Like most westerners I blame Russia for the murderous assault on Ukraine and for the violent siege tactics now being deployed to try to wrestle territory away from those who live there who wish to remain self governing. Russia’s troops have been killing civilians in frustration at not being able to occupy and overwhelm as easily as they expected. Proof of this will be used as evidence of war crimes.We are all appalled at some of the scenes we are now being shown.
Like most westerners I would like to see an early truce and a negotiated settlement. I understand how difficult this will prove as the two sides have such a different view of the rights and wrongs of the situation, and neither side has yet been able to achieve enough by force of arms to enforce their settlement on the other. Ukraine has fought bravely but cannot rid themselves of Russian troops and artillery on their land. Russia has failed to capture any of the major cities on its list and has shown it lacks the ability and force to maintain control over areas it has thought it had conquered.
As peace talks continue the aims of the two sides remain incompatible with each other. Ukraine wishes all Russian troops to withdraw, to be followed by discussion of the government of those parts of Ukraine which Russia has occupied and a referendum on a possible new constitutional settlement. Russia is holding out for Crimea to become part of Russia, and for new governing arrangements for a swathe of territory from the Russian border to Crimea that would give it control or substantial influence. That is why the fighting is likely to continue.
There seems to be a bit more flexibility over the ability of Ukraine to choose its own allies and international policy. It seems unlikely NATO will offer membership to Ukraine any time soon, having notably refused to come to Ukraine’s assistance with any NATO forces. Russia’s aim of excluding Ukraine from NATO might in practice occur. The issue of EU membership also hangs over the conflict. The EU intervened in Ukraine to help topple the elected Ukrainian President in 2014 when he wished to walk away from the draft EU/Ukraine Association Agreement and be closer to Russia. This was the background to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and civil war in Donbas. Today Ukraine has applied for formal membership and the EU needs to respond. The EU says it sees Ukraine as part of Europe and talks of Ukraine’s European destiny in terms that implies in due course it does want Ukraine as a member state. This is a complication for a Russia which dislikes the expansion of the EU as well as of NATO close to its borders.
April 4, 2022
Good morning.
Both sides have committed war crimes. It is the brutality of war. Think Bomber Command or the Blitz. All terrible and tragic, but we here commented on what was going to happen way, way back when Ukraine signed the EU Association Agreement. The EU is NOT a trading pact, it is a Federal State in the making complete with an armed forces.
As for Ukraine wanting to join the EU ? That is of course none of our business as we will not, I hope, be paying for the reconstruction, as we did for most of the others when we were members.
Oh and congratulations to, President Victor Orban. Not particually someone I like (you don’t bite the hand that feeds you) but at least he can tell the difference between an economic migrant and a genuine refugee.
April 4, 2022
Any UK assistance with Ukraine’s reconstruction needs to be from our EXISTING foreign aid budget, which means that some other funding lines would need cutting.
April 4, 2022
Today, my lifelong friend and fellow poster on here has passed away. NeilIQ154 and later Neil(with new computer) .
I’m sure we’ll all miss his rants on the channel taxi service and the home office in general.
He will be missed.
April 4, 2022
I’m sorry to hear of the death of your friend. My condolences to his family.
April 4, 2022
Condolences, Ian.
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
Sorry to hear that and condolances to his family.
April 4, 2022
So sorry.
April 4, 2022
Condolences Ian. I recall his posts, always heartfelt and which I often supported & respected his speaking out on a very real, concerning and persistent issue. I also recall he told us what he was facing. Very sorry to hear the news.
April 4, 2022
My sincere condolences to all his family and friends.
April 4, 2022
How sad. A moderate rebel to his core.
April 4, 2022
for ‘some other funding lines’ …. read handouts to despots.
April 4, 2022
Of course we know it wonât be Sea Warrior. Funny how our Government is so generous with hard earned taxpayersâ money. A nice gesture would be for all MPs to give their underserved ÂŁ2,000 pay rise to the Ukraine cause. Of course we know they wonât, as with all good socialists theyâre only generous with other peoplesâ money.
April 4, 2022
I also admire Orbans refusal to allow mass immigration of economic migrants. Multiculturalism in the UK, and other European countries, brings more problems than it solves. Pretty much like the EU! It looks good on paper. but the reality is very different.
I admire the Swiss model of integration of immigrants, and their requirements for citizenship to be granted. It prevents some quite serious problems popping up further down the line.
April 4, 2022
Yes, but then Orban considers that it is his job to look after the interests of the Hungarian people ….. not the interests of the UN, WEF and 3rd world.
April 4, 2022
at least he does a decent job of it appearing that way.
April 4, 2022
Yes Donna, I wish our leaders had his principals and were putting our country FIRST!
We are forced to listen to lies and more lies from some of those with less principals than our host.
They put their club first, not our country.
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
Viktor Orban is a hero, defying the destruction of his country which is required for the Great Reset. He has also promised that Hungary will take refugees from France, Germany and Britain fleeing from the disintegration of their countries.
April 4, 2022
b, refugees from France, Germany and Britain? You know, itâs bad for health to drink so early in the morning.
April 4, 2022
Very poor comment hefner.
April 5, 2022
Putin’s fifth columnists just keep appearing, don’t they?
April 5, 2022
Indeed P2, not funny, but please tell me do you think berefordâs comment makes more sense? And all the âWEF, Great Reset, UN and third worldâ inspired changes pushed to peopleâs overheating minds by their preferred far-right Russia-inspired websites that people gobble up because they only look to simplistic explanations and are unable to figure out how âthingsâ are likely to be much more complex, do you think all these make sense?
Do you realise that some even go as far as saying that MI6 might have been involved in helping the Ukrainian SBU âfabricate the âcivilianâ corpsesâ in Bucha?
April 5, 2022
You made an unproven and distasteful slur that the poster was drunk.
That’s what you did hefner.
April 5, 2022
And NHL I really object to your ridiculous slur.
Stop trolling and virue signalling.
April 5, 2022
Donât you know it is possible to drink and not be drunk, P2?
April 5, 2022
Your comment was trivial and without any fact.
You tries to reduce the comment made by saying he had been drinking.
Pathetic.
April 9, 2022
So generous of you, P2, to see such a knight in shining armour coming to the rescue of the widow and the orphan.
Iâll think I will make up some more outrage just to have you creep out of your lair to scold me, youâre so funny.
April 5, 2022
Spot on Donna. Just Like PRESIDENT Trump who cares about his country and unlike the Puppets Biden and Boris.
April 4, 2022
But Switzerland’s treacherous political class put her in the Schengen Area and Single Market when the people had voted against the EU. Now at least a quarter of the population is foreign. And almost overnight.
April 4, 2022
Swissinfo.ch âDefining the 25% foreign population in. Switzerlandâ 19/11/2017 makes a picture âslightlyâ different from your âsomewhat biasedâ post.
April 4, 2022
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/births–deaths–foreigners-_swiss-population-stats-reveal-strong-changes-in-society-/45402840
“At the end of 2018, Switzerlandâs population was 8,544,527, the Federal Statistical Office said on Friday. Foreigners made up 25.1%. This is much higher than in Austria (19.2%), Germany (16.6%), France (12.2%) and Italy (10.2%). ”
And that was then.
April 4, 2022
Democracy be damnâŠ.every step away from a manifesto pledge or election commitment is a knife in the heart & soul of democracy
April 4, 2022
Yes, rose, 25.1% of the Swiss population are foreigners. But please tell us, where are they from? In what sector do they work? The link you refer to does not tell us. You must have had a reason to write your first post today. Please tell us why you felt inclined to share this with us.
And your âalmost overnightâ: according to your reference this increase in the number of foreigners in Switzerland has happened over more than forty years.
You must have very long nights.
April 4, 2022
Curious, that in discussions in Turkey, Russia has not stated that Ukraine’s possible joining of the European Union was one of its red lines, but only that of NATO, or such military alliances.
The popular revolt in 2014 – which happened when the pro-Russian president reneged on his undertakings towards European Union membership – now seems pretty moot, as there have been two elections since and both have returned presidents sympathetic to the wishes of the people in that regard, judged free and fair by international observers and a darned sight more democratic than anything that happens in Putin’s mafia thug terror state.
