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It’s either breakfasts for poor kids or stopping the Russkis shooting them.
At least Colonel Blimp was a sensitive, honourable man capable of change underneath the reactionary old fool, whereas this guy..

Lord Alan West: "Its all very well having nice spending for breakfast for children at school.. but if that means.. you have Russians stomping down your streets shooting the children who would have been having breakfast.."

Russians killing your kids. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

https://x.com/saulstaniforth/status/2065301442752070026?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q

Curious. Not that long ago it was the overseas-aid budget that was sucking the funding from Britain's defence requirements.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1156278/jacob-rees-mogg-iran-jeremy-hunt-boris-johnson-lbc-brexit-news-video

Rachel and Sir Keir slashed that in half, but now it's breakfast clubs that are the problem. What gives?

Lord Alan West (why am I reminded of Walk on the Wild side?) is an excellent argument for Members of the Lords to retire at 80.

Lord West is 78. Former First Sea Lord who had his ship sunk during the Falklands. A "fighting admiral" who is a Labour peer and made security minister by Gordon Brown. A useful person to have in the Lords, I would have thought.

I'm very familiar with Lord West.

To me these days he seems to be a classic Daily Telegraph retired Admiral, commentating from how things were several decades ago.

I'd say he is more suited for the Telegraph than the Lords.

IMO he needs to consider the the effect of free school meals, including breakfasts, on children's health and the effectiveness of their education.

Given how much we spend on education, making sure children have been fed enough so they can actually concentrate and learn is money well spent.

But that shouldn't be attached to the amount of interest we charge on student loans for those who wanted to go to university.

Anyway, Happy Russia Day to all those that celebrate. Just having a quiet one at home at home this year.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTJbHvxDWIc/?hl=en

Cheers!

I had a great time in Russia when I was there for the World Cup and would love to go back to see some more of the sights. Being a Russophile doesn't mean being a Putinophile!

Russia's flaw is to be a country obsessed with the decline of its empire and also with its moment of glory in WW2. Very much a mirror to a certain country on the opposite end of Europe.

My wife and I have the Trans-Siberian Express on our lifetime bucket list. The hope is that Russia becomes a friendly country by the time we retire.

Sadly this looks some way off at the moment.

A former boss did the trans-Siberian railway. From his account, I'd recommend changing your bucket list. It's a day's entertainment spread over a week. Russia is a big place and there is an awful lot of nothing in between the interesting parts.

Has Foxy done the Canadian transcontinental ?
It appears more civilised.

As an 18 year old I took a train from Delhi to Chennai, which in those days took almost 48 hours but is faster now I would guess. It was an amazing journey, with an ever changing landscape and lots of Indian life going by outside and inside the carriage. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

It isn’t that simple. The Ukraine/Russia front is the obsession night now, but throw in directed energy weapons and high end electronic warfare to take on the drones, and you’ll be back to infantry and protected mobility in no time.

Indeed. People who are saying we should go all-in on drones don't seem to understand we're in a period where a new weapon is highly effective because countermeasures have not been deployed at scale. Current air defence systems are designed to counter aircraft and missiles, not small slow flying drones.

All those Russian tanks died because they had no way of taking out the drones. That will not be the case in future. Similarly, Ukraine is having success with their larger, long-range drones because Russia has almost no functional air-defence network left and what little they have is protecting Putin's bunkers.

Directed energy weapons, either laser or RF, will murder drones when they become common. There's no way to protect a drone against those weapons without making it unfeasibly large and heavy.

It’s either breakfasts for poor kids or stopping the Russkis shooting them.
At least Colonel Blimp was a sensitive, honourable man capable of change underneath the reactionary old fool, whereas this guy..

Lord Alan West: "Its all very well having nice spending for breakfast for children at school.. but if that means.. you have Russians stomping down your streets shooting the children who would have been having breakfast.."

Russians killing your kids. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

https://x.com/saulstaniforth/status/2065301442752070026?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q

Curious. Not that long ago it was the overseas-aid budget that was sucking the funding from Britain's defence requirements.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1156278/jacob-rees-mogg-iran-jeremy-hunt-boris-johnson-lbc-brexit-news-video

Rachel and Sir Keir slashed that in half, but now it's breakfast clubs that are the problem. What gives?

All of it is unnecessary, especially whilst we run a budget deficit and have to go cap in hand to the bond markets to fund spending.

Scrap overseas aid. Scrap taxpayer funded breakfasts. Scrap motability. Stop blocking roads in the same of sodding active travel. Come out of ECHR. Get rid of the laws that have left us vulnerable to being sued by activist lawyers. Insist that anyone who arrives here on a small boat gets processed elsewhere. Get rid of the laws that lead to lawsuits faced by Brum council and now big supermarkets.

On the last point that doesn't solve the issue of historic back pay, because it would still need to be determined for the period up to your repelling of the law.

Also Birmingham should have sorted out single status pay back in the early 1990s when other councils did so - Swale in Kent had it sorted by 1996.

