Yes, the ease with which this attempted assassination was conducted, shows just how weak and vulnerable a diabolically divided Britain is!

Where there is plenty of jostling for the leader's mantle, but no real leader, just a few power hungry pretenders?

Most of who think that a few fiery speeches and the usual political intransigence and dividing both ends against the middle, or businesses usual!? Is all they need and are now looking like a mugged and outraged granny looking for a policeperson, who gives a continental?

Mr Putin can lie and obfuscate all he wants and is famous for? But if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and lays duck eggs. Then then in all probability, we can safely assume it's a duck. Or if you will, a successful attempted assassination attempt by those now manufacturing, stockpiling and testing this WMD!

There's a lot more the ("Crimea" a river) irresolute Poms could have and should have done! Starting with sending their nuclear armed missile firing submarines to take up station under the ice, within range of Moscow. Then applying sanctions to Putin's cronies, to put his army of rich supporters under pressure. And through them, him?

Sending massive military support to the Ukraine, men and materials etc./etc..

Let him know If he seriously wants to initiate world war three/Armageddon, Britain has the weapons and the resolve to accommodate him!

Rather like President Kennedy did over the Cuban missile crisis! Don't back down or walk away just add more men, materials an pressure!

You don't cry like a baby when the local school bully breaks your nose, but grab a shirtfront, give him a Liverpool kiss and break his! And if that sees him laying on the ground pleading for mercy? You've made your point and ended the bully boy tactics!

This sort of British Bulldog is the only one that Putin will respect! Lastly someone needs to tell that alleged man/human, he is not Russia!
Alan B.

Rubbish Alan as usual. Again the facts:

“OPCW [Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] inspectors have had full access to all known Russian chemical weapons facilities for over a decade – including those identified by the “Novichok” alleged whistleblower Mirzayanov – and last year OPCW inspectors completed the destruction of the last of 40,000 tonnes of Russian chemical weapons."

"It is a scientific impossibility for Porton Down to have been able to test for Russian novichoks if they have never possessed a Russian sample to compare them to. They can analyse a sample as conforming to a Mirzayanov formula, but as he published those to the world twenty years ago, that is no proof of Russian origin. If Porton Down can synthesise it, so can many others, not just the Russians."

"1) Porton Down has acknowledged in publications it has never seen any Russian “novichoks”. The UK government has absolutely no “fingerprint” information such as impurities that can safely attribute this substance to Russia.
2) Until now, neither Porton Down nor the world’s experts at the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were convinced “Novichoks” even exist.
3) The UK is refusing to provide a sample to the OPCW.
4) “Novichoks” were specifically designed to be able to be manufactured from common ingredients on any scientific bench. The Americans dismantled and studied the facility that allegedly developed them. It is completely untrue only the Russians could make them, if anybody can.
5) The “Novichok” programme was in Uzbekistan not in Russia. Its legacy was inherited by the Americans during their alliance with Karimov, not by the Russians."

Only the Russians had a reason for killing their traitor. Putin is certainly a man who believes in sending very strong messages like murder. Hardly rocket science.
Real problem is we allow these soy boys to waffle and wank over events relating to real people not the metrosexual tossers they mix with. We have a real problem and need a few more "tough" guys n gals to be on our side on so many issues.

Binoy,

Your second point:-
" the poisoning of traitors, defectors or the like – only makes sense if Skripal had turned a newly rotten leaf."

Putin's motive is to deter other defectors. Surely that makes sense.

The way Putin's only serious rival for election was charged with an offence and barred from running shows his coterie is a gang of thugs- a gang with the means and obvious motive.

Throwing in Cuba as a red herring is pathetic.

One group, the coterie led by Putin has both motive and means. Who else?

Or do you really believe that that gang of thugs did not retain just a little tiddy bit of that poison just in case it could come in handy

Putin doesn't strike me as that clumsy and stupid given there was no rush to off the fellow....or was there?...... but not by Putin.
The Russians asked for a sample of the toxin but were refused....why?...they'll be given a sample in due course...why not now?
Interesting how everyone wants it to be Putin....just like they wanted Iraq to have WMD's
This smells of a whole something else to do with the Arabs but not necessarily by the Arabs.
The thing about a lie is that it will eventually out...but the damage done in the meantime can be catastrophic.....and no one is ever held accountable.

The one thing that everyone can assume is that the Russians are lying, just as they did over the Malaysian airliner and the assassination of Litvinenko using an isotope of polonium.

Novichok is so deadly that even with highly secure laboratories people have died, so the suggestion that it could be cooked up in a backyard lab is ludicrous. Secondly, using Novichok to kill an ex-spy is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. As with polonium, it was certain to be discovered and to send a clear message to potential defectors.

