Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
On a note connected to the header, has the Trumpite right fcuked it? I’d thought their support was immune to everything short of Trump dressing up in an SS uniform and taking a dump on the steps of the Lincoln memorial but I think I may have been wrong on that. At least BJ had the low cunning to see which way the wind was blowing, Ukrainian refugees aside.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
I think the Ukranians know that time is on their side, and the longer it goes on, the better the outcome for them.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
House hunting atm and I can tell you - unfortunately from my pov - that the London market is red hot. Houses in 'good' areas are going in no time. Houses esp, not so much flats.
In SE1 last 12 months, 47 houses sold vs 368 flats so houses are not really the main market, unless you are close to getting sanctioned.....
Only 4 detached houses sold in SE1 in the last 5 years according to Zoopla!
I wonder how many detached houses there are in total in SE1. Maybe about 32?
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Yeah I get annoyed when I see UN or aid types saying BOTH sides need to sit down and compromise. No, the invader needs to fuck off.
I get what you're saying here, but the road to unconditional surrender is long and hard - there's a lot more horror and death to get there.
It sticks in the throat to give Russia and Putin any route out, and to use the language of negotiated solutions between reasonable people. It also seems unlikely at the moment that Russia have any intention of taking it. But, in truth, that is the approach best calculated to silence the guns more promptly rather than less.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The last 3 attempted ceasefires the Russians have shelled the civilians in the "safe corridor".
I've picked the bones out of that and have decided the Russians are at fault.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Maybe you've just got older in the past two years.
Man, I’ve aged ten years in the last two years. Who hasn’t?
An article from 2018, which highlights how a few troops in a good defensive position can hold off far superior numbers of troops - especially with air support (that latter is probably a big thing.)
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Yeah I get annoyed when I see UN or aid types saying BOTH sides need to sit down and compromise. No, the invader needs to fuck off.
I get what you're saying here, but the road to unconditional surrender is long and hard - there's a lot more horror and death to get there.
It sticks in the throat to give Russia and Putin any route out, and to use the language of negotiated solutions between reasonable people. It also seems unlikely at the moment that Russia have any intention of taking it. But, in truth, that is the approach best calculated to silence the guns more promptly rather than less.
Oh I don’t disagree than the end point actually is some sort of compromise, but the line of every decent person should be “no Russia, you are completely in the wrong just leave”. You then give Ukraine all the space it needs to deal at the point of maximum leverage. Any sense of a western third party pressing Ukraine to settle is unhelpful.
"The footage looks much like what you would get from a £1k consumer DJI, or perhaps something even cheaper.
Air support isn't much use against something that weights 250g and is 10cm across."
Handy cheap and cheerful facility to have though - to see exactly what the enemy is doing in real time. Especially if you want to set up an ambush on their return journey.
At that size, I doubt they even knew they were being watched.
No, particularly as it appears to have been snowing. A small white drone against a white sky - pretty much invisible.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The last 3 attempted ceasefires the Russians have shelled the civilians in the "safe corridor".
I've picked the bones out of that and have decided the Russians are at fault.
Not in LuckyGuy's eyes. He bends over so far to try to see the other side, he becomes the other side...
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Maybe you've just got older in the past two years.
Man, I’ve aged ten years in the last two years. Who hasn’t?
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
If anything, it's probably the high property prices that keep London young.
The second you hit your thirties/forties and start thinking about family, or even just wanting to settle down and buy a house, you need to do it outside the capital, or at least outside the centre. That means the bits of the inner city that aren't dominated by the ultra rich appeal to the young, largely international crowd who want to rent before moving on.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Maybe you've just got older in the past two years.
Man, I’ve aged ten years in the last two years. Who hasn’t?
Me.
I’ve had a fantastic 2 years.
You're lucky that the Swedish government didn't listen to Devi Sridhar.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Absolutely. What's your plan.
Ethics can be comforting because they provide a comfort blanket (just war, throw the invaders out, disarm dictators, etc) but work both ways. I don't think they are "very, very easy".
I do have a plan, which I've talked about on here before. I won't rehash it now because plans and ethics are different dimensions. Saying that Russia is wrong is easy. Saying what we should do about it is harder and I will not be absolutist and condemn those who have a different opinion to mind.
FWIW my plan would have been boots on the ground before the invasion happened. Make a tripwire, and put all the agonising over risk on Putin's shoulders before he's committed himself. We missed that opportunity, and since then I've been much more circumspect. We've made a harder problem by missing that boat.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
Bubble tea is everywhere. No idea what it is but there are shops springing up all over the place, even out here in the suburbs.
It's Taiwanese tea with chewy bits in. I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester. We were persuaded there was no market for it. Harrumph.
Utterly lush. On a hot day, milky and ice cold. Nowt better. The chewy bits are usually tapioca balls. Avoid tarot flavour at all costs.
@JenGriffinFNC Putin has overestimated his ability to use cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions; US has intercepted and taken down a number of crypto networks: FBI Chief Chris Wray tells Senate Intell Committee.
On a note connected to the header, has the Trumpite right fcuked it? I’d thought their support was immune to everything short of Trump dressing up in an SS uniform and taking a dump on the steps of the Lincoln memorial but I think I may have been wrong on that. At least BJ had the low cunning to see which way the wind was blowing, Ukrainian refugees aside.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Maybe you've just got older in the past two years.
