Best Of

Sir Keir has spoken.

https://x.com/keir_starmer/status/1956692156099244329

To give him credit where it’s due, this is one issue on which he can’t really be faulted. Thankfully UK support for Ukraine is almost universal and across party lines.

Thankfully Boris Johnson beat Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, I suspect the old commie’s attitude to this conflict would have been quite different.

Except the party leading the polls.

And this is the curious thing.

Its perfectly possible to have a pro-western, strong defence patriotic, reform as an alt-right party.

In fact it would likely have greater potential support than the anti-western putinism that Farage dabbles in.

The putinism of the Christian ethno-nationalists is even more baffling as it is Putin's strategy to encourage more migration to the western world.

It's because they see Russia as a bastion of traditional values. It's white, Christian, antiwoke. In their mental word-cloud "muscular" and "unpolluted" would be prominent.

You said Sir Keir was “muscular” as well! Are these tough guys smothered in baby oil when you think of them?

Hang on, Boris surely. And it was that Philip Tompkins not me.

I am sure you said people would start to associate the word "muscular" with Sir Keir if he kept sending out those tough guy tweets

It appears I did yes. I hope I was joking but sometimes even I'm not sure when I am.

I see our low IQ pollsters are getting overexcited based on a subsamples as low as 122 of 18 to 24 year olds.

Belief has also surged in older people, just not as much


“Among 25-49-year-olds, belief has risen more modestly, from 21 per cent to 33 per cent over the same period

Which is still an incredible rise

That said, this poll repeats the dubious assertion about a massive rise in churchgoing - which has been plausibly questioned by many

So 🤷🏼‍♂️

This looks like it's the underlying survey;

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/trackers/brits-beliefs-about-gods?crossBreak=1824

Six monthly tracker, and both the 16 and 45 are oddly cherry-picked. (The most recent survey is back to 37-32 belief.)

Does look like something interesting happened between August 2022 and February 2023, but not on the scale suggested here. Maybe the rapid fall of Truss caused people to say "Thank God for that".

Yes, that's a weird selection. But let's disentangle them (with the SUBSET CAVEAT in mind)

In August 2019, a total of 39% of young people believed either in God/Gods or a "spiritual greater power". Whereas 42% declared total atheism - the atheists had a narrow but clear majority

Now? In August 2025? A total of 55% of young people believe in God/Gods or a spiritual greater power, and just 32% are convinced atheists, the believers are now in the majority and by a big distance

That is a profound change, and does suggest Something is Going On

What’s going on, as usual, is your inability to understand basic maths.

Fiction writers don't do maths, surely?

Only in the racier bits of the finance industry.

Well I’ve just made several hundred quid writing about this little poll, this afternoon, for Tickler’s Weekly (Australian edition) so maybe my maths is not entirely shot

That is to say, on seeing the poll I saw the underlying equation:

Startling poll + my talent = money

Several hundred pounds!

Not so bad for a couple of hours on a lazy Saturday afternoon - which I would otherwise have spent faffing about on here, probably

It's more than I earned today, I'll give you that.

Bit of cheap and cheerful clickbait?

Started out that way, but became something more serious and considered

I'm proud of my final line

Was it "ENOUGH"?

BRACE!

Actually it is interesting, the process

I've noticed of late the LESS time I spend on a column, the better

That is to say: if I am in the zone I can write one in 40 minutes (as I did today). Then I spend an hour or so browsing 1960s Murano glass, obviously racist news, and softcore VPN'd porn on the net, then I return to the column and polish it up in 10-20 minutes. And it's good to go

So actually an hour's work. For what most people earn in a day if they are pretty lucky. And often PB has done most of the research and argumentation for me, by debating the point

I recommend this line of work, it's fun

However if a column takes me hours and hours, that's a sure sign it will be less good, perhaps even crap

My line of work is sightly different to yours - but does invilve writing, and I can relate. My best work is done quickly.

Same.

One of my proudest moments was when my firm was involved in a dispute with another company, there was a lot of emails (and threats) from their side, we were in the right.

Their in house lawyer sent me a 9,000 word letter via email, and I did read it, and I replied with 'noted', which led to a very unprofessional reply from them from which they never recovered.

BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace


Telegraph


If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse

I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?

So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.

Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.

The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:

THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.

Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands

End the war. Do a Korea

By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?

Nor did South Korea give up any land.

You really do have a substandard IQ.

Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.

Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.

Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?

I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.

I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept

I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"

And so on, and so forth

I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die

If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat

So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake

Well said.

Except I would have said 'Go and jump in a toxic lake.'

How much land should Russia give up for peace ?

How much current IRA activity should the UK ignore for peace? How many past IRA murderers should the UK Government brush under the carpet for piece? Peace deals aren't satisfactory - by their nature they involve compromise with the enemy, often unjust compromise.

So how much land should Russia give up for peace ?

And it isn't peace if its just the next step for further war.

Ukraine isn't holding any Russian land (as I understand it), so Russia doesn't have to give up any land.

Russia should give up land as part of their reparations for the war.