While the UK has not sent samples to the Russians, it has sent them to independent labs for assessment.

It is clear that Binoy is a shameless apologist for a tyrant.

SM In a nutshell! Couldn't have argued I better! Absolutely agree! And your comment goes for many of the above, Putin (KBG) admirers.
Alan B.

AB,

Thanks.

I'm yet to comprehend how such an inept assassination attempt would be of benefit for the Russians.
This was done on the eve of an election and just before the hosting of an International Soccer event.

Why would they do it in such a way that points directly to them when a bullet or a hit-and-run car accident would be much more convenient and effective?

What next, a discovered selfie of an agent spraying something on Skipral's front door?

One thing I am keeping in mind is that all the "evidence" so far is verbal and coming from a government that previously had proof of Iraq's WMDs and claimed that Saddam could definitely hit the UK with a missile in 18 minutes. The subsequent suicide of Dr David Kelly whose "sexed-up" claims were used by Blair, still remains in question for many.

There is certainly an agenda involved but it's too early to draw any real conclusions about what it may be.

Rache,

The reasons for killing Skripal and Litvinenko is the same as when the mafia kills informers and leaves their bodies to be found, which is to send a message to anyone else that may think of betraying the motherland.

The Polonium and Novichok are substances that only a few governments have and kill in unmistakable ways.

You'd have to be as dumb as dog crap to believe western mainstream media narrative.

You would have to have the IQ of a squirrel to believe that the Russians had nothing to do with the assassination.

It was Alex Jones, working as an agent for the Reptilians.

...Went to make my morning coffee and found that there was no milk.
Obviously Putin did it.

My IQ is 127 and I also understand the regime change script.
It goes like this:
1. Train and coordinate civil rights groups to protest, damage public property and attack government.
2. Force the government to move against the uprising and use the 'so called' free and independent media to sell the idea that the government is acting against it's people, with the real aim to force the government to then act against that 'so called' free media.
3. Government acting against free media is now labelled a regime and the leader a dictator who is acting against his own people.

It's all a script and you fools fall for it everytime, you can't tell the difference between truth and unsubstantiated bs because the media has stopped investigative journalism and fed you a diet of nothing-burgers and dumbed you all down to a level you can't think for yourselves.
Why don't you all go on holiday to Iraq and find those non existent WMD's ya morons.
We're being prepared for war.

AC,

The word for today is PROZAC.

So who made you the daily word ambassador?
Prozac, the drug that got Man Monis started, real intelligent stuff there.
When he first came to Australia from Iran he complained of being harassed by border and customs upon entry and was soon given Prozac for mild depression... 5yrs later he was a chronic schitzophrenic, from the drugs you and the other good people here paid for.

Try a bit harder next time you goose.

The facts remain there's no evidence that links Russia to this poisoning, your trading in narrative and conjecture and demonstrating poor leaps of logic.

Also from what I understand not only can Obama's mates over at Northwestern University at Chicago make Novichuk, the can also make the antidote.
Also bet you don't know that it was US contractors that dismantled the original Soviet chemical production facilities where Novichuk was originally made.

http://ssristories.org/category/drug/prozac-fluoxetine/

http://ssristories.org/prescription-pills-are-britains-third-biggest-killer-side-effects-of-drugs-taken-for-insomnia-and-anxiety-kill-thousands-why-do-doctors-hand-them-out-like-smarties-daily-mail/

You people get mad when I say things you find unbelievable. if I said doctors were just salespeople for big pharma who are medicating us to death would I be wrong?

//if I said doctors were just salespeople for big pharma who are medicating us to death would I be wrong?//

Yes.

40 million dead doctors don't lie Toni, they are just salespeople for big pharma, its just that both they and the people they treat don't realise it.

Why do you think there's always a big box of sample packs laying around?
I think doctors are incentivised with free trips and things too.

http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Dead_Doctors_Don_t_Lie.html?id=bXuCPQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y&hl=en

Try looking up 'The Flexner Report' if you want some insight on how it came to be.

AC,

Prozac is not used for mild depression, it is used for major depression, manic depressives, OCD etc. Secondly Schizophrenia is hereditary and not a side effect of Prozac you silly toad.

Secondly, Novichuk is family of chemicals, and production from different facilities will have slightly different properties known as "fingerprints" which according to independent laboratories can be traced to the products made in Russia.

Now given that the Russians are the only ones with a motive, it is stretching the imagination to suggest that anyone else was involved.

//40 million dead doctors don't lie Toni//

Oh, so does everyone naturally live for ever if they're not subject to the meddling of big pharma, or just doctors? And how come people didn't used to live for ever before big pharma was invented?

