Mark Nicol

Defence and Diplomacy Editor at The Daily Mail. books (ages ago) Ultimate Risk, Last Round, Condor Blues & IraqTribute. geriatric triathlete. Husband. Dad

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

@US_EUCOM @DeptofWar @NATO By ‘right size’ you mean downsize presumably.

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

Well said @Mr_Andrew_Fox and respect to those brave enough to serve the public in a capacity that when a mistake, and most likely an entirely honest mistake, can cost a life. Sickening point scoring and race-baiting today.

[Andrew Fox @Mr_Andrew_Fox]

Well done, you mouth-breathing cretins. And well done to all the pricks on social media who have done nothing but race-bait over this tragedy. Shameful across the board.

As a psychologist, I’ll bet you £100 this is what happened with poor Henry Nowak. Cops suffer from empathy burn out. 90% of the time they deal with nothing but scum. It doesn’t make it right, but that cynicism will have come into play, here.

They get a 999 call saying, “A Sikh has been attacked.” They arrive at the scene, there’s a Sikh saying he’s been attacked and someone (Henry) acting strangely. The weapon has been hidden. They will have immediately thought ‘drink or drugs’, and they see no obvious wounds. The murderer laid on exactly the scene the police would have expected to see, had the complaint been genuine.

These are pure human confirmation and anchoring biases at play: the cops saw what they expected to see from the info they had going into the situation. They were tricked. Humans make mistakes.

Where the cops royally fucked up was not following normal procedures when someone says they have been stabbed, and checking them all over including skin. They should lose their jobs over that negligence alone and for allowing their biases to override their training.

I guarantee you “I can’t breathe” inadvertently made things worse as that’s what every single scumbag says when they get arrested, since George Floyd.

This absolute tragedy is a sad combination of confirmation and anchoring biases, excessive cynicism, and a criminal failure to follow correct procedures, not to mention a lying, murdering piece of shit and his piece of shit family doing everything they could to confuse the police and muddy the waters. It has nothing to do with diversity.

Henry Nowak should not have died at all, but he would have died whatever the police did. However, in these circumstances he should have died with someone holding his hand, trying to save him, and telling him it would be ok, not in handcuffs being read his rights. The police officers who made this dreadful error should lose their jobs and will have to live with that for the rest of their days.

Final point: well done to the Hants Police detectives who shredded the murderer’s story and secured a conviction.

[Biteback Publishing @BitebackPub]

Looking for an unflinching account of UK Special Forces operations in Afghanistan?

@MarkNicolDM's Blades explores the investigations and government decisions behind one of the war’s most controversial chapters.

Coming soon, pre-order now: https://t.co/nHBrVTzFVh

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

Sickening ‘Crazy Ivan’ behaviour by Russian pilots passing a mere six metres from a RAF Rvet Joint in dramatic Black Sea incident https://t.co/X9DxL6hHpK

[Boring Milner @BoringMilner]

Life comes at you fast.

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

https://t.co/ssRS5iganw

[Joe Puddifoot @jpuddifoot]

Do you know who I feel most sorry for in the #spygate drama?

The half and half scarf sellers.

At this rate they’ll be selling third, third, third scarves.

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

Amazing. Bronze medalist in the 400h beats the Gold medalist in the 400 flat. Army bloke too.

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

https://t.co/lZiMfUlImP

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

What. A. Backstory. Wes Streeting in his own words: ‘Nan gave birth in handcuffs’

https://t.co/X1PrFLpHfC

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

@TrumpDailyPosts Or they’ve identified his vulnerability to flattery.

[Craig Hope @CraigHope_DM]

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Here is the BOMBSHELL picture of Southampton analyst hiding behind tree & using phone to spy on Middlesbrough!

🔍 Our Spygate investigation reveals strong links of intern to Tonda Eckert & bank card payment trail!

👇 FULL STORY 👇

https://t.co/fjS5mh4adO

[League of Nations @britinfluence]

BREXIT AT 10: EU 3–0 UK.

Richer or poorer since Brexit?
Look at this:

Britain was ahead of the EU on spending power per person in 2012. 
By 2024, it was behind. 
That is the Brexit-at-10 reversal. 

Read today’s match report: https://t.co/k1SyBdxeGE

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Reports today that the Royal Navy — you know, the one that ruled the waves — now down to five frigates. Some of which already have commitments. So we cannot provide a carrier fleet for our aircraft carriers, who have their own problems. A national disgrace in which Tory, Labour and even the pathetic Lib Dems are complicit.

[Modern Royal Navy @ModernNavy]

@Law123John Royal Navy major combatants status as produced by @TBrit90. In 2016 the Defence Committee said 19 frigates and destroyers was a "dangerous and an historic low". Through Government and MoD failures, we have reached 11. The Asute-class availability is similarily a national scandal

[Kristina Wemyss @kristinawemyss]

'What’s terrifying is the pace of change and what our adversaries are demonstrating. Britain needs to stay on the front foot.’

I watched an AI-powered drone swarm last week, the first of its kind in the UK. Read all about the latest technology here 👇🏻

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

And still we don’t lift to 3% of GDP on defence. Should be a baseline. https://t.co/GWyP10NavE

[Richard Williams @williams_rje]

The @UKLabour Defence Secretary affirms in his ‘snappy’ little corporate PR video what Orwell meant when he said “Political Language is designed to… give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”

Has he forgotten that the Country is still waiting for the Treasury to agree to fund the SDR, that the Royal Navy can only deploy one ship to the Med, that the Vice Chief of Defence Staff admitted that he can only deploy 1000 troops at best to a short-notice emergency in Europe, and that his government remains determined to push through a nonsense NI Bill that will use Human Rights law to mercilessly persecute honourable veterans into old age for political not evidential reasons.

He and other political appointees in the Defence PR/‘windbag’ department are lying….

They aren’t actually helping the defence of the Country, they are wilfully acting to weaken it and clearly believe we are all too gullible to realize it…

[Mark Nicol @MarkNicolDM]

https://t.co/dsznfKMmCa

[Richard Williams @williams_rje]

General David Petreus recognizes the mortal risk that Hermer’s misapplication of Human Rights Law to combat poses to the security of the UK now, and in a future combat environment that is dominated by robotics and automation.

Kudos to David Petreus and the Policy Exchange for highlighting to the UK’s military “chiefs” and their their nominal “masters” - Healy, Carns, Pollard the connection between this HRA-enabled lawfare (embedded within the deeply flawed NI Troubles Bill) and combat effectiveness.

The maximalist, misapplication of Human Rights Law in this way is a virus, injected into the body of UK Defence in 1998, and has been rotting its war-fighting or combat ethos ever since…

https://t.co/SzGiPyGrjZ