It really does feel like the west is heading into a lost decade.
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.
It's interesting, I was thinking the same this morning. Corruption everywhere. In this sense Putin is right except, ironically, he is one of the worst.
Meanwhile Amanda Staveley says she doesn't think Abramovich shouldn't have to see Chelsea.
On the no-fly zone, this is the estimated coverage of Russia's latest (S500) AA missiles, though I wouldn't guarantee it. A no-fly zone arguably would need all of these reaching the Ukraine taken out for basic safety.
So ensuring a proper no fly zone would potentially involve attacking targets around Moscow....
Aren't the targets in Kaliningrad, Belarus and Crimea? (not that I think a NFZ is a good idea)
Well - if you take out the launchers near Ukraine, will the Russians go "OK then", or will they activate launchers further away, but still able to cover Ukrainian airspace?
So you will be destroying Russian military equipment and actual Russian people, further and further into Russia.
For even more fun - Russian doctrine, for many years, has been to go after the AWACS planes (flying radars). As part of this, they have developed a number of very long range air-air missiles for this purpose.
So they would probably start shooting at any AWACS planes tacking part in a NATO NFZ, fired from over Russian territory. So we would end up shooting at Russian planes over Russia.
Better yet, to reach those Russian fighters shooting the long range missiles, might well involve NATO fighters crossing over into Russia territory,
So we would have NATO planes fighting Russian aircraft over Russia. What would you call that, exactly?
Presumably it's a HARM-type missile (except optimised to take down aircraft). The question is: how good is it? How much have the West prepared for this? How far out can an AWACWS detect it and turn off their radars? And how does the missile react to that? Is it still able to successfully target the AWACS, or does it end up flying through where the plane previously was?
And... how many of these do they have in good working order?
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
And if he said he thought he should, he would be condemned for escalating tensions further.
I am no fan of Boris, but it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on and Boris seems to be somebody the Ukrainian president is quick to call and so far on the diplomatic / military side of things I don't think Boris has done much wrong at all.
Its seems Macron / Chinese try to talk Putin down, the US / UK are busy finding out all intel passing it on to the Ukrainian leadership.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Profoundly provocative to say he should be, and there can't be many credible assassins who will have changed their minds on getting the нет from Pig Dog.
Tad surprised you found a mag to accept one of your delusional flights of fancy, Ed, but well done nonetheless. Fee donated to an unworthy cause, no doubt.
Well, says the person who thinks CNN is a source of unbiased truth. Pot, kettle, black...
The same stuff (it looks identical) was on Newsmax the other day. It was put to John Bolton. He tore it to shreads.
If it was up to John Bolton, we would be in World War 3 already. Not someone I would like in charge. Also, he’s not exactly going to be unbiased when it comes to anything relating to old Trumpski.
It’s a magnitude of how Trump has deranged his opponents that people like Bolton and Dick Cheney are now lauded as paragons just because they are against Trump. The two of them - if they had any power - would be amongst the two dangerous individuals in the world.
The Russians are clearly going to do this to every city.
It’s simple Hitlerism. The Full Grozny. Inflict maximum death and terror - DELIBERATELY target civilians - so your enemy surrenders quicker (and then you can torture and execute your particular enemies at your leisure)
I am not sure how Russia recovers from this ruination of its reputation, not without Putin dying (in a slow painful way) and a LOT of time elapsing. It will take many years to forgive and forget this
And yes, there is a hypocrisy here. Similarly evil things have happened in Africa, Asia and the Mid East and we did not react half so badly. But human nature is human nature. This is Europe, the west, we are Europeans and westerners. It feels a whole lot more visceral and menacing. AND of course it actively endangers us, by proximity
I don't disagree with much of this but your final paragraph needs amending. That's not the only kind of hypocrisy. It's also our perpetration of evil deeds. We Europeans and westerners, too, have inflicted barbaric acts of evil throughout the world. We have bombed and maimed and we have at times justified it with arguments little less spurious than Putin's.
The Russians are clearly going to do this to every city.
It’s simple Hitlerism. The Full Grozny. Inflict maximum death and terror - DELIBERATELY target civilians - so your enemy surrenders quicker (and then you can torture and execute your particular enemies at your leisure)
I am not sure how Russia recovers from this ruination of its reputation, not without Putin dying (in a slow painful way) and a LOT of time elapsing. It will take many years to forgive and forget this
And yes, there is a hypocrisy here. Similarly evil things have happened in Africa, Asia and the Mid East and we did not react half so badly. But human nature is human nature. This is Europe, the west, we are Europeans and westerners. It feels a whole lot more visceral and menacing. AND of course it actively endangers us, by proximity
But there's also the fact that many of us know Ukrainians. Or have visited Ukraine.
And there's proximity. Ukraine is a hell of a lot closer to us than - say - Afghanistan.
I hope Putin is castrated and fed his own gonads for breakfast
That’s not sufficient punishment.
They need to get a team of top surgeons to remove his eyes, his tongue, burn out his olfactory nerves, his arms, his legs so he is just a mute sack of skin fed by a tube and kept alive trapped inside an absolutely pointless body where he cannot enjoy one single thing, trapped in his brain to think about what he did.
The reason I kept his hearing is so Jimmy Somerville and the Village People will be played on loop at high volume for the remainder of his miserable living hell.
The Russians are clearly going to do this to every city.
It’s simple Hitlerism. The Full Grozny. Inflict maximum death and terror - DELIBERATELY target civilians - so your enemy surrenders quicker (and then you can torture and execute your particular enemies at your leisure)
I am not sure how Russia recovers from this ruination of its reputation, not without Putin dying (in a slow painful way) and a LOT of time elapsing. It will take many years to forgive and forget this
And yes, there is a hypocrisy here. Similarly evil things have happened in Africa, Asia and the Mid East and we did not react half so badly. But human nature is human nature. This is Europe, the west, we are Europeans and westerners. It feels a whole lot more visceral and menacing. AND of course it actively endangers us, by proximity
I don't disagree with much of this but your final paragraph needs amending. That's not the only kind of hypocrisy. It's also our perpetration of evil deeds. We Europeans and westerners, too, have inflicted barbaric acts of evil throughout the world. We have bombed and maimed and we have at times justified it with arguments little less spurious than Putin's.
None of which makes his actions right, of course.
