No-deal Brexit plans put 3,500 troops on standby
Emergency no-deal Brexit contingency plans must now be implemented across government, cabinet ministers have agreed, including reserving ferry space for supplies and putting 3,500 armed forces personnel on standby to deal with any disruption.
[...] Downing Street suggested preparations could include reserving space on ferries in order to ensure a supply of food and medicines. Speaking later in the Commons, the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, said his department "will have 3,500 service personnel held at readiness, including regulars and reserves, in order to support any government department on any contingencies they may need".
Citizens will be informed how to prepare through a "range of channels" that could include TV adverts and social media. Ministers agreed to allocate money from a £2bn contingency fund to departments such as the Home Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. HMRC[*] will prepare a 100-page pack for all UK businesses on preparing for no-deal, and will send out about 80,000 emails to businesses.
[*] HMRC = Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government ... HMRC was formed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, which took effect on 18 April 2005.
The service personnel may be called upon to assist in law enforcement, so factor that in to any riot plans you may have.
See also: Now we're facing the sad reality of Brexit — troops on the streets of Britain
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BBC:
The Army has deployed "specialist equipment" to Gatwick Airport as the travel chaos caused by drone activity shows no sign of abating. Tens of thousands of passengers on several airlines have been disrupted by drones flying over the airport. In a tweet, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson had confirmed the military deployment.
He said: "The armed forces have a range of unique capabilities and this isn't something we would usually deploy but we are there to assist and do everything we can so that they are in a position to open the airport at the earliest opportunity."
Gatwick's runway has been shut since Wednesday night because devices have been repeatedly flown over the airfield.
Free insightful mods for the most creative solution.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @05:37AM (23 children)
Meanwhile (warning XSS attack):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-military-preparing-for-a-full-withdrawal-of-its-forces-from-northeastern-syria-11545225641 [wsj.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:00AM (21 children)
The UK is coming home, as the 51st state.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:05AM (20 children)
The US does NOT need OR want a turd like the UK.
The UK is a case study in what happens when an empire is poorly managed, and the downfall of the UK is imminent, despite whatever the royals or the idiots
in the UK government may spew.
Can you imagine what it's like to live in a shithole like the UK for an average person ? Street gangs are everywhere, you are forbidden by law to own pretty much
any weapons you could use to protect yourself, the weather sucks most of the year, and immigrant scum have over-run the country. Wow, what a stinking festering
mess.
(Score: 5, Informative) by isostatic on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:05AM (17 children)
> Street gangs are everywhere
No they're not
> you are forbidden by law to own pretty much any weapons you could use to protect yourself
It's the U.S. where kids get killed in their schools on a monthly basis.
Chicago (2.7 million) had 650 murders in 2017. London (8.8 million) had 116. So U.S. cities are 20 times as dangerous
> the weather sucks most of the year
Yup
> immigrant scum have over-run the country
87% of people in the UK were born in the UK, same level as the U.S.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:34AM (5 children)
> > the weather sucks most of the year
> Yup
Hey, I like rain.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:47AM (4 children)
Rain is fine, but it's the continuous overcast and drizzle that's depressing. The Brits have 432 words for rain, all of them are pitiful compared with real weather like monsoons or hurricanes.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday December 20 2018, @12:23PM (3 children)
You must be from the south.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday December 20 2018, @02:09PM (2 children)
Everywhere's south. Drive to Inverness and you get a sign pointing to "The North". Reach Thurso and the islanders will laugh at you. #NoTrueNorth
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Thursday December 20 2018, @03:18PM (1 child)
Oh no no no. Everything north of the river is north. Your all northerners.
(The Thames for the foreigners, "The river" means the Thames)
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Friday December 21 2018, @03:07AM
No, "The North" starts at Watford Gap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @02:26PM
Just wanted to point out that these school shootings are happening under governmental supervision.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @02:58PM (3 children)
"It's the U.S. where kids get killed in their schools on a monthly basis."
The above is a false equivalency, you stupid sack of shit.
