There are wild allegations circulating about dirty Russian money in London and in U.K. politics.
U.K. law is very clear. U.K. parties cannot accept donations from overseas residents and companies. All donations with their source have to be registered. If anyone has evidence of a party breaking this rule they should send it to the police.
U.K. law is also clear about Foreigners with wealth coming to live,work and invest in the U.K. They need to meet the Home Office rules on rights to live and work here. When transferring money into the country they need to satisfy banks receiving the cash or securities that they comply with anti money laundering rules. These rules are designed to stop people depositing any proceeds of crime. This ranges widely from drugs and arms dealing money  through theft and bribery to tax avoidance. Again if anyone has evidence of a rich foreigner resident here breaking these laws they should inform the authorities.
We should not want to live in a society where it is a crime  to be rich or where any rich foreigner living legally here is automatically branded a crook.  There will be rich Russians in London who have  obeyed our laws and who oppose Putin’s thuggery. If they wish to give money to political parties they need to comply with our donation laws. Many rich settlers in the U.K. make welcome contributions by investing, creating jobs and supporting good causes. It will now be illegal to do business with Putin cronies now on the sanctions list.
(I pay for my own election leaflets and political support.)
February 28, 2022
Good morning.
All very well and good. But what about universities ? Who funds them and why ?
February 28, 2022
+1
Exactly.
The enemy that dare not be named?
February 28, 2022
Damian Green admitting that the Tory govt should not have allowed Arm Holdings to be sold abroad! Hammond claiming he inherited it!
Putin has the measure of weak woke Johnson and co.
He invited all from Hong Kong to come here without any sanction on China, he invited all from Afghanistan and gave the Taliban hundred million, allows boat people by the tens of thousands and puts them up in four star hotels, now he invites Ukrainians!! But the British people understand it will be taxed into oblivion and are happy to do so!!
Has anyone asked Truss is she not scared of people catching covid when answering her call to fight in Ukraine? How about saving the NHS from being overwhelmed from casualties by fighting the Ukraine? Oh sorry that is all that covid lies is now forgotten- govt has moved on!
March 1, 2022
Hope. Covid? What Covid?
March 1, 2022
+1
Covid – Move along. Nothing to see here.
February 28, 2022
Johnson gave a little bluster but did nothing about Chinaâs behaviour in Hong Kong or damage and death by Covid. Nor did the US. What did Putin make of it? How about Chinese investment?
Let us back to that very important demand from Johnson he wants net stupid, gender neutral and female dominated society that Johnson lauded at his crap 26 meeting not attended by China, Russia or a India! You can 9th imagine what Putin was thinking. Perhaps all he has to do is increase this woke notion within the UK to destroy our society.
February 28, 2022
Off topic. Reading yesterday how the decimation of our strategic industries carries on unabated.
Carbon certificate prices double so remaining steel industry shuts down to 30% capacity. Only 7 million tonnes produced last year .
No doubt t chalked up as a massive win by Carrie Antoinette and company.
March 1, 2022
Ian, reported yesterday we have less than 140 tanks. If true perhaps a little bit more in military and far less in welfare, net stupid and mass immigration.
This govt is way beyond incompetent.
Johnson ran away from Afghanistan. Years of telling us how the Taliban were the enemy how they oppress women et etc. then gives them ÂŁ100 of our hard earned taxes!! Putin would have noticed how weak Johnson always caves in. He would have seen his weak Brexit sell out and giving away of N.Ireland, fishing waters and cow towing to EU courts, regulations and laws. He will not and cannot remove VAT on energy because of his pathetic sell out. He lies to cover his failings.
March 1, 2022
And the Labour Party, once the self proclaimed champions of the working man, silent.
February 28, 2022
Assets can be hidden behind anonymous companies and off shore accounts.
The Panama Papers offered a few examples.
We donât even know the true identity of the owners of many British buildings. Land Registry ownership records do not always reveal much.
February 28, 2022
Due to our lax registration system, I could set up a company at Companies House in a few minutes for a few pounds. I would then be able to put money into it even if the money was made abroad and send it to the Tories if I wished as a UK company. As far as I know (and am no lawyer) JR’s defence of the system is problematic at the very least. It is not a crime to be rich but it certainly is to be poor. If I walk down to my bank today with money I have made legitimately they want to know the ins and out as the proverbial ducks rear end whilst we know that London is known as the Laundromat for washing dirty money. Been that way for years, but is tolerated because it is the rich involved. If I want to withdraw a largish amount, again it is me put through the wringer, not any oligarch. The indigenous low worth people are regarded automatically as crooks.
March 1, 2022
graham1946 – if you want to deposit cash to your bank tell them you are a drug smuggler with a massive S. American company behind you and have lieutenant rank in the Mafia so checking rules don’t apply to you – if queried say it’s the Bank of England and Treasury rules.
Works for me.
March 1, 2022
No, LR registers often just show a company “incorporated in The British Virgin Islands”.
There may be an address in this country, but it generally just a brass plate.
February 28, 2022
Universities are part funded by the government, part funded by students, part funded by research grants and sometimes part funded by businesses.
And we fund universities so you donât all grow up thick.
February 28, 2022
Do you have a favourite wall for your graffiti?
February 28, 2022
No, but I think that we need a good wall for another purpose.
February 28, 2022
You have a rather thick notion of the purpose of universities.
February 28, 2022
And a large amount of their funding comes from industry, especially the pharmaceutical industry, as some of us have recently started to realise, Andy. There’s not much doubt that the funding source influences ‘the science’. There was the notorious case of the meta-analysis study a little while ago that found that the drug Ivermectin was ‘not proved’ to be effective against Covid, when doctors internationally were saying it drastically cut Covid death rates. A leading British university receiving millions in pharmaceuticals-linked funding was implicated. Many thousands of lives in this country could probably have been saved if that drug had been available here, as it was in many countries outside Europe. But the drug was out of patent, and wouldn’t have been a big earner for the pharmaceutical companies, unlike the vaccines.
This will have to be one of the lessons learned from the Covid experience, that we need to ask who’s funding ‘the science’, rather than just assuming there are no conflicts of interests with the science experts who advise government, and produce data supporting a particular policy. The Covid enquiry needs to take a long hard look at the role of universities.
February 28, 2022
The civilised world is de facto at war with Putin, and he has now revealed his hitherto latent intentions.
It is clear, therefore, that those who have done his bidding in achieving his aims beyond his borders are traitors, and should be dealt with in the customary manner for traitors in war time.
They have proudly announced who they are, so there’s no particular evidential problem.
March 1, 2022
His intentions were never ‘latent’, lad. He warned NATO years ago that if he was pushed too far he would retaliate. Our leaders preferred us to think it wasn’t going to happen. Then they cried wolf a few times recently when it didn’t happen. Then they were caught by surprise when he did attack. Great leadership!