I wouldn’t disagree with you. I just never addressed that
The terrible story of our failed liberal interventions, these last 20 years, have hopefully educated us to the damage we often do. Tho we should not forget that we can also do good. Kosovo, Sierra Leone. Etc
But on the whole the calculus should be Do nothing - militarily - unless human conscience absolutely demands action
grifters to the end, wonder which one of their chums is coining in from that one.
I haven't looked, but I would presume they have used a 0300 number, which is free on most mobile contracts, but local rate from landline. That is what the government use as standard for lots of "helplines".
The use of totally free numbers, which are widely used in places like the US, is much less common across all sectors in the UK.
0300 is the normal code for charity helplines.
It's just more mudslinging by ignorami / obsessives.
"We must say something to attack the government. This is something to attack the government. Therefore we must say this".
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Tad surprised you found a mag to accept one of your delusional flights of fancy, Ed, but well done nonetheless. Fee donated to an unworthy cause, no doubt.
Well, says the person who thinks CNN is a source of unbiased truth. Pot, kettle, black...
The same stuff (it looks identical) was on Newsmax the other day. It was put to John Bolton. He tore it to shreads.
If it was up to John Bolton, we would be in World War 3 already. Not someone I would like in charge. Also, he’s not exactly going to be unbiased when it comes to anything relating to old Trumpski.
It’s a magnitude of how Trump has deranged his opponents that people like Bolton and Dick Cheney are now lauded as paragons just because they are against Trump. The two of them - if they had any power - would be amongst the two dangerous individuals in the world.
The US population are literally and mentally further from this crisis than europe is. It's one of the factors (Not the only one) holding Biden back from direct action.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Who would you like in charge? would it make a difference?
None of our leaders, and none of those around them, saw this coming. None have the first idea what to do now, or next. One of the reasons they are doing nothing in the Ukraine is, I think, shock. They are stupefied.
There is no Churchill. He was hammering away in the 1930s pointing out that the Germans were rearming.
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
Am I detecting a theme?
There’s a truism in pro sport that ageing professional athletes always believe they have “a couple more seasons left in me” even whey haven’t. Nonetheless I believe I have “a couple of seasons left in me”
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Who would you like in charge? would it make a difference?
None of our leaders, and none of those around them, saw this coming. None have the first idea what to do now, or next. One of the reasons they are doing nothing in the Ukraine is, I think, shock. They are stupefied.
There is no Churchill. He was hammering away in the 1930s pointing out that the Germans were rearming.
"It’s hard to find a Russian family without Ukrainian relatives and friends, husbands and wives, girlfriends and boyfriends, chess partners and colleagues. Many of them are now hiding in bomb shelters in Kyiv and Kharkiv."
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
My best decade would be my 30s.
I had a glacier skiing trip and a Loire cycling trip planned for May/June. They are now both off. I am planning a flight in a Pitt Special and a racing car experience. My cousin is an ex driver. so I am getting trained up. That has to go on hold also. Foodie events still available and concerts. I want to have a go on an America's cup catamaran or such like but can't see how that can be organised. Nothing appears on offer like that.
"During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Federalist published many pieces that contained false information, pseudoscience, and contradictions or misrepresentations of the recommendations of public health authorities. While ballots were being counted in the 2020 United States presidential election, The Federalist made false claims that there had been large-scale election fraud"
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
And if he said he thought he should, he would be condemned for escalating tensions further.
I am no fan of Boris, but it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on and Boris seems to be somebody the Ukrainian president is quick to call and so far on the diplomatic / military side of things I don't think Boris has done much wrong at all.
Its seems Macron / Chinese try to talk Putin down, the US / UK are busy finding out all intel passing it on to the Ukrainian leadership.
I believe there is an accepted international protocol that national leaders never call for the murder or assassination of other national leaders. At most they ask for their arrest and trial, and even then quite rarely
Did Churchill ever call for the actual assassination of Hitler?
He certainly plotted it, as Hitler did in reverse, but I don’t recall a speech that desired this outcome
The Russians are clearly going to do this to every city.
It’s simple Hitlerism. The Full Grozny. Inflict maximum death and terror - DELIBERATELY target civilians - so your enemy surrenders quicker (and then you can torture and execute your particular enemies at your leisure)
I am not sure how Russia recovers from this ruination of its reputation, not without Putin dying (in a slow painful way) and a LOT of time elapsing. It will take many years to forgive and forget this
And yes, there is a hypocrisy here. Similarly evil things have happened in Africa, Asia and the Mid East and we did not react half so badly. But human nature is human nature. This is Europe, the west, we are Europeans and westerners. It feels a whole lot more visceral and menacing. AND of course it actively endangers us, by proximity
But there's also the fact that many of us know Ukrainians. Or have visited Ukraine.
And there's proximity. Ukraine is a hell of a lot closer to us than - say - Afghanistan.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
[...]
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
I said nothing that actually matters.
Putin has already won this. He is pulverising Ukraine, gradually gaining ground and he couldn't a flying fcuk if we think he's being bad.
Tad surprised you found a mag to accept one of your delusional flights of fancy, Ed, but well done nonetheless. Fee donated to an unworthy cause, no doubt.
Well, says the person who thinks CNN is a source of unbiased truth. Pot, kettle, black...
The same stuff (it looks identical) was on Newsmax the other day. It was put to John Bolton. He tore it to shreads.
If it was up to John Bolton, we would be in World War 3 already. Not someone I would like in charge. Also, he’s not exactly going to be unbiased when it comes to anything relating to old Trumpski.
It’s a magnitude of how Trump has deranged his opponents that people like Bolton and Dick Cheney are now lauded as paragons just because they are against Trump. The two of them - if they had any power - would be amongst the two dangerous individuals in the world.
The US population are literally and mentally further from this crisis than europe is. It's one of the factors (Not the only one) holding Biden back from direct action.
Indeed, and nobody in the US wants to run the risk of nuclear war for the Ukraine.
However, it’s a measure of Putin’ success in one regards - and harking back to the original post re Trump - that he is proving how powerful the unpredictability Card is when it comes to playing politics. Look at the debate on here - it’s dominated by discussions over nuclear war.
What hasn’t been asked so much is the reverse side of the coin namely that, if Putin feels he is in such a strong position, why he hasn’t unilaterally cut off all gas and oil supply to Europe to cause economic chaos. Which suggests he doesn’t feel that confident.
Btw, I think the consensual view is sadly right, namely he wants to pulverise the Ukraine and doesn’t care about the casualties.
508 pence per therm is 17.34 pence per kilowatt hour.
