I think he hoped, given France’s “special relationship” with Russia, he could maybe avert war.
It was worth a go. You can’t take that away from him.
But Macron is surely a cheese eating surrender monkey. Why would Putin concede anything to a cheese eating surrender monkey?
Personally, I think Macron has done OK. Not as well as us, a little bit worse than the Americans, but better than the Germans, the Italians, the Indians, or the Japanese.
While he did try and lobby Putin to try and avoid an invasion, and has maintained diplomatic channels, France has broadly backed the UK-Polish sanctions line. And, unlike Germany, France has sent weapons to Ukraine throughout the crisis.
Where he does deserve criticism is his unwillingness to tell French companies to get the hell out of Russia.
Interestingly, around where I am (Brentwood), the homeless situation has dramatically improved in the last six months. There used to be a big encampment on San Vicente Blvd by the Veterans Affairs building (Veterans Row, the signs said), but they have created a mini village inside the VA that's extremely well organized, and which has a zero tolerence attitude to drugs and alcohol.
I watched the interview. It was uncharacteristically poor from Sayers and Javid really didn't provide much insight.
Zero covid could work if you were Australia or New Zealand, and so long as you remembered to drop it the moment you got vaccines.
The interview was very disappointing, as opportunity to have an interesting conversion. Instead Sayers just played the devils advocate too extreme position of posing the what if everything that was done was wrong and Javid instantly went into politician non-answer mode, even though Sayers won't do the standard interruptathon which is the norm on the mainstream news shows.
Saw this headline, ‘Slow Horses’ Stars Gary Oldman as a Stinker, Failure, Older Spy'...and thought they meant it was terrible. Then they gave it 4 /5 stars.
"‘Agent of Putin’: Germany’s ex-chancellor Schröder savaged for maintaining Russia ties
Gerhard Schröder’s refusal to step away from his Russian oil interests or distance himself from Moscow in light of the conflict in Ukraine have damaged his reputation and legacy in Germany, reports Rory Sullivan"
Well done to Dixiedean for calling this. I didn't want to predict this one as I didn't know how well the LDs would do although that is a strong Tory result and an OK Labour one.
LDs mopping up Green vote but not going any further.
Seemed obvious. They haven't lost this ward this Century. Not even when the Tories were losing elections and looked like never winning one again in 2003.
The conservatives also held in Scarborough and poor figures for labour
Yet another week when local by-elections show the Tories relatively strong...
"‘Agent of Putin’: Germany’s ex-chancellor Schröder savaged for maintaining Russia ties
Gerhard Schröder’s refusal to step away from his Russian oil interests or distance himself from Moscow in light of the conflict in Ukraine have damaged his reputation and legacy in Germany, reports Rory Sullivan"
Re Schröder, I found this paragraph from the FT telling:
In response [to his maintaining his ties with Putin and Russia], Schröder’s entire office staff resigned and he has been stripped of honorary citizenship of his home city of Hanover — a punishment it last meted out, posthumously, to Adolf Hitler.
Well done to Dixiedean for calling this. I didn't want to predict this one as I didn't know how well the LDs would do although that is a strong Tory result and an OK Labour one.
LDs mopping up Green vote but not going any further.
Seemed obvious. They haven't lost this ward this Century. Not even when the Tories were losing elections and looked like never winning one again in 2003.
The conservatives also held in Scarborough and poor figures for labour
Yet another week when local by-elections show the Tories relatively strong...
Comments
Melton Mowbray: -3.5%
Scarborough: -6.7%
https://vote-2012.proboards.com/thread/16031/local-council-elections-31st-march?page=2
Doncaster is counting tomorrow morning.
While he did try and lobby Putin to try and avoid an invasion, and has maintained diplomatic channels, France has broadly backed the UK-Polish sanctions line. And, unlike Germany, France has sent weapons to Ukraine throughout the crisis.
Where he does deserve criticism is his unwillingness to tell French companies to get the hell out of Russia.
L.A.’s homelessness crisis boils over: Pain, confusion, anger and a congressional F-bomb
Waters told the gathering of mostly homeless people Friday that “you cannot get Section 8 vouchers here.” And later, “I want everybody to go home.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-30/l-a-s-homeless-crisis-pain-confusion-and-a-congressional-f-bomb-as-hundreds-seek-help
The Health Secretary sat down with Freddie Sayers to look back at the pandemic"
https://unherd.com/thepost/sajid-javid-zero-covid-has-been-a-disaster/
Saw this headline, ‘Slow Horses’ Stars Gary Oldman as a Stinker, Failure, Older Spy'...and thought they meant it was terrible. Then they gave it 4 /5 stars.
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/slow-horses-review-gary-oldman-1326533/
Gerhard Schröder’s refusal to step away from his Russian oil interests or distance himself from Moscow in light of the conflict in Ukraine have damaged his reputation and legacy in Germany, reports Rory Sullivan"
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/schroder-russia-links-germany-putin-b2048009.html
A ten foot cock would be the crowning glory of his career…
In response [to his maintaining his ties with Putin and Russia], Schröder’s entire office staff resigned and he has been stripped of honorary citizenship of his home city of Hanover — a punishment it last meted out, posthumously, to Adolf Hitler.
https://www.ft.com/content/b445d9b7-7c35-4f64-8bb5-d76a5393212f