February 28, 2022
Universities and UK students are fully funded by the taxpayer; in addition universities provide their services to industry and foreign students to gain âextraâ revenueâŠgravy train
February 28, 2022
Foreign businesses owned by foreign governments.
February 28, 2022
Didnât work in your case !
February 28, 2022
Andy, you would need to be thick to believe most of the nonsense the students are told by idiotic Uni Professors( so called).
February 28, 2022
Andy : âAnd we fund universities so you donât all grow up thickâ.
I donât know if it is because of the way universities are funded, such as by opening its doors to 150,000 Chinese âstudentsâ, but there is no doubt that universities are damaging our country and young people.
Universities are ruining the lives of youngsters, who cannot pass the simplest of exams and should either be taking paid work or learning a skilled trade, by accepting them on mickey-mouse courses that leaves them with large lifetime debts from the excessive tuition fees.
Universities running mickey-mouse courses which are degrading the value of a university degree.
Universities are no longer a place for study and discussion and the search for new ideas. No longer a place where opposing opinions could be held and discussed without conflict and sackings. Where there could be disagreement without being disagreeable.
Universities now teach youngsters to be ashamed of their country and its history and use Marxist theories to cause division.
Universities are where Marxist scams, such as the climate crisis, emanate.
February 28, 2022
The Electoral Commission has been under-resourced and under-powered to the extent that it is beyond its means to investigate properly the multilayered and offshored shell companies, and other means of channelling money around from whatever source.
They can hand what data they have to the, er, Met, who apparently do well, nothing of note with it either.
I wonder how this situation has come about?
March 1, 2022
Isn’t is the case that the Electoral Commission has nothing to start work on as the property papers have no space to have an owners name on thwm. If the simple requirement was to have an owner’s name on the documents then the E.C. has something to start with in checking if it looks suspicious.
So is this the case?
March 1, 2022
Sorry, what do you mean by “property papers”?
What property, what papers?
If you mean Land Registry property registers, then for each title, the “B” register, the proprietorship register, states the legal person who is “the” owner. That might be up to four – in the case of a trust – names of persons, of companies or of other legal persons and their addresses for service. There is no limit on space.
The authorities can ask for a search of the whole register to see what properties a given proprietor owns.
However, that name does not always tell us who the real owner actually is.
February 28, 2022
Yes. Who funds the universities? Who owns the intellectual property that they produce? Who acquires the rights to commercial interests that follow? Could it really be true that whoever, or whatever, provides the funding would not claim a significant stake?
What proportion of the funding for research grants has come from the European Union in the past 20 years or so? Is that why the majority of scientists were so vehemently opposed to Brexit? Because that’s where so much of their funding came from? How much ownership of intellectual property or rights to commercial interests from across Europe have thereby been transferred to centralised EU control?
Or have I got the wrong idea?….
February 28, 2022
Is there another rule for the Chinese? And for the intelligentsia?
February 28, 2022
5% of the Governmentâs education budget goes to higher education (Universities), thatâs ÂŁ4.9 bn (researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk, âEducation spending in the UKâ, 17/11/2021).
Every English student has to pay ÂŁ9,250 of tuition fees.
UK universities were getting about âŹ1.7 bn from the European Research Council as part of the âFramework Programmesâ (this is the bit supposed to be provided by the UK Government now that money from the Horizon 2030 programme appears to be stuck).
Another âŹ1 bn was coming from more dedicated actions (like the Marie Curie funding)
(see royalsociety.org, âHow much research funding does the UK get âŠâ
February 28, 2022
Indeed.
February 28, 2022
What, indeed?
The law might be clear, but is very poorly enforced and eminently circumventable.
Nor is the law comprehensive by any means.
If it were, then why are the recent new measures being taken?
February 28, 2022
Again MSM is irresponsibly whipping up a very dangerous narrative.
(Or doing the govtâs bidding maybe?).
Forcing people to âtake sidesâand to abide by the official story.
Black or whiteâŠno shades in between or cancellation ensues!
And let us make no mistake.
Thuggish behaviour in leaders is not new.
Remember the past couple of years!!
February 28, 2022
What about condemning Canada and Trudeau for his dictorial behaviour!! When is the govt going to haul in the Canadian ambassador?
I do not want our country involved in the Ukraine mess it helped create. Remember the calls to expand to the Urals by Cameron?
March 1, 2022
+ many
Agree 100%
March 2, 2022
Please note, normal people, that these SFBs are entirely serious.
February 28, 2022
Astonishing sight of Jacinda Trudeau berating illiberal, anti democratic behaviour!
March 1, 2022
Yes, people who smacked their children’s wrists now and then had no right to have criticised Pol Pot either, did they?
I’ve read some tripe on this site, but boy…
March 1, 2022
NLH
You keep coming back to set us all straight?
March 1, 2022
+100%
March 1, 2022
Rose
February 28, 2022
Indeed, we certainly should not want to live in a society where it is a crime to be rich or where any rich foreigner living legally here is automatically branded a crook.
David Starkey surely get it about right in his video on “Putinâs Power & Western Impotence”.
February 28, 2022
+1
February 28, 2022
It would be better for us to be levelled up to the low tax levels paid by rich foreigners.
February 28, 2022
Vat, NI employers and employees and basic rate tax mean even basic rate tax payers are currently paying 49% marginal rates (in the loop of expenditure wages back via a company to another person’s wages) if they are repaying a student loan another 9% on top and if 40% tax then another 20% on top. These rates are absurdly high. The highest for 71 years and for generally dire public sector services too. Even issuing driving licences is beyond them.
But then if second rate state sector workers like Cresdida Dick are given ÂŁ500K to resign and circa ÂŁ5 million of inflation linked pensions and they spend ÂŁ37 billion on the useless track and trace app then people will indeed have to be taxed nearly to death to pay for this endless waste.
March 5, 2022
As if VAT, NI and 20% basic tax rate could be simply added up without weighing each of these tax rates by the amount on which they apply. And some on this blog admire LL for the pertinence of his analyses ⊠Thatâs a secondary school mistake by a not-too-clever pupil.
February 28, 2022
Yet we see the garrulous Michael Gove demanding that pro Kremlin people should have their residences confiscated. On the basis Sir JR assures us their money is legitimate we now see a Tory cabinet member wanting to punish someone for their political beliefs. Something that authoritarian regimes would do and we would criticise.
And not a squeak of dissent from his colleagues so I guess they accept a crackdown on political beliefs that donât suit them.
February 28, 2022
That’s the result of 2 years of politicians accepting a shutdown of democracy and human rights.