That's a bill for gas alone of £2080.55 for an average 12,000 kwh UK household before you're sticking any sort of overhead or profit on for the gas company.
Missed this on QT last night. SNP doubling down on stripping away UK's nuclear deterrence.
The guy with his head in his hands is Konstantin Kisin, a kind of Russian version of Volodymyr Zelensky, ie, comedian going into politics. Sadly, not much chance of him being elected president anytime soon.
That hideous blob of an SNP witch needs to declare unilateral disavowal of dairy, chocolate and sugars . If she can’t govern her intake of double cheese lard burgers, how is she expected to govern Scotland?
Extremely personal attack which is distateful, however I agree that as an MP she is total crap and would struggle to run a bath.
Hahahaha
Like it
There is a more serious point here. The SNP’s anti-Trident position looks increasingly untenable, post Ukraine, and they need to either drop it or finesse it to oblivion, or find some brilliant new way of defending it. She lamentably did neither, just stuck to the usual “nukes are bad” bullshit (yes we know they are bad, but so are guns and you still need a gun in a gunfight).
The Russian guy who came after her humiliated her. This will happen every time the policy is mention, from now on
I suspect that Malcolm, the inarticulate poster most well known on here for being offensive is offended because I guess he is most probably the rotund image of his idol, the fat little man that was described by his QC as "a bully and a sex pest".
He probably needs to also declare unilateral disavowal of dairy, chocolate and sugars, burgers, beer and anything vaguely calorific. I do wish he would also declare unilateral disavowal of posting his juvenile command of the English language on this site and do us all a favour.
Sad Gammon alert, union jack panties in a bunch, red face bursting and dribbling his same old tired speech. Get a new line you turnip headed cretin.
Hello Malky. Hope you are keeping well. Grey here with occasional fine smirr. Though we did have gammon or rather bacon bits in our home-made lentil soup for lunch.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
[...]
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
I said nothing that actually matters.
Putin has already won this. He is pulverising Ukraine, gradually gaining ground and he couldn't a flying fcuk if we think he's being bad.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
[...]
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
I said nothing that actually matters.
Putin has already won this. He is pulverising Ukraine, gradually gaining ground and he couldn't a flying fcuk if we think he's being bad.
We are doing absolutely nothing to stop him.
It does matter. If Putin had rolled Ukraine, he would have been so embolden it would be Moldova next week and who knows where next.
Does that mean its all rainbows and butterflies, absolutely not. But assisting the Ukraine from just getting taken over in a few days does matter. Its going to come at enormous ongoing cost to Putin both in men, equipment and economically.
e.g. the bod from the Royal United Services Institute says they have pretty much used their supply of cruise missiles in a week. They are going through kit like nobodies business. And they don't have any easy way to replenish it.
One of the saddest things as a youngster is your childhood sporting heroes starting to die off. But not half as sad as your adult sporting heroes dying off whilst younger than you. The inevitable facing of the certainty of the Reaper made plain
Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63 We are witnessing, literally watching live, Putin commit genocide on an industrial scale in Ukraine while the most powerful military alliance in history stands aside. It's impossible not to be emotional, but let us also be rational and focus our rage on the facts.
Putin once again told Macron to go to hell, no surprise. NATO/EU has already told Putin they won't touch his forces, so why should he listen? Russia is lifting target limitations and the death toll is rising every hour and lack of water & electricity is critical.
No treaty forbids NATO nations from fighting to defend in Ukraine. It's a choice based on the risk of Putin going nuclear, many say. That arming Ukrainians is an acceptable risk of WWIII & the citizenship of the pilot or soldier changes Putin's nuclear calculus, or NATO's.
If they care so much about the fine print and think Putin does too, ask Zelensky to issue Ukrainian passports to any volunteer to fly in combat. Sell jets to Ukraine for €1 each and paint UKR flags on them. Do you think Putin will care? Is it worth the lives lost?
This is already World War III. Putin started it long ago & Ukraine is only the current front. He will escalate anyway, and it's even more likely if he succeeds in destroying Ukraine because you have again convinced him you won't stop him even though you could.
Biden & others insist NATO would retaliate should Putin attack Baltic members. Watching Ukraine, I am not sure of that at all, and Putin won't be either. If the calculation is about nuclear risk, it's no different over Estonia than Ukraine. Don't say "Putin would never".
If this sounds familiar, it's the same argument from 2014, when Putin invaded E Ukraine and annexed Crimea. It was too risky to stop him, I was told, as I pleaded for intervention and warned he would never stop there. Here we are, with bombs raining down.
Risk and costs are higher now because the "reasonable" people in the West always choose lower risk today to guarantee higher risk tomorrow. Clearing the UKR skies after a warning period is risky. Letting Putin destroy Ukraine is riskier, & a human and moral disaster.
There is no waiting this out. This isn't chess; there's no draw, no stalemate. Either Putin destroys Ukraine and eventually hits NATO with an even greater catastrophe, or Putin falls in Russia. He cannot be stopped with weakness.
The corridors to get weapons, food, and medicine in and refugees out are narrowing and can be closed. Putin can bomb the trains, close the borders with NATO nations. The odds of Russian forces hitting a NATO asset are increasing, and then what? Still watching?
If your answer is no, that if a wing of a RU jet crosses Polish airspace, of course NATO will engage immediately, ask why thousands of Ukrainians civilians dying first matters less than a treaty, and what that says to Putin. That you're honorable, or a fool? We know.
As I said in 2014 and a fateful week ago, the price of stopping a dictator always goes up. What would have been enough to stop Putin 8 years or 6 months or 2 weeks ago is not enough today, and the price will rise again tomorrow. Fight. Find a way.
Putin vows to exterminate Ukrainians while we watch. Ukraine did nothing wrong but try to join the democratic world that is now witnessing crimes against humanity in real time. Not unable. Unwilling. #CloseTheSky
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
My best decade would be my 30s.
I had a glacier skiing trip and a Loire cycling trip planned for May/June. They are now both off. I am planning a flight in a Pitt Special and a racing car experience. My cousin is an ex driver. so I am getting trained up. That has to go on hold also. Foodie events still available and concerts. I want to have a go on an America's cup catamaran or such like but can't see how that can be organised. Nothing appears on offer like that.
Why 30s best decade: Had money, girlfriends, was a decent squash player and skier. Enjoyed catamarans although sailed them badly. Had a go at other things like flying gliders, etc.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
[...]
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
I said nothing that actually matters.
