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PaperclipPerfector  12d ago (text post)   33245 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025

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How do they do that? They can close their own airspace, but you could fly around that, no?

The theory is that because the ICJ said the islands are theirs, they could close the airspace over the islands too.

That's a theory. How would an airspace closure work in practice?

Mauritius announces the airspace is closed. The UK immediately halts all flights until Starmer is out of office. The US military has a hearty laugh and continues to fly there. The UK protests to the US. The US sends some statement from a State Department lawyer saying the terms of the US lease say they can fly. Paperwork goes back and forth until Starmer's successor confirms that the islands are the UKs and the US lease is valid.

US levies a 10% tariff on British goods. 15 minutes later, Karmer and Trump have a "productive phonecall" and Karmer does whatever Trump tells him to.

Genuinely not sure it would work. Starmer is a fanatic, he treats the Rule of Law (as he sees it) like a fundamentalist treats Jesus. I suspect he would just see it as a test of decency and dig in. Might get him thrown out of office though.

Might get him thrown out of office though.

It's an interesting possibility. "Standing up to Trump" would probably be pretty popular to the UK electorate, but things that that cause damage to the economy tend not to be. I wonder how that would play out.

Also, “standing up to Trump by insisting on our right to give away sovereign British territory and pay lots of money for the privilege” is a pretty non-central example.

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