Man, I’ve aged ten years in the last two years. Who hasn’t?
Me.
I’ve had a fantastic 2 years.
You're lucky that the Swedish government didn't listen to Devi Sridhar.
Sweden has been having a pretty devastating Omicron wave, seem to be peaking at the UK equivalent of 400 deaths a day.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
Young creatives need to do what they've always done: descend on a cheaper, grimier part of town and gentrify the crap out of it.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
My production company was on Charlotte St next to Chez Gerrard. I always preferred the more bohemian side of Oxford St.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Absolutely. What's your plan.
Ethics can be comforting because they provide a comfort blanket (just war, throw the invaders out, disarm dictators, etc) but work both ways. I don't think they are "very, very easy".
I do have a plan, which I've talked about on here before. I won't rehash it now because plans and ethics are different dimensions. Saying that Russia is wrong is easy. Saying what we should do about it is harder and I will not be absolutist and condemn those who have a different opinion to mind.
FWIW my plan would have been boots on the ground before the invasion happened. Make a tripwire, and put all the agonising over risk on Putin's shoulders before he's committed himself. We missed that opportunity, and since then I've been much more circumspect. We've made a harder problem by missing that boat.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
Bubble tea is everywhere. No idea what it is but there are shops springing up all over the place, even out here in the suburbs.
It's Taiwanese tea with chewy bits in. I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester. We were persuaded there was no market for it. Harrumph.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
Bubble tea is everywhere. No idea what it is but there are shops springing up all over the place, even out here in the suburbs.
It's Taiwanese tea with chewy bits in. I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester. We were persuaded there was no market for it. Harrumph.
Utterly lush. On a hot day, milky and ice cold. Nowt better. The chewy bits are usually tapioca balls. Avoid tarot flavour at all costs.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Absolutely. What's your plan.
Ethics can be comforting because they provide a comfort blanket (just war, throw the invaders out, disarm dictators, etc) but work both ways. I don't think they are "very, very easy".
I do have a plan, which I've talked about on here before. I won't rehash it now because plans and ethics are different dimensions. Saying that Russia is wrong is easy. Saying what we should do about it is harder and I will not be absolutist and condemn those who have a different opinion to mind.
FWIW my plan would have been boots on the ground before the invasion happened. Make a tripwire, and put all the agonising over risk on Putin's shoulders before he's committed himself. We missed that opportunity, and since then I've been much more circumspect. We've made a harder problem by missing that boat.
Boots on the ground in Ukraine?
Yes, PRIOR to the invasion, and ONLY if invited by the Ukraine government. That's exactly what I would have done, and I said it prior to the latest invasion.
The situation has changed now, and that window is now at least partially closed, so I'm not recommending it now.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
Bubble tea is everywhere. No idea what it is but there are shops springing up all over the place, even out here in the suburbs.
It's Taiwanese tea with chewy bits in. I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester. We were persuaded there was no market for it. Harrumph.
Utterly lush. On a hot day, milky and ice cold. Nowt better. The chewy bits are usually tapioca balls. Avoid tarot flavour at all costs.
"The footage looks much like what you would get from a £1k consumer DJI, or perhaps something even cheaper.
Air support isn't much use against something that weights 250g and is 10cm across."
Handy cheap and cheerful facility to have though - to see exactly what the enemy is doing in real time. Especially if you want to set up an ambush on their return journey.
At that size, I doubt they even knew they were being watched.
No, particularly as it appears to have been snowing. A small white drone against a white sky - pretty much invisible.
I assume this is the kind of thing that was deployed at Gatwick to find the non-existent drone closing the runway: https://www.dji.com/uk/aeroscope
So in theory flying one of these things should get you killed. But it clearly isn't happening.
I believe the DJI consumer kit uses the same block of low regulation frequencies as wifi - so they can’t just bomb anything vaguely in that broadcast region or they’ll expend a lot of time and resources blowing up routers and mobile phones.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Absolutely. What's your plan.
Ethics can be comforting because they provide a comfort blanket (just war, throw the invaders out, disarm dictators, etc) but work both ways. I don't think they are "very, very easy".
I do have a plan, which I've talked about on here before. I won't rehash it now because plans and ethics are different dimensions. Saying that Russia is wrong is easy. Saying what we should do about it is harder and I will not be absolutist and condemn those who have a different opinion to mind.
FWIW my plan would have been boots on the ground before the invasion happened. Make a tripwire, and put all the agonising over risk on Putin's shoulders before he's committed himself. We missed that opportunity, and since then I've been much more circumspect. We've made a harder problem by missing that boat.
Boots on the ground in Ukraine?
Yes, PRIOR to the invasion, and ONLY if invited by the Ukraine government. That's exactly what I would have done, and I said it prior to the latest invasion.
The situation has changed now, and that window is now at least partially closed, so I'm not recommending it now.
Interesting. What were you thinking - some military advisors or a few battlegroups?
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Yeah I get annoyed when I see UN or aid types saying BOTH sides need to sit down and compromise. No, the invader needs to fuck off.
It's where the veneer of diplomatic language leads to a rather unwholesome set of implications. Not helped because cold calculation suggests even though they shouldn't have to compromise, Ukraine may get no choice but to do so, and that bleak realism bleads through into the statements.