Putin has already won this. He is pulverising Ukraine, gradually gaining ground and he couldn't a flying fcuk if we think he's being bad.
We are doing absolutely nothing to stop him.
This just isn’t true. We have imposed some of the most stringent sanctions, outside war, in European history. Russia is already suffering and will suffer more. All the news reports say that Moscow is “stunned” by the severity of the western backlash, plus things like Germany swiftly rearming, against Russia, overnight
What we haven’t done is the emotional satisfying thing: hit Russia with our own bombs and missiles. And sure we could do that. But it means a world war with a madman, So I’m sorry, we aren’t going to do that. You may as well accept this now
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
My best decade would be my 30s.
I had a glacier skiing trip and a Loire cycling trip planned for May/June. They are now both off. I am planning a flight in a Pitt Special and a racing car experience. My cousin is an ex driver. so I am getting trained up. That has to go on hold also. Foodie events still available and concerts. I want to have a go on an America's cup catamaran or such like but can't see how that can be organised. Nothing appears on offer like that.
Why 30s best decade: Had money, girlfriends, was a decent squash player and skier. Enjoyed catamarans although sailed them badly. Had a go at other things like flying gliders, etc.
Should we assume you have none of those things now….
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Who would you like in charge? would it make a difference?
Maggie.
We need to give Putin an ultimatum, Cuban missile crisis style.
YOU HAVE 48 HOURS TO CEASEFIRE, AND ENTER TALKS, OR WE INSTALL A NO FLY ZONE.
We often agree on many things but not sure this ultimatum is the right way to go ! Putin put in a situation where he would be utterly humiliated back in Russia is not something I’d advise .
As painful as it seems the west would need to give him an off ramp if there was a chance to put an end to this ghastly war .
I do think though that if Russia shells close to a nuclear reactor again then the west would need to up the ante.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Corbyn, or virtually anybody in the 2019 Labour leadership, would undoubtedly have been about a billion times worse.
And I don't think Starmer has covered himself in glory, calling on us to ban Russia Today and not immediately withdrawing the whip from all of the Stop the War crowd.
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
My best decade would be my 30s.
I had a glacier skiing trip and a Loire cycling trip planned for May/June. They are now both off. I am planning a flight in a Pitt Special and a racing car experience. My cousin is an ex driver. so I am getting trained up. That has to go on hold also. Foodie events still available and concerts. I want to have a go on an America's cup catamaran or such like but can't see how that can be organised. Nothing appears on offer like that.
Why 30s best decade: Had money, girlfriends, was a decent squash player and skier. Enjoyed catamarans although sailed them badly. Had a go at other things like flying gliders, etc.
Should we assume you have none of those things now….
Just the money. Had to give up the rest as otherwise I would be dead. Clearly through accidents mainly but in the case of girlfriends that would be due to homicide by my wife.
I am ready to die to defend civilisation if that's what it takes.
I suggest we all need to be.
You're going to die one day and you might as well do so for the most worthy cause imaginable. The defence of a civilised world against barbarity.
Calm down dear. Your own willingness to be nuked until you glow is not in doubt, but it really isn't all about you. This is about the minimisation of death and suffering, and that is most likely to be achieved by the NATO countries standing by the terms of their treaty which neither they nor Putin are likely to dismiss as "small print."
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Corbyn, or virtually anybody in the 2019 Labour leadership, would undoubtedly have been about a billion times worse.
And I don't think Starmer has covered himself in glory, calling on us to ban Russia Today and not immediately withdrawing the whip from all of the Stop the War crowd.
You raise me Diane Abbott. I raise you Edward Leigh.
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
Thank you @kinabalu It has gone well, but I'm not sure I agree. I have rarely come to any harm being reckless and I have done some reckless things, yet the most damage I have done to myself on several occasions is just falling over while sober.
Well you need to stop that falling over business as of now.
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
My best decade would be my 30s.
I had a glacier skiing trip and a Loire cycling trip planned for May/June. They are now both off. I am planning a flight in a Pitt Special and a racing car experience. My cousin is an ex driver. so I am getting trained up. That has to go on hold also. Foodie events still available and concerts. I want to have a go on an America's cup catamaran or such like but can't see how that can be organised. Nothing appears on offer like that.
Why 30s best decade: Had money, girlfriends, was a decent squash player and skier. Enjoyed catamarans although sailed them badly. Had a go at other things like flying gliders, etc.
Should we assume you have none of those things now….
Just the money. Had to give up the rest as otherwise I would be dead. Clearly through accidents mainly but in the case of girlfriends that would be due to homicide by my wife.
Oh in case you think I contradicted myself re skiing because I planned a glacier skiing trip for the spring - that isn't real skiing.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Who would you like in charge? would it make a difference?
Maggie.
We need to give Putin an ultimatum, Cuban missile crisis style.
YOU HAVE 48 HOURS TO CEASEFIRE, AND ENTER TALKS, OR WE INSTALL A NO FLY ZONE.
We often agree on many things but not sure this ultimatum is the right way to go ! Putin put in a situation where he would be utterly humiliated back in Russia is not something I’d advise .
As painful as it seems the west would need to give him an off ramp if there was a chance to put an end to this ghastly war .
I do think though that if Russia shells close to a nuclear reactor again then the west would need to up the ante.
He has not got an off ramp now. He hasn't had one and has no interest in using one, except annexation of Ukraine. A falacy to think there is another end point Putin would accept.
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
Thank you @kinabalu It has gone well, but I'm not sure I agree. I have rarely come to any harm being reckless and I have done some reckless things, yet the most damage I have done to myself on several occasions is just falling over while sober.
Well you need to stop that falling over business as of now.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Putin's narrative may have fallen apart, but so has our government's narrative.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Corbyn, or virtually anybody in the 2019 Labour leadership, would undoubtedly have been about a billion times worse.
And I don't think Starmer has covered himself in glory, calling on us to ban Russia Today and not immediately withdrawing the whip from all of the Stop the War crowd.
You raise me Diane Abbott. I raise you Edward Leigh.
I understand it’s often very hard to raise Edward Leigh….
If this sounds familiar, it's the same argument from 2014, when Putin invaded E Ukraine and annexed Crimea. It was too risky to stop him, I was told, as I pleaded for intervention and warned he would never stop there. Here we are, with bombs raining down.
Risk and costs are higher now because the "reasonable" people in the West always choose lower risk today to guarantee higher risk tomorrow. Clearing the UKR skies after a warning period is risky. Letting Putin destroy Ukraine is riskier, & a human and moral disaster.
