“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
Re the headline: In my 6 months of 'garden leave' before retirement, I liked to remind colleagues from time to time that I was "forgotten but not gone".
My wife’s boss just retired after more than 20 years with the company. He’s still on some sort of formal gardening leave, and says he’s shocked that no-one calls him for anything.
We are all just a number if we work for a company. No one is indispensible. Businesses very quickly adapt.
I am not a number I am a free man (since 2001). Which is why I can dip in and out and post bollocks on here throughout the day.
So basically Elon Musk is a traitor working with America's enemies, he's also the main funder and proponent of Donald Trump's campaign, and he controls a bunch of our communications and national security infrastructure. And is the richest guy on earth, to boot. Seems bad
I suspect this is a desperate load of bollocks confected by the democrats in fear of Trump winning. Recall they suppressed lab leak - the origins of a global pandemic, arguably the most important peacetime FACT in history - to help Biden
Something about Elon causes people to completely take leave of their mental faculties. Was there ever a time when people recognised that all human beings are flawed but deserving of judgement in the round? All this tribalism for its own sake is so tedious.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
I disagree actually. There are many ways that it can be a force for good.
Re the headline: In my 6 months of 'garden leave' before retirement, I liked to remind colleagues from time to time that I was "forgotten but not gone".
My wife’s boss just retired after more than 20 years with the company. He’s still on some sort of formal gardening leave, and says he’s shocked that no-one calls him for anything.
We are all just a number if we work for a company. No one is indispensible. Businesses very quickly adapt.
I am not a number I am a free man (since 2001). Which is why I can dip in and out and post bollocks on here throughout the day.
I will be a free man from 1st Feb next year. However I dip in and out depending on workload.
I wear my "number 6" badge every day. Only one person has got the significance
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
What I would like is for the UK’s political class to wake up to the fact that the world is a cold, hard, place; that no country of any significance gives a damn about human rights or international law if these things conflict with reason of state. That nobody is impressed because you give apologies for the past. That relations between states are mostly transactional.
None of those things are true. Ideas of human rights, while contested in detail, are widespread in the most significant countries in the world. Most countries follow international law most of the time. Relations between states often reflect long-standing ties of culture and trade. Apologies can help heal divisions.
Is Russia a better place because they’re playing “according to big boys’ rules”? Is Israel? Is China?
No, they aren’t better places, but your error is to think that rival powers will be impressed by your values. They will not.
Well of course Russia and China don’t want Starlink services in Taiwan, but is there any evidence that the company is actually trying to deny service there?
Starlink is not available in Taiwan. Because there is a Taiwanese law that says that any ISP has to be 51% Taiwanese owned.
Taiwan is looking at building its own, small scale, LEO constellation.
So basically Elon Musk is a traitor working with America's enemies, he's also the main funder and proponent of Donald Trump's campaign, and he controls a bunch of our communications and national security infrastructure. And is the richest guy on earth, to boot. Seems bad
I suspect this is a desperate load of bollocks confected by the democrats in fear of Trump winning.
Your head is so far up Elon's ass you can't tell up from down tho
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
I disagree actually. There are many ways that it can be a force for good.
Perhaps. Also the Aussies and Canadians are quite keen on the commonwealth - I heard both sides praising it in Whistler BC last month (a town which has loads of young Aussies, Canucks and Brits all working alongside - a rite of passage - they actually call it Whistralia)
It brings a lot of benefits to many people in terms of education, visas, cultural exchanges
However if it is to endure the British above all need to lay down the law. It is not a forum to guilt trip the UK, not any more. They can all go fuck themselves and hang out with China if that’s what they want. See how far it gets them. Ask the Sri Lankans how that is working out
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
France's democratic credentials are rather questionable given the power of the Presidency, designed as it was by de Gaulle for de Gaulle. See how Macron was just able to ram a bitterly unpopular pension reform through by Presidential decree, overriding the National Assembly.
A Presidential system like that naturally tends towards dictatorship, or at least strongman populists, unless you have strict checks and balances, which the Americans, for all their faults, still do. Russia is an even more extreme case: Yeltsin did most of Putin's work for him by concentrating all the power in his own office. Just as an extreme Parliamentary system like Italy, Belgium or the French Fourth Republic tends towards chaos and indecision.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
France stuck the Olympic surfing on in Tahiti, compare to Lammy & Starmer's giving away of Chagos and mewlings over reparations. Our host for a holiday a few years back told us (mockingly) that Macron thought of himself as Jupiter, but he really is next to Kier Starmer.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
Well of course Russia and China don’t want Starlink services in Taiwan, but is there any evidence that the company is actually trying to deny service there?
Starlink is not available in Taiwan. Because there is a Taiwanese law that says that any ISP has to be 51% Taiwanese owned.
Taiwan is looking at building its own, small scale, LEO constellation.
Okay intesting, but very different from the “Putin told Musk to deny Starlink service in Taiwan (and that’s what he did)” story that some are trying to promote.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
The BRICS are dominating global social media, partly through actual events, and partly through bots.
I don't think I've seen this extent of non-Western alliance since the Cold War.
The West has some thinking to do.
100%.
It’s a failure of statecraft by the West, led by Biden, that’s allowed this grouping to emerge in the first place.
To see China, India, Brazil, Russia, and a bunch of OPEC states, in the same place, plotting primarily to undermine the US$ as the global reserve currency, could be the biggest story of the next decade. These countries either have huge populations or oil wealth, and see themselves as the dominant economies of the 21st Century.
From the UK perspective, certainly more effort should have been put in to keeping India on side.
It's not the West's responsibility to 'allow' these kinds of groupings to occur or not. That's the kind of attitude that the left has when it blames the US for every coup and nasty regime in Latin America in the 20th century. It denies any kind of agency on behalf of other countries. What the West should be doing is to decide what it stands for, how it wants to organise itself and then to get on and do it.
The Truss episode seems ever more surreal in hindsight, conclusive proof that the Tory hegemony was coming to an end. It is worse than the 45 days that she survived as PM. The Tory membership listened to that bat shit insanity over months and thought, "yes, we'll have some of that." Conclusive proof that they were not fit to govern.
I feel a bit sorry for Sunak. If the Conservative party membership had chosen him instead I think his Premiership would have been different but it was constantly overshadowed by the Truss fiasco. And now the members are being given another second or even third rate choice. The future existence of the Tories as a major player in UK politics is by no means assured.
Yawn. Zero analysis, just asinine repetition of Labour talking points.
Labour might save the Tories from themselves.
They are doing everything possible to encourage a rapid revival.
