDF actions will be played out and judged in the UN and the court of western public opinion and so do the Knesset. As Hamas are totally amoral they just view it as a useful tactic to use despite any civilian casualties that their actions may cause. Because they simply view civilians as expendable. Therefore I'm not sure that “the incidental and involuntary harm caused to the civilian population during a military attack must not be excessive in relation to the direct military advantage gained” is relevant in a conflict against a terrorist insurgency who by their very nature are civilians! Also there are no formal declarations of war by the states involved, no territory to be gained or lost, no conventional military advantage to be gained and only one party can possibly be sanctioned. It seems subjective as well.

@TheTeapot I trust that first sentence wasn't directed at me? After all, I don't feel old at all... At least you're finally starting to grasp the basics that war is a very nasty, dirty, miserable business. We should never allow ourselves to go to war. Unfortunately if attacked you have no other choice but to get out there and kill the enemy.

Sticks and stones etc... Well apologist, I take it you do realise that your reactions to all of this are exactly what the Mad Mullahs in Tehran want? Forgetting all about their appallingly brutal assault on the 7th October and concentrating on bitching and moaning about the IDF carrying out their orders to wipe out a bunch of terrorist vermin. Who don't care at all about their fellow Palestinians except to be able to hide behind them. If you had your way the IDF would be brought up short which Hamas would claim as a victory. They would then regroup and reform all the while firing bigger and more accurate rockets into Israeli civilian areas. Then when they're ready rinse and repeat. Is another brutal assault on Israeli civilians really what you want? Because that's what you're asking for... Of course the bit folks forget is where Hamas, Islamic Jihad etc all give up their weapons and surrender. That would immediately stop the fighting. So why aren't you railing at them...?

What thing?

So is a swastika tattoo arrestable? Frankly I think a shouty yank laying down the law in a foreign country should be highly arrestable...!

How dreadfully naive...

I don't like getting up early!

@TheTeapot Religious fundamentalists of the worst kind ARE in power in Tehran and from there they feed Palestinians weapons and hatred. So instead of dripping and moaning about how terrible it all is, and it really is terrible, how would you solve this seemingly intractable problem...? Incidentally it was really really stupid to assault Israel on the 9th October. Because Netanyahu is a very hard right leader. After all his brother was killed by terrorist vermin freeing Israeli hostages at Entebbe. So his response was bound to be exceptionally harsh shall we say. Tehran must be delighted. Especially by the way people like you respond to what they've done...

@wrighty @TheTeapot @John Wright @HeliX So where else do you worthies think the terrorist vermin like Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad etc etc get their recruits from...? A stall in an Aldi car park or something...? We're all (hopefully) aware of the realities of the situation and it's not helpful to ignore the facts of the matter. Of course the situation is dreadful. Pretending it's not what it is won't lead to a solution in a gazillion years...

Voluntary donations to Israel are estimated at over $2bn with half coming from the US diaspora. Of course, the murderous Palestinians have no rights to a share in what the Israelis have achieved...

After the sheer brutality of the assault on the 9th Oct and with the inevitable storm of fire and metal that followed it I can assure you that a one state solution is no longer an option...

Finally you're actually forming a pragmatic view of the situation. Well done!

Useful info, thank you for doing that. Now I have to figure out why I've got the figure I have...? Oh gerfuck...!

Last time we flew back on Sleazy it was £25.99. The taxi airport to gaff was £40 made up of £31 fare, £5 airport pickup (Peel Ports wizard rip-off wheeze) and tip ie more than the air fare! Obviously IOMG need to milk the Racket to help paper over the cracks in their finances but fares like that are just not competitive and piss people off. Especially as we all know the boats IOM -> UK will be quite empty. If you don't believe it try booking a sailing 2 days before TT and return 3 days after. Obviously some Brain of Britain thinks they can charge TT rates for folks who want nothing whatever to do with it. Idiots...

So folks think that government should be building houses? Probably fair as they're the ones whose policies have been so poor they need around 10k more economically active folks just to balance the books. But if I had been asked if I was OK with more and more people coming over I would have said NO.

Have they? What are the numbers?

I think the lack of rentals is being viewed the wrong way. A shortage of supply drives the price up and therefore the profits.

Just planning our TT Escape. Car + 2 an eye-watering £587 return...

The BTL brigade are driving a lot of it and IOMG need to get a grip of them It's true that "control" by IOMG is inevitably the kiss of death to most things they touch because the place is essentially driven by self-interest. But housing is such a fundamental aspect of life it should concentrate what passes for their collective thinking. Hmmmm.......

NOVARA will never forgive Starmer for binning off their poster-boy Jeremy Corbyn. It's rather disconcerting when extremist views are bubbling to the surface mind...

As I live and breathe it has to be a toryboy raising his head above the parapet and trying to smear that nice Kier Starmer's party... I wonder if Degsey will get a mention? Of course, they haven't been in power for fourteen years so it's bound to be low-level local stuff if at all...

You're having a laugh! It's got the Palace of Westminster right at it's heart! Another tory MP resigned yesterday caught bang to rights. Let's hope the tories get decimated at the next election. Although historically that was one legionaire in ten. Mind you, there are still plenty of selfish greedy individuals about, Thatchers children, who will vote with their wallets and put an X in the tory box. This is despite over a million children living in poverty, an NHS in crisis, schools falling down, record levels of taxation etc etc.

As in wheely pathetic...?

The problem is the same as it's always been namely that whatever department they are handed to manage by their very nature IOM politicos will be amateurs at running it. Plus in the UK the average number of voters per constituency runs from 68,000 to 77,000 and they need to find a single talented individual to elect. Contrast that to Mannin where you have to find 24 talented individuals from just 64,000 voters. Some of which are aged 16 to 18 and are only interested in smartphones and likes, roller-skate cars and less geography homework. That's the reality of Tynwald. Let's leave what motivates these people for another day...

Well, before their assault Hamas were planning it and their longterm aim of the destruction of Israel and the Israelis were looking at beefing up their "Iron Dome" air defence system against all the rockets fired at Israel every night by the Palestinians all knowing that it could probably be overwhelmed. Which it was. Well, you got the "enclaves and exclusions not working" bit right so you concur that Gaza is a road to nowhere and needs to be dealt with going forward. Progress of a sort I suppose...