“Give us the tools and we will finish the job” Ukr propaganda videos going very hard today. Definitely more of a 'we will vanquish the russians' rather than a 'we will survive' one.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
Young creatives need to do what they've always done: descend on a cheaper, grimier part of town and gentrify the crap out of it.
Trouble is, there literally aren't many areas like that left, anywhere near the centre. Lots of rubbish bits further out, but who wants to gentrify Edmonton or Wembley? To be a good candidate for gentrification you need lots of intriguing period buildings, and old industrial spaces, that can be spruced up, but also enough urban density and good transport for liveliness
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The last 3 attempted ceasefires the Russians have shelled the civilians in the "safe corridor".
I've picked the bones out of that and have decided the Russians are at fault.
Not in LuckyGuy's eyes. He bends over so far to try to see the other side, he becomes the other side...
That's not fair. It's just those bastard Ukrainians who are not willing to handover major parts of their country and any defense guarantees in exchange for a Russian promise not to do it again from their newly annexed territories. All because Russia breaks their promises two days after making them!
A Russian website telling some truth.. I'm not sure how good the translation is.
"The author of photos of the maternity hospital bombed by the Russian army in Mariupol, Yevgeny Maloletka, told The Insider that in the hospital, contrary to the statements of the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were ordinary patients, and not a battalion of militants:
"We shot what was. It was an airstrike, it was a hospital full of people. People came out of the basement and out of the building - we were filming. There was no Azov.""
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The last 3 attempted ceasefires the Russians have shelled the civilians in the "safe corridor".
I've picked the bones out of that and have decided the Russians are at fault.
Not in LuckyGuy's eyes. He bends over so far to try to see the other side, he becomes the other side...
That's not fair. It's just those bastard Ukrainians who are not willing to handover major parts of their country and any defense guarantees in exchange for a Russian promise not to do it again from their newly annexed territories. All because Russia breaks their promises two days after making them!
“Give us the tools and we will finish the job” Ukr propaganda videos going very hard today. Definitely more of a 'we will vanquish the russians' rather than a 'we will survive' one.
Their info Ops is brilliant. Making the Churchill and Lead/Lease link is precisely calibrated to tug at heart strings here.
Yorkshire Tea is a God given right to everyone on earth. 😟 I feel more sorry for everyday Russian peoples everyday for whom this isn’t their fault.
I think Putin prefers to swig Meths than tea anyway, so I don’t see how it hurts him.
He is said not to drink
Russians know a lot about tea, and grow a lot of it. This will only hit boutique hotels in Moscow
Yes but the Olyokminsk ladies second XI only drink Yorkshire Tea with their triangular cucumber sandwiches during the tea interval and when rain stops play
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
Bubble tea is everywhere. No idea what it is but there are shops springing up all over the place, even out here in the suburbs.
It's Taiwanese tea with chewy bits in. I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester. We were persuaded there was no market for it. Harrumph.
Utterly lush. On a hot day, milky and ice cold. Nowt better. The chewy bits are usually tapioca balls. Avoid tarot flavour at all costs.
I am a fan, but note that Tarot should not be on the cards...
Loving the headline in the NYT: "2020 Census Undercounted US Population by Nearly 19 Million" Given that the census is how they count the population, how do they know that?
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
Young creatives need to do what they've always done: descend on a cheaper, grimier part of town and gentrify the crap out of it.
Trouble is, there literally aren't many areas like that left, anywhere near the centre. Lots of rubbish bits further out, but who wants to gentrify Edmonton or Wembley? To be a good candidate for gentrification you need lots of intriguing period buildings, and old industrial spaces, that can be spruced up, but also enough urban density and good transport for liveliness
Wembley actually has reasonable opportunity at gentrification because of the international branding of the place, home of football etc.
Thanking His Excellency President Vladimir Putin for taking my call today, so I could gain an understanding of the situation that was unfolding between Russia and Ukraine.
On a note connected to the header, has the Trumpite right fcuked it? I’d thought their support was immune to everything short of Trump dressing up in an SS uniform and taking a dump on the steps of the Lincoln memorial but I think I may have been wrong on that. At least BJ had the low cunning to see which way the wind was blowing, Ukrainian refugees aside.
I subscribe out of curiosity to an anti-Trump Republican blog which is certainly against Trump, but utterly anti-Biden and anti-Democrat to an extent of partisanship that would make HYUFD blush. Voting against someone/thing rather than for anyone seems even more of a thing in the US than it is here.
Are there any vaguely literate pro-Trump sites that I ought to follow in the quest for diverse opinion? The great man himself can barely string a sentence together.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
Bubble tea is everywhere. No idea what it is but there are shops springing up all over the place, even out here in the suburbs.
It's Taiwanese tea with chewy bits in. I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester. We were persuaded there was no market for it. Harrumph.
Utterly lush. On a hot day, milky and ice cold. Nowt better. The chewy bits are usually tapioca balls. Avoid tarot flavour at all costs.
Loving the headline in the NYT: "2020 Census Undercounted US Population by Nearly 19 Million" Given that the census is how they count the population, how do they know that?
And they were all Trump voters! He'll no doubt say.....
“Give us the tools and we will finish the job” Ukr propaganda videos going very hard today. Definitely more of a 'we will vanquish the russians' rather than a 'we will survive' one.
Their info Ops is brilliant. Making the Churchill and Lead/Lease link is precisely calibrated to tug at heart strings here.