There is no waiting this out. This isn't chess; there's no draw, no stalemate. Either Putin destroys Ukraine and eventually hits NATO with an even greater catastrophe, or Putin falls in Russia. He cannot be stopped with weakness.
The corridors to get weapons, food, and medicine in and refugees out are narrowing and can be closed. Putin can bomb the trains, close the borders with NATO nations. The odds of Russian forces hitting a NATO asset are increasing, and then what? Still watching?
If your answer is no, that if a wing of a RU jet crosses Polish airspace, of course NATO will engage immediately, ask why thousands of Ukrainians civilians dying first matters less than a treaty, and what that says to Putin. That you're honorable, or a fool? We know.
As I said in 2014 and a fateful week ago, the price of stopping a dictator always goes up. What would have been enough to stop Putin 8 years or 6 months or 2 weeks ago is not enough today, and the price will rise again tomorrow. Fight. Find a way.
Putin vows to exterminate Ukrainians while we watch. Ukraine did nothing wrong but try to join the democratic world that is now witnessing crimes against humanity in real time. Not unable. Unwilling. #CloseTheSky
Another horrific video from Ukraine. For balance, this is - it seems - an ambushed Russian convoy. It is very gruesome. Prepare yourself if you click on. NSFW
I make no apologies for posting these. If we have people like @JackW and @Heathener calling for war, for the western world to go to war, we need to know what war REALLY looks like. It looks like THIS
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister · 54m There really can be no underestimating the terrifying humanitarian consequences for #Syria, resulting from #Putin's invasion of #Ukraine.
We have speculated about Putin's health here recently. We've also made comments about timing and readiness: we're a little puzzled that he invaded now, rather than in two months' time. Could it be that his health is even worse than we thought? That his time left can be measured in months rather than years? Is that the imperative for acting now?
The question of why now is probably just the Olympics and not further pissing off China.
Yes, I think so. The idea Putin is sick - other than in the head - strikes me as wishful speculation. He might be but I can't see the evidence. He looks ok to me.
That moon face is either botched surgery or corticosteroids, and I don't think he's a facial procedure kinda guy. That plus the insane distancing stuff: Trump has a germ phobia but that has always been known. It is more likely that it is rational because he is immunocompromised than that it's a phobia which has come from nowhere. I think he has got cancer.
Well that'd be nice - but I'm not really seeing it myself. His face does look kind of round and punchable but I'm putting that down to other things, esp the latter quality.
I was on a call last night and the woman whom I was speaking to (a senior figure in the media world) was saying that look of Putin's is totally from plastic surgery
Easy to imagine he's had a touch-up, I suppose. Man gets to be 69 and he starts to miss the melting looks he used to get from all the young girls when he was 64, so he decides to try and get some of that back with a little something from the Doc. In which case he could be on other things too.
I'm getting out of hospital today. Do you mean I have to book in again for a facelift in 2 years time.
Personally I think it's best to accept your 'active participant' days are over at about 52. After that it's all about thinking and observing and describing. That's what I did anyway and I haven't looked back.
Hope it all went well in there.
But, and I just want to check this is ok, partying until you are 51 years and 364 days is fine, right?
Yes, it's cliff edge, a sudden thing, an epiphany. But it doesn't come at the same age for everyone. And for some it comes but they decide to fight and postpone. This is unwise.
I turn 50 next year. I'm mulling over doing something that'll mean I'm the fittest I've ever been. Not decided quite what yet. Perhaps 50 marathons in 52 weeks (though that doesn't scan well). Something that will last throughout the year, even though I don't turn 50 until March.
Or maybe I'll just scoff food, watch TV and grow fat.
My best decade has been my 50s. True story (and they’re not over yet)
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
My best decade would be my 30s.
I had a glacier skiing trip and a Loire cycling trip planned for May/June. They are now both off. I am planning a flight in a Pitt Special and a racing car experience. My cousin is an ex driver. so I am getting trained up. That has to go on hold also. Foodie events still available and concerts. I want to have a go on an America's cup catamaran or such like but can't see how that can be organised. Nothing appears on offer like that.
Why 30s best decade: Had money, girlfriends, was a decent squash player and skier. Enjoyed catamarans although sailed them badly. Had a go at other things like flying gliders, etc.
Should we assume you have none of those things now….
Just the money. Had to give up the rest as otherwise I would be dead. Clearly through accidents mainly but in the case of girlfriends that would be due to homicide by my wife.
All understood, continue enjoying your life - and wife - as best as you can
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Putin's narrative may have fallen apart, but so has our government's narrative.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
The policy is utterly shattered and an broken.
Putin being a dickhead doesn't mean climate change isn't happening.
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister Remarkable -- via U.S. official: - #Ukraine retains air superiority (& most aircraft), despite 500+ #Russia missile strikes. - #Russia 40-mile convoy stuck, after #Ukraine leveled a bridge & attacked forward vehicles. - #Russia has made no progress on #Kyiv; still 15miles out.
Well it confirms the stories about the bridge getting seized and blown up. Apparently about 2/3rds of Ukraine's airforce are still mostly intact.
Spare a moment to think of the poor convicts in the convoy. Out of food for 4ish days, 120km into enemy territory, your retreat route has been blown up, and if you go off road your vehicle will likely break down. That only leaves forward, which as the VDV are showing repeatedly, lies well trained, well equipped enemies dug into extremely strong defensive positions.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
Who would you like in charge? would it make a difference?
Maggie.
We need to give Putin an ultimatum, Cuban missile crisis style.
YOU HAVE 48 HOURS TO CEASEFIRE, AND ENTER TALKS, OR WE INSTALL A NO FLY ZONE.
That ultimatum sounds great. In fact it was a bit more complicated than you seem to think, and based on the completely false belief that the U2 was shot down on the 27th on orders from Moscow.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Putin's narrative may have fallen apart, but so has our government's narrative.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
The policy is utterly shattered and an broken.
Putin being a dickhead doesn't mean climate change isn't happening.
Of course it doesn't. But it does mean that vast swathes of the world aren't going to do anything about it.
And that uncomfortable fact makes our government's policy essentially that of the suicide squad at the end of the Life of Brian.
The bod from the RUSI on Unherd last night was hypothesizing this has been due to poor planning further down the command chain, because Putin so paranoid that the West knew his plans they didn't give those lower levels any real information. Many thought it was still training / part of a bluff.
