No-one should automatically believe the blandishments of the Government, but equally we shouldn't come out with theories that don't hold that much water like the idea this is some kind of false flag attempt to stoke war tensions with Russia. For a start, it takes away time when we could be questioning what the Government has been and is doing about what they claim.
At the end of the day all we know is that this bloke and his daughter have been reported to have been poisoned; the Putin regime does have a history of going after people like that and it isn't wildly implausible to suggest that they might have gone after this bloke as well.
'The Putin regime does have a history' so it is always going to be guilty no matter how flimsy the evidence is. Something along the lines of 'their response has been smug and sarcastic which shows how guilty Putin is' springs to mind. I have no doubt that the UK has reneged on many things in the past, in particular to do with Ireland, but it does not mean it is going to renege on all things all the time e.g the Good Friday Agreement.
'It isn't wildly implausible to suggest that they might have gone after this bloke'. It isn't wildly implausible but where is the evidence? The answer seems to be 'the Putin regime does have a history of going after people like that'. A person like that is an ex spy. I may be wrong but there seems to be an agreed protocol that ex spies that are exchanged are left alone. Like I say, I may be wrong due to a lack of evidence.
Similarly, 'a history so isn't wildly implausible'. The UK have been involved in many many false flags, throughout history, so on that reckoning the finger could be pointed in that direction. The UVF claimed that MI5 wanted them to assassinate Haughey the Irish prime minister. May be true or may not.
"Charles Haughey was told by loyalist paramilitaries 30 years ago that MI5 had ordered his assassination, declassified state papers show.
Records from his office while he was taoiseach in 1987 reveal that the UVF wrote to him to tell him that British intelligence also launched a smear campaign against him.
The loyalists claimed their organisation was used by MI5 and MI6, backed up by British army special forces, from 1972 to 1978 and again in 1985". Irish Times Fri, Dec 29, 2017, 00:01.
This may be true or it may not.
Peter Wright's Spycatcher revelations.
"Spycatcher was by no means the first by a former intelligence officer, it was well written and filled with unprecedented detail about British intelligence's activities: how MI5 "bugged and burgled" its way across London and the world". Unleashed and uncontrolled, Wright's suspicions broadened. He became convinced that Soviet penetration extended to Labour politicians, especially Harold Wilson, the new prime minister. Again, there was no real evidence, merely conjecture. Wilson had bartered secret Rolls-Royce jet engines to the Soviets in 1949 and, after many ministerial visits to Moscow, traded with the Russians on losing office in 1951. After investigating Wilson's business associates, Wright found many to have "KGB connections".
So began the "Wilson Plot": break-ins, leaks, dirty tricks and false stories planted in newspapers to discredit the Labour government and prove that the Prime Minister was a Soviet agent. The most alarming was the account that the KGB had poisoned Hugh Gaitskell to allow Wilson's succession".
"No-one should automatically believe the blandishments of the Government, but equally we shouldn't come out with theories that don't hold that much water like the idea this is some kind of false flag attempt to stoke war tensions with Russia".
'Unleashed and uncontrolled'. This may or may not be fact.
By the way 'a history so is guilty' was used by Blair in his weapons of mass destruction dossier/pronouncements, to point the finger of guilt at Hussein to stoke up a war atmosphere so as to justify invading Iraq.
"No-one should automatically believe the blandishments of the Government, but equally we shouldn't come out with theories that don't hold that much water like the idea this is some kind of false flag attempt to stoke war tensions with Russia".
Ever since Putin refused to allow the US carte blanche to get rid of Assad, 'war tensions' against Russia have been continually stoked up to fever pitch. There are those in parliament who ever since Putin backed Assad have made no secret that they wanted the world cup taken off Russia. There is growing hostility towards RT and many want it banned. So much for press freedom.
The war,war rhetoric by those in parliament against Russia, is similar to the war,war against Saddam Hussein's backed by the weapons of mass destruction dodgy dossier. Boris Johnson is absolutely certain that the smug and sarcastic Putin is responsible. That would be as certain as the £350 million per week for the NHS certainty.