February 28, 2022
Putin will surely be terrified should he google “Sir Ian Lovegrove” (English Oxon.) and his leaked “Mission Critical” document â With the chiefs of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ extolling the virtues of diversity inclusion and the vital matter of avoiding words like “manpower” and “man-up” also worrying about their personal pronouns.
I suspect Putin’s army have never even been “educated” in these basic essentials for effective defence. What chance will they have against the west without this basic & vital knowledge?
I assume to our security forces will also be converting all our tanks, trucks, missiles, aircraft, guns and ships to solar, battery, sail, wind or hydro power for the net zero agenda. This should go well, so long as we get sufficient generators & charge points in the skies, seas and on any battlefields prior to any battle. Perhaps agree some recharging breaks from the battle schedule also needed at night or when the wind is too weak or too strong. The two armies can perhaps play unisex football together during these vital breaks before resuming the battle?
February 28, 2022
@Lifelogic
Flippant as your comment is, we would have had a very different last century without planes, ships, tanks etc. that burn fossil fuels to allow them to wage mass destruction.
February 28, 2022
+100
LL,
Do not forget hate crimes. Name calling is very important, far more important than knife crime and murder! And the gender neutral female dominated society Johnson claimed he wanted at Crap 26. This will have Putin quacking in his boots.
March 1, 2022
Hope. And don’t forget the new menu promoting veganism.
March 1, 2022
Name calling is not a hate crime.
For there to be a hate crime there has to be a crime, such as an assault or an incitement to kill.
If that crime were for the simple reason of the victim’s race, religion, orientation, or gender then it becomes a Hate Crime, an aggravating factor.
However, employers may sack people for saying things that they would rather they didn’t say, but that is a matter of Tory employment law giving them that power, and nothing to do with general criminal law.
March 1, 2022
Wrong NHL
If you as an individual reckons you have been a victim of a hate crime then you can report it on one of the many Police websites.
Then it becomes de facto, a hate crime
PS
Assault is a crime all on its own
Employers will find themselves in tribunal courts if they sack staff on flimsy reasons.
You’ve never employed anyone and it shows
March 2, 2022
The police may well act when they are not required by law to do so, and not when they are.
These instances make the headlines.
Some among them have their own agenda.
March 4, 2022
Completely wrong NHL
February 28, 2022
LL,
I think you will find the UK only has about 140 tanks! Not worth to convert such a small number!! Secondly, what was Truss thinking when she said people from here should go and fight, that is tantamount to declaring war! Utter madness. She is foreign secretary for goodness sake. Just imagine if Trump or Farage said that.
February 28, 2022
For someone using a name including “logic” you do spout a lot of nonsense
March 1, 2022
@KeithC
‘LL spouts more sense than the leaders these days and is worth reading than some “tyre kickers” with no clue who spout nonsense. You can never write him off.
February 28, 2022
He seems to be terrified of covid19, judging by his comically-stretched conference tables.
These don’t appear to be the choices of a balanced mind.
February 28, 2022
Moreover, there are fugitives from communism here and in America who donate to parties they hope will keep communism at bay in their new country. They know the signs well.
March 1, 2022
Which country’s “communism” would that be, Rose?
You do realise, that in Russia the commies are amongst the downtrodden opposition, Putin having banned any moderate, credible alternative to his thug rule?
March 2, 2022
I was thinking of the whole Soviet Union, Vietnam, China, Cuba, and certain African countries. Exiles from those regimes have been very keen not to see the same thing happen here or in America.
February 28, 2022
We should keep an eye on what the govt. is doing during this plague extinguishing crisis.
Whatâs all this about an EU Council Pandemic Treaty?
And what are the ramifications?
Is it sneakily going ahead with health passports?
Is it just waiting to release news of the next whispered Omicron to further delight us?
February 28, 2022
Not to mention this news breaking in a couple of papers.
Daily Mail 28th Feb
âScientists did not have accurate Covid data when they predicted that 500,000 people could die if the UK took no action during the first wave of the pandemicâ
(This well below the warmongering columns.)
Thereâs a surprise then.
All that suffering and now Hell bent on risking a major, major conflict?
February 28, 2022
They had the data, EH. In early March 2020, they could read the medical report (placed online) from the doctors who went on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship afflicted by the ‘killer virus’: 7 dead, 20 hospitalised, out of 3,700 passengers and crew. Everybody else walked off the ship just as they’d walked on. Later that month, they had data from Italian doctors who said only 12% of their’Covid deaths’ didn’t have underlying co-morbidities. So scientists already had very informative data, it just didn’t fit the desired narrative. I don’t blame the scientists, though. They were told by the government: ‘Give us the worst case scenario.’ It was the same in Germany, not just with the British govenment.
February 28, 2022
Their worst-case predictions were of exactly the same order of magnitude as what actually happened.
March 1, 2022
@notts bloke
On the basis of their worst case predictions we were told not to leave our house unless it was essential! Hysteria reigned then and, for some people, still does.
March 1, 2022
I don’t see much hysteria in the shops, pubs, restaurants, streets, stations, or anywhere else that I go.
I read plenty here from yourself though.
February 28, 2022
Much worse than hat – because data that did not support the narrative was simultaneously being suppressed as ‘misinformation’.
February 28, 2022
Everhopeful, indeed we must keep an eye on what the government are doing while this crisis is ongoing. They’re a bunch of opportunists!
February 28, 2022
Now that needs an explanation! Most people in Great Britain want nothing to do with the corrupt and dominating european union.
February 28, 2022
I have just checked this out, one sentence say âincrease the trust in the WHOâ, i do not even trust doctors any more, they carelessly injected a lot of the population with an experimental concoction despite not knowing about the longterm effects.
I am going to slowly delete my identity from a rolls!
February 28, 2022
We’ve been here before. It’s a tired and tedious subject of no worth and significance to those who live in the real world. If the Tories want to counter Labour’s barbed comments then they should abolish public sector union subs that feed into Labour’s coffers rather than moaning about Labour’s accusations
Is there any chance of your party actually taking a right and courageous decision informed by its core beliefs or are we now expected to suck up this daily dose of shite because it’s terrified of its own shadow.
The best approach is brutal honesty. That’s what the public want.
February 28, 2022
They won’t clean up Union Funding because that would mean cleaning up the Conservative donation processes as well. And that, in turn, would mean taxpayer funded donations of political parties which they know would go down like a bowl of cold sick and they’d have to blatantly exclude “unapproved” parties (like UKIP back in the day, and the Reform, Reclaim and SDP now).
February 28, 2022
Well said, Domitri.
March 1, 2022
‘Is there any chance of your party …..? No.
March 1, 2022
Union subs are paid by private individuals out of their earnings. It is up to each individual as to whether they join a union and pay subs or not. Furthermore, the law says what unions can and can’t spend money on, hence the existence of the entirely optional and voluntary political levy. if some private individuals who are also union members see value in paying the political levy to whichever union they are a member of, that is their personal choice.
