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Parts of the right commentariat are utterly losing their minds at the moment:



Allison Pearson
@AllisonPearson

Trump can make life v uncomfortable for Starmer.
I’d like to see the US impose a Lucy Connolly tariff.

Yes nothing screams "I love my country" more than seeking a foreign power to engage in a hostile act against it.

I don’t love this country any more

I despise what it has become

Don’t be negative, it’s crappy at the moment, compared to some countries I can’t think of, maybe Denmark but they have high taxes and their women sound like drains when they talk whilst looking attractive.

You despise what it “has become” because you were living in periods where it was the best place to be.

I love the country, I love what it was and what it could be. It’s not great at the moment and could go down several bad routes but I live in hope someone with a brain will find a way back.

I still have a hankering to live in the UK, I have my eyes on a specific house and do consider it, even if for tax reasons I’m limited in time I can spend there. It’s still a great place with a lot of fun people, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. A lot of great pubs and restaurants, great culture, great free museums.

It’s shitty if you don’t have much but where is good if you don’t?

I’ve only lived in Switzerland and France so they are my only good true comparisons and god they have their faults too, and they speak French just to make it worse.

It’s still on the whole, a good place to be.

I've lived in Switzerland, Austria and Denmark for periods long enough to feel fairly rootless - on the whole I like Switzerland and Denmark most, because of their majority of people keen to make society work, in a way that one doesn't see frequently in the UK (or Austria). But so many other things decide where one lives, and I'm happy living in the UK, and puzzled by people who feel vehemently against it.

Again, for the hard of thinking, I despise the British STATE, and virtually all its workings and doings, its corrupted judiciary and its diseased government, all of that

I still like pubs, I still (generally) like and even love London, I have a very nice life, I haven't suddenly developed a hatred of oak trees, the Yorkshire dales, proper pies, Test cricket, the works of John Constable, views of the Inner Hebrides, Kilpeck church or Georgian architecture. I despise the state, I want it overturned, and I want peaceful but serious revenge

"Peter Stringfellow, a solicitor at Brett Wilson, told the PA news agency: “Both (Jones and Connolly) said pretty unpleasant things.However, I’m afraid the conflation of the two after that is a problem. It comes from people who’ve got some sort of political agenda, in my view. They were facing completely different allegations and a massive part of those different allegations is the racial element. If you look at the Connolly case … her intention is of a racial nature.”"

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/peter-stringfellow-chris-philp-snaresbrook-crown-court-southport-james-cleverly-b2808559.html"

Errr, surely the major difference is this:

(1) Jones went to jury trial and the was found not guilty.
(2) Connolly chose to plead guilty, and was sentenced to prison.

Now, I think the sentence for Connolly was grossly disproportionate to her acts. I would probably have gone for Community Service, or (at most) eight weeks at Her Majesty's Pleasure. On the other hand, I don't think she's any kind of laudable character (and nor is Jones), she just made the mistake of pleading guilty when there was a pretty good chance she would have been acquitted (or that the jury would have been hung). And I don't see how her sentence could realistically have been any worse.

I totally agree with all the points you made. But unless I have got this wrong, Connolly as a mother of a young daughter who had also suffered the bereavement of another very young child was arrested and charged and then placed on remand while Jones was granted bail which is the big issue being ignored by most here arguing about the rights and wrongs of the later legal outcome of both these cases as a result.

And if I am correct that Connolly was remanded in custody while Jones was not then questions should be asked because these differing circumstances surely helped lead to far more pressure being brought to bear and incredible quickly which left Connolly feeling far more compelled to plead guilty to try to get home to her family quicker while Jones felt no such pressure and was able to go ahead and enter his plea while waiting at home for his day in date in court in front of a jury.

What a sorry spectacle . Putin didn’t budge at all and the charade moves onto possibly Moscow for another photo op waste of time .

Trump is happy to play along with the charade as Putin aims even more missiles at Ukraine . The gullible fools in the media who fell for Trumps angry , sanctions …. should give up the day job .

Meanwhile the EU and UK play along and massage Trumps ego all the while knowing this is going nowhere. Trump will never do anything to really force Russia’s hand .

It’s a truly depressing state of affairs .

.

John Bolton
@AmbJohnBolton
·
1h
It’s a mistake for Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire. If there’s a ceasefire and lines are drawn at battlefronts, those ceasefire lines become the new Russia-Ukraine border, ceding significant territory to Russia.

https://x.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1956424401466839530

Guys like Bolton don’t understand that their musings are less than helpful at a time of delicate negotiations.

I think that's entirely wrong.
In a democracy an opinion is something you express. I doubt it will have any effect on the negotiation.

FWIW, the deteriorating situation appears to have improved in the last 24 hours.

Russians are getting absolutely destroyed in their breaktrough area north of Pokrovsk.

Almost all territory is back in Ukrainian control.
https://x.com/TallbarFIN/status/1956413714355073126

Too much to hope that this is Russias ‘Battle of the Bulge’?

Telly Savalas in a tank!
The Bulge failed largely due to chronic fuel shortages though. Not something Russia has.

Lets hope that all those charged with belonging to Palestine Action choose to have a jury trial and are found not guilty. It's easy to forget posting here that the vast majority in the country aren't racists who follow Farage read the Telegraph and are happy to support genocide. There are about a quarter of the country who are neanderthals but as long as is stays like that we can all feel comfortable. Think about people you know not people who post crap online.

I thought the Farage and Tory reaction to the jury verdict on Ricky Jones was odd, even though frankly I think it was the wrong verdict.

They said it was an example of 2 tier justice, but it was a jury verdict. Members of the public. They seem to be condemning the jury for wrongthink.

You thought it was odd because you're a lefty-liberal. Sorry to be blunt.

You don’t get it.

Read my post again. 2 political parties criticised a verdict that was reached by members of the public in a jury.

They were criticising a jury. Not the government, not the judiciary. A jury. Magna Carta.

Have you ever been called for jury service?