"The rise of Londongrad was planned. British governments of all stripes opened the country to Russian capital. In 1994, under John Major, the Conservatives introduced a “golden visa” scheme that handed residency rights to anyone who invested £1m ($1.3m). Tony Blair’s Labour government carried it on with enthusiasm. Ken Livingstone, London’s leftist mayor from 2000 to 2008, said he wanted “Russian companies to regard London as their natural base in Europe”. Boris Johnson, Mr Livingstone’s successor, was good pals with Evgeny Lebedev, proprietor of the Evening Standard, son of a former kgb agent and billionaire. Mr Johnson, now prime minister, made the Anglo-Russian a peer in 2020.
For those arriving from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, London offered safety, security and secrecy. Britain has accommodating laws on tax, libel and property, enforced by an efficient, if expensive, court system—which is, moreover, accommodating in the matter of injunctions. Extradition to Russia, with its corrupt judiciary, is a no-no in the eyes of English judges. On top of this, the private schools are good and so is the shopping. London is an “everything haven”, in the description of Oliver Bullough, author of a forthcoming book, “Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals”. Discretion is key. It follows the rule above a banya’s door: “Please keep conversation to a minimum.”"
And guess who provides 'butler' services in the UK to the global super rich? Yes, none other than Quintessentially, Ben Elliot's concierge company: https://quintessentially.com/ By sheer coincidence, Ben Elliott is co-Chairman of the Tory Party and its key fundraiser. Even more coincidentally, Quintessentially has recently removed from its website all the links that it used to have lauding its special bespoke services for Russian clients.
What was the big problem of making London welcoming to Russians. The article says it has been going on for 30 years. Unless at that time and since we should have spotted Putin as a wrong 'un. Which would no doubt have fed into his everyone hates us we don't care mentality we are seeing today.
Don't forget that almost as soon as the Berlin War came down there were suggestions that Russia should join NATO. Both Gorbachev and Putin suggested it.
I would be interested to know how the history books might treat the immediate dismissal of such an idea.
Would complicate the NATO response to his attack if Vlad was a member ...
"The rise of Londongrad was planned. British governments of all stripes opened the country to Russian capital. In 1994, under John Major, the Conservatives introduced a “golden visa” scheme that handed residency rights to anyone who invested £1m ($1.3m). Tony Blair’s Labour government carried it on with enthusiasm. Ken Livingstone, London’s leftist mayor from 2000 to 2008, said he wanted “Russian companies to regard London as their natural base in Europe”. Boris Johnson, Mr Livingstone’s successor, was good pals with Evgeny Lebedev, proprietor of the Evening Standard, son of a former kgb agent and billionaire. Mr Johnson, now prime minister, made the Anglo-Russian a peer in 2020.
For those arriving from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, London offered safety, security and secrecy. Britain has accommodating laws on tax, libel and property, enforced by an efficient, if expensive, court system—which is, moreover, accommodating in the matter of injunctions. Extradition to Russia, with its corrupt judiciary, is a no-no in the eyes of English judges. On top of this, the private schools are good and so is the shopping. London is an “everything haven”, in the description of Oliver Bullough, author of a forthcoming book, “Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals”. Discretion is key. It follows the rule above a banya’s door: “Please keep conversation to a minimum.”"
And guess who provides 'butler' services in the UK to the global super rich? Yes, none other than Quintessentially, Ben Elliot's concierge company: https://quintessentially.com/ By sheer coincidence, Ben Elliott is co-Chairman of the Tory Party and its key fundraiser. Even more coincidentally, Quintessentially has recently removed from its website all the links that it used to have lauding its special bespoke services for Russian clients.
What was the big problem of making London welcoming to Russians. The article says it has been going on for 30 years. Unless at that time and since we should have spotted Putin as a wrong 'un. Which would no doubt have fed into his everyone hates us we don't care mentality we are seeing today.
Don't forget that almost as soon as the Berlin War came down there were suggestions that Russia should join NATO. Both Gorbachev and Putin suggested it.
I would be interested to know how the history books might treat the immediate dismissal of such an idea.
No problem with making London welcoming to all nationalities including Russians. The problems are mostly related to a handful of them becoming the most significant donors of the establishment political party, which could have easily been solved with a £1k per person, business or organisation limit on political donations. Other problems include lack of a wealth tax, libel laws that favour people with a spare eight figures, not enough tax on second homes and overseas homeowners.
And another picture. Yippeee, thanks for re-decorating my house Putin!
Was supposed to have been handed over a year ago, but kept getting postponed thanks to the pandemic. If it had been finished on time, it would have been full of people this morning.
Thanks. Just spoke to father in law, and he’s thankfully okay. He lives about 200m from the blast.
I am near tears this morning
Erdington was never a likely gain, chin up.
(gallows humour before you bite)
Though the swing was not too bad for Boris, would see a hung parliament yes but the Tories still largest party
I have given you a like, because in the face of nuclear Armageddon you have found a silver lining.
