On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the lochs and the waterfalls as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks. Absolutely glorious. And now the rather brilliant Skye bridge.
I am coming over all @SeanT : someone is paying me for this?
Excellent. Maybe just change it thus:
“On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the rough waters, and the cataracts, as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks.”
Avoiding the repetition of “loch” and “water” etc but adding a “ca” echo
Thanks. But you must forgive mere lawyers some repetition; it is innate.
Sometimes, when I don’t get here for a while you forget that this is truly one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
Driving around Colorado these last days has reminded me how beautiful and fascinating the UK is - and in such a tiny space (despite our often horrible new houses)
Parts of the Rockies are fab and I love the frontier feel here. But there are 100 mile stretches of Colorado where nothing happens. At all. Strip malls and inane residential development. That’s it. And it is quite bleak even in the dazzling sun
The beer tho. American beer is maybe the best in the world now. Such incredible variety
The British landscape genius, with the exception I guess of the Highlands etc, is the largely domesticated geography of church steeple and smoke issuing from chimneys in the “next village on”.
It’s the feeling evoked by the that Adlestrop poem.
Britain should do more of that.
There is a urban genius too, of garden squares and pepperpot chimneys, think Mary Poppins.
Britain's natural landscape is wonderful. Not just the majesty of the Highlands, Snowdonia etc. but just the Constable-style landscapes of little fields, rock walls and hedgerows. Far more beautiful than much of France and Germany even.
What ruins Britain's look is all the 1960s brutalism. It blights the views of our wonderful Georgian architecture in our big cities, and makes a lot of small towns just look uniformly shit.
If Hunt increases it back to the level Brown had it and which Osborne cut back what is the point of voting Tory?
It would still be well below the 60% rate Thatcher accepted until 1988.
Thatcher cut it to 40% by the time she left office from the 83% Labour had left it at in 1979. Indeed the 60% rate was still a Thatcherite cut compared to the last Labour government
The point is that 60% was a rate Thatcher felt able to live with for 9 years of her time in office.
IIRC she wanted it at 50% and it was Lawson who convinced her to go for 40%. I've always thought 50% was the appropriate level (including NIC). Nobody making >150k in the UK could do it without the stability (sic) and infrastructure offered by the British state so it seems reasonable to split the lottery winnings of being a high earner 50/50 with the state apparatus that makes it possible.
You are forgetting NI.
I actually watched the Laffer Curve in action - a rich American relative, living here, binned his tax lawyers and just paid the top rate when it changed. He said that he liked publica services, but paying more than 50% just felt too much.
Er I said 50% including NIC!
Sorry - yes.
The problem with NIC is how much it has been mucked up over the years. Roll it into income tax.
The ambition of the state should be that the rules for living in this country should fit on a small set of postcards. Setting tax at a sensible, easy to understand and hard to avoid level is in my top 10.
Agreed. Get rid of NIC. My preferred income tax regime would look something like first 10k tax free. 10k to 100k at 25%. Above 100k at 50%. Thresholds uprated with inflation automatically. I don't like the way we keep cutting income tax rates, people should pay for public services and know that they cost money if you want them to be good, we choose how they are run (so don't vote for chancers) and you can't run them on the never never or expect someone else to pay for them. Income tax is the fairest tax so it should be the bedrock of our tax system.
From a rough and ready calc, rolling NI into Income Tax would net the government an additional £32bn pa, ignoring the additional amount that would be gained from pensions income and earners over 66.
While rolling NIC into Income Tax, the government could drop the contributory ESA offering saving another £4.5bn, since anyone without other savings or income could could claim UC (and they usually do tbf).
So £36bn + whatever extra is paid by wealthy pensioners.
I think abolishing NIC is good. As a working pensioner I don't mind having to pay more tax in that situation. Not sure how the employer NIC contributions are dealt with though.
Replace Employer NIC with a headcount tax. Get them to pay the equivalent of employers NIC on both employees and IR35 contractors.
I like that.
How would you decide counting years for pension purposes?
Don't would be my short answer.
You already qualify for pension years for lots of circumstances where you don't actually pay NI. Full time housewives etc. Just make the state pension truly universal.
I've heard the line 'Party X will lose the next general election, but that will just amount to a four-year holiday, and they'll be back when party Y royally screws up' many times before without it coming to pass.
You obviously weren't around in the 1960s and 1970s then when we changed government 4 times in 15 years
Though if you listen to May, Johnson and Truss, we've had three changes of government in the last six and a bit years, with a fourth quite possibly incoming.
(Those with knowledge... was it like this during the '50s and '60s? Was Churchill - Eden - Macmillan - Home seen as four governments or one evolving government?)
Unlike 1997 however Labour would not be left with a largely balanced budget, low inflation and low taxes.
Instead post Covid and Ukraine they too would have to reckon with the need to balance the books, increase taxes or cut spending or both
Both, but the public would accept it on the wholly reasonable grounds that it wasn't their fault and they couldn't do much else.
In theory, in reality the Labour left is not going to accept PM Starmer's government pursuing austerity and the average voter is not going to be too patient if their tax bill keeps going up either!
That's certainly the usual problem. The question is how long they can hold off and deal with such pressures.
I've a feeling we'll be finding out in due course.
Congrats on the Council win in Epping Forest btw. It may not be especially significant but always nice to get 'one against the head'.
On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the lochs and the waterfalls as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks. Absolutely glorious. And now the rather brilliant Skye bridge.
I am coming over all @SeanT : someone is paying me for this?
Excellent. Maybe just change it thus:
“On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the rough waters, and the cataracts, as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks.”
Avoiding the repetition of “loch” and “water” etc but adding a “ca” echo.
It begins to look like the attempt to seize Kyiv, by invading from Belarus, will be renewed. I was confident that it wouldn't, but, well, wrong again most likely.
OSINTdefender @sentdefender Massive Amounts of Russian Armor and Personnel have reportedly been observed arriving by Aircraft/Trains across Belarus over the last several days, while Russian Combat Aircraft have been spotted over multiple Cities in Country for the first time in months.
If the first time was a tragedy for the people of Bucha and Borodyanka, this will surely turn into a farce for the Russian and Belarusian armies. They lost last time, and this time they have stacked against them additional factors:
1. The Ukrainians are mobilised and not caught by surprise. 2. The Ukrainians have a heap of additional equipment from the West. 3. The Russians have lost their best troops and gear.
I really can't make any sense of it. I thought the Russian's best hope was to reinforce their lines in the south, and hope that the winter is cold enough to force Europe to come to terms. They actually seem to think they can still win the war.
You’ll know of course that I have been predicting a Russian/Belarus invasion - speeding towards kyiv from the Belarus border - for some time
It’s the obvious move for Putin. And it could snatch victory from defeat etc etc
But given the track record of his army he will struggle again. And he has failed to permanently destroy Ukraine’s energy supplies with his bombardment
Many of us have, because it’s what the ultra nationalist bloggers have been calling for for weeks.
It’s a big risk. Belarus (the people thereof, not the President) is not going to be a supine Putin puppet.
