I'm shocked that people are even slightly reluctant to sacrifice some of their comfort warmth to fight Putin. Turn the thermostat down a few degrees at least! FFS Russia's going to turn it all off soon enough anyway. You might as well well enjoy your home saunas whilst you can.
My thermostat never goes above 18 Celsius and I'm perfectly comfortable. Indeed, I often find school far too warm and have been known to take my jacket off when the children are complaining it's too cold. And my fuel costs even in midwinter are around a pound a day...
I live in a third (top) story flat and find the hallway heater is sufficient to heat the whole appartment until the outside temperature falls below zero overnight and then I'll turn on the Living Room heater. (Both run on night unit costs). My bedroom and bathroom heaters have (almost) never been used in the 20 years I've lived here. For the last two days I have had no heating on and the temperature inside is still above 19 deg. My neighbours keep my fuel bill down to an annual £2 a day (before price increase in April).
30 years ago my flatmate and I were parasites, and saved on heating by letting the heat come through the walls and ceilings from other flats.
I'm shocked that people are even slightly reluctant to sacrifice some of their comfort warmth to fight Putin. Turn the thermostat down a few degrees at least! FFS Russia's going to turn it all off soon enough anyway. You might as well well enjoy your home saunas whilst you can.
My thermostat never goes above 18 Celsius and I'm perfectly comfortable. Indeed, I often find school far too warm and have been known to take my jacket off when the children are complaining it's too cold. And my fuel costs even in midwinter are around a pound a day...
I live in a third (top) story flat and find the hallway heater is sufficient to heat the whole appartment until the outside temperature falls below zero overnight and then I'll turn on the Living Room heater. (Both run on night unit costs). My bedroom and bathroom heaters have (almost) never been used in the 20 years I've lived here. For the last two days I have had no heating on and the temperature inside is still above 19 deg. My neighbours keep my fuel bill down to an annual £2 a day (before price increase in April).
I am cold almost all of the time. From October to April I sleep under a duvet plus two blankets in a t-shirt and thick track suit trousers and still wake up cold. If I had the money and no qualms about it I would happily have the heating on all the time all winter. I sometimes worry I am going to be asked to hand back my Northern card.
Downing Street put the brakes on Home Office initiatives to allow a bigger share of Ukrainians fleeing their homeland to settle in the United Kingdom, Sky News understands.
Home Secretary Priti Patel faced significant criticism this week from colleagues for failing to provide more routes for Ukrainians to reach the UK, prompting anger among Conservative MPs and speculation she could be removed from her role.
Sky News understands that Number 10 played a key role in reining in two initiatives from Ms Patel, which would have opened the system up even further.
A tricky one. Both are known liars and both have been sacked for it more than once. A problem when you let reprobates into senior positions in government
I'm shocked that people are even slightly reluctant to sacrifice some of their comfort warmth to fight Putin. Turn the thermostat down a few degrees at least! FFS Russia's going to turn it all off soon enough anyway. You might as well well enjoy your home saunas whilst you can.
My thermostat never goes above 18 Celsius and I'm perfectly comfortable. Indeed, I often find school far too warm and have been known to take my jacket off when the children are complaining it's too cold. And my fuel costs even in midwinter are around a pound a day...
I live in a third (top) story flat and find the hallway heater is sufficient to heat the whole appartment until the outside temperature falls below zero overnight and then I'll turn on the Living Room heater. (Both run on night unit costs). My bedroom and bathroom heaters have (almost) never been used in the 20 years I've lived here. For the last two days I have had no heating on and the temperature inside is still above 19 deg. My neighbours keep my fuel bill down to an annual £2 a day (before price increase in April).
30 years ago my flatmate and I were parasites, and saved on heating by letting the heat come through the walls and ceilings from other flats.
At one point when I was squatting semi-derelict 18th century houses in Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, around 1984-85, when it got truly cold my friends and I - out of necessity - would smash up the original Georgian stairs and banisters and burn them in the Robert Adam fireplaces
No joke.
I wince, profoundly, when I think of it now. My god, what did we burn?!
London was so decayed back then. At its utter nadir. Hard to conceive, now. Tho I sometimes look at the images coming out of Kyiv and Kharkiv....
Has nobody else woken up with ice on their boarding school dormitory window?
One flat I lived in as a student was so cold that I could see my breath in bed in the morning. There was ice on the inside of the windows. The pipes froze for several weeks so we had no water, so I washed in the changing rooms at the hospital.