You need to be careful with that, Churchill quotes plus a flag? Some people here might spontaneously combust.
Abramovich sanctions: We will go bust, Chelsea warn government
Chelsea will hold talks with the government this afternoon, warning that the club could soon face financial ruin because of the sanctions imposed on their owner Roman Abramovich.
The club will request that a number of amendments are made to the licence that has been issued by government officials, which allows Chelsea to continue “football-related activities” but has frozen Abramovich’s asset. It means the club has been forced to cease many of its commercial activities, including future ticket sales.
Chelsea, however, will argue that they need the revenue. “If we aren’t allowed to continue operating normally we will very quickly run into the red,” a senior Stamford Bridge source told The Times.
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Absolutely. What's your plan.
Ethics can be comforting because they provide a comfort blanket (just war, throw the invaders out, disarm dictators, etc) but work both ways. I don't think they are "very, very easy".
I do have a plan, which I've talked about on here before. I won't rehash it now because plans and ethics are different dimensions. Saying that Russia is wrong is easy. Saying what we should do about it is harder and I will not be absolutist and condemn those who have a different opinion to mind.
FWIW my plan would have been boots on the ground before the invasion happened. Make a tripwire, and put all the agonising over risk on Putin's shoulders before he's committed himself. We missed that opportunity, and since then I've been much more circumspect. We've made a harder problem by missing that boat.
Boots on the ground in Ukraine?
Yes, PRIOR to the invasion, and ONLY if invited by the Ukraine government. That's exactly what I would have done, and I said it prior to the latest invasion.
The situation has changed now, and that window is now at least partially closed, so I'm not recommending it now.
Interesting. What were you thinking - some military advisors or a few battlegroups?
Combat units, authorised to join Ukrainian defensive actions should Russia cross further into Ukraine. Nowhere near Crimea or "separatist" areas. The idea was that it would change the calculus for Russia by pre-notifying our willingness to defend Ukraine's sovereignty and make the risk much, much higher for Russia to invade. I think it could have changed the risk weighting and possibly tipped Putin into not taking this action. The idea wasn't to place some kind of overwhelming force on the border. I had the sense that an invasion was going to happen and it was largely seen as lower risk by Putin because of the weak response after 2014. Putin miscalculated, and I think "we" made an error in allowing that miscalculation to be made.
Abramovich sanctions: We will go bust, Chelsea warn government
Chelsea will hold talks with the government this afternoon, warning that the club could soon face financial ruin because of the sanctions imposed on their owner Roman Abramovich.
The club will request that a number of amendments are made to the licence that has been issued by government officials, which allows Chelsea to continue “football-related activities” but has frozen Abramovich’s asset. It means the club has been forced to cease many of its commercial activities, including future ticket sales.
Chelsea, however, will argue that they need the revenue. “If we aren’t allowed to continue operating normally we will very quickly run into the red,” a senior Stamford Bridge source told The Times.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
Young creatives need to do what they've always done: descend on a cheaper, grimier part of town and gentrify the crap out of it.
Trouble is, there literally aren't many areas like that left, anywhere near the centre. Lots of rubbish bits further out, but who wants to gentrify Edmonton or Wembley? To be a good candidate for gentrification you need lots of intriguing period buildings, and old industrial spaces, that can be spruced up, but also enough urban density and good transport for liveliness
Wembley actually has reasonable opportunity at gentrification because of the international branding of the place, home of football etc.
I'm not sure the scenes of riotous behaviour at last year's Euro final would encourage gentrification. I wouldn't want to live near Wembley Stadium.
Abramovich sanctions: We will go bust, Chelsea warn government
Chelsea will hold talks with the government this afternoon, warning that the club could soon face financial ruin because of the sanctions imposed on their owner Roman Abramovich.
The club will request that a number of amendments are made to the licence that has been issued by government officials, which allows Chelsea to continue “football-related activities” but has frozen Abramovich’s asset. It means the club has been forced to cease many of its commercial activities, including future ticket sales.
Chelsea, however, will argue that they need the revenue. “If we aren’t allowed to continue operating normally we will very quickly run into the red,” a senior Stamford Bridge source told The Times.
Abramovich sanctions: We will go bust, Chelsea warn government
Chelsea will hold talks with the government this afternoon, warning that the club could soon face financial ruin because of the sanctions imposed on their owner Roman Abramovich.
The club will request that a number of amendments are made to the licence that has been issued by government officials, which allows Chelsea to continue “football-related activities” but has frozen Abramovich’s asset. It means the club has been forced to cease many of its commercial activities, including future ticket sales.
Chelsea, however, will argue that they need the revenue. “If we aren’t allowed to continue operating normally we will very quickly run into the red,” a senior Stamford Bridge source told The Times.
They have a point. It is no one's interest for a major business (and part of the EPL) to go bust, that doesn't benefit Putin it just harms the UK and London economies.
There must be a way of allowing Chelsea to function as a business while denying income to Abramovich, until the mess can be sorted
A Russian website telling some truth.. I'm not sure how good the translation is.
"The author of photos of the maternity hospital bombed by the Russian army in Mariupol, Yevgeny Maloletka, told The Insider that in the hospital, contrary to the statements of the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were ordinary patients, and not a battalion of militants:
"We shot what was. It was an airstrike, it was a hospital full of people. People came out of the basement and out of the building - we were filming. There was no Azov.""