Funny. I swear there were multiple PBers telling me that “the Russians are simply going in to police Belarus” (!!!) and “Belarus is sending kit to Russia this means nothing” etc etc
In fact I remember a PB-er saying “the Russians are sending their troops to Belarus just so they can be more conveniently fed and housed there”
They will get an absolute doing, the Belarusians will be running pronto along with the poor Russian conscripts.
Reminds me of an Alec Guiness line from Star Wars, about the bar they go to? 'Scum and villainy' were part of it I think.
Genuine question: did you support the Tory party before last month, or is it only Liz who does it for you? I'm curious as to whether there's a genuine Truss following out there that is totally detached from Toryism and, if so, how widespread it is.
It begins to look like the attempt to seize Kyiv, by invading from Belarus, will be renewed. I was confident that it wouldn't, but, well, wrong again most likely.
OSINTdefender @sentdefender Massive Amounts of Russian Armor and Personnel have reportedly been observed arriving by Aircraft/Trains across Belarus over the last several days, while Russian Combat Aircraft have been spotted over multiple Cities in Country for the first time in months.
If the first time was a tragedy for the people of Bucha and Borodyanka, this will surely turn into a farce for the Russian and Belarusian armies. They lost last time, and this time they have stacked against them additional factors:
1. The Ukrainians are mobilised and not caught by surprise. 2. The Ukrainians have a heap of additional equipment from the West. 3. The Russians have lost their best troops and gear.
I really can't make any sense of it. I thought the Russian's best hope was to reinforce their lines in the south, and hope that the winter is cold enough to force Europe to come to terms. They actually seem to think they can still win the war.
You’ll know of course that I have been predicting a Russian/Belarus invasion - speeding towards kyiv from the Belarus border - for some time
It’s the obvious move for Putin. And it could snatch victory from defeat etc etc
But given the track record of his army he will struggle again. And he has failed to permanently destroy Ukraine’s energy supplies with his bombardment
While some people have zig zagged back and forth on this, some of us have pointed out Ukraine would inevitably win from the start. It is a matter of when not if. Best case scenario for Putin is the next leader allows him to live out a life of luxury in some Siberian estate. Worst case scenario is he is handed over to the Hague.
In the process Putin would lose Belarus as a client state. His last bordering on Europe. The loss of it as a means to attack Ukraine would be painful, but nowhere near as bad as a fully democratic Belarus asking to join NATO. On top of Sweden and Finland, that would be a massive line of contact, coming as a direct result of the SMO. It would surely signal his end.
If Ukraine and Belarus achieve 50% of the success of Czechia, Poland and the Baltics, they will quickly surpass Russia in living standards. Some of the other Russian regions might start looking West in envy. Particularly places that have a history of semi-independence, like the region of the Don and Kuban cossacks.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
In macroeconomic terms, the massive interest rate hikes of the Fed, not to mention the Russian oil and gas situation, are driving global instability, not little ole' Britain's budget statement of things that won't even happen until April. As ever, we're a convenient scapegoat, and perhaps a braver person than yourself might have attempted some gentle counter-arguments.
Having seen Russian nationalist blogs and tweets on Ukraine over the last few months I think we face a category error, and on their terms Ukraine is indeed full of Nazis.
To an average Westerner the Nazis are the people who did the holocaust. The defining feature is racism, anti-semitism and genocide. To Russia, I’m increasingly convinced “Nazi” simply means someone from Europe who hates Russia. On that measure Ukrainian nationalists are Nazis.
Hence why a Russian nationalist can decry homosexuals and woke cuck Dems on the one hand and Ukrainian “Nazis” on the other.
It begins to look like the attempt to seize Kyiv, by invading from Belarus, will be renewed. I was confident that it wouldn't, but, well, wrong again most likely.
OSINTdefender @sentdefender Massive Amounts of Russian Armor and Personnel have reportedly been observed arriving by Aircraft/Trains across Belarus over the last several days, while Russian Combat Aircraft have been spotted over multiple Cities in Country for the first time in months.
If the first time was a tragedy for the people of Bucha and Borodyanka, this will surely turn into a farce for the Russian and Belarusian armies. They lost last time, and this time they have stacked against them additional factors:
1. The Ukrainians are mobilised and not caught by surprise. 2. The Ukrainians have a heap of additional equipment from the West. 3. The Russians have lost their best troops and gear.
I really can't make any sense of it. I thought the Russian's best hope was to reinforce their lines in the south, and hope that the winter is cold enough to force Europe to come to terms. They actually seem to think they can still win the war.
A quireky detail is that if Pokerstars is anything to go by, Belarus is being used in a big way to avoid sanctions - the number of supposedly Belarus players has increased massively since Russian players were banned. If that's a loophole being used in all the other sectors, then Putin's oligarichic mates may not be keen on dragging Belarus directly into the war.
There is a human point here. Everyone fails at being Prime Minister eventually (maybe we have loaded too much into the role) even if Truss's failure is more spectacular and much faster than most.
I hope she is getting a decent slab of unconditional love from someone.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
I think some of this is a temporary embarrassment, but by no measure all.
Britain has forfeited much of its economic influence (exercised within Brussels), it’s development influence (via cuts to the overseas aid), and the soft power associated with its reputation for seriousness and sobriety.
Johnson was of course a global joke, and Truss something worse.
We are playing an outsized role in Ukraine of course, which is not nothing.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
In macroeconomic terms, the massive interest rate hikes of the Fed, not to mention the Russian oil and gas situation, are driving global instability, not little ole' Britain's budget statement of things that won't even happen until April. As ever, we're a convenient scapegoat, and perhaps a braver person than yourself might have attempted some gentle counter-arguments.
Some truth in that for sure but even the fact that we have become the go to scapegoat is revealing. I wasn't here to make the case for the UK but to gather market intelligence for my firm. I'm not a UK government official. Hopefully they were doing their best to play the hand the government had dealt them.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
In macroeconomic terms, the massive interest rate hikes of the Fed, not to mention the Russian oil and gas situation, are driving global instability, not little ole' Britain's budget statement of things that won't even happen until April. As ever, we're a convenient scapegoat, and perhaps a braver person than yourself might have attempted some gentle counter-arguments.
That's a bit like making a household decision to throw all your sandbags away during a flood and then blaming the flood for when your house gets submerged.
There is a human point here. Everyone fails at being Prime Minister eventually (maybe we have loaded too much into the role) even if Truss's failure is more spectacular and much faster than most.
I hope she is getting a decent slab of unconditional love from someone.
Indeed. I expect it won't be from Kwarteng though.
If Crispin Hunt is the best that the 'group of senior Tories who are going to come out and call for Truss to go' can come up with - a man with no political prospects or capital to sacrifice, it's disappointing to say the least.
So most Tories think Liz is wonderful and are desperate for her to stay in place?
I think the plotters don't have the nuts; I think Jeremy Hunt's appointment has bought Truss some time; I think it's borrowed time at the moment but politics can turn on a hair. I'd like the plotters to go for it, or Starmer to VONC, because those two things would be good for Truss.
Hunt is her parole officer, not her bodyguard.
He is both, and she is his. Nobody else will touch him with a bargepole, nobody else will touch her with one.