An optimist thinks no government could be worse than the last one.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57270099
Not sure if that link works, should show Macron asking for forgiveness for Frances role in Rwanda genocide.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
Then we would also finally have to put one side to anti-intellectualism that has blighted Britain since the mid-nineteenth century.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
South Korea might be a better model in terms of foreign policy.
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
As usual I post to dead and buried posts and wonder why I am alone. So replies to @JohnO and @Cicero are on the last thread. Thanks to both for replying to my original post. What an idiot I am
So basically Elon Musk is a traitor working with America's enemies, he's also the main funder and proponent of Donald Trump's campaign, and he controls a bunch of our communications and national security infrastructure. And is the richest guy on earth, to boot. Seems bad
I suspect this is a desperate load of bollocks confected by the democrats in fear of Trump winning. Recall they suppressed lab leak - the origins of a global pandemic, arguably the most important peacetime FACT in history - to help Biden
Something about Elon causes people to completely take leave of their mental faculties. Was there ever a time when people recognised that all human beings are flawed but deserving of judgement in the round? All this tribalism for its own sake is so tedious.
Elon Derangement Syndrome. It is contagious
I thought much criticism of Musk was valid but now notable PB conspiracy theorists and UFO fantasisers Leon and moonshiner think it's a derangement syndrome I will think again.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
It used to be a channel whereby emerging countries had their voice heard at the highest levels internationally (via the UK). In the changing environment they would rather cosy up with China or Russia
China probably has more to offer in terms of manufacturing development, of course. It will come with strings - but so did half a century of western money.
Russia has an obvious appeal to the more autocratic.
So basically Elon Musk is a traitor working with America's enemies, he's also the main funder and proponent of Donald Trump's campaign, and he controls a bunch of our communications and national security infrastructure. And is the richest guy on earth, to boot. Seems bad
I suspect this is a desperate load of bollocks confected by the democrats in fear of Trump winning.
Your head is so far up Elon's ass you can't tell up from down tho
Yes but on the other hand you are a fucking weirdo
Well of course Russia and China don’t want Starlink services in Taiwan, but is there any evidence that the company is actually trying to deny service there?
Starlink is not available in Taiwan. Because there is a Taiwanese law that says that any ISP has to be 51% Taiwanese owned.
Taiwan is looking at building its own, small scale, LEO constellation.
Okay intesting, but very different from the “Putin told Musk to deny Starlink service in Taiwan (and that’s what he did)” story that some are trying to promote.
What happened was that -
1) Starlink opened negotiations with Taiwan 2) The Taiwanese offered a deal where it would be run through a locally owned company which would have total access to the technology etc 3) Starlink/Musk said no thank you
Anyone who has dealt in that part of the world knows what the “total technology access” means.
So basically Elon Musk is a traitor working with America's enemies, he's also the main funder and proponent of Donald Trump's campaign, and he controls a bunch of our communications and national security infrastructure. And is the richest guy on earth, to boot. Seems bad
I suspect this is a desperate load of bollocks confected by the democrats in fear of Trump winning. Recall they suppressed lab leak - the origins of a global pandemic, arguably the most important peacetime FACT in history - to help Biden
Something about Elon causes people to completely take leave of their mental faculties. Was there ever a time when people recognised that all human beings are flawed but deserving of judgement in the round? All this tribalism for its own sake is so tedious.
Elon Derangement Syndrome. It is contagious
I thought much criticism of Musk was valid but now notable PB conspiracy theorists and UFO fantasisers Leon and moonshiner think it's a derangement syndrome I will think again.
So basically Elon Musk is a traitor working with America's enemies, he's also the main funder and proponent of Donald Trump's campaign, and he controls a bunch of our communications and national security infrastructure. And is the richest guy on earth, to boot. Seems bad
I suspect this is a desperate load of bollocks confected by the democrats in fear of Trump winning. Recall they suppressed lab leak - the origins of a global pandemic, arguably the most important peacetime FACT in history - to help Biden
Something about Elon causes people to completely take leave of their mental faculties. Was there ever a time when people recognised that all human beings are flawed but deserving of judgement in the round? All this tribalism for its own sake is so tedious.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
But you literally claimed it was just some acronym invented in the FT. Now you’ve been shown that they are actually having a BRICS conference - at which they have been discussing a BRICS payment system to circumvent SWIFT
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
What I would like is for the UK’s political class to wake up to the fact that the world is a cold, hard, place; that no country of any significance gives a damn about human rights or international law if these things conflict with reason of state. That nobody is impressed because you give apologies for the past. That relations between states are mostly transactional.
None of those things are true. Ideas of human rights, while contested in detail, are widespread in the most significant countries in the world. Most countries follow international law most of the time. Relations between states often reflect long-standing ties of culture and trade. Apologies can help heal divisions.
Is Russia a better place because they’re playing “according to big boys’ rules”? Is Israel? Is China?
No, they aren’t better places, but your error is to think that rival powers will be impressed by your values. They will not.
The UK has more friends in the world than Russia or Israel. Our neighbours aren’t sanctioning us or shooting missiles at us. It seems our neighbours are thankful for our values.
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
I agree with most of this.
Trump is a major threat to world democracy, but I'm not at.all sure that the Biden stance on Ukraine isn't a major threat to world safety.
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
Where can we get odds?
Like the Terminator, isn't he ineligible as he's not a natural born American?
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
Having a strange and nice sense of nostalgia (or ostalgia) listening to BBC news about small boats from “Western Germany”. I’m missing West Germany and East Germany and the iron curtain. You knew where you stood with the Soviet Union.
These are quite extraordinary results. The Labour vote is collapsing everywhere
See my other post. I know the Old Dean very well. I have been involved in the past in umpteen elections here. Organised a few in the 90s/00s. It has always been a Tory/Lab fight. The LDs have never won it. Never made any inroads even in by elections. It is the worst ward in SH for the LDs.
So something must be happening locally. It is an unprecedented result otherwise.
The Lib Dems took control of the council and won the Parliamentary seat. This is an example of how once that happens, they consolidate all the anti-Tory vote behind them. Those Tories thinking that the 2024 gains for the Lib Dems will meekly revert to previous Tory loyalties may find that in fact they lose ground as the yellows dig in to their new seats. The county elections next may could see some big shifts in favour of Ed Davey's party as a result.
The Liberal Democrats stick to seats like shit to a stick.
