I feel for you. My boiler is on the fritz today, so I'm pretty chilly, but at least have light now and an electric blanket for later.
Our central heating didn't fire up the other morning and the house was pretty cold at 8am. Before dialling 999 I stopped and had a think and realised that after decorating the night before I'd put a steel ladder in front of the thermostat, creating an ad hoc Faraday cage, preventing the wireless signal from reaching the boiler. As soon as I propped it elsewhere our antique Worcester-Bosch burst into action. Meanwhile Mrs S slept through the whole melodrama. First-world problems, eh?
My wife is on a local neighborhood WhatsApp group.
Yesterday, one of the women accidentally shared a video that was clearly meant for another WhatsApp group, and involved her and her husband in a sex act.
I thought you should all know that.
Can we have some titillating detail? I’m slightly bored in Cartagena
Was it group sex? Illlegal? Any animals or toys harmed in the process? Was she hot? Etc
Thanks v much
She is attractive, yes.
And there was a specific sex act that was shared. One that is not *that* common. And one she would probably definitely not want her kids seeing.
I'm guessing that feet were involved.
And on that note, goodnight.
And where there are feet there are socks. Well, one specific sock.
Didn't say she was offended by Starmer's joke, just that the left would have called it racist were it the other way around. And this is part of a broader problem for the left. Although born in the UK, Badenoch is to all intents and purposes a first generation migrant. Many will recognise her story as someone starting at the bottom having come from quite prosperous sections of society in their home country. Despite the left's love of diversity, embrace of immigrants and ethnic minorities it's not an experience they empathise with. All they really understand are grievance narratives.
It will be interesting to see the reaction of the Labour party if, in twenty years time, British muslims start voting Tory.
In the end we did nothing in Syria back in 2013, and this is where the country ended up. I'm darned sure that supporting Assad back then - after all his crimes - would not only have been reprehensible, but also very counter-productive. And it would also not have worked.
The RAF has bombed Syria hundreds of times since 2014 as part of Operation Shader, acting as Assad's air force to destroy targets which can plausibly be marketed as ISIS/ISIL.
Starmer shut down Shader in September this year, so at least he got that right.
I feel for you. My boiler is on the fritz today, so I'm pretty chilly, but at least have light now and an electric blanket for later.
Have you tried repressurising? Can be done safely by a layman - check instructions online.
I've no idea what's wrong with it - it's a new one on me. Its pressure is fine and it operates perfectly for a 15-20 minute stint when you turn it on, which is just enough to get the radiators warm-ish, and then the pressure goes haywire and it shuts itself off randomly. If you give it a bit of time you can go through the rigmarole again, but with the same result. Someone coming on Tuesday to see what's what.
Landing them could be rather tricky. This is a serious rout for Putin... He´ll want then closer to Moscow in case a few of his underlings get naughty ideas...
In the end we did nothing in Syria back in 2013, and this is where the country ended up. I'm darned sure that supporting Assad back then - after all his crimes - would not only have been reprehensible, but also very counter-productive. And it would also not have worked.
The RAF has bombed Syria hundreds of times since 2014 as part of Operation Shader, acting as Assad's air force to destroy targets which can plausibly be marketed as ISIS/ISIL.
Starmer shut down Shader in September this year, so at least he got that right.
The US did the same this week. Though less in favour of the regime, and more to hamper some of their undesirables in the race to Damascus.
And it’s not as though the RAF was dropping barrel bombs on Aleppo schools and hospitals.
Whatever one thinks of Starmer's 'joke' (McDonaldsgate/007gate), Badenoch's response to it is just utterly bizarre, particularly: "And if a Conservative prime minister had made those comments about a black party leader, they would have been called a racist and asked to resign." Woke as I am in my awareness of racial injustice etc., I just can't see where she's got the racial angle from. Bizarre.
The implication is she expects preferential treatment on account of being black - having previously made a big deal of criticising that sort of attitude.
Looking forward to Kemi being asked to comment next time there’s a gammony explosion at the suggestion that 007 should be black.
My complaint on that was, that in the last film, they did that for 10 seconds, then she gave the number back! And became a sidekick in what appeared to be a badly designed advert for a first person shooter game.
I feel for you. My boiler is on the fritz today, so I'm pretty chilly, but at least have light now and an electric blanket for later.
Have you tried repressurising? Can be done safely by a layman - check instructions online.
I've no idea what's wrong with it - it's a new one on me. Its pressure is fine and it operates perfectly for a 15-20 minute stint when you turn it on, which is just enough to get the radiators warm-ish, and then the pressure goes haywire and it shuts itself off randomly. If you give it a bit of time you can go through the rigmarole again, but with the same result. Someone coming on Tuesday to see what's what.
Nice guy that PBers think we should have propped up. This is just one of his prisons, though one of the more notorious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednaya_Prison Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا Sajn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse"[a] is a military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government. The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels.[1][2] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War,[3] while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015."
A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in a peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism, but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215) was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die"...
Straw man. Not a single PBer is saying Assad is anything but an evil bastard. The question is: will his likely replacements be even worse?
It’s the choice between Stalin or Hitler. We chose to support Stalin, who was personally responsible for the torture and death of MILLIONS
Except it clearly isn't. He's a weak and useless leader, and any effort to prop him up is likely futile. All it would achieve is to extend a bloody conflict, and alienate whoever takes over.
You misconstrue me. I’m talking about those who argued we should have supported the Assad regime way back. I’m saying it is ARGUABLE - and it is - but only because ISIS contrive, somehow, to be even nastier than Assad. Stalin v Hitler. We chose Stalin
Right now Assad is finished so the idea we should support him is rendered nonsense by the facts
I really don't know what you're on about with this 'Hitler vs. Stalin' bollocks. Stalin was not a less bad option than Hitler - he killed more people for a start.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no equivalence in the wickedness of a repressive dictator who does however support religious tolerance, the education of women, the ability of women to attend university, and a stable and livable society, with the wickedness of a bunch of headchopping islamist nutters, *let alone* ISIS.
The Hitler vs Stalin comic book where they are both immensely powerful sorcerers is great.
Stalin: I offered you friendship to you, Adolf. You chose to start a war. Now, I am here to do destroy you.
Hitler: Caucasian Untermensch! Now I am at the height of my powers!
There is then a flashback to a pastoral scene near SPb in 1917 where Father Lenin trains Stalin to fight. Very much like Luke/Yoda on Dagobah.
I feel for you. My boiler is on the fritz today, so I'm pretty chilly, but at least have light now and an electric blanket for later.
Have you tried repressurising? Can be done safely by a layman - check instructions online.
I've no idea what's wrong with it - it's a new one on me. Its pressure is fine and it operates perfectly for a 15-20 minute stint when you turn it on, which is just enough to get the radiators warm-ish, and then the pressure goes haywire and it shuts itself off randomly. If you give it a bit of time you can go through the rigmarole again, but with the same result. Someone coming on Tuesday to see what's what.
Sounds like the expansion vessel is kaput. A flexible diaphragm in a pressure vessel keeps the pressure fairly constant as the water heats up.
