It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
What is your view of Gerhard Schroeder's continued shilling for Putin's regime? Do you think the circumstances around how he set Germany's catastrophic energy policy are worthy of further investigation? Or does Germany being a member of the European Union mean anything goes?
Gerhard Schroeder is a few screws short of a full set and probably the closest to a German Trump. I was living in Germany during the 2005 election, and I remember how he insisted on claiming victory despite having clearly lost to Merkel. His behaviour at the time was quite bizarre.
I think you have summed up the braindead approach of those that are using it as an excuse for their gleefully lifting their pettycoats to show a little of their xenophobia. Germany has Schroeder, we have Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson. Thankfully the latter two are no more representative of UK than Schroeder is for Germany.
I've absolutely no idea what Boris Johnson will do next. Not sure he has really, either. He's a tactician without strategy, always has been. He wings it.
My feeling is that Johnson wants the Tories to lose the next GE so he can prove only he can win.
Of course, if (and it's a big if) the Tories are thrown out at the next election and the next Government chooses, or is forced by the parties that it relies upon for confidence, to implement electoral reform, Johnson may end up being the very last Conservative leader ever to win a Parliamentary majority.
We still have far to go, but we are making good progress on Trump:
"In October 2021, a Quinnipiac University poll found that an overwhelming 78 percent of Republicans said they wanted to see Trump run in 2024. By February, that share had slipped to 69 percent in a CBS News-YouGov poll. In June, it was down to 53 percent, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll. And last week, a New York Times-Siena College poll found that just 49 percent of Republicans say they would support Trump for a third nomination, while a 51 percent majority wants someone else.
That is a 29-point decline over the past nine months. Trump still has more support than any potential challenger, but more and more Republicans are considering alternatives for 2024."
The columnist who wrote that, Mark Thiessen, is a foreign policy hard-liner, who has worked for both Rumsfeld and George W. Bush.
R4 interview this morning with a prominent Trump supporter, forget his name now. To the question, "Are you truly ok with how Donald Trump behaved on Jan 6th?", he offered the answer - "Well he behaved like he always behaves."
This bizarrely seemed to be his idea of a good defence.
"Members of the jury, you have heard how my client hid in a bush and, when the first little old lady came by, jumped out and grabbed her, took her purse, and ran off with it, leaving her shocked and distressed and poorer by the sum of almost fifty pounds. Fine. No argument there. But I must say to you in all sincerity that you must not and cannot convict ... because it's what he does."
Unbelievable it really is. Either I'm going mad or the world is.
Well, but Trump told everyone, before he won the 2016 election, that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it, because people would support him anyway. So the defence is logically self-consistent. The Trump who willed on the Jan 6th insurrectionists is no different to the Trump he always told us he was, who people voted for in 2016.
It's like putting a fox in charge of a hen coop and being upset when it eats the hens. What did you think was going to happen?
We still have far to go, but we are making good progress on Trump:
"In October 2021, a Quinnipiac University poll found that an overwhelming 78 percent of Republicans said they wanted to see Trump run in 2024. By February, that share had slipped to 69 percent in a CBS News-YouGov poll. In June, it was down to 53 percent, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll. And last week, a New York Times-Siena College poll found that just 49 percent of Republicans say they would support Trump for a third nomination, while a 51 percent majority wants someone else.
That is a 29-point decline over the past nine months. Trump still has more support than any potential challenger, but more and more Republicans are considering alternatives for 2024."
The columnist who wrote that, Mark Thiessen, is a foreign policy hard-liner, who has worked for both Rumsfeld and George W. Bush.
R4 interview this morning with a prominent Trump supporter, forget his name now. To the question, "Are you truly ok with how Donald Trump behaved on Jan 6th?", he offered the answer - "Well he behaved like he always behaves."
This bizarrely seemed to be his idea of a good defence.
"Members of the jury, you have heard how my client hid in a bush and, when the first little old lady came by, jumped out and grabbed her, took her purse, and ran off with it, leaving her shocked and distressed and poorer by the sum of almost fifty pounds. Fine. No argument there. But I must say to you in all sincerity that you must not and cannot convict ... because it's what he does."
Unbelievable it really is. Either I'm going mad or the world is.
Well he's right, it is indeed how he always behaves. Those who voted for him are reluctant to admit they were wrong. We all share that failing to some extent, but the rational amongst us try to be aware of it.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He doesn't seem to realize he's been kicked out in personal disgrace as unfit for high office.
"Hasta la vista baby" ... lol ... what a plank.
That's because he hasn't. He's still PM.
Yes, a mistake for me. But I suppose how the Tories are thinking there is, "If the personal disgrace aspect is TOO obvious the voters might get to asking themselves how on earth we can justify choosing him in the first place."
He'll take the Chiltern Hundreds the second the new PM has kissed the Queen's hand, but he's having fun until then.
He won't, he wants revenge. He is leaving office no longer than May and Brown served despite winning the biggest Tory victory in decades in 2019 and after less time in office than Thatcher, Blair, Cameron and even Major served
Is this in praise of Johnson, young HY, or have you turned against him?
Considering the foreign leaders Trump is attracted to, for example, the kings of Saudia Arabia and North Korea, I think he is better described as a "monarchist", than as a "fascist". That is also consistent with his desire to see his children succeed him.
But we should also recognize, above all, that he is not a systematic enough thinker to really have an ideology. He illustrates Bagehot's point about monarchy being easier to understand than other forms of government.
I think that's quite astute, and I think it's something that people like Hawley have missed. He's not going to get the nod from Trump, because Trump only truly gives a shit about himself and his children.
DeSantis gets this, which is why he's chosen to (gently) break with Trump.
I've absolutely no idea what Boris Johnson will do next. Not sure he has really, either. He's a tactician without strategy, always has been. He wings it.
He rather fancies himself as Churchill, who was chucked out of power a couple of times to the backbenches, and returned stronger each time.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
WG was always a bit peculiar in his Europhilia, his current europhopbia is more in line with his other politics, for example him being one of the rare PB Trump supporters.
I've absolutely no idea what Boris Johnson will do next. Not sure he has really, either. He's a tactician without strategy, always has been. He wings it.
He rather fancies himself as Churchill, who was chucked out of power a couple of times to the backbenches, and returned stronger each time.
He is wrong though
Churchill lost an election, he wasn't forced out for being shit, and being a complete liar. Quite a big difference.
The Poundshop Churchill will not notice this important distinction of course
I've absolutely no idea what Boris Johnson will do next. Not sure he has really, either. He's a tactician without strategy, always has been. He wings it.
He rather fancies himself as Churchill, who was chucked out of power a couple of times to the backbenches, and returned stronger each time.
He is wrong though
Churchill never gave up the party leadership. He was booted to the backbenches (actually, to the Front) after Gallipoli, and after his increasingly bizarre attacks on Gandhi in 1931. But in 1940 he was unanimously anointed leader when Chamberlain was forced to resign due to cancer, and even though Eden was effectively Leader of the Opposition from 1945-51 he was never asked to make way for him.
20C in London today, about half what it was on Tuesday.
Pendant alert - 20 deg C is not half of 40 deg C. On Kelvin scale it’s 293 vs 317 K.
You're getting all technical on me.
Ask them why Centigrade turned into Celsius.