February 28, 2022
I’m sure that I won’t be the only one of your regulars who will be unsettled by your post this morning. The failure by the government to wheel out the Unexplained Wealth Order weapon is lamentable. London has not been improved by the addition of 150,000 Russsians.
Changing tack, what is Kwarteng up to? Seemingly, by pressuring BP, he is trying to inflict further damage on the BRITISH economy.
Reply Dirty money is already against the law!
February 28, 2022
From what I understand govts have been very happy to inflate property prices via foreign investment.
February 28, 2022
With the natural consequence that ,in much of London and the South East, private housing is unaffordable. The Sunday Times had an article about the challenge facing our younger citizens, having to find ÂŁ900/month for a small flat. I did a search for a rental in my old stamping-ground of Bromley, at ÂŁ700/month. Two results only!
March 1, 2022
Sea Warrior. 3 bed semi in Worthing Sussex ÂŁ1500 a month.
March 1, 2022
‘
From what I understand govts have been very happy to inflate property prices via foreign investment.’
Not true, JR? Seems it is as you haven’t gainsaid it. Thanks for confirming it.
February 28, 2022
Has it not? During my lifetime I would say London has been greatly improved by the addition of all sorts of nationalities, including Russians.
Sir John is right that there are laws against illicit gains and clear laws about political donations. Let them be enforced. Let people who say they arenât being come forward with evidence. Not lazy blanket smears.
February 28, 2022
+10
February 28, 2022
REply to REply
Quote
A Government money laundering risk assessment concluded in December 2020 that money laundering has probably increased since 2017, suggesting that UWOs are yet to have the desired impact.
It’s in your own report….
February 28, 2022
Reply to reply 2: Why, if everything is so hunky-dory, is the Government suddenly introducing a new register of foreign owners of UK properties (with Companies House) in the recently debated (31/01/2022) Economic Crime Bill? With particular care to who the real owners are when a shell company is used?
What will be the role of the recently announced âKleptocracyâ cell within the National Crime Agency?
February 28, 2022
Thanks for saving me a job, Peter.
February 28, 2022
Reply to reply: How many UWOs have been issued since their creation? To whom? How far did the investigations go? Why were they stopped?
Explain with proper arguments why the Transparency International report is wrong? Why are the other reports from HMRC, Home Office, Parliamentâs I&S Committee are wrong?
instituteforgovernment.org.uk, 24/02/2022, âTransparency of Russian money flows in the UKâ
HM Treasury & Home Office, âNational risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financingâ, December 2020.
Intelligence and Security Committee of UK Parliament, âRussia reportâ, 21/07/2020.
February 28, 2022
Reply yo reply – Many things are against the law, but nothing is done about it. If my house is burgled the police don’t want to knw, being very selective about the laws they enforce. Being illegal does not mean it doesn’t happen.
February 28, 2022
I note that Ed Miliband has been cheering on the divestment, also calling for Shell to divest from Sakhalin LNG. That would be more supply for China, and less for South Korea and Japan. The idea that Putin won’t be 8n power for ever appears notto have crossed his mind, nor has the idea that bolstering the Russo-Chinese axis is not smart geopolitics.
March 2, 2022
Reply to reply: Interesting comment from the Conservative (lawyer) Robert Jenrick this Wednesday 02/03 at 13:15 about the 18 months given to company âownersâ to regularise their entry in the CompaniesHouse register regarding the actual owners of companies in the UK, by the âEconomic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill 2022â.
Funnily enough, I took it that he was not in 100% agreement with Sir Johnâs âDirty money is already against the law!â.
But as everybody knows there are different âtendenciesâ within the CUP.
February 28, 2022
It seems odd to me that during the Canadian trucker protest a particular flag ( the emblem on it not even correctly printed) was used as evidence for terrorism.
Now such flags in Ukraine are being totally denied/ignored.
February 28, 2022
From The Washington Post Feb 26th
âOligarchs in London,â Johnson declared, âwill have nowhere to hide.â
âFor too long, our country has been a safe haven for the money Putin and his fellow bandits stole from the Russian people,â opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said..
Both pretty inflammatory statements?
February 28, 2022
Ridiculous statement. A lot of them are corrupt oligarchs that Putin kicked out of Russia, and then very successfully managed to hide their money in Britain and other tax havens for the super-rich.
March 1, 2022
But no mention of the money that gets stolen from us through taxation and inflation, not to forget that which is given away.
February 28, 2022
Absolutely. Lots of leftist smearing of the Conservative Party is what this is really about. I know, work and have worked with plenty of civilised and able Russians, who would be and are as horrified by Putinâs crimes as we are. We should certainly not allow the left to demonise such people.
February 28, 2022
People who have a fit of the vapours at the sight of Russian names and imagine them all to be “Oligarchs” should try this exercise: imagine it is a list of Jewish names.
There are different sorts of Russians – White Russians, fugitives of Putin’s Russia, opponents of Putin, and a number of other sorts of exile, including unreconstructed old communists – Stalinists, Trotskyists, and anarchists. Then there are businessmen and women, as with any other nationality, and students.
February 28, 2022
@Richard1 the left is NOT demonising those people and only someone gullibly believing the Daily Mail would think they are. It’s a Tory MP, Roger Gale, who is saying send all Russians back home
February 28, 2022
Except they arenât wild allegations.
The cross party group of MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee produced a report before the last election – the âRussia Reportâ – which described London as a âlaundromatâ for illicit Russian finance.
The committee also found the Russian elite, with links to Putin, were well established and well connected in the UK – Londongrad they called it.
The MPs said minsters had taken their eye off the ball with regard to the threat posed by Russia, they questioned Russian influence in British politics – particularly in the House of Lords and asked why the government hadnât investigated claims of Russian attempts to interfere in UK elections.
This report was ready to be published before the last election but for reasons known only to Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson decided to publish it in the middle of Covid instead.
February 28, 2022
Andy, just for once you are on the money. Read “Putins People” by Catherine Belton, it spells it out in every ugly detail.
March 1, 2022
Her book was the 2020 Book of the Year of the Telegraph, the FT, the Economist and the New Statesman. It was based on her six years (2007-2013) as Moscow correspondent for the FT. Since the publication of the book, she has been made the defendent in five lawsuit brought by Russian billionaires and Rosneft.
As Sir John says âThe UK law is very clearâ, etc ed
Is Sir John naive or does he try to pull the wool over his readersâ eyes?
Reply I produced a neutral piece. If you have evidence of wrong doing then report it. What is unacceptable is to allege rich Russians have behaved badly without evidence. Of course those accused have a right to reply and to take matters to court if necessary. Those publishing accusations need to prove them.