In order to win the air war, incredible amount of planning from maintenance schedules, to advanced planning targets, to coordinating the timing of those operations with ground / air defence systems.
Unfortunately, he also said they appear to be getting themselves together now.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Putin's narrative may have fallen apart, but so has our government's narrative.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
The policy is utterly shattered and an broken.
Putin being a dickhead doesn't mean climate change isn't happening.
Plus it’s fairly easy to stitch together the narrative domestically. It now makes security sense, as well as sense from the point of view of global warming, to limit massively the need to import hydrocarbons. The technology is there, we should use it.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Putin's narrative may have fallen apart, but so has our government's narrative.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
The policy is utterly shattered and an broken.
Putin being a dickhead doesn't mean climate change isn't happening.
No but it does mean we shouldn't be naive about the geopolitics of it. Europe's dependence on Russian fuel exports didn't come about by accident.
Tad surprised you found a mag to accept one of your delusional flights of fancy, Ed, but well done nonetheless. Fee donated to an unworthy cause, no doubt.
Well, says the person who thinks CNN is a source of unbiased truth. Pot, kettle, black...
The same stuff (it looks identical) was on Newsmax the other day. It was put to John Bolton. He tore it to shreads.
If it was up to John Bolton, we would be in World War 3 already. Not someone I would like in charge. Also, he’s not exactly going to be unbiased when it comes to anything relating to old Trumpski.
It’s a magnitude of how Trump has deranged his opponents that people like Bolton and Dick Cheney are now lauded as paragons just because they are against Trump. The two of them - if they had any power - would be amongst the two dangerous individuals in the world.
With regard to Bolton I don't disagree with either of your points, however I raise it because I assume the source was the same. It was so familiar and Bolton dismantled it comprehensively without response which of course could have been the fault of the programme, but bearing in mind it is a right wing broadcaster they didn't do Trump any favours.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Putin's narrative may have fallen apart, but so has our government's narrative.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
The policy is utterly shattered and an broken.
Putin being a dickhead doesn't mean climate change isn't happening.
True, it doesn’t. But it does mean we should be realistic about the need for fossil fuels and exploiting what we can locally.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
I am quite happy to criticise Big Dog until the cows come home.
Nonetheless I am not sure Johnson could say anything different, least of all if he was presently briefing the SAS on how to prosecute Operation Big Bear Hunt.
It really does feel like the west is heading into a lost decade.
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!!
I empathize strongly. For me the root of all evil are narcissistic megalomaniac men seeking to "make their countries great" and harnessing all sorts of mumbo jumbo about "destiny" or a "special history" and all of that absolute brainrot to con people and stir up their baser emotions . We're all the same. There are no innate national characteristics or "great nations". It's all just a vocabulary to mask the reality of the world, which is billions of people who just want to live their lives in peace and above the poverty line.
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister Remarkable -- via U.S. official: - #Ukraine retains air superiority (& most aircraft), despite 500+ #Russia missile strikes. - #Russia 40-mile convoy stuck, after #Ukraine leveled a bridge & attacked forward vehicles. - #Russia has made no progress on #Kyiv; still 15miles out.
Well it confirms the stories about the bridge getting seized and blown up. Apparently about 2/3rds of Ukraine's airforce are still mostly intact.
Spare a moment to think of the poor convicts in the convoy. Out of food for 4ish days, 120km into enemy territory, your retreat route has been blown up, and if you go off road your vehicle will likely break down. That only leaves forward, which as the VDV are showing repeatedly, lies well trained, well equipped enemies dug into extremely strong defensive positions.
That video is actually depressing. Yes, it's old kit, and far less good against air assets or modern anti-tank weapons. But they're perfectly good against civilians or buildings.
And Russia has plenty of convicts and poor young men to crew them.
Ukraine needs to get more decent anti-armour weapons, pronto.
(Also, how real is that video? Is that a train heading west into Ukraine, or is it just kit being moved up to replace more modern kit that's been sent over the border?)
Blinken and Stoltenberg wearing face masks just shows how utterly and completely delusional and distanced from reality many of the decision makers still are.
They simply cannot believe their world view has been so brutally and completely upturned and they try to cling to old certainties.
It may well be that Boris and Truss cannot go further because our allies won't, and maybe they should have our backing.
We might have to move at their pace to show unity and there isn't much we can say.
Johnson says he doesn't think Putin should be assassinated.
He is absolutely gormless.
The most useless, clueless, inept, oaf and the LAST person we need in charge at this perilous time.
it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on .
Don't kid yourselves.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
To say the west have done nothing, that's just provable bullshit.
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
Putin's narrative may have fallen apart, but so has our government's narrative.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
The policy is utterly shattered and an broken.
This global warming stuff is bonkers. It is possible to think about more than one thing at once.
It really does feel like the west is heading into a lost decade.
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!!
I empathize strongly. For me the root of all evil are narcissistic megalomaniac men seeking to "make their countries great" and harnessing all sorts of mumbo jumbo about "destiny" or a "special history" and all of that absolute brainrot to con people and stir up their baser emotions . We're all the same. There are no innate national characteristics or "great nations". It's all just a vocabulary to mask the reality of the world, which is billions of people who just want to live their lives in peace and above the poverty line.
Its precisely why I call myself what I do on here - wars are always created by states
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister Remarkable -- via U.S. official: - #Ukraine retains air superiority (& most aircraft), despite 500+ #Russia missile strikes. - #Russia 40-mile convoy stuck, after #Ukraine leveled a bridge & attacked forward vehicles. - #Russia has made no progress on #Kyiv; still 15miles out.
Well it confirms the stories about the bridge getting seized and blown up. Apparently about 2/3rds of Ukraine's airforce are still mostly intact.
Spare a moment to think of the poor convicts in the convoy. Out of food for 4ish days, 120km into enemy territory, your retreat route has been blown up, and if you go off road your vehicle will likely break down. That only leaves forward, which as the VDV are showing repeatedly, lies well trained, well equipped enemies dug into extremely strong defensive positions.
That video is actually depressing. Yes, it's old kit, and far less good against air assets or modern anti-tank weapons. But they're perfectly good against civilians or buildings.
And Russia has plenty of convicts and poor young men to crew them.
Ukraine needs to get more decent anti-armour weapons, pronto.
(Also, how real is that video? Is that a train heading west into Ukraine, or is it just kit being moved up to replace more modern kit that's been sent over the border?)