Nice guy that PBers think we should have propped up. This is just one of his prisons, though one of the more notorious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednaya_Prison Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا Sajn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse"[a] is a military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government. The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels.[1][2] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War,[3] while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015."
A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in a peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism, but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215) was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die"...
Straw man. Not a single PBer is saying Assad is anything but an evil bastard. The question is: will his likely replacements be even worse?
It’s the choice between Stalin or Hitler. We chose to support Stalin, who was personally responsible for the torture and death of MILLIONS
Except it clearly isn't. He's a weak and useless leader, and any effort to prop him up is likely futile. All it would achieve is to extend a bloody conflict, and alienate whoever takes over.
You misconstrue me. I’m talking about those who argued we should have supported the Assad regime way back. I’m saying it is ARGUABLE - and it is - but only because ISIS contrive, somehow, to be even nastier than Assad. Stalin v Hitler. We chose Stalin
Right now Assad is finished so the idea we should support him is rendered nonsense by the facts
I really don't know what you're on about with this 'Hitler vs. Stalin' bollocks. Stalin was not a less bad option than Hitler - he killed more people for a start.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no equivalence in the wickedness of a repressive dictator who does however support religious tolerance, the education of women, the ability of women to attend university, and a stable and livable society, with the wickedness of a bunch of headchopping islamist nutters, *let alone* ISIS.
The Hitler vs Stalin comic book where they are both immensely powerful sorcerers is great.
Stalin: I offered you friendship to you, Adolf. You chose to start a war. Now, I am here to do destroy you.
Hitler: Caucasian Untermensch! Now I am at the height of my powers!
There is then a flashback to a pastoral scene near SPb in 1917 where Father Lenin trains Stalin to fight. Very much like Luke/Yoda on Dagobah.
FM Lavrov: It’s inadmissible to allow the terrorist groups to take control of Syrian lands in violation of agreements which exist starting with the UNSC Resolution 2254 which strongly reaffirmed the sovereignty, territorial integrity & unity of #Syria. https://x.com/RussianEmbassy/status/1865474298564989341
Meanwhile here in peaceful Senegal I disembarked from an excellent 15 hour overnight ferry - 3 course dinner in tableclothed restaurant, pastis on deck, nice continental breakfast and crisp cabin sheets and a scenic morning journey up the wide tropical river pretending I was Joseph Conrad, all for £30, to the languid and cheerful animist heartland of Casamance. Formerly on the FCA amber list due to civil war but now largely peaceful.
This evening we partied at the festival to inaugurate the newly completed salle polyvalente in the village of Oussouye, home of the king of the Dioula people (our animist guide for tomorrow who’s going to show us all the enchanted trees and fetishes in the area was, last time I checked, bumping and grinding on the dance floor in a rather pagan manner with one of the visiting female Catalan tourists at our local campement, to the evident disappointment of my BBC journalist travelling companion who rather fancied her).
I've really no particular reason for this to come to mind today, but maybe it's the kind of thing I imagine Farage sipping a brandy and tapping along to in a blazer and deck shoes.
I don't think I've even given it a thought since it was 'charting'. Now that I've typed all that - it does vaguely bring to mind early Thatcherism. In a vague childhood way.
Meanwhile here in peaceful Senegal I disembarked from an excellent 15 hour overnight ferry - 3 course dinner in tableclothed restaurant, pastis on deck, nice continental breakfast and crisp cabin sheets and a scenic morning journey up the wide tropical river pretending I was Joseph Conrad, all for £30, to the languid and cheerful animist heartland of Casamance. Formerly on the FCA amber list due to civil war but now largely peaceful.
This evening we partied at the festival to inaugurate the newly completed salle polyvalente in the village of Oussouye, home of the king of the Dioula people (our animist guide for tomorrow who’s going to show us all the enchanted trees and fetishes in the area was, last time I checked, bumping and grinding on the dance floor in a rather pagan manner with one of the visiting female Catalan tourists at our local campement, to the evident disappointment of my BBC journalist travelling companion who rather fancied her).
Whatever one thinks of Starmer's 'joke' (McDonaldsgate/007gate), Badenoch's response to it is just utterly bizarre, particularly: "And if a Conservative prime minister had made those comments about a black party leader, they would have been called a racist and asked to resign." Woke as I am in my awareness of racial injustice etc., I just can't see where she's got the racial angle from. Bizarre.
The implication is she expects preferential treatment on account of being black - having previously made a big deal of criticising that sort of attitude.
Looking forward to Kemi being asked to comment next time there’s a gammony explosion at the suggestion that 007 should be black.
My complaint on that was, that in the last film, they did that for 10 seconds, then she gave the number back! And became a sidekick in what appeared to be a badly designed advert for a first person shooter game.
It came across as crass tokenism.
Why did the Craig Bond movies see saw so much?
Casino Royale - Amazing Quantum - didn't even make sense Skyfall - decent Spectre - dull as dishwater No Time to Die - well, better than Spectre, even if massively over long
Meanwhile here in peaceful Senegal I disembarked from an excellent 15 hour overnight ferry - 3 course dinner in tableclothed restaurant, pastis on deck, nice continental breakfast and crisp cabin sheets and a scenic morning journey up the wide tropical river pretending I was Joseph Conrad, all for £30, to the languid and cheerful animist heartland of Casamance. Formerly on the FCA amber list due to civil war but now largely peaceful.
This evening we partied at the festival to inaugurate the newly completed salle polyvalente in the village of Oussouye, home of the king of the Dioula people (our animist guide for tomorrow who’s going to show us all the enchanted trees and fetishes in the area was, last time I checked, bumping and grinding on the dance floor in a rather pagan manner with one of the visiting female Catalan tourists at our local campement, to the evident disappointment of my BBC journalist travelling companion who rather fancied her).
Photo of the day: the dance-off champion.
I think you'll find the SNP have proved that impossible. You're clearly hallucinating on Unionist fumes. Or something.
Meanwhile here in peaceful Senegal I disembarked from an excellent 15 hour overnight ferry - 3 course dinner in tableclothed restaurant, pastis on deck, nice continental breakfast and crisp cabin sheets and a scenic morning journey up the wide tropical river pretending I was Joseph Conrad, all for £30, to the languid and cheerful animist heartland of Casamance. Formerly on the FCA amber list due to civil war but now largely peaceful.
This evening we partied at the festival to inaugurate the newly completed salle polyvalente in the village of Oussouye, home of the king of the Dioula people (our animist guide for tomorrow who’s going to show us all the enchanted trees and fetishes in the area was, last time I checked, bumping and grinding on the dance floor in a rather pagan manner with one of the visiting female Catalan tourists at our local campement, to the evident disappointment of my BBC journalist travelling companion who rather fancied her).
Didn't say she was offended by Starmer's joke, just that the left would have called it racist were it the other way around. And this is part of a broader problem for the left. Although born in the UK, Badenoch is to all intents and purposes a first generation migrant. Many will recognise her story - starting at the bottom having come from quite prosperous sections of society in their home country. Despite the left's love of diversity, embrace of immigrants and ethnic minorities it's not an experience they empathise with. All they really understand are grievance narratives.