Reminds me of an Alec Guiness line from Star Wars, about the bar they go to? 'Scum and villainy' were part of it I think.
Genuine question: did you support the Tory party before last month, or is it only Liz who does it for you? I'm curious as to whether there's a genuine Truss following out there that is totally detached from Toryism and, if so, how widespread it is.
I support the Tory party as far as it serves the interests of the country.
Another must read from @PaulGoodmanCH "It’s all over for Trussonomics". "The hostage you see waving at the window is Truss...The day will come on which to pin down why she played a hand of 2s and 3s as though all of them were aces".
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
I think some of this is a temporary embarrassment, but by no measure all.
Britain has forfeited much of its economic influence (exercised within Brussels), it’s development influence (via cuts to the overseas aid), and the soft power associated with its reputation for seriousness and sobriety.
Johnson was of course a global joke, and Truss something worse.
We are playing an outsized role in Ukraine of course, which is not nothing.
The British experience - after Johnson arrived on the scene as PM - is evidence of the ancient wisdom that it is a lot harder to build something up than it is to tear it all down. Still, we are a democracy and people voted for it, and things would probably be just as bad (albeit in different ways) if we had Corbyn as PM.
Having been thinking about things, I think the Tories should replace the current leadership with this big four:
PM: Penny Mordaunt Chancellor: Rishi Sunak Foreign Secretary: Jeremy Hunt Home Secretary: Kemi Badenoch
A charismatic person at the top who could reset the Tory brand. A finance minister to reassure the markets. A foreign minister who would be well liked in foreign capitals. A home secretary who gets it on immigration and could put Labour on the defensive in the red wall. And a diverse team that looks like modern Britain.
I love that the main function of a reset on PB this afternoon is for the Conservatives to win an election against the head, and another, and another, whether they deserve to or not?
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
It begins to look like the attempt to seize Kyiv, by invading from Belarus, will be renewed. I was confident that it wouldn't, but, well, wrong again most likely.
OSINTdefender @sentdefender Massive Amounts of Russian Armor and Personnel have reportedly been observed arriving by Aircraft/Trains across Belarus over the last several days, while Russian Combat Aircraft have been spotted over multiple Cities in Country for the first time in months.
If the first time was a tragedy for the people of Bucha and Borodyanka, this will surely turn into a farce for the Russian and Belarusian armies. They lost last time, and this time they have stacked against them additional factors:
1. The Ukrainians are mobilised and not caught by surprise. 2. The Ukrainians have a heap of additional equipment from the West. 3. The Russians have lost their best troops and gear.
I really can't make any sense of it. I thought the Russian's best hope was to reinforce their lines in the south, and hope that the winter is cold enough to force Europe to come to terms. They actually seem to think they can still win the war.
Who says they'd go for Kyiv again (outside of a small feint meant to fix the sizeable Kyiv defence)?
It would make far more sense to make a lunge towards Rivne then Ternopil (both about 200k population) to cut off Ukraine from Western support like weapons supplies and maintenance depots in Poland. Both West to east railway connections would be severed (or severely limited if within Russian artillery's range. In addition there's a railway line straight south from Belarus to Rivne that they can use to supply themselves, which the Kyiv attack did not have in the spring.
Having been thinking about things, I think the Tories should replace the current leadership with this big four:
PM: Penny Mordaunt Chancellor: Rishi Sunak Foreign Secretary: Jeremy Hunt Home Secretary: Kemi Badenoch
A charismatic person at the top who could reset the Tory brand. A finance minister to reassure the markets. A foreign minister who would be well liked in foreign capitals. A home secretary who gets it on immigration and could put Labour on the defensive in the red wall. And a diverse team that looks like modern Britain.
I love that the main function of a reset on PB this afternoon is for the Conservatives to win an election against the head, and another, and another, whether they deserve to or not?
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
If you had to pick a team from the current Tory MPs, that list is not the worst I have seen, but your point stands.
How about we let the voters have a go?
Can they really fuck it up worse than the Tory members did?
Having been thinking about things, I think the Tories should replace the current leadership with this big four:
PM: Penny Mordaunt Chancellor: Rishi Sunak Foreign Secretary: Jeremy Hunt Home Secretary: Kemi Badenoch
A charismatic person at the top who could reset the Tory brand. A finance minister to reassure the markets. A foreign minister who would be well liked in foreign capitals. A home secretary who gets it on immigration and could put Labour on the defensive in the red wall. And a diverse team that looks like modern Britain.
I love that the main function of a reset on PB this afternoon is for the Conservatives to win an election against the head, and another, and another, whether they deserve to or not?
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
The role of the Tory Party is not to support the UK. The UK, on the other hand, is the host whose role it is to support the Tory Party.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
I think some of this is a temporary embarrassment, but by no measure all.
Britain has forfeited much of its economic influence (exercised within Brussels), it’s development influence (via cuts to the overseas aid), and the soft power associated with its reputation for seriousness and sobriety.
Johnson was of course a global joke, and Truss something worse.
We are playing an outsized role in Ukraine of course, which is not nothing.
Stop giving your dinner money to the bullies, expect similar short to medium term disaprobation. Doesn't mean it isn't necessary.
It begins to look like the attempt to seize Kyiv, by invading from Belarus, will be renewed. I was confident that it wouldn't, but, well, wrong again most likely.
OSINTdefender @sentdefender Massive Amounts of Russian Armor and Personnel have reportedly been observed arriving by Aircraft/Trains across Belarus over the last several days, while Russian Combat Aircraft have been spotted over multiple Cities in Country for the first time in months.
If the first time was a tragedy for the people of Bucha and Borodyanka, this will surely turn into a farce for the Russian and Belarusian armies. They lost last time, and this time they have stacked against them additional factors:
1. The Ukrainians are mobilised and not caught by surprise. 2. The Ukrainians have a heap of additional equipment from the West. 3. The Russians have lost their best troops and gear.
I really can't make any sense of it. I thought the Russian's best hope was to reinforce their lines in the south, and hope that the winter is cold enough to force Europe to come to terms. They actually seem to think they can still win the war.
Who says they'd go for Kyiv again (outside of a small feint meant to fix the sizeable Kyiv defence)?
It would make far more sense to make a lunge towards Rivne then Ternopil (both about 200k population) to cut off Ukraine from Western support like weapons supplies and maintenance depots in Poland. Both West to east railway connections would be severed (or severely limited if within Russian artillery's range. In addition there's a railway line straight south from Belarus to Rivne that they can use to supply themselves, which the Kyiv attack did not have in the spring.
My resident Ukrainian is from Ternopil. Going back there at Christmas. I think that ara would be extremely difficult for Russia. Much further from the frontier than Kiev, through wooded and rolling country. Ukraine can easily blow a railway.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump.
Indeed one thing Sanders and Trump supporters and the hard left and nationalist right share is they despise the IMF and the neoliberal globalist order
FPT, re: Leon's visit/invasion/infestation at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs -
Yours truly has a commemorative ceramic whiskey bottle (Jim Beam) in the shape of The Broadmoor.
Which also is the place where in 1940, Republican "dark horse" (sorta) presidential nominee Wendell Willkie came, after winning the nomination at RNC, to prepare for his Fall campaign against Franklin Roosevelt.
