Election Fever.

Well, 24 Hours ago Theresa May called a snap general election.

I can see why. There are many factions that see the PM as illegitimate. Because she wasn't voted into office, there's always that sneer that "she can't do that, she's not been elected to do it", despite her not changing the Tory direction by much and of course running with Brexit, something the people commanded Parliament to do through the referendum.

If the majority vote for the Tories again, it's a mandate to carry on with their style of Brexit. Not that there's any other flavour, other than giving in to every demand from the EU.

A mandate for the Tories will shut up the Lords. Those unelected bastards in the upper house that want to scupper the will of the people. Virtually every one of them a bag of vested corporate interests. If I had my way it would be illegal to be a director of any company and/or be paid by any company as an "advisor".

Finally of course, it'll shut up the stunted Scottish windbag Sturgeon (well here's hoping, she does like the sound of her own voice a bit too much unfortunately). Fingers crossed the Scottish coastal towns and cities will tell The Jimmy Krankie lookalike exactly what they think of getting their fishing rights back, only to give them away to Brussels again. (All I can say is thank feck Corbyn isn't the Labour leader in Scotland). Basically Sturgeon is a one-trick pony. Independence, independence, that's all she wants. Not that she has bugger all clue what she'd do with it if she got it anyway. She certainly has no idea of the cost to Scotland, that's for sure. But hey, I'm sure once the Barnett formula is abolished (the only thing keeping the miserable windbag in office and able to shout the odds) she'll love having to actually make her way in the world on her own. She's like the petulant daughter that you're about to kick out, just to make her realise the cost of living.

Of course this is a terrible blow for the Labour party. they are so disorganised and dysfunctional that they don't have a cat in hell's chance of winning. Hard core lefty support may surprise some people, but I think unfortunately that the majority of the Labour vote will go to the Liberals.

Despite what the Tories may think, I don't see Labour heartlands voting Tory. people there would rather slit their wrists than tick a Tory box on a voting form. Despite heavy pro-Brexit voting during the referendum, I believe that people won't think about that in the general election and will vote Liberal as a protest against wishy-washy London-centric Labour leadership.

If the election had been called just after the referendum, then the Liberals and Labour would have been in real trouble as the majority of the voting would have gone to UKIP. Months of division, skullduggery and loss of focus within UKIP means they won't pick up a fraction of the votes they got at the last election.

But UKIP's reason for existing (getting out of the EU) is an almost done deal. The only way I can see UKIP keeping votes is to stir up uncertainty about the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.  If UKIP can convince voters to vote for them and get them in a position so they can keep the Tories honest and keep Brexit on track, then they may succeed.

But despite the Liberals being anti-Brexit and against the majority of the people, I see them making gains unfortunately. I'm not sure how that will play out in the cut and thrust of Brexit. I mean, a re-invigorated pro-EU anti-democratic Liberal party might just grab enough headlines to fuck things up. Who knows?

That may be the downside of this election for Theresa May.

What Has Sweden Done to Deserve This?

What has Sweden ever done to deserve a terror attack of their very own, a number of people being killed yesterday in a truck attack?

Well, despite allowing in thousands of Islamic migrants that is.

Unless it's because of the 900 or so troops deployed to Afghanistan as part of task force 47 and the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Mazar I Sharif.

But maybe allowing thousands of migrants into your country that may feel some affiliation to those people they see as oppressed by you may not have been the smartest move.

That's despite you "only" being part of a rebuilding force.

That's despite whatever you think that Islam is a "just" religion and not also a political ideology.

In fact if you start to look at the less publicised countries involved in Afghanistan as part of ISAF, then a pattern emerges. Canada, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, Finland, and to a lesser extent Luxembourg, Romania, the list goes on.

Look at this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Security_Assistance_Force and look at the list of participating nations.

Now tell me there isn't a very strong link. Maybe someone in Afghanistan holds a grudge. Someone with the ability and money to organise and finance a large number of people. As the only major source of revenue in Afghanistan at that time was Opium, then I'd hazard a guess that's where the source of the grievance lies.

Whatever.

It's all down to lone wolves and religion.

Maybe looking at the countries that haven't had their own Islamic terror attack may shed some light on the issue. Where were't they and what weren't they involved in?

Westminster Terror Attack.

The thing about the Westminster so-called terror attack isn't that one guy off the radar actually actioned a simple plan (hire a car, buy some knives and run amok in Westminster.

It's the fact that there have been a large number of other plots that have been disrupted. We're never told how many individual plots have been stopped so we can't gauge the level of threat. I have the suspicion that if the public had better knowledge of the true number of plots being investigated and stopped, they would be calling for better protection and more positive action against those under suspicion.

As bad as the attack in Westminster is, in the great scheme of things a man with a car and a knife isn't the worst that can happen.

There are worse things in the Islamic Terrorist's arsenal that can cause more damage: a Mumbai-style co-ordinated attack by several well-armed assailants travelling up the Thames by boat into the heart of London dropping off at multiple points would be devastating, especially if the drop-off points coincided with areas of high concentrations of the public. Attacks at the O2, Excel, the Barbican, train/tube stations and tourist attractions like the London Eye and Westminster would cause untold carnage.