The two GB parties who sell grievance the most are the SNP and Reform UK.
Whatever one thinks of Starmer's 'joke' (McDonaldsgate/007gate), Badenoch's response to it is just utterly bizarre, particularly: "And if a Conservative prime minister had made those comments about a black party leader, they would have been called a racist and asked to resign." Woke as I am in my awareness of racial injustice etc., I just can't see where she's got the racial angle from. Bizarre.
The implication is she expects preferential treatment on account of being black - having previously made a big deal of criticising that sort of attitude.
Looking forward to Kemi being asked to comment next time there’s a gammony explosion at the suggestion that 007 should be black.
My complaint on that was, that in the last film, they did that for 10 seconds, then she gave the number back! And became a sidekick in what appeared to be a badly designed advert for a first person shooter game.
It came across as crass tokenism.
Why did the Craig Bond movies see saw so much?
Casino Royale - Amazing Quantum - didn't even make sense Skyfall - decent Spectre - dull as dishwater No Time to Die - well, better than Spectre, even if massively over long
Whatever one thinks of Starmer's 'joke' (McDonaldsgate/007gate), Badenoch's response to it is just utterly bizarre, particularly: "And if a Conservative prime minister had made those comments about a black party leader, they would have been called a racist and asked to resign." Woke as I am in my awareness of racial injustice etc., I just can't see where she's got the racial angle from. Bizarre.
The implication is she expects preferential treatment on account of being black - having previously made a big deal of criticising that sort of attitude.
Looking forward to Kemi being asked to comment next time there’s a gammony explosion at the suggestion that 007 should be black.
My complaint on that was, that in the last film, they did that for 10 seconds, then she gave the number back! And became a sidekick in what appeared to be a badly designed advert for a first person shooter game.
It came across as crass tokenism.
Why did the Craig Bond movies see saw so much?
Casino Royale - Amazing Quantum - didn't even make sense Skyfall - decent Spectre - dull as dishwater No Time to Die - well, better than Spectre, even if massively over long
Worse for me, I assumed all James Bond films were standalone and happened to see QoS before I saw CR. Which kind of ruined both of them.
Nice guy that PBers think we should have propped up. This is just one of his prisons, though one of the more notorious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednaya_Prison Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا Sajn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse"[a] is a military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government. The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels.[1][2] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War,[3] while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015."
A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in a peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism, but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215) was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die"...
Straw man. Not a single PBer is saying Assad is anything but an evil bastard. The question is: will his likely replacements be even worse?
It’s the choice between Stalin or Hitler. We chose to support Stalin, who was personally responsible for the torture and death of MILLIONS
Except it clearly isn't. He's a weak and useless leader, and any effort to prop him up is likely futile. All it would achieve is to extend a bloody conflict, and alienate whoever takes over.
You misconstrue me. I’m talking about those who argued we should have supported the Assad regime way back. I’m saying it is ARGUABLE - and it is - but only because ISIS contrive, somehow, to be even nastier than Assad. Stalin v Hitler. We chose Stalin
Right now Assad is finished so the idea we should support him is rendered nonsense by the facts
I really don't know what you're on about with this 'Hitler vs. Stalin' bollocks. Stalin was not a less bad option than Hitler - he killed more people for a start.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no equivalence in the wickedness of a repressive dictator who does however support religious tolerance, the education of women, the ability of women to attend university, and a stable and livable society, with the wickedness of a bunch of headchopping islamist nutters, *let alone* ISIS.
The Hitler vs Stalin comic book where they are both immensely powerful sorcerers is great.
Stalin: I offered you friendship to you, Adolf. You chose to start a war. Now, I am here to do destroy you.
Hitler: Caucasian Untermensch! Now I am at the height of my powers!
There is then a flashback to a pastoral scene near SPb in 1917 where Father Lenin trains Stalin to fight. Very much like Luke/Yoda on Dagobah.
I've really no particular reason for this to come to mind today, but maybe it's the kind of thing I imagine Farage sipping a brandy and tapping along to in a blazer and deck shoes.
I don't think I've even given it a thought since it was 'charting'. Now that I've typed all that - it does vaguely bring to mind early Thatcherism. In a vague childhood way.
Mike Oldfield — one of the greatest musical artists of all time.
Didn't say she was offended by Starmer's joke, just that the left would have called it racist were it the other way around. And this is part of a broader problem for the left. Although born in the UK, Badenoch is to all intents and purposes a first generation migrant. Many will recognise her story - starting at the bottom having come from quite prosperous sections of society in their home country. Despite the left's love of diversity, embrace of immigrants and ethnic minorities it's not an experience they empathise with. All they really understand are grievance narratives.
The two GB parties who sell grievance the most are the SNP and Reform UK.
Labourites grievance mongering about the EssEnnPee coming up fast on the inside.
Nice guy that PBers think we should have propped up. This is just one of his prisons, though one of the more notorious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednaya_Prison Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا Sajn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse"[a] is a military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government. The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels.[1][2] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War,[3] while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015."
A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in a peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism, but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215) was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die"...
Straw man. Not a single PBer is saying Assad is anything but an evil bastard. The question is: will his likely replacements be even worse?
It’s the choice between Stalin or Hitler. We chose to support Stalin, who was personally responsible for the torture and death of MILLIONS
Except it clearly isn't. He's a weak and useless leader, and any effort to prop him up is likely futile. All it would achieve is to extend a bloody conflict, and alienate whoever takes over.
You misconstrue me. I’m talking about those who argued we should have supported the Assad regime way back. I’m saying it is ARGUABLE - and it is - but only because ISIS contrive, somehow, to be even nastier than Assad. Stalin v Hitler. We chose Stalin
Right now Assad is finished so the idea we should support him is rendered nonsense by the facts
I really don't know what you're on about with this 'Hitler vs. Stalin' bollocks. Stalin was not a less bad option than Hitler - he killed more people for a start.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no equivalence in the wickedness of a repressive dictator who does however support religious tolerance, the education of women, the ability of women to attend university, and a stable and livable society, with the wickedness of a bunch of headchopping islamist nutters, *let alone* ISIS.
The Hitler vs Stalin comic book where they are both immensely powerful sorcerers is great.
Stalin: I offered you friendship to you, Adolf. You chose to start a war. Now, I am here to do destroy you.
Hitler: Caucasian Untermensch! Now I am at the height of my powers!
There is then a flashback to a pastoral scene near SPb in 1917 where Father Lenin trains Stalin to fight. Very much like Luke/Yoda on Dagobah.
I've really no particular reason for this to come to mind today, but maybe it's the kind of thing I imagine Farage sipping a brandy and tapping along to in a blazer and deck shoes.
I don't think I've even given it a thought since it was 'charting'. Now that I've typed all that - it does vaguely bring to mind early Thatcherism. In a vague childhood way.
Mike Oldfield — one of the greatest musical artists of all time.