Hope it works out better for our wandering PBer than it did for WW!
I LOVE this hotel. The history is fabulous, it’s basically unknown outside the USA
Also: the food is superb. I had maybe the best ceviche of my life last night, then some wonderful Alaskan halibut
And the dry martinis in the “Prohibition” bar
👍
Here is link showing the Jim Beam bottle issued for 50th anniversary of The Broadmoor.
On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the lochs and the waterfalls as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks. Absolutely glorious. And now the rather brilliant Skye bridge.
I am coming over all @SeanT : someone is paying me for this?
Excellent. Maybe just change it thus:
“On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the rough waters, and the cataracts, as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks.”
Avoiding the repetition of “loch” and “water” etc but adding a “ca” echo
Thanks. But you must forgive mere lawyers some repetition; it is innate.
Sometimes, when I don’t get here for a while you forget that this is truly one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
Driving around Colorado these last days has reminded me how beautiful and fascinating the UK is - and in such a tiny space (despite our often horrible new houses)
Parts of the Rockies are fab and I love the frontier feel here. But there are 100 mile stretches of Colorado where nothing happens. At all. Strip malls and inane residential development. That’s it. And it is quite bleak even in the dazzling sun
The beer tho. American beer is maybe the best in the world now. Such incredible variety
The British landscape genius, with the exception I guess of the Highlands etc, is the largely domesticated geography of church steeple and smoke issuing from chimneys in the “next village on”.
It’s the feeling evoked by the that Adlestrop poem.
Britain should do more of that.
There is a urban genius too, of garden squares and pepperpot chimneys, think Mary Poppins.
It blights the views of our wonderful Georgian architecture in our big cities, and makes a lot of small towns just look uniformly shit.
It's not difficult to tell where Brighton ends and Hove begins:
The original plan was to demolish all the Georgian architecture and extend the 1930s Art Deco Embassy Court (right) replacing all of the (now Grade I listed) Brunswick Town (left).
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
I've heard the line 'Party X will lose the next general election, but that will just amount to a four-year holiday, and they'll be back when party Y royally screws up' many times before without it coming to pass.
You obviously weren't around in the 1960s and 1970s then when we changed government 4 times in 15 years
Though if you listen to May, Johnson and Truss, we've had three changes of government in the last six and a bit years, with a fourth quite possibly incoming.
(Those with knowledge... was it like this during the '50s and '60s? Was Churchill - Eden - Macmillan - Home seen as four governments or one evolving government?)
One evolving government, the 1960s and 1970s saw 4 changes of the party leading the government
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Having been thinking about things, I think the Tories should replace the current leadership with this big four:
PM: Penny Mordaunt Chancellor: Rishi Sunak Foreign Secretary: Jeremy Hunt Home Secretary: Kemi Badenoch
A charismatic person at the top who could reset the Tory brand. A finance minister to reassure the markets. A foreign minister who would be well liked in foreign capitals. A home secretary who gets it on immigration and could put Labour on the defensive in the red wall. And a diverse team that looks like modern Britain.
I love that the main function of a reset on PB this afternoon is for the Conservatives to win an election against the head, and another, and another, whether they deserve to or not?
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
If you had to pick a team from the current Tory MPs, that list is not the worst I have seen, but your point stands.
How about we let the voters have a go?
Can they really fuck it up worse than the Tory members did?
I am of an age where it matters not a jot in fiscal terms who wins the next election. Nonetheless the one party state that we have become cannot be healthy. " We are losing the argument, quick let's throw some red meat to The RedWall".
In terms of just desserts and karma the Conservatives deserve to be out of office for a considerable time, not least because Johnson sold the notion of Brexit simply to become Prime Minister. Most Conservative MPs and Ministers, like Hunt, like Truss, knew it would be a fiasco, but after the event they went along for the ride anyway.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron and Les Republicains in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever high taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever high taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Ooh, are you going to start talking along these lines? Here's a nice video:
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump.
Indeed one thing Sanders and Trump supporters and the hard left and nationalist right share is they despise the IMF and the neoliberal globalist order
There is a lot of short-term memoryism on Pb.com. The Truss plans that everyone on here are locking now we're essentially the same ones that they were praising when the Biden Administration was pushing through - or trying to - its huge spending bills.
Now, it's true the U.K. isn't the US and gilts are not the default safe asset for global investors. But other central banks - noticeably China and Japan - have also decided to loosen their monetary policy.
@HYFUD is right - much of the pain going on is because the US is racking up its interest rates to catch up with past mistakes (and you know the Administration knows it has screwed up because it's blaming Trump's spending packages for causing inflation while blithely ignoring its own).
One final point - Biden may be mocking now but if - and it's a big if - he loses Congress and Truss hangs on, he might be finding some of the favour returned. It wouldn't take a few well aimed comments about his own policies, including his initial wobbling on Ukraine and the mixed messages he was sending, to cause him problems.
It begins to look like the attempt to seize Kyiv, by invading from Belarus, will be renewed. I was confident that it wouldn't, but, well, wrong again most likely.
OSINTdefender @sentdefender Massive Amounts of Russian Armor and Personnel have reportedly been observed arriving by Aircraft/Trains across Belarus over the last several days, while Russian Combat Aircraft have been spotted over multiple Cities in Country for the first time in months.
If the first time was a tragedy for the people of Bucha and Borodyanka, this will surely turn into a farce for the Russian and Belarusian armies. They lost last time, and this time they have stacked against them additional factors:
1. The Ukrainians are mobilised and not caught by surprise. 2. The Ukrainians have a heap of additional equipment from the West. 3. The Russians have lost their best troops and gear.
I really can't make any sense of it. I thought the Russian's best hope was to reinforce their lines in the south, and hope that the winter is cold enough to force Europe to come to terms. They actually seem to think they can still win the war.
Who says they'd go for Kyiv again (outside of a small feint meant to fix the sizeable Kyiv defence)?
It would make far more sense to make a lunge towards Rivne then Ternopil (both about 200k population) to cut off Ukraine from Western support like weapons supplies and maintenance depots in Poland. Both West to east railway connections would be severed (or severely limited if within Russian artillery's range. In addition there's a railway line straight south from Belarus to Rivne that they can use to supply themselves, which the Kyiv attack did not have in the spring.
My resident Ukrainian is from Ternopil. Going back there at Christmas. I think that ara would be extremely difficult for Russia. Much further from the frontier than Kiev, through wooded and rolling country. Ukraine can easily blow a railway.
Yeah there's definitely issues, but if I were a Russian general and had to pick something it's definitely the one I'd go for.
As long as Russian troops can push on the other three fronts, and keep a fixing force over the border from Kyiv Ukraine's defences will be very stretched in the West. In addition to get the Ternopil railway into Russian artillery range they'd only need to advance 20 miles south of Rivne, which is close enough they should be able to consistently supply the effort.
From a Ukrainian PoV I'd be reassured by the large front lines Russia would have the defend, the extremely low quality of the Russian mobiks and Belarusian regulars, and the complete inability of Russia to provide adequate training and winter wear for the months ahead.