And it’s not by magic. It is by chasing every vote. I was recently involved in part of a campaign against the lib dems in a naturally conservative ward. They miss no trick. Neither candidate lived in the ward or anywhere near it, but the lib dem one had managed to get on the parish council, which you only need to live within three miles of the ward to sit on. From that point she was the ‘local candidate’ whilst the other candidate was a carpet bagging failed candidate elsewhere (she herself had recently stood in another by election). Every leaflet had a picture of a very dodgy bar chart implying that only lib dems could beat the tories, they even put a map of how far away she lived from the ward and how far away the con lived. They both lived more of less the same distance away but they used a large head figure for both candidates and placed one appearing it was in the ward by offsetting the proximity from where they actually lived, and exaggerated the distance for the other candidate by doing the opposite. Remember, both candidate didn’t live in the ward and both lived more or less the same distance from the ward. Repeated canvassing responses was “I’m voting for the local candidate this time”. They will put out more leaflets, knock on more doors, and will say and do anything they think will give them an extra vote. Whist cons might just put out a single main leaflet, a letter to voters and a minimal get out the vote on the day.
So why haven't the Tories learned this yet?
The bit they can't replicate is the LD activists: they are remarkably resilient at pedantically and relentlessly pounding the streets for their pointless party, and they never give up - despite never going anywhere or achieving anything. Ever.
It takes a certain sort of obsessive and dedicated person, and it's hard for the grey rinse brigade to replicate that. And I could never be arsed.
One interesting point on Old Dean is that the Conservative candidate, from social media, seems to be a well established local with a lot of involvement.
It's from an advocate, but it's a pretty good list of things:
Stating the obvious, I think loss of locally based activists everywhere is a big issue for the Conservatives everywhere, and - at last - perhaps age. They have a gap to bridge of a number of years where some will be reluctant to join a losing cause.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
Then we would also finally have to put one side to anti-intellectualism that has blighted Britain since the mid-nineteenth century.
No sign of that yet.
It's more nuanced than that. The UK combines an extraordinary intellectual, academic and cultural existence alongside a raucous barbarism, especially in politics, sport, yoof culture and the pretend anti-intellectualism of posh bits of the media. This goes back a long way. Think of the golden age of Northumbria; Bede, the Synod of Whitby, Lindisfarne gospels and the Ruthwell cross, and put it alongside what ordinary life, death, murder, rape and battle was actually like.
Today's politics; the power battle sport is between intellectual barbarians while Rory, Curtice, Bogdanor, Hennessy, George Parker, Tim Bale, Iain Dale and company do the commentary.
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
Where can we get odds?
He’s ineligible to run for POTUS.
Damn - managed to delete a second too late
Who knows after 4 more years of Trump though? The irony of him bringing in a foreign born amendment would be fantastic.
'There is no greater US patriot and lover of our country than my good friend Elon, time for our Constitution to recognise such quality.'
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
I think that, however imperfect, it is unequivocally better. You have somehow forgotten that Ukraine is in the tactical situation it now is thanks to a full six month delay in US aid, courtesy of Trump and his poodle in Congress, Mike Johnson.
Well of course Russia and China don’t want Starlink services in Taiwan, but is there any evidence that the company is actually trying to deny service there?
Starlink is not available in Taiwan. Because there is a Taiwanese law that says that any ISP has to be 51% Taiwanese owned.
Taiwan is looking at building its own, small scale, LEO constellation.
Okay intesting, but very different from the “Putin told Musk to deny Starlink service in Taiwan (and that’s what he did)” story that some are trying to promote.
What happened was that -
1) Starlink opened negotiations with Taiwan 2) The Taiwanese offered a deal where it would be run through a locally owned company which would have total access to the technology etc 3) Starlink/Musk said no thank you
Anyone who has dealt in that part of the world knows what the “total technology access” means.
As to the stories about Putin - who knows?
Yes it’s the same in my part of the world, but for example Tesla managed to find a silent ‘local partner’ here. Because they had no choice if they wanted to sell their cars here.
I guess they’re seeing how many markets push back on their ownership laws. Taiwan is going to be an insignificant market for Starlink - until the Chinese invade, at which point SpaceX needs to decide what to do.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
Having a strange and nice sense of nostalgia (or ostalgia) listening to BBC news about small boats from “Western Germany”. I’m missing West Germany and East Germany and the iron curtain. You knew where you stood with the Soviet Union.
We were almost back this week when Geoff Capes died. It is only recently the shot put record has started moving again.
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
Where can we get odds?
He’s ineligible to run for POTUS.
Why bother ? Vance is the property of that billionaire set anyway.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
But you literally claimed it was just some acronym invented in the FT. Now you’ve been shown that they are actually having a BRICS conference - at which they have been discussing a BRICS payment system to circumvent SWIFT
Hate to quibble but SWIFT isn’t a payment system. And quite frankly lots of payments systems are trying to “circumvent” SWIFT. For example you can use the EU’s payment system TARGET2 via a different messaging network. Similar moves are afoot in the UK.
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
I think that, however imperfect, it is unequivocally better. You have somehow forgotten that Ukraine is in the tactical situation it now is thanks to a full six month delay in US aid, courtesy of Trump and his poodle in Congress, Mike Johnson.
The Ukraine is in the situation it's in is because it traded it's nukes for words. We should take note.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
Where can we get odds?
He’s ineligible to run for POTUS.
Damn - managed to delete a second too late
Who knows after 4 more years of Trump though? The irony of him bringing in a foreign born amendment would be fantastic.
'There is no greater US patriot and lover of our country than my good friend Elon, time for our Constitution to recognise such quality.'
Or the Supreme court rules that as the Dem's obviously cheated with Obama, it's only fair that the GOP have a bye :-)
Well of course Russia and China don’t want Starlink services in Taiwan, but is there any evidence that the company is actually trying to deny service there?
Starlink is not available in Taiwan. Because there is a Taiwanese law that says that any ISP has to be 51% Taiwanese owned.
Taiwan is looking at building its own, small scale, LEO constellation.
Okay intesting, but very different from the “Putin told Musk to deny Starlink service in Taiwan (and that’s what he did)” story that some are trying to promote.
What happened was that -
1) Starlink opened negotiations with Taiwan 2) The Taiwanese offered a deal where it would be run through a locally owned company which would have total access to the technology etc 3) Starlink/Musk said no thank you
Anyone who has dealt in that part of the world knows what the “total technology access” means.
As to the stories about Putin - who knows?
Yes it’s the same in my part of the world, but for example Tesla managed to find a silent ‘local partner’ here. Because they had no choice if they wanted to sell their cars here.
I guess they’re seeing how many markets push back on their ownership laws. Taiwan is going to be an insignificant market for Starlink - until the Chinese invade, at which point SpaceX needs to decide what to do.