Didn't say she was offended by Starmer's joke, just that the left would have called it racist were it the other way around. And this is part of a broader problem for the left. Although born in the UK, Badenoch is to all intents and purposes a first generation migrant. Many will recognise her story - starting at the bottom having come from quite prosperous sections of society in their home country. Despite the left's love of diversity, embrace of immigrants and ethnic minorities it's not an experience they empathise with. All they really understand are grievance narratives.
The two GB parties who sell grievance the most are the SNP and Reform UK.
Labourites grievance mongering about the EssEnnPee coming up fast on the inside.
"E4: PROP. 45. Hatred can never be good. Proof.--When we hate a man, we endeavour to destroy him (E3P39), that is (E4P37), we endeavour to do something that is bad. Therefore, etc. Q.E.D. N.B. Here, and in what follows, I mean by hatred only hatred towards men."
So did the French spend 10 years doing planning work to get this thing done? No, they just built it.
Same in Madrid with the metro expansion.
It is ridiculous things take so long here. SKS needs to get a grip on this or his entire premiership will be pointless.
Completely agreed.
I shan't be holding my breath that it won't be the latter though.
Yup look at the push back he's getting over some milquetoast words around productivity in the public sector and Labour are already rolling over.
They are incapable. Also they agree with much of the red tape that slows everything down - net zero, DEI, woke nonsense, devolution - and starmer himself is a classic midwit public sector wonk - he loves process and complexity as an end in itself. See his insane relaunch with its five pillars of wisdom and sixteen must-dos and 4 foundational guardrails and 19 and a half roll out stakeholder equity-focussed mission statements
This is not a man who will “cut through the crap”. He lives for the crap. He IS the crap
It's devolution that has meant that Scotland could circumvent all the NIMBY policies of England, and Net Zero targets has led to us now exporting energy to the rest of the UK. Looking at the planning pipeline, Scotland is going to end up generating 7x as much electricity per person as in England.
If you're going to continue flirting with the Farages of the world, even unionists like me are going to run out of patience with propping up your luddite economy with Scottish energy.
I assume you've not looked at polls in Scotland recently.
SNP on course for yet another Holyrood victory:
SNP 59 (seats) Labour 20 Conservative 19 LD 11 Reform 13 Green 7
Or on another reading on that poll SNP down 5 seats on the 64 MSPs they won in 2021, Greens down 1 and Labour and Conservatives also down and LDs a few seats up.
Yet....Reform up 13 even in Scotland, so not really that much different from the trend in England and Wales
Air traffic late into the night; probably not reinforcements.
Another Russian Air Force Il-76 heavy lifter is inbound to Latakia, Syria.
Likely participating in the Russian airlift from the airbase, as signs continue to increase that Russian forces are evacuating their key eastern Mediterranean holdings. https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1865540375965831380
Nice guy that PBers think we should have propped up. This is just one of his prisons, though one of the more notorious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednaya_Prison Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا Sajn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse"[a] is a military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government. The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels.[1][2] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War,[3] while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015."
A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in a peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism, but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215) was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die"...
Straw man. Not a single PBer is saying Assad is anything but an evil bastard. The question is: will his likely replacements be even worse?
It’s the choice between Stalin or Hitler. We chose to support Stalin, who was personally responsible for the torture and death of MILLIONS
Except it clearly isn't. He's a weak and useless leader, and any effort to prop him up is likely futile. All it would achieve is to extend a bloody conflict, and alienate whoever takes over.
You misconstrue me. I’m talking about those who argued we should have supported the Assad regime way back. I’m saying it is ARGUABLE - and it is - but only because ISIS contrive, somehow, to be even nastier than Assad. Stalin v Hitler. We chose Stalin
Right now Assad is finished so the idea we should support him is rendered nonsense by the facts
I really don't know what you're on about with this 'Hitler vs. Stalin' bollocks. Stalin was not a less bad option than Hitler - he killed more people for a start.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no equivalence in the wickedness of a repressive dictator who does however support religious tolerance, the education of women, the ability of women to attend university, and a stable and livable society, with the wickedness of a bunch of headchopping islamist nutters, *let alone* ISIS.
The Hitler vs Stalin comic book where they are both immensely powerful sorcerers is great.
Stalin: I offered you friendship to you, Adolf. You chose to start a war. Now, I am here to do destroy you.
Hitler: Caucasian Untermensch! Now I am at the height of my powers!
There is then a flashback to a pastoral scene near SPb in 1917 where Father Lenin trains Stalin to fight. Very much like Luke/Yoda on Dagobah.
Netflix adaptation when?
Here's Low, 1939:
Lenin - the moron who handed the USSR to Stalin. After destroying the first representative government of Russia.
Stalin - the moron who destroyed Poland. So removing the buffer zone between Nazi Germany and the USSR.
If the only way of stopping PM Farage in 2029 was to bring back Boris as LOTO for the 2029 election, would that be a price worth paying?
No, because he'd do the same shit as he did last time and would probably just enable a populist right-winger winning in 2034.
Of course, that's the view most people take now... But just think... It's end of 2028... Election 2029 WILL be no more than six months away... Farage and REF are on course for a working majority, Kier and LAB are done. Britain is one course to be sold out to Putin by autumn 2029.
CON under Kemi are a distant second... But there IS a prince across the water in the form of Boris... He could become LOTO and take the fight to Nigel and possibly prevent a REF government.
Does Westminster, who did so much to cast him out in 2022, coalesce together to get him back for 2029?
Personally, I think they would... But I could be wrong.
It's certainly going to be an interesting Parliament...
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
Why are you rooting for thousands more dead ?
That’s not going to happen, anyway. Assad has disappeared, and the Russians look to be leaving.
Nice guy that PBers think we should have propped up. This is just one of his prisons, though one of the more notorious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednaya_Prison Sednaya Prison (Arabic: سجن صيدنايا Sajn Ṣaydnāyā), nicknamed the "Human Slaughterhouse"[a] is a military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government. The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels.[1][2] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War,[3] while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015."
A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in a peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism, but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215) was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die"...
Straw man. Not a single PBer is saying Assad is anything but an evil bastard. The question is: will his likely replacements be even worse?
It’s the choice between Stalin or Hitler. We chose to support Stalin, who was personally responsible for the torture and death of MILLIONS
Except it clearly isn't. He's a weak and useless leader, and any effort to prop him up is likely futile. All it would achieve is to extend a bloody conflict, and alienate whoever takes over.
You misconstrue me. I’m talking about those who argued we should have supported the Assad regime way back. I’m saying it is ARGUABLE - and it is - but only because ISIS contrive, somehow, to be even nastier than Assad. Stalin v Hitler. We chose Stalin
Right now Assad is finished so the idea we should support him is rendered nonsense by the facts
I really don't know what you're on about with this 'Hitler vs. Stalin' bollocks. Stalin was not a less bad option than Hitler - he killed more people for a start.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no equivalence in the wickedness of a repressive dictator who does however support religious tolerance, the education of women, the ability of women to attend university, and a stable and livable society, with the wickedness of a bunch of headchopping islamist nutters, *let alone* ISIS.
The Hitler vs Stalin comic book where they are both immensely powerful sorcerers is great.