April 4, 2022
Hungary is land-locked.
It can therefore put up a fence to keep out any incomers that it wants.
Italy, Greece, and the UK cannot do this under the law of the sea.
April 4, 2022
Australia has an enormous coastline, yet they didn’t use some ‘law of the sea’ as an excuse for the arrival of economic migrants. There is a variety of things that can be done, including removal of pull factors, rapid deportation, and incarceration of illegal arrivals. The reason nothing is done is that mass immigration is desired by our political elites and the globalists who are pulling their strings.
April 4, 2022
+1 beresford
April 4, 2022
The position was quite different.
It was known that the boat people to Australia were setting off from a land which was neither one from which asylum was claimable, nor a route from another which was.
It was under that law that Australia acted.
The crafts were quite different too.
April 4, 2022
Agreed
April 4, 2022
Indeed they are supporting their hidden policy!
April 4, 2022
Under the Law of the Sea refer to Immigration Watch briefing papers MW495
We are not obligated to do all we are doing.
I trust far more in anything Migration Watch report than the British Government.
April 4, 2022
You’re up to your myth-making again, lad. Here is what the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea actually says (article 33):-
‘1. In a zone contiguous to its territorial sea, described as the contiguous zone, the coastal State may exercise the control necessary to:
(a) prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea
(b) punish infringement of the above laws and regulations committed within its territory or territorial sea.
2. The contiguous zone may not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.’
So under international law we can certainly keep out incomers if our immigration laws and regulations provide for that.
April 4, 2022
That does not permit machine gunning, sinking, or otherwise endangering those on board as some here would apparently want.
April 4, 2022
You are making it up again NLH.
April 4, 2022
apparently? evidence or showing your amazing mind reading skill again?
April 4, 2022
It has been stated expressly by some.
April 4, 2022
This âlaw of the seaâ you refer to – who made the law? Is âthe lawâ the universal practice (and obviously the right thing to do) of providing aid to those in trouble on the sea? Is there a law that says that anyone who turns up in a boat on your shores (not in peril on the sea) and who refuses to say who they are and where they are from must be given asylum? If there is such a law it must be repealed.
I have always regarded the Freedom of Movement sacrosanct to the EU as laudable but completely impractical. After all, if a lot more people move to a country than leave it, there are obvious issues with housing, employment and the provision of welfare and public services. It occurred to me the other day that freedom of movement within a country has brought huge problems. Following the agrarian revolution and during the industrial revolution millions moved from the land to the cities. The result was slums and squalor – low wages and long hours. I am not sure this Freedom of Movement is all it is cracked up to be.
April 4, 2022
There is no such law. If anyone fetches up on our shore – or through more conventional points of entry – may claim asylum and their case is assessed by a slow, but standard procedure. If they are judged not to be a genuine asylum seeker but an economic migrant – or worse, ejection should follow.
April 4, 2022
There is no such thing as “the law of the sea”. this is just a nonsensical phrase invented by internationalist extremists who don’t understand that treaties are NOT laws. Treaties are just international agreements, and what one government agrees to the next can resile from. A sovereign nation can resile from any treaty at any time, either in whole or in part. This is exactly what we should do in the case of the Channel invaders, the Northern Ireland Protocol and asylum seekers in general. But our cowardly, internationalist, left-wing, stupid and traitorous government will not do this, which is why I refuse to vote for them again.
April 4, 2022
The law of the sea says that you must rescue those in difficulty as sea and disembark them at a safe harbourâŠ.it doesnât say a port of their choice
April 4, 2022
It’s far easier for Hungary, whatever nonsense you might claim.
April 4, 2022
I was quoting UN charter….is that nonsense
April 4, 2022
Mark:
Re your second paragraph. Iâm betting we will be paying towards the reconstruction of Ukraine. Even. if we are not asked, Boris will offer. He seems to have got the idea, that there is unlimited money in the UK to do exactly what he wishes, with no reference to the taxpayer.
I expect that to continue.
April 4, 2022
Of course he’ll offer.
In fact I’m sure he’ll insist.
April 4, 2022
No doubt about it. Boris will certainly want to be the BIGGEST contributor to the Ukraine. His ego and his virtue signalling has to be satisfied by the UK taxpayer, no matter how poor we become. Boris will ensure there are unlimited funds for any country in the world (except the UK), even China. Why do we borrow money just to give it away???
April 4, 2022
Shirley. Perhaps it pleases her indoors.
April 4, 2022
CG, if there was a university subject on “spending other people’s money” Boris Johnson would pass with the highest possible distinction.
April 4, 2022
Indeed
I seem to recall whenever we have gone to war, we pay other Countries for any arms we need from them, no one gave us anything much.
After World War two America ended it twice as rich as when it started, indeed we have only just settled the Bill recently, very many decades later.
We did not even claim anything off the Germans for reparations, but instead helped them to rebuild.
Did anyone actually give us any equipment for the Falklands ?
No, it was have anything you like, as long as you pay for it !
Not suggesting we should not help Ukraine out in some way or form, but let us not cripple ourselves yet again to do so.
We are no longer the Worlds Policeman or Charity.
The UK Public are very generous when asked to help humanitarian causes, so let the UK people decide how much and how generous they want to be with their own money.
April 4, 2022
Alan, theyâve pushed us too far they just donât realise it yet.
April 4, 2022
We got Sidewinders from the US and the offer a carrier (USS Ranger I believe). Took the missles which were of enornous help.
Chile also helped – Unoffically đ
April 4, 2022
He spends like a drunken sailor. Never any consideration if we, the English, can afford his grandiose gestures. Biggest debts, highest taxation for useless health and public service provision. The wokster needs to be removed!
April 4, 2022
You are not supposed to like Viktor Orban, he is a target of the Western mainstream media/political elite. However, the Hungarians seem to like him.
He doesn’t like George Soros interference and says so (noted in his recent speech after re-election) so is never going to be a pin up unlike Trudeau who seems to not warrant any bad press at all despite his handling of Canadian truckers.
April 4, 2022
As I said, You don’t bite the hand that feeds you !
He has been taking EU (German) money and will not follow their rules, or at least appears to to the audience. Much like CMD use to pretend he was a Eurosceptic until he got into Number 10 and then just wanted everybody to shut up about ‘Europe’.
It is a principle that seems lost on some people these days.
April 4, 2022
Orban was the ONLY leader who supported the UK when Cameron tried to oppose the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission. Merkel, who had promised Cameron her support, betrayed Britain and supported Juncker in the end. So we should ALL support Orban, as he was the only one to support us!
As for Ukraine wanting to join the EU, that’s hardly surprising as they will receive billions to help them boost their economy. We were net contributors, forced to pay money to our economic competitors (one very strong reason to vote to leave!), but Ukraine will be a net recipient for the next decade at least!
April 5, 2022
https://www.euronews.com/2021/09/14/hungary-pm-viktor-orban-responds-to-criticism-from-timothy-garton-ash-view
This is a piece by Orban on the Western predicament. In answer to an earlier attack by Ash, not this latest one.
April 5, 2022
You start off with: ‘Both sides have committed war crimes’
– And that excuses Pootin’s march into Ukraine?
Come on. Get real. Whatever, the Ukranians have done or not what is 100% clear is that Pootin is a brutal dictator who has invaded Ukraine – and shouldn’t be there for the Ukrainians to commit war crimes or not.
April 6, 2022
‘Both sides have committed war crimes’ – that sounds like in the spirit of appeasement to Pootin who invaded Ukraine. We need to stand up to this bully / brutal dictator or he’ll push us around all over.
God bless and defend Ukraine, the world and us.
April 4, 2022
Why do I get the feeling this problem with Russia and Ukraine isn’t going away all the time membership of the EU is on the table? All the time Putin in charge war could break out again. All this talk of EU and Nato membership is not going to bring and peace quickly and just what will be left of Ukraine worth fighting for? Perhaps if Putin goes things may improve but in the meantime Ukraine is looking less and less like a country and more like rubble in the wilderness. Sometimes compromise is the only way but that takes two.
April 4, 2022
Putin and his negotiators seems quite sanguine about the European Union and its military ambitions, probably because he sees it as weakening NATO and Europe’s freeing itself from the US’s orbit.
April 4, 2022
There is a brilliant and very clever article in Asia Times (2 April)by Spengler(pseudonym of it’s editor,David P Goldman-and a nod,presumably to Oswald Spengler):”Cardinal Richelieu explains Vladimir Putin.The Cardinal’s ghost cites his own “grey eminence” to show that time is the deadliest of weapons.”
It imagines a conversation between Spengler and Richelieu’s ghost,referencing the Thirty Years War (and the Chechen Wars),and is a highly recommended read(it’s google-able):
“A quick victory,indeed?And what makes you think Putin ever wanted a quick victory?”The Cardinal chortled.”Now ,my naive friend,Putin commands Chechen shock troops in Ukraine(a reference to the French bribing Lutheran Sweden to intervene in the Thirty Years War to destroy the Catholic German forces and ravage the land).Putin understands the systematic exploitation of time as the deadliest of all weapons.Ukraine was hollow before the war began.It had one of the world’s lowest birth rates and it’s birth rate will fall even further.12 million Ukrainians,fully half the able bodied population of working age,had left before the war started.Another 5 million have fled.As Russian artillery pounds Ukraine’s cities,more will flee.How many will return?Large parts of Ukraine will fall into ruin.Centuries of Ruthenian(the old name for the westernmost of the east Slavs) resentment against Russian overlords encrusted over the centuries will be consumed in a few weeks of war,and,in it’s place,there will be nothing but a dull sense of horror.”
The Cardinal wasn’t finished gloating.”The foolish West believes it can encircle Russia and force Putin from power.Europe cannot do without Russian oil and gas and will continue to pay Putin a billion dollars a day,no matter how despised he is.Most foolish of all the West imagines the stolid,brutal war of attrition that Russia is fighting denotes a failure to achieve it’s objectives,when war itself is Putin’s objective,just as it was Father Joseph’s(Richelieu’s head of intelligence) objective at Regensburg in 1630….”
A great read.
April 4, 2022
Putin is seventy next Oct. 7th.
April 5, 2022
Russia is 1200+ years old already.
April 5, 2022
Spain’s pretty old too, but when Franco died things changed a bit – same for one or two other places.
April 5, 2022
What exactly do you want the UK to do about the Ukraine and Putin Mitchel?
April 5, 2022
Surrender, it seems.
April 6, 2022
You can’t compromise with a school bully / a dangerous psychopath / a brutal dictator.
You have to show them strength. Whilst keep praying and thinking and working hard to find a way out that’s good for all.
April 6, 2022
(Only God can change the heart of a brutal dictator / a dangerous psychopath / a school bully – I never give up hope – but we have to pray and for peace in general – but at same time, we can’t be doormats – ‘compromising’ is essentially just being a doormat. At least, in this case, Pootin essentially violated Ukraine’s sovereignty. Why should Ukraine compromise that (when, also, Pootin will then just charge, like a bully – into whichever country he wants to go into next – for his ‘legacy’).
April 4, 2022
The EU’s development of a Defence identity is a further complication. Perhaps the EU’s position on the Ukraine Question should be that while EEA membership will be offered, Union membership won’t be. In case this sounds a bit wussy on my part, I’m rather more hawkish regarding Finland and Sweden. Any further threatening noises from Russia regarding their security should be met with an immediate deployment of EU forces (not NATO’s). And Moldova? I’d favour a deployment of US forces as trainers. Biden’s itching to do it!
P.S. Ukraine really needs to keep hold of Odessa and the coastline west of Crimea.
April 4, 2022
What EU forces? Apart from the French none of the other member nations have much in the way of a defence capability….. which is why they want to suck the UK into their EU Armed Military proposals.
April 4, 2022
European, not European Union.
The UK is rightly fully committed to co-operation in that field.
April 4, 2022
The Combined Joint Expeditionary Force, a joint UK-French military force, is independent of the EUâs Common Security and Defence Policy but following an agreement by both the UK and French governments can be made available for bilateral, NATO, UN and EU operations.
So the comment âthey want to suck the UK into their EU Armed Military proposalsâ is rather irrelevant as the CJEF has been established in 2010 by the Lancaster House treaty.
Interestingly the 2016 referendum has not had any (obvious) impact on the CJEF as it exists outside EU institutional structures.
April 4, 2022
The west should help the Ukraine military to kick out the Russians from both the Donbas regions and the Crimea peninsula and keep all international sanctions until Russia pays full reparationsâŠwe canât afford to let bullies win, half negotiated settlements always come back to bite
April 4, 2022
I substantially agree but feel that there should be some give in sanctions available to offer Putin now, as an aid to getting him out of most of Ukraine. The amount of ‘give’ should be communicated to Zelensky, so he can negotiate effectively. But the substantial part of the sanctions package need to remain in place until Putin has left office and reparations have been paid. And every last Western dependency on Russia must be removed.
April 4, 2022
Pootin’s a brutal dictator. Apparently, all he cares about now is his friggin ‘LEGACY’ (grow up). He’s also, of course, quite insane – although clever – and a criminal so who really knows what he wants or might do. Mainly hold on to power (and now, stay safe). But he might go long-haul in Ukraine and then try for the Baltic countries. So we need to toughen sanctions. What military aid should we be giving to Ukraine (not forgetting Pootin’s WMD. But then he might be more scared to use them if we’re tough with him now)? He might focus on taking Eastern Ukraine and then getting his army in order to attack again in a year or two. This is a very dangerous man. To lives in Ukraine (and Russia) but further afield in Europe and elsewhere. And of course to our economy.
God bless Ukraine and keep Europe and the world safe from this brutal dictator.
April 4, 2022
+1 glen
April 4, 2022
Madness.
April 4, 2022
Oh, something has changed, a system glitch must have been rectified.
April 4, 2022
I agree, Glen.
April 5, 2022
Russia could easily promise to pay reparations after the US pays its.. that will never happen so Russia will never.
April 4, 2022
The desire and yearning by Putin to want to try and reclaim the countries lost on the break up of the USSR has been allowed to fester as Russia grew more powerful as a supplier of essential EU needs and countries tended to look after their own interests leaving Russia to become more powerful economically as well as military.
The biggest risk and concerns if the Ukraine situation is handled badly by the opposition to Russias action, the only real worry will be what country will be next. The EU is far from presenting a united front as each country looks to its own problems caused by the war and attempts are made to lessen the impact on themselves.
With the every growing question regarding war crimes could bring about the downfall of the Russian regime as it is the people who will suffer in that they will all be tarred with the same brush.
All the time of a WW3 hovers in the background. No one country can do it on its own and the EU and the other countries supportive of Ukraine must be totally united and rock solid in their decision making and cast differences aside. It was the failure to do this got us into this mess and gave out signs of disunity and weakness.
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
WW3 is a possibility.
Please pray. Prayer is powerful (when Field Marshal Alan Brooke first heard the German Luftwaffe flying over London, he stopped what he was doing – and prayed for deliverance from the terrifying, deadly, Nazi bombers).
April 4, 2022
There has been talk about Putin having cancer. There has been talk about Putin having a doppelganger to avoid assassination .Is all about leaders stamping their feet down to get their own way and willing to dispose of life which gets in their way. I simply do not understand the lengths tribes of vicious animals are prepared to go to dance to the name of a leader.The reports from Ukraine show evidence of troops enjoying themselves amid genocide. They are all sick.. if it is true that Putin has cancer and doesn’t really care about other lives , it seems to be catching.
April 4, 2022
It’s the same in the UK only on a more benign level.
One man and his consort impoverishing us all with their stupidity.
We are a nation of 70 million being led down a blind alley by 500 or so arts graduates.
April 4, 2022
Ian Wragg
Well said Ian, but will it change?
April 4, 2022
Well said Ian, spoilt children in mind when one listens to our PM.
April 4, 2022
Are you sure it’s only 70 million.
Likely more, and growing by the day. 70 million plus of a people now no longer held together by a shared and core common identity. It’s not the make up any longer of a people that could give this 500 arts graduates their marching orders.
April 4, 2022
65 million UK citizens and 5 million illegal immigrants
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
Why can’t many see beyond a degree. A degree is a few years of reading others work . Of course a philosophy degree helps people actually think about their own life in relation to others and research in this field elucidates how many superficial narcissistic beings there are. Why focus on degrees and not people as individuals with a mind of their own? All people have their own minds however self centred they may be. I have a science and art degrees and the cross over for the same material is starkly present .Facts are facts and there is an art to using them in an appropriate way.
April 4, 2022
however, Ian’s point remains true !
April 4, 2022
Well said Margaret.
April 4, 2022
The whole point is that science and engineering uses numbers and systems to predict logical outcomes whereas arts degrees use stories, emotions and general observations to produce, often, fantasies from erroneous conclusions.
It’s too easy to stir people up with narrative and stories to become frightened or elated with next to no evidence base. Many years ago the BBC would have been frightening people away from setting sail for fear they would fall off the edge of the earth. Clearly people going and not returning was evidence enough for them that they had fallen off.
A scientist is far more likely to be sceptical and even cynical about anything provided by an artist without fundamental evidence.
April 4, 2022
Here in the West, we have forgotten the realities of war. Video games and blockbuster CGI movies show things getting blown up and the ‘enemy’ being killed (usually by the player) and it all becomes unreal. Then someone sends young soldiers into a conflict they are not mentally prepared for and they quickly find themselves in a living nightmare. Their tanks and armoured vehicles offer no protection from modern infantry weapons and with a 90% ‘kill’ rate, a direct hit means a very nasty death for the crew. They don’t have enough supplies to eat or stay warm. I’ll guess their average age as 18-22. I was surprised to hear that the Russians don’t seem to have a cadre of NCOs to keep order either.
So cold, hungry and frightened young men, with no effective leadership, seeing their mates getting burnt alive or blown to pieces are not going to stay civilised for very long. It’s no longer a video game – it’s back to basic kill or be killed and the rulebook goes out the window. I’m afraid “Be Kind” isn’t going to work…
PS Hollywood, the place that gave you ‘John Wick’ is offended when someone gets slapped?
April 4, 2022
+10
April 4, 2022
Absolutely, Ian.
April 4, 2022
So much of the negative behaviour of adults is down to how they were treated as children. This isn’t an excuse for bad behaviour, and people ultimately have to take responsibility for their own behaviour, but helps to explain a bit / a lot. Hitler was beaten blue by his father. Mind you, there are important exceptions to this. Heydrich was born into a wealthy family with lots of arts and his parents treated him well. I think Heydrich is the most chilling of the Nazis as he had absolutely no excuse whatsoever. And then of course you get people who are the complete opposite. Who grew up with no parental love or family security but still, by their own efforts, turned into responsible adults and kind / decent to others.
And so why it’s so important that we try and foster a country with happy, balanced, functional families. (I hope every MP in Parliament has read Alice Miller’s classic ‘The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self’ – a brilliant book of psychology (this book up there with Freud / Jung) about just how detrimental the behaviour of parents can be to their children (and how, although she doesn’t go into this, this can be detrimental to a country – its economy / finances etc as others have to pick up the pieces of the failure of parents – ‘pieces’ that can often cost a country billions and billions.).
April 4, 2022
It is difficult to know exactly what is going on and what will happen next. Both sides spin the news to suit their own agenda, as do other interested parties.
Meanwhile some politicians will use the conflict as an opportunity to play at being world statesmen.
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
I very much agree, Peter. The one-sidedness of the war reporting has outdone the way British media reported the Falklands war, which was our fight, unlike this one. The term ‘fog of war’ was never more appropriate than it is now, and we would do well to let it dissipate somewhat before taking sides. There’s one thing that’s very clear, though: the determination of the Ukraine authorities and the PR agencies working for them to pin some atrocity on Russia that will compel NATO to fight the Russians in another ‘humanitarian’ war. That doesn’t work for me.
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
There doesnât appear to be any journalists embedded with troops, its all after action reports
April 4, 2022
There’s a Chinese journalist embeded with the Russians
April 4, 2022
Lu Yuguang is embedded with Russian troops, Rodion Severyanov also was with them. Some US reporters are with the troops deployed in Poland, Baltic republics, Slovakia and Romania (Pentagon Press Association, Military Reporters and Editors Association). B. Sachalko, I. Lyubysh-Kirdey from Time magazine, B. Hall from Fox are with Ukrainian troops.
From a two-minute search on the web âŠ
April 4, 2022
It’s easy to know some of the things that are not going on, however.
That is, Ukraine has no troops or tanks in Russia killing Russian civilians.
April 4, 2022
very true – and what a shame!
April 4, 2022
I fully agree.
It seems here certain people have jumped straight in to add fuel to the fire.
Supplying arms with no attempt to help in negotiations. Silly school boy remarks and name calling of Putin and ordinary Russian’s being cancelled left right and centre, is hardly the stuff of calming troubled waters.
I have a horrible feeling the suffering of the ordinary Ukrainian people hasn’t been helped at all but used by some for their own, as you say, posturing on the world stage.
April 4, 2022
On the other hand, if Ukraine had no weapons then there would be no negotiations. Putin would have total control.
April 4, 2022
Here’s an interesting piece of news, Peter: A report by the US Energy Information Administration says the volume of Russian oil imports by the United States has increased by 43% from March 19 to 25 compared to the previous week. This was a fortnight after Biden banned the import of Russian oil to the US.
So it’s ‘Make us virtuous, O Lord, but not yet’?
April 4, 2022
There’s also talk of Russian oil being rebranded as Venezuelan-as Venezuela is now viewed as the lesser of the evils.
April 4, 2022
The USA were imported one litre, now 1.43 litres? Is that it? Without the actual quantities in barrels such info is meaningless.
April 4, 2022
oops ⊠importing
April 4, 2022
Good try, Hefner, but no. The US ‘acquired around 100 thousand barrels per day’ 19-25 March. ‘This amount exceeds the 70 thousand BD bought from Russia in the previous week.’
https://www.plenglish.com/news/2022/03/30/us-increased-oil-imports-from-russia/
Of course Washington will reduce its Russian oil imports. But… not yet.
April 4, 2022
Clough, where did you get that information from? I looked at the US Energy Information Administration website (eia.gov) and tried to find the information you report in the various reports published on 31/03 and 01/04 2022. The oil imports from Russia to the USA had been
6,383 thousand barrels in Octâ21, 5,460 tb in Novâ21, 2,792 tb in Decâ21, 138 tb in Janâ22. I could not find any info for Feb or Mar.
Could you please share your information.
April 4, 2022
Given all that has happened in the last 2 years why would we suddenly trust the media?
How bizarre that the western govts which imprisoned their people and have opened all borders should suddenly support overt nationalism and respect of borders.
I thought that all this had been going on since 2014? Weâve taken our time to start flag waving.
How very odd too that all of it should chime so handily with green reset ambitions.
April 4, 2022
Absolutely. We are being played like violins. If the sock-puppet that is the POTUS is usurped by Obama’s Marxist chosen one then US democracy will look like Russia in no time at all. It’s all too grotesque to bear
April 4, 2022
+many
âGrotesqueâ is precisely the word.
April 4, 2022
At what, exactly were you looking on that Jan 6th?
April 4, 2022
+1
Astute.
April 4, 2022
Ukraine’s been a plaything of Communist genocide, Soviet oppression and western interference since time immemorial and as always it is the civilian population who have to pick up the brutal cost of political exploitation
I am surprised that in the war of propaganda the halfwits in Washington and our political class have never made direct reference to Europe’s first ever genocide, the Holodomer. Maybe such a real event is far to real for the progressive fantasists that have now taken control of the west
I am disturbed by the timeline of events from Covid onwards. It all seems to orchestrated that I for one feel ‘played’ and part of some global theatrical game
Someone tell Johnson he’s no war leader. HE AIN’T NO THATCHER AND he’ll never be a ‘Thatcher’, ever. Thatcher would never have given way to BLM and Stonewall.
Democrat party grifters. Labour and SNP pilferers and a Tory party so captured and cowed that I cannot see how our free world can ever become a reality again
I pray that the British voter at some point will wake up and stop voting for subjugation
April 4, 2022
someone needs to tell him ‘he ain’t no PM worth the title’.
A posh-boy joker who has a First in bullshit.
April 4, 2022
Unlike most of Johnson’s clique, and silly, mouthy grandstanders like Farage, Thatcher was at least prepared to work hard.
April 4, 2022
faint praise indeed – are you feeling ok?
April 4, 2022
NHL is getting carried away MT
Over posting as usual
April 4, 2022
You seem to have caught on that an agenda is at hand.
Could you be certain Thatcher wouldn’t have given in to BLM and Stonewall. It depends on where you think the timeline starts from on this agenda. I think it was way before covid.
April 4, 2022
DOM, +1,
April 4, 2022
++++many
April 4, 2022
The biggest massacre of Jews ,prior to the holocaust,took place in what is now Ukraine in the 17th century during the Cossack uprising against the Polish attempt to occupy their lands.
April 4, 2022
The Bogdan Khmelnytsky rebellion against the Poles who had taken over the Ukraine(from Lithuania) as part of terms of the 1569 Union of Lublin which created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.The Poles introduced large numbers of unwanted Jews to their new nominal possession to boost it’s economy and also forcefully promoted Catholicism amongst the Orthodox Cossack Host of south-central Ukraine.They rose in rebellion,formed an alliance with the Khan of Crimea and,together,destroyed an invading Polish-Lithuanian army at the Battle of Batih (1652);The Khan’s Tartar Horde prevented the flight of the Polish Guard cavalry(comprising the sons of the Polish nobility) from the battlefield and sold their captives to the Cossacks who beheaded every one of them(the really unlucky ones were also disembowled).
The Cossacks then put themselves under the protection of the Tsar,signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav which effectively retroceded Ukraine east of the Dnepr river to Moscow(it had been part of the original medieval Rus state) and went on the rampage reaching as far as the Vistula River in Poland massacring any Jews and Catholics they came across.With the signing of the Pereyaslav treaty war also broke out between Poland and Muscovite Russia,the latter invading and devastating Lithuania and parts of Ukraine.Seeing Poland’s weakness,the protestant states of Sweden to the north,Prussia to the east and Transylvania to the south also invaded Poland -the Polish “Deluge”as history records it.
Ultimately,in 1667,the Poles signed the Truce of Andrusovo with Russia and,in 1686,the Eternal Peace Treaty which confirmed the territory east of the Dnepr as Russian.
Etc ed
April 4, 2022
However, they now have a Jewish president, democratically elected.
April 4, 2022
It is difficult to see how a peace settlement can be agreed so long as Russia claims land Ukraine claims as its own. The West does not want Russia to “win” for justified fear of the consequences. Yet it too is now inextricably involved both because it supplies weapons to Ukraine and is engaged in an economic war with Russia with significant consequences of their own. It will come down to who has the greater staying power and who blinks first. This conflict could drag on for a long time.
April 4, 2022
oldtimer, agreed.
If Russia retains any land inside what were Ukraine borders, then it proves force has won (albeit at a huge cost to both sides), this will not cease or be settled until at the very least Putin is no longer in power.
Ukraine Joining NATO or the EU will certainly lead to more complication going forwards..
April 4, 2022
A large proportion of Ukraine’s population are ethnic Russian. If the desired outcome that Ukraine regains all of its territory occurs, there may follow a vengeful expulsion of those Russians (many of whom are innocent) in the same way that countries expelled ethnic Germans after WW2. Fair partition may be the best outcome.
April 4, 2022
beresford
Perhaps once all territory is regained, and after time has settled, to perhaps eventually hold a genuine and democratic referendum or vote, providing only residents of the agreed area take part, so that people cannot be just bussed in from either side.
April 4, 2022
It is bitter again today.
The cost of keeping warm is becoming prohibitive.
Milk is going up in price by 50% ( if that MSM figure is accurate)
Why would we trust this govtâs view or version of anything?
Arenât all the âGreat Powersâ on the same NWO side anyway?
All in the club.
All wanting The Great Reset.
They are certainly waging war against their people!
April 4, 2022
Too true Everhopeful
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
Wish I had an extra couple of grand to pay for my rising bills…..yeah know like our MPs
April 4, 2022
Me too!đ„¶
April 4, 2022
+99
They’re just the ones who make the rules – doesn’t mean they have to be impoverished as well
April 5, 2022
And even better, as reported today by Martin Williams, openDemocracy: âMPs claimed ÂŁ420,000 on expenses for their energy billsâ. (also on the express.co.uk site).
405 MPs including some (in)famous names.
April 4, 2022
E h
They are waging war against us, and with deadly effect.
‘Vaccines that have not been fully trialed, with numerous serious side effects and deaths.
Net Zero. A policy that will surely kill people in fuel poverty.
April 4, 2022
jeez what a load of cobblers.
April 4, 2022
Mickey – that’s not very different from what the Speaker of the HoC said last Thursday to Christopher Chope MP, who was doing his job raising health concerns and the need to investigate them.
Perhaps serious issues should be handled in a more serious tone.
April 5, 2022
so you refused the vaccines? ‘ Not fully trialed?’
April 5, 2022
There are none so blind as those that will not look
April 5, 2022
does that include ‘âVaccines that have not been fully trialed, with numerous serious side effects and deaths.’?
Trials go on for years and years – how long should we have waited to ‘prove’ safe to everybody (an impossibility)? I believe UK has now had 140m doses put in upper arm.
16 years to 100 odd……is that enough or should we stop giving them?
April 4, 2022
+1
Absolutely.
And famine probably.
We are now surplus to requirements.
April 4, 2022
I found a new word yesterday.
Donât know whether it is rude or not but maybe some on here have been looking for such a name.
Kakistocracy.
Government by the most unsuitable and least competent citizens.
April 4, 2022
It’s a perfectly good and useful word.
April 4, 2022
I used it here a few weeks ago!
April 4, 2022
M, Indeed, you did. And it had been applied by a former CIA director John Brennan and the economist Paul Krugman to Trumpâs way of governing the USA during the blessed years of his tenure.
April 4, 2022
+1
Certainly feels like it.
April 4, 2022
The Ukrainian government claims about what the Russians have done in 2022 quite closely mirror Russian claims about what the Ukrainian forces, including neo-Nazi volunteer battalions, did in Donbas in 2014 and 2015. The big difference is that RT is no longer allowed to broadcast the Russian side in the EU and in the UK; hearing that it was about to be banned I recorded three programmes which have a lot to say about what went on then and afterwards, allegedly. However if you search for “war crimes” here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas
there are five references, some condemning the Ukrainian forces and some condemning the insurgents and the Russians, including this from the fairly reputable Newsweek in late 2014:
https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604
“Ukrainian Nationalist Volunteers Committing ‘ISIS-Style’ War Crimes”.
Which again is mirroring today’s Metro claim that the Russians are “Worse than Isis”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-60977312
My view is that both sides share the same historical tradition of brutality and it was a terrible mistake for the west – the US, NATO and the EU – to stir things up unnecessarily and so “unleash the dogs of war”.
April 4, 2022
War dehumanises soldiers, regardless of country. Leaders should factor this into their decision for military action, but it seems they never do.
Rape and pillage – the soldier’s perks. Has been since the Assyrian Empire.
April 4, 2022
Everything you say applies also to the Kosovan War where Blair and Clinton allowed the KLA to wag the NATO dog. Balkan atrocities go back centuries and cannot be pinned on one nation.
April 4, 2022
The coup and polarisation of Ukraine has left the Eastern provinces against joining the EU and Nato. The city of Mariupol where the Azov regiment, as part of the Ukrainian army, was sent to suppress the population, was polled before the invasion on how they considered themselves and their region.
A large proportion were Russian or Ukrainian Russian speaking, few wanted to become part of Russia, few wanted to join the EU or Nato, few wanted their region to leave Ukraine and many blamed the post coup government for the breakaway Donbas because of the hostility and ban on the Russian language.
The poll was by Norwegian and Finnish researchers and published by Vox Ukraine.
April 4, 2022
So you claim that it is symmetrical.
So where are the hundreds of Ukrainian tanks, and scores of thousands of troops in Russia, shelling Russian cities to rubble and murdering Russian civilians then?
April 4, 2022
A lot of those tanks have probably been knocked out by now, lad, but Kiev’s army still has a lot of artillery and rocket launchers bombarding and killing ethnic Russians in the Donbas. As they have been doing on and off for the last 8 years. As you would know if you’d followed the OSCE monitoring mission in the Donbas. Here’s its report for 21st February: https://www.osce.org/files/2022-02-22%20Daily%20Report_ENG.pdf?itok=63057
Have a look at which side of the line the great majority of the explosions took place. I think your view of the Ukraine war needs to be broad enough to acknowledge that this has been happening, before you deride Denis Cooper.
April 5, 2022
So you and those below simply repeat your erroneous and groundless claim.
April 4, 2022
The Ukrainian forces have tanks and artillery. The breakaway regions have been shelled and large numbers have been killed since 2014. The British and US have been training and arming these regiments. The Azovs wear the dark sun symbol etc ed
April 5, 2022
That is civil war, within a nation, not invasion by another.
April 4, 2022
Why don’t you see whether RT has anything to say about that? Oh, of course, you can’t now, at least not on TV, because part of our noble defence of democracy and freedom has involved shutting down its broadcasts.
April 4, 2022
What happens when Ukraine sends some missiles on to Russian cities in retaliation?
April 4, 2022
Kolomoisky not Illinois. Auto correct.
April 4, 2022
I wonder if the ‘ordinary people’ of Russia support this war. I know they’re scared to speak out against Putin. If one had the courage to assassinate him, it would quickly end.
April 4, 2022
the ordinary people haven’t found out !
April 4, 2022
Putin is very popular and lots of ordinary Russians support the war. That is an unpalatable fact that the metropolitan left here donât acknowledge. It complicates matters, itâs not just Putin whoâs the problem and removing him wonât solve it.
April 4, 2022
Plenty of Ukrainians have recounted how they ring their relations in Russia while they are being bombed and shelled and the relations don’t believe them. They are all for Putin’s version.
April 4, 2022
Agree â the parallel are the same with our green revolution, the media and elites are in favour but the working class plebs are scared to speak out against the orders of our government and the opposition in fear of being labelled climate deniers or cancelled
April 4, 2022
He has the ex-KGB friendly Patriarch Kirill telling Russians that it’s a holy war, and worth all the destruction and killing to prevent gay pride marches and the like.
Kirill is rightly being condemned across the religious world, from the rest of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and by increasing numbers within the Russian one too.
April 4, 2022
Missed the motor rally in Thessaloniki,Greece,over the weekend did you?The one with the Greek and Russian flags and the chant of “Greece,Russia,Orthodoxy!”
Or the earlier demonstrations in Serbia(pro-Russian parties increased their vote in the elections at the weekend) and Bulgaria?
You may need to cast your reading net a little wider to be credible.
April 5, 2022
You get unpleasant minorities everywhere.
We have our own in the UK.
April 5, 2022
many would agree.
April 5, 2022
You are right about Momentum NHL.
April 5, 2022
For the record, Momentum were 30,000 out of around half-a-million Labour members, and fully democratic.
They were/are nothing like Militant Tendency.
They’re pro-European Union, funnily enough.
April 4, 2022
I certainly blame Russia for the murderous assault on Ukraine; but I also blame America/NATO and the EU for deliberately provoking Putin to the point where he would invade. If the situation were reversed and, say, Mexico was being encouraged to join a military organisation and political grouping which were historically both seen as hostile by the USA, they would not have meekly ignored it.
We are generally seeing only one side of the story in the MSM, however, it appears that the military on both sides have committed war crimes although the Russians have murdered many civilians whilst the Ukrainians are, by geography, restricted to the Russian invaders. But I’m not convinced that Ukrainian soldiers wouldn’t deliberately kill Russian civilians if they were able. Culturally, they are not so very different from Russians although, given a few decades of closer association with the West, perhaps they might become more westernised.
Zelensky has already accepted that Ukraine will not join NATO. Whether or not they join the EU is none of our business, but if they do it will just further weaken it. Prior to the war, Ukraine’s economy was weak and it is a very corrupt country. Now it is shattered. The EU can’t afford another basket-case economy and doesn’t have the funds to rebuild a country where vast swathes have been reduced to rubble.
And there is no reason why the UK should pay to rebuild Ukraine …… although I fully expect that at least 600 virtue-signalling parasites in the House of Commons will tell us there is. And that will include a Chancellor who tells us there is no money to protect poor British people from the consequences of the Net Zero lunacy and a Prime Minister who is enjoying strutting around on the world stage playing War Leader.
April 4, 2022
If perceived corruption is a factor in Ukraine joining the EU, then they have further to go than Turkey.
I would hope that Ukraine having thrown off the attempted Russian control, won’t then surrender themselves to Brussels.
April 4, 2022
As to who should pay, well that should be Russia, with a proportion of payments for their oil and gas going to the reparation fund.
Regardless of who pays, I expect large amounts of money to go into the pockets of well-connected individuals.
April 4, 2022
But that unpaid oil and gas, which Russia is continuing to provide, would then be quickly cut off. File under ‘bad ideas’, Dave.
April 4, 2022
Donna. +many
April 4, 2022
@ Donna – re your final paragraph, that is very sound indeed, do not begrudge Boris a bit if strutting for surely it is one of the few pleasures left to him now.
April 4, 2022
Or even Cuba…
April 4, 2022
Your concerns are my concerns and probably the concerns of a good many people.
April 4, 2022
The invasions of Ukraine isn’t a traditional war. The Ukraine it taking heavy damage and Russia is taking none. Maybe the Russians people don’t know the extent of the damage and the killing of civilians taking place in Ukraine. They are insulated from it, and if they are mostly unaware of it and not allowed to reveal it anyway, then there is no real opposition to Putin.
April 4, 2022
Shirley, the Russians know very well the extent of the damage caused to Eastern Ukraine by shelling from Kyiv’s forces since 2014. They took in thousands of refugees to save them from the carnage the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist fanatics were unleashing on civilians in the Donbas region. The OSCE confirmed nearly 1,000 civilian deaths between 2017-2020 alone.
https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/f/b/469734.pdf
That may not have been reported in our media, though.
April 4, 2022
I believe the trashing of Ukraine is deliberate. As mentioned by myself and others, the rebuilding of Ukraine will be costly and, I am happy for the EU to burden this as it was the EU that started it. Russia is turning Ukraine into the archetypal, White Elephant / Poisoned Challace đ
April 4, 2022
What makes you think the west will be allowed to rebuild Ukraine(or could even afford to the way things are going).It might be that Russia,China and,say, Turkey repurpose Ukraine-at least the east/south -there is no viable economy in the west-wasn’t when it was part of Austria-Hungary(it was notable only for it’s poverty and emigration even then) and it’s no better now.Ukraine has already signed up for China’s belt and road initiative(a large grain terminal was recently built at Mikolaev for exports to China)and I’m sure one of the west’s motives in all this has been to stop that(see the Three Seas Initiative which I have mentioned before).
April 4, 2022
It is so easy to blame Russia for not just the war in Ukraine but also the looming shortages of energy and grains. The West is responsible for provoking Putin, so we shouldn’t get all excited about calling Putin the new Hitler, while dismissing the crimes of those that helped to bring this situation about.
Why do we always forget that the MSM cannot be trusted to simply report the facts without embellishment and a twist?
Surely we have learned from Brexit and MMCC, to mention just two media atrocities where we saw outright deceit, lies and misinformation used to persuade us to accept the ‘accepted’ establishment viewpoint!
Why on Earth do we imagine we can trust MSM with reporting accurately on Ukraine – Can’t we see that as much as anything else, we are in the middle of a propaganda war?
Problems in the UK are likely to escalate, and Putin becomes the evil perpetrator of them all – easier to blame him than admit that our own government was utterly responsible for our ills.
Apart from that, we have to ask, “What other ways will the establishment take advantage of this situation?”
April 4, 2022
+1 Bryan Harris
Our msm and establishment are now one entity and cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
April 4, 2022
This is still not working.
Posts awaiting approval don’t show up until approved.
April 4, 2022
I just had one that did … briefly.
April 4, 2022
History tells us there will always be the pure evil men who wish to control the world their way, and ignore the human consequences. We witness it yet again.
April 4, 2022
Yes, and the challenge for normal people is to prevent them from getting the power to do it.
Obsessing about – unbanned – bent cucumbers and electric kettle power limits isn’t the way to do it at all, however.
April 4, 2022
it is you that is obsessive…Why on earth did you introduce such nonsense on a topic that is rather serious – yours is not.
April 5, 2022
That is precisely my point.
This nonsense was advanced as serious reasons why the UK should leave the European Union, and thereby weaken arguably the world’s most successful peace project and greatest normative power.
It is possible that without that Putin may have not been so emboldened. These decisions can teeter on a razor’s edge.
We will never know, of course.
April 4, 2022
Hurling rocks at one another is from the Stone-Age, not thinking about the barbaric cruelty and poisonous adverse legacy for future generations.
Contrast that with Steve Jobs Stanford speech legacy he gave to students in 2005 to follow your dreams and what you love.
https://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Essentially the difference between totalitarian and freedom (even though we are now losing some economic freedom now in the West).
April 4, 2022
And once again this government isnât doing the right thing its doing the right thing to look good for the mediaâŠ.start by removing any Russian influence from the Lords
April 5, 2022
The Russian ownership of some of our newspapers might be rather more influential, Glen.
April 5, 2022
Too true
April 4, 2022
John you are someway behind the curve. The internet is way ahead of you.
Ukraine has accelerated the demise of the Petrodollar. Ukraine has also marked the end of Davos man, the brief unipolar US led rules based order and âwesternâ globalism.
We are now entering a multi polar world where national self interests, food, energy oil and gas has replaced the power of centralisation.
Green energy, mass immigration and woke thinking will be a huge liability to the vast majority of the public rather than a benefit to a few large corporates.
April 4, 2022
I agree. But how long will it take for those running things to see it.
The great power of the US is not its military or even its industrial might, it is the Dollar and its reserve currency status. And when that is gone, the US will be gone !
April 4, 2022
It’s going -petroyuan,gasruble,bitcoin,etc!
(ps what industrial might?As the editor of Asia Times pointed out,last October,reviewing the US trade figures vis a vis China “…..at a seasonally adjusted annual rate,the US is buying $635 bn of Chinese goods,equal to a staggering 27% of US manufacturing GDP.That’s the sort of import dependency economists associate with Third World countries dependent on former colonial powers.”
April 4, 2022
The communists and their useful idiots that are Extinction Rebellion/Just Stop Oil etc. are using the Ukraine crisis to aid Russia in its brutal attack on Ukraine by attempting to cause disruption to our energy supplies.
Theyâre not worried by Russiaâs supplying and using gas and oil, nor indeed by Chinaâs use of even the even more environmentally damaging coal, or even calling for Russia to stop supplying gas to Europe via Nordstream 1.
Theyâre simply calling for us to become more dependent upon Russia for hydrocarbons and thus for us to reduce our quality of life and ability to defend ourselves by calling for our Government to halt our own supplies of oil and gas.
It is time we stopped these people and their supporters at the BBC telling blatant lies about the climate, which is simply warming from a cool period back to the average temperature.
April 4, 2022
Why are you bothering suggesting what the EU should do or not do?
You got Brexit, so UK citizens are now as relevant to EU decision-making as citizens of Argentina.
The UK’s foreign policy is reduced to hoping that the President in the White House is of a certain political party. Even then, your great hope is more disposed towards Putin than most.
April 4, 2022
I agree and have sais much the same as you. I also believe that not being part of the EU will, over time, produce a better class of MP and Civil Serpent. One which looks to the UK national interest and can think of no other. Much like the Chinese, Indian and Russian governments do.
April 4, 2022
Indeed we have to start from somewhere and being in the EU doesn’t allow us to.
April 4, 2022
One of the nurses in my hospital ward is a quite serious minded Bulgarian and said to me that she did not believe there would have been a war at all but for the expansion ever Eastwards by the EU and NATO. That and the broken promises not to do so!
If the EU sees Ukraine as part of Europe then that could be equally true of Russia itself. After all, they have been negotiating membership of Turkey for years.
April 4, 2022
Remember that David Cameron proposed breaking up Russia along the line of the Ural mountains.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/01/eu-extend-soviet-union-david-cameron
âEU should extend further into former Soviet Union, says David Cameronâ
âSpeaking in Kazakhstan, British PM says European Union should stretch from the Atlantic to the Uralsâ
Either that, or he didn’t know that the Urals are the border between European and Asiatic Russia.
April 5, 2022
He was quoting Gorbachev, as you know.
April 5, 2022
So what? He still proposed it.
April 5, 2022
This is often stated as if it were a proposal by non-Russians to be imposed upon Russia, and as an apology for anti-West moves by them.
It was nothing of the sort. It started as a Russian idea.
April 6, 2022
So do you think that Putin would smile upon this proposal, whether it came from Cameron in 2013, or previously from Gorbachev who had betrayed the USSR, or even earlier from de Gaulle?
April 5, 2022
Apparently this is now causing some alarm in the other direction:
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-live-news-russia-accused-of-genocide-in-bucha-moscow-denies-killing-civilians-putins-12541713
“Putin ally makes ominous statement on Russian goal to build ‘open Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok'”
“However, this kind of language from such a close ally of the Russian leader is already being highlighted as a cause for alarm among those who believe Moscow has imperialistic ambitions beyond Ukraine.”
People need to be careful what they say and think of what reaction they may engender.
April 4, 2022
OT
Well done to Victor Orban on his victory in the Hungarian election. As a proper conservative he has supported marriage through taxation. The divorce rate has fallen and the birth rate has risen. Most importantly he has defended Hungarian borders against illegal immigration, and now he has been rewarded!
April 4, 2022
+1
April 4, 2022
+1 BOF. I wish more countries could say the same about their governments, especially the UK.
I doubt Boris could make illegal immigration more attractive than it is. It attracts them from the world over and they travel huge distances to benefit from the generosity Boris showers them with. The UK pensioners will soon be reduced in number, thanks to the cost of living and their reduced pensions (after taking inflation into account). It’s clear where the governments priorities lie (and our taxes), and it ‘aint with the Brits!
April 4, 2022
BOF,
Much of the British media were predicting/hoping for a different result.
If OrbĂĄn builds on his visegrad alliances he could do a lot more in the future.
April 4, 2022
“Like most westerners I would like to see an early truce and a negotiated settlement.”
Perhpas most westerners do want that, but it’s simply so that they can get on with their own lives without the inconvenience of high gas prices. Politicians don;t want to be constantly reminded of the consequences of their appeasement of an autocracy (or at least two aurocracies if you count China) and their failure over energy policy – not to mention the enormous questions this raises over their love of net zero and their headlong rush towards it.
Wht I would like to see is Ukraine drive Russian troops from their soil. You say it is impossible, but that looks at it from a purely miltary angle – the pressures on Putin’s regime as this goes on, both internal and external, cannot be ignored.
If a negotiated settlement does arrive, Puting will fix the next election and stay in power for a very long time, with Russia as a pariah state. The Ukrainians have the will to fight and they clearly have the capability.
My view is thet western governments should be supplying weapons as required, without distinction between defensive and offensive. In the past tanks have been used as defensive weapons and anti-tank weapons were offensive.
The UK and US, as signatories to the Budapest Memorandum, Minsk Accords etc are perfectly justified in doing so – certainly vastly more so than Putin utterly feeble excuses for being in Ukraine. WW3? Nah, it will lead to a climbdown and a claim tyhat his de-nazification has been completed, even though it’s nonsense, he controls the Russian media.
If Ukraine wish to defend all of their territory then we must move Heaven and Earth to support them. As this was goes on they get stronger, so I dispute the suggestion that they are not capable of it, it is simply that we in the UK, softies that we have become, cannot imagine the people of another Eurpoean democracy having the will to spend the blood and cash to achieve it. Perhpas if we’d lived for a century or two with endless interference from a massive country next door that treats us as serving nothing more than their interests and constantly subjugating us… we might see it differently.
I suspect Ukraine sees this as an opportunity to assert themselves and get out from the shadow of Russia. If they can eject Putin now, they will expect (and get) massive help from the west including military training, partnerships, economic help which can protect them in future from Russia, which routinely elects bad leaders.
We must help them all we can, militarily.
Reply I do not say it is impossible for Ukraine to drive the Russians out, just unlikely in the near future.