Remember one thing, ONS is not your friend. It is an illusion.
Look this is PB.
Even if we were in WW3 we would still be talking about by election swings as well!
I wouldn't
The thing is with the HFUYD “ww3” outcome is that it fails to recognise this is not a black and white conflict.
The direct attack on nuclear power stations is an escalation that will effect us all. This stuff is a direct threat and escalation, and one we cannot simply ignore. By doing nothing - we embolden Putin. Where does he go next?
It's not WW3 either. Looking at the world map, and looking at Russia's population and GDP, I've started to realise this is much more the post-cold war scenario of the rogue state led by crazed madman with nukes, than it is "WW3".
A few relevant points:
- Russia is not in an equal fight by any stretch of the imagination. It's abundantly clear that in any kind of conventional war it would be overwhelmed by NATO. So the nukes are a blackmail device and deterrent, as used by North Korea and - if they get them - by Iran. - There is no threat to the West that we will be overrun and invaded by Russia. The threat is that they take us down with them in a nuclear conflagration - If this turned nuclear, the "belligerents" would be limited to NATO and Russia plus a couple of Russian satellite territories like Belarus. The rest of the world would be militarily unaffected. The entire Southern Hemisphere, the entire tropics save one or two atolls like Diego Garcia or Samoa, China, Japan, Korea: all untouched by war - The climatological effect would be limited because most of the targets are high latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. As with volcanic eruptions, the biggest effect comes when the explosion is at a tropical latitude and able to reach high into the stratosphere on both sides of the equator.
With enough prior warning, the more judicious and wealthy (no doubt including the Russian oligarchs) could quite safely travel to start new lives in rich developed countries including Chile, Uruguay, UAE, Singapore, Australia, NZ, Japan or Korea. Human life would go on. A large swathe of the Northern Hemisphere would become a mega-scale Chernobyl exclusion zone.
The Falkland Islands suddenly have some appeal. There were some well paid jobs in the government there advertised recently.
This is one area where the French do much better than us. Once Britain and the Hexagon are reduced to glowing embers, we get to choose between the Falklands, South Georgia, Ascension, St Helena and one or two small Caribbean outposts. They have significantly more options with Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, the whole of French Polynesia and probably a few others I've forgotten (oh plus bleak outposts like Kerguelen). Do they still have New Caledonia or is that now independent?
EDIT: and I expect a nuclear armageddon-induced British state collapse is probably one scenario where Argentina might venture again to take Las Malvinas.
"The rise of Londongrad was planned. British governments of all stripes opened the country to Russian capital. In 1994, under John Major, the Conservatives introduced a “golden visa” scheme that handed residency rights to anyone who invested £1m ($1.3m). Tony Blair’s Labour government carried it on with enthusiasm. Ken Livingstone, London’s leftist mayor from 2000 to 2008, said he wanted “Russian companies to regard London as their natural base in Europe”. Boris Johnson, Mr Livingstone’s successor, was good pals with Evgeny Lebedev, proprietor of the Evening Standard, son of a former kgb agent and billionaire. Mr Johnson, now prime minister, made the Anglo-Russian a peer in 2020.
For those arriving from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, London offered safety, security and secrecy. Britain has accommodating laws on tax, libel and property, enforced by an efficient, if expensive, court system—which is, moreover, accommodating in the matter of injunctions. Extradition to Russia, with its corrupt judiciary, is a no-no in the eyes of English judges. On top of this, the private schools are good and so is the shopping. London is an “everything haven”, in the description of Oliver Bullough, author of a forthcoming book, “Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals”. Discretion is key. It follows the rule above a banya’s door: “Please keep conversation to a minimum.”"
And guess who provides 'butler' services in the UK to the global super rich? Yes, none other than Quintessentially, Ben Elliot's concierge company: https://quintessentially.com/ By sheer coincidence, Ben Elliott is co-Chairman of the Tory Party and its key fundraiser. Even more coincidentally, Quintessentially has recently removed from its website all the links that it used to have lauding its special bespoke services for Russian clients.
What was the big problem of making London welcoming to Russians. The article says it has been going on for 30 years. Unless at that time and since we should have spotted Putin as a wrong 'un. Which would no doubt have fed into his everyone hates us we don't care mentality we are seeing today.
Don't forget that almost as soon as the Berlin War came down there were suggestions that Russia should join NATO. Both Gorbachev and Putin suggested it.
I would be interested to know how the history books might treat the immediate dismissal of such an idea.
No problem with making London welcoming to all nationalities including Russians. The problems are mostly related to a handful of them becoming the most significant donors of the establishment political party, which could have easily been solved with a £1k per person, business or organisation limit on political donations. Other problems include lack of a wealth tax, libel laws that favour people with a spare eight figures, not enough tax on second homes and overseas homeowners.
Oh yes try not to have anyone become too influential but I am talking Russia-specific.
And another picture. Yippeee, thanks for re-decorating my house Putin!