On the other hand it was cheap, and handy for the tube...
@BarakRavid New: Israeli Prime Minister Bennett told Ukraine President Zelensky he should take Putin's proposal to end war, a senior Ukrainian official said. "Bennett wants us to surrender but we have no intention of doing this", he said.
They shouldn't surrender, but they should (they may already have, I am not up to date today) offer counter proposals.
Counter proposal: Russia surrenders and dis-arms, well its nucks anyway.
Yes, and that would be a starting point. At the moment I'm just not sure that the Ukrainians engaging with the process. Which may be understandable because they hate the bones of Russia and would like America to sweep in and blow Putin to bits, but that's not the best solution for anyone else except Pagan2 who welcomes nuclear obliteration.
It is understandable that you would say the Ukrainians are not engaging with the process, as that is a rather pro-Russian viewpoint to take.
As ever, with you, comrade!
Is it? I said I'm not up to date today - can you tell me what their response has been to the proposals outlined in a thread header here some days ago?
Very simple. That they are prepared to consider compromises, but that Russia are currently de facto demanding their surrender - and until that changes there’s nothing to discuss.
The first part is a good starting principle, and I'd agree that the Russians are effectively demanding that, which is why we need to see what the Ukrainians are proposing in response.
If someone starts hitting me, I am not sure why the onus should be on me to propose a way for them to stop hitting me.
Oh well, it's a good job we're dealing with characters in a Ladybird book, rather than the real world then isn't it?
You're so sophisticated your view of the world has turned upside down.
Whatever that means, the fact is that peace processes are not 'fair'. Justice should demand that the killers of the IRA face imprisonment for their crimes. However, clearly, an end to the troubles was and is far more important than that, hence the GFA.
Compromises can be made in the end game, but we are clearly not there yet.
You don't start out a negotiation by pressuring the victim to fold, by appeasement. You start by placing the pressure on the bully. You seem to think it is the victim that should be pressured at this point. I strongly disagree.
Then let me correct you about what I think. I don't think that the Ukrainians should fold. I think they should outline their counter proposals for an end to hostilities. These would be their maximalist position, and could be total Russian withdrawal, including from Crimea, reparations (which of course there will have to be anyway), etc. Then everyone can see how much distance there is between the two positions. At the moment, the Ukrainians have made some good noises, but the rest seems to be delaying tactics whilst ramping up calls for a NFZ. That's understandable from their perspective but from the perspective of a third nation, needs to be monitored.
Surely the maximalist Ukrainian position should be Greater Ukraine?
I don't see why not.
hmmm
Can anyone give details as to how close Russians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians are linguistically and culturally ?
Is it German/Dutch/Flemish level or closer or further apart ?
Well, Dutch and Flemish are basically the same language. But German is significantly different from Dutch.
I've noticed the drum has begun banging for a vastly increased defence budget, along the lines of 3-3.2% of GDP, around an additional £20bn in spending for traditional capability enhancement and expansion. I'd like for the politicians to outline exactly who will pay for that and whether they'll start taking an axe to the sacred cows of public sector pensions, the state pension and in working benefits to pay for it. I don't see how we can carve out an additional £20-24bn for a surge in defence spending without cutting those three by the same amount. It's frankly laughable for politicians to call for additional defence spending and then shy away from cutting old people benefits and corporate subsidies like working tax credits.
It's a huge amount of money and it comes at a time when there seem to be more things than usual that need money spending on. The criminal justice system is in a particularly parlous state, for example.
So there do need to be difficult choices. Very unpalatable ones.
But the demand is still being raised that Sunak can magically find a pot of money to use to wish away inflation.
And this is my point, the nation needs to have a very big discussion about what the state should and shouldn't do. Defence of the realm, IMO, is priority and we should have been funding it to ~3% of GDP as standard for decades. For other people the NHS is priority one and defence is way down the list but ultimately there's no such thing as unlimited tax receipts and we're already close to tipping point where the economy will suffer long term because tax take is too high.
Jeremy Hunt calls for massive boost in UK defence spending
Writing for The Telegraph, former foreign secretary says peace comes from strength, not luck, as Russian invaders close in on Kyiv
And which bit of the NHS does Jeremy Hunt propose we cut to fund this additional £20-24bn in defence spending?
