That’s a polite way to describe Mrs May’s response to the series of murders committed by Putin’s thugs on British soil.
A couple of hours earlier I wrote I hoped against hope that the measures she would take would be appropriately punitive. I was right about the ‘against hope’ bit.
Here’s how we’ll respond to the WMD attack on Britain:
Expelling 23 diplomats
Big deal. They’ll just send in 23 more spies.
Increasing checks on private flights, customs and freight
For what exactly? A gram of powder? Good luck.
Freezing Russian state assets where there is evidence they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents
Define Russian state assets. Is it just those listed as such? That’s either being ignorant or hoping we are.
Russian ‘oligarchs’ are only leaseholders of their assets, with the government owning the freehold. Putin can draw on their capital at any time, as he did, for example, by making Abramovich foot much of the bill for Vlad’s previous propaganda coup, the Sochi Olympics.
Ministers and the royal family boycotting the World Cup
I can just see Vlad trembling. His propaganda coup just won’t be the same without 10 seconds’ worth of Boris Johnson footage
Suspending all planned high-level bilateral contacts between the UK and Russia
Now that’s scary. They kill British subjects; we aren’t going to talk to them for a while. How will Putin survive without being able to peek down Mrs May’s décolleté?
Plans to consider new laws to increase defences against “hostile state activity”
Plans. To consider. So first we’ll make plans to consider, then we’ll do a bit of considering – and then what? Oh back to normal, of course.
Advice to Vlad: just try not to have a go at Her Majesty. Anything short of that you’ll get away with.
Vlad is laughing. And we should brace ourselves for more murders.
The “balanced” response will be interesting? Expel a few Britt’s, check U.K. planes for poisons, boycott an art exhibition, freeze U.K assets…
I have read a similar criticism of Mrs May’s response elsewhere but was left not knowing what would be better. Do you have any bright ideas as to what the UK’s reaction should be?
I think that just criticising without proposing a better response is inadequate. I need some help so please humour me.
“Expelling 23 diplomats”
Expel twenty-three Russians and the Russian will expel twenty-three English. Among those twenty-three Russians suspect a lot of GRU and SVR?