I think that's right. While many denizens of PB and Twitter luxuriate in pontificating about who is 'winning', thousands of people are being killed on both sides; although Putin is to blame, that's no consolation for the dead or their families.
Let's be honest - nobody really has a clue who's 'winning' (although Ukraine are winning the propaganda war, at least outside Russia), but the odds favour Russia. For the people of Ukraine, a ceasefire would be helpful. That's not appeasement - it's trying to find a solution to save lives. More talking and less bombing should be the order of the day. Those who wish to just carry on warring from the comfort of their armchairs are just condemning thousands more people to death. In the end, some sort of diplomatic solution is inevitable; the sooner it comes, the quicker the pointless loss of lives can end.
No Russia has lost this. They could totally destroy Ukraine and they will still lose. Consider just this one aspect, the war has prompted Germany to rearm. There is no way in hell that that result could be equated with a victory. Keeping Germnay docile must be damn near the top of Russian strategic objectives. Putin has brought about something previously consider unthinkable, by any normal measure that is a grave strategic failure. And that's on top of the economic catastrophe that is only beginning, and a war that has every propect of making the Soviet war in Afghanistan looking well planned and fought.
Putin's War is already a failure, the only question remaining is how big a failure it will be or will he escalate further to a global war.
Quite so. Imagine pitching this war as "an idea" to the *politburo*.
"So you're saying that on Day 5 of the war Germany will commit to spending 100 billion euro on defence, as a hostile act against Russia?"
Silence
"Er, yes"
Silence. Silence.
Silence.
It is catastrophic in every way for Russia. The only question is whether Putin can drag others into the catastrophe, as he goes down
He lost his rational mind in mystic dreams of a mythical RU volk stretching from Poland to Japan Kuril.
Mad. And losing.
Yes, that is my reading
I have a smart friend who is convinced that Putin is just acting up, and "playing" the crazy man, so he can outfox his opponents by being unpredictable. The usual mad man theorem
I don't buy it in this case. This war was so obviously a losing play, from the start, so much could go wrong, and what do you gain? Really? What is the obvious upside? And nearly everything has gone wrong, and Putin has gained nothing, and lost much. Already
Even if he grinds out some terrible attritional unsustainable victory, and necessarily turns Russia into a bullying occupying Fascist state, in the meantime - loathed by the world, and isolated to boot - the victory comes at such a terrible cost it is clearly worthless.
The young wily Putin would have seen this. Something has happened to him interim. Absolute power has driven him crazy, as is so often the case. Whenever I wonder about two term limits on presidents, I think about Putin and Xi and I think: Yes, Very Wise
Thatcher was basically mad after ten years as PM. "We have become a grandmother"
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
So why should I listen to you? You should listen to me. It's a very reductive attitude.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
Streets! You're a millennial!
HYUFD believes in all the old rigid hierarchies. Age over youth, wealth over poverty, noble over common, man over woman, powerful over weak, order over progress.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
Respecting wisdom and experience does not mean automatic acceptance of the will of those elders, or abasement to their wishes. Respect does not mean gerontocracy.
Some of the stuff people have come up with like restricting voting of people above a certain age is just wrong, but it isn't required to take a comedically extreme stance in opposition to prove your respect for elderly people. They're just people.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
And a history of fighting Irishmen!
I was genuinely sad Paisley the elder didn’t make it to the last few years NI politics, just because I feel we missed out on some truly comic “NEVER NEVER NEVER” moments through Brexit. Could have cheered us all up a bit.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
So why should I listen to you? You should listen to me. It's a very reductive attitude.
In fact. We'd all be guided by the venerable @JackW . And be nuked some time last week.
I think that's right. While many denizens of PB and Twitter luxuriate in pontificating about who is 'winning', thousands of people are being killed on both sides; although Putin is to blame, that's no consolation for the dead or their families.
Let's be honest - nobody really has a clue who's 'winning' (although Ukraine are winning the propaganda war, at least outside Russia), but the odds favour Russia. For the people of Ukraine, a ceasefire would be helpful. That's not appeasement - it's trying to find a solution to save lives. More talking and less bombing should be the order of the day. Those who wish to just carry on warring from the comfort of their armchairs are just condemning thousands more people to death. In the end, some sort of diplomatic solution is inevitable; the sooner it comes, the quicker the pointless loss of lives can end.
No Russia has lost this. They could totally destroy Ukraine and they will still lose. Consider just this one aspect, the war has prompted Germany to rearm. There is no way in hell that that result could be equated with a victory. Keeping Germnay docile must be damn near the top of Russian strategic objectives. Putin has brought about something previously consider unthinkable, by any normal measure that is a grave strategic failure. And that's on top of the economic catastrophe that is only beginning, and a war that has every propect of making the Soviet war in Afghanistan looking well planned and fought.
Putin's War is already a failure, the only question remaining is how big a failure it will be or will he escalate further to a global war.
Quite so. Imagine pitching this war as "an idea" to the *politburo*.
"So you're saying that on Day 5 of the war Germany will commit to spending 100 billion euro on defence, as a hostile act against Russia?"
Silence
"Er, yes"
Silence. Silence.
Silence.
It is catastrophic in every way for Russia. The only question is whether Putin can drag others into the catastrophe, as he goes down
Perhaps his best bet is just to declare the operation a success and unilaterally pull out.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
Every day they can't win (and don't forget there must be 80 or 90% of Ukr so far left free) is another day when the economic shit grows for Putin and middle class RU realise this guy is going to totally fuck all their dreams for them and their chilldren.
Betting on middle-class Russians to decide the outcome misunderstands Russia IMO - we meet them, we hear lots about them because they're the usual contacts for journalists in Moscow. But they're not a decisive political force. The Army is, however, and it's conceivable that their losses will reach a stage that the generals think impossible to tolerate any longer. They might push Putin out. But they'd be just as likely to escalate as withdraw.