March 1, 2022
The extent to which Russian Lawfare is inflating litigation costs in the UK is staggering.
It is a far greater bubble than London property.
March 2, 2022
Neutral, ah ah ah. As neutral as the way you edited my comment ⊠which BTW was just stating the David vs Goliath fight between C.Beltonâs publishing company and the people opposed to that book.
February 28, 2022
The Tory Government suppressed one investigation which might have revealed – or disproven – such involvement.
It is unclear as to why.
February 28, 2022
Well established, wealthy and well connected they may well be.
Just tell us young Andy what you are reporting what you claim is the truth.
February 28, 2022
Mr Putin has awakened us. Any agreement with him is not an agreement that can be relied upon.
February 28, 2022
Maybe he would only break it in a “specific and limited way”?
February 28, 2022
Really?: “not one inch east”was the promise made to Russia re NATO at the end of the Cold War.
Liz Truss denied any such agreement existed the other day-LIAR!-plenty of evidence exists.
March 1, 2022
âNot one inch eastwardâ: US Secretary of State James Baker to Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadzhe on 09/02/1990 (nsarchive.gwu.edu, âNATO expansion: What Gorbachev heardâ).
March 1, 2022
Yes, some in NATO behaved very irresponsibly.
However, nothing whatsoever justifies a brutal military assault on a democratic rule-of-law country which has not expressed any hostile intentions towards the aggressor.
After WWI the victors wanted to humiliate German nationalism as a philosophy. They couldn’t do that because it is an abstract, so they humiliated the German people and nation instead, with the terrible consequences that followed.
After the collapse of the USSR, the crowing self-proclaimed victors wanted to humiliate authoritarian collectivism. Again, that was an abstract and they couldn’t do that, so they set about the Russian people and nation instead. They also wanted an excuse for the lucrative business of the Cold War to continue as before. They spurned Gorbachev’s magnanimity and vision.
Result.
Again.
March 1, 2022
‘Mr Putin has awakened us. Any agreement with him is not an agreement that can be relied upon.’
No doubt he learned that from the US State Dept.
February 28, 2022
By tax avoidance I guess you mean when they’ve not paid up to 50% income tax plus NI plus up to 28% capital gains tax in the countries where the money was made?
February 28, 2022
One of Germany’s main political parties, the SPD, has for decades had an explicit stated policy of developing close ties with Russia. They provided a Chancellor in Gerhard Schroder from 1998-2005 who is and was a personal friend of Putin – he even spent Xmas with him one year – and on leaving office became a paid lobbyist for Russia in various German projects in the energy sphere including the gas pipelines. Another of the major parties there, the CDU, provided the next Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005-21) who had an explicit policy, which she announced, of making Germany dependent on Russia for their energy supplies. Those are the two biggest party groupings in Germany. Throughout that entire period Putin has been running Russia.
Now Continuity Remainers, tell me again about the Conservative Party ?
February 28, 2022
So which political parties in the UK – apart from the Tories – receive major funding from any Russian?
February 28, 2022
And Germany now has a socialist chancellor who is leading the response to Putin, unlike our PM who has done the minimum possible while of course claiming to be world leading
February 28, 2022
I wonder how much the Russian money plus back channel influence contributed to our supine approach to Putin because assuredly, although they would deny it, London plus Washington, Berlin etc have contributed greatly to this conflict by ignoring Putins behaviour going back to his Crimean incursion.
Putin didnât believe the world would act as it now has done albeit far too late. Bullies need standing up to and failure leads to what we are now seeing.
March 1, 2022
Your portrayal of the background to the conflict, Nig L., seems to be limited to ‘Putin’s behaviour’. You don’t want to go back a few weeks earlier than the Crimean incursion, to the US/EU backed coup in Kiev which set the scene for this conflict. The new regime denied their autonomous rights to the Russian speakers in the Donbas. When they revolted, the regime sent in its artillery to smash their homes: it has been killing hundreds of civilians, and making many thousands of others refugees. That’s the background. Please don’t try and pretend ‘Putin invaded the Ukraine’ for no reason.
March 1, 2022
Putin’s response has involved heavy bombardment including with cluster weapons of Kharkiv, a large Russian-speaking city in the East of Ukraine.
It seems an unusual way to protect those people.
March 1, 2022
The regions were not autonomous. They had effectively been colonised by Russians at the behest of the Kremlin before Ukraine became independent. If you are going to use history at least tell the whole story.
February 28, 2022
And Johnson has announced new legislation to stop the entry of Iâll gotten gains. So which is it Sir JR, legit to date or not?
February 28, 2022
Quite.
February 28, 2022
So everything is OK. How naive and how patronising, we have all been so silly to think there is a problem and we should forget the whole thing.
Thank you Sir John, we know you are real tough guy.
February 28, 2022
No problem with wealthy people having money but:
If our financial systems are so good, why have some Banks been fined for laundering dirty money.
Why are scam type criminals allowed to “Push Payments” through multiple transactions between Banks seemly without track or trace !.
The most corrupt system at the moment appears to be the ability for big business and other outside interests to have access to directly lobby Government for client payment.
Then we have tax laws/rates which do not seem to apply to World wide multinational Companies, but are fully applied to the average worker.
At times it does seem like one set of rules for one, and anther set of rules for others.
February 28, 2022
This suggests that, if you have enough wealth, you have a RIGHT to live and work here – subject to some rules. Is this true? Anyone in the world with some money can come and live here?
March 1, 2022
MW, yes it appears so. The Malta selling off EU passports seems to have dropped off the radar – what happened about that?
I think is is probable that the whole industrial revolution was financed and built on some, if not all, corruption. So 3 cheers for corruption for making us now quite wealthy.
February 28, 2022
Off topic, I see that the Irish Republic won’t send lethal weapons to Ukraine, but wouldn’t block or prevent any other EU member state from doing so:
https://euobserver.com/tickers/154447
There is however a question in my mind as to the legal basis for the EU to take this action, as Daniel Hannan used to ask when he was an MEP, something like “Where in the treaties does it say you can do that?”
I did a quick search in my files for “conferral”, and it was a trip down memory lane with EU Commission Vice-President Margot Wallstrom telling the world in June 2007, with a link that still works:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en,en/SPEECH_07_424
“As we know, the Union is built on the principle of conferral of competences and it will act only in areas where it has been given the competence to intervene.”
I expect some EU advocate on here will rush to cite the relevant passages in the treaties which can be used (or misused) to justify this EU intervention in a war between two “third countries”.
Of course there is the “we’ll do as we damn well please” clause, Article 352 TFEU ex Article 308 TEC:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/glossary/subsidiary_powers.html
but even that does not seem to be applicable, as the common foreign and security policy is excepted.