Take your bullshit faggot arguments and shove them up your ass, if there isn't a dick already there, that is.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Webweasel on Thursday December 20 2018, @03:19PM (2 children)
Yes, he should have said weekly basis.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:31PM
Nearly 40,000 People Died From Guns in U.S. Last Year, Highest in 50 Years [nytimes.com]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday December 21 2018, @09:28AM
On average there’s a school shooting every 8 school days, or about every 2 weeks
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @03:05PM (1 child)
"No they're not"
You're full of shit, you cock-gobbling piece of subhuman waste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:22PM
What?
Yes, but I came here for an argument!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday December 20 2018, @04:54PM (3 children)
Please note that Chicago has strict gun laws, so pointing at them as a bastion of free toting gun lovers is a really bad example. Criminals are going to be criminals. Taking away guns from the populace isn't going to protect the populace.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:46PM
Please note that Chicago has strict gun laws
I live in Chicago.
Chicago had strict gun laws, and they had a degree of effectiveness, however imperfect. Now even those modest restrictions have been undone by the state supreme court. As a result, Chicago must now allow conceal-carry, possession, etc. The only thing they can restrict are the permits to open a gun shop, which they do, but because the city is surrounded by Republican suburbs with stupid (read: no) gun restrictions, all kinds of shops are built on the periphery of the city that specialize in selling guns to Chicago gangs and others.
Chicago's gun laws aren't the problem. The problem is the rest of the state, and the surround Trumptardian states that are even worse.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday December 22 2018, @09:20AM (1 child)
Fine, Memphis has 196 murders in 650k population, also about 20 times higher than London.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 31 2018, @04:17PM
Criminals will be criminals:
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2018/11/28/memphis-gun-violence-acting-attorney-general-matthew-whitaker/2136883002/ [commercialappeal.com]
Interesting thing from the article:
So, it's trending downward for some reason since Trump's election.
Another thing to note is that Memphis / Tennessee has been part of the opioid crisis that's plagued the northern part of the USA for sometime now.
http://thememphiseconomy.com/news/2017/4/27/the-tennessee-opioid-epidemic-by-the-numbers [thememphiseconomy.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Webweasel on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:37AM
As a person from the UK:
Ah ha ha ha, that's pretty funny.
Oh wait... Your serious?
Let me laugh harder!
AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday December 20 2018, @05:06PM
Maybe, try reading a little less "news" from "news sources" ? The job of news outlets hasn't been reporting "real news" for quite some time. It's been making sure that people are watching, so Sex, Violence, and Money. Those are the things news agencies are peddling nowadays. They're not reporting "the news," they are reporting "the news that sells." It's always been that way to some extent, but it seems like news has only gone down the toilet every year I've been alive. To the point that, I don't watch the news.
Reasons I don't watch the news:
#1 They promote violence.
#2 They blow things out of proportion.
#3 Commercials, Commercials, Commercials.
#4 It's much easier, less time consuming, and more informative to skim 10 articles than to watch the news for the same 10 stories.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:00AM
Kinda had to. Turkey is massing troops on the border against the Kurds, which we were arming. Don't wanna get caught in that crossfire. Plus we sold a bunch of patriot missiles to Turkey. Don't wanna jeopardize that three and a half bil...
As for the "hard" brexit. I wanna see what happens in Ireland. Will they have to build a *Wall*?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:00AM (8 children)
It's all just an excuse so martial law can be declared and the last illusion of freedom will be stripped away.
Welcome, my son, to the machine.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:34AM (5 children)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday December 20 2018, @08:55AM (4 children)
While this whole Brexit mess might not be planned or well orchestrated I would remind readers of the old adage:
"Never let a good crisis go to waste"
And as to how much damage a bunch of incompetent leaders can do to a country's freedoms just look at the mess Bush jr and company made of the USA after Sept. 11, 2001.