IIRC, "centigrade" is a British misnomer? Happy to be corrected.
Centigrade is original, but is also a French word for a hundredth of a gradian and apparently some people got confused between measurements of temperature and angles. So it got renamed.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
WG was always a bit peculiar in his Europhilia, his current europhopbia is more in line with his other politics, for example him being one of the rare PB Trump supporters.
I think whoever now operates his account has got him locked up in a cupboard somewhere.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
20C in London today, about half what it was on Tuesday.
Pendant alert - 20 deg C is not half of 40 deg C. On Kelvin scale it’s 293 vs 317 K.
You're getting all technical on me.
Ask them why Centigrade turned into Celsius.
IIRC, "centigrade" is a British misnomer? Happy to be corrected.
There is more than one temperature scale based on a one hundred degree range between two reference temperatures, and therefore could be described as a centigrade scale. It's therefore a generic description, rather than a specific one and does not uniquely identify the Celsius scale as most often intended.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
20C in London today, about half what it was on Tuesday.
Pendant alert - 20 deg C is not half of 40 deg C. On Kelvin scale it’s 293 vs 317 K.
You're getting all technical on me.
Ask them why Centigrade turned into Celsius.
IIRC, "centigrade" is a British misnomer? Happy to be corrected.
Centigrade just means one hundred divisions. Celsius is named after the person Celsius who suggested 100 and 0 as points for the freezing and boiling points of water. It’s been refined a bit based on absolute zero and the triple point of water.
My feeling is that Johnson wants the Tories to lose the next GE so he can prove only he can win.
No doubt whatsoever about that. But tbf that IS human nature. Eg Arsene Wenger says he was still rooting for Arsenal after they sacked him but I bet he wasn't. Or - to be even fairer - I think a 'normal' person in that position might have both desires simultaneously and genuinely. They want their old outfit to prosper without them and also to fail. But with Johnson - as you say - it'll be just the nasty side of that binary. He'll be punching the air, along with you and me, when Labour romp home at GE24.
20C in London today, about half what it was on Tuesday.
Pendant alert - 20 deg C is not half of 40 deg C. On Kelvin scale it’s 293 vs 317 K.
You're getting all technical on me.
Ask them why Centigrade turned into Celsius.
IIRC, "centigrade" is a British misnomer? Happy to be corrected.
There is more than one temperature scale based on a one hundred degree range between two reference temperatures, and therefore could be described as a centigrade scale. It's therefore a generic description, rather than a specific one and does not uniquely identify the Celsius scale as most often intended.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
I've absolutely no idea what Boris Johnson will do next. Not sure he has really, either. He's a tactician without strategy, always has been. He wings it.
He rather fancies himself as Churchill, who was chucked out of power a couple of times to the backbenches, and returned stronger each time.
He is wrong though
Churchill never gave up the party leadership. He was booted to the backbenches (actually, to the Front) after Gallipoli, and after his increasingly bizarre attacks on Gandhi in 1931. But in 1940 he was unanimously anointed leader when Chamberlain was forced to resign due to cancer, and even though Eden was effectively Leader of the Opposition from 1945-51 he was never asked to make way for him.
He had been a senior cabinet member before the Gallipoli debacle, and again before his opposition to home rule for India.
I am not saying Johnson is like Churchill, just that Johnson delusionally thinks he is, and dreams of further glories.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He did start at the opposite end. Before your time but Scott used to be so loyal to the Tory line I thought he worked for CCHQ. He's the polar opposite now.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
I've absolutely no idea what Boris Johnson will do next. Not sure he has really, either. He's a tactician without strategy, always has been. He wings it.
He rather fancies himself as Churchill, who was chucked out of power a couple of times to the backbenches, and returned stronger each time.
He is wrong though
Churchill never gave up the party leadership. He was booted to the backbenches (actually, to the Front) after Gallipoli, and after his increasingly bizarre attacks on Gandhi in 1931. But in 1940 he was unanimously anointed leader when Chamberlain was forced to resign due to cancer, and even though Eden was effectively Leader of the Opposition from 1945-51 he was never asked to make way for him.
He had been a senior cabinet member before the Gallipoli debacle, and again before his opposition to home rule for India.
I am not saying Johnson is like Churchill, just that Johnson delusionally thinks he is, and dreams of further glories.
He thinks he has gone because of Sunak's ambition, not because he has done anything wrong.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He did start at the opposite end. Before your time but Scott used to be so loyal to the Tory line I thought he worked for CCHQ. He's the polar opposite now.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
I don't need to boil you down, you are a walking typing full embodiment of the Daily Express. Your desperate attempt to pretend you have been on a "journey fools noone "Barty". The main difference between you and @williamglenn is that he is interesting.
Johnson is 58 - when does his "comeback" begin? Assuming he doesn't lose his seat next time, the question will be whether the Conservative survivors will want him back in charge of the sinking ship.
I suppose it depends if you have 260 Conservative MPs or 160 as it did in 1997 when the certainty of being out of office for a minimum of two terms predicated in favour of a younger candidate. Badenoch is 42 now, Wallace 52 - if you're looking at a long haul back to power there's only one choice.
If nearer 260, you'll need a more "ready" prime minister as LOTO. Johnson would be a player in that scenario - so would others.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
We still have far to go, but we are making good progress on Trump:
"In October 2021, a Quinnipiac University poll found that an overwhelming 78 percent of Republicans said they wanted to see Trump run in 2024. By February, that share had slipped to 69 percent in a CBS News-YouGov poll. In June, it was down to 53 percent, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll. And last week, a New York Times-Siena College poll found that just 49 percent of Republicans say they would support Trump for a third nomination, while a 51 percent majority wants someone else.
That is a 29-point decline over the past nine months. Trump still has more support than any potential challenger, but more and more Republicans are considering alternatives for 2024."
The columnist who wrote that, Mark Thiessen, is a foreign policy hard-liner, who has worked for both Rumsfeld and George W. Bush.
R4 interview this morning with a prominent Trump supporter, forget his name now. To the question, "Are you truly ok with how Donald Trump behaved on Jan 6th?", he offered the answer - "Well he behaved like he always behaves."
This bizarrely seemed to be his idea of a good defence.
"Members of the jury, you have heard how my client hid in a bush and, when the first little old lady came by, jumped out and grabbed her, took her purse, and ran off with it, leaving her shocked and distressed and poorer by the sum of almost fifty pounds. Fine. No argument there. But I must say to you in all sincerity that you must not and cannot convict ... because it's what he does."
Unbelievable it really is. Either I'm going mad or the world is.
Well, but Trump told everyone, before he won the 2016 election, that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it, because people would support him anyway. So the defence is logically self-consistent. The Trump who willed on the Jan 6th insurrectionists is no different to the Trump he always told us he was, who people voted for in 2016.
It's like putting a fox in charge of a hen coop and being upset when it eats the hens. What did you think was going to happen?
Yep, it has a perverse through-the-looking-glass logic. Course, he always has the bad faith but frustratingly effective 'irony' shield in place with all of that.
Remember all that bollox from his fanclub about "you should take him seriously but not literally"?
This is why the next PM is going to have to remove the whip.
It will be easier for Truss to do it - in sorrow more than anger - because Rishi is going to faced with allegations of being a sell-out traitor from Day 1.