Stalin: I offered you friendship to you, Adolf. You chose to start a war. Now, I am here to do destroy you.
Hitler: Caucasian Untermensch! Now I am at the height of my powers!
There is then a flashback to a pastoral scene near SPb in 1917 where Father Lenin trains Stalin to fight. Very much like Luke/Yoda on Dagobah.
Netflix adaptation when?
Here's Low, 1939:
Lenin - the moron who handed the USSR to Stalin. After destroying the first representative government of Russia.
Stalin - the moron who destroyed Poland. So removing the buffer zone between Nazi Germany and the USSR.
Hitler - the moron who declared war on both Russia AND America in 1941, without having defeated Britain first.
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
Why are you rooting for thousands more dead ?
That’s not going to happen, anyway. Assad has disappeared, and the Russians look to be leaving.
HY may well be right that we'd all be better off with the Assad dictatorship rather than what follows (just as we'd have probably have all been better off without the "Arab Spring in 2011) but nevertheless, as humans, I think there's always something kind of thrilling about watching a small army/rebellion rise up against a big power/s and defeat them.
It's kind of heart Vs head. I guess that's why I'm a Lucas' Star Wars fan. As that was the story of Episode's I to VI. 🙏
Whatever one thinks of Starmer's 'joke' (McDonaldsgate/007gate), Badenoch's response to it is just utterly bizarre, particularly: "And if a Conservative prime minister had made those comments about a black party leader, they would have been called a racist and asked to resign." Woke as I am in my awareness of racial injustice etc., I just can't see where she's got the racial angle from. Bizarre.
The implication is she expects preferential treatment on account of being black - having previously made a big deal of criticising that sort of attitude.
Looking forward to Kemi being asked to comment next time there’s a gammony explosion at the suggestion that 007 should be black.
My complaint on that was, that in the last film, they did that for 10 seconds, then she gave the number back! And became a sidekick in what appeared to be a badly designed advert for a first person shooter game.
It came across as crass tokenism.
Why did the Craig Bond movies see saw so much?
Casino Royale - Amazing Quantum - didn't even make sense Skyfall - decent Spectre - dull as dishwater No Time to Die - well, better than Spectre, even if massively over long
Well in the case of Quantum of Solace it was the 2007-08 Writers' strike. A draft script was sorted days before the strike, so they couldn't employ any writers to go over it and spot and sort its problems before shooting. Craig has said he did some emergency rewrites himself - but isn't great at screenwriting so was a dud. They decided not to delay the film as wanted to cash in on Casino Royale's success.
The rest to my mind range from damn good to perfectly serviceable, but were hamstrung to some extent by QoS being a massive dud. As Craig's Bond was always meant to tell an overarching story as a more modern 'realist' and emotionally grounded take on 007, but QoS being a bit of a disaster meant they pretty much started again with Skyfall, before coming back to it with bits of Spectre and NTTD. That often then felt a bit incongruous, mechanical and referencing a film everyone really wanted to forget.
If they try and do similar with a story arc again they really need to tie a filmmaker into a 3 or 4 film deal with the new Bond providing the first film is successful, so have someone overseeing tone and where each film takes you so don't end up in a mess again.
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
This confirms me in my view that WWII has corrupted our historical perspective of conflicts. Not all wars have good guys and bad guys and not all wars merit outside intervention. Syria is a great example of a conflict that has so many complicated national and religious dimensions that it's foolish for any outside nation to back one particular side.
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
This confirms me in my view that WWII has corrupted our historical perspective of conflicts. Not all wars have good guys and bad guys and not all wars merit outside intervention. Syria is a great example of a conflict that has so many complicated national and religious dimensions that it's foolish for any outside nation to back one particular side.
The best we can hope for is that both sides exhaust each other's morale and equipment over the coming days.
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
This confirms me in my view that WWII has corrupted our historical perspective of conflicts. Not all wars have good guys and bad guys and not all wars merit outside intervention. Syria is a great example of a conflict that has so many complicated national and religious dimensions that it's foolish for any outside nation to back one particular side.
The best we can hope for is that both sides exhaust each other's morale and equipment over the coming days.
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
Why are you rooting for thousands more dead ?
That’s not going to happen, anyway. Assad has disappeared, and the Russians look to be leaving.
As it drains Russia of resources and stops jihadis taking over almost all of Syria. No evidence yet Assad himself has left even if his family have and his Alawites will fight for their survival on the coast and Lebanese border against the militant rebels
Another blow for all of us if Jihadi militants take over Syria. Best bet is Assad holds on for at least a while in Damascus and Lebanon border and drains Russia of resources and planes and mercenaries to prop him up
Why are you rooting for thousands more dead ?
That’s not going to happen, anyway. Assad has disappeared, and the Russians look to be leaving.
I've not followed this closely. Is it a) the Russians have decided to go (possibly they want the men and equipment for Ukraine?), and without them the Assad regime has collapsed like a wet paper bag or b) the Assad regime has collapsed like a wet paper bag, so the Russians who were propping him up have decided to bail out?
"Western officials have suggested Syrian president Bashar al Assad's rule could end within a week.
US and other Western officials made the prediction as rebels looking to overthrow the Assad regime saw huge progress today, claiming control of Syria’s third biggest city Homs while advancing closer to the capital of Damascus with minimal pushback.
The comments were made to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The US official put the timeframe at five to 10 days while another said Assad could be ousted in the coming week. A Western official agreed with the latter assessment.
The government now has control of only three of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Latakia and Tartus."
A somewhat amusing title for a Twitter thread. "CNN now projects Assad will lose Danascus". I'm now imagining him lining up next to the Monster Raving Loony and Liberal Democrat candidates at a Surrey count, trying to put a brave face on things with hus Baathist rosette. As bedtime looms, the screen has a banner update flashing on the bottom : "Damascus : Lib Dem GAIN".
Labour to slash powers of councils in bid to unclog planning and bypass NIMBYs
Under Ms Rayner's proposals, council officials would have a strengthened role in decision-making about planning while the councillors who sit on the committees will get new mandatory training.
Alongside the reforms, the Government is this week expected to confirm sweeping changes to the National Planning Policy Framework - the document which sets out national priorities for building - following a consultation.
Labour to slash powers of councils in bid to unclog planning and bypass NIMBYs
Under Ms Rayner's proposals, council officials would have a strengthened role in decision-making about planning while the councillors who sit on the committees will get new mandatory training.
Alongside the reforms, the Government is this week expected to confirm sweeping changes to the National Planning Policy Framework - the document which sets out national priorities for building - following a consultation.
Now this is more like it.
Such plans will be very unpopular with home owners in the home counties and suburban London especially
Labour to slash powers of councils in bid to unclog planning and bypass NIMBYs
Under Ms Rayner's proposals, council officials would have a strengthened role in decision-making about planning while the councillors who sit on the committees will get new mandatory training.
Alongside the reforms, the Government is this week expected to confirm sweeping changes to the National Planning Policy Framework - the document which sets out national priorities for building - following a consultation.
Now this is more like it.