It's Russia's best option for a game changer, but given they'd have to maintain the effort for a long while for it to cause collapse in the East I still don't think it is a good option.
Having seen Russian nationalist blogs and tweets on Ukraine over the last few months I think we face a category error, and on their terms Ukraine is indeed full of Nazis.
To an average Westerner the Nazis are the people who did the holocaust. The defining feature is racism, anti-semitism and genocide. To Russia, I’m increasingly convinced “Nazi” simply means someone from Europe who hates Russia. On that measure Ukrainian nationalists are Nazis.
Hence why a Russian nationalist can decry homosexuals and woke cuck Dems on the one hand and Ukrainian “Nazis” on the other.
Nazism for Russians is inextricably linked to the Nazi attempt to wipe Russia out by mass genocide. FWIW my Russian-born mother did regard Ukrainian nationalism as inextricably tainted by Nazism, because of Bandera's collaboration with the Germans during the war. She died 20 years ago but I've little doubt she'd have been cheering Putin on.
Conversely the atrocities committed by Stalin against Ukraine did make some Ukrainian nationalist leaders pro-Nazi as "the lesser evil who will free us", and that attitude has persisted among some to the present day (cf. Azov). It's all a long time ago, but these prejudices linger, especially outside the cosmopolitan cities.
There's no reason why a rational ex-Soviet Russian shouldn't regret Ukraine wanting to be separate, without supporting a war to prevent it, in the same way that we in England might regret a Scottish decision to go independent without wanting (pace HYUFD) to send tanks to Edinburgh. But if Scottish leaders had supported Hitler during the war it would complicate attitudes here too. The war is an atrocity, but both populations are haunted by the sins of past generations, and it's possible to oppose the war, support Ukraine's defence, and still not entirely accept the ultra-nationalists on either side.
'I got rid of her once'? How does he work that out? I'd have said Corbyn and Boris played a far bigger hand in her destruction. Is there a megalomania thing going on here?
On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the lochs and the waterfalls as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks. Absolutely glorious. And now the rather brilliant Skye bridge.
I am coming over all @SeanT : someone is paying me for this?
Excellent. Maybe just change it thus:
“On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the rough waters, and the cataracts, as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks.”
Avoiding the repetition of “loch” and “water” etc but adding a “ca” echo
Thanks. But you must forgive mere lawyers some repetition; it is innate.
Sometimes, when I don’t get here for a while you forget that this is truly one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
Driving around Colorado these last days has reminded me how beautiful and fascinating the UK is - and in such a tiny space (despite our often horrible new houses)
Parts of the Rockies are fab and I love the frontier feel here. But there are 100 mile stretches of Colorado where nothing happens. At all. Strip malls and inane residential development. That’s it. And it is quite bleak even in the dazzling sun
The beer tho. American beer is maybe the best in the world now. Such incredible variety
The British landscape genius, with the exception I guess of the Highlands etc, is the largely domesticated geography of church steeple and smoke issuing from chimneys in the “next village on”.
It’s the feeling evoked by the that Adlestrop poem.
Britain should do more of that.
There is a urban genius too, of garden squares and pepperpot chimneys, think Mary Poppins.
It blights the views of our wonderful Georgian architecture in our big cities, and makes a lot of small towns just look uniformly shit.
It's not difficult to tell where Brighton ends and Hove begins:
The original plan was to demolish all the Georgian architecture and extend the 1930s Art Deco Embassy Court (right) replacing all of the (now Grade I listed) Brunswick Town (left).
Fortunately Mr Hitler and sanity intervened.
Slightly disappointing in one way - I do like art deco. But then I think, all they need to do is to put a gilded turd on the big one and that's Brighton's rep for architecture screwed.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump.
Indeed one thing Sanders and Trump supporters and the hard left and nationalist right share is they despise the IMF and the neoliberal globalist order
There is a lot of short-term memoryism on Pb.com. The Truss plans that everyone on here are locking now we're essentially the same ones that they were praising when the Biden Administration was pushing through - or trying to - its huge spending bills.
Now, it's true the U.K. isn't the US and gilts are not the default safe asset for global investors. But other central banks - noticeably China and Japan - have also decided to loosen their monetary policy.
@HYFUD is right - much of the pain going on is because the US is racking up its interest rates to catch up with past mistakes (and you know the Administration knows it has screwed up because it's blaming Trump's spending packages for causing inflation while blithely ignoring its own).
One final point - Biden may be mocking now but if - and it's a big if - he loses Congress and Truss hangs on, he might be finding some of the favour returned. It wouldn't take a few well aimed comments about his own policies, including his initial wobbling on Ukraine and the mixed messages he was sending, to cause him problems.
I lack the technical skills, but someone needs to do a recut of the “You Have Been Watching” end credits of Hi-De-Hi, with Jeremy Hunt as Mr Fairbrother, Liz Truss as Peggy, and Therese Coffey as Ted Bovis.
On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the lochs and the waterfalls as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks. Absolutely glorious. And now the rather brilliant Skye bridge.
I am coming over all @SeanT : someone is paying me for this?
Excellent. Maybe just change it thus:
“On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the rough waters, and the cataracts, as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks.”
Avoiding the repetition of “loch” and “water” etc but adding a “ca” echo
Thanks. But you must forgive mere lawyers some repetition; it is innate.
Sometimes, when I don’t get here for a while you forget that this is truly one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
Driving around Colorado these last days has reminded me how beautiful and fascinating the UK is - and in such a tiny space (despite our often horrible new houses)
Parts of the Rockies are fab and I love the frontier feel here. But there are 100 mile stretches of Colorado where nothing happens. At all. Strip malls and inane residential development. That’s it. And it is quite bleak even in the dazzling sun
The beer tho. American beer is maybe the best in the world now. Such incredible variety
The British landscape genius, with the exception I guess of the Highlands etc, is the largely domesticated geography of church steeple and smoke issuing from chimneys in the “next village on”.
It’s the feeling evoked by the that Adlestrop poem.
Britain should do more of that.
There is a urban genius too, of garden squares and pepperpot chimneys, think Mary Poppins.
It blights the views of our wonderful Georgian architecture in our big cities, and makes a lot of small towns just look uniformly shit.
It's not difficult to tell where Brighton ends and Hove begins:
The original plan was to demolish all the Georgian architecture and extend the 1930s Art Deco Embassy Court (right) replacing all of the (now Grade I listed) Brunswick Town (left).
Fortunately Mr Hitler and sanity intervened.
I thought Hove was the posh bit - hence the joke about sticks of rock with 'Hove Actually' through them.
"The background here is that someone did a FOI request for the announcement audio, crowdsourced transcriptions, and various things have been built on top of it."
On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the lochs and the waterfalls as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks. Absolutely glorious. And now the rather brilliant Skye bridge.
I am coming over all @SeanT : someone is paying me for this?
Excellent. Maybe just change it thus:
“On the way to Skye for a site visit. Up through the great glen and down to the sea lochs of the west. Sun glinting on the rough waters, and the cataracts, as the rain clouds dash through. Snow capping the highest peaks.”