If I was to guess though, I’d assume he’ll give up this seat to dodge the investigation etc. and his plan (if he has one) is to return via a safe seat when he’s called for as the party’s saviour.
At this moment, there are no seats the Tories can consider truly safe. So unless they become more popular, in which case they will not need a 'saviour,' that wouldn't work.
I don’t think that’s right. The safest seats just look different - no LibDems, strongly Leave, not Starmer friendly. They won’t be losing some of the East Midlands seers any time soon if there was a by-election, for example.
I wouldn't expect them to lose Cannock, or Bassetlaw, or Stone.
But then I didn't expect them to lose Oswestry.
At a General Election they wouldn't, an ageing Boris loyalist like Chope could give up his safe seat of Christchurch , Conservative majority 24,617 at the next general election for Boris to jump to from Uxbridge.
Like Trump or Berlusconi he might prove difficult to get rid of
I think he's probably going to prove a major thorn in the side of the next PM.
Despite all his lis and failings the Tory membership would still vote for him now which tells us an awful lot about the Tory membership sadly.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
I guess you don't travel very much. If you crossed the channel to that place on the other side where they speak with funny accents and eat a lot of cheese you might realise that they are quite proud of one thing over and above having a lot of cheese, and that is being what they call "French".
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
I've absolutely no idea what Boris Johnson will do next. Not sure he has really, either. He's a tactician without strategy, always has been. He wings it.
He rather fancies himself as Churchill, who was chucked out of power a couple of times to the backbenches, and returned stronger each time.
He is wrong though
Churchill never gave up the party leadership. He was booted to the backbenches (actually, to the Front) after Gallipoli, and after his increasingly bizarre attacks on Gandhi in 1931. But in 1940 he was unanimously anointed leader when Chamberlain was forced to resign due to cancer, and even though Eden was effectively Leader of the Opposition from 1945-51 he was never asked to make way for him.
He had been a senior cabinet member before the Gallipoli debacle, and again before his opposition to home rule for India.
I am not saying Johnson is like Churchill, just that Johnson delusionally thinks he is, and dreams of further glories.
As a comparison, Attlee led Labour for 20 years and fought five elections. He won two (1945 spectacularly and 1950 less so) and lost three (1935 but tripled the number of MPs, 1951 got more votes than the Conservatives and 1955).
He was only supposed to be an interim leader as well but saw off the likes of Morrison repeatedly and was arguably one of the three radical Prime Ministers of the 20th Century (the other two being Asquith and Thatcher).
Attlee was determined not to let Morrison succeed him - one of the counterfactuals I want to write is what if Morrison had become Labour leader in 1935?
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
The EU does require Parliament to review trade deals. I see our government has decided to "take back control" by denying that to our parliament. They have really not taken the lessons of Honiton and Tiverton onboard have they?
He's surely not going to keep his seat much past 5 September, in the hope of his successor falling apart, is he? He's going to want to start cashing in, which will in itself make it impossible for him to get the top job back.
Looks like he is going to stay on the backbenches and wait for his successor to muck up and face a big poll deficit so his party begs him to return.
He now clearly has no intention of departing the scene like say Blair or Cameron to simply make money, instead, like Trump, he will wait for his chance to reclaim the top job
Actually, good point. My last post might be overly derisory and offbeam. After all Donald Trump - who I agree is his role model - is clear betting fav for next US President despite being revealed as a violent far right fascist, so why on earth should Johnson's rather more prosaic flaws and misdemeanours stop him coming back in triumph?
I rather feel that Trump's enduring popularity has been enhanced by his haters' continual use of phrases like "violent far right fascist" which don't ring true with his voters.
I don't agree that he's a fascist.
But he's clearly a danger to democracy.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to bother his fanboys.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He did start at the opposite end. Before your time but Scott used to be so loyal to the Tory line I thought he worked for CCHQ. He's the polar opposite now.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
I don't need to boil you down, you are a walking typing full embodiment of the Daily Express. Your desperate attempt to pretend you have been on a "journey fools noone "Barty". The main difference between you and @williamglenn is that he is interesting.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
I guess you don't travel very much. If you crossed the channel to that place on the other side where they speak with funny accents and eat a lot of cheese you might realise that they are quite proud of one thing over and above having a lot of cheese, and that is being what they call "French".
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
I'm guessing you've travelled even less than I have.
If you had travelled to the Lone Star State then you might realise they are quite proud of one thing over over and above having a lot of guns, and that is being what they call "Texans".
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He did start at the opposite end. Before your time but Scott used to be so loyal to the Tory line I thought he worked for CCHQ. He's the polar opposite now.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
I don't need to boil you down, you are a walking typing full embodiment of the Daily Express. Your desperate attempt to pretend you have been on a "journey fools noone "Barty". The main difference between you and @williamglenn is that he is interesting.
Interesting enough for you to snipe at.
He shouldn't be flattered. I snipe at anyone that talks shit. Barty does more than his fair share.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He did start at the opposite end. Before your time but Scott used to be so loyal to the Tory line I thought he worked for CCHQ. He's the polar opposite now.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
You mean like some pirate wanting to kill off all the OAPs?
BREAKING: The @RoyalAirForce says it has "paused non-essential flying" of its Typhoon warplanes & Red Arrows display aircraft as a "temporary safety precaution" because of a "technical issue" that may affect safe operation of ejector seats👇 https://twitter.com/RoyalAirForce/status/1550503434599534592
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I used to get frustrated at him misunderstanding me, but I don't anymore as I've realised he's just very thick.
He can't understand complex thoughts so tries to boil everyone down to the most simplistic version he can think of.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
I guess you don't travel very much. If you crossed the channel to that place on the other side where they speak with funny accents and eat a lot of cheese you might realise that they are quite proud of one thing over and above having a lot of cheese, and that is being what they call "French".
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
Hang on a second. BR isn't talking about what the people of Europe want. He talks about what the EU is doing, regardless of what the people want.
Surely nobody has forgotten the French rejected the EU Constitution, written by their own former President, but that it was simply repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty and went ahead anyway against their wishes?
And he is right insofar as the clearly stated aim of the EU itself is to form a federal superstate - also, that now we have left, that's much more likely to happen.
One reason I voted remain was because I thought it was extremely likely that without us there would be a federal EU state in 10-15 years and that it would be a very troubled place indeed. So far, my timescale seems a bit out but there's no doubting the favoured direction of travel in Brussels and Strasbourg or the lack of proper consent among the people for it.
I already posted that Cons members' poll which wanted to add him to the ballot.
They are furious at his ousting what's a few drinks I mean really.
They don't see the lying thing as a thing.
They quote Hitchens.
“It seems very strange that Blair, the man who was partly responsible for one of the worst, bloodiest, stupidest wars in human history, and did nothing but harm, stayed in office and wasn’t driven from it. Everybody knows that Blair was responsible for this, and that he behaved in an absolutely appalling fashion and sold a country a pack of garbage, yet he walked out of office applauded. Johnson did something to do with cakes or a glass of wine and was hounded from office as if he committed some terrible war crime. People on the left particularly, who don’t say this about Blair, pile on about Johnson as if he is the worst person in the world.”