February 28, 2022
Ukrainian president wants to take up the invitation issued by Ursula van der Leyen:
https://www.politico.eu/article/volodymyr-zelenskyy-eu-ukraine-membership/
“Zelenskyy urges EU to grant Ukraine âimmediate membershipâ”
I expect our government and Parliament would have gone along with his proposal.
March 1, 2022
Could this be in anticipation of negotiating it away? It does all seem rather theatrical.
March 1, 2022
As Groucho Marx said, in one of his movies, ” This means war!!” as economic sanctions does.
If a country could place sanctions on the US, American bombers, rockets would be launched within 2 hours.
February 28, 2022
https://www.cer.eu/insights/european-peace-facility-really-about-peace
“IS THE EUROPEAN PEACE FACILITY REALLY ABOUT PEACE?”
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec/2021/509/oj
“(11) A European Peace Facility of the Union (the âFacilityâ) should therefore be established to finance the common costs of military operations and missions under the CSDP, as well as the operating expenditure, in cases where the Council has decided to charge such operating expenditure to the Member States, of actions to improve the capacities relating to military and defence matters of third States and regional and international organisations, and of support to military aspects of peace support operations led by a regional or international organisation or by third States. The Facility will not finance capabilities which are funded under the Union budget. The financing of any action under the Facility will require the prior adoption by the Council acting unanimously of a basic legal act establishing such an action.”
“Article 7
Legal basis for financing Union operations and assistance measures under the Facility
1. The financing of any operation or assistance measure under the Facility shall require the prior adoption of a basic legal act in the form of a decision by the Council establishing the operation under Articles 42(4) and 43(2) TEU or the assistance measure under Article 28 TEU … ”
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32022D0338&qid=1646072099389
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32022D0339&qid=1646072099389
March 1, 2022
You need another hobby besides curtain-twitching at the European Union, Denis.
March 2, 2022
Not Daniel Hannanâs: Where in the treaties does it say that the EU cannot take the following decisions?
1/ 24/02: European Council met and issued a condemnation of Russian actions towards Ukraine;
2/ EU27 Foreign Ministers met on 23/02 and agreed on 28/02 on financial sanctions on Russian banks, individuals and entities, and on restrictions on trade with Russia;
3/ 28/02: EU27 Interior Ministers unanimously agree to accept Ukrainian refugees for three years without going through the asylum process.
So to me, DCâs fluff about this EU text this and this EU text that is simply ⊠irrelevant. But everyone is entitled to have a little EU-hating hobby, specially when one can show to the world how clever one is at decorticating treaties, regulations and legislations.
March 3, 2022
You obviously missed, or did not understand, the statement from Margot Wallstrom:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en,en/SPEECH_07_424
âAs we know, the Union is built on the principle of conferral of competences and it will act only in areas where it has been given the competence to intervene.â
Not, “the Union can act in any area unless forbidden by the treaties”.
March 3, 2022
Strange comment and reaction DC. Margot Wallströmâs speech is from 2007. It relates to âcompetencesâ and to âareas it (the Union) has been given the competence to interveneâ. It was a speech about constitutional affairs and how such constitutional questions should be treated by the EUâs different forums.
Now as far as I can see, the events in Ukraine do not have much relevance to any of the EUâs various constitutional questions.
So, this first point being made, are you saying that the various meetings of EU Heads of State, Foreign and Interior Ministers taking decisions unanimously do not have the competence to take them.
So, according to you, who has the competence? Are you saying that the Commission is the only forum to have the competence to intervene?
I hope you realise that your position somewhat giving more weight to texts (or to the Commission) than to politiciansâ decisions is the type of things that Brexiters in general and UKIPers in particular have always chided the EU for doing.
I am afraid you do not have a particular firm ground to stand on.
March 1, 2022
Europhobes are endlessly whingeing about the Napoleonic Code – erroneously – saying that it only permits that which is expressly allowed.
Now you attack the Lisbon Treaty because Hannan claims that it does not only permit that.
Which do you want?
March 2, 2022
What on earth are you burbling about? The principle of conferral has been fundamental from the beginning, not just with the Lisbon Treaty, and all that Daniel Hannan did was draw attention to it and point out some occasions when the EU was breaking it.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/glossary/conferral.html
“CONFERRAL”
“Under this fundamental principle of EU law, laid down in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union, the EU acts only within the limits of the competences that EU countries have conferred upon it in the Treaties. These competences are defined in Articles 2â6 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. Competences not conferred on the EU by the Treaties thus remain with EU countries.”
Were you not aware of that?
March 3, 2022
Well, you’d better write one of your letters to the European Union, and ask them very nicely not to overstep what you claim to be the mark then, hadn’t you?
I wonder what they’d say?
March 3, 2022
If you have nothing worth saying, as is usually the case, why say it?
March 3, 2022
DC, As you quoted âCompetences not conferred on the EU by the Treaties thus remain with EU countriesâ.
All countries of the EU were among the 141 countries that voted against Russia at the UN General Assembly on 02/03. So the 27 EU countries are condemning Russia, which according to the sentence above makes them free to take whatever decision individually or as is the case here together, in particular within the EU framework.
Could it be that they thought some unanimous EU decisions might have more weight than the same decisions taken by each of the 27 individual countries?
Whatever the answer, it remains that your four comments are irrelevant, and furthermore a complete misunderstanding of the position of the 27 EU countries in the present circumstances.
March 4, 2022
You are making a lot of fuss about “irrelevant” comments … let’s start at the beginning, with the EU’s claim that it is based on the rule of law:
https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/principles-and-values/founding-agreements_en
“The European Union is based on the rule of law. This means that every action taken by the EU is founded on treaties that have been approved voluntarily and democratically by all EU member countries. For example, if a policy area is not cited in a treaty, the Commission cannot propose a law in that area.”
It is not the first time that I have referred to that passage on this blog, because this is not the first time that there has been a perfectly reasonable question about the legality of a major EU measure. A decade ago, about the eurozone bailouts:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2012/06/20/monetary-easing-coming-our-way/
which then had to be retrospectively legitimised by a treaty amendment, quietly agreed by David Cameron and approved by our Parliament:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2015/07/16/dangerous-and-expensive-farce/#comments
So when the President of the EU Commission refers to “a watershed moment”:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_22_1483
“… our Union, for the first time ever, is using the European budget to purchase and deliver military equipment to a country that is under attack. EUR 500 million from the European Peace Facility, to support Ukraine’s defence.”
of course we should ask “What is the legal basis for this?”.
Is it legal? What do you think, do you think that a “European Peace Facility” should be used to supply weapons to one side in a war between two “third countries”?