An honest question
You come across as - shall I say - more accommodating to Russia than most. How much, do you think, does this come from your youthful communism, when you must definitely have been sympathetic to Moscow? Have you asked yourself that? Maybe there is a lingering affection or admiration or loyalty, which goes beyond the facts as they are, now?
This is not a question designed to trip you up. I am genuinely curious. Because I have a couple of famuly members who are similar to you, if not way more extreme than you. One is an old lefty who just can't let go an innate pro-Russia instinct, even tho she admits that Russia is now anything but communist. Yet she still want Russia to "win", somehow...
Intriguing
It's a fair question, but I'd point out that my teenage communism was exactly because of the rise of the democratic western brand epitomised by Berlinguer in Italy and Hermansson in Sweden - they seemed to offer the possibility of getting the ideals of communism without the Soviet dictatorship and oppression that was obvious to me even then. So I was never a Russian sympathiser - you can believe that, since I've been open about my past views when really I didn't need to be. If I'd been a Kremlin stooge 55 years ago, meh, I'd admit it.
Putin seems even from that viewpoint the worst of both worlds - corrupt, oppressive power politics without a trace of the idealism. I've no interest in Russia being great again, a la Trump. Any sympathy I have for Russia in general is an acknowledgement to my mother, who I was very fond of and who was sympathetic to Russian patriotism even though she lived her whole adult life in Britain - her attitude was also shaped by the Russian role in defeating Nazism, and she was scathing about the Nazi collaborators in Ukraine and other neighbouring countries.
What that gives me is not some kind of sympathy for the invasion, which seems to me just czarist brutality, but a vicarious understanding of how (I think) many Russians think. So I won't sign up for any "grind Russia into the dust" camp, but it doesn't make me even faintly approve of what's going on.
I agree, and have long had a soft spot for Russian culture. A bit too much Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekov etc when a teenager perhaps. It doesn't stretch to a love of their government though.
Russia (and for that matter Ukraine) know what it is like to be invaded, and is particularly sensitive over it. Russia is perhaps the only country more obsessed with WW2 than us. That fear of invasion is part of Russian paranoia, but it is very difficult to persuade a paranoic that their fears are unjustified, even when everyone else can see it.
If you even think about joining NATO we will invade you. If you are in NATO we probably won't. Therefore, please stop wanting to join NATO.
8n the future, the EU will have its own defence force, that could defend RUkraine. Of course, I don't see how that's any better for Russia. But I suppose it won't be lead by the US or include the UK. So perhaps its more palatable.
I expect the UK will be very much part of the EU defence planning and indeed a closer relationship all round
Even tonight Boris has been in a conference with Biden - Macron and Scholz
Why would we be part of the EU’s defence planning? We left. Would we expect the EU to be part of the UK’s defence planning? Rocking up to discuss budgets etc in Whitehall? The ERG would do their nut. We’re not in the EU, they’re not in the U.K. Farcical thinking.
And I wish people (well, you and HYUFD mostly) would stop making Johnson the only person in politics who gets called by a familiar name other than his surname. It’s “Johnson, Biden, Macron and Scholz” or “Boris, Joe, Emmanuel and Olaf”. You can’t have it both ways.
Wow you've triggered the fanbois.
"Boris" is essentially Mr Johnson's stage name. Family and friends call him Alexander or Al. Referring to him by his preferred stage name smacks of sychophancy. He is not our friend, we are simply gullible peasants, if he was our friend he would say "you can call me Al".
Note that in case of Theodore Roosevelt number of his friends & family who called him "Teddy" was zero. And he personally disliked it.
HOWEVER, he NEVER told ANY voter to cut it out. Strange but true!
BTW, after he left the White House in 1909, he instructed the press to refer to him as "Colonel Roosevelt". On grounds that he did not want to take limelight away from sitting POTUS, in this case his hand-picked successor. Though he kept it up even after his bust-up with Taft.
Why? Because TR (as he was also called, and which was the inspiration for "FDR") believed that being called Col. Roosevelt ENHANCED his stature. Every knew that he'd been President in very-recent past. And it reminded them he was also the intrepid Hero of San Juan Hill.
Interesting story.
Personally I find the 'Mr President' stuff with past presidents a bit odd, but there's few enough of those that I get it, but if they do it for ex-Congresspersons that's a wide net.
Ukrainian Ambassador holds up a tweet from Lavrov and advises Russian diplomats that they can obtain assistance for mental help from the NHS by dialing 111 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1500962329269211138
Every day they can't win (and don't forget there must be 80 or 90% of Ukr so far left free) is another day when the economic shit grows for Putin and middle class RU realise this guy is going to totally fuck all their dreams for them and their chilldren.
Betting on middle-class Russians to decide the outcome misunderstands Russia IMO - we meet them, we hear lots about them because they're the usual contacts for journalists in Moscow. But they're not a decisive political force. The Army is, however, and it's conceivable that their losses will reach a stage that the generals think impossible to tolerate any longer. They might push Putin out. But they'd be just as likely to escalate as withdraw.
An honest question
You come across as - shall I say - more accommodating to Russia than most. How much, do you think, does this come from your youthful communism, when you must definitely have been sympathetic to Moscow? Have you asked yourself that? Maybe there is a lingering affection or admiration or loyalty, which goes beyond the facts as they are, now?
This is not a question designed to trip you up. I am genuinely curious. Because I have a couple of famuly members who are similar to you, if not way more extreme than you. One is an old lefty who just can't let go an innate pro-Russia instinct, even tho she admits that Russia is now anything but communist. Yet she still want Russia to "win", somehow...
Intriguing
It's a fair question, but I'd point out that my teenage communism was exactly because of the rise of the democratic western brand epitomised by Berlinguer in Italy and Hermansson in Sweden - they seemed to offer the possibility of getting the ideals of communism without the Soviet dictatorship and oppression that was obvious to me even then. So I was never a Russian sympathiser - you can believe that, since I've been open about my past views when really I didn't need to be. If I'd been a Kremlin stooge 55 years ago, meh, I'd admit it.