BREAKING: The @RoyalAirForce says it has "paused non-essential flying" of its Typhoon warplanes & Red Arrows display aircraft as a "temporary safety precaution" because of a "technical issue" that may affect safe operation of ejector seats👇 https://twitter.com/RoyalAirForce/status/1550503434599534592
Did it fail to work when Johnson was aboard? It would have been a spectacular defenestration.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He did start at the opposite end. Before your time but Scott used to be so loyal to the Tory line I thought he worked for CCHQ. He's the polar opposite now.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
I don't need to boil you down, you are a walking typing full embodiment of the Daily Express. Your desperate attempt to pretend you have been on a "journey fools noone "Barty". The main difference between you and @williamglenn is that he is interesting.
Interesting enough for you to snipe at.
He shouldn't be flattered. I snipe at anyone that talks shit. Barty does more than his fair share.
We still have far to go, but we are making good progress on Trump:
"In October 2021, a Quinnipiac University poll found that an overwhelming 78 percent of Republicans said they wanted to see Trump run in 2024. By February, that share had slipped to 69 percent in a CBS News-YouGov poll. In June, it was down to 53 percent, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll. And last week, a New York Times-Siena College poll found that just 49 percent of Republicans say they would support Trump for a third nomination, while a 51 percent majority wants someone else.
That is a 29-point decline over the past nine months. Trump still has more support than any potential challenger, but more and more Republicans are considering alternatives for 2024."
The columnist who wrote that, Mark Thiessen, is a foreign policy hard-liner, who has worked for both Rumsfeld and George W. Bush.
R4 interview this morning with a prominent Trump supporter, forget his name now. To the question, "Are you truly ok with how Donald Trump behaved on Jan 6th?", he offered the answer - "Well he behaved like he always behaves."
This bizarrely seemed to be his idea of a good defence.
"Members of the jury, you have heard how my client hid in a bush and, when the first little old lady came by, jumped out and grabbed her, took her purse, and ran off with it, leaving her shocked and distressed and poorer by the sum of almost fifty pounds. Fine. No argument there. But I must say to you in all sincerity that you must not and cannot convict ... because it's what he does."
Unbelievable it really is. Either I'm going mad or the world is.
Well he's right, it is indeed how he always behaves. Those who voted for him are reluctant to admit they were wrong. We all share that failing to some extent, but the rational amongst us try to be aware of it.
It's easy to rail against him when you've been doing that since the 'golden escalator', this is true. Also easier from here than there. But I do hope, if I'd been (say) a struggling working class American who voted for him in 2016 in the genuine belief he'd be a good effective can-do president, a bit uncouth in his manner etc, but with the interests of ordinary people like me at heart, that by this point I'd have wised up and wouldn't dream of voting for him again.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I did. There were a lot of very gullible people.
By the way, a lot of them realised they had been conned. However, there are still about 35% who have their heads in the sand. I guess you were/are one? We all now have to live with it, but I will still take the piss out of the terminally dumb. By the way, do you believe in Santa and The Little People? Neither of these things are real either
This whole Boris coming back in a blaze of glory idea misses one crucial aspect.
He managed to get himself in to all sorts of trouble whilst being under the spotlight of being PM, living in Downing Street, under scrutiny 24 hours a day.
Just think what sort of shenanigans he will get up to once released into the wild whilst he’s grubbing around for big pay-checks and Carrie and the kids are home whilst he’s off roving.
He will have all the rope to hang himself with scandal well before his fantasy of a restoration will come about.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
He did start at the opposite end. Before your time but Scott used to be so loyal to the Tory line I thought he worked for CCHQ. He's the polar opposite now.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
I don't need to boil you down, you are a walking typing full embodiment of the Daily Express. Your desperate attempt to pretend you have been on a "journey fools noone "Barty". The main difference between you and @williamglenn is that he is interesting.
Interesting enough for you to snipe at.
He shouldn't be flattered. I snipe at anyone that talks shit. Barty does more than his fair share.
But I've never seen you snipe at yourself.
If you knew what snipe meant you would realise that would be a little silly. That said, sniping at oneself is essentially what the UK did to itself in 2016. In the foot.
I don't recall many arguing the same when IDS was removed in 2003 - he was voted in the membership and ousted by the MPs. You could argue, I suppose, Johnson wasn't formally removed by a vote of no confidence (neither was May of course) but he resigned because his position became untenable.
This is the Conservative Party, not the Boris Johnson Party. If this guy and those who think like him are only prepared to be in a party led by Johnson, go and form your own personality cult. Stand candidates against Conservatives and see if the man is bigger than the rosette.
I was disappointed that no-one did the obvious joke with the new Space Telescope: ".. able to take pictures of galaxies so old that some of them are even older than President Biden."
BREAKING: The @RoyalAirForce says it has "paused non-essential flying" of its Typhoon warplanes & Red Arrows display aircraft as a "temporary safety precaution" because of a "technical issue" that may affect safe operation of ejector seats👇 https://twitter.com/RoyalAirForce/status/1550503434599534592
Do you think they tried to launch Johnson but it didn't work?
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
I guess you don't travel very much. If you crossed the channel to that place on the other side where they speak with funny accents and eat a lot of cheese you might realise that they are quite proud of one thing over and above having a lot of cheese, and that is being what they call "French".
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
Hang on a second. BR isn't talking about what the people of Europe want. He talks about what the EU is doing, regardless of what the people want.
Surely nobody has forgotten the French rejected the EU Constitution, written by their own former President, but that it was simply repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty and went ahead anyway against their wishes?
And he is right insofar as the clearly stated aim of the EU itself is to form a federal superstate - also, that now we have left, that's much more likely to happen.
One reason I voted remain was because I thought it was extremely likely that without us there would be a federal EU state in 10-15 years and that it would be a very troubled place indeed. So far, my timescale seems a bit out but there's no doubting the favoured direction of travel in Brussels and Strasbourg or the lack of proper consent among the people for it.
Ever closer union is an article of faith, not for the pragmatic parts of the EU, but for British Europhobes. As I mentioned in my post about the French, no French government is going to be part of a "country" called the EU. They have no intention of it ever happening, nor the Dutch, Italians etc etc.. The EU is a vague entity. It is vague because that way it doesn't have to reach any destination at all. It's ambiguity was clearly too difficult for 51% of the British public to understand.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I did. There were a lot of very gullible people.
That wasn't a question. But thank you for proving my point.
BREAKING: The @RoyalAirForce says it has "paused non-essential flying" of its Typhoon warplanes & Red Arrows display aircraft as a "temporary safety precaution" because of a "technical issue" that may affect safe operation of ejector seats👇 https://twitter.com/RoyalAirForce/status/1550503434599534592
Did it fail to work when Johnson was aboard? It would have been a spectacular defenestration.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I think most of have figured out why leave won.
Have you figured out why, a couple of years on, only 35% of voters (and dropping) believe we did the right thing?. I would be fascinated to hear your explanation.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I did. There were a lot of very gullible people.
That wasn't a question. But thank you for proving my point.
OOO, steps back in amazement! Yea, I am not a politician, so I don't have to pretend that the electorate are all knowing and clever. That said, I don't think everyone who voted leave was dumb, but those that still argue in it's favour largely are.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
I guess you don't travel very much. If you crossed the channel to that place on the other side where they speak with funny accents and eat a lot of cheese you might realise that they are quite proud of one thing over and above having a lot of cheese, and that is being what they call "French".