Such plans will be very unpopular with home owners in the home counties and suburban London especially
A mass expansion of GP services is being planned to tackle the NHS workforce crisis.
Wes Streeting has ordered health officials to rewrite staffing plans, in order to train thousands more GPs, health visitors and community nurses.
Last year, health officials drew up a strategy – which would have seen a 49 per cent increase in hospital consultants by 2036 – but just 4 per cent more GPs. Now, they will be told to “refresh” the plan to tip the balance in favour of services closer to home, meaning far more GPs, health visitors and community nurses trained and hired.
Who could ever have foreseen that was a suboptimal plan.
"While the average works around six half-day sessions a week – equivalent to three days a week – many say the paperwork pushes their hours to the equivalent of working full time."
A mass expansion of GP services is being planned to tackle the NHS workforce crisis.
Wes Streeting has ordered health officials to rewrite staffing plans, in order to train thousands more GPs, health visitors and community nurses.
Last year, health officials drew up a strategy – which would have seen a 49 per cent increase in hospital consultants by 2036 – but just 4 per cent more GPs. Now, they will be told to “refresh” the plan to tip the balance in favour of services closer to home, meaning far more GPs, health visitors and community nurses trained and hired.
It may or may not be the end in Damascus but in Wellington the Kiwis are putting up a bit of a fight.
199/6 currently - odds against the match getting to a fourth day but Blundell is approaching a century.
Only 384 needed to win.
Same old problem for England, struggle to push home the dominance by blasting out the tail and quickly going to bowling bouncers with a spread field (even when you have 100s of runs to play with).
Rumors that the IL-76 carrying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has either Crashed or carried out an Emergency Landing to the West of Homs, after having taken-off earlier from Damascus International Airport. The Aircraft descended to 1,600ft before disappearing from Radar.
Let’s hope the new NPPF will allow sites up to 50m and also in urban areas allow any site to be built without permission at all.
It won't happen to that extent. As a society we value our varied country too much, and local areas being distinct.
A strengthened role for planning officials - making a bit more like a local Planning Inspectorate with strengthened but not decisive powers, and restricting Councillors to more strategic decisions rather than indivual decisions, will unblock it.
I predict Councillors keeping their role for long-term - say guiding the Local Plan, and area, decisions. And implementation from month to month will be by officials, following established policies.
There will also be a huge shift towards joined up policy, across Councils and across types of use. So they can't, for example, block a brand new public highway with a fucking phone mast built right in the middle of it because no one thought it through and talked to each others.
This Labour Government have poor comms, but they are being really systematic and intentional about long term strategy and implementation thereof.
The collapse has been almost as spectacular as in Afghanistan.
One of the key elements precipitating Assad's fall seems to have been the defeat ur Hezbollah by Israel. Other than Assad's own army, which folded almost without a fight, they were the significant force on the ground.
Note that PB's strongest voices celebrating that defeat were largely the same ones wanting Assad to remain in power.wanting Just incoherent stuff.
Along with that they've been arguing - in long retrospect - that the US ought to have allied with Iran and Russia to keep Assad in power.
Sometime you have to realise there are problems you just don't have the power to solve.
This seems wildly optimistic, but probably more realistic than the "we should have propped up the dictators who are also our enemies" nonsense from yesterday.
For every non-Syrian: I invite you to be emotional and share this moment with us.
We need your continued support through this transition. We need a plural democracy for all Syrians.
Look, you can be sober and even skeptical about Syria’s future without being an asshole to people who are emerging from decades in regime dungeons, returning to homes and being reunited with their families for the first time in years. This isn’t about you and never was. https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/1865612179174461921
I am sure that UAE has worked behind the scenes saying something like Assads family will be offered assylum in Dubai if he steps down without a fight. They will feel at home as the place is crawling with Russians.
The peaceful way forward for Syria would be a peace conference including France and Turkey (keep US out of it) and carving the country into a federation along religious/ethic lines - keeping Kurdistan in the Federation but with almost complete autonomy. The Central government should have limited powers (like the Western Allies imposed on (West) Germany, with most powers resting with the regional governments. The whole structure backed by EU funding.
The peaceful way forward for Syria would be a peace conference including France and Turkey (keep US out of it) and carving the country into a federation along religious/ethic lines - keeping Kurdistan in the Federation but with almost complete autonomy. The Central government should have limited powers (like the Western Allies imposed on (West) Germany, with most powers resting with the regional governments. The whole structure backed by EU funding.
However....
Lots of howevers there. Who keeps the US out of it, though ?
Other than Trump, should he so decide - and that's a coin flip - there's no obvious way to do that.
The peaceful way forward for Syria would be a peace conference including France and Turkey (keep US out of it) and carving the country into a federation along religious/ethic lines - keeping Kurdistan in the Federation but with almost complete autonomy. The Central government should have limited powers (like the Western Allies imposed on (West) Germany, with most powers resting with the regional governments. The whole structure backed by EU funding.
However....
We'll have to see what Turkey's intentions are. I'm not sure they particularly want an autonomous Kurdistan in a loose Syrian Federation. Similarly we do not know to what extent Iran and Hezbollah will walk away from Syria following the fall of Assad.
F1: shame to see Hulkenberg has a 3 place grid penalty. I suppose he was getting dangerously close to a podium and the witch's curse was bound to activate.
The collapse has been almost as spectacular as in Afghanistan.
Assad was gone in a week. It is an unmitigated disaster for Putin. The rapid evacuation of Tartus is the fall of Saigon for Russia's tinpot imperialism. Meanwhile the Putin satrap in Georgia is under similar pressure and the attempted corruption of the Romanian election has been firmly dealt with. Also further signs of strain in the Sahel, as the Russian backed junta in Burkina dismisses the PM and rebels there and in Mali and Niger make gains. The NATO pushback after further physical and cyber attacks on Western infrastructure has surprised the Kremlin with its determination. As for the battlefield in Ukraine- it has been one of the most brutal weeks for Russia since launched their botched invasion. No wonder the Rouble is in mid air. As often happens when Russia gets a big set back, Putin has gone to ground and his useful idiots have gone to ground. All in all it has been an appalling week for Vova the Leningrad runt. Let's hope next week is even worse.
Labour to slash powers of councils in bid to unclog planning and bypass NIMBYs
Under Ms Rayner's proposals, council officials would have a strengthened role in decision-making about planning while the councillors who sit on the committees will get new mandatory training.
Alongside the reforms, the Government is this week expected to confirm sweeping changes to the National Planning Policy Framework - the document which sets out national priorities for building - following a consultation.
Now this is more like it.
Such plans will be very unpopular with home owners in the home counties and suburban London especially
But very popular/lucrative for corrupt planning officials.
Whatever one thinks of Starmer's 'joke' (McDonaldsgate/007gate), Badenoch's response to it is just utterly bizarre, particularly: "And if a Conservative prime minister had made those comments about a black party leader, they would have been called a racist and asked to resign." Woke as I am in my awareness of racial injustice etc., I just can't see where she's got the racial angle from. Bizarre.
The implication is she expects preferential treatment on account of being black - having previously made a big deal of criticising that sort of attitude.