Putin seems even from that viewpoint the worst of both worlds - corrupt, oppressive power politics without a trace of the idealism. I've no interest in Russia being great again, a la Trump. Any sympathy I have for Russia in general is an acknowledgement to my mother, who I was very fond of and who was sympathetic to Russian patriotism even though she lived her whole adult life in Britain - her attitude was also shaped by the Russian role in defeating Nazism, and she was scathing about the Nazi collaborators in Ukraine and other neighbouring countries.
What that gives me is not some kind of sympathy for the invasion, which seems to me just czarist brutality, but a vicarious understanding of how (I think) many Russians think. So I won't sign up for any "grind Russia into the dust" camp, but it doesn't make me even faintly approve of what's going on.
Fascinating. Genuinely. And thankyou
I quite forgot you have this colourful Russian Jewish past, which - I now recall - you have talked of eloquently before
That's fair. We should have a vegan vodka if you ever come to London. PM me if you are in the mood
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
And a history of fighting Irishmen!
I was genuinely sad Paisley the elder didn’t make it to the last few years NI politics, just because I feel we missed out on some truly comic “NEVER NEVER NEVER” moments through Brexit. Could have cheered us all up a bit.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
And a history of fighting Irishmen!
I was genuinely sad Paisley the elder didn’t make it to the last few years NI politics, just because I feel we missed out on some truly comic “NEVER NEVER NEVER” moments through Brexit. Could have cheered us all up a bit.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Problem is it is provably bollocks. I won't harp on it again, but I'm amazed that sensible people buy into some nonsense explanation and narrative that use of a name has such power or implies a great deal about people. It's so simplistic and arrogant.
Oh it implies a great deal about people all right. You can accurately infer all sorts about those who still insist on referring to the ex-leader of the Labour Party and now Independent MP as "Jeremy".
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
Respecting wisdom and experience does not mean automatic acceptance of the will of those elders, or abasement to their wishes. Respect does not mean gerontocracy.
Some of the stuff people have come up with like restricting voting of people above a certain age is just wrong, but it isn't required to take a comedically extreme stance in opposition to prove your respect for elderly people. They're just people.
Nor does it mean abuse as the whinging pathetic original post originally did.
Boomers generally created the most peaceful time in the western world in human history, created more wealth in the western world for the next generation than there has been in human history and more freedom than there has been in the western world than at any time before following the changes from the 1960s on.
I say that as someone who thinks some of those freedoms went too far
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
So why should I listen to you? You should listen to me. It's a very reductive attitude.
In fact. We'd all be guided by the venerable @JackW . And be nuked some time last week.
Paying respect to the elders by handing them the keys to the nukes and telling them they can do whatever they want
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
In 1940, Russians were losing the Winter War with Finland, very publicly.
Until they weren't, and Finns were forced to sue for peace.
Note that Finland had significant natural defenses versus Russia - vast forests, many lakes, tundra, narrow Karelian Isthmus, extremely limited transportation options - that Ukraine lacks. Plus Helsinki was NOT on the front line of battle.
So tad early in 2022 to say that Russians are whipped, this time around?
The huge difference from that war was that Russia was not being squeezed economically while it fought. Replacing equipment was also a lot easier, especially in tanks and planes.
Also, Finland had a population of about 3.5 million in 1940, against more than 40 mllion for the Ukraine in 2022. And the Ukraine is being resupplied by the rest of the World, while Finland rapidly ran out of bullets.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
Respecting wisdom and experience does not mean automatic acceptance of the will of those elders, or abasement to their wishes. Respect does not mean gerontocracy.
Some of the stuff people have come up with like restricting voting of people above a certain age is just wrong, but it isn't required to take a comedically extreme stance in opposition to prove your respect for elderly people. They're just people.
Nor does it mean abuse as the whinging pathetic original post originally did.
Boomers generally created the most peaceful time in the western world in human history, created more wealth in the western world for the next generation than there has been in human history and more freedom than there has been in the western world than at any time before following the changes from the 1960s on.
I say that as someone who thinks some of those freedoms went too far
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
I think it's great the Irish get the rights they do in the UK. Had an Irish chap stand for parliament not far from me, after time as a local councillor. Never seen an issue with integration. I did have a chap tell me he used to go by his second name because when he came over his irish name (which we shared, mine anglicised though) caused him some issues.
If he was integrated, why was he Irish and not British? I have no issues with people having dual loyalties, but if you are standing for office you should have at least equal loyalty to Britain, take citizenship and consider yourself at least half British.
If you even think about joining NATO we will invade you. If you are in NATO we probably won't. Therefore, please stop wanting to join NATO.
8n the future, the EU will have its own defence force, that could defend RUkraine. Of course, I don't see how that's any better for Russia. But I suppose it won't be lead by the US or include the UK. So perhaps its more palatable.
I expect the UK will be very much part of the EU defence planning and indeed a closer relationship all round
Even tonight Boris has been in a conference with Biden - Macron and Scholz
Why would we be part of the EU’s defence planning? We left. Would we expect the EU to be part of the UK’s defence planning? Rocking up to discuss budgets etc in Whitehall? The ERG would do their nut. We’re not in the EU, they’re not in the U.K. Farcical thinking.
And I wish people (well, you and HYUFD mostly) would stop making Johnson the only person in politics who gets called by a familiar name other than his surname. It’s “Johnson, Biden, Macron and Scholz” or “Boris, Joe, Emmanuel and Olaf”. You can’t have it both ways.
I call the President of France Emmanuel, because of that movie...
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
I think it's great the Irish get the rights they do in the UK. Had an Irish chap stand for parliament not far from me, after time as a local councillor. Never seen an issue with integration. I did have a chap tell me he used to go by his second name because when he came over his irish name (which we shared, mine anglicised though) caused him some issues.
If he was integrated, why was he Irish and not British? I have no issues with people having dual loyalties, but if you are standing for office you should have at least equal loyalty to Britain, take citizenship and consider yourself at least half British.
I never asked him, why would I? What's more integrated than serving the local community as an elected representative and seeking to do so at a higher level?