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
Hang on a second. BR isn't talking about what the people of Europe want. He talks about what the EU is doing, regardless of what the people want.
Surely nobody has forgotten the French rejected the EU Constitution, written by their own former President, but that it was simply repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty and went ahead anyway against their wishes?
And he is right insofar as the clearly stated aim of the EU itself is to form a federal superstate - also, that now we have left, that's much more likely to happen.
One reason I voted remain was because I thought it was extremely likely that without us there would be a federal EU state in 10-15 years and that it would be a very troubled place indeed. So far, my timescale seems a bit out but there's no doubting the favoured direction of travel in Brussels and Strasbourg or the lack of proper consent among the people for it.
Ever closer union is an article of faith, not for the pragmatic parts of the EU, but for British Europhobes. As I mentioned in my post about the French, no French government is going to be part of a "country" called the EU. They have no intention of it ever happening, nor the Dutch, Italians etc etc.. The EU is a vague entity. It is vague because that way it doesn't have to reach any destination at all. It's ambiguity was clearly too difficult for 51% of the British public to understand.
It is part of Olaf Scholz's coalition agreement that treaty changes shall be sought to make Europe a federal state. And I hate to disillusion you but there is a small issue that Germany is by far the most important country in Europe.
I agree the Dutch, or indeed the Poles, Hungarians and Swedes would probably not be enthusiastic. Whether the Dutch would have much choice is another question.
I wonder somewhat about your views on the Italians and French. Their politicians tend to be much more Europhile than the population as a whole and also much more of an eye to their own main chance.
There remains also the fundamental, possibly insoluble problem with the status quo - a common currency area that does not have common tax raising powers. At some point that will have to change because as has been proved many times it isn't sustainable unless one country is hegemonic and effectively acts as lender of last resort (Germany is closest to this, but not sufficiently close to make it practical politics). It seems most unlikely the Euro will be allowed to collapse, which doesn't leave many alternatives.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I think most of have figured out why leave won.
Have you figured out why, a couple of years on, only 35% of voters (and dropping) believe we did the right thing?. I would be fascinated to hear your explanation.
A combination of the scapegoat effect, May fucking up the negotiations, a lack of realism that Brexit wasn't a magic wand, and the opinion poll question being completely irrelevant.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
I guess you don't travel very much. If you crossed the channel to that place on the other side where they speak with funny accents and eat a lot of cheese you might realise that they are quite proud of one thing over and above having a lot of cheese, and that is being what they call "French".
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
Hang on a second. BR isn't talking about what the people of Europe want. He talks about what the EU is doing, regardless of what the people want.
Surely nobody has forgotten the French rejected the EU Constitution, written by their own former President, but that it was simply repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty and went ahead anyway against their wishes?
And he is right insofar as the clearly stated aim of the EU itself is to form a federal superstate - also, that now we have left, that's much more likely to happen.
One reason I voted remain was because I thought it was extremely likely that without us there would be a federal EU state in 10-15 years and that it would be a very troubled place indeed. So far, my timescale seems a bit out but there's no doubting the favoured direction of travel in Brussels and Strasbourg or the lack of proper consent among the people for it.
Ever closer union is an article of faith, not for the pragmatic parts of the EU, but for British Europhobes. As I mentioned in my post about the French, no French government is going to be part of a "country" called the EU. They have no intention of it ever happening, nor the Dutch, Italians etc etc.. The EU is a vague entity. It is vague because that way it doesn't have to reach any destination at all. It's ambiguity was clearly too difficult for 51% of the British public to understand.
The EU is evolving into a country whether the French want it to be or not, that is how Federations tend to evolve. The EU evolving into a country won't stop the French from being French any more than America being one stops the Texans from being Texans.
Also another complex thought you obviously find hard to understand but the EU would be less objectionable as a country, not more. The EU has taken on so many aspects of a country already, now if its evolving into one and those aspects are controlled at European Elections by a European demos then that is perfectly reasonable.
The EU as a nascent federation with its own currency etc is more reasonable than an EU which is an undemocratic body that isn't evolving into a country.
My understanding of @williamglenn is that he was a bit of a European nationalist in this way who was open to a European currency etc with us as members. But post Brexit and post vaccine scandal etc he's stopped supporting Euronationalism and switched his nationalism to being British. That is entirely logical to anyone who can wrap their heads around the idea that nationalism can be a good thing, and that people's identities can evolve over time.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
Yes, but Scott didn't start at the opposite end. So no equivalence really. Scott might be mocked for his inability to adapt to reality, but he has not made a ridiculous volte face and continued to post under the same name. Many people shift their position slightly and may change their mind on particular issues. @williamglenn's transformation is absurd.
a) remaining in the EU was the best choice; b) half-in half-out was untenable; and therefore c) fully out is the second-best choice, if the referendum cannot be overturned.
…then no transformation is required.
(My memory of his posting after the referendum was that the posts were of the form “britain will stay in the EU” rather than “britain should stay in the EU”, but I came too late to see his pre-referendum posts)
“It seems very strange that Blair, the man who was partly responsible for one of the worst, bloodiest, stupidest wars in human history, and did nothing but harm, stayed in office and wasn’t driven from it. Everybody knows that Blair was responsible for this, and that he behaved in an absolutely appalling fashion and sold a country a pack of garbage, yet he walked out of office applauded. Johnson did something to do with cakes or a glass of wine and was hounded from office as if he committed some terrible war crime. People on the left particularly, who don’t say this about Blair, pile on about Johnson as if he is the worst person in the world.”
Hitchens' hatred of Blair is well known and documented. The trouble is, it's made Hitchens more than a little deranged as a result.
His comments are just risible nonsense - all wars are bad, bloody and stupid. Yes, the Iraq War was awful and some in Britain opposed it and were, as the late Charles Kennedy was, mercilessly pilloried. The Conservatives under IDS were even more gung-ho supporters of the war than Blair - whether, had the Conservatives voted en bloc with the LDs and Labour dissidents and defeated Blair's motion in support of the conflict, that would have forced Blair's resignation we'll never know (another counterfactual).
Yes, the Iraq War was bad - the Iran-Iraq War was worse, the war in Syria worse still.
I don't deny Blair sold us a pup on the 45-minute threat of non-existent Iraqi WMDs - I also think it damaged him badly and after 2005 he was a lame duck with Brown effectively in charge.
As for Johnson, Hitchens conveniently forgets the pandemic, the alleged lying to Parliament and the country and the way Johnson personally comported himself in office seeking to take more power for himself and his Ministers and doing that with the help of a supine Parliament and seemingly seeking to use office to favour the fortunes of friends and allies (supposedly).
This whole Boris coming back in a blaze of glory idea misses one crucial aspect.
He managed to get himself in to all sorts of trouble whilst being under the spotlight of being PM, living in Downing Street, under scrutiny 24 hours a day.
Just think what sort of shenanigans he will get up to once released into the wild whilst he’s grubbing around for big pay-checks and Carrie and the kids are home whilst he’s off roving.
He will have all the rope to hang himself with scandal well before his fantasy of a restoration will come about.