Starlink is also not present in mainland China - if nothing else, they also want total control of ISPs.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
But you literally claimed it was just some acronym invented in the FT. Now you’ve been shown that they are actually having a BRICS conference - at which they have been discussing a BRICS payment system to circumvent SWIFT
Took the founding four half a decade to pick up on the idea. And while India and China continue to exchange blows, it doesn't really mean all that much.
India certainly aren't going to sacrifice their relations with the US because of it.
Having a strange and nice sense of nostalgia (or ostalgia) listening to BBC news about small boats from “Western Germany”. I’m missing West Germany and East Germany and the iron curtain. You knew where you stood with the Soviet Union.
It's high time to revisit the inadequacies of the Treaty of Verdun of 843.
The famously woke and anti-Trump Wall Street Journal has clearly invented the story about Elon Musk being in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. The fact that Musk shares Putin's entire values system is entirely coincidental. He is a far better engineer, though.
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
Where can we get odds?
He’s ineligible to run for POTUS.
Why bother ? Vance is the property of that billionaire set anyway.
Maybe Elon is pitching for Mars funding. As America's version of Brian Cox said, Nasa will go to Mars when China wants to. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LE5MWuiDuGM (30 seconds video)
Well of course Russia and China don’t want Starlink services in Taiwan, but is there any evidence that the company is actually trying to deny service there?
Starlink is not available in Taiwan. Because there is a Taiwanese law that says that any ISP has to be 51% Taiwanese owned.
Taiwan is looking at building its own, small scale, LEO constellation.
Okay intesting, but very different from the “Putin told Musk to deny Starlink service in Taiwan (and that’s what he did)” story that some are trying to promote.
What happened was that -
1) Starlink opened negotiations with Taiwan 2) The Taiwanese offered a deal where it would be run through a locally owned company which would have total access to the technology etc 3) Starlink/Musk said no thank you
Anyone who has dealt in that part of the world knows what the “total technology access” means.
As to the stories about Putin - who knows?
Yes it’s the same in my part of the world, but for example Tesla managed to find a silent ‘local partner’ here. Because they had no choice if they wanted to sell their cars here.
I guess they’re seeing how many markets push back on their ownership laws. Taiwan is going to be an insignificant market for Starlink - until the Chinese invade, at which point SpaceX needs to decide what to do.
Starlink is also not present in mainland China - if nothing else, they also want total control of ISPs.
Anywhere East of about Poland insists on ISPs being in cahoots with local governments and law enforcement.
To most of the world’s population, it’s very weird that in the UK you can get a SIM card without recording your ID.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It's a harbinger for what SPLORG can become
Good morning everyone.
True. An interesting issue is that politically Trump (who will be next POTUS) has more in common with the attitudes of BRICS than the G7. If that turns into action it will be consequential.
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
I think that, however imperfect, it is unequivocally better. You have somehow forgotten that Ukraine is in the tactical situation it now is thanks to a full six month delay in US aid, courtesy of Trump and his poodle in Congress, Mike Johnson.
The Ukraine is in the situation it is in is because it traded it's nukes for words. We should take note.
Whether hanging onto it nukes was a practical possibility at the time is debatable. Though they could have restarted a nuclear program after that. It's in the situation it is because it trusted the word of France, Germany and the US to guarantee its security. Which is why nothing short of NATO membership is going to be the basis for a peace settlement.
Musk's very overt conversion to MAGA in the last few weeks looks to me like a tilt at POTUS 2028 (especially as Vance is his & Thiel's gimp). It's not like he's averse to taking on new challenges.
Where can we get odds?
He’s ineligible to run for POTUS.
Why bother ? Vance is the property of that billionaire set anyway.
Maybe Elon is pitching for Mars funding. As America's version of Brian Cox said, Nasa will go to Mars when China wants to. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LE5MWuiDuGM (30 seconds video)
Will China want to go to Mars, or will they go for more sensible objectives in space exploration exploitation?
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
But you literally claimed it was just some acronym invented in the FT. Now you’ve been shown that they are actually having a BRICS conference - at which they have been discussing a BRICS payment system to circumvent SWIFT
Took the founding four half a decade to pick up on the idea. And while India and China continue to exchange blows, it doesn't really mean all that much.
India certainly aren't going to sacrifice their relations with the US because of it.
What complacent nonsense
This is a significant geopolitical development. Large non western economies are coming together to work - explicitly - outside the hitherto western-dominated economic system
And who can blame them? Right now everything os dominated by the USA - the world bank and the IMF are literally in the USA, the dollar is the global reserve currency
Why should China and the BRICS tolerate this now they are actually larger economies than the G7, in toto? And going to get even larger as India and Indonesia and Brazil expand?
Just because there are rivalries within the brics nations doesn’t mean they can’t effectively act together. France is in nato as are turkey and Greece -
Having a strange and nice sense of nostalgia (or ostalgia) listening to BBC news about small boats from “Western Germany”. I’m missing West Germany and East Germany and the iron curtain. You knew where you stood with the Soviet Union.
It's high time to revisit the inadequacies of the Treaty of Verdun of 843.
"Western Germany" according to Verdun became the statelet known as "France"...
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
I think that, however imperfect, it is unequivocally better. You have somehow forgotten that Ukraine is in the tactical situation it now is thanks to a full six month delay in US aid, courtesy of Trump and his poodle in Congress, Mike Johnson.
I have forgotten nothing. I just don’t agree with you. Ukraine is in the position it is in because Obama / Biden / Sullivan do not understand the need for credible deterrence. “Chemical weapons are a red line”…”it depends what sort of invasion”.
If we take Bob Woodward’s version, in autumn 2022 when we were fixed on the Queen’s funeral and a lettuce, the Russian army was on the run. But Ukraine was ordered to let them escape from Kherson because Biden was scared of nuclear war.
With hindsight, Ukraine was then setup to fail in 2023 with the much much trialed counter offensive. It was being expected to cross dense mine fields with no air support for its engineers, which got picked off by Russian helicopters. At every turn, Ukraine has had one hand behind its back. Don’t forget Lend Lease expired unused. You can’t blame that on Trump.
The bill that was eventually passed this year had a requirement for the US to provide ATACMS. Because the Biden White House had refused to provide them.
In his obsession with de-escalation doctinre, Biden has forgotten that deterrence is cheaper and more effective the earlier you do it. But we are sadly now well beyond that point. There needs to be an urgent strategic rethink about how to restore credible deterrence in Europe and the Pacific. And I’m not clear how sending thousands of Ukrainians to their deaths against North Korean slaves achieves that. Will trump provide a good answer? I don’t know. Neither do you. I do know that the status quo is becoming very dangerous indeed.