The Russian Commanders getting knocked off...Once is an Accident, Twice is a Coincidence, Three Times is a Pattern...
Or, indeed, “enemy action”.
Top signals intelligence being passed on, same as the supply convoy ambushes.
What the military expert on Sky was saying that the SoF (SAS trained) appear to have done from day one is split into small groups and are waging guerrilla war particularly in the NE, They pop up, attack and then disappear into the countryside. The fact they know what to hit and when it is clear somebody is giving them decent intel.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
People complaining about this post ought to realise that people in their 20s have been locked up for 2 years for a disease that hardly affects them, charged through the nose for university tuition (in some cases for little more than 2 years of glorified youtube videos and zoom calls), have watched house prices rise far faster than they could ever save for a deposit, witnessed (mostly) old people vote away their rights to live and work in Europe (if that's your thing), all while being told they're lazy, feckless and overprivileged.
Little wonder they're angry at the old order.
No, those whinging are spoilt brats on the whole (and not all that generation to be fair are whiners, some actually get on with it without complaint).
There are tuition fees now as 20 year olds today are more likely to have been to university than any generation before them, have a longer life expectancy than any generation before them, have more freedom in their private lives than any generation before them and have never had to fight a war.
The fact they might have been less likely to die from Covid than older people is also something they should be grateful for not whinging about and they have no restrictions again now.
20 year olds will also inherit more than any generation from their parents and grandparents too through those same house price rises and many also get help with deposits from their parents and grandparents as well, especially in London and the Home Counties.
As for free movement, plenty of working class 20 year olds voted Leave precisely because there was free movement of unskilled labour undercutting their wages now resolved by the points system we have. Even if middle class 20 year old Remainers find gap yahs take a bit extra paperwork
Ok, boomer.
I ain't no boomer, I am 40. However I respect my elders
Why? Age confers no moral superiority at all. Nor no need for deference. It's just not having died yet
The most secure and stable societies respect the wisdom and experience of their elders
Respecting wisdom and experience does not mean automatic acceptance of the will of those elders, or abasement to their wishes. Respect does not mean gerontocracy.
Some of the stuff people have come up with like restricting voting of people above a certain age is just wrong, but it isn't required to take a comedically extreme stance in opposition to prove your respect for elderly people. They're just people.
Nor does it mean abuse as the whinging pathetic original post originally did.
Boomers generally created the most peaceful time in the western world in human history, created more wealth in the western world for the next generation than there has been in human history and more freedom than there has been in the western world than at any time before following the changes from the 1960s on.
I say that as someone who thinks some of those freedoms went too far
And then kept it all for themselves.
Nope, hence the next generation will inherit more from them than ever before and many already get help with deposits.
If they were really keeping it for themselves they would downsize and spend the proceeds on cruises and expensive restaurants
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
There's a dating show on the Irish language TV channel, and it's hilarious because, any young Irish person who is at all fluent in Irish has their arm twisted to go on the show, even if they're in a long-term relationship, because otherwise they'd run out of people who could go on the show. The pool of fluent Irish language speakers is small.
However, it's interesting that Irish language skills seem to be generally quite good. Lots of firms with their European service base in Ireland, employing people with fluency in multiple European languages to provide technical support continent-wide. Perhaps the experience of trying to keep knowledge of the Irish language alive helps Irish children when it comes to learning other languages.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
You cannot tell the story of these islands, and thus this island, without the Irish. Big impact on early christianity here too, IIRC. I'm not sure what your problem is with the Irish that you want to cut them out of the tale.
I think we have to be a bit careful to not fall into a bubble of denial regarding Ukraine’s chances .
The odds remain hugely stacked against them and I fear for what might be unleashed if Putin’s anger reaches boiling point.
I don't think many doubt that Russia can terrorise its way to some sort of occupation of all Ukraine. The Russian government might even claim it as a victory, but I think anyone objective will question how they can consider it worth the cost they will pay.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
Om Tara tuttare ture mama ayur punaye gyana putrim kuru ye Soha. That's all you need.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
Just count yourself damn lucky you did not have to make the sacrifices your great grandparents and great great grandparents had to make in WW1 and WW2 when they were your age to give you the freedoms you enjoy today.
You have never had to fight in a war and probably still will not have to even now
What freedoms did WW1 give us? Presumably the freedom to have another war, hooray.
Freedom from a German dominated Europe… Well, for 20 years.
Well, yes, that's the serious point behind my HYUFD elephant trap. Whatever people think were the positive outcomes of WW1, they're usually wrong. It was just one giant mess. In fact, I'll go as far as to say nobody won. Even the Bolsheviks, perhaps the ones who benefited most from that period, still had to put in the hard graft in the years following to attain and solidify their position. And I wouldn't exactly call that a win for the world either.
The reflex some people have to lump WW1 and WW2 together as great patriotic victories betrays a shallowness of knowledge and analysis.
Is HY an elephant? Than why the picture of a - what is that, a mule?
See the terms in the header Farooq, there’s an argument we shake hands on those saying thank you Vlad, most generous, and the killing stops, isn’t there?
You obviously didn’t notice a Rabbit hop-plop in FAROOQ! you were too busy having fun with HY baiting night. Again.
If Ukraine sign up to that compromise deal, we can all be at peace from tomorrow. We can make an argument for that?
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
I think the peak number of Irish navvies digging canals, railway embankments, tunnels, and so on was about 100,000. Tell me where would modern Britain have been without its water and rail transportation?
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
You cannot tell the story of these islands, and thus this island, without the Irish. Big impact on early christianity here too, IIRC. I'm not sure what your problem is with the Irish that you want to cut them out of the tale.
They had some influence but plenty of other groups had more.
The issue is the Irish have insisted on a hard border in the Irish Sea yet still demand to be part of a CTA with GB prioritising themselves over other European or Australian, Canadian or New Zealand migrants to the UK who we even still share the Queen with unlike them
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
I’m sorry you feel that way. The world of 2022, with smartphones that allow us to see the horror in Ukraine, but also connect us to our friends and family, the Covid vaccines that helped stop the pandemic from killing perhaps 3-5% of the worlds population, and all the other stuff - well ‘boomers’ helped make that world.