Avoiding the repetition of “loch” and “water” etc but adding a “ca” echo
Thanks. But you must forgive mere lawyers some repetition; it is innate.
Sometimes, when I don’t get here for a while you forget that this is truly one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
Driving around Colorado these last days has reminded me how beautiful and fascinating the UK is - and in such a tiny space (despite our often horrible new houses)
Parts of the Rockies are fab and I love the frontier feel here. But there are 100 mile stretches of Colorado where nothing happens. At all. Strip malls and inane residential development. That’s it. And it is quite bleak even in the dazzling sun
The beer tho. American beer is maybe the best in the world now. Such incredible variety
The British landscape genius, with the exception I guess of the Highlands etc, is the largely domesticated geography of church steeple and smoke issuing from chimneys in the “next village on”.
It’s the feeling evoked by the that Adlestrop poem.
Britain should do more of that.
There is a urban genius too, of garden squares and pepperpot chimneys, think Mary Poppins.
It blights the views of our wonderful Georgian architecture in our big cities, and makes a lot of small towns just look uniformly shit.
It's not difficult to tell where Brighton ends and Hove begins:
The original plan was to demolish all the Georgian architecture and extend the 1930s Art Deco Embassy Court (right) replacing all of the (now Grade I listed) Brunswick Town (left).
Fortunately Mr Hitler and sanity intervened.
I thought Hove was the posh bit - hence the joke about sticks of rock with 'Hove Actually' through them.
It is, although I doubt its visitors buy rock!
Ironically 200 year old quickly flung up speculative Georgian architecture has proved easier to maintain than less than 85 year old Art Deco reinforced concrete......ah! Sea air!
Having been thinking about things, I think the Tories should replace the current leadership with this big four:
PM: Penny Mordaunt Chancellor: Rishi Sunak Foreign Secretary: Jeremy Hunt Home Secretary: Kemi Badenoch
A charismatic person at the top who could reset the Tory brand. A finance minister to reassure the markets. A foreign minister who would be well liked in foreign capitals. A home secretary who gets it on immigration and could put Labour on the defensive in the red wall. And a diverse team that looks like modern Britain.
I love that the main function of a reset on PB this afternoon is for the Conservatives to win an election against the head, and another, and another, whether they deserve to or not?
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
If you had to pick a team from the current Tory MPs, that list is not the worst I have seen, but your point stands.
How about we let the voters have a go?
Can they really fuck it up worse than the Tory members did?
I am of an age where it matters not a jot in fiscal terms who wins the next election. Nonetheless the one party state that we have become cannot be healthy. " We are losing the argument, quick let's throw some red meat to The RedWall".
In terms of just desserts and karma the Conservatives deserve to be out of office for a considerable time, not least because Johnson sold the notion of Brexit simply to become Prime Minister. Most Conservative MPs and Ministers, like Hunt, like Truss, knew it would be a fiasco, but after the event they went along for the ride anyway.
Yes, if the Cons were to somehow shapeshift and win again Labour might as well disband.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Neoliberals want higher taxes? Are you sure about that?
Having been thinking about things, I think the Tories should replace the current leadership with this big four:
PM: Penny Mordaunt Chancellor: Rishi Sunak Foreign Secretary: Jeremy Hunt Home Secretary: Kemi Badenoch
A charismatic person at the top who could reset the Tory brand. A finance minister to reassure the markets. A foreign minister who would be well liked in foreign capitals. A home secretary who gets it on immigration and could put Labour on the defensive in the red wall. And a diverse team that looks like modern Britain.
I love that the main function of a reset on PB this afternoon is for the Conservatives to win an election against the head, and another, and another, whether they deserve to or not?
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
If you had to pick a team from the current Tory MPs, that list is not the worst I have seen, but your point stands.
How about we let the voters have a go?
Can they really fuck it up worse than the Tory members did?
I am of an age where it matters not a jot in fiscal terms who wins the next election. Nonetheless the one party state that we have become cannot be healthy. " We are losing the argument, quick let's throw some red meat to The RedWall".
In terms of just desserts and karma the Conservatives deserve to be out of office for a considerable time, not least because Johnson sold the notion of Brexit simply to become Prime Minister. Most Conservative MPs and Ministers, like Hunt, like Truss, knew it would be a fiasco, but after the event they went along for the ride anyway.
Yes, if the Cons were to somehow shapeshift and win again Labour might as well disband.
The thing is it's the same old shite dressed up as something else. I blame universal suffrage.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Neoliberals want higher taxes? Are you sure about that?
Having been thinking about things, I think the Tories should replace the current leadership with this big four:
PM: Penny Mordaunt Chancellor: Rishi Sunak Foreign Secretary: Jeremy Hunt Home Secretary: Kemi Badenoch
A charismatic person at the top who could reset the Tory brand. A finance minister to reassure the markets. A foreign minister who would be well liked in foreign capitals. A home secretary who gets it on immigration and could put Labour on the defensive in the red wall. And a diverse team that looks like modern Britain.
I love that the main function of a reset on PB this afternoon is for the Conservatives to win an election against the head, and another, and another, whether they deserve to or not?
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
If you had to pick a team from the current Tory MPs, that list is not the worst I have seen, but your point stands.
How about we let the voters have a go?
Can they really fuck it up worse than the Tory members did?
I am of an age where it matters not a jot in fiscal terms who wins the next election. Nonetheless the one party state that we have become cannot be healthy. " We are losing the argument, quick let's throw some red meat to The RedWall".
In terms of just desserts and karma the Conservatives deserve to be out of office for a considerable time, not least because Johnson sold the notion of Brexit simply to become Prime Minister. Most Conservative MPs and Ministers, like Hunt, like Truss, knew it would be a fiasco, but after the event they went along for the ride anyway.
Yes, if the Cons were to somehow shapeshift and win again Labour might as well disband.
The thing is it's the same old shite dressed up as something else. I blame universal suffrage.
Perhaps we need an aptitude test for wannabe voters.
HY, Farage is a moron, a one-trick Brexit show pony. Don't panic. If your party gets it's house in order and ditches the blue Corbynistas, life becomes a lot easier for you. One nation feudal Tories are your answer.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Neoliberals want higher taxes? Are you sure about that?
On ordinary voters, less so themselves
The problem in this country is that a lot of voters want everyone wealthier than themselves to pay higher taxes so that they can have more money. But they want the level at which higher taxes are levied to conveniently stop just above themselves. One reason why Truss and Kwarteng were so unpopular is probably because they refused to go along with this way of thinking.
HY, Farage is a moron, a one-trick Brexit show pony. Don't panic. If your party gets it's house in order and ditches the blue Corbynistas life becomes a lot easier for you. One nation feudal Tories are your answer.
tories put Theresa May in again they really are finished...what a joke of a party
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Neoliberals want higher taxes? Are you sure about that?
On ordinary voters, less so themselves
Don't think so. I could be wrong. Can you show me any definition where neoliberals want higher taxes on ordinary voters. Would seem odd that advocates of a smaller state would want higher taxes on anyone. I mean what for?
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Having seen Russian nationalist blogs and tweets on Ukraine over the last few months I think we face a category error, and on their terms Ukraine is indeed full of Nazis.