Was supposed to have been handed over a year ago, but kept getting postponed thanks to the pandemic. If it had been finished on time, it would have been full of people this morning.
So, isn’t attacking a Nuclear power plant a direct threat to the west?
If Putin is so reckless, I fear for what is next.
I keep coming back to the points made by people who've met him - "he's changed", "not the old Putin" etc
There is a phenomenon where politicians when they get older can turn... weird, in an ugly way.
Rudy Giuliani used to be a normal politician. Praised across the political spectrum. Now he has gone Full Trumpet.
I've said in the past that ten years seems to be about the maximum term for a leader in a democracy. The further they go beyond that, the worse their decisions tend to get. I did mention Merkel as an exception, but perhaps she wasn't...
I agree with David Owen that there is a syndrome that politicians acquire after too much time in office - physical illness has it's effects, but there is something more there.
The good thing about a genuine democracy is that leaders hardly ever last more than 10 years. Mrs Thatcher was an exception. She probably should have stood down on her 10th anniversary in May 1989. Blair got it right by leaving office after almost exactly 10 years.
And another picture. Yippeee, thanks for re-decorating my house Putin!
Was supposed to have been handed over a year ago, but kept getting postponed thanks to the pandemic. If it had been finished on time, it would have been full of people this morning.
Really feeling for you mate.
Thanks. It’s not too bad, the important thing is that people weren’t killed. It’s easy to fix buildings, even if it takes time and costs money.
My father-in-law lives 200m away, he will also be needing new windows. Thankfully he is staying with a friend at the moment.
Abdolreza Abbassian, the ex-head of agro-markets at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation on what's coming for food prices and shortages thanks to war:
“I have never seen anything like it in 30 years...the mood could get very nasty even in OECD countries like Britain,”
"The rise of Londongrad was planned. British governments of all stripes opened the country to Russian capital. In 1994, under John Major, the Conservatives introduced a “golden visa” scheme that handed residency rights to anyone who invested £1m ($1.3m). Tony Blair’s Labour government carried it on with enthusiasm. Ken Livingstone, London’s leftist mayor from 2000 to 2008, said he wanted “Russian companies to regard London as their natural base in Europe”. Boris Johnson, Mr Livingstone’s successor, was good pals with Evgeny Lebedev, proprietor of the Evening Standard, son of a former kgb agent and billionaire. Mr Johnson, now prime minister, made the Anglo-Russian a peer in 2020.
For those arriving from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, London offered safety, security and secrecy. Britain has accommodating laws on tax, libel and property, enforced by an efficient, if expensive, court system—which is, moreover, accommodating in the matter of injunctions. Extradition to Russia, with its corrupt judiciary, is a no-no in the eyes of English judges. On top of this, the private schools are good and so is the shopping. London is an “everything haven”, in the description of Oliver Bullough, author of a forthcoming book, “Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals”. Discretion is key. It follows the rule above a banya’s door: “Please keep conversation to a minimum.”"
And guess who provides 'butler' services in the UK to the global super rich? Yes, none other than Quintessentially, Ben Elliot's concierge company: https://quintessentially.com/ By sheer coincidence, Ben Elliott is co-Chairman of the Tory Party and its key fundraiser. Even more coincidentally, Quintessentially has recently removed from its website all the links that it used to have lauding its special bespoke services for Russian clients.
What was the big problem of making London welcoming to Russians. The article says it has been going on for 30 years. Unless at that time and since we should have spotted Putin as a wrong 'un. Which would no doubt have fed into his everyone hates us we don't care mentality we are seeing today.
Don't forget that almost as soon as the Berlin War came down there were suggestions that Russia should join NATO. Both Gorbachev and Putin suggested it.
I would be interested to know how the history books might treat the immediate dismissal of such an idea.
No problem with making London welcoming to all nationalities including Russians. The problems are mostly related to a handful of them becoming the most significant donors of the establishment political party, which could have easily been solved with a £1k per person, business or organisation limit on political donations. Other problems include lack of a wealth tax, libel laws that favour people with a spare eight figures, not enough tax on second homes and overseas homeowners.
Oh yes try not to have anyone become too influential but I am talking Russia-specific.
There is no problem with making London welcoming to all nationalities including Russians.
So, isn’t attacking a Nuclear power plant a direct threat to the west?
If Putin is so reckless, I fear for what is next.
I keep coming back to the points made by people who've met him - "he's changed", "not the old Putin" etc
There is a phenomenon where politicians when they get older can turn... weird, in an ugly way.
Rudy Giuliani used to be a normal politician. Praised across the political spectrum. Now he has gone Full Trumpet.
I've said in the past that ten years seems to be about the maximum term for a leader in a democracy. The further they go beyond that, the worse their decisions tend to get. I did mention Merkel as an exception, but perhaps she wasn't...
I agree with David Owen that there is a syndrome that politicians acquire after too much time in office - physical illness has it's effects, but there is something more there.