Nah, the transistors in those smartphones were invented by the Greatest Generation, and the social media companies that facilitate all the connection were built by Gen Xers.
The dementia-ridden dotards waving the threat of nuclear apocalypse at each other are Boomers.
But it is the fucking Millennials who are stupid enough to obey, because they have tiny penises, no sperm, and are Woke as fuck, in various different ways. And their IQs are way way down, and have continued falling
"IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn't bode well for humanity"
Re: political monikers, one strategy employed by the mega-wealthy Nelson Rockefeller when he decided to enter politics and run for Governor of New York State in 1958, was to urge all-and-sundry to call him "Rocky".
Everyone knew he was rich as, well, Rockefeller, and due to inherited wealth, as scion of one of America's best-known and ill-loved families.
Interestingly, his foe, incumbent Gov. Averell Harriman, was also a hugely-wealthy descendant of a noted American robber baron. Interestingly in current context, he'd previously served as FDR's Ambassador to USSR during WW2.
Gov. Harriman was NOT a natural politico, instead pretty aloof and austere despite efforts of himself & others to warm him up some for voters. So one way that Rockefeller could differentiate himself from his fellow multi-millionaire was by showing that, in contrast to the Guv, he was a regular kind of guy.
Thus in addition to being called Rocky, he made a point of accosting strangers on the streets of New York with "Hi-ya, fella!" And (accompanied by a travelling media entourage) stopping at every eatery he came upon, and sampling with incredible gusto a seemingly endless stream of blintzs, pizza (no pineapple toppings in those golden days!), hot dogs, god-knows-what & best-not-ask.
And it worked. Rocky was elected NY governor in 1958 and was re-elected three times before being chosen Vice President to succeed Gerald Ford.
Every day they can't win (and don't forget there must be 80 or 90% of Ukr so far left free) is another day when the economic shit grows for Putin and middle class RU realise this guy is going to totally fuck all their dreams for them and their chilldren.
Betting on middle-class Russians to decide the outcome misunderstands Russia IMO - we meet them, we hear lots about them because they're the usual contacts for journalists in Moscow. But they're not a decisive political force. The Army is, however, and it's conceivable that their losses will reach a stage that the generals think impossible to tolerate any longer. They might push Putin out. But they'd be just as likely to escalate as withdraw.
An honest question
You come across as - shall I say - more accommodating to Russia than most. How much, do you think, does this come from your youthful communism, when you must definitely have been sympathetic to Moscow? Have you asked yourself that? Maybe there is a lingering affection or admiration or loyalty, which goes beyond the facts as they are, now?
This is not a question designed to trip you up. I am genuinely curious. Because I have a couple of famuly members who are similar to you, if not way more extreme than you. One is an old lefty who just can't let go an innate pro-Russia instinct, even tho she admits that Russia is now anything but communist. Yet she still want Russia to "win", somehow...
Intriguing
It's a fair question, but I'd point out that my teenage communism was exactly because of the rise of the democratic western brand epitomised by Berlinguer in Italy and Hermansson in Sweden - they seemed to offer the possibility of getting the ideals of communism without the Soviet dictatorship and oppression that was obvious to me even then. So I was never a Russian sympathiser - you can believe that, since I've been open about my past views when really I didn't need to be. If I'd been a Kremlin stooge 55 years ago, meh, I'd admit it.
Putin seems even from that viewpoint the worst of both worlds - corrupt, oppressive power politics without a trace of the idealism. I've no interest in Russia being great again, a la Trump. Any sympathy I have for Russia in general is an acknowledgement to my mother, who I was very fond of and who was sympathetic to Russian patriotism even though she lived her whole adult life in Britain - her attitude was also shaped by the Russian role in defeating Nazism, and she was scathing about the Nazi collaborators in Ukraine and other neighbouring countries.
What that gives me is not some kind of sympathy for the invasion, which seems to me just czarist brutality, but a vicarious understanding of how (I think) many Russians think. So I won't sign up for any "grind Russia into the dust" camp, but it doesn't make me even faintly approve of what's going on.
Fascinating. Genuinely. And thankyou
I quite forgot you have this colourful Russian Jewish past, which - I now recall - you have talked of eloquently before
That's fair. We should have a vegan vodka if you ever come to London. PM me if you are in the mood
I'd like that, thanks! Not even a vegan one (is there such a thing)? I'll PM you when I'm next up.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
I’m sorry you feel that way. The world of 2022, with smartphones that allow us to see the horror in Ukraine, but also connect us to our friends and family, the Covid vaccines that helped stop the pandemic from killing perhaps 3-5% of the worlds population, and all the other stuff - well ‘boomers’ helped make that world.
Nah, the transistors in those smartphones were invented by the Greatest Generation, and the social media companies that facilitate all the connection were built by Gen Xers.
The dementia-ridden dotards waving the threat of nuclear apocalypse at each other are Boomers.
But it is the fucking Millennials who are stupid enough to obey, because they have tiny penises, no sperm, and are Woke as fuck, in various different ways. And their IQs are way way down, and have continued falling
"IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn't bode well for humanity"
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
“ The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia…”
I thought you were going to say, all walked into a bar. I feel defrauded out of an amazing punchline 😏
I think we have to be a bit careful to not fall into a bubble of denial regarding Ukraine’s chances .
The odds remain hugely stacked against them and I fear for what might be unleashed if Putin’s anger reaches boiling point.
I don't think many doubt that Russia can terrorise its way to some sort of occupation of all Ukraine. The Russian government might even claim it as a victory, but I think anyone objective will question how they can consider it worth the cost they will pay.
It also seems likely that even if they do occupy the major cities, some sort insurgency is going to be waged upon them for years to come. That will come a significant cost in terms of men and resources. Even the towns / cities they have taken apparently they are having to devote significant resources to try to stop this sort of insurgency tactics already.