It's a video from Khabarovsk in the Russian far east of equipment moving west, so the implication is that they're scraping the barrel.
Comments
Perhaps he should just have recommended that Putin had a series of parties at the Kremlin?
Meanwhile Amanda Staveley says she doesn't think Abramovich shouldn't have to see Chelsea.
Yet another PL club with stinking dirty money ...
Sure the last 2 have been a bit shite but that’s universal, but before that - brilliant. I had a ton of sex and a ton of fun and went to about 60 different countries and had loads of sex and fun there, as well
I do feel quite close to @kinabalu’s “bowing out” moment, and I know what he means, it is important to retire from the lists and lower one’s lance gracefully, but at the same you should never retire prematurely. I reckon I have a few summers left in me yet. Just a few, mind
I am no fan of Boris, but it is clear behind the scenes a lot is going on and Boris seems to be somebody the Ukrainian president is quick to call and so far on the diplomatic / military side of things I don't think Boris has done much wrong at all.
Its seems Macron / Chinese try to talk Putin down, the US / UK are busy finding out all intel passing it on to the Ukrainian leadership.
It’s a magnitude of how Trump has deranged his opponents that people like Bolton and Dick Cheney are now lauded as paragons just because they are against Trump. The two of them - if they had any power - would be amongst the two dangerous individuals in the world.
None of which makes his actions right, of course.
Can this day get any worse?
And there's proximity. Ukraine is a hell of a lot closer to us than - say - Afghanistan.
We in the west have done nothing. Nothing that actually matters. Nothing that stops Putin getting away with this. Putin is pulverising Ukraine.
Which he is and will continue to do.
They need to get a team of top surgeons to remove his eyes, his tongue, burn out his olfactory nerves, his arms, his legs so he is just a mute sack of skin fed by a tube and kept alive trapped inside an absolutely pointless body where he cannot enjoy one single thing, trapped in his brain to think about what he did.
The reason I kept his hearing is so Jimmy Somerville and the Village People will be played on loop at high volume for the remainder of his miserable living hell.
The terrible story of our failed liberal interventions, these last 20 years, have hopefully educated us to the damage we often do. Tho we should not forget that we can also do good. Kosovo, Sierra Leone. Etc
But on the whole the calculus should be Do nothing - militarily - unless human conscience absolutely demands action
If we don't, there is no western civilisation left worthy of its name.
Sending Priti Patel to Poland to help refugees is like sending Myra Hindley to a nursery to help with childcare.
https://twitter.com/supertanskiii/status/1499725407301644293
https://open.spotify.com/track/0lMk95xQZtrTDFZGvXvqnU?si=uxla-uOwRaODekCHZNOMSw&context=spotify:album:1AVopSMmljDTYiTJ6fgDTG
The Russian invasion has got massively bogged down as they have faced a lot more incoming from better weapons than they thought the Ukrainians had (which have been supplied ahead of time primarily via the UK).
Also many reports the Ukrainian SoF have recorded a lot of important wins, including against deployment of the Russian VDV, and it is known the SoF have received a lot of training from SAS in recent years.
That doesn't mean Putin won't flatten big parts of the Ukraine and claim victory, but it is clear the Ukrainians aren't going to just give up. It seems clear even if he claims military victory, a Ukrainian insurgency will be there.
Putin can't win quickly, his whole narrative has fallen apart. At best he is going to be bogged down in a war for years to come and bust his country in the process.
None of our leaders, and none of those around them, saw this coming. None have the first idea what to do now, or next. One of the reasons they are doing nothing in the Ukraine is, I think, shock. They are stupefied.
There is no Churchill. He was hammering away in the 1930s pointing out that the Germans were rearming.
There is no equivalent now.
NY Times
I had a glacier skiing trip and a Loire cycling trip planned for May/June. They are now both off. I am planning a flight in a Pitt Special and a racing car experience. My cousin is an ex driver. so I am getting trained up. That has to go on hold also. Foodie events still available and concerts. I want to have a go on an America's cup catamaran or such like but can't see how that can be organised. Nothing appears on offer like that.
OK.
We need to give Putin an ultimatum, Cuban missile crisis style.
YOU HAVE 48 HOURS TO CEASEFIRE, AND ENTER TALKS, OR WE INSTALL A NO FLY ZONE.
I believe there is an accepted international protocol that national leaders never call for the murder or assassination of other national leaders. At most they ask for their arrest and trial, and even then quite rarely
Did Churchill ever call for the actual assassination of Hitler?
He certainly plotted it, as Hitler did in reverse, but I don’t recall a speech that desired this outcome
Putin has already won this. He is pulverising Ukraine, gradually gaining ground and he couldn't a flying fcuk if we think he's being bad.
We are doing absolutely nothing to stop him.
However, it’s a measure of Putin’ success in one regards - and harking back to the original post re Trump - that he is proving how powerful the unpredictability Card is when it comes to playing politics. Look at the debate on here - it’s dominated by discussions over nuclear war.
What hasn’t been asked so much is the reverse side of the coin namely that, if Putin feels he is in such a strong position, why he hasn’t unilaterally cut off all gas and oil supply to Europe to cause economic chaos. Which suggests he doesn’t feel that confident.
Btw, I think the consensual view is sadly right, namely he wants to pulverise the Ukraine and doesn’t care about the casualties.
That's a bill for gas alone of £2080.55 for an average 12,000 kwh UK household before you're sticking any sort of overhead or profit on for the gas company.
That's called being tough back. It's what leadership requires.
If we cannot defend civilisation then we have abandoned civilisation.
It's time to stand up to this bully.
Does that mean its all rainbows and butterflies, absolutely not. But assisting the Ukraine from just getting taken over in a few days does matter. Its going to come at enormous ongoing cost to Putin both in men, equipment and economically.
e.g. the bod from the Royal United Services Institute says they have pretty much used their supply of cruise missiles in a week. They are going through kit like nobodies business. And they don't have any easy way to replenish it.
But not half as sad as your adult sporting heroes dying off whilst younger than you.
The inevitable facing of the certainty of the Reaper made plain
Garry Kasparov
@Kasparov63
We are witnessing, literally watching live, Putin commit genocide on an industrial scale in Ukraine while the most powerful military alliance in history stands aside. It's impossible not to be emotional, but let us also be rational and focus our rage on the facts.
Putin once again told Macron to go to hell, no surprise. NATO/EU has already told Putin they won't touch his forces, so why should he listen? Russia is lifting target limitations and the death toll is rising every hour and lack of water & electricity is critical.