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
House hunting atm and I can tell you - unfortunately from my pov - that the London market is red hot. Houses in 'good' areas are going in no time. Houses esp, not so much flats.
In SE1 last 12 months, 47 houses sold vs 368 flats so houses are not really the main market, unless you are close to getting sanctioned.....
Only 4 detached houses sold in SE1 in the last 5 years according to Zoopla!
How many detached houses are there in SE1? Can’t be very many!
108 sold in "all time".
Plus (at least) Lambeth Palace, which is not on the market.
When assessing the likely truth of a situation, don't listen to the side which cannot even keep its lies consistent. From BBC:
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
Young creatives need to do what they've always done: descend on a cheaper, grimier part of town and gentrify the crap out of it.
Trouble is, there literally aren't many areas like that left, anywhere near the centre. Lots of rubbish bits further out, but who wants to gentrify Edmonton or Wembley? To be a good candidate for gentrification you need lots of intriguing period buildings, and old industrial spaces, that can be spruced up, but also enough urban density and good transport for liveliness
Wembley actually has reasonable opportunity at gentrification because of the international branding of the place, home of football etc.
I'm not sure the scenes of riotous behaviour at last year's Euro final would encourage gentrification. I wouldn't want to live near Wembley Stadium.
Wembley has a good chance of "Park at my House" side-income.
Have they got around to the Russian owner of Bournemouth, yet?
On a note connected to the header, has the Trumpite right fcuked it? I’d thought their support was immune to everything short of Trump dressing up in an SS uniform and taking a dump on the steps of the Lincoln memorial but I think I may have been wrong on that. At least BJ had the low cunning to see which way the wind was blowing, Ukrainian refugees aside.
I subscribe out of curiosity to an anti-Trump Republican blog which is certainly against Trump, but utterly anti-Biden and anti-Democrat to an extent of partisanship that would make HYUFD blush. Voting against someone/thing rather than for anyone seems even more of a thing in the US than it is here.
Are there any vaguely literate pro-Trump sites that I ought to follow in the quest for diverse opinion? The great man himself can barely string a sentence together.
I have tried in vain to find these. The closest you can get is Steve Bannon's podcast. But basically anyone who can write is either a Democrat or a "both sides are shit" position.
Hasn’t the UK confirmed that they’ll be sticking with the random that no one has heard of? Presumably the ‘big name’ has thought better of reenacting the Charge of the Light Brigade.
"Putin is also said to be infuriated with commanders of the FSB security service - which he used to run - for handing him intelligence suggesting that Ukraine was weak, riddled with neo-Nazi groups, and would give up easily if attacked. "
D Mail
Total LOL that Putin expects the FBS not to lie to him. His whole philosophy of government is that nothing is real and everything is a lie. They told him what he wanted to hear or they would have been on their way to the salt mines.
When assessing the likely truth of a situation, don't listen to the side which cannot even keep its lies consistent. From BBC:
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
This is a pattern and it's not incompetence. They did the same thing with MH17. They claimed it was Ukraine wot done it. And that it was a CIA drone plane filled with corpses to make Russia look bad. And that it was shot down in an attempt to kill Putin. The lies were mutually inconsistent, because part of the point is to destroy public faith in the concept of objective truth. If "all politicians are liars" and "you can't trust journalists", then you relieve the pressure on the illegitimacy of your kleptocracy, because by making the public so cynical about public life they turn away. In a sense, it was a planeload of dead cats being dropped on the table.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Maybe you've just got older in the past two years.
Man, I’ve aged ten years in the last two years. Who hasn’t?
Me.
I’ve had a fantastic 2 years.
You're lucky that the Swedish government didn't listen to Devi Sridhar.
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
Bubble tea is everywhere. No idea what it is but there are shops springing up all over the place, even out here in the suburbs.
It's Taiwanese tea with chewy bits in. I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester. We were persuaded there was no market for it. Harrumph.
Utterly lush. On a hot day, milky and ice cold. Nowt better. The chewy bits are usually tapioca balls. Avoid tarot flavour at all costs.
Edit...
It's all pretty vile.
Bubble tea is gross. Taro cake, on the other hand, fried until brown and topped with an egg is a breakfast par excellance. Also, turnip cake, a variation.
A Russian website telling some truth.. I'm not sure how good the translation is.
"The author of photos of the maternity hospital bombed by the Russian army in Mariupol, Yevgeny Maloletka, told The Insider that in the hospital, contrary to the statements of the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were ordinary patients, and not a battalion of militants:
"We shot what was. It was an airstrike, it was a hospital full of people. People came out of the basement and out of the building - we were filming. There was no Azov.""
When assessing the likely truth of a situation, don't listen to the side which cannot even keep its lies consistent. From BBC:
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
So I guess from that it's the Ukrainian side holding up the ceasefire talks? She says in the interview 'We cannot get into an agreement with Putin'. The rest of it is an impassioned call for NFZ. It seems that the Ukrainian Government thinks it has a fairly good chance of involving NATO, so is perhaps a little lukewarm about a negotiated settlement that could result in giving up at least some Ukrainian influence/territory.
Pick the ethical bones out of that one.
The ethics are very, very easy. Russia is wrong, and its soldiers either need to fuck off or die.
Absolutely. What's your plan.
Ethics can be comforting because they provide a comfort blanket (just war, throw the invaders out, disarm dictators, etc) but work both ways. I don't think they are "very, very easy".