That's a feature not a bug of the Borisian design model.
Perhaps, like the Danes, we should have had a referendum on the Single European Act in 1986. I don't recall the governing party at the time advocating such a vote even though their Danish counterparts led by Poul Schluter did.
Three and a bit years to go but a Green Chancellor must be a serious possibility?
We've been here before though.
The greens were regularly leading SPD in the first half of 2021 an election year, and were for a short time ahead of CDU/CSU as well. This raised the Green's hopes so much they even nominated a Chancellor Candidate, something that no party other than CDU/CSU or SPD had done in the history of the Bundesrepublik. In September they ended up about 9%points behind the other two.
So while a Green Chancellor in 2025 is possible, I would not at this stage think it a "serious possibility".
Where the Greens are moving quickly int SPD territory is in the state elections. There is now a CDU-Green Coalition in Nordrhein-Westpfalen, which 15 years ago woud have been completely unthinkable.
“It seems very strange that Blair, the man who was partly responsible for one of the worst, bloodiest, stupidest wars in human history, and did nothing but harm, stayed in office and wasn’t driven from it. Everybody knows that Blair was responsible for this, and that he behaved in an absolutely appalling fashion and sold a country a pack of garbage, yet he walked out of office applauded. Johnson did something to do with cakes or a glass of wine and was hounded from office as if he committed some terrible war crime. People on the left particularly, who don’t say this about Blair, pile on about Johnson as if he is the worst person in the world.”
Hitchens' hatred of Blair is well known and documented. The trouble is, it's made Hitchens more than a little deranged as a result.
His comments are just risible nonsense - all wars are bad, bloody and stupid. Yes, the Iraq War was awful and some in Britain opposed it and were, as the late Charles Kennedy was, mercilessly pilloried. The Conservatives under IDS were even more gung-ho supporters of the war than Blair - whether, had the Conservatives voted en bloc with the LDs and Labour dissidents and defeated Blair's motion in support of the conflict, that would have forced Blair's resignation we'll never know (another counterfactual).
Yes, the Iraq War was bad - the Iran-Iraq War was worse, the war in Syria worse still.
I don't deny Blair sold us a pup on the 45-minute threat of non-existent Iraqi WMDs - I also think it damaged him badly and after 2005 he was a lame duck with Brown effectively in charge.
As for Johnson, Hitchens conveniently forgets the pandemic, the alleged lying to Parliament and the country and the way Johnson personally comported himself in office seeking to take more power for himself and his Ministers and doing that with the help of a supine Parliament and seemingly seeking to use office to favour the fortunes of friends and allies (supposedly).
You are slightly missing the point.
The Tory membership is not interested in a critique of Hitchens or his views.
They don't believe that Boris did anything too much wrong. And want him back
Perhaps, like the Danes, we should have had a referendum on the Single European Act in 1986. I don't recall the governing party at the time advocating such a vote even though their Danish counterparts led by Poul Schluter did.
I'm too young to remember, but I don't think from my reading that there was any real movement for that, the single market of the 12 was never really controversial.
Euroscepticism only really became significant with Maastricht.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
No I don't. I genuinely believe they're evolving into one. The EU is a nascent, evolving federation.
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
I guess you don't travel very much. If you crossed the channel to that place on the other side where they speak with funny accents and eat a lot of cheese you might realise that they are quite proud of one thing over and above having a lot of cheese, and that is being what they call "French".
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
Hang on a second. BR isn't talking about what the people of Europe want. He talks about what the EU is doing, regardless of what the people want.
Surely nobody has forgotten the French rejected the EU Constitution, written by their own former President, but that it was simply repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty and went ahead anyway against their wishes?
And he is right insofar as the clearly stated aim of the EU itself is to form a federal superstate - also, that now we have left, that's much more likely to happen.
One reason I voted remain was because I thought it was extremely likely that without us there would be a federal EU state in 10-15 years and that it would be a very troubled place indeed. So far, my timescale seems a bit out but there's no doubting the favoured direction of travel in Brussels and Strasbourg or the lack of proper consent among the people for it.
I think the big mistake of the EU (and predecessor bodies) was not integrating deeper, sooner. Had that been done, amongst a small group of like-minded countries shortly after the war then everyone would have known what they were signing up to.
Perhaps, like the Danes, we should have had a referendum on the Single European Act in 1986. I don't recall the governing party at the time advocating such a vote even though their Danish counterparts led by Poul Schluter did.
And Maastricht and the rest of them too. The Irish had that right.
“It seems very strange that Blair, the man who was partly responsible for one of the worst, bloodiest, stupidest wars in human history, and did nothing but harm, stayed in office and wasn’t driven from it. Everybody knows that Blair was responsible for this, and that he behaved in an absolutely appalling fashion and sold a country a pack of garbage, yet he walked out of office applauded. Johnson did something to do with cakes or a glass of wine and was hounded from office as if he committed some terrible war crime. People on the left particularly, who don’t say this about Blair, pile on about Johnson as if he is the worst person in the world.”
Hitchens' hatred of Blair is well known and documented. The trouble is, it's made Hitchens more than a little deranged as a result.
His comments are just risible nonsense - all wars are bad, bloody and stupid. Yes, the Iraq War was awful and some in Britain opposed it and were, as the late Charles Kennedy was, mercilessly pilloried. The Conservatives under IDS were even more gung-ho supporters of the war than Blair - whether, had the Conservatives voted en bloc with the LDs and Labour dissidents and defeated Blair's motion in support of the conflict, that would have forced Blair's resignation we'll never know (another counterfactual).
Yes, the Iraq War was bad - the Iran-Iraq War was worse, the war in Syria worse still.
I don't deny Blair sold us a pup on the 45-minute threat of non-existent Iraqi WMDs - I also think it damaged him badly and after 2005 he was a lame duck with Brown effectively in charge.
As for Johnson, Hitchens conveniently forgets the pandemic, the alleged lying to Parliament and the country and the way Johnson personally comported himself in office seeking to take more power for himself and his Ministers and doing that with the help of a supine Parliament and seemingly seeking to use office to favour the fortunes of friends and allies (supposedly).
You are slightly missing the point.
The Tory membership is not interested in a critique of Hitchens or his views.
They don't believe that Boris did anything too much wrong. And want him back
Corrupt lying pig not a problem for them then?
It's the relentless theft of public funds to put his mistresses in jobs, the lying and the laziness that get to me. I don't do schadenthingummy mainly, but I sooo hope he gets a serious kicking and possibly some jail time in the next year or so.
“It seems very strange that Blair, the man who was partly responsible for one of the worst, bloodiest, stupidest wars in human history, and did nothing but harm, stayed in office and wasn’t driven from it. Everybody knows that Blair was responsible for this, and that he behaved in an absolutely appalling fashion and sold a country a pack of garbage, yet he walked out of office applauded. Johnson did something to do with cakes or a glass of wine and was hounded from office as if he committed some terrible war crime. People on the left particularly, who don’t say this about Blair, pile on about Johnson as if he is the worst person in the world.”
Hitchens' hatred of Blair is well known and documented. The trouble is, it's made Hitchens more than a little deranged as a result.