The BRICS are dominating global social media, partly through actual events, and partly through bots.
I don't think I've seen this extent of non-Western alliance since the Cold War.
The West has some thinking to do.
100%.
It’s a failure of statecraft by the West, led by Biden, that’s allowed this grouping to emerge in the first place.
To see China, India, Brazil, Russia, and a bunch of OPEC states, in the same place, plotting primarily to undermine the US$ as the global reserve currency, could be the biggest story of the next decade. These countries either have huge populations or oil wealth, and see themselves as the dominant economies of the 21st Century.
From the UK perspective, certainly more effort should have been put in to keeping India on side.
It's certainly a failure by the West that so many countries have fallen into the Chinese sphere of influence. The West could have been making the investments in developing countries that the Chinese have over the last 20 years. We chose not to. But given this was the 16th BRICs summit, pinning it on Biden is a bit harsh.
The famously woke and anti-Trump Wall Street Journal has clearly invented the story about Elon Musk being in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. The fact that Musk shares Putin's entire values system is entirely coincidental. He is a far better engineer, though.
We know musk is in regular contact with Putin because he TOLD us about a year ago when he was floating ideas for a Ukrainian peace
Similarly, several Russian oligarchs - like Abramovich - are talking to the west even as they obey Putin
This is how diplomacy works. Powerful individuals can often act as go-betweens
Otherwise how would peace ever get discussed? Next
On the plus side, if this happens, SpaceX doesn't have to contend with his nonsense any more, and we get to see whether Tesla is anything but smoke and mirrors and badly assembled cars. It's too late for Twitter.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
Then we would also finally have to put one side to anti-intellectualism that has blighted Britain since the mid-nineteenth century.
No sign of that yet.
It's more nuanced than that. The UK combines an extraordinary intellectual, academic and cultural existence alongside a raucous barbarism, especially in politics, sport, yoof culture and the pretend anti-intellectualism of posh bits of the media. This goes back a long way. Think of the golden age of Northumbria; Bede, the Synod of Whitby, Lindisfarne gospels and the Ruthwell cross, and put it alongside what ordinary life, death, murder, rape and battle was actually like.
Today's politics; the power battle sport is between intellectual barbarians while Rory, Curtice, Bogdanor, Hennessy, George Parker, Tim Bale, Iain Dale and company do the commentary.
Actually it is huge fun.
I would see it rather differently, in that I think that our world-leading Universities are essentially what remains of Enlightenment Britain before a facile cult of anti-intellectualism swept through for about 150 years , a misunderstanding of empiricism and scepticism.
As I've mentioned before , look at our public culture compared to France and Germany's. A broadcast culture can only be dumbed down to that extent, with litle state or public opposition, if complex ideas are less valued.
The famously woke and anti-Trump Wall Street Journal has clearly invented the story about Elon Musk being in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. The fact that Musk shares Putin's entire values system is entirely coincidental. He is a far better engineer, though.
We know musk is in regular contact with Putin because he TOLD us about a year ago when he was floating ideas for a Ukrainian peace
Similarly, several Russian oligarchs - like Abramovich - are talking to the west even as they obey Putin
This is how diplomacy works. Powerful individuals can often act as go-betweens
Otherwise how would peace ever get discussed? Next
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It's a harbinger for what SPLORG can become
Good morning everyone.
The comparison with The SPLORG (note: correct usage requires the definite article) is actually not a million miles off. Both represent disparate and mutually semi-hostile actors that nevertheless have a shared interest in seeing the dominance of the established powers reduced. I doubt there will be any summits of The SPLORG in the near future, though.
Yougov has Truss as the only PM since Blair with a lower net poll rating than Starmer at this stage of his premiership. So I suspect Sir Keir is very grateful to Liz https://x.com/YouGov/status/1849441038030500073
The famously woke and anti-Trump Wall Street Journal has clearly invented the story about Elon Musk being in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. The fact that Musk shares Putin's entire values system is entirely coincidental. He is a far better engineer, though.
I doubt Putin is *that* much better an engineer than Musk.
The famously woke and anti-Trump Wall Street Journal has clearly invented the story about Elon Musk being in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. The fact that Musk shares Putin's entire values system is entirely coincidental. He is a far better engineer, though.
We know musk is in regular contact with Putin because he TOLD us about a year ago when he was floating ideas for a Ukrainian peace
Similarly, several Russian oligarchs - like Abramovich - are talking to the west even as they obey Putin
This is how diplomacy works. Powerful individuals can often act as go-betweens
Otherwise how would peace ever get discussed? Next
You say 'peace'; if he's talking to Putin alone, then it'll be 'surrender' they're discussing. Ukrainian surrender, that is.
It's like Corbyn talking to the IRA etc in terms of 'peace', If you're talking to only one side, then you're not talking peace. You're talking their side. Worse, these publicity-seeking idiots who go about trying to negotiate 'peace' without the explicit or implicit say-so of their government often make matters worse by disrupting other negotiations.
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
You say, "I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box.". You then criticise the current US administration for "Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions", which Congress stymied on the direct instructions of Donald Trump. Donald Trump's "solution", as you put it, is to give Putin everything he asks for.
How will the continuation of the current US Administration NOT be unequivocally better for the freedom of Ukraine, which you profess?
The BRICS are dominating global social media, partly through actual events, and partly through bots.
I don't think I've seen this extent of non-Western alliance since the Cold War.
The West has some thinking to do.
100%.
It’s a failure of statecraft by the West, led by Biden, that’s allowed this grouping to emerge in the first place.
To see China, India, Brazil, Russia, and a bunch of OPEC states, in the same place, plotting primarily to undermine the US$ as the global reserve currency, could be the biggest story of the next decade. These countries either have huge populations or oil wealth, and see themselves as the dominant economies of the 21st Century.
From the UK perspective, certainly more effort should have been put in to keeping India on side.
It's certainly a failure by the West that so many countries have fallen into the Chinese sphere of influence. The West could have been making the investments in developing countries that the Chinese have over the last 20 years. We chose not to. But given this was the 16th BRICs summit, pinning it on Biden is a bit harsh.
I’d argue that the association has been pretty much irrelevant until the last couple of years, when they’ve expended to include a number of OPEC nations.
Letting the Saudis join BRICS, and start selling oil to China denominated in Yuan, is a massive failure from Blinken that threatens to undermine the US$. The Gulf states all pretty much tie their currencies to the US$ at the moment, and there should be a worry that this might change in the near future.