The good thing about a genuine democracy is that leaders hardly ever last more than 10 years. Mrs Thatcher was an exception. She probably should have stood down on her 10th anniversary in May 1989. Blair got it right by leaving office after almost exactly 10 years.
Very few exceptions. You see it in corporates as well, where some tenures can be much longer. They start making bad decisions but nobody is in a position to challenge.
Where are you all sending donations? I went with https://gofund.me/22b0fbf1 Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal as it is organised by Ukrainians in the UK and looks as though it can get things through quickly via their organisational links without too much bureaucracy.
which makes it easy to donate 50/50 to Ukr and Afghanistan, who I think shouldn't be forgotten as a less photogenic crisis. Hoping that part doesn't end up with the RSPCA.
"The rise of Londongrad was planned. British governments of all stripes opened the country to Russian capital. In 1994, under John Major, the Conservatives introduced a “golden visa” scheme that handed residency rights to anyone who invested £1m ($1.3m). Tony Blair’s Labour government carried it on with enthusiasm. Ken Livingstone, London’s leftist mayor from 2000 to 2008, said he wanted “Russian companies to regard London as their natural base in Europe”. Boris Johnson, Mr Livingstone’s successor, was good pals with Evgeny Lebedev, proprietor of the Evening Standard, son of a former kgb agent and billionaire. Mr Johnson, now prime minister, made the Anglo-Russian a peer in 2020.
For those arriving from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, London offered safety, security and secrecy. Britain has accommodating laws on tax, libel and property, enforced by an efficient, if expensive, court system—which is, moreover, accommodating in the matter of injunctions. Extradition to Russia, with its corrupt judiciary, is a no-no in the eyes of English judges. On top of this, the private schools are good and so is the shopping. London is an “everything haven”, in the description of Oliver Bullough, author of a forthcoming book, “Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals”. Discretion is key. It follows the rule above a banya’s door: “Please keep conversation to a minimum.”"
And guess who provides 'butler' services in the UK to the global super rich? Yes, none other than Quintessentially, Ben Elliot's concierge company: https://quintessentially.com/ By sheer coincidence, Ben Elliott is co-Chairman of the Tory Party and its key fundraiser. Even more coincidentally, Quintessentially has recently removed from its website all the links that it used to have lauding its special bespoke services for Russian clients.
What was the big problem of making London welcoming to Russians. The article says it has been going on for 30 years. Unless at that time and since we should have spotted Putin as a wrong 'un. Which would no doubt have fed into his everyone hates us we don't care mentality we are seeing today.
Don't forget that almost as soon as the Berlin War came down there were suggestions that Russia should join NATO. Both Gorbachev and Putin suggested it.
I would be interested to know how the history books might treat the immediate dismissal of such an idea.
No problem with making London welcoming to all nationalities including Russians. The problems are mostly related to a handful of them becoming the most significant donors of the establishment political party, which could have easily been solved with a £1k per person, business or organisation limit on political donations. Other problems include lack of a wealth tax, libel laws that favour people with a spare eight figures, not enough tax on second homes and overseas homeowners.
Oh yes try not to have anyone become too influential but I am talking Russia-specific.
There is no problem with making London welcoming to all nationalities including Russians.
One thing the UK should be doing right now is issuing visas to educated Russians who want to escape the civic and economic collapse over there. As far as I can tell Russians aren't about to overthrow Putin, so we're in for some kind of shit version of the Cold War. If that's what we're going to get, drain the brains.
They need to move fast, while people are still allowed to leave.
Where are you all sending donations? I went with https://gofund.me/22b0fbf1 Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal as it is organised by Ukrainians in the UK and looks as though it can get things through quickly via their organisational links without too much bureaucracy.
which makes it easy to donate 50/50 to Ukr and Afghanistan, who I think shouldn't be forgotten as a less photogenic crisis. Hoping that part doesn't end up with the RSPCA.
ETA and I *think* that's the one where the govt matches your donation but dyor
Thanks. Just spoke to father in law, and he’s thankfully okay. He lives about 200m from the blast.
I am near tears this morning
Erdington was never a likely gain, chin up.
(gallows humour before you bite)
Though the swing was not too bad for Boris, would see a hung parliament yes but the Tories still largest party
I have given you a like, because in the face of nuclear Armageddon you have found a silver lining.
Remember one thing, ONS is not your friend. It is an illusion.
Look this is PB.
Even if we were in WW3 we would still be talking about by election swings as well!
After WW3 one of the first tasks might be to have by-elections in the small number of constituencies in remote areas that still had a living electorate, assuming that the MPs were in London when the nuclear exchange occurs.
I think a former MP for Torquay once mused on the idea of ending up as PM if Armageddon struck at about 11.30 p.m. on a general election night. At the time Torquay was often the first constituency to declare.
Abdolreza Abbassian, the ex-head of agro-markets at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation on what's coming for food prices and shortages thanks to war:
“I have never seen anything like it in 30 years...the mood could get very nasty even in OECD countries like Britain,”
Telegraph
Russia supplies oil (and Fertilizer) Ukraine supplies wheat
As we won't be getting oil from Russia energy prices will be going up. As we won't be getting wheat from the Ukraine food prices will be going up...