His comments are just risible nonsense - all wars are bad, bloody and stupid. Yes, the Iraq War was awful and some in Britain opposed it and were, as the late Charles Kennedy was, mercilessly pilloried. The Conservatives under IDS were even more gung-ho supporters of the war than Blair - whether, had the Conservatives voted en bloc with the LDs and Labour dissidents and defeated Blair's motion in support of the conflict, that would have forced Blair's resignation we'll never know (another counterfactual).
Yes, the Iraq War was bad - the Iran-Iraq War was worse, the war in Syria worse still.
I don't deny Blair sold us a pup on the 45-minute threat of non-existent Iraqi WMDs - I also think it damaged him badly and after 2005 he was a lame duck with Brown effectively in charge.
As for Johnson, Hitchens conveniently forgets the pandemic, the alleged lying to Parliament and the country and the way Johnson personally comported himself in office seeking to take more power for himself and his Ministers and doing that with the help of a supine Parliament and seemingly seeking to use office to favour the fortunes of friends and allies (supposedly).
You are slightly missing the point.
The Tory membership is not interested in a critique of Hitchens or his views.
They don't believe that Boris did anything too much wrong. And want him back
Corrupt lying pig not a problem for them then?
It's the relentless theft of public funds to put his mistresses in jobs, the lying and the laziness that get to me. I don't do schadenthingummy mainly, but I sooo hope he gets a serious kicking and possibly some jail time in the next year or so.
They see it as a birthday cake and not much more.
Perhaps they think that lying is all part of being PM and fine if you have sufficient charisma.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I think most of have figured out why leave won.
Have you figured out why, a couple of years on, only 35% of voters (and dropping) believe we did the right thing?. I would be fascinated to hear your explanation.
A combination of the scapegoat effect, May fucking up the negotiations, a lack of realism that Brexit wasn't a magic wand, and the opinion poll question being completely irrelevant.
The EU has been blamed for every problem for a half century, now everything will be blamed on Brexit for a few decades, until we rejoin.
Perhaps, like the Danes, we should have had a referendum on the Single European Act in 1986. I don't recall the governing party at the time advocating such a vote even though their Danish counterparts led by Poul Schluter did.
I'm too young to remember, but I don't think from my reading that there was any real movement for that, the single market of the 12 was never really controversial.
Euroscepticism only really became significant with Maastricht.
In 1983 the Labour manifesto included withdrawal from the then EEC.
It is just unthinkable to me there is yet to parliamentary inquiry in Germany into the past errors on energy policy, the Schröder Kreis, the cause of the errors, the corruption networks, foreign influence, etc. unthinkable in any developed democracy
I am not being facetious, we need Germany to sign a memorandum committing to profound changes in its energy but also economic model. I don’t know anyone who thinks Germany will do it motu proprio
2014: Russia starts its invasion and occupation of Ukraine 2015: Nord Stream 2 signed
Do you get it from a website called something like xenophobia.com? where only negative stories about the hated furriners can be found? I know there is one rather unintelligent poster (the one often apt to posting laughable porkies) who claims you, like him (snigger) have bene on a "journey", but seriously, what happened to turn you from one extreme of the most Europhile of Europhiles to a frothing swivel eyed Europhobe who gets his kicks from posting negative stories about our erstwhile partners?
There are journeys and there are ludicrous lurches. There are gradual movements or evolution from one position to another. But then there is yours. It is like akin to John Mcdonnell waking up one day and switching to the Tories and joining the ERG. Actually even that is not extreme enough to be analogous. As I have said before, I can only imagine someone else has nicked the account that once belonged to @williamglenn Where have you put him please?
Almost everyone agrees that Germany has made a very serious mistake by making itself so reliant on Russian energy.
Of course, but that is not the point. @williamglenn posts a gloating negative story about the EU or one of the EU countries with monotonous regularity. This would not be so ludicrous if it were not for the fact that only a short time ago he was more Europhile than Leon Brittan.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
I had to laugh at one of Bart's posts the other day, in which he was making some general point about the UK and other democracies with similar interests. His list of similar democracies was the USA, Canada, India and Japan; he couldn't actually bring himself to mention more obviously similar democracies like France and Germany, due presumably to their membership of the hated EU.
He genuinely believes they are part of one country. lol.
If the EU doesn't yet qualify as a country, it's not because it's not on the road towards that status.
Oh dear. It is not a country. It is an association of sovereign states with some areas of pooled sovereignty. Some EU politicians still believe in "ever closer union" in the same way as some people in this country still believe Brexit was sensible. Both sets of people are dumb
You've still never figured out why Leave won.
I think most of have figured out why leave won.
Have you figured out why, a couple of years on, only 35% of voters (and dropping) believe we did the right thing?. I would be fascinated to hear your explanation.
A combination of the scapegoat effect, May fucking up the negotiations, a lack of realism that Brexit wasn't a magic wand, and the opinion poll question being completely irrelevant.
The EU has been blamed for every problem for a half century, now everything will be blamed on Brexit for a few decades, until we rejoin.
If the situation broadly is that when we are in a plurality want to be out, and when out a plurality want to be in, does this not suggest a failure of statecraft?
Comments
Not sure he has really, either.
He's a tactician without strategy, always has been.
He wings it.
It's like putting a fox in charge of a hen coop and being upset when it eats the hens. What did you think was going to happen?
Those who voted for him are reluctant to admit they were wrong. We all share that failing to some extent, but the rational amongst us try to be aware of it.
Think of it as balance in action. As my dad said, always read both The Guardian & The Telegraph. Plus as many other sources as you can. All are biased. Just in different directions.
DeSantis gets this, which is why he's chosen to (gently) break with Trump.
He is wrong though
The Poundshop Churchill will not notice this important distinction of course
I am not saying Johnson is like Churchill, just that Johnson delusionally thinks he is, and dreams of further glories.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2008/02/26/how-to-start-your-own-country-in-four-easy-steps/#:~:text=You must have a defined,of interacting with other states.
There is absolutely nothing absurd with william's change of view, its entirely logical. What's unreasonable is you trying to boil everyone down into one dimensional characters.
Johnson is 58 - when does his "comeback" begin? Assuming he doesn't lose his seat next time, the question will be whether the Conservative survivors will want him back in charge of the sinking ship.
I suppose it depends if you have 260 Conservative MPs or 160 as it did in 1997 when the certainty of being out of office for a minimum of two terms predicated in favour of a younger candidate. Badenoch is 42 now, Wallace 52 - if you're looking at a long haul back to power there's only one choice.
If nearer 260, you'll need a more "ready" prime minister as LOTO. Johnson would be a player in that scenario - so would others.
CDU/CSU: 26%
Greens: 24%
SPD; 20%
AfD: 9%
FDP: 6%
Linke: 5%
Three and a bit years to go but a Green Chancellor must be a serious possibility?
As for @FeersumEnjineeya 's point my list of similar democracies was a list of allies willing to do whatever it takes to confront our enemies, I didn't include France and Germany because they're not.
In the list I did including Poland, an EU country.
Remember all that bollox from his fanclub about "you should take him seriously but not literally"?
Well, both as it turns out.
Despite all his lis and failings the Tory membership would still vote for him now which tells us an awful lot about the Tory membership sadly.