I do have a plan, which I've talked about on here before. I won't rehash it now because plans and ethics are different dimensions. Saying that Russia is wrong is easy. Saying what we should do about it is harder and I will not be absolutist and condemn those who have a different opinion to mind.
FWIW my plan would have been boots on the ground before the invasion happened. Make a tripwire, and put all the agonising over risk on Putin's shoulders before he's committed himself. We missed that opportunity, and since then I've been much more circumspect. We've made a harder problem by missing that boat.
Boots on the ground in Ukraine?
Yes, PRIOR to the invasion, and ONLY if invited by the Ukraine government. That's exactly what I would have done, and I said it prior to the latest invasion.
The situation has changed now, and that window is now at least partially closed, so I'm not recommending it now.
Interesting. What were you thinking - some military advisors or a few battlegroups?
Combat units, authorised to join Ukrainian defensive actions should Russia cross further into Ukraine. Nowhere near Crimea or "separatist" areas. The idea was that it would change the calculus for Russia by pre-notifying our willingness to defend Ukraine's sovereignty and make the risk much, much higher for Russia to invade. I think it could have changed the risk weighting and possibly tipped Putin into not taking this action. The idea wasn't to place some kind of overwhelming force on the border. I had the sense that an invasion was going to happen and it was largely seen as lower risk by Putin because of the weak response after 2014. Putin miscalculated, and I think "we" made an error in allowing that miscalculation to be made.
Thanks for explaining.
We have seen Biden's emphatic announcements that he was not going to get into a shooting (world) war (III) with Russia.
So imagine some "combat units" (how many?) in Western Ukraine. Russia invades in the East. Would those combat units then engage with the Russians? We would be in the same place as we are now. We have troops in Estonia and Russia has invaded Eastern Ukraine. Or does your plan include Biden not saying he won't engage in Ukraine with Russia.
As I see it that plan risks several possible outcomes. First that Putin deems it a casus belli => WWIII. Secondly that Russia invades anyway, there is a contact with Western forces => WWIII. Thirdly that Russia responds to "calls for assistance", invades, and engages Western Forces => WWIII. And finally that Putin thinks Oh Fuck I'd better keep out => Status Quo maintained trebles all round.
Given Putin's behaviour I think the trebles all round option is a low probability event.
But we shall never know of course - Western troops into Ukraine is one for the counter factual historians to dwell upon.
Hasn’t the UK confirmed that they’ll be sticking with the random that no one has heard of? Presumably the ‘big name’ has thought better of reenacting the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Funnily enough, who England selects as their nul points candidate is not headline news in my part of the woods. It’ll be a pleasant surprise when I witness the monstrosity on the night.
When assessing the likely truth of a situation, don't listen to the side which cannot even keep its lies consistent. From BBC:
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
This is a pattern and it's not incompetence. They did the same thing with MH17. They claimed it was Ukraine wot done it. And that it was a CIA drone plane filled with corpses to make Russia look bad. And that it was shot down in an attempt to kill Putin. The lies were mutually inconsistent, because part of the point is to destroy public faith in the concept of objective truth. If "all politicians are liars" and "you can't trust journalists", then you relieve the pressure on the illegitimacy of your kleptocracy, because by making the public so cynical about public life they turn away. In a sense, it was a planeload of dead cats being dropped on the table.
You are correct, of course (you often are). Awful thing is it works. Not on everyone, but it doesn't need to.
When assessing the likely truth of a situation, don't listen to the side which cannot even keep its lies consistent. From BBC:
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
Walking up Charlotte St. Generally one of London’s most vibrant streets (“a man could be happy living on Charlotte Street” - Saul Bellow). I remember strolling down here in spring last year and it was desolate. Almost every bar and restaurant shuttered. Some in deep decay. I thought “this will never recover. Or it will take many years”
It has recovered. Already. Apart from a small section above Goodge Street, all the premises are buzzing - either with customers, or the sounds of building work. Several places are brand new
Highly encouraging. The resilience of cities. They can take a lot of punishment
I was in town yesterday and walked from Liverpool Street to the West End in the spring sunshine. The amazing thing is how many interesting new businesses have sprung up, often in the place of dull chains that got the hell of out of dodge when the pandemic hit. I came to the conclusion that the reset might benefit London in the medium term. Emulation has been replaced with innovation upon her fair streets.
Yes. Exactly my impression
Lots of boring chain coffee shops and the like have disappeared. Replaced by “Mongolian wine bars” and “Nepalese bubble tea boutiques”
So parts of london are actually looking MORE attractive and diverse than they did pre-plague
I never had any doubt that London would bounce back. It has a vitality that can't be tamed. If the pandemic cleared out some boring businesses and boring people (moving to the sticks, not dying) so much the better. I am really looking forward to summer in the city, there is so much going on especially here in SE London.
If anything it feels more youthful than before. It is the young who have flooded back. In numbers
As they should
Yeah, although everyone looks young to me these days! What London really needs is a property price reset to make it more affordable to the young, creative types etc but that doesn't seem imminent.
Young creatives need to do what they've always done: descend on a cheaper, grimier part of town and gentrify the crap out of it.
Trouble is, there literally aren't many areas like that left, anywhere near the centre. Lots of rubbish bits further out, but who wants to gentrify Edmonton or Wembley? To be a good candidate for gentrification you need lots of intriguing period buildings, and old industrial spaces, that can be spruced up, but also enough urban density and good transport for liveliness
Wembley actually has reasonable opportunity at gentrification because of the international branding of the place, home of football etc.