The US Treasury is currently sitting on $36trn of debt, compared to GDP of $29trn. A run on that could turn the whole Western economy upside-down.
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
I think that, however imperfect, it is unequivocally better. You have somehow forgotten that Ukraine is in the tactical situation it now is thanks to a full six month delay in US aid, courtesy of Trump and his poodle in Congress, Mike Johnson.
I have forgotten nothing. I just don’t agree with you. Ukraine is in the position it is in because Obama / Biden / Sullivan do not understand the need for credible deterrence. “Chemical weapons are a red line”…”it depends what sort of invasion”.
If we take Bob Woodward’s version, in autumn 2022 when we were fixed on the Queen’s funeral and a lettuce, the Russian army was on the run. But Ukraine was ordered to let them escape from Kherson because Biden was scared of nuclear war.
With hindsight, Ukraine was then setup to fail in 2023 with the much much trialed counter offensive. It was being expected to cross dense mine fields with no air support for its engineers, which got picked off by Russian helicopters. At every turn, Ukraine has had one hand behind its back. Don’t forget Lend Lease expired unused. You can’t blame that on Trump.
The bill that was eventually passed this year had a requirement for the US to provide ATACMS. Because the Biden White House had refused to provide them.
In his obsession with de-escalation doctinre, Biden has forgotten that deterrence is cheaper and more effective the earlier you do it. But we are sadly now well beyond that point. There needs to be an urgent strategic rethink about how to restore credible deterrence in Europe and the Pacific. And I’m not clear how sending thousands of Ukrainians to their deaths against North Korean slaves achieves that. Will trump provide a good answer? I don’t know. Neither do you. I do know that the status quo is becoming very dangerous indeed.
FWIW, I've argued for a stronger western response since the start of the invasion. I was ridiculed by not a few posters on here (including our peripatetic aviator) for saying Biden should have sent F16s back in 2022. So you're not telling me anything I don't already know.
I just think it completely delusional to think Trump would be anything but a disaster for the continued existence of Ukraine as an independent state.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It's a harbinger for what SPLORG can become
Good morning everyone.
The comparison with The SPLORG (note: correct usage requires the definite article) is actually not a million miles off. Both represent disparate and mutually semi-hostile actors that nevertheless have a shared interest in seeing the dominance of the established powers reduced. I doubt there will be any summits of The SPLORG in the near future, though.
Like BRICS, The SPLORG is easy to remember too. It evokes a mixture of Dr Who baddies and anonymous Top Gear racing driver.
The famously woke and anti-Trump Wall Street Journal has clearly invented the story about Elon Musk being in regular contact with Vladimir Putin. The fact that Musk shares Putin's entire values system is entirely coincidental. He is a far better engineer, though.
We know musk is in regular contact with Putin because he TOLD us about a year ago when he was floating ideas for a Ukrainian peace
Similarly, several Russian oligarchs - like Abramovich - are talking to the west even as they obey Putin
This is how diplomacy works. Powerful individuals can often act as go-betweens
Otherwise how would peace ever get discussed? Next
You say 'peace'; if he's talking to Putin alone, then it'll be 'surrender' they're discussing. Ukrainian surrender, that is.
It's like Corbyn talking to the IRA etc in terms of 'peace', If you're talking to only one side, then you're not talking peace. You're talking their side. Worse, these publicity-seeking idiots who go about trying to negotiate 'peace' without the explicit or implicit say-so of their government often make matters worse by disrupting other negotiations.
A serious question. What would you do regarding Russia / Ukraine if you were in charge? Do you think the current “strategy” is a good one?
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
yet...
India and China are rivals. Russia is a supplicant that talks a big game. Brazil needs to fix its own mess.
Contrast with something like Five Eyes where there is a common heritage and close ties.
Yougov has Truss as the only PM since Blair with a lower net poll rating than Starmer at this stage of his premiership. So I suspect Sir Keir is very grateful to Liz https://x.com/YouGov/status/1849441038030500073
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
China, Russia, India, Israel, the USA, France, all play according to big boys’ rules. They aren’t impressed by handwringing or apologies. They don’t agonise over the past. Our own leaders are simply abject.
Do you want the UK to be more like Russia and Israel? Should we invade Ireland? Or more like China?
France wouid be good. Democratic and liberal but with a self confident patriotism that is proud of France and French culture and the French contribution to civilisation and not about to hand over reunion island to Beijing
Then we would also finally have to put one side to anti-intellectualism that has blighted Britain since the mid-nineteenth century.
No sign of that yet.
It's more nuanced than that. The UK combines an extraordinary intellectual, academic and cultural existence alongside a raucous barbarism, especially in politics, sport, yoof culture and the pretend anti-intellectualism of posh bits of the media. This goes back a long way. Think of the golden age of Northumbria; Bede, the Synod of Whitby, Lindisfarne gospels and the Ruthwell cross, and put it alongside what ordinary life, death, murder, rape and battle was actually like.
Today's politics; the power battle sport is between intellectual barbarians while Rory, Curtice, Bogdanor, Hennessy, George Parker, Tim Bale, Iain Dale and company do the commentary.
Actually it is huge fun.
I would see it rather differently, in that I think that our world-leading Universities are essentially what remains of Enlightenment Britain before a facile cult of anti-intellectualism swept through for about 150 years , a misunderstanding of empiricism and scepticism.
As I've mentioned before , look at our public culture compared to France and Germany's. A broadcast culture can only be dumbed down to that extent, with litle state or public opposition, if complex ideas are less valued.
I don't know about that. In the early nineteenth century our university Fellows were mostly interested in having a good time.
Whilst I agree with you, in part, about anti-intellectualism, I'd say it's more of a post-1960's phenomenon. I can remember actually looking forward to people like Brian Walden, Ludovic Kennedy, David Frost, Sir Robin Day interviewing important political figures. i think it's years now, since I've listened to a political interview.
So Musk who has US government contracts has been having secret conversations with Putin .
Isn’t this a security risk ?
And how much more power will Musk yield if Trump wins?
And yet some clueless Tory politicians continue to allegedly support Ukraine whilst at the same time want Trump to win .
I am desperate for the people of Ukraine to be free of Russian tyranny and for Putin to be put back in his box. But I honestly have no idea what the US Democrats plan is to favourably end this war. Foot dragging on military equipment, restrictive rules of engagement, laughable energy sanctions etc…
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
I think that, however imperfect, it is unequivocally better. You have somehow forgotten that Ukraine is in the tactical situation it now is thanks to a full six month delay in US aid, courtesy of Trump and his poodle in Congress, Mike Johnson.
The Ukraine is in the situation it is in is because it traded it's nukes for words. We should take note.