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/european-peace-facility/
“The EPF is an off-budget instrument aimed at enhancing the Union’s ability to prevent conflicts, build peace and strengthen international security … “
March 4, 2022
Denis, whether it’s legal or not within the European Union’s jurisdiction os now nothing, whatsoever, to do with YOU, nor with anyone else in Tory brexit UK.
So do stop fretting, eh?
March 5, 2022
Another stupid comment from you … have you forgotten that we still have treaties with the EU, and we need to know whether the EU is likely to keep them? And in any case even North Korea is allowed to take an interest in what its neighbours are doing:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/02/18/brexit-wins/#comment-1300996
March 5, 2022
DC, Let me reiterate that I find rather curious your insistence at condemning the EU for taking decisions in a process in which all 27 countries were involved, and this rather quickly compared to their usual slow decision processes.
Your latest comment about âthe need to know whether the EU is likely to keep treatiesâ looks to me like your latest gasp before drowning in the treacle you have kept on adding to with your successive âirrelevantâ comments.
But you like to read your prose in blogs and publications, donât you? Your daily ego-trip?
February 28, 2022
Russia is not the only problem country.
We do have rich people living here who made their money out of slave labour, child labour, stealing British intellectual property, abusing immigration systems, abusing tax systems, etc. In an ideal world we should be cleaning up our act on who we tolerate, and put incentives in the system to “do the right thing”.
March 1, 2022
Very pertinent point, Iain.
March 1, 2022
If a country’s laws legalise that which would be prosecuted as corrupt in other countries, then can it be said to be less corrupt than them, just because it has fewer convictions for that offence?
This is crucially important, as it is the public awareness of such cases which affect the perception of corruption in a given country, and countries are ranked according to that perception.
March 1, 2022
Even the Philippines does not allow foreigners to buy property there. If one wants to then it must be in the name of a Philopena, usually.
February 28, 2022
I donât believe the âpermissible sourcesâ for political donations are strict enough.
Donations from individuals should only be permissible if the person holds a UK passport and only a UK passport. I donât think it should be permissible for those individuals who hold multiple passports.
For companies, businesses and all other organisations to be a âpermissible sourceâ they must make publicly clear who is on their membership list and from whom they receive their funding. And those who are defined as having âsignificant controlâ must hold a UK, and only a UK, passport.
March 2, 2022
I think that Johnson only recently gave up the citizenship of his birth country, the US, for tax reasons reportedly.
February 28, 2022
It very much depends on what you define as”Crime”. Try to imagine our PM and a few of his Bullingham friends confiscating the gems of UK industry and having them run for the express purpose of enhancing their personal wealth up to the point of said individuals owning up to five ocean going yachts of frigate size, not to mention premiership football clubs.
Well that is exactly what has happened in Russia since Putin and his KGB cronies took over from Boris Yeltsin. I suggest you read “Putins People” written by Catherine Belton to give yourself a blow by blow account of what happened, the crimes of theft and murder and false imprisonment that were all part of the process.
This is not a discussion of the nuances of balanced argument based on the assumption that those being informed are ignorant of the facts. It is time to get real and understand exactly what Putin is. One of the most useful things that our government can do is to inform the Russian population of what Putin and his friends are doing with the assets of Russia. The Russian people can themselves judge the balance of truth from their own experience of every day life in Russia.
This is not an Oxford Union debate, snd of story.
March 2, 2022
Good post.
February 28, 2022
Many commentators are bewailing the level of UK defense spending and our lack of tanks in particular. This I contend is yesterdays war thinking. Yes they may have their uses but foot soldiers armed with portable vehicle killers render tanks as places not to be. The same can be said of hand held ground to air missiles. This is where I would be concentrating my defense spending. Apart from any thing else it would be big bangs for small bucks, lessons emerging from Ukraine at this very moment.
February 28, 2022
I am against a government drawing up lists of people of whom it does not approve.
If we declare war against someone, all well and good. But otherwise? No. Such power can all too easily be abused. Giving a government the power to confiscate assets is very dangerous. What happens when a state representative takes ownership of your house because you looked at him in a funny way?
State sanctioned theft works two ways and has a myriad of unintended consequences.
February 28, 2022
What does it matter about Russian money right now, when there’s a madman in the Kremlin threatening the use of tactical nuclear weapons?
February 28, 2022
Thank you, Sir John, for this sober and much needed correction. I wonder whether these Trudeau-like confiscations will lead to a run on the banks.
Another thing the BBC and Sky don’t want us to know, a characteristic address from the PM, and a side of him they don’t want us to see, but which reminds me of his address to the Conservative Party on resuming its leadership (which they also censored):
https://www.gbnews.uk/news/boris-johnson-receives-emotional-standing-ovation-from-ukrainian-cathedral-in-mayfair-for-his-russia-speech-watch/235942
February 28, 2022
The Spartans versus the dinosaur bully who has spent all his life in the secret police surrounded by macho yes men in group-think drunk on absolute power.
The plot for all former Soviet states to fall like dominoes isn’t working because they have tasted both freedom and the jackboot.
Mrs May understood his poisonous intent and he now behaves like the very enemy who surrounded St Petersburg 75 years ago.
March 1, 2022
UKRETIRED123 – By the way what happened about the Salisbury Russian poisoning episode!!!!!!!! It just disappeared. Surprise surprise.
March 2, 2022
Covid followed Salisbury poisoning and will never disappear sadly. The countries responsible have been unmasked.
February 28, 2022
Best Lifelogic post ever⊠I usually switch off when I see âGreencrapâ but todayâs deserves some credit.
February 28, 2022
How disappointing to see Truss and Wallace unable to present a coherent position on British volunteers going to fight in the Ukraine. Does anyone in No 10 co-ordinate policy anymore? I’ll repeat my call for ministers to stop doing the ‘media round’. Let’s have one minister speaking from the podium, and let’s keep the trouble-making Press at bay.
February 28, 2022
It was under Yegor Gaidar that the Russian economy was ‘privatised’ and seamlessly apportioned amongst Russian ‘oligarchs’. Putin has attempted to recover some of those assets for the state especially in the oil industry. Russia was effectively bankrupted by the interference of US privatisation advisors and the kleptocratic inheritors of Russian wealth which was used to meddle in Russian politics and live the high life in the West. Those Russians living in the West are mainly not supporters of Putin or achieved their wealth through his auspices. Foreign crooks living in London including mass murders from the dark continent are welcome as long as they are not Putin supporters (our value are important).
February 28, 2022
Thanks Dog for Ben Wallace distancing himself from Dizzy Miss Lizzyâs comment on UK volunteers for Ukraine.
February 28, 2022
There is now a list of Putin’s Dirty Money Cronies!! Too late mate – they’ve been here for years investing and it’s only now that we have woken up to that fact. Actually that’s not true we’ve known who they are for years – If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! Yeah I gottcha.