I'm not sure the scenes of riotous behaviour at last year's Euro final would encourage gentrification. I wouldn't want to live near Wembley Stadium.
March 10 (Reuters) - China has refused to supply Russian airlines with aircraft parts, an official at Russia's aviation authority was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on Thursday, after Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) halted supply of components.
Russia's aviation sector is being squeezed by Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, with Russia's foreign ministry warning this week that the safety of Russian passenger flights was under threat
Jomini of the West @JominiW 1/ Ukrainian Theater of War, Day 14: After two weeks of war, Russian forces continue employ indiscriminate attacks to demoralize Ukrainian political resolve and military resistance. This growing war of attrition has not changed Western opinion on intervention. #UkraineWar https://twitter.com/JominiW/status/1501822538514579461
When assessing the likely truth of a situation, don't listen to the side which cannot even keep its lies consistent. From BBC:
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
This is a pattern and it's not incompetence. They did the same thing with MH17. They claimed it was Ukraine wot done it. And that it was a CIA drone plane filled with corpses to make Russia look bad. And that it was shot down in an attempt to kill Putin. The lies were mutually inconsistent, because part of the point is to destroy public faith in the concept of objective truth. If "all politicians are liars" and "you can't trust journalists", then you relieve the pressure on the illegitimacy of your kleptocracy, because by making the public so cynical about public life they turn away. In a sense, it was a planeload of dead cats being dropped on the table.
You are correct, of course (you often are). Awful thing is it works. Not on everyone, but it doesn't need to.
When assessing the likely truth of a situation, don't listen to the side which cannot even keep its lies consistent. From BBC:
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
This is a pattern and it's not incompetence. They did the same thing with MH17. They claimed it was Ukraine wot done it. And that it was a CIA drone plane filled with corpses to make Russia look bad. And that it was shot down in an attempt to kill Putin. The lies were mutually inconsistent, because part of the point is to destroy public faith in the concept of objective truth. If "all politicians are liars" and "you can't trust journalists", then you relieve the pressure on the illegitimacy of your kleptocracy, because by making the public so cynical about public life they turn away. In a sense, it was a planeload of dead cats being dropped on the table.
You are correct, of course (you often are). Awful thing is it works. Not on everyone, but it doesn't need to.
I think everyone is susceptible to some extent. We should be more forgiving of ourselves and others when we get suckered, and more discerning about who we mistrust as a result. "They're all the same" is the reaction they're after, so let's not give it to them.
Comments
He's a proper grade A piece of shit.
I knew he was white because there was a trivia question based on him being the first white Motown artist to do something - first no.1 maybe?
It sticks in the throat to give Russia and Putin any route out, and to use the language of negotiated solutions between reasonable people. It also seems unlikely at the moment that Russia have any intention of taking it. But, in truth, that is the approach best calculated to silence the guns more promptly rather than less.
I've picked the bones out of that and have decided the Russians are at fault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34q25Brj-oA
Star Sports have laid £10,000 Macron at 1/10 and cut him to 1/14.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/britains-largest-naval-warship-heading-26437699
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-soldiers-held-off-hundreds-of-russian-mercenaries-in-syria-firefight-2018-5?r=US&IR=T
http://roe.ru/eng/press-service/press-releases/rosoboronexport-to-present-a-new-integrated-counter-uav-system-at-idex-2021/
I assume this is the kind of thing that was deployed at Gatwick to find the non-existent drone closing the runway:
https://www.dji.com/uk/aeroscope
So in theory flying one of these things should get you killed. But it clearly isn't happening.
I’ve had a fantastic 2 years.
That’ll give Vlad pause for thought.
The second you hit your thirties/forties and start thinking about family, or even just wanting to settle down and buy a house, you need to do it outside the capital, or at least outside the centre. That means the bits of the inner city that aren't dominated by the ultra rich appeal to the young, largely international crowd who want to rent before moving on.
FWIW my plan would have been boots on the ground before the invasion happened. Make a tripwire, and put all the agonising over risk on Putin's shoulders before he's committed himself. We missed that opportunity, and since then I've been much more circumspect. We've made a harder problem by missing that boat.
I remarked before that 20 years ago my ex-wife and I planned to open one in Manchester.
We were persuaded there was no market for it.
Harrumph.
Utterly lush. On a hot day, milky and ice cold. Nowt better. The chewy bits are usually tapioca balls.
Avoid tarot flavour at all costs.
Putin has overestimated his ability to use cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions; US has intercepted and taken down a number of crypto networks: FBI Chief Chris Wray tells Senate Intell Committee.
https://twitter.com/JenGriffinFNC/status/1501955491467075585
It's all pretty vile.
That's exactly what I would have done, and I said it prior to the latest invasion.
The situation has changed now, and that window is now at least partially closed, so I'm not recommending it now.
“Give us the tools and we will finish the job”
Ukr propaganda videos going very hard today. Definitely more of a 'we will vanquish the russians' rather than a 'we will survive' one.