As fertilizer prices are already going through the roof other food items will also be more expensive (or may not even exist).
Have we covered the Times report saying that anti-war FSB agents (could be a lie intended to make the FSB paranoid) have been feeding Ukraine/US/UK with information foiling 3 assassination attempts on Zelenskyy in the past week?
So, isn’t attacking a Nuclear power plant a direct threat to the west?
If Putin is so reckless, I fear for what is next.
I keep coming back to the points made by people who've met him - "he's changed", "not the old Putin" etc
There is a phenomenon where politicians when they get older can turn... weird, in an ugly way.
Rudy Giuliani used to be a normal politician. Praised across the political spectrum. Now he has gone Full Trumpet.
I've said in the past that ten years seems to be about the maximum term for a leader in a democracy. The further they go beyond that, the worse their decisions tend to get. I did mention Merkel as an exception, but perhaps she wasn't...
I agree with David Owen that there is a syndrome that politicians acquire after too much time in office - physical illness has it's effects, but there is something more there.
The good thing about a genuine democracy is that leaders hardly ever last more than 10 years. Mrs Thatcher was an exception. She probably should have stood down on her 10th anniversary in May 1989. Blair got it right by leaving office after almost exactly 10 years.
Government by struldbrug is increasingly the problem. The world leadership would look different if people still did the decent thing and died of heart attacks in their 60s or early 70s.
Where are you all sending donations? I went with https://gofund.me/22b0fbf1 Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal as it is organised by Ukrainians in the UK and looks as though it can get things through quickly via their organisational links without too much bureaucracy.
We sent to British Red Cross appeal as they are usually pretty effective.
Where are you all sending donations? I went with https://gofund.me/22b0fbf1 Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal as it is organised by Ukrainians in the UK and looks as though it can get things through quickly via their organisational links without too much bureaucracy.
Yes this is what I have been donating to. But also Euromaidan Press. Funding news and reporting is a way of donating to the war effort without handing over money to the Ukranian Army, which whilst appearing to be legitimate, could create future complications for you if you do it by conventional bank transfer. https://euromaidanpress.com/donate/ If I was going to donate money to the military I would do so by crypto, but I've never dabbled in that so don't understand enough about it. Important in my view to help the people who have stayed to fight, as well as the humanitarian effort in Ukraine, and the refugees who have left.
"The UK has got to “stop dragging” its feet in clamping down on funds that have come from figures linked to Vladimir Putin, Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds has said. She told Sky News:
"I certainly would say that we have been far too soft, especially over the last 10 years, on those funds that have come from Putin-linked oligarchs and business people."
She rejected the government’s claims that it has been working strongly against economic levers for Putin-linked individuals."
And another picture. Yippeee, thanks for re-decorating my house Putin!
Was supposed to have been handed over a year ago, but kept getting postponed thanks to the pandemic. If it had been finished on time, it would have been full of people this morning.
Sorry to hear that, distressing news. Not much can say but to say hope you and your family remain safe.
Belarus must be waking up this morning less than delighted at the prospect of Chernobyl 2. Putin' goons seem quite relaxed about making Minsk uninhabitable, so long as it means they win in Ukraine.
Think on't, Belarus. You are being rewarded for your loyalty to Putin by THIS?
Good point. Not only could Russia be left dealing with a, to say the least, disenchanted population in occupied Ukraine but facing an insurrection in Belarus too. No-one doubts the ability of Putin to suppress dissent but it could be a real firestorm particularly with an economic crisis to contend with as well.
Ultimately will depend on the determination of the West to maintain and intensify sanctions over a long period. I'm guessing Putin is pretty sceptical about the decadent West doing that.
Whilst not easy to access, I imagine that the hard man of Belarus would be easier to take out than Putin. It could be a hugely destabilising event in Belarus, throwing confusion into the armed forces and buggering up Putin's war plan in Ukraine.
I think it's clear, given Belarussian forces were supposed to go into Ukraine several days ago and it does not look as though they have in any measurable numbers, that the chances of an uprising against Lukashenko are quite high. Given that, I wonder why that might also be a reason why the advance against Kiev from the north has ground to a halt i.e. Russian forces would need to pivot back north to support Lukashenko in the case of a mutiny / coup attempt.
Defiant message from former Ukraine President Poroshenko. Referencing Churchill. No sign at all of divisions in the country which possibly Putin might have hoped for.
So, isn’t attacking a Nuclear power plant a direct threat to the west?
If Putin is so reckless, I fear for what is next.
I keep coming back to the points made by people who've met him - "he's changed", "not the old Putin" etc
There is a phenomenon where politicians when they get older can turn... weird, in an ugly way.
Rudy Giuliani used to be a normal politician. Praised across the political spectrum. Now he has gone Full Trumpet.
