this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
111 points (97.4% liked)

UK Politics

4037 readers
127 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The Metropolitan Police is trialling new ‘Sandcat’ armoured vehicles across London – which are manufactured by Israeli armoured vehicle company Plasan. For more than thirty years, Plasan has supplied these systems to the Israeli military, including around seven hundred ‘Sandcats’ since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

A Met spokesperson said the eighteen vehicles it has bought from Plasan will be used to suppress ‘serious public disorder’ and will replace its fleet of ‘Jankel’ armoured cars, according to reports in The New Arab.

Israeli arms companies frequently use the deployment of their weapons in Gaza as a sales tool, boasting that they are ‘battle tested’ after being used against Palestinians.

top 20 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is nice how the genocide stuff gets imported back home to surpress the local population after "testing" it on Palestinians.

Really makes you feel like those tax dollars/pounds spent on Israel meant something.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

That is exactly how I felt when the MRAPs were handed out like candy to US police departments after generals in Iraq and Afghanistan had no further use for them.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (4 children)

This, in no way, looks like a vehicle that could offer anything but hindrance, difficulty, and cost to the job, being quite ineffective at most things required of it. It is designed with a purpose in mind and it wasn't the streets of London.

[–] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That may be true, but even worse, America shows: When you put war equipment on the streets, they'll use it to wage war. The tools may not be the root of the problem, but they will supercharge a dehumanizing "us versus them" mindset of police.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well yeah but they fucked up the moment they gave every cop a gun. That’s not a factor with the situations these vehicles will be used for. American policing is not comparable.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

People will refer to these as "tanks" especially when a weapon is mounted on them but they are not, they are correctly referred to as MRAPs.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine-Resistant_Ambush_Protected_Vehicle

You are right, MRAPs are for counter insurgency conflicts and for the love of whatever god you do or don't worship please don't let police institutions anywhere near war, what you will get is a genocide disguised as a war (turns gaze straight at the IDF with a Gorgon Stare).

Good news though! A common complaint from warfighters is that MRAPs are inherently tall (to direct mine blasts away) and thus easily tipped over and they are heavy af and probably super annoying to pull back upright so take from that what you will UK citizens.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ineffective? It’s there to block streets and deliver riot police to an area. Looks like it’ll tick both boxes.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Most things this vehicle has been designed for cannot be found in London and most challenges London has for vehicles cannot be overcome by such a design. They're incompatible; all the way down to visibility, agility of the chassis, vulnerability to liquid explosives on hard ground and panels, to even basics like the turning circle.

Is it great in softer, non-urban, open, and wider terrain? Yes. Is London any of these things? Definitely not.

There are vehicles for the job that would make the desired impact. This is definitely not one of them.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's replacing these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_vehicles_in_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Met_Police_Ford_F450s_in_Westminster,_London_(33520764841).jpg

Metropolitan Police Jankel Guardians engaged on an operation. These are utilised by public order and armed officers for high-profile operations and airport patrols.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 7 points 1 month ago

Fascists gonna fasc

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A new way to fund the Israeli genocide, neat.

[–] Chump@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

Hang glider unproofed

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

.....I had a sudden mental image of a fleet of black cabs skidding in sideways and riot police on horses pouring out, but their first card declined so they mill about digging through their wallets trying to pay the cabbies

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Just remember to never get out of them.

[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Ouch, I've been hit in the head by something wooden and traveling in an arc!

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Why not the Land Rover Tangi, or OVIK Pangolin? It works well in Northern Ireland

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Tangi was an interim measure that somehow lasted almost 40 years. It’s very much out of date however. The company behind the Pangolin went bust in 2020. In any case, Land Rover stopped making Defenders a decade ago, and only make luxury vehicles now.