It seems to me that if doctors are trying to poison us with medicine, our ever-increasing lifespans would suggest that they're not doing a very good job of it. In fact, they're doing such a poor job of it that they'd have more success if they just sat on their hands and let nature take its course.

//they are just salespeople for big pharma//

No they're not. Doctors work independently of pharmaceutical companies. They don't prescribe treatments on the basis of which pharmaceutical company will profit the most, they prescribe them on the basis of what is best for their patient.

That's why you won't find ethical and responsible doctors flogging unnecessary nutritional supplements; they'll just advise their patients that if they eat enough fruit and veg they won't need any pills or potions, saving said patients a lot of money.

//its just that both they and the people they treat don't realise it.//

But you're a really smart and stable genius with an IQ of 217, so you know what's really going on.

//Why do you think there's always a big box of sample packs laying around?//

There aren't in my doctor's office. Might I suggest that you stop frequenting disreputable quacks?

Silly toad? Umm... Ok whatever
Don't argue with me it was from the ACTUAL inquest, read it for yourself.

http://ssristories.org/lindt-cafe-siege-inquest-findings-the-deaths-were-not-the-fault-of-police-news-com-au/

Russia the only one with a motive?
OMG so all we've for 16mths since Trump won and Hillary said "We'll all hang by the gallows" is this fake news Russia bs...

Your completely clueless;
Hope your planning on fighting this war your supporting starting?

AC,

I am not stupid enough to be taken in by crank/conspiracy websites such as ssristories.org. If you don't want to be taken as a nutjob, try quoting reliable websites.

Given your feeble use of English, I will simply assume that you don't know better and give your rantings their due consideration.

Hi Toni,
You should stop taking everything I say literally and learn to read between the lines, I'm not saying doctors are deliberately killing their patients, nor am I saying that doctors are directly employed by pharmaceutical companies.
On the issue of anti-depressants there's no question of increased rates of suicide especially among younger people, as well as side effects of violent and irrational behaviour.
I cant deny what seems to be a push to label everything from anxiety of school exams and feeling confused and insecure about deliberately created gender issues as legitimate mental illness, that require medication.
In relation to those drugs, I think there is a case to argue that doctors are in fact wittingly harming their patients.

Shadow Minister,
Sometimes when I read a comment I have to translate it.
"I am not stupid enough to be taken in by crank/conspiracy websites such as ssristories.org. If you don't want to be taken as a nutjob, try quoting reliable websites."

How that reads to me:
"I am not intelligent enough to seek out alternative information and become better informed, nor can I discern various sources of information for myself. I'm a useful idiot that believes everything the corporate media tells me, and as such I'm not expected to be smart enough to know any better."

If you hadn't been conditioned to be petrified of 'fake news', you might've clicked the link and found that it backlinks to an original news.com.au article.
And if you were really possessed any kind wisdom worth anything you'd have gone to the government website and found the .pdf inquest to corroborate or refute what I said as actual fact.

But you're lazy, and trade in narrative and conjecture (effectively total bs) instead, and you just advertised it to everyone.

//On the issue of anti-depressants there's no question of increased rates of suicide especially among younger people//

Have you considered the possibility that people who take antidepressants have higher rates of suicide because they suffer from depression, and not because of the medication?

//I cant deny what seems to be a push to label everything from anxiety of school exams and feeling confused and insecure about deliberately created gender issues as legitimate mental illness, that require medication.//

That is a separate issue. Pathologising normal human emotions is a problem, but it doesn't mean that antidepressants aren't beneficial to those suffering from depression.

AC,

I will leave it to you to translate my words from English to Dingbat with a touch of hysterical delusion. For example, perhaps you could point to where the inquest determines that Man H Monis's paranoid delusions were due to the use of Prozac?

Secondly, the first sign of a dingbat is someone that eschews the mainstream media and medical journals in favour of a blog written by an old woman with a personal issue.

Finally, as the main issue of the murder of Skripal and his daughter is not a criminal case (yet), the requirements are reasonable proof and not proof beyond reasonable doubt, and the considered opinion is that this burden of proof has been well met.

Yes Prime Minister - Expel the Russians
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZhVaSWYcdyQ

Do you people get that you are the studio audience in a stageshow?
The worst part is I bet most of you have even seen this episode before and forgotten.

The key factual question is "Who is behind the attack?"
- Because if Russia is not behind this attack then all the political action being taken is based on a lie.

Do you understand that?

If there is not sufficient proof then the political action being taken is at best premature.
It shouldn't be happening.

Do you want to recreate the Iron Curtain and keep poking the Russian Bear like your asking for a nuclear war?
And you call me nutty?

Todays alternative media is yesterdays investigative journalism.