Travel a bit more, get a bit of worldly experience, and stop believing what you read in the Express and the Mail
He was only supposed to be an interim leader as well but saw off the likes of Morrison repeatedly and was arguably one of the three radical Prime Ministers of the 20th Century (the other two being Asquith and Thatcher).
Attlee was determined not to let Morrison succeed him - one of the counterfactuals I want to write is what if Morrison had become Labour leader in 1935?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/australia-trade-deal-brexit-truss-b2124302.html
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to bother his fanboys.
And who, depressingly, get to choose our next PM.
If you had travelled to the Lone Star State then you might realise they are quite proud of one thing over over and above having a lot of guns, and that is being what they call "Texans".
And it's why Truss is going to be our next PM regardless of the fact she will be rubbish at it..
He can't understand complex thoughts so tries to boil everyone down to the most simplistic version he can think of.
https://www.indy100.com/news/tory-leadership-contest-voting-loophole
Surely nobody has forgotten the French rejected the EU Constitution, written by their own former President, but that it was simply repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty and went ahead anyway against their wishes?
And he is right insofar as the clearly stated aim of the EU itself is to form a federal superstate - also, that now we have left, that's much more likely to happen.
One reason I voted remain was because I thought it was extremely likely that without us there would be a federal EU state in 10-15 years and that it would be a very troubled place indeed. So far, my timescale seems a bit out but there's no doubting the favoured direction of travel in Brussels and Strasbourg or the lack of proper consent among the people for it.
They are furious at his ousting what's a few drinks I mean really.
They don't see the lying thing as a thing.
They quote Hitchens.
“It seems very strange that Blair, the man who was partly responsible for one of the worst, bloodiest, stupidest wars in human history, and did nothing but harm, stayed in office and wasn’t driven from it. Everybody knows that Blair was responsible for this, and that he behaved in an absolutely appalling fashion and sold a country a pack of garbage, yet he walked out of office applauded. Johnson did something to do with cakes or a glass of wine and was hounded from office as if he committed some terrible war crime. People on the left particularly, who don’t say this about Blair, pile on about Johnson as if he is the worst person in the world.”
By the way, a lot of them realised they had been conned. However, there are still about 35% who have their heads in the sand. I guess you were/are one? We all now have to live with it, but I will still take the piss out of the terminally dumb. By the way, do you believe in Santa and The Little People? Neither of these things are real either
Someone managed to join as a Russian in a former part of the Ukraine...
He managed to get himself in to all sorts of trouble whilst being under the spotlight of being PM, living in Downing Street, under scrutiny 24 hours a day.
Just think what sort of shenanigans he will get up to once released into the wild whilst he’s grubbing around for big pay-checks and Carrie and the kids are home whilst he’s off roving.
He will have all the rope to hang himself with scandal well before his fantasy of a restoration will come about.
This is the Conservative Party, not the Boris Johnson Party. If this guy and those who think like him are only prepared to be in a party led by Johnson, go and form your own personality cult. Stand candidates against Conservatives and see if the man is bigger than the rosette.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgUjuLNlIcM/
I was disappointed that no-one did the obvious joke with the new Space Telescope: ".. able to take pictures of galaxies so old that some of them are even older than President Biden."
Edit: @Foxy got there first
Have you figured out why, a couple of years on, only 35% of voters (and dropping) believe we did the right thing?. I would be fascinated to hear your explanation.
For that, thank you for proving my point.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/22/correlli-barnett-obituary?CMP=twt_books_b-gdnbooks
I agree the Dutch, or indeed the Poles, Hungarians and Swedes would probably not be enthusiastic. Whether the Dutch would have much choice is another question.
I wonder somewhat about your views on the Italians and French. Their politicians tend to be much more Europhile than the population as a whole and also much more of an eye to their own main chance.
There remains also the fundamental, possibly insoluble problem with the status quo - a common currency area that does not have common tax raising powers. At some point that will have to change because as has been proved many times it isn't sustainable unless one country is hegemonic and effectively acts as lender of last resort (Germany is closest to this, but not sufficiently close to make it practical politics). It seems most unlikely the Euro will be allowed to collapse, which doesn't leave many alternatives.
Also another complex thought you obviously find hard to understand but the EU would be less objectionable as a country, not more. The EU has taken on so many aspects of a country already, now if its evolving into one and those aspects are controlled at European Elections by a European demos then that is perfectly reasonable.
The EU as a nascent federation with its own currency etc is more reasonable than an EU which is an undemocratic body that isn't evolving into a country.
My understanding of @williamglenn is that he was a bit of a European nationalist in this way who was open to a European currency etc with us as members. But post Brexit and post vaccine scandal etc he's stopped supporting Euronationalism and switched his nationalism to being British. That is entirely logical to anyone who can wrap their heads around the idea that nationalism can be a good thing, and that people's identities can evolve over time.
a) remaining in the EU was the best choice;
b) half-in half-out was untenable; and therefore
c) fully out is the second-best choice, if the referendum cannot be overturned.
…then no transformation is required.
(My memory of his posting after the referendum was that the posts were of the form “britain will stay in the EU” rather than “britain should stay in the EU”, but I came too late to see his pre-referendum posts)
His comments are just risible nonsense - all wars are bad, bloody and stupid. Yes, the Iraq War was awful and some in Britain opposed it and were, as the late Charles Kennedy was, mercilessly pilloried. The Conservatives under IDS were even more gung-ho supporters of the war than Blair - whether, had the Conservatives voted en bloc with the LDs and Labour dissidents and defeated Blair's motion in support of the conflict, that would have forced Blair's resignation we'll never know (another counterfactual).
Yes, the Iraq War was bad - the Iran-Iraq War was worse, the war in Syria worse still.
I don't deny Blair sold us a pup on the 45-minute threat of non-existent Iraqi WMDs - I also think it damaged him badly and after 2005 he was a lame duck with Brown effectively in charge.
As for Johnson, Hitchens conveniently forgets the pandemic, the alleged lying to Parliament and the country and the way Johnson personally comported himself in office seeking to take more power for himself and his Ministers and doing that with the help of a supine Parliament and seemingly seeking to use office to favour the fortunes of friends and allies (supposedly).
The greens were regularly leading SPD in the first half of 2021 an election year, and were for a short time ahead of CDU/CSU as well. This raised the Green's hopes so much they even nominated a Chancellor Candidate, something that no party other than CDU/CSU or SPD had done in the history of the Bundesrepublik. In September they ended up about 9%points behind the other two.
So while a Green Chancellor in 2025 is possible, I would not at this stage think it a "serious possibility".
Where the Greens are moving quickly int SPD territory is in the state elections. There is now a CDU-Green Coalition in Nordrhein-Westpfalen, which 15 years ago woud have been completely unthinkable.
Talk about detached from reality .
The Tory membership is not interested in a critique of Hitchens or his views.
They don't believe that Boris did anything too much wrong. And want him back
Euroscepticism only really became significant with Maastricht.
It's the relentless theft of public funds to put his mistresses in jobs, the lying and the laziness that get to me. I don't do schadenthingummy mainly, but I sooo hope he gets a serious kicking and possibly some jail time in the next year or so.
Perhaps they think that lying is all part of being PM and fine if you have sufficient charisma.
https://mobile.twitter.com/RALee85/status/1550538455880433664/photo/2