I've said in the past that ten years seems to be about the maximum term for a leader in a democracy. The further they go beyond that, the worse their decisions tend to get. I did mention Merkel as an exception, but perhaps she wasn't...
I agree with David Owen that there is a syndrome that politicians acquire after too much time in office - physical illness has it's effects, but there is something more there.
The good thing about a genuine democracy is that leaders hardly ever last more than 10 years. Mrs Thatcher was an exception. She probably should have stood down on her 10th anniversary in May 1989. Blair got it right by leaving office after almost exactly 10 years.
So we can look forward to Xi Jinping going the full Vlad in a few years time.
So, isn’t attacking a Nuclear power plant a direct threat to the west?
If Putin is so reckless, I fear for what is next.
I keep coming back to the points made by people who've met him - "he's changed", "not the old Putin" etc
There is a phenomenon where politicians when they get older can turn... weird, in an ugly way.
Rudy Giuliani used to be a normal politician. Praised across the political spectrum. Now he has gone Full Trumpet.
I've said in the past that ten years seems to be about the maximum term for a leader in a democracy. The further they go beyond that, the worse their decisions tend to get. I did mention Merkel as an exception, but perhaps she wasn't...
I agree with David Owen that there is a syndrome that politicians acquire after too much time in office - physical illness has it's effects, but there is something more there.
The good thing about a genuine democracy is that leaders hardly ever last more than 10 years. Mrs Thatcher was an exception. She probably should have stood down on her 10th anniversary in May 1989. Blair got it right by leaving office after almost exactly 10 years.
Government by struldbrug is increasingly the problem. The world leadership would look different if people still did the decent thing and died of heart attacks in their 60s or early 70s.
True in lots of fields. As a society, we really need to work out how to let people slow down professionally without vanishing off the scene. Formalising the Wise Old Owl/Elder Statesman role, if you like.
(Mainly because the generation below, the ones finding their path blocked, tend to go bitter and frivolous.)
So, isn’t attacking a Nuclear power plant a direct threat to the west?
If Putin is so reckless, I fear for what is next.
I keep coming back to the points made by people who've met him - "he's changed", "not the old Putin" etc
There is a phenomenon where politicians when they get older can turn... weird, in an ugly way.
Rudy Giuliani used to be a normal politician. Praised across the political spectrum. Now he has gone Full Trumpet.
I've said in the past that ten years seems to be about the maximum term for a leader in a democracy. The further they go beyond that, the worse their decisions tend to get. I did mention Merkel as an exception, but perhaps she wasn't...
I agree with David Owen that there is a syndrome that politicians acquire after too much time in office - physical illness has it's effects, but there is something more there.
The good thing about a genuine democracy is that leaders hardly ever last more than 10 years. Mrs Thatcher was an exception. She probably should have stood down on her 10th anniversary in May 1989. Blair got it right by leaving office after almost exactly 10 years.
Notably the Chinese agreed for a time until Emperor Jinping came along.
And another picture. Yippeee, thanks for re-decorating my house Putin!
Was supposed to have been handed over a year ago, but kept getting postponed thanks to the pandemic. If it had been finished on time, it would have been full of people this morning.
Really feeling for you mate.
Thanks. It’s not too bad, the important thing is that people weren’t killed. It’s easy to fix buildings, even if it takes time and costs money.
My father-in-law lives 200m away, he will also be needing new windows. Thankfully he is staying with a friend at the moment.
At the risk of sounding like a Pollyanna and not exactly appropriate given what is happening, one thing I can see coming out of this (assuming Ukraine is not utterly destroyed) is a massive aid programme from the West to repair the entire infrastructure and facilities.
Think Manchester post-the IRA bombing but on a much bigger scale...
Abdolreza Abbassian, the ex-head of agro-markets at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation on what's coming for food prices and shortages thanks to war:
“I have never seen anything like it in 30 years...the mood could get very nasty even in OECD countries like Britain,”
Telegraph
Russia supplies oil (and Fertilizer) Ukraine supplies wheat
As we won't be getting oil from Russia energy prices will be going up. As we won't be getting wheat from the Ukraine food prices will be going up...
As fertilizer prices are already going through the roof other food items will also be more expensive (or may not even exist).
One of the fascinating changes in my lifetime was Russia going from food poverty - proper up by cheap grain from the US, every year - to massive agricultural surpluses. This happened extremely rapidly after the 1989.
I suppose because everyone was looking at the oil and corruption etc it didn't get noticed by most people.
The most satisfying part of the Erdington BE was a pretty poor showing from Nellist.
To be fair, he was twice as popular as the LibDems.....
As I said to Carlotta, it seems like the electorate is slowly aligning between Tory and best positioned non-Tory. That's fine by me. It should worry you though.
We've lived with that for decades though.
Also, I'm not sure that the result bears it out. Obviously the reduced turnout complicates the calcluations, but it looks to me like the direct swing from "the right" to "the left" outweighed movement within "the left".
