More Russki spies poisoned.

[Scot Dutchy]

Now they are saying that the nerve agent was "planted" on some item or part of Yulia Skripal's suitcase before she left Russia. Which seems to confirm the idea that the cop picked up his dose at the home of Skripal, not while attending the casualties. That ties in with the fact that no other cop or ambulance man or doctor got sick after treating them.
But it's a bit much that it's only coming out now, when this happened 12 days ago.
If you relied on the BBC for your information, you still wouldn't know any of this. Even though the fact that the policeman had been to the house was apparently mentioned in the daily mirror about a week ago.

I think I'm going to give up watching the BBC for my news. I can put up with the "on message" propaganda to a point, but now if they are keeping facts from the public. And I'm paying a fucking TV licence for this shit.

I never watch BBC news any more. It is so biased. So pro Brexit. Newsnight used to be very good but these days the tories are given an open goal.

[mistermack]

I never watch BBC news any more. It is so biased. So pro Brexit. Newsnight used to be very good but these days the tories are given an open goal.

You're avin a larf.

[Rum]

It is certainly true that anyone with a strong political opinion believes that the BBC is biased against that opinion. Most 'leavers' thing the BBC is biased towards remain. The Tories think the Beeb is full of liberal Lefties and the Left think it is far too establishment. Personally I think they do OK weaving their way along a difficult path.

[Strontium Dog]

Both the Litvinenko poisoning, and this affair, were blamed squarely on the Kremlin.

But in both cases, the chosen weapon was absolutely guaranteed to point the finger at Russia.
Whoever did these things KNEW that the blame would be put on Russia.
There are thousands of ways to kill someone, without leaving such clear and obvious evidence. The Russians know them all. As do the Americans, the British, the Israelis, the French, the Germans, the Poles. All government know this stuff.
They could have staged a mugging, a drive by, a suicide, or even just a mysterious disappearance.
The only logical reason to use polonium or this nerve agent is to make it unavoidable that Russia will be blamed.

As far as Russia goes, that leaves two possibilities. Either Russia did it, and wanted everyone to BELIEVE that they did it. Or someone else did it, and wanted everyone to believe that Russia did it.

itt mistermack learns how a calling card works

[JimC]

I still think it is fairly likely that this was an action by the Russian government, but there are certainly other possibilities. The British government should have taken more of a "No comment until more information comes to light" position, rather than jumping in boots and all so early in the piece...

[Rum]

I still think it is fairly likely that this was an action by the Russian government, but there are certainly other possibilities. The British government should have taken more of a "No comment until more information comes to light" position, rather than jumping in boots and all so early in the piece...

Boris Johnson is foreign secretary. He is not known for 'no comment' and is in my view very badly placed to be dealing with this kind of incendiary stuff.

[JimC]

I still think it is fairly likely that this was an action by the Russian government, but there are certainly other possibilities. The British government should have taken more of a "No comment until more information comes to light" position, rather than jumping in boots and all so early in the piece...

Boris Johnson is foreign secretary. He is not known for 'no comment' and is in my view very badly placed to be dealing with this kind of incendiary stuff.

And, from what I've seen, May herself seems to be doing a Maggie Thatcher...

[cronus]

I still think it is fairly likely that this was an action by the Russian government, but there are certainly other possibilities. The British government should have taken more of a "No comment until more information comes to light" position, rather than jumping in boots and all so early in the piece...

Boris Johnson is foreign secretary. He is not known for 'no comment' and is in my view very badly placed to be dealing with this kind of incendiary stuff.

And, from what I've seen, May herself seems to be doing a Maggie Thatcher...

Parody. She ain't exactly a chemist in her former life. Half the time that's a good thing but not today.

[Rum]

I still think it is fairly likely that this was an action by the Russian government, but there are certainly other possibilities. The British government should have taken more of a "No comment until more information comes to light" position, rather than jumping in boots and all so early in the piece...