How much did 20 years in Afghanistan cost the US / UK? And we weren't under worldwide sanctions and have economies much bigger than Russia.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
There's a dating show on the Irish language TV channel, and it's hilarious because, any young Irish person who is at all fluent in Irish has their arm twisted to go on the show, even if they're in a long-term relationship, because otherwise they'd run out of people who could go on the show. The pool of fluent Irish language speakers is small.
However, it's interesting that Irish language skills seem to be generally quite good. Lots of firms with their European service base in Ireland, employing people with fluency in multiple European languages to provide technical support continent-wide. Perhaps the experience of trying to keep knowledge of the Irish language alive helps Irish children when it comes to learning other languages.
I have heard many an apocryphal tale of Brits taking EU positions (where command of two EU languages was required) by claiming to speak Irish via their ancestry and just (rightly) assuming no one would check.
I'm so tired of this. I'm in my 20s and my entire adult life has been consumed by bitter old Boomers trying to destroy the world before they die. Just fuck off and let us have a chance for once
I’m sorry you feel that way. The world of 2022, with smartphones that allow us to see the horror in Ukraine, but also connect us to our friends and family, the Covid vaccines that helped stop the pandemic from killing perhaps 3-5% of the worlds population, and all the other stuff - well ‘boomers’ helped make that world.
Nah, the transistors in those smartphones were invented by the Greatest Generation, and the social media companies that facilitate all the connection were built by Gen Xers.
The dementia-ridden dotards waving the threat of nuclear apocalypse at each other are Boomers.
But it is the fucking Millennials who are stupid enough to obey, because they have tiny penises, no sperm, and are Woke as fuck, in various different ways. And their IQs are way way down, and have continued falling
"IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn't bode well for humanity"
In 1940, Russians were losing the Winter War with Finland, very publicly.
Until they weren't, and Finns were forced to sue for peace.
Note that Finland had significant natural defenses versus Russia - vast forests, many lakes, tundra, narrow Karelian Isthmus, extremely limited transportation options - that Ukraine lacks. Plus Helsinki was NOT on the front line of battle.
So tad early in 2022 to say that Russians are whipped, this time around?
The huge difference from that war was that Russia was not being squeezed economically while it fought. Replacing equipment was also a lot easier, especially in tanks and planes.
Also, Finland had a population of about 3.5 million in 1940, against more than 40 mllion for the Ukraine in 2022. And the Ukraine is being resupplied by the rest of the World, while Finland rapidly ran out of bullets.
IIRC Italy tried to send arms to Finland but they were blocked by Germany.
Which isn't too far off Germany's initial attitude to Ukraine.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
I think the peak number of Irish navvies digging canals, railway embankments, tunnels, and so on was about 100,000. Tell me where would modern Britain have been without its water and rail transportation?
Why dos it have to be a competition? All these immigrant populations contributed to making modern Britain. And why does every arrangement we have have to follow some strange political logic? So we have an ad hoc travel arrangement with the Irish. So what? I have not seen it adversely affect our lives in this country because Irish are able to travel freely around these islands. The CTA makes sense. The voting situation may not be logical but I don't see it changing any results so again. So What?
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
Thanks and Sorry should cover the rest.
I am told that there is no Cantonese word for please or thank you. Almost certainly untrue, but highly credible to anyone who has been there, or even to the notorious Wong Kei restaurant on Wardour St.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
I'm a big fan of inshallah - I know a few people working in the UAE and it's very much one of the best polite noes in business culture out there. 'Can you get the repairs done by tuesday' met by 'inshallah, we shall try' very much means 'not a chance mate'.
I am surprised nobody has mentioned the obscure suggestion that a colony of Varangian English settled on the shore of the Black Sea after the Norman Invasion.
Something like that. I can’t find it on Google, but it’s definitely a thing.
I think we have to be a bit careful to not fall into a bubble of denial regarding Ukraine’s chances .
The odds remain hugely stacked against them and I fear for what might be unleashed if Putin’s anger reaches boiling point.
I don't think many doubt that Russia can terrorise its way to some sort of occupation of all Ukraine. The Russian government might even claim it as a victory, but I think anyone objective will question how they can consider it worth the cost they will pay.
It also seems likely that even if they do occupy the major cities, some sort insurgency is going to be waged upon them for years to come. That will come a significant cost in terms of men and resources. Even the towns / cities they have taken apparently they are having to devote significant resources to try to stop this sort of insurgency tactics already.
How much did 20 years in Afghanistan cost the US / UK? And we weren't under worldwide sanctions and have economies much bigger than Russia.
A fortune, but Russia is already making the War in Afghanistan and the Soviet-Afghan War look smart.
I am surprised nobody has mentioned the obscure suggestion that a colony of Varangian English settled on the shore of the Black Sea after the Norman Invasion.
Something like that. I can’t find it on Google, but it’s definitely a thing.
Perhaps we could have that bit.
Can we just take the wilderness bits and make the bears safe from persecution?
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
That's ridiculous rubbish. The Irish built Britain's railways. They became a touchstone of English identity, by being the antithesis of everything the English thought of themselves as. You cannot understand England without understanding Ireland (and vice versa, of course).
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
I think the peak number of Irish navvies digging canals, railway embankments, tunnels, and so on was about 100,000. Tell me where would modern Britain have been without its water and rail transportation?
I am surprised nobody has mentioned the obscure suggestion that a colony of Varangian English settled on the shore of the Black Sea after the Norman Invasion.
Something like that. I can’t find it on Google, but it’s definitely a thing.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
I'm a big fan of inshallah - I know a few people working in the UAE and it's very much one of the best polite noes in business culture out there. 'Can you get the repairs done by tuesday' met by 'inshallah, we shall try' very much means 'not a chance mate'.
It works very well in a medical context too:
"This treatment will make you better, Inshallah..."
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
I'm a big fan of inshallah - I know a few people working in the UAE and it's very much one of the best polite noes in business culture out there. 'Can you get the repairs done by tuesday' met by 'inshallah, we shall try' very much means 'not a chance mate'.