"The author of photos of the maternity hospital bombed by the Russian army in Mariupol, Yevgeny Maloletka, told The Insider that in the hospital, contrary to the statements of the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were ordinary patients, and not a battalion of militants:
"We shot what was. It was an airstrike, it was a hospital full of people. People came out of the basement and out of the building - we were filming. There was no Azov.""
https://theins.ru/news/249208
Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦
@CyrilRamaphosa
Thanking His Excellency President Vladimir Putin for taking my call today, so I could gain an understanding of the situation that was unfolding between Russia and Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/CyrilRamaphosa/status/1501970612163649539
The pic is accompanying an article from Jan 27, and the pic is of Russian tanks on a training ground.
Albeit the article in the NYT is about how modern and lethal are Russian Armed Forces, now. Which seems to be bolleaux.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/world/europe/russia-military-putin-ukraine.html
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/
I subscribe out of curiosity to an anti-Trump Republican blog which is certainly against Trump, but utterly anti-Biden and anti-Democrat to an extent of partisanship that would make HYUFD blush. Voting against someone/thing rather than for anyone seems even more of a thing in the US than it is here.
Are there any vaguely literate pro-Trump sites that I ought to follow in the quest for diverse opinion? The great man himself can barely string a sentence together.
Chelsea will hold talks with the government this afternoon, warning that the club could soon face financial ruin because of the sanctions imposed on their owner Roman Abramovich.
The club will request that a number of amendments are made to the licence that has been issued by government officials, which allows Chelsea to continue “football-related activities” but has frozen Abramovich’s asset. It means the club has been forced to cease many of its commercial activities, including future ticket sales.
Chelsea, however, will argue that they need the revenue. “If we aren’t allowed to continue operating normally we will very quickly run into the red,” a senior Stamford Bridge source told The Times.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/abramovich-sanctions-we-will-go-bust-chelsea-warn-government-76g75l75s
Nowhere near Crimea or "separatist" areas. The idea was that it would change the calculus for Russia by pre-notifying our willingness to defend Ukraine's sovereignty and make the risk much, much higher for Russia to invade. I think it could have changed the risk weighting and possibly tipped Putin into not taking this action.
The idea wasn't to place some kind of overwhelming force on the border. I had the sense that an invasion was going to happen and it was largely seen as lower risk by Putin because of the weak response after 2014. Putin miscalculated, and I think "we" made an error in allowing that miscalculation to be made.
Ukraine 2.7
Italy 4.2
Sweden 15.5
England (&satellitestates) 16.5
Greece 21
Poland 25
Netherlands 36
Castile (&satellitestates) 44
Norway 50
Auld ally 50
Lay, lay, lay yookay.
There must be a way of allowing Chelsea to function as a business while denying income to Abramovich, until the mess can be sorted
Plus (at least) Lambeth Palace, which is not on the market.
More from Russia's claims about the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol - they are now saying the incident was staged by Ukraine.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 news channel, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said "absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground by Russian aviation in the Mariupol area were carried out".
He then claimed: "The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely orchestrated provocation to maintain anti-Russian excitement among the Western audience."
But earlier today (see our post just before 11:00GMT) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the hospital was a legitimate military target because it had been "taken over" by Ukrainian radicals and "all the mothers and nurses were chased out of there".
Have they got around to the Russian owner of Bournemouth, yet?
Every morning Igor goes for a stroll through the nearby forest.
Today, Igor found a Russian Army 9K330 Tor SAM system abandoned in the forest.
Now Igor owns a $20 million SAM system.
Congratulations Igor.
https://mobile.twitter.com/oryxspioenkop/status/1501938378878558220
"
D Mail
Total LOL that Putin expects the FBS not to lie to him. His whole philosophy of government is that nothing is real and everything is a lie. They told him what he wanted to hear or they would have been on their way to the salt mines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Insider_(website)
It would be interesting to know if it was viewable inside Russia.
We have seen Biden's emphatic announcements that he was not going to get into a shooting (world) war (III) with Russia.
So imagine some "combat units" (how many?) in Western Ukraine. Russia invades in the East. Would those combat units then engage with the Russians? We would be in the same place as we are now. We have troops in Estonia and Russia has invaded Eastern Ukraine. Or does your plan include Biden not saying he won't engage in Ukraine with Russia.
As I see it that plan risks several possible outcomes. First that Putin deems it a casus belli => WWIII. Secondly that Russia invades anyway, there is a contact with Western forces => WWIII. Thirdly that Russia responds to "calls for assistance", invades, and engages Western Forces => WWIII. And finally that Putin thinks Oh Fuck I'd better keep out => Status Quo maintained trebles all round.
Given Putin's behaviour I think the trebles all round option is a low probability event.
But we shall never know of course - Western troops into Ukraine is one for the counter factual historians to dwell upon.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/116388785#/?channel=RES_BUY
Russia's aviation sector is being squeezed by Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, with Russia's foreign ministry warning this week that the safety of Russian passenger flights was under threat
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-says-china-refuses-supply-aircraft-parts-after-sanctions-2022-03-10/
Jomini of the West
@JominiW
1/ Ukrainian Theater of War, Day 14: After two weeks of war, Russian forces continue employ indiscriminate attacks to demoralize Ukrainian political resolve and military resistance. This growing war of attrition has not changed Western opinion on intervention. #UkraineWar
https://twitter.com/JominiW/status/1501822538514579461
We should be more forgiving of ourselves and others when we get suckered, and more discerning about who we mistrust as a result. "They're all the same" is the reaction they're after, so let's not give it to them.