It’s either breakfasts for poor kids or stopping the Russkis shooting them.
At least Colonel Blimp was a sensitive, honourable man capable of change underneath the reactionary old fool, whereas this guy..

Lord Alan West: "Its all very well having nice spending for breakfast for children at school.. but if that means.. you have Russians stomping down your streets shooting the children who would have been having breakfast.."

Russians killing your kids. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

https://x.com/saulstaniforth/status/2065301442752070026?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q

Curious. Not that long ago it was the overseas-aid budget that was sucking the funding from Britain's defence requirements.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1156278/jacob-rees-mogg-iran-jeremy-hunt-boris-johnson-lbc-brexit-news-video

Rachel and Sir Keir slashed that in half, but now it's breakfast clubs that are the problem. What gives?

All of it is unnecessary, especially whilst we run a budget deficit and have to go cap in hand to the bond markets to fund spending.

Scrap overseas aid. Scrap taxpayer funded breakfasts. Scrap motability. Stop blocking roads in the same of sodding active travel. Come out of ECHR. Get rid of the laws that have left us vulnerable to being sued by activist lawyers. Insist that anyone who arrives here on a small boat gets processed elsewhere. Get rid of the laws that lead to lawsuits faced by Brum council and now big supermarkets.

Overseas aid is set to 0.48% of Gross National Income (GNI) and is reducing to 0.3%. It's peanuts. Coming out of the ECHR doesn't directly save any money. Motability ain't much (a few billion). Even small boat arrivers aren't much of the budget (a few billion, and many of those costs actually come out of the overseas aid budget, so we're in danger of double counting). Breakfast clubs is even less money. The lawsuits faced by big supermarkets don't directly generate government costs.

Basically, make all the changes you suggest and we still have to go cap in hand to the bond markets. You have to tackle the big four (NHS, pensions, working age benefits, education) to have any impact.

It’s either breakfasts for poor kids or stopping the Russkis shooting them.
At least Colonel Blimp was a sensitive, honourable man capable of change underneath the reactionary old fool, whereas this guy..

Lord Alan West: "Its all very well having nice spending for breakfast for children at school.. but if that means.. you have Russians stomping down your streets shooting the children who would have been having breakfast.."

Russians killing your kids. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

https://x.com/saulstaniforth/status/2065301442752070026?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q

Curious. Not that long ago it was the overseas-aid budget that was sucking the funding from Britain's defence requirements.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1156278/jacob-rees-mogg-iran-jeremy-hunt-boris-johnson-lbc-brexit-news-video

Rachel and Sir Keir slashed that in half, but now it's breakfast clubs that are the problem. What gives?

Lord Alan West (why am I reminded of Walk on the Wild side?) is an excellent argument for Members of the Lords to retire at 80.

Lord West is 78. Former First Sea Lord who had his ship sunk during the Falklands. A "fighting admiral" who is a Labour peer and made security minister by Gordon Brown. A useful person to have in the Lords, I would have thought.

It’s either breakfasts for poor kids or stopping the Russkis shooting them.
At least Colonel Blimp was a sensitive, honourable man capable of change underneath the reactionary old fool, whereas this guy..

Lord Alan West: "Its all very well having nice spending for breakfast for children at school.. but if that means.. you have Russians stomping down your streets shooting the children who would have been having breakfast.."

Russians killing your kids. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

https://x.com/saulstaniforth/status/2065301442752070026?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q

Curious. Not that long ago it was the overseas-aid budget that was sucking the funding from Britain's defence requirements.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1156278/jacob-rees-mogg-iran-jeremy-hunt-boris-johnson-lbc-brexit-news-video

Rachel and Sir Keir slashed that in half, but now it's breakfast clubs that are the problem. What gives?

All of it is unnecessary, especially whilst we run a budget deficit and have to go cap in hand to the bond markets to fund spending.

Scrap overseas aid. Scrap taxpayer funded breakfasts. Scrap motability. Stop blocking roads in the same of sodding active travel. Come out of ECHR. Get rid of the laws that have left us vulnerable to being sued by activist lawyers. Insist that anyone who arrives here on a small boat gets processed elsewhere. Get rid of the laws that lead to lawsuits faced by Brum council and now big supermarkets.

More Lam:

https://x.com/katie_lam_mp/status/2065397992769671455

Keir Starmer and his Attorney General are still trying to open up prosecutions against Northern Ireland veterans.

Is it any surprise that they're not taking our country's security seriously, when this is how they treat people who've risked their lives to keep us safe?

She's off her fucking (giant) head.

On the subject of persecutions in NI. Anyone want to bet on there being any for the race riots?

There won't - unless you count some junior spides getting a slap in a magistrates court.

There is a reason that arson against homes is considered a very serious offence. In Japan, that used to get you the death penalty, even if someone didn't get killed. because the risk of murdering people in domestic arson is high.

That's before we get to the racist character of the offences.

But nothing will happen.

That's real two tier justice.