Andy Burnham wins "Spartan 'IF' of the year award"

Andy Burnham has said in an interview in the Daily Telegraph that

"if he becomes leader he will demand the Prime Minister sets out its in detail the Government’s legal case and evidence for Britain to start bombing Islamic State targets in Syria."

The first word of that quote is the best example of a Spartan 'If' of 2015 to date ...


(For the benefit of anyone who does not recognise the expression, Philip II of Macedon invaded Greece and received the submission of many city states, and attempted to bully Sparta into similar submission by sending the message

"If I invade Laconia you will be destroyed, never to rise again."

The Spartans replied with a single word: "If."

Neither Philip nor even his son Alexander the Great ever attempted to capture Sparta.)

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