This gives rise to my new phrase,

 

"Butt out Britain"

 

 

he's never been a statesman...although I can't find any politician out of our lot that fits the bill..shower of sh*te the lot of them. 

I watched Putin greeting Obama and Cameron, and he looks like a Bond villain, who would smile at you whilst slipping the knife in your back.  Thank goodness they are not the superpower they once were, to me he has all the makings of another Hitler.

Putin did serve in the KGB.

I belong to the small faction who, rather than encourage the rag tag bunch of rebels,  would have let Assad stay in power. Often people like Assad, as Sadman Hussein was, are the solution, and not the problem.

It's too late for that now.

I don't know a single person who wanted to attack him and Cameron has had to go along with this in a democratic way.

Meanwhile Putin is becoming a throwback. One could perhaps accept criticism from the world's civilised powers, both Scandanavian, and North European, Canada too. But backward deadwood shieght like Putin? I don't think so.

 

(I'm in a bit of a rush-but that's it in a nutshell)

And he looks it, quite chilling watching that clip.  Of course both Obama and Cameron tower above him - Napoleon complex?

Very true ...whatever the failings of Obama and Cameron I know which I would choose any day. 

UK is providing £52m to Syria in aid. The second highest of any country.

Blimey! That's over half a Christian Bale!

Couldn't agree more.

 

I think it was the rebels who were the ones who committed the chemical attack on those innocent people.

I actually think we are a prouder country for staying out of this Syrian conflict...so I don't know why the Russians are being idiots about this, they should be happy we are out.

There are no good guys only bad and worse ones in this conflict. Our business is to stay well out of it and for Cameron, Millipede et al to stop trying to create a legacy and STFU

I was watching the C4 news and one of their guests made an interesting comment that the Russians are just chippy over the fact that the UK has got over the loss of its imperial power, while they still haven't.

 

The thing is that recent events have clearly proven the Russian spokesman wrong. The whole world has paid extremely close attention to the UK over Syria, and the Commons vote has become the defining moment in the international response to the crisis - just not in the way Cameron intended...

Totally agree.

 

If the Commons vote went in favour of going into Syria by now we and the U.S would already be bombing the crap out of the place.

 

Its that we think we should bomb the arse out of a country before the UN have given a definitive decision about the use of chemical weapons that makes Russia's slap down quite satisfying 

But we didn't, and I think this thread title is disrespectful to our PM, I would always take the side of our PM over a Russian Official who insulted our country...Cameron's response was brilliant, he gave the reasons as to why we are a great country.

We missed the time slot when it would actually have made some slight sense, when the opposition was clear cut and not al-quaida (sp). Too late now.

As Vids says, the point is that "we" didn't think we should attack Syria without UN approval. And lets be under no illusions that Russia is opposed to attacking Syria out of concern for legality or humanitarianism: the reason they're opposed to UN intervention is because Syria is a long-standing ally, the site of their only Mediterranean naval base and the 7th largest customer of Russian weaponry...

I should read everything. I took it that Putin had made the comment! No matter, I suspect that whoever made the comment will be having an interview without coffee.

Putin really is a tosser - a Tory MP on twitter.

It takes one to know one!

he he, if only it were true!  The UK is the fourth largest spender on 'defence' in the world.  It actually spends more on defence than Russia.  Despite spending such a huge sum on its defence - which you'd think should guarantee it independence - it is not much more than a puppet state of the US.  Incredibly, we 'won' WW2, yet had American Air Force bases on our soil (just like West Germany - but hold on, they were the losers in the war!) and have to get American approval if we want use our nuclear weapons.

 

I think it's fair to say that the outcome of the war implied America and Russia won the war, with the UK just getting screwed over!

It was the Goverments desire to go ahead, no?

Until it was defeated in a vote.

It feels like the UK is the snotty little kid hiding behind a bully and shaking its fist at the people being kicked, saying,

"Yeah take that cos yer didn't behave"

But public opinion (as expressed through Parliament) was opposed to it, and ultimately Cameron couldn't do anything without that support. The Government may have wanted to "bomb the arse out of" Syria, but "we" (i.e. the Nation as a whole) didn't.

 

You can see the Commons vote as a defeat for Cameron (and I certainly think he handled it and the Labour ammendment very badly), but you can also see it as a victory for the UK's parliamentary democracy, and that's how many abroad have seen it too. It's not just the fact that the vote was defeated, but the act of defeating it - together with the fact that the Prime Minister has to obey the will of Parliament - that has influenced the Syrian debate around the world, American polticians opposed to intervention have been emboldened; French politicians have compared their debate to that in the UK and demanded more time; and it's put into contrast the fact that Putin isn't subjected to the same degrees of checks and balances...

And yet the Russians claim no one pays any attention to us...

very good points Eugene!  Totally agree!  As you say, our standing is heightened rather than being America's poodle.