No treaty forbids NATO nations from fighting to defend in Ukraine. It's a choice based on the risk of Putin going nuclear, many say. That arming Ukrainians is an acceptable risk of WWIII & the citizenship of the pilot or soldier changes Putin's nuclear calculus, or NATO's.
If they care so much about the fine print and think Putin does too, ask Zelensky to issue Ukrainian passports to any volunteer to fly in combat. Sell jets to Ukraine for €1 each and paint UKR flags on them. Do you think Putin will care? Is it worth the lives lost?
This is already World War III. Putin started it long ago & Ukraine is only the current front. He will escalate anyway, and it's even more likely if he succeeds in destroying Ukraine because you have again convinced him you won't stop him even though you could.
Biden & others insist NATO would retaliate should Putin attack Baltic members. Watching Ukraine, I am not sure of that at all, and Putin won't be either. If the calculation is about nuclear risk, it's no different over Estonia than Ukraine. Don't say "Putin would never".
Risk and costs are higher now because the "reasonable" people in the West always choose lower risk today to guarantee higher risk tomorrow. Clearing the UKR skies after a warning period is risky. Letting Putin destroy Ukraine is riskier, & a human and moral disaster.
There is no waiting this out. This isn't chess; there's no draw, no stalemate. Either Putin destroys Ukraine and eventually hits NATO with an even greater catastrophe, or Putin falls in Russia. He cannot be stopped with weakness.
The corridors to get weapons, food, and medicine in and refugees out are narrowing and can be closed. Putin can bomb the trains, close the borders with NATO nations. The odds of Russian forces hitting a NATO asset are increasing, and then what? Still watching?
If your answer is no, that if a wing of a RU jet crosses Polish airspace, of course NATO will engage immediately, ask why thousands of Ukrainians civilians dying first matters less than a treaty, and what that says to Putin. That you're honorable, or a fool? We know.
As I said in 2014 and a fateful week ago, the price of stopping a dictator always goes up. What would have been enough to stop Putin 8 years or 6 months or 2 weeks ago is not enough today, and the price will rise again tomorrow. Fight. Find a way.
Putin vows to exterminate Ukrainians while we watch. Ukraine did nothing wrong but try to join the democratic world that is now witnessing crimes against humanity in real time. Not unable. Unwilling. #CloseTheSky
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1499439820363468802
This just isn’t true. We have imposed some of the most stringent sanctions, outside war, in European history. Russia is already suffering and will suffer more. All the news reports say that Moscow is “stunned” by the severity of the western backlash, plus things like Germany swiftly rearming, against Russia, overnight
What we haven’t done is the emotional satisfying thing: hit Russia with our own bombs and missiles. And sure we could do that. But it means a world war with a madman, So I’m sorry, we aren’t going to do that. You may as well accept this now
I suggest we all need to be.
You're going to die one day and you might as well do so for the most worthy cause imaginable. The defence of a civilised world against barbarity.
As painful as it seems the west would need to give him an off ramp if there was a chance to put an end to this ghastly war .
I do think though that if Russia shells close to a nuclear reactor again then the west would need to up the ante.
You can get cheap flights to Chisinău Moldova and from there you can just stroll over the border into Ukraine, Best of British luck
And I don't think Starmer has covered himself in glory, calling on us to ban Russia Today and not immediately withdrawing the whip from all of the Stop the War crowd.
https://twitter.com/dave4erdington/status/1499684811975364610?s=21
A falacy to think there is another end point Putin would accept.
I have been hammered for posting this, but until 10 days ago it was government policy that climate change was the chief threat to mankind and policy must perforce be pointed in a direction that will end it.
A chief justification for this policy was that everyone in the world was on board. Glasgow told us that. Everyone believed it was two minutes to midnight and no-one serious would contemplate and tolerate war.
The way Putin is behaving, and the way the Chinese are ambivalent, shows voters that vast swathes of the world see the climate change argument as nothing more than a giant delusion.
Whether it is or it isn't a delusion is not important. The fact is it is never, ever going to be achievable, given the world's attitude to it. There clearly is no consensus whatever. The old certainties of power and territory prevail.
The policy is utterly shattered and an broken.
@Charles_Lister
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1m
Remarkable -- via U.S. official:
- #Ukraine retains air superiority (& most aircraft), despite 500+ #Russia missile strikes.
- #Russia 40-mile convoy stuck, after #Ukraine leveled a bridge & attacked forward vehicles.
- #Russia has made no progress on #Kyiv; still 15miles out.
https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister
I couldn't be arsed to point out that made the price merely very expensive rather than stupidly expensive.
I make no apologies for posting these. If we have people like @JackW and @Heathener calling for war, for the western world to go to war, we need to know what war REALLY looks like. It looks like THIS
https://twitter.com/lienomail/status/1499770482865971201?s=21
Charles Lister
@Charles_Lister
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54m
There really can be no underestimating the terrifying humanitarian consequences for #Syria, resulting from #Putin's invasion of #Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/1499758544865972225
You're not in power.
Spare a moment to think of the poor convicts in the convoy. Out of food for 4ish days, 120km into enemy territory, your retreat route has been blown up, and if you go off road your vehicle will likely break down. That only leaves forward, which as the VDV are showing repeatedly, lies well trained, well equipped enemies dug into extremely strong defensive positions.
Russia now digging out vehicles from the 50s and 60s: https://twitter.com/AlexLuck9/status/1499706034260422659
Try take a teenager's phone away for a day.
And that uncomfortable fact makes our government's policy essentially that of the suicide squad at the end of the Life of Brian.
In order to win the air war, incredible amount of planning from maintenance schedules, to advanced planning targets, to coordinating the timing of those operations with ground / air defence systems.
Unfortunately, he also said they appear to be getting themselves together now.
Nonetheless I am not sure Johnson could say anything different, least of all if he was presently briefing the SAS on how to prosecute Operation Big Bear Hunt.
And Russia has plenty of convicts and poor young men to crew them.
Ukraine needs to get more decent anti-armour weapons, pronto.
(Also, how real is that video? Is that a train heading west into Ukraine, or is it just kit being moved up to replace more modern kit that's been sent over the border?)
They simply cannot believe their world view has been so brutally and completely upturned and they try to cling to old certainties.
It may well be that Boris and Truss cannot go further because our allies won't, and maybe they should have our backing.
We might have to move at their pace to show unity and there isn't much we can say.