Boris Johnson is foreign secretary. He is not known for 'no comment' and is in my view very badly placed to be dealing with this kind of incendiary stuff.

And, from what I've seen, May herself seems to be doing a Maggie Thatcher...

For what it is worth (what the fuck do I know) I think a robust approach is sensible. If indeed it was the Ruskies - my money is on it as a dead cert - they need to know it is not on. With absolutely no evidence to back it up I do wonder if some part of the Rusky system fucked up. Putin could well right now be arranging for a trainload of operatives to be on its way to Siberia. He still has to carry the can of course.

Either way Boris is too unpredictable for this sort of high wire act.

[PsychoSerenity]

I'm just reposting my conspiracy theory on the other forum here:

Ok, I'm not up to date on this story and this is pure conspiracy theory stuff after a couple glasses of wine, and in all probability I think the Russian state is by far the most likely culprit, with other groups connected to Russia as a distant second. And I don't believe for a second that our government could or would deliberately carry out any kind of false flag attack because there would be too many people that would have to know about it and they couldn't keep it quiet.

But it is a bit of a coincidence that all this happened just down the road from Porton Down.

Just consider the possibility that at Porton Down they were developing nerve agents - not to weaponise but purely for defensive/research purposes, to be able to better identify them and and protect people against them. Would we know about it?

And then consider they had a security breach, either accidental or deliberate, but let's say some Russian agent got someone on the inside to smuggle out a sample to find out what we're up to, but it all went horribly wrong because it's dangerous stuff and people got poisoned. Would our government admit to it? Admit they were developing something they shouldn't have been and they had a lapse of security? Or would they just blame the Russians and claim they were the source?

Have I watched too many episodes of The Americans? Or is this a real possibility that we just don't want to consider?

[Clinton Huxley]

Good grief. Of course it was the bloody Roosians. They're capable of anything. There's only one language they understand and that's the language of cold steel and flashing hooves and handsome, sweaty-flanked horses tightly gripped by manly cherry-red thighs in a bloody dawn.

Or, to paraphrase, the conspirationalists need a damned scalping with Occam's Razor.

[Clinton Huxley]

The only thing there is less evidence for than that the Russians poisoned that chap is ANY of the crackpot-and-another-thing-fill-me-tankard-again-bar-maid-and-a-packet-of-scampi-fries-before-I-fall-off-me-sweaty-bar-stool-conspiracy narratives expounded by the usual suspects here. Bah.

[pErvinalia]

What was he doing at their house?

[pErvinalia]

I'm just reposting my conspiracy theory on the other forum here:

Ok, I'm not up to date on this story and this is pure conspiracy theory stuff after a couple glasses of wine, and in all probability I think the Russian state is by far the most likely culprit, with other groups connected to Russia as a distant second. And I don't believe for a second that our government could or would deliberately carry out any kind of false flag attack because there would be too many people that would have to know about it and they couldn't keep it quiet.

But it is a bit of a coincidence that all this happened just down the road from Porton Down.

Just consider the possibility that at Porton Down they were developing nerve agents - not to weaponise but purely for defensive/research purposes, to be able to better identify them and and protect people against them. Would we know about it?

And then consider they had a security breach, either accidental or deliberate, but let's say some Russian agent got someone on the inside to smuggle out a sample to find out what we're up to, but it all went horribly wrong because it's dangerous stuff and people got poisoned. Would our government admit to it? Admit they were developing something they shouldn't have been and they had a lapse of security? Or would they just blame the Russians and claim they were the source?

Have I watched too many episodes of The Americans? Or is this a real possibility that we just don't want to consider?

Poor conspiracy.. no aliens or illuminati.

[PsychoSerenity]

Yar but it's centred on an unexplained coincidence and a covered up cock-up. Much more plausible and doesn't break the suspension of disbelief, and fits perfectly with the upper-class Brit being the bad guy trope.