Russia has been appalling, despicable, and they 'should' have to do many things, but this is isn't about justice, it's about future people being alive, not dead.

Russia can end the war immediately by withdrawing to the 1991 border.

BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace


Telegraph


If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse

I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?

So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.

Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.

The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:

THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.

Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands

End the war. Do a Korea

By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?

Nor did South Korea give up any land.

You really do have a substandard IQ.

Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.

Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.

Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?

I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.

I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept

I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"

And so on, and so forth

I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die

If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat

So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake

Looked at dispassionately, it’s obviously a deal the Ukrainians should take if it’s seriously on offer.

Zelensky would bite your hand off if offered frozen lines and a security guarantee. Which of course means that deal is not one that can be realistically achieved as it takes two to tango. They will have to give up more than they’ve already lost if they want it to stop, as Putin will think nothing of throwing another few million lives at grinding out the same outcome.

As for the rest of us, a dial down in nuclear risk and a chance to rebuild our conventional capability would be a good outcome.

another idiot, a bollox offer indeed.

What’s the counterfactual? Keep fighting an endless attritional war against a country that has a population 3-4x your own and is essentially being bankrolled by China and India? And that has a seemingly infinite political capacity to absorb battlefield losses?

I do not envy Zelensky, there are no good options available to him. There was a window for a fast moving manoeuvre warfare victory, it was in late 2022. But the moment was lost. By summer 2023 the chance had gone.

The 'Russia can fight forever' bollox.

Afghan War
Cold War
Polish-Soviet War
Great War
Russo-Japanese War
Crimean War

Mongol Invasion

This long ago stuff can be hard to be sure about. Suppose that the Mongol hordes were in fact Goblin hordes - surely that's a better explanation of Putin.

BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace


Telegraph


If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse

I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?

So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.

Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.

The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:

THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.

Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands

End the war. Do a Korea

By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?

Nor did South Korea give up any land.

You really do have a substandard IQ.

Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.

Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.

Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?

I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.

I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept

I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"

And so on, and so forth

I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die

If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat

So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake

Well said.

Except I would have said 'Go and jump in a toxic lake.'

How much land should Russia give up for peace ?

How much current IRA activity should the UK ignore for peace? How many past IRA murderers should the UK Government brush under the carpet for piece? Peace deals aren't satisfactory - by their nature they involve compromise with the enemy, often unjust compromise.

So how much land should Russia give up for peace ?

And it isn't peace if its just the next step for further war.

Ukraine isn't holding any Russian land (as I understand it), so Russia doesn't have to give up any land.

Russia should give up land as part of their reparations for the war.

Russia gives up all land taken from Ukraine.

Russia gets Alaska in return.

Trump gets Nobel Peace Prize.

Everybody happy...

BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace


Telegraph


If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse

I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?

So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.

Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.

The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:

THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.

Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands

End the war. Do a Korea

By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?

Nor did South Korea give up any land.

You really do have a substandard IQ.

Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.

Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.

Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?

I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.

I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept

I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"

And so on, and so forth

I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die

If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat

So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake

Well said.

Except I would have said 'Go and jump in a toxic lake.'

How much land should Russia give up for peace ?

@Luckyguy1983 house?

I find it interesting to hear people forgetting to ask what the Ukrainian people want.

Mind you, I recall one of our resident Realist Regimentals telling us that a CNN poll was a “shitty poll” because it said the Ukrainians weren’t keen on the whole BeAPartOfRussia thing - even in the Eastern areas of Ukraine, which Russia claims

Especially in the eastern part of Ukraine, which has watched with horror as Donetsk and Luhansk have been turned into lawless deserts. In the Baltic a large number of Russian speakers have joined the militia- they do not want to be "liberated" by Putins band of murderous thugs.

A couple of worth-a-listen bits from the Rest is Politics commentary:

Bad 'Al on looking up all his diary entries about Vladimit Putin and how his technique has not changed a bit, and Tony Blair trying to reason with him about Chechnya in the noughties:

https://youtu.be/kdEgveREOKE?t=1816

Rory Stewart comparing Trump's perceptions of the world and policy to games of Risk and The Settlers of Catan he is playing with his children (nearly teen iirc):

https://youtu.be/kdEgveREOKE?t=1219

I'm not a fan of theirs, but that's actually quite a good episode.
Interesting that Blair was played by Putin ("someone we can deal with") almost as well as Trump.

All credit to the Russian sociopath, getting Trump to deal with him as though Russia is still America's equal is top level psychological manipulation.

Trump is so far up Putin's arse, you'll have trouble working out where he ends and Putin begins!

And no one knows what went on in the Beast.

BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace


Telegraph


If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse

I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?

So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.

Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.

The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:

THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.

Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands

End the war. Do a Korea

By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?

Nor did South Korea give up any land.

You really do have a substandard IQ.

Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.

Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.

Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?

I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.

I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept

I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"

And so on, and so forth

I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die

If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat

So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake

Well said.

Except I would have said 'Go and jump in a toxic lake.'

How much land should Russia give up for peace ?