Whether hanging onto it nukes was a practical possibility at the time is debatable. Though they could have restarted a nuclear program after that. It's in the situation it is because it trusted the word of France, Germany and the US to guarantee its security. Which is why nothing short of NATO membership is going to be the basis for a peace settlement.
Ukrainian nukes would have prevented the invasion no more than Russian nukes prevented the invasion of Kursk. It worries me that sensible people think nukes deter conventional attack, they only deter nuclear attack.
We (that is Western civilisation) need a strong nuclear AND conventional deterrence. Thank God for the Poles, they’re the only thing right now standing between a British mobilisation in the next decade.
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
It used to be a channel whereby emerging countries had their voice heard at the highest levels internationally (via the UK). In the changing environment they would rather cosy up with China or Russia
China probably has more to offer in terms of manufacturing development, of course. It will come with strings - but so did half a century of western money.
Russia has an obvious appeal to the more autocratic.
I didn’t say that they were making an illogical choice. I don’t think they will enjoy running with the wolves, but it’s a prisoner’s dilemma
“The Brics countries are now a larger part of the global economy than the G7 countries. According to EY, Brics makes up around 36.7% of the global economy on a purchasing power parity basis while the G7 makes up only 27.5%.”
They are a pile of shit though, not one of them you would want to visit unless you were at gunpoint.
But that's the game they're now playing at, chipping away at the Commonwealth whilst it itself takes potshots at us - all being funded by China - whilst we cry into our soup at how awful and terrible we are (spoiler: we're not)
Unless we man up and recognise we're in a new age of hard power politics of iron and fire we'll be eaten alive and end up a vassal stage with less freedom and less prosperity.
The Commonwealth is all but dead. Modi chose to kiss Putins ring rather than the King's when a clash of dates came up.
The Chinese are going to be in a strong position in the trade war with Trumpistan too.
They can’t even organise a set of games. It mattered a lot to the Queen, but its time has come and gone.
It's a bit hard to see the point of it. As a transition from empire it was not going to last. Country after country is re-appraising colonial history, and rarely in ways that PB Tories would like. Take the smash hit film RRR for example:
That does not mean that the 're-appraisal' is a more accurate rendition of history than the one favoured by the 'PB Tories' you dislike. Or a positive move for this country. Or even theirs.
Far too many lefties see everything that is wrong in the world as being our fault. It's a self-hatred that acknowledges all our sins, but ignores or diminishes any good we have done.
Sure. Revisionist history can be as bad as the hagiographic history that it tears down.
I am quite willing to accept the positives of British Imperialism, but simply not willing to ignore the massive crimes of empire too.
If we should be proud of what our ancestors did, should we also not be a bit of ashamed on their behalf too?
Indeed. But we see a lot of concentration on the shame and not on the pride. when, for instance, did you say anything positive about the Victorian age or the British Empire?
Too many people on the left see nationalism and imperialism as bad. When it is us, at least. They seem perfectly happy with Indian nationalism or Russian imperialism. I wouldn't necessarily put you in that camp, but it certainly explains many left and Labour figures. Corbyn, for one.
And the death of the Commonwealth will not leave a vacuum; it will be filled with other groupings such as BRICS. Which, whilst it is the country's choice, is not a good thing.
BRICS isn’t a think. It’s an acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs analyst. It’s just an equivalent to the G7. Russia, China and India are rivals not allies
Err no. It’s a thing. They’re having their annual conference this week.
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
It’s a group of countries holding a conference, just common adversaries at the moment. It’s not like NATO or NAFTA or the EU with an intrinsic geopolitical logic
But you literally claimed it was just some acronym invented in the FT. Now you’ve been shown that they are actually having a BRICS conference - at which they have been discussing a BRICS payment system to circumvent SWIFT
Took the founding four half a decade to pick up on the idea. And while India and China continue to exchange blows, it doesn't really mean all that much.
India certainly aren't going to sacrifice their relations with the US because of it.
What complacent nonsense
This is a significant geopolitical development. Large non western economies are coming together to work - explicitly - outside the hitherto western-dominated economic system
And who can blame them? Right now everything os dominated by the USA - the world bank and the IMF are literally in the USA, the dollar is the global reserve currency
Why should China and the BRICS tolerate this now they are actually larger economies than the G7, in toto? And going to get even larger as India and Indonesia and Brazil expand?
Just because there are rivalries within the brics nations doesn’t mean they can’t effectively act together. France is in nato as are turkey and Greece -
I'm far from complacent - just pointing out some facts, and the limitations of the organisation. China/Russia alone represent a significant threat, obviously - and have an obvious appearance to a number of African nations. However, India remains more aligned with the west than it is with that block, even if it is semi-detached.
I think the party would be well served by just extending the leadership contest for another year or two. It seems to be working a treat at the moment. Means all the negative focus is on Labour.
Comments
https://brics-russia2024.ru/en/summit/
The one goal they have in common is to undermine the West and especially the US$.
Expect to see from them in future, things like sanctions on Russia lead to sanctions from China and India, as they all buy oil denominated in Yuan.
I wear my "number 6" badge every day. Only one person has got the significance
Taiwan is looking at building its own, small scale, LEO constellation.
It brings a lot of benefits to many people in terms of education, visas, cultural exchanges
However if it is to endure the British above all need to lay down the law. It is not a forum to guilt trip the UK, not any more. They can all go fuck themselves and hang out with China if that’s what they want. See how far it gets them. Ask the Sri Lankans how that is working out
A Presidential system like that naturally tends towards dictatorship, or at least strongman populists, unless you have strict checks and balances, which the Americans, for all their faults, still do. Russia is an even more extreme case: Yeltsin did most of Putin's work for him by concentrating all the power in his own office. Just as an extreme Parliamentary system like Italy, Belgium or the French Fourth Republic tends towards chaos and indecision.
No sign of that yet.
And with each few months that pass, the world casually crosses once unthinkable thresholds into an ever more dangerous place. US and European tanks invading Russia. North Korean infantry invading Europe. Russia and Iran effectively shutting the Suez. Israel and Iran in direct conflict etc…
Is anyone still credibly talking about Ukraine retaking Crimea? Or even making it through the impossibly dense minefields between their forces and the coast? After the debacles of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc… would it shock you to discover there is no coherent US strategy or goal?
I’m not thrilled about trump’s solution either, because it doesn’t work unless Ukraine is admitted to NATO, which seems highly unlikely to clear the string of vetoes (including his). And in of itself does nothing to deter Chinese imperialism, actually the opposite.