Looking forward to Kemi being asked to comment next time there’s a gammony explosion at the suggestion that 007 should be black.
My complaint on that was, that in the last film, they did that for 10 seconds, then she gave the number back! And became a sidekick in what appeared to be a badly designed advert for a first person shooter game.
It came across as crass tokenism.
Why did the Craig Bond movies see saw so much?
Casino Royale - Amazing Quantum - didn't even make sense Skyfall - decent Spectre - dull as dishwater No Time to Die - well, better than Spectre, even if massively over long
Too harsh on Spectre, which was a decent film. Better than NTTD.
There must now be a scenario where the collapse of the Russian economy leads to a withdrawl from Ukraine.
Although, in the very short term, presumably the Russian warplanes and helicopters will have got back to Russia via Iran to be avaliable to lob some more bombs and missiles around?
Interesting to see whether Iranian supply lines across Syria now get disrupted and allow Lebanon to become better ruled by its own national government. Very good news for the security of both Lebanon and Israel if so.
Trump is perhaps going to walk into a rather different world picture than might have been envisioned on 6th November.
The peaceful way forward for Syria would be a peace conference including France and Turkey (keep US out of it) and carving the country into a federation along religious/ethic lines - keeping Kurdistan in the Federation but with almost complete autonomy. The Central government should have limited powers (like the Western Allies imposed on (West) Germany, with most powers resting with the regional governments. The whole structure backed by EU funding.
However....
We'll have to see what Turkey's intentions are. I'm not sure they particularly want an autonomous Kurdistan in a loose Syrian Federation. Similarly we do not know to what extent Iran and Hezbollah will walk away from Syria following the fall of Assad.
History should show everyone the way forwards.
Russian imperialism and interference, American imperialism and interference, Chinese / French / Britsh imperialism and interference does NOT work. Isreal must not be allowed to interfere in this either in any so called solution.
Libya showed us what happens when you create a vaccum without any vision or forethought. The devil you know can be replaced by a lesser devil or something far fra worse.
God and Allah know that there is plenty enough financial clout , plenty to build new infrastructures, plenty to build and manitain the peace IN THE ARAB WORLD.
Let the Saudis and others from across the Emirates build a future for Syria that gives hope and freedom to all Arab and ethnic Arab factions, trust the more moderate Arab voices to sort out their own mess and to begin to build their own futures.
Time to allow internal Arab differences and ethnic and religious issues to be solved amongst themselves....give peace a chance, let them marshal and contain their own excesses and frankly BUTT OUT!
Air traffic late into the night; probably not reinforcements.
Another Russian Air Force Il-76 heavy lifter is inbound to Latakia, Syria.
Likely participating in the Russian airlift from the airbase, as signs continue to increase that Russian forces are evacuating their key eastern Mediterranean holdings. https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1865540375965831380
No; it's carrying all the bombs that HYUFD said would be used to destroy the rebels...
There must now be a scenario where the collapse of the Russian economy leads to a withdrawl from Ukraine.
Although, in the very short term, presumably the Russian warplanes and helicopters will have got back to Russia via Iran to be avaliable to lob some more bombs and missiles around?
Interesting to see whether Iranian supply lines across Syria now get disrupted and allow Lebanon to become better ruled by its own national government. Very good news for the security of both Lebanon and Israel if so.
Trump is perhaps going to walk into a rather different world picture than might have been envisioned on 6th November.
Someone elsewhere made a very interesting (and it sounds reasonable) point: The Syrian airbase was critical as a supply route to get men to, and materials out of, their African holdings, which are not coastal. All the proceeds from the 'Expeditionary Corps' (i.e. Wagner) - all the gems and money - were taken out of Africa by plane. (The other bulk minerals overland). That route may now be disrupted, and overland alternatives more difficult. This is allegedly worth many billions to the Russian economy each year.
And I doubt the new government, or governments, of Syria will be very friendly towards Russia or Iran.
edit; also, as I've seen elsewhere: Iran may find it much harder to get stuff to Lebanon.
Comments
Keir Starmer’s relaunch speech was a belated recognition of a collective political madness.
By Tobias Phibbs"
https://www.newstatesman.com/thestaggers/2024/12/the-left-is-waking-up-to-the-immigration-crisis
Starmer shut down Shader in September this year, so at least he got that right.
Though less in favour of the regime, and more to hamper some of their undesirables in the race to Damascus.
And it’s not as though the RAF was dropping barrel bombs on Aleppo schools and hospitals.
A flexible diaphragm in a pressure vessel keeps the pressure fairly constant as the water heats up.
Every so often they fail.
https://www.vaillant.co.uk/advice/understanding-heating-technology/boilers/what-is-an-expansion-vessel/
Nice one, Sergey.
FM Lavrov: It’s inadmissible to allow the terrorist groups to take control of Syrian lands in violation of agreements which exist starting with the UNSC Resolution 2254 which strongly reaffirmed the sovereignty, territorial integrity & unity of #Syria.
https://x.com/RussianEmbassy/status/1865474298564989341
This evening we partied at the festival to inaugurate the newly completed salle polyvalente in the village of Oussouye, home of the king of the Dioula people (our animist guide for tomorrow who’s going to show us all the enchanted trees and fetishes in the area was, last time I checked, bumping and grinding on the dance floor in a rather pagan manner with one of the visiting female Catalan tourists at our local campement, to the evident disappointment of my BBC journalist travelling companion who rather fancied her).
Photo of the day: the dance-off champion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CCf7gvmDEU
"Mike Oldfield - Portsmouth"
I don't think I've even given it a thought since it was 'charting'. Now that I've typed all that - it does vaguely bring to mind early Thatcherism. In a vague childhood way.
Casino Royale - Amazing
Quantum - didn't even make sense
Skyfall - decent
Spectre - dull as dishwater
No Time to Die - well, better than Spectre, even if massively over long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
The World Never Dies
https://x.com/paulhutcheon/status/1221500901074067457?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
If the only way of stopping PM Farage in 2029 was to bring back Boris as LOTO for the 2029 election, would that be a price worth paying?
"E4: PROP. 45. Hatred can never be good.
Proof.--When we hate a man, we endeavour to destroy him (E3P39), that is (E4P37), we endeavour to do something that is bad. Therefore, etc. Q.E.D.
N.B. Here, and in what follows, I mean by hatred only hatred towards men."
20 "choose the right word" questions, which is about appropriateness as well as obscurity.
It's about 10 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1hrqxFm1Ss
(Me - tolerably literate: 19)
https://x.com/donaldturvill/status/1865529575200993302?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Yet....Reform up 13 even in Scotland, so not really that much different from the trend in England and Wales
Another Russian Air Force Il-76 heavy lifter is inbound to Latakia, Syria.
Likely participating in the Russian airlift from the airbase, as signs continue to increase that Russian forces are evacuating their key eastern Mediterranean holdings.
https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1865540375965831380
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwy8xzxe0w7t
Stalin - the moron who destroyed Poland. So removing the buffer zone between Nazi Germany and the USSR.
CON under Kemi are a distant second... But there IS a prince across the water in the form of Boris... He could become LOTO and take the fight to Nigel and possibly prevent a REF government.