(Con/Ref 38.0 (-6.2); Lab/TUSC/Grn/LD 60.0 (+4.2) with Lab alone +5.2)
The % Labour majority is pretty much the same as 2017.
Also tallies with the 2018 local elections where despite the Tories doing well and winning several wards, Labour still did well across the constituency including still managing 37% in the Tories' Erdington stronghold.
Where are you all sending donations? I went with https://gofund.me/22b0fbf1 Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal as it is organised by Ukrainians in the UK and looks as though it can get things through quickly via their organisational links without too much bureaucracy.
We sent to British Red Cross appeal as they are usually pretty effective.
We have to be in absolute solidarity with Ukraine, whatever happens. The west has to reassert itself.
Ukraine is going to be Europe's Lebanon after this. Hollowed out by a massive diaspora and with the structures of civil society absolutely destroyed.
Depressingly plausible. And a victory in Putin's eyes.
The western failures in Iraq and Afghanistan were ultimately caused by a lack of political authority amongst the regimes that were installed, leading to successful insurgencies. Surely that is also the only way the Ukrainians can win here? The attempt to resist the Russian invasion so far has been a propoganda masterpiece for its cause, but perhaps it is time to change tactics?
Thanks. Just spoke to father in law, and he’s thankfully okay. He lives about 200m from the blast.
I am near tears this morning
Erdington was never a likely gain, chin up.
(gallows humour before you bite)
Though the swing was not too bad for Boris, would see a hung parliament yes but the Tories still largest party
I have given you a like, because in the face of nuclear Armageddon you have found a silver lining.
Remember one thing, ONS is not your friend. It is an illusion.
For example:
The read you need from Birmingham Erdington:
By-election result reflects what most polls and models are saying right now. If an election was held today, the House of Commons would split Lab 295 MPs and Con 257.
I remember when Ed Miliband was walking into 10 Downing Street. Either Boris gets a huge war boost and overrides any party-gate effect. Or he gets replaced in good time for the new PM to settle in and get a honeymoon bounce.
Removing Boris would lance the boil for many.
Those.... are not the only possibilities. Many people thought 2-3 months ago that Boris was going to get removed, but he wasn't, despite polling showing him becoming a liability. What makes you think the Conservatives will suddenly act differently?
Have you spoken to Conservative MPs about this?
I think there is a right time to do it. See what happens ultimately in Ukraine. Wait until after the local elections. get the Sue Grey (?) report out. See how much the police do.
Then - if MP's are heading to lose their jobs, and a successor might help save them, they will act.
We have allowed ourselves to be sucked into 24/7 social media driven continual hysteria.
Current awful events aside, live is better if you stop looking at twitter.
So, isn’t attacking a Nuclear power plant a direct threat to the west?
If Putin is so reckless, I fear for what is next.
I keep coming back to the points made by people who've met him - "he's changed", "not the old Putin" etc
There is a phenomenon where politicians when they get older can turn... weird, in an ugly way.
Rudy Giuliani used to be a normal politician. Praised across the political spectrum. Now he has gone Full Trumpet.
I've said in the past that ten years seems to be about the maximum term for a leader in a democracy. The further they go beyond that, the worse their decisions tend to get. I did mention Merkel as an exception, but perhaps she wasn't...
I agree with David Owen that there is a syndrome that politicians acquire after too much time in office - physical illness has it's effects, but there is something more there.
It's depressing that wherever you look it is the corrupt, the bullies, the liars, the greedy and the downright evil that seem to rise to the top.
There is something deeply flawed about the way humans organise themselves because it's rinse and repeat ad nauseam throughout history. In Europe, at least, I really believed that the sort of thing we are now witnessing was behind us and yet here we are again.
When a madman has nuclear weapons there are no answers I'm afraid and Putin knows that. We all know we have no realistic options but to let him do what he likes.
I appreciate that the UK and USA are not remotely comparable to Russia but even there when there are many decent and honourable people in the Conservative Party and the GOP we opt for liars and charlatans like Johnson and Trump. There are days when I am very glad I am in my 70's!!
And when you say 'advance' you probably didn't get an actual Advance fare.
£96 for that journey is ridiculous. I'm sorry for you. That sucks.
Luckily my employer is paying but good grief. Would cost £20-£30 in petrol tops to get there.
I also note the train is fairly empty. Wonder why
It's another of the many reasons I may move abroad. The train fares in the UK are ridiculously expensive. £96 for your journey of, what, 90 miles. That's awful.
I had a look on Thetrainline.com and 96 quid is the price of a walkup fare with an open return for 1 month.
Mind you first class would be £179.
Fares are expensive if you travel before 9:30am. Not too bad after that.
I dunno, I went from Westbury to Paddington return (also 90 miles each way) for the PB event for £48. And I got upgraded to 1st class. I was the only one in the 1st class carriage on the way up. Busier on the way back.
The most satisfying part of the Erdington BE was a pretty poor showing from Nellist.