February 28, 2022
The EU is belatedly taking advantage of the Ukrainian war to consolidate itself as an empire, not just an economic entity. Should we not make sure that Northern Ireland is not swept up into this through our fear of asserting our sovereignty there when we are all supposed to be being nicey, nicey to the Commission? They never hold back, yet we always do.
March 2, 2022
“Brexit” is short for “Britain’s Exit” not for “The UK’s Exit”, Rose.
So the ERG, DUP, and the rest of the fruitcakes should give it a rest on that basis.
You have, absolutely, Britain’s exit.
As Mrs. May said “brexit means brexit” and it clearly did.
Enjoy.
March 3, 2022
Br is short for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as Ulster understands.
March 3, 2022
PS the majority of unionists voted for Brexit.
March 3, 2022
I think that the majority of ukip and the bnp did too, Rose.
March 4, 2022
NLH, the Unionists are the majority community in N Ireland and all of the Unionist parties, not just your hated DUP, are trying to get the NIP cancelled.
February 28, 2022
We need to stop this kneejerk panic about all things Russian. The ‘dirty money’ allegations are just a cheap smear that Labour put about, but which only political anoraks angst over. The general punblic will be disgusted if some obviously unpleasant person – of whatever nationality – is seen to have high-level political connections and influence, but the idea that all Russians are now somehow a major problem is nonsense. The government’s idiotic, panicked withdrawal of Tier 1 visas is just shooting the UK in the foot. Foreign businessmen are a huge asset and ALL countries have similar arrangements. We are now engaged in a moronic episode of economic self-harm, and need to restore these visas as quickly as possible.
The decision to grant refugee status to those fleeing Ukraine is another panic reaction with no logical basis. Ukrainians are fine, hard-working people (I know several) who will no doubt integrate well (and much better than most other refugees), but I have said many times that the UK is GROSSLY OVERCROWDED. Our population should be NO MORE than 50 million, instead of the 70 million it is now. I have also always maintained that refugees should go to their closest safe countries – which in this case means Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Of course, those who have skills of which we have a shortage should be welcomed here, but we cannot just give blanket approval to tens of thousands who may not be of any economic benefit to Britain. In other words, let each application be judged separately, on its own merits, rather than be pre-approved en masse for political grandstanding.
March 2, 2022
Oh, really?
February 28, 2022
In support of the government for once, would somebody fight its corner please, not being always good at that, and respond with loud and well enunciated facts and figures to counteract the crass and opportunistic article in the Independent today by a Liberal Democrat MP accusing the UK of “turning its back”
February 28, 2022
Talking about what sort of country we would want to live in well:-
Apparently the E.U. has BANNED State News from Russia.
Funny that considering how, it was totally wicked that the U.S.S.R. (particularly E Germany) BANNED broadcasts from western Europe and of course ‘WE’ would never do a thing like that would we.
March 1, 2022
The US Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, BBC World Service, Radio France International had always been broadcasting and could be listened to via a SW radio in East Germany in the 1970s-80s. Similarly West Germany TV could be watched from East Germany (not that many people had a TV set).
I was near Dresden for a couple of weeks in summer 1974 and the youngsters (not the parents) were quite aware of what was going âon the other sideâ, rock music, CSNY, ⊠the IRA bombings and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Kind of related: Isnât it âinterestingâ that right now nobody here admits to have been watching RT or Sputnik these past few years. Do not be shy.
March 1, 2022
I remember when we were not allowed to hear Gerry Adams’ or any other SF voice.
But please cite your source for your claim?
February 28, 2022
I see that we have now banned all Russian vessels from our ports. The Christophe de Margerie, a Cyprus flagged LNG carrier for the Yamal project was destined to discharge at Grain as at this morning, but will now divert to Montoir, France, where doubtless the cargo will be transshipped and probably discharged in the UK, possibly changing hands via trading companies inserted into the transactions, and adding to the cost of supply, even if we will formally seem to be importing from France – a pointless charade reminiscent of earlier attempts to pretend we were not importing from Russia. Meanwhile the Eduard Toll, a sister ship is in Harland & Wolf shipyard, Belfast undergoing repairs since 7th February. Is the intention to cancel the repair contract and damage the reputation of the shipyard? Is the vessel even seaworthy at present? Will the shipyard get paid for the repairs?
February 28, 2022
If Putin was taken out , would the Ukraine invasion and threats to the west still continue?
March 1, 2022
I’d like the chance to find out.
February 28, 2022
Compared to the ÂŁBn’s of fraud in the Covid sphere being unacceptably written off, surely this is small beer, the odd million here and there; noted it’s still important and better controls need to be in place and transparency…. but please as an obvious priority please get these ÂŁBn’s back from criminals who defrauded us and bring them to book.
Also we need to force compliance by NATO members to pay their 2% min of GDP and work out how we decide who has what capability. I think a new article of association is needed to cover this including cessation of NATO membership if the 2% of GDP isn’t achieved… spending on national security is the first principle of government to protect our liberty and the international rule of law and human rights, otherwise spending on anything else pretty worthless.
March 1, 2022
Who are this “we” yet again?
You appear to want to change the wording of the North Atlantic Treaty.
Do you understand what that would involve?
March 1, 2022
The West did not object to the growth of these Russian Oligarchs after the fall of the USSR , some even in the Ukraine, at the expense of their people and country. Along comes a ex-KGB officer and things seem to improve for ordinary Russians. He appears to make a bit of money on the side. A lot so they say. The West don’t like him much as he seems to want to improve Russia’s position in the world and make money for himself as well. There is a rumour that he wanted closer ties to the West.
Oh! if Russia is friendly to the West what will NATO do? We can’t let this happen it will upset the world order according Washington. Russia is Socialist still is it not? Now along comes another another political pan European Federation under cover of being a common trading market. It seemed a good idea at the time, then in order to advance Eastward it took money from the richer members to atract ex -USSR countries. This got a bit too much for one country and it left this growing Federation. It still continued Eastward and this made the KGB officer really mad especially when the EU federation turned a blind eye to a prospective new member shelling some of it’s own people who happened to be ethnic Russians.
And the rest is current history as they say.
March 1, 2022
It’s a record
Well done NHL
60 posts
It’s like the NHL show on here
I thought the rule was one or two posts per person.
March 3, 2022
do these rules explain how a hairdresser from Hong Kong came to own Birmingham City in 2009
March 4, 2022
Usually a troll replies a few times to the posts to get responses.
Here NHL post 70 times out of 140 to everyone who posts, as well as posting contrary posts on his own.
It’s the NHL show on here.
It even mkes Jerry appear a very occasional poster.
Perhaps other posters can suggest an alternative hobby for Martin