I for one have my fingers crossed that it all just blows over with a big "meh" like Y2K and everyone wakes up the next day asking what was everyone going on about.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by isostatic on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:58AM (2 children)
I for one have my fingers crossed that it all just blows over with a big "meh" like Y2K
10 years of work to mittigate the problems of Y2K worked (mostly), and people say "bah it was all project fear"
Andy: Lets use this gokart to go downhill to the ravine really fast
Bob: We won't be able to stop, this will end badly
Andy: Bah, project fear
*Bob installs breaks*
*They set off*
Andy: Wheee
*Bob applies breaks*
*they stop*
Andy: That was fun, see you were wrong complaining about not being able to stop!
Bob: ....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @09:16PM
Let's, not "lets".
Brakes, not "breaks".
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday December 22 2018, @09:18PM
Actually it was 15+ years of effort, I know programmers who were working on it in the early 1980's. The Y2K bug was know long before everyone else outside the IT community heard about it. And yes, that Y2K was a "meh" was the result of a lot of work by the tech community that the general public also never heard about.
I choose Y2K because everyone knows that it went from lots of fear mongering and hype to a "meh", the exact reasons why it wasn't an Apocalypse are not relevant to my hope that Brexit will also turn out to be a "meh" like Y2K despite all the hype of rioting and such, Hell's, some people also thought that there would be riots and chaos after Obama was elected. And yet the day after the event everyone woke up to a new world and asked themselves "what was all that about?"
Perhaps better choice would have been to have used the 1910 flyby of Hailey's Comet. Lots of hype in the press about end of the world, etc. that ended up being a major "meh" that had nothing to do with effort on any ones part. But I suspect that most people don't know about the stir that it caused.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:58AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Thursday December 20 2018, @09:57PM
Who in their right mind would willingly vote in favor of everything going to shit like this?
Oh that's right... the people.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday December 21 2018, @02:41PM
What "illusion of freedom"? Last time I was in London I could have sworn I'd walked right into a freakin' Orwell novel. Nowhere in the entire damn city without a group of cops in sight and loudspeakers blaring instructions 24 goddamn hours a day and literally DOZENS of cameras watching you at every moment...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:17AM (5 children)
I'm dubious about the riot quality. Brits used to be able to riot pretty good back in the day. Today though? Who knows?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Thursday December 20 2018, @08:38AM (2 children)
Oh yeah, as this clip [youtube.com] ably shows.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:20AM
Ah, the young ones....
https://youtu.be/-ocngVQ4XaE [youtu.be]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:20AM
Well it does lend a bit of hope but it's also from 1995, so...
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:17AM (1 child)
British millennials don't riot very well. Half of them are on Twitter complaining that someone should do something. The other half are on Instagram complaining that they can't get on Twitter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @08:21PM
... but boy can they flash-mob.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:13AM (3 children)
So we will have a whole bunch of squaddies at the ready to check all imports and exports comply with WTO rules.
Unfortunately, since no one yet knows how to perform said checks, and the necessary paperwork/software does not exist, this strategy is somewhat doomed.
--
We are doomed, I tell you. Doomed!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:55AM
The squaddies are to prevent fights breaking out in the line to collect your medicine rations
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Webweasel on Thursday December 20 2018, @11:41AM (1 child)
I have a relation with a customs officer.
There orders are: On March 29th 2019, its tools down. Only check for immigrants, weapons and drugs. NOTHING will be stopped at the border, everything will be allowed through.
They have been told that this is so if there is any disruption, the UK gov can point at the EU and say it's all their fault.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 20 2018, @06:35PM
Ah, the old "shit the bed then blame the housekeeper" bit, classic!
(Score: 1) by clive_p on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:06AM (2 children)
And as the first phase of this: they've closed London Gatwick Airport for the last 12 hours (ostensibly because drones have been seen in the area, but it's hard to take that as an excuse). Which other airports will be next?
(Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:40AM (1 child)
Finally a raison d'etre for the Oxford University Boat Club.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @12:17PM
"Finally a raison d'etre"
Mmmmmm, raisons.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:55AM
Reminds me of that Obama era government shutdown where they closed parks that were nothing more than sidewalks with trees. Got to make it look bad somehow.