To be honest, I can't see the point in increasing defence spending. Russia is losing to a bunch of farmers with portable anti-tank missiles and bargain basement Turkish drones. Do we really need anything more sophisticated?
Jeremy Hunt calls for massive boost in UK defence spending
Writing for The Telegraph, former foreign secretary says peace comes from strength, not luck, as Russian invaders close in on Kyiv
And which bit of the NHS does Jeremy Hunt propose we cut to fund this additional £20-24bn in defence spending?
If we took the Barnett Formula to its mathematical conclusion in one leap, and reduced public spending in the devolved nations to the same level as England, then we'd save about £16bn.
Jeremy Hunt calls for massive boost in UK defence spending
Writing for The Telegraph, former foreign secretary says peace comes from strength, not luck, as Russian invaders close in on Kyiv
And which bit of the NHS does Jeremy Hunt propose we cut to fund this additional £20-24bn in defence spending?
To be honest, I can't see the point in increasing defence spending. Russia is losing to a bunch of farmers with portable anti-tank missiles and bargain basement Turkish drones. Do we really need anything more sophisticated?
You say Russia is losing, and hopefully they will, but it's still Ukrainian cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol that are being reduced to rubble.
Rest of South Con 43% Lab 33% LD 14% Grn 5% Ref 2%
Midlands Con 42% Lab 39% LD 10% Gen 5% Ref 3%
North Lab 55% Con 30% LD 6% Grn 5% Ref 1%
Wales Lab 39% Con 32% PC 13% LD 7% Gen 5% Ref 2%
Scotland SNP 48% Lab 20% Con 17% LD 11% Grn 3% Ref -
(Sample Size: 2,003; Fieldwork: 8- 11 March 2022)
The Red Wall is almost certainly lost for the Tories now.
Looks like it. The opposition parties will have a conundrum in the South, though. On these figures there are a number of Blue Wall seats where the LibDems were second last time but Labour is now second by a fair margin. Unless there's a quiet deal, neither is going to ease off for the other in seats like that.
Quite disturbed by a lot of the comments on here. The priority, right now, is stopping Putin. First, second and last. That involves persuading others that they should side with Ukraine. Not imposing blanket sanctions on every single government we don't approve of. That's salving our conscience not dealing with the matter in hand.
So next time, when trying to deal with Chinese invasion you are happy to side with Putin?
Quite disturbed by a lot of the comments on here. The priority, right now, is stopping Putin. First, second and last. That involves persuading others that they should side with Ukraine. Not imposing blanket sanctions on every single government we don't approve of. That's salving our conscience not dealing with the matter in hand.
So next time, when trying to deal with Chinese invasion you are happy to side with Putin?
Bollocks.
I’m sorry you have taken that tone and withdrawn from reasoned responses. I’m not trying to upset you, just make a point. I know you have paid attention to the frustration how Putin regime money groomed it’s way into the fabric across Europe, even here in UK. My point is, how we allowed that money in to the UK, it’s exactly the same for the creepy Chinese soft power money, if anything a little worse.
Don’t you have a reasoned argument to that? If I am clearly wrong about the lesson to learn and the movement thst is needed, I would be happy to be put right - who wouldn’t like one less thing to worry about?
Comments
I sometimes worry I am going to be asked to hand back my Northern card.
His mood worsened as all his colleagues were rolling around laughing.
At one point when I was squatting semi-derelict 18th century houses in Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, around 1984-85, when it got truly cold my friends and I - out of necessity - would smash up the original Georgian stairs and banisters and burn them in the Robert Adam fireplaces
No joke.
I wince, profoundly, when I think of it now. My god, what did we burn?!
London was so decayed back then. At its utter nadir. Hard to conceive, now. Tho I sometimes look at the images coming out of Kyiv and Kharkiv....
On the other hand it was cheap, and handy for the tube...
"Cut your energy use now to beat Putin" might work even better for the Greens.
Box of chocolates a much safer secret Santa option.
I was only once not delighted with the gifts I received from Secret Santa.
In 2013 someone thought it would be amusing to spend £5 on a Sheffield United scarf for me.
Coincidentally there was an office bin fire incident that day
If we cut our energy usage then we cut the money going to Putin.
I'd hope we could all support such a simple equation.
Using a twelve inch penis sock
I'd want a better defence than that.
Don’t you have a reasoned argument to that? If I am clearly wrong about the lesson to learn and the movement thst is needed, I would be happy to be put right - who wouldn’t like one less thing to worry about?