To an average Westerner the Nazis are the people who did the holocaust. The defining feature is racism, anti-semitism and genocide. To Russia, I’m increasingly convinced “Nazi” simply means someone from Europe who hates Russia. On that measure Ukrainian nationalists are Nazis.
Hence why a Russian nationalist can decry homosexuals and woke cuck Dems on the one hand and Ukrainian “Nazis” on the other.
"The defining feature is racism, anti-semitism and genocide" - bit more than that, otherwise Stalin was a Nazi...
There was a rather good article the other day, by a chap who studied Russia academically, lived there, spoke the language etc.
He wrote some interesting stuff on how "Nazi" has been suborned by various Russian nationalists - going back to Soviet times - in very much this way. They want it to mean - anyone who *Russia is against*.
Which means that you can become a Nazi, even if you have no interest or concern with Russia. If they have a problem with you, that's all that is required.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
article in the telegraph today says we are turning into Italy...i think that is true...the Uks future is as a chaotic country in decline with politics becoming increasingly crazy....
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Neoliberals want higher taxes? Are you sure about that?
On ordinary voters, less so themselves
The problem in this country is that a lot of voters want everyone wealthier than themselves to pay higher taxes so that they can have more money. But they want the level at which higher taxes are levied to conveniently stop just above themselves. One reason why Truss and Kwarteng were so unpopular is probably because they refused to go along with this way of thinking.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump.
Indeed one thing Sanders and Trump supporters and the hard left and nationalist right share is they despise the IMF and the neoliberal globalist order
Where do you and your party fit into this? It seems like Trussonomics has been buried. So are you for or against what conspiracy theorists would call the New World Order (and what non conspiracy theorists might call liberal capitalism tempered by varying degrees of social democracy)? I'm sure for all of us and for a variety of different reasons there is a gap between the world as it exists and as we would like it to be. The question is whether it is bad enough that blowing it up is going to be better (in my view no) and whether the solution on offer is rooted in reality (as far as the post Brexit Tory party is concerned, I don't think so).
There is a human point here. Everyone fails at being Prime Minister eventually (maybe we have loaded too much into the role) even if Truss's failure is more spectacular and much faster than most.
I hope she is getting a decent slab of unconditional love from someone.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Neoliberals want higher taxes? Are you sure about that?
On ordinary voters, less so themselves
The problem in this country is that a lot of voters want everyone wealthier than themselves to pay higher taxes so that they can have more money. But they want the level at which higher taxes are levied to conveniently stop just above themselves. One reason why Truss and Kwarteng were so unpopular is probably because they refused to go along with this way of thinking.
You reckon?
Two trains of thought for the selfish voter:
1) Make people richer than me pay the taxes, but not me 2) Don't put up taxes for people richer than me because I aspire to get there
Toss up to which one is correct. Could be both as different voters think differently.
I'm writing this from the Amtrak lounge at Union Station in Washington DC as I wait for my Acela train to New York. The following represents a few thoughts from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and associated fringe events organised by the major banks and bilateral meetings with officials and market participants. I'm going to focus on the bits relevant to the UK although of course this represents just a fraction of the discussions. First, when you have become the joke, you have a problem. I lost count of the number of times the British situation was remarked on wryly or was just openly mocked. It's nice to be able to put a smile on people's faces, but as a Brit I found it distinctly uncomfortable. Second, Britain needs friends. The US has been angered by the way that UK government incompetence has destabilised global markets, and has been very happy to air that frustration publicly. The Europeans have their own club, which we left. There wasn't much love in the room for the UK, anywhere. Third, there was open discussion of whether the UK might end up at the IMF. Mostly this was aired in an ironic tone, but I also heard quite serious players claim that it was likely. Last, when the UK wasn't being criticised or mocked it was entirely absent from the discussions. UK officials and policymakers aren't treated seriously. The UK's views and interests are absent in the big discussions. Global Britain is a distant aspiration. Feel free to dismiss as the ramblings of a bitter Remoaner member of the globalist blob if you like. But I am travelling on to New York in a rather depressed state at how low the stock of our country has fallen in global forums.
Is it really surprising the globalist corporatist Biden administration and the EU and IMF despise post Brexit UK and anyone who thinks outside the neoliberal group think? However it is not just the UK which has seen revolts against what conspiracy theorists would call this New World Order agenda, see Italy with Meloni, Greece with Syriza, France with Le Pen and Melonchon and indeed the US with Trump?
What a soft fascist dunce you are.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
Italy is in the G7 and has a nationalist right government, Trump leads some 2024 polls again, Le Pen and Melenchon and the various other left parties combined now have more seats than the neoliberal Macron in the French Parliament. In the UK we voted for Brexit and Boris and very nearly voted for Corbyn in 2017.
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
Time to brush off that SS uniform?
You trying to lure Ed Balls back into politics?
Hasn't George Osborne got something similar if Ed can't help HY out?
"The background here is that someone did a FOI request for the announcement audio, crowdsourced transcriptions, and various things have been built on top of it."
This week I have seen confusion amongst police forces about what constitutes a ‘hate crime’.
The police need to enforce actual laws & fight actual crimes. Freedom of speech must be protected and a proportionate approach must be taken. 1/2
The public need to have confidence in their police forces.
This sort of thing undermines it.
Senior police officers who allow this to happen can expect to have to explain to me why they’re spending vital resources on politically correct campaigns. 2/2
“Well. This looks a bit ominous. Video of military equipment on the move in Belarus (via @JayinKyiv). Note white triangle tactical marking. Similar was seen on some Russian military vehicles before Russia's full-scale invasion. See examples in thread below.”
Comments
Even the names.
What ruins Britain's look is all the 1960s brutalism. It blights the views of our wonderful Georgian architecture in our big cities, and makes a lot of small towns just look uniformly shit.
You already qualify for pension years for lots of circumstances where you don't actually pay NI. Full time housewives etc. Just make the state pension truly universal.
(Those with knowledge... was it like this during the '50s and '60s? Was Churchill - Eden - Macmillan - Home seen as four governments or one evolving government?)
I've a feeling we'll be finding out in due course.
Congrats on the Council win in Epping Forest btw. It may not be especially significant but always nice to get 'one against the head'.
To an average Westerner the Nazis are the people who did the holocaust. The defining feature is racism, anti-semitism and genocide. To Russia, I’m increasingly convinced “Nazi” simply means someone from Europe who hates Russia. On that measure Ukrainian nationalists are Nazis.
Hence why a Russian nationalist can decry homosexuals and woke cuck Dems on the one hand and Ukrainian “Nazis” on the other.
I hope she is getting a decent slab of unconditional love from someone.
Britain has forfeited much of its economic influence (exercised within Brussels), it’s development influence (via cuts to the overseas aid), and the soft power associated with its reputation for seriousness and sobriety.
Johnson was of course a global joke, and Truss something worse.
We are playing an outsized role in Ukraine of course, which is not nothing.