There is, of course, an almost perfect English translation: “I’ll see if I can get the parts today”.
I was assured this morning I needed to wait for an updated refugee tally. 300? Truly pathetic. @Big_G_NorthWales, please explain.
As everyone this morning just said the home office figure is wrong, even the Home Secretary said the home office figure is wrong, no one had a any clue what the right number is, why don’t they just say 55,534, or some thing? Or whatever France is claiming, five thousand more than them? And all of them properly checked unlike the Irish ones.
I am surprised nobody has mentioned the obscure suggestion that a colony of Varangian English settled on the shore of the Black Sea after the Norman Invasion.
Something like that. I can’t find it on Google, but it’s definitely a thing.
Perhaps we could have that bit.
I think that was one of the tidbits mentioned in The Last King English King by Julian Rathbone. A truly wondrous book.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
And hope there’s no confusion over German washing powder.
In three men on the Bummel there was confusion buying a cushion.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
You cannot tell the story of these islands, and thus this island, without the Irish. Big impact on early christianity here too, IIRC. I'm not sure what your problem is with the Irish that you want to cut them out of the tale.
They had some influence but plenty of other groups had more.
The issue is the Irish have insisted on a hard border in the Irish Sea yet still demand to be part of a CTA with GB prioritising themselves over other European or Australian, Canadian or New Zealand migrants to the UK who we even still share the Queen with unlike them
The Irish don't demand any such thing. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement, and it ensures that Irish political independence from the UK doesn't negatively affect the opportunities for people on the neighbouring islands of Britain and Ireland by making it needlessly difficult for us to move between the two islands.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
Thanks and Sorry should cover the rest.
I am told that there is no Cantonese word for please or thank you. Almost certainly untrue, but highly credible to anyone who has been there, or even to the notorious Wong Kei restaurant on Wardour St.
How do they open the Restaurant if they have the Wong Kei?
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
I'm a big fan of inshallah - I know a few people working in the UAE and it's very much one of the best polite noes in business culture out there. 'Can you get the repairs done by tuesday' met by 'inshallah, we shall try' very much means 'not a chance mate'.
It works very well in a medical context too:
"This treatment will make you better, Inshallah..."
It always gets a nod and smile.
Appalachian version: "Good Lord willin' and the cricks don't rise"
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Ability to speak Irish doesn't mean they usually speak it! In the 2016 census, only 74,000 people in the Republic spoke Irish on a daily basis (1.7%).
It's not exactly a conspiracy theory to think that as a matter of national pride perhaps more may claim to be able to speak it than in fact can, perhaps through generous estimation of their own abilities.
I have A grades in GCSE French and German, so I could reasonably "claim" to be able to speak both, but I usually get by in English!
Well I know one word of sanskrit, so as long as I stick to addressing people called Sunil I could claim to speak that.
I have just a few words of Arabic, but they can be used in so many situations that it is close to fluency.
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
I'm a big fan of inshallah - I know a few people working in the UAE and it's very much one of the best polite noes in business culture out there. 'Can you get the repairs done by tuesday' met by 'inshallah, we shall try' very much means 'not a chance mate'.
It works very well in a medical context too:
"This treatment will make you better, Inshallah..."
@JimmySecUK shows Russian Su-34s are using commercial GPS kit in their cockpits. Former RAF specialist @rwek2012 notices it is American-made. How’s that for operational security?
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
It's an interesting argument - and I'd agree that it's largely true for first and some second gen immigrants, I'm a dual citizen brought up in the (still very large) London Irish community, but the fate of our two countries is indelibly tied together.
We don't even share a head of state or the Commonwealth or EU or NATO with the Republic of Ireland now.
I feel closer to Australians, New Zealanders or Canadians than I do to citizens of the Republic
We share a land border however. And the English language.
NI does, thanks to the EU and Dublin GB now has a hard border with Ireland in the Irish Sea.
39% of the Irish also speak Irish, Australians and New Zealanders do not speak a language distinct from English as well, nor do Canadians outside Quebec
Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system.
Exc: Ministers have raised concerns about Ireland’s open-door policy to Ukrainian refugees, arguing it creates UK security risk.
Dublin joined EU-wide scheme welcoming refugees for 3 years, via which Ukrainians can travel to UK (Common Travel Area) without biometric checks
Govt source: “Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA.
“We've seen before with migrants from Albania that they hv come through Dublin, into Belfast & across to the mainland to L'pool. That's created a drug cartel route
Source adds: “It's the Home Office that will get the blame if in three or fives’ years time there are problems with those who come. That’s why the security checks have to be done carefully now.”
Ireland has said it expects to welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
100 years after Irish independence, I do wonder why the Irish still get such privileges in the UK. Even more ridiculous than CTA is Irish voting. I have yet to meet an Irish immigrant to the UK that ever started seeing themselves as British, so they are bad at integrating. And when they vote, they usually do so for the interests of Ireland not the UK.
The Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huguenots, even the Jews and the Romans and the generations of Britons since, the Victorians, the Georgians etc indeed even the Afro Caribbeans and the immigrants from South Asia did more to create modern Great Britain than the Irish did
I think the peak number of Irish navvies digging canals, railway embankments, tunnels, and so on was about 100,000. Tell me where would modern Britain have been without its water and rail transportation?
Why dos it have to be a competition? All these immigrant populations contributed to making modern Britain. And why does every arrangement we have have to follow some strange political logic? So we have an ad hoc travel arrangement with the Irish. So what? I have not seen it adversely affect our lives in this country because Irish are able to travel freely around these islands. The CTA makes sense. The voting situation may not be logical but I don't see it changing any results so again. So What?
Exactly.
Insisting that things are logical, rational and consistent is always supposed to have been a continental affliction the British were proud to be free of, while we are happy to just get on with things that work, like having two separate legal systems in the one country, or having arrangements in relation to the Irish that, broadly speaking, have the air of pretending that they never became independent.
There's an awful lot of right-wing people with a lot of antipathy to fundamental tenets of Britishness.
