![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
About the Bush UK visit:
Mr Bush will also be protected by hundreds of armed guards from the US... They will not be granted diplomatic immunity, and will face courts if they shoot anybody, the Home Office has promised.
The fact that the Home Office had to make any such assurance, even the possibility that they might shoot someone, is wholly fucking ridiculous, no? Bush is entering the UK with a small bloody invasion force. You'd think the tens of thousands of people preparing to attend protests would send a "You're not welcome" message...
Mr Bush will also be protected by hundreds of armed guards from the US... They will not be granted diplomatic immunity, and will face courts if they shoot anybody, the Home Office has promised.
The fact that the Home Office had to make any such assurance, even the possibility that they might shoot someone, is wholly fucking ridiculous, no? Bush is entering the UK with a small bloody invasion force. You'd think the tens of thousands of people preparing to attend protests would send a "You're not welcome" message...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
-F
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
So if IF something similar happened in the UK it would naturally be a PR nightmare but more to the point, I would be surprised, nay utterly STUNNED if the soldiers weren't released for trial in the US. That said of course, the UK is America's only real ally in the Iraq mess and probably need to keep them sweet but I wouldn't expect that the US would see the UK as anything more than someone to justify the war (see recent steel tariffs that are bollocking the UK steel industry).
From:
no subject
And given that it's currently illegal for a civilian in the UK to posess a firearm, and that these guys aren't British citizens, nor are they members of our police and armed forces, what gives them the right to bear arms in our country anyway?
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
Not strictly true...
these guys aren't British citizens, nor are they members of our police and armed forces, what gives them the right to bear arms in our country anyway?
1968 Firearms Act, I believe; any Chief Constable can issue a temporary vistor's permit. However, it appears to be a murky area. Some countries (eg Australia) ban foreign bodyguards' firearms completely, some (eg Canada) tell them that they can't bring firearms in, but diplomatically not actually search them, others have been known to swear them in temporarily as local police.
From:
no subject
Which would suck, because then even running away to Ireland would mean I couldn't get away from my country if I had to. ;)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Not that the people of the UK are any more sympathetic towards him than the Irish. *shrugs*
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject