It is good news that the Ukrainian army and people have lifted the siege of Kyiv. The Russians  by general report have given up trying to capture the capital or the west of the country, to concentrate their sieges on Donbas and southern cities.The tragic  bombardment of Donbas continues, with indiscriminate attacks on civilians and the widespread destruction of homes.
Let us hope there is no return of Russian tanks and troops to Kyiv and the west. It means many Ukrainians who left the country are considering returning to their homes. Some will find their homes as they left them, others may find them looted or shell damaged. The U.K. and other NATO and EU countries should now direct more assistance to those who wish to return and to how buildings and services can be repaired so they can have a better life again. It is very important Ukraine returns as much of its land and economy to more normal working as possible and restores more homes for more of its people. That after all is what they are fighting for.
April 12, 2022
Meanwhile.
Look at what our own government has done to us.
Look at the money Johnson is sending to and spending on Ukraine.
And look at the differing news reports.
After these appalling 2 yearsâŠwhich way are we meant to turn?
To quote JRâs book title âWe donât believe youâ.
Or at least I have no idea what to believe any more!
April 12, 2022
Everhopeful
I also donât know what to believe any more.
According to Pat Buchanan :-
âAlready, in seven weeks, 10 million Ukrainians have been uprooted from their homes, and 4 million of them have fled the country. That is a fourth of the nation uprooted, and a tenth lost to Ukraine.â
April 12, 2022
+1
All very similar to another âemergencyâ.
Manipulation propaganda and nudging.
April 12, 2022
Peter. The fact that your post has passed JR’s moderation says much about his ideological position on the right wing of the Conservative Party. As a Buchanan fan, I suggest you look up and study, “Neo-conservatism and paleo-conservatism”. I think I am safe in assuming the majority of commenters on this site would be voting for Marine Le Pen; principally because she intends to demolish the EU. That would leave some 46 disconnected European States, to be auctioned off to the US and Russia. China would likely want a share of the spoils. Naturally, NATO would be dismantled.
Reply I publish a lot of views that I do not share.
April 12, 2022
Acorn, he publishes you regularly do you think he shares your ideological position – what a strange comment.
April 13, 2022
Define the word ” regularly”.
April 13, 2022
acorn, my definition of regularly = a person that posts at repeated times, a tag I recognise as a frequent poster of comment.
I had a look back on the last four posts you commented on: The chancellor..1; Ukraine..2, Fighting inflation..3; Want some more..1.
I get the impression you like to comment the most on economic discussions and one of your favourite topics at the moment is ‘why not let the deficit take the strain’.
April 12, 2022
acorn,
I am already aware of the difference between neoconservatism and paleoconservatism.
Buchanan and Orban both favour a nation state and traditional Christian values. I probably would not agree with Buchanan on the NHS, or socialised medicine as some Americans refer to it.
April 12, 2022
He, Johnson, is using OUR MONEY to virtue signal and fluff his ego, and at the same time promote his image.
And it does not matter how much money is spent on Ukraine, their corrupt politicians will pocket most of it.
April 12, 2022
+ Agree entirely
April 12, 2022
In this instance, saving a country from destruction and mass murder is the very opposite of empty “virtue signalling” as you thralls call it.
It is, absolutely, doing the Right Thing as any person of any decency at all would feel compelled to do.
April 12, 2022
NLH – Doing the very opposite. Fighting a war which NATO provoked by proxy on other people’s land.
April 12, 2022
ATF.
April 12, 2022
It says in the Financial Times this morning, that Ukraine is pleading for International Aid to keep its economy from collapsing entirely.
I fear that we will not see the end of our contribution to this, for some time.
April 12, 2022
Entirely predictable Mark B. Unfortunately.
April 12, 2022
Boris keeps trying to impress other world leaders, the UN, the WEF the G7 and the woke greensâŠ..how about just impressing the conservative electorate for a change
April 12, 2022
If turning our backs on our fellow aspiring-to-be-free Europeans in their worst possible moments is what would impress the Conservative electorate, then your lives must be pitiful and worthless, and, as someone once said, you might as well drown your empty selves.
April 12, 2022
Oh do stop your virtue signalling NHL
April 12, 2022
I was merely trying to emphasize that Boris tries to impress others at the expense of the voters that put him in powerâŠ.in fact he ignores the voters
April 12, 2022
do stop beating your breast in mock horror at the world about you — ever thought of monastery life?
April 12, 2022
And now proven a liar, we dont need this spendthrift destroying our lives. He must go and promptly if the Conservative party are to stay in Power.
Go Boris , NOW!
April 13, 2022
+1. The more one looks into it, the less they are the Saints portrayed by the media.
April 12, 2022
You could start by believing more of what you see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears in the real world, and dispense with the mainstream media and mainstream political parties spin on everything.
These people don’t live on Reality Street and quite often what they are telling you is so has no basis in reality at all.
April 12, 2022
+1
Iâve been doing that for a long time.
I try to be a little oblique to avoid deletion.
April 12, 2022
+1
April 12, 2022
I am fairly comfortable with our government sending military aid to Ukraine. so far the Russian army, much like the Americans in Afghanistan, have had their aura of invincibility damaged severely which can only be a good thing. Invade an unwelcoming country at your peril.
The aid I object to is welcoming people here when they could stay close and return, those who have arrived here will never go back except for holidays. Long term we can help rebuild the habitable parts of Ukraine and require refugees to return.
This money should come out of the existing foreign aid budget and when that is exhausted I would suggest raiding the EU payments.
April 12, 2022
+1
Well I guess itâs kind of payback time?
US supported Ukraine in independence bid 1991 post Moscow coup.
Ukraine agreed to nuclear disarmament..Trilateral Agreement, US Russia and Britain assuring Ukraine of security after relinquishing largest ( Russiaâs) nuke stash in world.
Ukraine sent many (1,800) troops to Iraq in 2008
Lots of US/Ukraine involvement ever since 1991 and maybe before?
But US didnât get Ukraine full NATO membershipâŠtoo provocative to Russia?
This country is too fullâŠand no one respects our right to sovereignty, borders or freedom!
April 12, 2022
Everhopeful. I’ll tell you what NOT to believe.
1) Any words uttered by the present government or the main stream media, about Putin committing atrocities in Ukraine.
2) Any nonsense that is talked, about man made global warming, caused by Carbon Dioxide, caused by burning fossil fuels.
3) All suggestions that we must censure free speech, e.g. on the inter-net, because it is ‘hurtful’ or ‘fake news’.
4) All claims made by the government that they must keep some emergency powers in reserve for future pandemics or other threats.
Incidentally, I’ve just read that the W.H.O. is taking powers on itself to impose such restrictions without individual government’s agreement.
Here is one thing I do believe, though J.R. does not, there is a Global Conspiracy, to impose whole World Government. All the institutions participating just happen to be based in the U.S.A..
April 12, 2022
+ 1000000
Agree on all counts!đ€
April 13, 2022
Paulo be. I fear you could be right. It chills me to the bone.
April 13, 2022
1-4 yes 100%. But whole world government…depends how you define it. I see most countries sliding further down the authoritarian/totalitarian slope. The conditions for totalitarianism that Hannah Arendt set out are well and truly in place, bolstered by modern technology.
April 12, 2022
Good morning.
The aim of this war was to secure access to Crimea and to releave the siege that it was under die to the Ukrainans cutting off the water supply. President Putin will hang on to what he has gained and that will be considered a strategic success. He never intended to take Kiev or occupy the country.
Now we in the west will waste vast sums of money on rebuilding a very corrupt state. Well done !
April 12, 2022
+++
Spot on!
April 12, 2022
This military man wouldn’t have bothered attacking on so many fronts if the national strategic aim was purely to take and hold the Donbas while securing access to water for Crimea. I have no doubt that Putin intended to take Kyiv and either install a puppet government and/or take control of the entire country.
April 12, 2022
correct.
April 12, 2022
+1
April 12, 2022
He seems to be imprisoning and blaming his advisors for the catastrophic losses in personnel and equipment. How he will explain how anyone who takes an interest would have known that the north and west was bristling with anti tank and aircraft weapons and a well trained army to use them will be interesting. They are already admitting the numbers and most will have families who will be very upset and been informed by telephone calls of the disaster.
April 13, 2022
Putin blaming his own “intelligence” services when it was Russia ‘s much vaunted and meddled armed forces real failures instead – to avoid them mutiny on him as he now expects them to fight in the Donbas….
April 12, 2022
Yes, logic says that can only be the case.
April 12, 2022
The advance on Kiev was a feint-in sufficient scale to be vaguely credible and keep Ukrainian forces tied down in central Ukraine whilst destroying military and dual use supply infrastructure.The bulk of the Ukrainian army had earlier concentrated in the east,preparing to launch an overwhelming assault on the separatist areas of the Donbass but the Russians moved first.Kiev has only symbolic/historic value.Western Ukraine has zero interest for Russia.
Here is what a reliable Russian source reports this morning regarding the main theatre of action:
“The mega-cauldron in Donbass will encircle up to 100,000 Ukrainian troops along a 200km line from Donetsk-Slavyansk to central Ukraine.The Donetsk Peoples Republic’s Basurin:”If they don’t surrender Ukraine will lose it’s entire army and the issue of demilitarisation would be resolved by 90%.
Another observer likens the tactic to how the Red Army destroyed the Kwantung army(Japanese army in Manchuria during WWII) in August 1945.
The Russian flag is now flying over Mariupol Council building,the remaining Azov fighters and their NATO advisers are trapped in the industrial area adjacent to the port.Desperate attempts to get them out have failed-helicopters sent in to retrieve their leaders have all been shot down and a freighter which approached by sea was shelled by Russian warships.
The S300 air defence system which Slovakia was persuaded to supply to Ukraine last week was obliterated at the weekend.
Reply This is not the Ukraine view nor the view of independent western observers
April 12, 2022
Indeed, SJR, what Mitchel describes isn’t the view of journos based in Lviv and those who parrot their news stories. But it’s what’s happening in the war, and it is being reported by journos who have the courage to actually go there.
April 12, 2022
Ukraine’s army is many millions strong.
Every Ukrainian who can draw breath and point a gun is a fighter.
The guns and ammunition will be supplied too.
The Russian conscripts and press-ganged also know that very well, which is why they are scared out of their wits.
April 12, 2022
yep – — but there are also hard-line evil bastards leading them.
April 12, 2022
+1
April 12, 2022
I think there needs to be a clearer understanding of Russia’s strategy. While it’s true that Ukrainian resistance was stronger than the Kremlin expected, Russia succeeded in tying down large numbers of Ukrainian forces in the North around Kyiv, while the decisive battles take place in the South and South-East. The Russian units are now being re-deployed there, but the Ukrainian units are short of fuel and cannot be moved in any number. Without reinforcements, and with its supply lines under Russian interdiction thanks to air superiority, the Ukrainian army in the Donbas pocket will inevitably be defeated. After that, Odessa cannot realistically hold out. Ultimately, Zelenskyy’s gamble on NATO intervening to prop up Ukraine will be seen to have been a catastrophic failure of judgement – if indeed he was free to make his own choices.
April 12, 2022
@Philip P
I don’t think it fair to say “Russia’s strategy”. It is Putin’s strategy. Whatever Putin’s “success” in Ukraine, I think it likely that the Russian people have lost.
April 12, 2022
Oldwulf, I would go with this New York Times report from the beginning of this month, as regards where the Russian people stand on the war: ‘Polls released this week by Russiaâs most respected independent pollster, Levada, showed Mr. Putinâs approval rating hitting 83 percent, up from 69 percent in January. Eighty-one percent said they supported the war, describing the need to protect Russian speakers as its primary justification.’ Levada is an independent pollster, not a Putin-friendly state one. Last year it was reporting a high level of dissatisfaction with Putin.
April 12, 2022
Ultimately, need to focus on God otherwise anything can happen (even if you’re as clever as Napoleon).
Relatively-speaking, the greatest warrior in history was Joan of Arc, who as an 18 year-old girl / woman led an army that led to the enemy being booted out of France after 100 years war!
Napoleon was obviously a vastly superior natural military leader than Joan of Arc and in a way more spectacular victories but even Napoleon was in awe of Joan of Arc for what she achieved 1) Her age 2) She was a woman 3) No experience 4) Semi-peasant etc 5) The nature of the effectiveness of her military campaign (booting the enemy out of France after 100 years).
The reason Joan of Arc was able to achieve this was down to her Faith (in the traditional Christian God), Courage, Modesty and Generosity of Spirit.
April 12, 2022
Interesting Ed M.
Apparently Putin is supportive of the Christian, Russian Orthodox Church.
April 12, 2022
Or it could be a trick?!
Look at Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale in which the Pardoner brilliantly but cynically uses religious fervour to manipulate the pilgrims to get them to hand over their money in exchange for indulgences. The Pardoner doesn’t appear religious at all – except on the outside so as to be able to carry out his trickery.
The first official atheist in history was a Catholic priest! (Father Jean Meslier).
But you’re right, religious people can be hypocrites too (like me sometimes). Like the Pharisees. Christ strongly condemned Phariseeism (and the Pharisees played a key role in bringing about the death of Christ).
But it doesn’t follow that because religious hypocrisy exists that virtue and God therefore doesn’t exist. Best.
April 12, 2022
Also, don’t forget how atheist Communist Soviet Union murdered millions of people – for being religious and for lots of other reasons too. Same for Communist China. Cambodia.
And consider how many great people were devout Christian people too: Sir Isaac Newton, Bach, Michelangelo and many others. How our country was built on the Traditional Christianity in The Middle Ages and during the Renaissance.
April 14, 2022
Imperialism and nationalism have killed orders more people than have any other isms, and since the very beginning of humanity.
April 12, 2022
New here Philip P ?
For those interested in real military analysis rather than Russian propaganda I recommend the Twitter accounts of Lawrence Freedman and Phillips P OâBrien. They arenât using the phrase âRussia succeededâ in the context of their catastrophic defeat around Kiev.
April 12, 2022
Roy: on 28th February Freedman wrote in IAI news: ‘The campaign plan which the Russians are putting into effect points to a rapid encirclement of Kyiv and the installation of a puppet Ukrainian government.’
Freedman completely missed the real campaign plan, which was to tie down and eliminate the UAF Joint Forces Operation troops in the Donbas. They are the best and best-equipped UAF units, estimated at between 60,000-100,000 strong. Anyone reputed to be the ‘doyen of military strategy in Britain’ should know that success in a war always means defeating your enemy’s main army strength, otherwise you haven’t won. That is what Russia is aiming for. The lightly armed Russian forces that arrived near Kyiv in the early stages were both a gamble, and a feint. As I said, the UAF troops in the north around Kyiv that they tied down will not be able to move East in any strength and will be of no use in the decisive battle now under way.
Russia announced right at the outset that its goal was to destroy the Ukrainian military infrastructure, which is now happening. Somehow Freedman must have missed that announcement.
April 12, 2022
(Btw, I visited Ukraine – Lviv – loved it!)
April 12, 2022
+1 Philip P
April 12, 2022
So if France, say, had annexed the Isle Of Wight, then do you think that the UK should have continued to supply electricity and other services to it as normal?
You can make these treacherous comments here, and I defend your right to do so.
On the other hand, do please bear in mind that In Russia, people who try either to report facts or to give opinions that Putin doesn’t want aired will find likely themselves beaten up and face up to fifteen years in prison – if survival for that long in one is possible.
So enjoy your freedom here.
I know which side I am on.
April 12, 2022
2 years of unnecessary lock downs and attempted introduction of mandatory vaccines, some freedom. Meanwhile Johnson sells out our fishing industry to France and NI to the EU.
April 12, 2022
This poster – in all seriousness – implies that what we all tolerated owing to anti-pandemic measures is somehow comparable to the suffering of the Ukrainians, or of dissenting voices in Russia.
Just think about that.
April 12, 2022
Not quite, using the UK as your exemplar of ‘freedom’ is flawed but you are too dumb to notice.
April 12, 2022
Nottingham Lad Himself.
Don’t you think perhaps you are confusing Russia today with the way Russia was, years ago, as the U.S.S.R.?
April 12, 2022
‘Treacherous’, NLH? Do you even understand what you’re saying, about Mark B’s post? We cannot betray our own country, by having an opinion on the strategy of a country with which we are not at war.
April 12, 2022
It supports Putin’s lies.
April 12, 2022
NLH – I’m on neither ‘side’.
We’ve started WW3. We did it.
April 13, 2022
+1. And in the process weâve accelerated the demise of the dollar, and the West. Our leaders are worse than useless.
April 12, 2022
Good morning
This entire war needn’t have been. Confected and fabricated. We saw the same in Syria. Another proxy event concocted in some far away land for reasons that only become apparent with the passage of time and revelations.
The Falklands War wasn’t concocted. The Syrian civil war and the Ukraine war were concocted. That’s the difference between those who govern today and those honourable politicians who governed before the cancer arrived in 1997
The general rule is never accept the official progressive political narrative.
April 12, 2022
The voices from the moral cesspit croak and caw as expected.
April 12, 2022
NLH. Leftists love war. Leftists think they’re always right.
April 12, 2022
been trying out your creative writing again?
April 12, 2022
+many
April 12, 2022
“never accept the official progressive political narrative” – especially when it comes from RT.
April 13, 2022
DA- especially when it comes from any of the Globalist controlled MSM.
April 12, 2022
+1 DOM
April 12, 2022
DOM. I agree.
April 12, 2022
Maybe it is a long shot but there is a lesson for the learning.
The price that has been and will be paid will result in the ordinary people who have suffered the most will not allow or stand by and watch a return to the bad old days of corruption and the like.
Their President has been given a albeit a horrendous opportunity to really unite the country and bring about the changes needed to restore credibility.
I would find it hard to believe that the Ukrainian people who have fought and suffered so valiantly would just accept a return to the bad old days.
Those countries and organisations will be in a very strong bargaining position when it comes to the issuing of funds for the rebuilding, regarding who, what and how the money will be spent.
April 12, 2022
Let us indeed hope that this does happen.
April 12, 2022
Vast sums of UK tax payers money poured into this East European war and now more will be required for rebuilding. A settlement was there for the taking before it ever started, i.e. The neutrality of Ukraine and a guarantee they would not join NATO.
Ukraine will now almost certainly lose Dombas and the eastern side of the country.
April 12, 2022
Yes BOF. And what I thought from the start is – what is Ukraine to do with the United Kingdom? Why should we have any interest at all?
Don’t we have enough problems of our own? Eg Northern Ireland still being part of the EU. The EU still wrecking our fishing waters. The EU still sending illegal immigrants to us. Our crazy P.M. wrecking our country with his carbon neutral idiocy.
April 13, 2022
Pauline – The Globalist UK Establishment have very large interest in the Ukraine.
April 12, 2022
Well I’m sure, true to form Boris will throw plenty of our money at Ukraine. It makes him look good but perhaps not with the many people here that are suffering hardship. There are many very elderly people in the UK who are frantic with worry and actively trying to find work to supplement a meagre pension. I wonder how much help we would receive from Europe in times of trouble? None from our closest neighbours. We are not a bottomless pit and someone had better remind Johnson. Just how much has he earmarked for Ukraine along with illegal immigrants and foreign aid?
April 12, 2022
Please stop asking difficult questions
April 12, 2022
I’ve seen TV coverage of Ukrainians headed back to their homes. A pressing need of the country will be for ‘pre-fabs’ and caravans. I would much rather see those headed east than for large sums of money being given to a country with a well-deserved reputation for corruption. Any aid given by the UK needs to come out of the existing foreign aid budget.
The situation in Mariupol demands further sanctions on Russia. I’ll repeat my suggestion that every Russian living in the West should be sent back home, either as their visas expire or beforehand. An added advantage is that they will know the truth about what Putin has done.
And I’ll repeat my call for sanctions against China. It is complicit in the attack on Ukraine, having conducted cyber-attacks beforehand and now sending arms to the aggressor. It is time that the Free World left the WTO, en masse, leaving the Axis of Evil II to trade amongst themselves.
April 12, 2022
aint that the truth.
April 12, 2022
Many good points for serious consideration, I think, SW.
April 12, 2022
Thank you.
April 12, 2022
No serious points there at all, lad: 1. Ukraine itself was a country with a shocking reputation for corruption. 2. Persecuting indovduals for the decisions of their government is repugnant: just as well it wasn’t applied to you and me when Blair invaded Iraq. 3. China is reportedly sending weaponry to Serbia, not Russia. Russia has so far armed China, not the other way round.
April 12, 2022
And increase inflation by another 20% with more shortages.
April 12, 2022
I would add to that, a call for sanctions on India.
April 12, 2022
I see now that India isn’t willing to play the obedient US lapdog role,Blinken is talking of monitoring “increasing human rights abuses” in India.
April 12, 2022
I acknowledge Johnson is desperately trying to take peoples eye off his failures here, by attempting to play a ‘world leader’. However, when all said and done just what has the Ukraine to do with the UK and why is Johnson chucking ÂŁ millions of our taxes at that country? Why must every other country/foreigner get our taxes and all we get is just more and more taxes?
Sorry all I see, is a traitorous emperor with no clothes.
April 12, 2022
This can only end in one of two ways:
1. Russia completely taking over Ukraine
2. With a peace treaty
Putin knows he cannot take over the whole of Ukraine, so it will end with a peace treaty. And that treaty will see Russia gaining/keeping the Crimea, Dombas and other strategic areas in the south – or there will be no treaty.
The remainder of Ukraine will be left severely weakened with a ruined economy and minus the strategically important areas Putin gains, for the west to pay to rebuild.
And Johnson will be there first, waving the national cheque book…..again and posing for the cameras.
April 12, 2022
Let the people of Crimea and Dombas be given a free election border poll, and see if they wish to be under the imperial rule of Putin. That should be the settlement.
April 12, 2022
I agree that offering the people of Crimea and Dombas a Referendum on whether to remain in Ukraine or join Russia would have avoided the war; as would guaranteeing that Ukraine would never join NATO (or the EU).
But that horse bolted a long time ago. It seems that the USA/NATO didn’t want to prevent the war.
April 12, 2022
Be careful what you wish for, Dave. Crimea already had an internationally monitored referendum in 2014, with a massive outcome in favour of incorporation in Russia. Unsurprisingly, becuse they are mostly ethnic Russians. And if you imagine that people in the Donbas will vote to stay with the people that have been shelling them for eight years, you are likely to be disappointed.
April 12, 2022
The problem now is that Russia has been forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of people who might vote otherwise from these regions.
So even a properly-controlled and monitored referendum would be meaningless.
April 13, 2022
NLH – How do you know, was it ‘so called reported” by the globalist controlled MSM?
April 14, 2022
Your epistemic point is valid.
However, the report’s credibility is sufficient to invalidate any referendum whatever.
April 12, 2022
Dave – It sounds good, in theory, but only if the vote is restricted to genuine Ukranians. I am opposed to immigrants being able to vote to make their host country become part of their ‘home’ country.
April 12, 2022
Sadly Donna you appear to lack imagination.
This could escalate to a far wider and more deadly confrontation, with a range of outcomes all far worse than the two of which you seem constrained to envisage.
Or others could appear even after this one were “resolved”.
April 12, 2022
Absolutely sound, Donna. Good to hear common sense, so unlike the false trumpeting of nearly all our media.
April 12, 2022
+1 Donna
April 12, 2022
There was an MP on R4 Newsnight ranting about Le Pen and Nato
No doubt all he said was true
but he sounded unhinged.
April 12, 2022
Le Pen is left wing politician – I don’t get the description of her and her party as far right.
April 12, 2022
The portrayal of National Socialists as far right is one of the greatest deceptions of state education. Le Pen’s policies are socialist.
April 12, 2022
It was the Russians who started the fashion for describing national socialists as far right, in order to dissociate themselves from the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Such was their influence post war that this lie was taken up by the West too.
April 12, 2022
and she is campaigning for help for low incomes….which ought to be catching over here, but then…we have Johnson and Sunak at the helm.
April 12, 2022
I agree.
Her portrayed image here as islamophobic is also simply seen by many French as a vigorous defence of its constitutional secularity.
She has some arguably reactionary social attitudes but so do many in left wing parties generally.
April 12, 2022
It is a trick the left play. If a politician is opposed to immigration they are far right irrespective of their other policies. Hitlerâs economic policy was to nationalise all key industries allied to a hatred of capitalism and bankers. He was far right of course. Jeremy Corbyn on the other hand âŠâŠ
April 12, 2022
Thats deep….and I agree with every word
April 12, 2022
But he didn’t nationalise them.
Rather, he cosied up with powerful private interests, e.g Hoechst, Beyer, etc.
April 12, 2022
NS, A socially-tainted cost-of-living programme within a nationalistic âFrance firstâ for everything else, immigration, education, international relations. How could such a programme be called, I wonder: national-socialist?
April 12, 2022
Neither left nor right, just changing policies to get elected – in other words a politician.
‘These are my principles, if you don’t like them, I have others’ – Groucho Marx
April 12, 2022
MLP wants to go farther than that. In the first months of her presidency she would call a referendum to make people vote on a bunch of texts on âla prioritĂ© nationaleâ, a hotchpotch of regulations/decisions on immigration, citizenship, access to social rights (jobs, lodging, education, health). The only problem is that all these potential changes would go against bits and bobs in the French constitution, and that a (large) number of constitutionalist lawyers/judges have been warning her (some for months) that her project as she presents it might be unlawful with regards to French law. But she does not appear to listen, surprising for someone trained as a lawyer.
Even more hilarious (P2^tm) is that she calls on the precedent of De Gaulle in 1962 who had used a referendum to introduce a presidential election system and in practice change completely the balance of power within the governing of France.
So despite her much more social approach about the cost of living, there are plenty of unanswered questions on what a President Le Pen could bring.
Obviously such a thing could not happen here as only a minuscule fraction of the population know about what takes the place of a constitution in this country.
April 13, 2022
She’s trying to get elected. Whether her policies are legal or not is for another day. Policies are neither legal or illegal, they are just policies, and can be ditched after any election, as we well know in this country. We will never get another referendum here, having given the ‘wrong’ answer that the ruling class does not like.
April 13, 2022
Policies – intentions – can indeed be constitutionally illegal.
For instance Poland’s government’s intention to ban religious slaughter methods was ruled to be so.
The UK does not have anything which reasonably might be called a constitution however, so the problem seldom arises here. Most of the developed democratic world is not like us, however.
Learn this important fact if you can.
April 14, 2022
There is a difference between ‘Government’ policy and a candidates’s policy who will stand or fall by it at an election.. I don’t need superscillious remarks from a barrack room lawyer. Learn that if you have the capacity.
April 12, 2022
Afraid this war has a long way to go yet before any solution can be agreed, as he wants to impoverish Ukraine first as a punishment for standing up to Russia.
April 12, 2022
https://euobserver.com/nordics/154713
“Russia warns against Finland and Sweden Nato bid”
April 12, 2022
quelle surprise !
April 12, 2022
I think that such a bid right now is adding fuel to a dangerous fire – but if the bids are submitted then the EU should immediately reinforce the defences of both countries. Us? No. Our forces are too small and spread thin. Our focus should be on the Baltic States and Poland. In the mid-term, a British division needs to be sent back to the Continent. We’ve had our ‘peace dividend’; we must now start paying our increased insurance premiums.
April 12, 2022
It’s already in the works. Finland will join NATO sooner than anyone expects. The blowhard of Moscow will not dare to take them on having shown how inept his massive army is in Ukraine.
April 13, 2022
I’m pretty well with you, Graham.
The pathetic dressing-gown-and-slippers-in-the-high-street case running Russia just now has already far too many fronts.
April 12, 2022
The costs of this war to Ukraine must be enormous. Armaments are hugely expensive. I wonder – is Kiev being billed for any of it? Or are they getting it all free, i.e. the British taxpayer is paying for lethal weapons to be used in somebody else’s war? Or is it some kind of long term loan/not-a-loan, as so ably (!) explained by Greg Hands the Energy Minister on Question Time?
April 12, 2022
Bill Russia for the cost, with a withholding tax on gas and oil payments going to the reparation fund. Why isn’t this happening already?
April 12, 2022
No doubt we will seek reparations after China has paid for Covid-19.
April 12, 2022
Because they would turn off the gas until we paid in roubles.
April 12, 2022
we don’t use Russian gas….
April 13, 2022
The UK bought $4 billion of oil from Russia in 2021.
4% of our gas has come from there.
April 12, 2022
Why isn’t it happening, Dave? Because we’ve stopped importing Russian oil and gas, surely.
April 12, 2022
Weeks ago the property and infrastructure damage alone to Ukraine was estimated at $0.5 trillion.
April 12, 2022
Donât worry the UK will be a rich country when we start fracking for shale gasâŠ..oh I forgot the Tory government has banned fracking
April 12, 2022
I think we can safely assume we are giving stuff away. Par for the course.
April 12, 2022
The bombing/war has been going on for quite some time in those parts of Ukraine mentioned.
Not that many in the general public know that
To point out various things as I’ve noticed has you branded as a Putin apologist.
Johnson & Co jumped straight in with their bellicose rhetoric and immediately set about adding fuel to the fire.
Truss and her ridiculous stunt in a tank blathering on about democracy and freedom in Europe.
Priceless considering this bastion of freedom and democracy was in the midst of forcing people to take a jab against their wishes. Vaccine passports, exclusion from society without and all totally overkill with nothing to do with health.
All the keyboard and armchair warriors out in force whipped up by the propaganda machine and calling for more action. No fly zones, actual bombing of Russian cities for heavens sake. These people have been terrified of a virus which most recover fully from, yet seem to think they’d be able to withstand bombs falling on them from the sky, which if we followed their expertise is exactly what would happen.
Putin is completely out of order. However, many in the West have done nothing in terms of trying to bring a swift end to this and the usual people have suffered and will continue to suffer be they Ukrainians, Russians and as sanctions bite so will we on top of what was already coming because of incompetence and the Great Reset.
Reply I have consistently condemned the violent invasion.
April 12, 2022
Many of the women refugees have husbands and brothers still fighting in the Eastern and Southern fronts. The Russians are eliminating the Azov brigade which was controlling the largely Russian speaking population in Mariupol and now that Johnson is sending more missiles, including anti ship types, the fighting can only get more bitter. The Russians will not be driven out of the border areas without huge losses on both sides. Johnson playing his Churchill role has ensured that many unwilling soldiers will die.
April 12, 2022
Zelensky is a Russian speaker.
So are most of Kharkiv, which has been relentlessly and mercilessly bombarded.
You are falling for Putin’s shallow excuse.
April 12, 2022
most of welsh speaking Wales also speak English!
April 13, 2022
Zelensky is a first-language Russian speaker as I understand it.
April 12, 2022
Great post Michelle
April 12, 2022
Michelle, make no mistake.
Few of us hoping for Ukraine’s victory want a unipolar world dominated by the US, and I agree that unwise decisions may have been made by “our side” in the past.
However, literally nothing in that regard can justify Putin’s murderous, destructive attack on a fellow Rus people’s nation, and which has never intended aggression against Russia.
Putin’s claimed defence of Russian speakers is a hollow excuse. Zelensky is one, and Kharkiv is a large majority Russian-speaking city, but which has been monstrously and murderously attacked.
Putin is simply a despotic imperialist who wants power over Ukraine and its large resources.
April 12, 2022
A Chilean-American named Gonzalo Lira who is blogging from there, where he lives with his Ukrainian wife as I understand, says that the city of Kharkiv is NOT under attack and that all civilian utilities (electricity, gas, tap water, internet) are functioning normally. There has been shelling some way away from the city, but that’s all.
So what do you know, NLH, that someone who’s actually there doesn’t?
April 12, 2022
Have you authenticated your source?
April 13, 2022
You mean, you think he might be faking his identity, Martin?
April 13, 2022
No, have you verified his claims?
Now ask someone in Mariupol eh?
April 12, 2022
Ukraine was already hosting NATO facilities;for what purpose?
April 12, 2022
It seems pretty clear now.
April 12, 2022
Reply to reply. But I don’t recall condemnation of thousands of civilian deaths since 2014 caused by shells and rockets fired at them by Kyiv’s army.
April 12, 2022
About a thousand deaths, actually, if you want precision.
For comparison, several times more died in the troubles of tiny Ireland.
However, even the English Tories were decent enough not to bomb and to shell most of Ireland to rubble as a “solution”.
See the difference?
April 12, 2022
in what way might that be a solution?
April 13, 2022
Sorry, I missed the bit about murdering all the political opponents there too.
April 12, 2022
The withdrawal from attacking the capital is only short interlude in this war as a lot more is to happen in the South East. Putin totally misunderstood and misjudged his reception in the Ukraine so he is now going to concentrate on getting access to Crimea overland and shutting off Ukraine’s access to the Black sea.
Clearly Putin has no confidence in his serving generals and has resorted to calling up the retired ”butcher of the Middle East”. He is going to be out of date and out of practice and therefore more likely to use chemical weapons and other banned methods
We and the rest of the West need to do all that we can to support the Ukraine in this conflict for the South East. It has to be won if the war is to be contained and subsequently ended.
April 12, 2022
Russia established a land bridge to Crimea over a month ago, George. It’s done, and Ukraine won’t get that land back. Also, the President who fired two top generals recently was Zelensky, on 31st March, calling them ‘traitors’. A leader doesn’t do that when he’s winning.
Your desire for Ukraine to continue a hopeless struggle, I’m afraid, looks to me like the sunk cost fallacy. It is time for this slaughter to be brought to an end, and a long-term future for what remains of Ukraine to be set up, with foreign guarantees for both its sovereignty and its neutral status.
April 12, 2022
Your last sentence is as laughably unrealistic as the rest of your post is cynical.
April 12, 2022
well, Martin, you would know about cynicism.
April 13, 2022
I see it repeatedly every day on these pages, yes.
April 12, 2022
I get the impression that judgemental one-liners seem to be your main thing, NLH. Anyone with a moral conscience should be thinking about ways the conflict can be brought to an end. Perhaps you have been, too. Or are you like the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell, calling for more war?
April 12, 2022
When you say “won”, you mean Ukraine driving out the Russian forces entirely from Ukraine? Is this at all feasible? I think not. As the Germans found, Russia has endless resources of men and materials.
April 12, 2022
When a people are fighting for their own country’s survival then their motivations are quite different from the invader’s.
The US were massively resourced, and killed three million Vietnamese, but still lost comprehensively for instance.
April 12, 2022
All agreed, George.
April 12, 2022
I am maybe oversimplifying things, but Putin reminds me of the control freak jilted spouse. If he can’t have Ukraine, then he’ll totally demolish it so nobody else can have it either. Unfortunately, this control freakery causes many deaths, on both sides!
Putin is the sole reason why Finland and Sweden suddenly want to join NATO.
April 12, 2022
Having been involved in many âhigh profileâ legal cases in investment banking it is key that reliable detailed forensic evidence is sought and made available.
I was looking at the News headlines today saying Putin has dropped chemical weapons from a drone and a few people were âdizzyâ. BUT reliable detailed forensic evidence has NOT been gathered or recorded. Forensic evidence is required in order to bring a prosecution, even in a war crime.
The comment sections are full of people saying how terrible the chemical attack is. What is terrible is that no reliable forensic evidence is being gathered.
Again. There were claims of a massacre in Ukraine last week but again no reliable forensic evidence was gathered by an independent body (e.g. UN). Ukraine did not call in independent observers to record their claims. Without evidence there can be no charges of a crime.
Do people think for one second that the international war crime judges are a kangaroo court OR do they think they are very experienced judges operating in full public glare who require reliable evidence.
In the absence of reliable forensic evidence or lack or willingness to record or publish the evidence every lawyer must draw the conclusion that these claims are propaganda.
The high level of media manipulation on both the pandemic and Ukraine have created a very large âevidential sink holeâ underneath the Governmentâs political messaging. It is only a matter of time before the credibility of Western Governments collapses over such important issues and we are left with a political vacuum.
April 12, 2022
You are correct, I think, Javelin, but perhaps need to distinguish better the relative importance of general “noise” on the internet and what governments and purportedly serious channels are actually saying on these matters.
April 12, 2022
Perhaps President Zelensky and his advisers had other things on their minds than calling in the United Nations to obtain forensic evidence for a war crimes trial in the future, that UN which has been so spectacularly invisible and unhelpful in this war – as in others.
April 12, 2022
What would you suggest?
UN assassination squads to dispatch despotic imperialists?
April 12, 2022
well, its an idea!
April 12, 2022
Javelin.
Excellent comment. Not only Media manipulation but political manipulation too, not least with the ‘nudge unit’. There is now nothing I hear from either that I trust.
April 12, 2022
Javelin, who would collect the forensic evidence, the UN?
April 12, 2022
perhaps Putin is having thousands of gift wrapped perfume packages made- ready to be dropped by drone onto the next target ? Lots of excited women perfume spraying themselves for the last time?
April 12, 2022
Exhaustion of will and/or resources looks the most likely (hopeful?) way this war will end, with marginal changes to the de facto borders in place before it started. It would provide Putin with his “victory” and Zelensky with a newly forged nation that fought for its freedom against the odds. The frontier will remain a continuing source of friction and dispute.
But there remains the real risk it will escalate further, involving those on either side supplying arms, services or cash to the protagonists. Cold War 2 is now well underway; the danger is it turns into a hot war. The question is whether there are cool, calculating heads controlling the decision processes on either side or unthinking hotheads.
April 12, 2022
As our living standards drop to 2013 levels, and with your âdishonestâ energy policy this is set to continue or get worse plus your tax policies etc now coming through as you said they would to slow the economy down, you now want to pour more of our money into the Ukraine however worthy. Is this on top of the vast amounts sent down the plug hole of foreign aid or part of. At least the latter would show concrete results.
And in other news I read the âcourageousâ Boris fighting the pesky Russians is once again showing his true cowardice by giving in on fishing and now Covid rules in NI.
And related, Grant Shapps frightened refusing to meet a major industrialist to discuss the fact that Batteries will not power large machinery with Hydrogen the solution requiring only modest changes to the ICE.
Starmer must be laughing his socks off as his opponents commit political suicide.
April 12, 2022
+1
Oppositions don’t win General Elections, Governments lose them.
This one appears to want to lose in 2024.
April 12, 2022
Nig1. That’s what we get with a cabinet full of cowards and numpties without a brain cell between them. Labour will win the next election unless Boris starts putting us first and I turning for the good of the economy and this country’s future. What has he actually achieved while in office? He certainly hasn’t taken advantage of Brexit and he’s giving money to countries that actually support Russia. The man’s a complete failure and a menace.
April 12, 2022
Agreed Nigl. If this government wishes to win the next election they have to start now. Many people on current fixed energy contracts will find their bills doubling rather than the approx 50% increase of the price cap with more pain promised for later this year. They have 6 months to sort domestic gas supplies at reasonable prices or as you suggest Labour will be laughing.
Ukraine is not our war and while most here will be quite happy to assist them with weapons the government must realise that its current war is with the British public.
April 12, 2022
The government does realise that, Miami, all too well. That is why its media stooges so relentlessly try to get the British public to believe it’s in a heroic war against a madman.
April 12, 2022
Perhaps this government don’t want to win, perhaps that would allow a stitch up on the Customs Union and Single Market restrictions on the UK, before the big payments from the UK end, and that’s why things aren’t progressing at the speed they should be, and why it is easier for Boris to play the big man and posture on something else but his main task.
April 12, 2022
Johnson and Sunak look like yesterday’s men already. Counting down to the next ‘goodbye’ party in No 10?
April 12, 2022
I am proud of the actions that the UK government has taken to help Ukraine defend the brutal invasion by putins Russia. Yes it is expensive. But not as expensive as allowing to build his empire further westward. Some here accuse Ukraine of being corrupt, yet disregard the way putin and his oligarchs have bled the Russian people and controlled the media to hide their obese richness. The only failure of the west has been not to stand up to putin whose image will always be of a bare chested small man riding a horse.
April 12, 2022
Putin’s patsies are very commonplace, it appears.
April 12, 2022
cowboy would be a suitable description if it wasn’t so horrific.
April 12, 2022
And what about assistance for Salisbury? That was subject to Russian chemical weapons attack, allegedly, and the reactions and responses were very muted indeed. But last evening your colleague Minister Heappey told us chemical weapons use (if it has happened in Ukraine) “crosses a line” meaning “all options are on the table”.
April 12, 2022
Correction: Heappey spoke today, not last evening.
April 12, 2022
forumla57, quite – no consistency, a government of flimflam.
April 12, 2022
And as our energy payments to Russia continue we pour arms into Ukraine.
So we are enabling both sides to fight each other with zero democratic input.
In the meantime b/millionaire politicians are forcing ordinary folk in this country to chose between food and heating.
April 12, 2022
Do not sue for peace, do not accept a negotiated treaty, do not allow UN peace-keepers or observers in country, do not allow Russia to have any success, do not allow Russia to remain in the Donbas region or the Crimea peninsula âŠ.give the Russians a bloody nose â any less and the Russians have won
April 12, 2022
agreed.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said his invasion of Ukraine will achieve what he called its “noble” aims. Speaking alongside Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, Mr Putin claimed that a clash with Ukraine had become “inevitable”. Mr Putin said he had been left with no choice but to launch the invasion in a bid to protect the Russian speaking Donbas region.
Putin is quite prepared to lay Ukraine to wasteland to add a buffer state between him and the west.
Talk of protecting people in Donbas while indiscriminate bombing kills and destroys randomly doesn’t match any sort of ‘noble aims’.
April 12, 2022
Who are you giving orders to, Glen? Tragically, the young men of Ukraine are about to die in large numbers anyway for your agenda, you didn’t need to get so excited.
You’ve seen what happened when Ukraine was cynically duped by Washington and London into poking the Russian bear. What sort of war would you want to see next – one where Russian missiles are targeted on us, America’s island aircraft carrier? Like other constituents of Sir John’s, I live not all that far from an Atomic Weapons Establishment, a prime target were that to happen. Could you tone down the rhetoric, please?
April 12, 2022
With everything that is happening both home and abroad it highlights the total incompetence of the people that govern us. 550 odd politicians all on the same runaway train following their respective leaders like lambs to the slaughter.
April 12, 2022
The reason for attempting the encirclement of Kyiv was part of a strategy to cause the the Ukraine state to collapse. This has not succeeded so it would be expected that Russia now focus on its longer term objectives, such as to permanently lift the siege of Donbas in which 14, 000 have already perished and for whose inhabitants normal life has been impossible for the years since the US orchestrated coup d’etat in 2014. Donbas wants to hold a referendum on whether to join Russia, but that is impossible under present circumstances; it is also impossible that the people of Dombas would ever want to be ruled again by those who have been trying to murder them for eight years and created large numbers of refugees temporarily living in Russia who would like to return to their homes.
At the time of Yanukovych’s election in 2010, the country was very evenly split in terms of political affiliation with his support mostly to the East of the Dnieper, not just in Donbas where his support was overwhelming. It is inevitable that Ukraine will not return to its previous borders. The fact that the British government which does not have a mandate for expending our treasure on Ukraine is now trying to trot out the same lie about chemical weapons that they did whilst losing in Syria signals that they are not confident that their donation of our money will have proven successful in achieving their objectives whatever they are.
April 12, 2022
forthurst. You have made some very good points there. Particularly the British Government having no mandate to spend our money there.
April 12, 2022
So three wars including Libya, in the Middle East and broken red lines in Syria resulting in the region being destabilised to this day, Afghanistan now back in the dark ages, all based on political deceit and costing us trillions arguably setting back all those theatres, decades plus the diaspora now entering our country illegally and now I hear umpteen bellicose statements from Truss etc threatening direct conflict with a âmadmanâ who has a vast nuclear arsenal.
Again for frankly something not much involving us, however unpleasant and with our grubby fingerprints in the past (partly) leading to Putins intervention.
When will our warmongering politicians b****y learn?
April 12, 2022
Just goes to show that MP’s are as badly misinformed by msm as the people.
April 12, 2022
Ukraine’s Finance Minister, speaking on Sky right now, seems to be looking for north of half a trillion dollars!
April 12, 2022
I do hope you are correct Sir John. What I’ve seen (armchair TV watching) makes me think of the events leading up to and those done during the Second World War – except with a change of characters ( ‘dramatist personae’). Was it Churchill who said ‘you can never satisfy a crocodile’ ?
April 12, 2022
Justine Currell from Unseen. UK has just been on GB News talking about the safety of children and the vulnerable coming from the Ukraine into our country. There is concern about who they get placed with and whether they have their best concerns at heart and about the mental health of the refugees who may have serious mental problens at a later date. As she stated we already have a crisis with too many of our own young people with mental problems so how will a system that’s already overloaded cope? Will our children be put to the back of the queue? Also this is meant to be a temporary situation but will a lot of these people want to stay and where are we going to house them? We all know there is a housing crisis now and this won’t help.
April 12, 2022
The fighting in Ukraine may die down to lower levels but Russia is not going stop attacking Ukraine and ultimately the West, the attacking strength depending upon how much financial support they receive from China, India, Pakistan and others from the sale of its hydrocarbons and minerals.
Whilst Russia is directly attacking Ukraine militarily both Russia and China are weakening the economies and hence the militaries of the West by using their supporters in the West to bring about shortages of power and food through the implementation of Net Zero â a policy designed to bring about expensive and intermittent electricity and increasing dependency on those countries who are not implementing this policy.
And, at the same time, promoting through both internal and external pressure massive levels of immigration into the West to destroy national identities.
April 12, 2022
Off topic:
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2022/0412/1291874-brexit/
“EU allows British medicines to go to Northern Ireland”
That’s very kind of them.
“The EU has adopted rules allowing medicines made in Britain to go to Northern Ireland, creating an exception to a post-Brexit treaty that requires goods sent to Northern Ireland to be EU-compliant.”
So now Boris Johnson should turn that exception into the rule, that is if he could spare the time to do something for the integrity of his own country rather than devoting all his effort to Ukraine.
April 12, 2022
Off topic again, sorry, the Irish government has produced this trade and investment strategy:
https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/Publications/Publication-files/Trade-and-Investment-Strategy-2022-2026-Value-for-Ireland-Values-for-the-World.pdf
which like UK government publications speaks of the EU Single Market in glowing terms, for example:
“The prosperity of the European Union today is, among other things, the outcome of the economic integration that followed the implementation of the European Single Market.”
Well, that “among other things” is a significant qualification, given that for the UK even the gross benefits of the EU Single Market have been of marginal importance – from just before the referendum:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2016/06/19/the-economic-experts-concerns-on-brexit-have-all-the-potency-of-the-millennium-bug-experts/#comment-818928
“… a 62% increase in UK GDP, OF WHICH MAYBE 2% IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SINGLE MARKET … ”
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2016/06/19/the-economic-experts-concerns-on-brexit-have-all-the-potency-of-the-millennium-bug-experts/#comment-818930
“I wonder if over the next few days I will hear anybody on TV telling the simple and basic truth, that over the past 23 years since it was created at least 97% of our economic growth has NOT been down to the EU Single Market.
60/62 = 0.968
61/62 = 0.984”
According to the Bertelsmann reference given in that first link Ireland had seen a 0.9% increase in per capita GDP thanks the EU Single Market, while the UK had gained 1.0%.
April 12, 2022
Seven years ago 2015 Nigel Farage predicted that prodding the Russian Bear over Ukraine would result in war.
He also warned German MEPs not to become to reliance on Russian energy, the reaction was to smirk at him.
He was right as usual. He should be Prime Minister.
April 12, 2022
He predicted more recently that Russia would NOT invade Ukraine. “I was wrong” he said.
Also, earlier, that “the euro will be dead and buried by Christmas 2012”.
April 12, 2022
YCIAM. Farage is right on many topics. It’s the media that have hounded him and given him bad press. I agree. I’d rather have him as PM than Boris.
April 12, 2022
It is reported that a large group of Russian tanks is approaching eastern Ukraine from Russia. Would it not be a good idea if someone bombed and destroyed them while they are still on Russian soil. At the moment, Russia believes it can cause unlimited damage in another country while being immune from attack themselves. If NATO is not prepared to do the job itself, could it not lend Ukraine planes to do the job?
April 12, 2022
Well, the Ukrainians were pretty effective against that 40 mile convoy towards Kyiv, so let’s see what happens?
April 12, 2022
Best not to give the Russians a cause to fight for.
Contrary to what some above have said, the Russian army doesn’t have a clue what it’s supposed to be doing, so destroy the tanks when they have got to Ukraine.
April 12, 2022
Have you tried it from your game console?
April 12, 2022
We were in the EU for 40 years. We been out for 2 years.
We are saddled with MPâs and Civil Servants who are bewilded with the change.
The Treasury are still using the numbers and forecast cooked up by George Osborn!
I cannot see any big ideas being implemented as Government Policy for several years.
We now have a Prime Minister and Chancellor having to bend over for a good caning.
We need someone with the vision to step up to the plate.
April 12, 2022
Are you actually sure we’re out !!!
April 13, 2022
Bob D = The globalist UK Establishment do not want the country/ people to succeed. They did not want to leave the globalist EU as it did not suit them and they will do EVERYTHING possible to obfuscate /delay any progress. But be patient, change is coming and Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing.
April 12, 2022
off topic.
May I hope the fines for partying are means tested?
Sunak ÂŁ100,000 and Johnson ÂŁ10,000 – but somebody else will pay his, won’t they!
April 12, 2022
Reputation is everything, honour and integrity.
Boris has to appeal the police fine or resign. Just paying it isnât an option.
Who is paying the ÂŁ10,000 for organising the breach get together? Who brought the cake in and called everyone together? Carrie doesnât work there she just lives there? Or do spouses of the PM get considered staff (is there an allowance for the UK First Lady, man?)
He needs to look at the defence Sir Keir used when he had beer and pizza at his works meeting with a group of colleagues.
April 12, 2022
Oh dear, Boris made a law and didnât understand it. Oh dear. Itâs announced just as everyone has gone on holiday and heâs neck deep in Ukrainian politics. If he agrees with the police that he was guilty of breaking the law heâs an idiot and led himself into a dead end.
April 12, 2022
Mr. Redwood, I lived in Wokingham for nearly 30 years. I have always regarded you as a man of integrity. I fail to see how you can support Johnson and Sunak now they have been found guilty by the police of breaking the Covid laws. I am no monarchist but the image of the Queen sitting alone at her husbandâs funeral is etched in my mind. I think it behoves every Tory MP who has any integrity to openly and publicly call for their resignations. You can see the election posters already, every Tory MP is going to have to defend the indefensible when electioneering.
April 12, 2022
BORIS AND COVID FINES.
Get Boris to volunteer to do Community Service. (Seriously).
His words of apologies / fines not NEARLY enough. He set the rules. Thousands of people were’t able to see their close family who died from Covid. Plus the first PM to break law whilst in office.
Doing Community Service would be a great way to demonstrate his sincerity – and most people would be satisfied with this, I’m sure.
April 12, 2022
No Ed, I defended these work gatherings, people that worked throughout the lockdown did organise treats for their fellow workers, I saw bakery staff sat outside together on hot sunny days, our nursing staff got free food delivered every week and cakes throughout lockdown, their dance routines were considered letting off steam whilst they were Working. People who were Working and had a birthday often had a moment of light relief with a cake whilst a large % of the population were enjoying being paid to be at home or were feeling safe at home. If the police have said it was âbreaking the lawâ a law Boris authorised then people wonât be satisfied with washing graffiti off a wall. You canât say you didnât understand the law you put onto the Statute that people walking in a park or on a beach got arrested for.
Often it was the NHS deciding we couldnât visit loved ones because of the risk to their working staff, this pressured the MPs to stop open visiting, the funeral homes got bolshy with people not sitting together and very bossy, the churches etc. Didnât want to hold services for fear of half their congregation dying. Lets not conflate people performing necessary work that couldnât work from home with people gathering when asked not to for everyoneâs safety and preservation. The hypocrisy of some people I read that last month were wanting masks and lockdowns to come back.
April 13, 2022
@a-tracy,
I don’t think Boris should resign (we all make mistakes – wasn’t serious enough). But he’s got to somehow appease those who really suffered cause they couldn’t see their families / dying family members. ‘Sorry’ and paying a fine won’t cut it with these people and his opponents.
Volunteering to do Community Service would cut it well and set a good example and get him out of the frying pan. (I think, might be wrong).
April 13, 2022
Again, I’m supporting Boris. But you got to try and reduce the sting out of those who are challenging him otherwise they might force him to resign and / or this will hang over him for ages.
40 hours of Voluntary Community Service (but to have freedom to do when can – as he’s PM and he’s volunteered to do it), I’m pretty sure would settle this issue so that the PM can get on with his job etc (I might be wrong).
April 13, 2022
Boris should have given the barrister Keir Starmerâs beer and food excuse at work during the working meeting period. To accept he âbroke the lawâ and didnât quite understood what heâd implemented is idiotic was bad advice and with all the clever lawyers around him it seems heâs been set up to fall this time. I donât see this was any different than tik tok dancing, or enjoying the free pizzas and cakes delivered every week to people working hard and dealing with complete stress and pressure of this situation, these people doing these jobs all felt so powerful and that they were saving lives including Boris and the gang.
However They, Boris and his team, and all of the NHS and Sage etc. were terrifying people at the time, some people didnât go out for 17 weeks. Hospital staff were telling us weâd die if we sat on grass outside. I worked throughout, I fought that fear and bought all the protective equipment I could for us all. To hear they all swanned around Downing Street at the height of the panic drinking and not taking 2m distance and other precautions is damaging. Because either they knew it wasnât so dangerous or what they thought they were gods. Or did they have the medicine and vaccinations and felt as safe as people do now after three shots.
People are furious because theyâre now paying the price for all this lockdown, furlough and fear. There is always a day of reckoning. Notice how theyâre going after the chief âLeaversâ next weâll be offered a bunch of âremainersâ to make it all better. Hunt, Tugenhaut all lining up to stitch the UK up and get us in before the pay cheque ends at the end of this year.
April 12, 2022
Approx 184,000 residents of the UK have a birthday each day of the year.
How many had, and thought is was ok and within ‘the Rules’ to celebrate- having people, family, friends, colleagues round.
Johnson states he didn’t realise his celebration might be against the Rules. Yet he is briefed and addresses the public most days of the pandemic. How can he pretend it was a simple mistake?
April 14, 2022
MT – perhaps the people in Downing Street were being tested every day and were the first guinea pigs on the testing system. Perhaps the people working in Downing Street together indoors all day long didn’t think putting a few snacks out on a table when they perhaps normally ate their lunch at work was a problem. Sir Keir certainly didn’t and got away with it.
Earlier that day Boris had been given a cake at a school, didn’t his minders say this is against the rules Sir, can’t be seen to have a birthday at the moment. Does he not have advisers that are qualified high level lawyers? Or did he just ignore them? People were doing the conga in the street holding a piece of rope near me and got told off, staff were letting off steam in hospitals (whatever they try to say now) at the same time. They just needed to keep the majority off the streets, out of trouble and out of the way.
April 12, 2022
It is like NLH’s own blog on here
50 posts from one poster in one day
April 12, 2022
Peter2, he is on a mission, he has to persuade everyone here that every opinion we have is wrong and he is right. Martin is perhaps paid to spoil conversation and provoke a narrative contrary to everything. People change alias a lot. I donât understand why anyone would spend so much time in a space where they profoundly disagree with the majority.
April 12, 2022
once in a while they are worth reading.
April 12, 2022
Get rid of him.. dump him he’s a loser.. a drag on the country.. a BS chancer9
April 13, 2022
The continuing clamorous fervour of young Ukrainians for joining the EU is based on what? On accessing western consumer products and popular culture, on subsidised study and travel in western Europe, and work and residence permits in Germany and Scandinavia. i.e. Basically, on getting out of Ukraine and being free to settle elsewhere. As in previous eastern European exemplars, the home economy will be suppressed by a shortage of workers, which will trigger more subsidies from Brussels, keeping their politicians in well-paid sinecures, and preventing the country from developing and earning a living to the point where it needs to be a net contributor to the Brussels coffers.
In truth, the ‘trade links’ Brussels is offering are just the old Moscow chains, polished brightly, and with the T&Cs more concealed.
April 13, 2022
It is good news that the Russian army has withdrawn for the Kiev region. The all out War on Ukraine can never be justified under any pretext. How the Russian Government could see the threat from Ukraine and the West warranted such a move is hard to see unless there are secerts hidden from Western public view.
However there is still the ongoing bombardment in other parts of Ukraine. I don’t see the West doing much to actually try and stop the war. The endless supply of weapons to one side is a great help.
This all started as a civil war in the Donbas region in 2014 with the illegal overthrow of the elected Government.
Boris has aligned the UK in full support for one side in this conflict which will be bring great hardship on the UK in the coming months and years.
We must ask why did the UK not support the Minsk agreement and put pressure on Kiev to accept it? It was clear that/is the Kiev Government wants to remove all trace of Russian culture from Ukraine. This policy the reason not acceptable for EU membership even to join “Democratic ” NATO.
The Politicians in the West have screwed up again for Political and commercial gain in prompting US style Western Democracy at all costs and many lives have been lost in Ukraine as a result.
But we have uncovered another couple of US funded biolabs in Ukraine like Whaun in China. Perhaps Putin was a bit concerned with the escape from the labs of Covid plus MKII