The British were never the same again. Forced to import ignorant bodies from it’s colonies then losing control of the sources of it’s riches, England’s intellectual and material wealth dwindled. Thanks to the cold war and momentum from colonial “agreements” Britain was kept running long enough to cut some sweet deals with some Arabs who wanted some planes.

But as the cold war wound down and the iron curtain parted to reveal a failed social and economic experiment, the UK hoped to retire gracefully to be known as that quaint but “cool” country with a millenium dome and a financial district.

Then 9/11 happened and the shit that was beginning to sediment at the bottom got all stirred up again, leaving a very bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

I was at a lecture where the main point emerged that the UK slid into the Iraq war (not kicking and screaming but with a stiff English upper lip) politely following what it accepted as the global hegemon.

The USA certainly gives the impression that there’s a John Rambo in every yellow cab who can take out whole army divisions single handedly. And if one of the Rambos got a booboo well there was always nuclear Armageddon as an option. Being able to speak English was a disadvantage for the…er…English as they swallowed the American tales hook line and sinker.

When the USA started stringing together a record of publicized defeats when facing backward insurgencies in South east Asia, Somalia and Central America and some how allowed Saudi citizens to fly passenger jets into their skyscrapers, the French and the rest of the world threw their hands up with a universal “I knew it” “let’s get back to surrendering to every streetpainter who can muster a few thugs”. Fighting futuristic wars and being capable of apocalypse is all well and good but good old fighting is too hard for an empire in love with it’s own propoganda. The UK really wanted to stay relevant and in the good graces of the nudificent emperor. So they followed along.
The second Iraq war was a wake up call for the UK: The US doesn’t know how to fight; it has awesome flashing lights and buff guys with cigarettes but those are movie effects and actors. The UK is now fleeing, as carefully as it can to it’s real friends, the ones it used to fight with for many centuries.

The relationship with it’s former rescuer/occupier has grown tense, Washington refuses to say the magic words (special relationship) and it’s adventures have been politically hurtful to the UK and it’s leaders. The advantages dwindle as well as BAE is not spared from prosecution nor is BP protected from Argentina.

British foreign policy is therefore: Protect itself from Russia via NATO; regain and retain independence from the American arsenal; strengthen ties with Europe to the point of formal joint force operations and get to the stage where the military can act efficiently in local, regional and foreign theatres.

With even Eurosceptics resigned to the seemingly inevitability of a strengthened Lisbon treaty, the UK will have to get used to its new body and ensure that it keeps it’s head in future conflicts.

Sources report that this man living in council flats!!!With a roommate!!! By the way a council flat is semi free housing that the UK gives to impoverished single mom’s and crippled/retarded citizens. Australian students are sometimes found in council flats as well.

MI6 has come a long way from gentleman spies in Aston Martins or even the lordly nobles in foreign courts. An agent is caught in his council flat for stealing from a friendly agency and selling to Israelis???? WhatWouldJamesBondDo? (WWJD?)

The starting salary for some of the more sexy roles in MI6 start at 20K but other roles…administration etc. are a good deal lower. The British government is in so much debt it wouldn’t surprise me if the secret service got a secret paycut forcing a force of men and women with a lot of data and very little money. Slipping some passports to the CIA or Mossad may seem very tempting when facing poverty.

Here are a few links for posterity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/03/hougton-mi6-secretas-flatmate-hoxton

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6221R820100303

Switzerland owes a lot of its wealth to Muslim oilmen. If even a few rich Muslims end relationships with the Swiss, then we are talking about millions of Euros in profit sucked out of the secretive Swiss banking system. This very secretive nature is how terrorists, dictators and shady politicians can transfer large amounts of money around the world without being stopped much less detected.

The West has made very strong moves to regulate this shadowy banking world.  The Swiss banking system has benefited for many decades on these transaction and cannot take too much of attacks on its system. Switzerland is under great pressure from the EU, USA and the UK (who recently winked and nodded with the Colonel) so, this seemingly asinine argument only serves to damage a system which many want to bring down anyway.

The news say that Gaddafi is being a silly ass (and he probably could be), but a conspiratorial mind could suspect that DC, Paris and London could be stroking the devil to save the righteous. Libya itself has a strong role in counter terrorism (and inevitable terrorism too) so even if the European and American intelligence agencies somehow defied precedent and didn’t dirty their hands, Gaddafi and his intelligence goons could be going renegade to bring down a genuinely bad system.

The Swiss system helped several Nazis escape to live splendidly in sunny countries and it has helped fund several bloody African and Asian coups and massacres, not to mention a lot of backhanders and corporate crimes. Even if it weren’t for the terrorist organizations that use its vaults and the silly dressed guardsmen at the Vatican the Swiss system is not as benign as they pretend to be.

Is it about minaretes? Is it about a notorious son named Hannibal? That’s what the newspapers say…and we all know what newspapers are for.