Just to clarify: the military will only be enabled to replace striking civilians employed by the defence force. Im still against this, but it seems like a fair few people think they will be replacing striking civilians nationwide. This is not the case.

You just linked a picture

How are we playing both sides? My government is very vocal when it has ethical concerns, even with friendly nations as shown by our stance on palestine

I dont know if this is specifically a western values thing, over here in NZ we are in the right in both instances. Same with australia, france and a fair few other western countries. Seems to just be how closely the nations align to the US

I feel like he was being sarcastic

100% and considering the uk alone has the same defence budget as russie I think its highly unlikely putin would risk a conflict with even european nato by itself