Comments
I have a smart friend who is convinced that Putin is just acting up, and "playing" the crazy man, so he can outfox his opponents by being unpredictable. The usual mad man theorem
I don't buy it in this case. This war was so obviously a losing play, from the start, so much could go wrong, and what do you gain? Really? What is the obvious upside? And nearly everything has gone wrong, and Putin has gained nothing, and lost much. Already
Even if he grinds out some terrible attritional unsustainable victory, and necessarily turns Russia into a bullying occupying Fascist state, in the meantime - loathed by the world, and isolated to boot - the victory comes at such a terrible cost it is clearly worthless.
The young wily Putin would have seen this. Something has happened to him interim. Absolute power has driven him crazy, as is so often the case. Whenever I wonder about two term limits on presidents, I think about Putin and Xi and I think: Yes, Very Wise
Thatcher was basically mad after ten years as PM. "We have become a grandmother"
You should listen to me.
It's a very reductive attitude.
Some of the stuff people have come up with like restricting voting of people above a certain age is just wrong, but it isn't required to take a comedically extreme stance in opposition to prove your respect for elderly people. They're just people.
And be nuked some time last week.
In this statement in Parliament, he said that the islands are “original territories of Japan”.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1500827047362449408
(*The n is silent.)
Russia (and for that matter Ukraine) know what it is like to be invaded, and is particularly sensitive over it. Russia is perhaps the only country more obsessed with WW2 than us. That fear of invasion is part of Russian paranoia, but it is very difficult to persuade a paranoic that their fears are unjustified, even when everyone else can see it.
Personally I find the 'Mr President' stuff with past presidents a bit odd, but there's few enough of those that I get it, but if they do it for ex-Congresspersons that's a wide net.
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1500962329269211138
I quite forgot you have this colourful Russian Jewish past, which - I now recall - you have talked of eloquently before
That's fair. We should have a vegan vodka if you ever come to London. PM me if you are in the mood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zSWlAHD29M
Given the general leaking like a sieve from the Russian side, must be some serious paranoia going on about how, who, ....
Boomers generally created the most peaceful time in the western world in human history, created more wealth in the western world for the next generation than there has been in human history and more freedom than there has been in the western world than at any time before following the changes from the 1960s on.
I say that as someone who thinks some of those freedoms went too far
The odds remain hugely stacked against them and I fear for what might be unleashed if Putin’s anger reaches boiling point.
Cmon people.
We should ask for the Russian Black Sea Coast near Georgia. Meant to be Edenic
He'd be unifying with Moscow on Thursday.
Any PBers been there?
They aren't trying to fight like a normal army.
If they were really keeping it for themselves they would downsize and spend the proceeds on cruises and expensive restaurants
However, it's interesting that Irish language skills seem to be generally quite good. Lots of firms with their European service base in Ireland, employing people with fluency in multiple European languages to provide technical support continent-wide. Perhaps the experience of trying to keep knowledge of the Irish language alive helps Irish children when it comes to learning other languages.
That's all you need.
If Ukraine sign up to that compromise deal, we can all be at peace from tomorrow. We can make an argument for that?
Inshallah, Hallas, and Yalla. (If God wills it, its over, let's go) cover most situations.
The issue is the Irish have insisted on a hard border in the Irish Sea yet still demand to be part of a CTA with GB prioritising themselves over other European or Australian, Canadian or New Zealand migrants to the UK who we even still share the Queen with unlike them
Everyone knew he was rich as, well, Rockefeller, and due to inherited wealth, as scion of one of America's best-known and ill-loved families.
Interestingly, his foe, incumbent Gov. Averell Harriman, was also a hugely-wealthy descendant of a noted American robber baron. Interestingly in current context, he'd previously served as FDR's Ambassador to USSR during WW2.
Gov. Harriman was NOT a natural politico, instead pretty aloof and austere despite efforts of himself & others to warm him up some for voters. So one way that Rockefeller could differentiate himself from his fellow multi-millionaire was by showing that, in contrast to the Guv, he was a regular kind of guy.
Thus in addition to being called Rocky, he made a point of accosting strangers on the streets of New York with "Hi-ya, fella!" And (accompanied by a travelling media entourage) stopping at every eatery he came upon, and sampling with incredible gusto a seemingly endless stream of blintzs, pizza (no pineapple toppings in those golden days!), hot dogs, god-knows-what & best-not-ask.
And it worked. Rocky was elected NY governor in 1958 and was re-elected three times before being chosen Vice President to succeed Gerald Ford.
I thought you were going to say, all walked into a bar. I feel defrauded out of an amazing punchline 😏
Finland had the chance, I believe, to regain Karelia, and turned it down.
Would Poland want Kaliningrad? Apparently it’s a hellhole.
How much did 20 years in Afghanistan cost the US / UK? And we weren't under worldwide sanctions and have economies much bigger than Russia.
Which isn't too far off Germany's initial attitude to Ukraine.
Something like that. I can’t find it on Google, but it’s definitely a thing.
Perhaps we could have that bit.
Dubliners - McAlpines Fusiliers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-RNAedKA8
https://www.caitlingreen.org/2015/05/medieval-new-england-black-sea.html
"This treatment will make you better, Inshallah..."
It always gets a nod and smile.
Christo Grozev
@christogrozev
·
39m
https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1500984893563670528
In three men on the Bummel there was confusion buying a cushion.
Chechnyan camp annihilated by GRAD salvos tonight, located by their own propaganda video.
Why would we want to wreck that?
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/1500916082630172682?s=20&t=JPqkRa6QnWVdLgp9-PjcDA
* MAYBE in the Gaelic Department of TCD
Insisting that things are logical, rational and consistent is always supposed to have been a continental affliction the British were proud to be free of, while we are happy to just get on with things that work, like having two separate legal systems in the one country, or having arrangements in relation to the Irish that, broadly speaking, have the air of pretending that they never became independent.
There's an awful lot of right-wing people with a lot of antipathy to fundamental tenets of Britishness.