Indeed. The far left and far right both lost their deposits.
Hopefully one of the few good things to come out of this conflict, is the need to moderate the political discourse, step back from more extreme views and tolerate the opinions of others.
Especially since right wing Tories and UKIP and left wing Labour are/were the Putin apologists a
right wing Tories Putin apologists? Name names....
The ones taking their (former) membership of Conservative Friends of Russia off their CVs...
There are some people making mistakes around. We had that tweet from @LouisHenwood earlier, fingering the Ukranian businessmen chased out by Putin as dodgy Russian money linked to the Trade Minister, now Dr Eoin Clarke is back with his theories. The Standard was then owned I think by Alexander Lebedev, and is now owned by Evgeny Lebedev.
There is a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels which just adds to despair as spokesperson after spokesperson says they want to speak out and stand up, but without direct military action they are meaningless
Well we can't take direct military action as that means WW3.
So continued economic sanctions it is
As the atrocities mount up, and Russian expansionism becomes more evident,you and Jeremy Corbyn will become more and more isolated.
Now there's a thought, a post nuclear infinite purgatory where JC and HY only have each other for company.
"atrocities mount up"
It is an invasion. For reasons that are legitimate to Putin, if not us. "Atrocities" is what happens. NATO and the US have already made clear that they are not going to become involved militarily in Ukraine. So that leaves economic sanctions.
Or what would you do.
HY has already doubted NATO's intention should Poland (I think was the example used) be compromised. I suspect JC would concur.
I am not a military strategist. I have no idea what to do next. I am uncomfortable that we are watching Ukraine razed to the ground, but I am equally uncomfortable with Comrade Vlad sending his nuclear warheads in the direction of Hinkley Point.
Comments
Was supposed to have been handed over a year ago, but kept getting postponed thanks to the pandemic. If it had been finished on time, it would have been full of people this morning.
EDIT: and I expect a nuclear armageddon-induced British state collapse is probably one scenario where Argentina might venture again to take Las Malvinas.
7004
I think interest rate hikes are looking less and less likely.
My father-in-law lives 200m away, he will also be needing new windows. Thankfully he is staying with a friend at the moment.
“I have never seen anything like it in 30 years...the mood could get very nasty even in OECD countries like Britain,”
Telegraph
which makes it easy to donate 50/50 to Ukr and Afghanistan, who I think shouldn't be forgotten as a less photogenic crisis. Hoping that part doesn't end up with the RSPCA.
They need to move fast, while people are still allowed to leave.
Ukraine supplies wheat
As we won't be getting oil from Russia energy prices will be going up.
As we won't be getting wheat from the Ukraine food prices will be going up...
As fertilizer prices are already going through the roof other food items will also be more expensive (or may not even exist).
But also Euromaidan Press. Funding news and reporting is a way of donating to the war effort without handing over money to the Ukranian Army, which whilst appearing to be legitimate, could create future complications for you if you do it by conventional bank transfer.
https://euromaidanpress.com/donate/
If I was going to donate money to the military I would do so by crypto, but I've never dabbled in that so don't understand enough about it.
Important in my view to help the people who have stayed to fight, as well as the humanitarian effort in Ukraine, and the refugees who have left.
"I certainly would say that we have been far too soft, especially over the last 10 years, on those funds that have come from Putin-linked oligarchs and business people."
She rejected the government’s claims that it has been working strongly against economic levers for Putin-linked individuals."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/mar/04/boris-johnson-tories-labour-ukraine-russia-latest-politics-live-news
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-60615752
(Mainly because the generation below, the ones finding their path blocked, tend to go bitter and frivolous.)
Think Manchester post-the IRA bombing but on a much bigger scale...
I suppose because everyone was looking at the oil and corruption etc it didn't get noticed by most people.
Also tallies with the 2018 local elections where despite the Tories doing well and winning several wards, Labour still did well across the constituency including still managing 37% in the Tories' Erdington stronghold.
Then - if MP's are heading to lose their jobs, and a successor might help save them, they will act.
We have allowed ourselves to be sucked into 24/7 social media driven continual hysteria.
Current awful events aside, live is better if you stop looking at twitter.
There is something deeply flawed about the way humans organise themselves because it's rinse and repeat ad nauseam throughout history. In Europe, at least, I really believed that the sort of thing we are now witnessing was behind us and yet here we are again.
When a madman has nuclear weapons there are no answers I'm afraid and Putin knows that. We all know we have no realistic options but to let him do what he likes.
I appreciate that the UK and USA are not remotely comparable to Russia but even there when there are many decent and honourable people in the Conservative Party and the GOP we opt for liars and charlatans like Johnson and Trump. There are days when I am very glad I am in my 70's!!
NEW THREAD
Legal actions incoming, perhaps.
I am not a military strategist. I have no idea what to do next. I am uncomfortable that we are watching Ukraine razed to the ground, but I am equally uncomfortable with Comrade Vlad sending his nuclear warheads in the direction of Hinkley Point.