April 4, 2022
You may need to check on a few things there, XY:
The UK and US were not signatories to the Minsk accords – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements
You must have meant the Bucharest memorandum, not ‘Budapest memorandum’. This was in 2008 when NATO tried to get Ukraine on path to joining it.
Neither the US nor the UK have been ‘appeasing’ Russia, they have been progressively imposing tighter and tighter sanctions for years.
A former British foreign minister a few years back told the Russians to ‘shut up and go away’. Biden called Putin a ‘murderer’ and a ‘thug’, before the invasion.
The memorandum you referred to was a red rag to the Kremlin. US/UK pressure on Germany to cancel Nordstream 2 was another one.
If you can see any similarity there to appeasement, e.g. the appeasement of Germany before WW2, do say.
April 6, 2022
It was a Defence Secretary.
April 4, 2022
Clearly our Department of Transport and its Minister Grant Shapps, forgot the Easter Getaway when kicking P and O, whose boats are currently unavailable.
April 4, 2022
Tories in the back-pocket of the Marxist RMT. There is no Marxist pressure group the Tories will not genuflect too to protect themselves from any criticism of any kind
The phobe card tactic is the reason freedom of expression has now been extinguished for the majority and people still vote Tory. Talk about voting yourself into submission
April 4, 2022
30+ years of managed decline of our own energy resources, with some nod towards growing green energy.
Whatever energy mix we need it must come from our own indigenious resources & friendly neighbours.
This is now abundantly clear, as we cannot completely trust the oil-rich autocracies [nor the French for their threats over electricity]. As you say Sir J, we still need oil/gas now so we must get it from the N sea.
If we need coal for steel there is coal here too. I would prefer hydrogen for steel, as Fortescue Metals Group are migrating to in Oz. Whatever the energy mix of the future which this goverment needs to plan for it by our own substantial resouces, the reliable energy, not just the intermittant stuff.
Kicking and screaming this goverment must all commit to this. The lessons of the 70’s are being repeated.
April 4, 2022
Blame Russia, but don’t forget the West (US under Clinton went back on their word), apparently its in James Baker’s Memoirs, though there are plenty of other sources out there to Verify NATO not going one inch further East if Germany was reunified. I see one of the major news papers in the US has now verified what Trump was saying was on Hunter Bidens Laptop!.
April 4, 2022
Sack Priti – use pushback on economic migrants, aka the aussie model.
NATO/EU have been making overtures to Georgia and Ukraine, one could argue as Sovereign nations it’s their decision whether to join a new club or not. The Russian bear feels he has been poked… Crimea should have resulted in a far more robust response from the EU/NATO? … now they reap their inactions.
Be interesting to see if Hungary swaps from EU –>USSR?
It is horrendous and wholly unacceptable in the 21st century that these wars still resurface instead of resolution by adult dialogue … everything must be done to cease hostilities and reach a resolution.
April 5, 2022
We are still signed up to the ECHR and it is now embedded in our trade agreement with the EU.
April 4, 2022
Cancel HS2 and repurpose the remaining budget for SMR nuclear power stations.
Every 1,000 reduction of civil servants would give approx ÂŁ1bn saving in Goverment expenditure.
This is another way to finance capital projects and also reduce Government borrowing.
April 4, 2022
Agree
April 4, 2022
Putin is unstable and needs to be offered a way out without humiliation. Johnson and Truss in their bid to look tough are doing the complete opposite by constantly prodding a stick at the mad bear. I love the way Johnson is strutting the world stage banging his chest and telling Putin what is and is not acceptable. If only he had the backbone to do the same to the EU. Watched Mrs. T in the story of the Falklands War last night. My God, she was a leader we have never seen the likes of since. The west was strong with her and Putin wouldnât have dared do what he did and she would never have allowed the bullying EU to get away with their current antics, especially over NI. In comparison Johnson is a weak buffoon.
He is obviously hoping his performance over Ukraine will excuse him over Party gate. This can not be allowed John. Not only did he break his own rules that led to so much misery for those forced to abide by them but he lied and he lied to Parliament. As soon as the war in Ukraine is over, please donât let him off the hook. He needs to go and the sooner the better and be replaced with one of those rare beasts nowadays, an actual Tory, if such a thing exists.
April 4, 2022
Well said Jools.
April 4, 2022
Agreed.
April 4, 2022
off topic ….late due to Police inaction.
Helen MacNamara was the director general for propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office between 2018 and 2020. The government’s former head of ethics has apologised after receiving a fine from the police for attending a party, described as a colleague’s leaving do, in the Cabinet Office during lockdown.
Ms MacNamara – who is now the Premier League’s director of policy – is the first person to be named as part of the Met Police’s investigation into lockdown parties in Downing Street and across Whitehall during Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Left ethics behind and moved on…
April 4, 2022
On the subject of barbarism I see a member of the Taliban who took part in torture is allowed to stay in the UK. I can’t comment because John wouldn’t be able to print it.
April 4, 2022
Agree – there’s something wrong
April 5, 2022
ECHR.
April 5, 2022
At least we can be thankful that he maybe won’t benefit from any part of the ÂŁ 100 million emergency funds pledged for Afghanistan by our government a couple of months ago ( DT 31 January )
April 5, 2022
Heâll have a UK funded lawyer by nowâŠ.demanding money, free benefits, free housing, free utilities, free energy, free council tax etc
April 4, 2022
It’s time for the US to get out of Europe and take its occupation force, NATO, for which we pay in part, with it. US Coloured revolutions are not helpful to the stability of Europe and in the case of the 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine following the 2007 regime change, the consequence has been the deaths of 14,000 and an ongoing war in which the Azov battalion, or moderate Nazis complete with their Nazi banners and insignia, have been waging war against Russian speakers in the East of the country as well as in Odessa, latterly.
(Words left out Ed)
There is no indication that Russia is seeking occupy Ukraine as a whole or to occupy major cities; it is simply ensuring that Ukraine ceases to function as a unitary state during hostilities. Both Donetsk and Lugansk as well as South Ossetia now are intending to whole plebiscites to determine whether to join Russia, for which the Russians are intending to create the conditions for these to be able to take place.
Reply Most of us are against the extreme violence being used by Russia against places and people they say they want to liberate and govern.
April 5, 2022
“The EU intervened in Ukraine to help topple the elected Ukrainian President in 2014 when he wished to walk away from the draft EU/Ukraine Association Agreement and be closer to Russia. This was the background to Russiaâs annexation of Crimea and civil war in Donbas. ”
I’d go further and say that set the seeds for the war. More EU tinkering will be good for EU politicians’ egos but bad for ordinary people all over Europe and beyond.
And what about the US role in all this? The Biden family involvement in Ukraine is as troubling as the EU’s.
And how about double standards? Would the US not insist on regime change if one of its neighbours was about to enter a military pact with a powerful enemy such as China?
April 5, 2022
I think everyone condemns Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. Any war is murderous Iraq, Syria , Yemen etc. etc. War Crimes have to be proved. Not stated only by one side and the Media against the other. What has happened to the WMD chemical warfare claims ?
But who is to blame is another matter. This War started in 2014 not in March 2022. The West ignores the past and present sins of the Kiev Government against ethnic Russians and other groups in Ukraine.
Will the West now try to overthrow the Government of Hungary?
A democratic vote of the wrong kind.
April 5, 2022
The media darling Garton Ash has fired the first shot at the Hungarians, calling them the enemy within and comparing them to the Russians, the enemy without. He passes himself off as an historian! Of course he is just another remainiac who fancies the EU is more democratic than a European nation state. The real crime the Hungarians have committed is the same as before: they have returned a Parliament which is two thirds Conservative and they are gradually ridding themselves of those former communist self perpetuating elites who ran the institutions.
April 5, 2022
Too many on here listening/watching and believing the Main Stream Media. Remember, News is not just what happens, it is what a fairly small group of people decide is the news and want you to know. Nothing can stop what is coming, Nothing.
April 5, 2022
But you said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was *not* coming, Paul.
So what is it that we should anticipate not happening in this regard then?
April 5, 2022
It’s the NLH show on this thread.
40 posts on one topic.
Maybe start your own blog?
April 9, 2022
It seems to bother only you, P2. What about you trolling pastures new?