I wasn't here to make the case for the UK but to gather market intelligence for my firm. I'm not a UK government official. Hopefully they were doing their best to play the hand the government had dealt them.
https://conservativehome.com/2022/10/16/its-all-over-for-truss/ via @conhome
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/16/the-real-life-mermaids-turning-fantasy-into-reality-on-britains-shores
The national interest doesn't come into it. Keep that gravy train rolling.
It would make far more sense to make a lunge towards Rivne then Ternopil (both about 200k population) to cut off Ukraine from Western support like weapons supplies and maintenance depots in Poland. Both West to east railway connections would be severed (or severely limited if within Russian artillery's range. In addition there's a railway line straight south from Belarus to Rivne that they can use to supply themselves, which the Kyiv attack did not have in the spring.
How about we let the voters have a go?
Can they really fuck it up worse than the Tory members did?
https://www.facebook.com/mackenziekwakparasitologist/videos/check-out-this-crab-infected-by-the-parasitic-sacculina-barnacle-which-manipulat/285670149038306/
Indeed one thing Sanders and Trump supporters and the hard left and nationalist right share is they despise the IMF and the neoliberal globalist order
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274902467406
Why the misspelling, no clue!
The original plan was to demolish all the Georgian architecture and extend the 1930s Art Deco Embassy Court (right) replacing all of the (now Grade I listed) Brunswick Town (left).
Fortunately Mr Hitler and sanity intervened.
Greece and Italy have never been seen as serious countries. Trump is (for now) in abeyance, and Le Pen has failed to win the Presidency on several occasions, despite your attempts to pretend otherwise.
https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1581640379278905344?s=20&t=Ev3qLbiNVkIIQesbNve_mQ
If the globalist neoliberal order thinks the populations of western democracies are just going to take ever higher taxes, ever deeper austerity and uncontrolled immigration, then the ballot box will increasingly prove otherwise!
In terms of just desserts and karma the Conservatives deserve to be out of office for a considerable time, not least because Johnson sold the notion of Brexit simply to become Prime Minister. Most Conservative MPs and Ministers, like Hunt, like Truss, knew it would be a fiasco, but after the event they went along for the ride anyway.
https://twitter.com/Exiled_Sinners/status/1581592168644296704
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/komodo-dragon
Now, it's true the U.K. isn't the US and gilts are not the default safe asset for global investors. But other central banks - noticeably China and Japan - have also decided to loosen their monetary policy.
@HYFUD is right - much of the pain going on is because the US is racking up its interest rates to catch up with past mistakes (and you know the Administration knows it has screwed up because it's blaming Trump's spending packages for causing inflation while blithely ignoring its own).
One final point - Biden may be mocking now but if - and it's a big if - he loses Congress and Truss hangs on, he might be finding some of the favour returned. It wouldn't take a few well aimed comments about his own policies, including his initial wobbling on Ukraine and the mixed messages he was sending, to cause him problems.
As long as Russian troops can push on the other three fronts, and keep a fixing force over the border from Kyiv Ukraine's defences will be very stretched in the West. In addition to get the Ternopil railway into Russian artillery range they'd only need to advance 20 miles south of Rivne, which is close enough they should be able to consistently supply the effort.
From a Ukrainian PoV I'd be reassured by the large front lines Russia would have the defend, the extremely low quality of the Russian mobiks and Belarusian regulars, and the complete inability of Russia to provide adequate training and winter wear for the months ahead.
It's Russia's best option for a game changer, but given they'd have to maintain the effort for a long while for it to cause collapse in the East I still don't think it is a good option.
·
1h
The Mail on Sunday speculating on a comeback for Mrs May. You really couldn't make it up.
I got rid of her once and would be very tempted to go for a second time.'
https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1581646846539182081?s=20&t=qKoGjGPUsSV9WciI3udIeg
Conversely the atrocities committed by Stalin against Ukraine did make some Ukrainian nationalist leaders pro-Nazi as "the lesser evil who will free us", and that attitude has persisted among some to the present day (cf. Azov). It's all a long time ago, but these prejudices linger, especially outside the cosmopolitan cities.
There's no reason why a rational ex-Soviet Russian shouldn't regret Ukraine wanting to be separate, without supporting a war to prevent it, in the same way that we in England might regret a Scottish decision to go independent without wanting (pace HYUFD) to send tanks to Edinburgh. But if Scottish leaders had supported Hitler during the war it would complicate attitudes here too. The war is an atrocity, but both populations are haunted by the sins of past generations, and it's possible to oppose the war, support Ukraine's defence, and still not entirely accept the ultra-nationalists on either side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Aiy9FVRU8s
I lack the technical skills, but someone needs to do a recut of the “You Have Been Watching” end credits of Hi-De-Hi, with Jeremy Hunt as Mr Fairbrother, Liz Truss as Peggy, and Therese Coffey as Ted Bovis.
"The background here is that someone did a FOI request for the announcement audio, crowdsourced transcriptions, and various things have been built on top of it."
Ironically 200 year old quickly flung up speculative Georgian architecture has proved easier to maintain than less than 85 year old Art Deco reinforced concrete......ah! Sea air!
https://youtu.be/rzx-eEXKqTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBU27IUaTb0
I would have thought tax reductions was the aim.
Hmm. Truss down to 1.64 to go this year, out to 3.3 next. May go for another hedge of the 46 for her going this year.
There was a rather good article the other day, by a chap who studied Russia academically, lived there, spoke the language etc.
He wrote some interesting stuff on how "Nazi" has been suborned by various Russian nationalists - going back to Soviet times - in very much this way. They want it to mean - anyone who *Russia is against*.
Which means that you can become a Nazi, even if you have no interest or concern with Russia. If they have a problem with you, that's all that is required.
I'm sure for all of us and for a variety of different reasons there is a gap between the world as it exists and as we would like it to be. The question is whether it is bad enough that blowing it up is going to be better (in my view no) and whether the solution on offer is rooted in reality (as far as the post Brexit Tory party is concerned, I don't think so).
https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1581676606682107905
1) Make people richer than me pay the taxes, but not me
2) Don't put up taxes for people richer than me because I aspire to get there
Toss up to which one is correct. Could be both as different voters think differently.
Put some down on that.
Edited extra bit: on 24 September she was 46 to go this year.
The police need to enforce actual laws & fight actual crimes. Freedom of speech must be protected and a proportionate approach must be taken. 1/2
The public need to have confidence in their police forces.
This sort of thing undermines it.
Senior police officers who allow this to happen can expect to have to explain to me why they’re spending vital resources on politically correct campaigns.
2/2
https://twitter.com/SuellaBraverman/status/1581618197585100800
Possibly related:
Chief Constable Simon Cole , said:“Leicestershire Police is thrilled to have made the Stonewall top 100 employer list .
https://tinyurl.com/248njnpa
1.64 may be as short as it gets. This year is only 10 weeks now.
“Well. This looks a bit ominous.
Video of military equipment on the move in Belarus (via @JayinKyiv). Note white triangle tactical marking. Similar was seen on some Russian military vehicles before Russia's full-scale invasion. See examples in thread below.”
https://twitter.com/euan_macdonald/status/1581639598291095552?s=46&t=Ur17zGIZtw45p1RkMrxyAw
Kemi Penny Rishi Hunt in that order. A good reason to keep the membership away from the decision.