But I rather think we’re beyond the point of assuming that the continuation of the current US administration is unequivocally better for our long term security. There’s rather more to it.
Anti-intellectual errors from a mobile.
Warner's leadership ban lifted by Cricket Australia
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c2e7krwnp11o
Said no one.
It will come with strings - but so did half a century of western money.
Russia has an obvious appeal to the more autocratic.
1) Starlink opened negotiations with Taiwan
2) The Taiwanese offered a deal where it would be run through a locally owned company which would have total access to the technology etc
3) Starlink/Musk said no thank you
Anyone who has dealt in that part of the world knows what the “total technology access” means.
As to the stories about Putin - who knows?
So you were totally and embarrassingly wrong
https://x.com/unherd/status/1849696142642016561?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Trump is a major threat to world democracy, but I'm not at.all sure that the Biden stance on Ukraine isn't a major threat to world safety.
It's from an advocate, but it's a pretty good list of things:
https://www.facebook.com/TreforH/posts/954790716663194
Stating the obvious, I think loss of locally based activists everywhere is a big issue for the Conservatives everywhere, and - at last - perhaps age. They have a gap to bridge of a number of years where some will be reluctant to join a losing cause.
Today's politics; the power battle sport is between intellectual barbarians while Rory, Curtice, Bogdanor, Hennessy, George Parker, Tim Bale, Iain Dale and company do the commentary.
Actually it is huge fun.
'There is no greater US patriot and lover of our country than my good friend Elon, time for our Constitution to recognise such quality.'
See John McCain.
You have somehow forgotten that Ukraine is in the tactical situation it now is thanks to a full six month delay in US aid, courtesy of Trump and his poodle in Congress, Mike Johnson.
I guess they’re seeing how many markets push back on their ownership laws. Taiwan is going to be an insignificant market for Starlink - until the Chinese invade, at which point SpaceX needs to decide what to do.
Good morning everyone.
Vance is the property of that billionaire set anyway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS#History
Took the founding four half a decade to pick up on the idea.
And while India and China continue to exchange blows, it doesn't really mean all that much.
India certainly aren't going to sacrifice their relations with the US because of it.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LE5MWuiDuGM (30 seconds video)
Elon Musk suggests he’ll be thrown in prison if Harris beats Trump :‘If he loses, I’m f—ed!’
https://nypost.com/2024/10/07/us-news/elon-musk-suggests-hell-be-thrown-in-prison-if-harris-beats-trump-if-he-loses-im-fed/
To most of the world’s population, it’s very weird that in the UK you can get a SIM card without recording your ID.
It's in the situation it is because it trusted the word of France, Germany and the US to guarantee its security. Which is why nothing short of NATO membership is going to be the basis for a peace settlement.
This is a significant geopolitical development. Large non western economies are coming together to work - explicitly - outside the hitherto western-dominated economic system
And who can blame them? Right now everything os dominated by the USA - the world bank and the IMF are literally in the USA, the dollar is the global reserve currency
Why should China and the BRICS tolerate this now they are actually larger economies than the G7, in toto? And going to get even larger as India and Indonesia and Brazil expand?
Just because there are rivalries within the brics nations doesn’t mean they can’t effectively act together. France is in nato as are turkey and Greece -
If we take Bob Woodward’s version, in autumn 2022 when we were fixed on the Queen’s funeral and a lettuce, the Russian army was on the run. But Ukraine was ordered to let them escape from Kherson because Biden was scared of nuclear war.
With hindsight, Ukraine was then setup to fail in 2023 with the much much trialed counter offensive. It was being expected to cross dense mine fields with no air support for its engineers, which got picked off by Russian helicopters. At every turn, Ukraine has had one hand behind its back. Don’t forget Lend Lease expired unused. You can’t blame that on Trump.
The bill that was eventually passed this year had a requirement for the US to provide ATACMS. Because the Biden White House had refused to provide them.
In his obsession with de-escalation doctinre, Biden has forgotten that deterrence is cheaper and more effective the earlier you do it. But we are sadly now well beyond that point. There needs to be an urgent strategic rethink about how to restore credible deterrence in Europe and the Pacific. And I’m not clear how sending thousands of Ukrainians to their deaths against North Korean slaves achieves that. Will trump provide a good answer? I don’t know. Neither do you. I do know that the status quo is becoming very dangerous indeed.
Similarly, several Russian oligarchs - like Abramovich - are talking to the west even as they obey Putin
This is how diplomacy works. Powerful individuals can often act as go-betweens
Otherwise how would peace ever get discussed? Next
As I've mentioned before , look at our public culture compared to France and Germany's. A broadcast culture can only be dumbed down to that extent, with litle state or public opposition, if complex ideas are less valued.
Nuclear power.
State owned railways.
32 hour week.
Better working conditions.
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1849441038030500073
It's like Corbyn talking to the IRA etc in terms of 'peace', If you're talking to only one side, then you're not talking peace. You're talking their side. Worse, these publicity-seeking idiots who go about trying to negotiate 'peace' without the explicit or implicit say-so of their government often make matters worse by disrupting other negotiations.
https://conservativehome.com/2024/10/25/badenoch-maintains-her-lead-in-our-final-leadership-survey/
How will the continuation of the current US Administration NOT be unequivocally better for the freedom of Ukraine, which you profess?
Letting the Saudis join BRICS, and start selling oil to China denominated in Yuan, is a massive failure from Blinken that threatens to undermine the US$. The Gulf states all pretty much tie their currencies to the US$ at the moment, and there should be a worry that this might change in the near future.
The US Treasury is currently sitting on $36trn of debt, compared to GDP of $29trn. A run on that could turn the whole Western economy upside-down.
So you're not telling me anything I don't already know.
I just think it completely delusional to think Trump would be anything but a disaster for the continued existence of Ukraine as an independent state.
Contrast with something like Five Eyes where there is a common heritage and close ties.
How not every PBer can see that, is baffling.
Has anyone been? That’s gonna be COLD - but interesting
Whilst I agree with you, in part, about anti-intellectualism, I'd say it's more of a post-1960's phenomenon. I can remember actually looking forward to people like Brian Walden, Ludovic Kennedy, David Frost, Sir Robin Day interviewing important political figures. i think it's years now, since I've listened to a political interview.
We (that is Western civilisation) need a strong nuclear AND conventional deterrence. Thank God for the Poles, they’re the only thing right now standing between a British mobilisation in the next decade.
China/Russia alone represent a significant threat, obviously - and have an obvious appearance to a number of African nations. However, India remains more aligned with the west than it is with that block, even if it is semi-detached.
It might not be that cold.