Does Westminster, who did so much to cast him out in 2022, coalesce together to get him back for 2029?
Personally, I think they would... But I could be wrong.
It's certainly going to be an interesting Parliament...
That’s not going to happen, anyway. Assad has disappeared, and the Russians look to be leaving.
It's kind of heart Vs head. I guess that's why I'm a Lucas' Star Wars fan. As that was the story of Episode's I to VI. 🙏
The rest to my mind range from damn good to perfectly serviceable, but were hamstrung to some extent by QoS being a massive dud. As Craig's Bond was always meant to tell an overarching story as a more modern 'realist' and emotionally grounded take on 007, but QoS being a bit of a disaster meant they pretty much started again with Skyfall, before coming back to it with bits of Spectre and NTTD. That often then felt a bit incongruous, mechanical and referencing a film everyone really wanted to forget.
If they try and do similar with a story arc again they really need to tie a filmmaker into a 3 or 4 film deal with the new Bond providing the first film is successful, so have someone overseeing tone and where each film takes you so don't end up in a mess again.
He’s either out, which seems likely, or isn’t going to get out,
There are several.
Or do we not really know?
US and other Western officials made the prediction as rebels looking to overthrow the Assad regime saw huge progress today, claiming control of Syria’s third biggest city Homs while advancing closer to the capital of Damascus with minimal pushback.
The comments were made to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The US official put the timeframe at five to 10 days while another said Assad could be ousted in the coming week. A Western official agreed with the latter assessment.
The government now has control of only three of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Latakia and Tartus."
https://news.sky.com/story/syria-latest-iran-backed-fighters-enter-syria-as-russian-and-syrian-forces-strike-rebel-positions-13265154
"CNN now projects Assad will lose Danascus".
I'm now imagining him lining up next to the Monster Raving Loony and Liberal Democrat candidates at a Surrey count, trying to put a brave face on things with hus Baathist rosette.
As bedtime looms, the screen has a banner update flashing on the
bottom : "Damascus : Lib Dem GAIN".
Labour to slash powers of councils in bid to unclog planning and bypass NIMBYs
Under Ms Rayner's proposals, council officials would have a strengthened role in decision-making about planning while the councillors who sit on the committees will get new mandatory training.
Alongside the reforms, the Government is this week expected to confirm sweeping changes to the National Planning Policy Framework - the document which sets out national priorities for building - following a consultation.
Now this is more like it.
Want fewer masts? Build them taller.
Wes Streeting has ordered health officials to rewrite staffing plans, in order to train thousands more GPs, health visitors and community nurses.
Last year, health officials drew up a strategy – which would have seen a 49 per cent increase in hospital consultants by 2036 – but just 4 per cent more GPs. Now, they will be told to “refresh” the plan to tip the balance in favour of services closer to home, meaning far more GPs, health visitors and community nurses trained and hired.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/07/wes-streeting-announces-plans-for-mass-expansion-of-gp/
Who could ever have foreseen that was a suboptimal plan.
"While the average works around six half-day sessions a week – equivalent to three days a week – many say the paperwork pushes their hours to the equivalent of working full time."
Basically half their week just on paperwork.
199/6 currently - odds against the match getting to a fourth day but Blundell is approaching a century.
Only 384 needed to win.
Rumors that the IL-76 carrying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has either Crashed or carried out an Emergency Landing to the West of Homs, after having taken-off earlier from Damascus International Airport. The Aircraft descended to 1,600ft before disappearing from Radar.
A strengthened role for planning officials - making a bit more like a local Planning Inspectorate with strengthened but not decisive powers, and restricting Councillors to more strategic decisions rather than indivual decisions, will unblock it.
I predict Councillors keeping their role for long-term - say guiding the Local Plan, and area, decisions. And implementation from month to month will be by officials, following established policies.
There will also be a huge shift towards joined up policy, across Councils and across types of use. So they can't, for example, block a brand new public highway with a fucking phone mast built right in the middle of it because no one thought it through and talked to each others.
This Labour Government have poor comms, but they are being really systematic and intentional about long term strategy and implementation thereof.
New Zealand have “Assad” it at 247/7.
Too soon?
Other than Assad's own army, which folded almost without a fight, they were the significant force on the ground.
Note that PB's strongest voices celebrating that defeat were largely the same ones wanting Assad to remain in power.wanting
Just incoherent stuff.
Along with that they've been arguing - in long retrospect - that the US ought to have allied with Iran and Russia to keep Assad in power.
Sometime you have to realise there are problems you just don't have the power to solve.
For every non-Syrian: I invite you to be emotional and share this moment with us.
We need your continued support through this transition. We need a plural democracy for all Syrians.
We will never let Iran and Russia rule us again.
https://x.com/KareemRifai/status/1865587110201176067
Look, you can be sober and even skeptical about Syria’s future without being an asshole to people who are emerging from decades in regime dungeons, returning to homes and being reunited with their families for the first time in years. This isn’t about you and never was.
https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/1865612179174461921
However....
This paper finds that the rings are no older than 400M years. Sharks date back to at least the Late Ordovician Period, 450M years ago.
https://x.com/emollick/status/1865618420126953731
Who keeps the US out of it, though ?
Other than Trump, should he so decide - and that's a coin flip - there's no obvious way to do that.
F1: shame to see Hulkenberg has a 3 place grid penalty. I suppose he was getting dangerously close to a podium and the witch's curse was bound to activate.
The NATO pushback after further physical and cyber attacks on Western infrastructure has surprised the Kremlin with its determination.
As for the battlefield in Ukraine- it has been one of the most brutal weeks for Russia since launched their botched invasion. No wonder the Rouble is in mid air. As often happens when Russia gets a big set back, Putin has gone to ground and his useful idiots have gone to ground.
All in all it has been an appalling week for Vova the Leningrad runt. Let's hope next week is even worse.
Betting PostF1: backed Sainz to be winner each way at 9.5, with a hedge at 3.
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2024/12/abu-dhabi-pre-race-2024.html
The speed of events has been extraordinary.
Although, in the very short term, presumably the Russian warplanes and helicopters will have got back to Russia via Iran to be avaliable to lob some more bombs and missiles around?
Interesting to see whether Iranian supply lines across Syria now get disrupted and allow Lebanon to become better ruled by its own national government. Very good news for the security of both Lebanon and Israel if so.
Trump is perhaps going to walk into a rather different world picture than might have been envisioned on 6th November.
Russian imperialism and interference, American imperialism and interference, Chinese / French / Britsh imperialism and interference does NOT work. Isreal must not be allowed to interfere in this either in any so called solution.
Libya showed us what happens when you create a vaccum without any vision or forethought. The devil you know can be replaced by a lesser devil or something far fra worse.
God and Allah know that there is plenty enough financial clout , plenty to build new infrastructures, plenty to build and manitain the peace IN THE ARAB WORLD.
Let the Saudis and others from across the Emirates build a future for Syria that gives hope and freedom to all Arab and ethnic Arab factions, trust the more moderate Arab voices to sort out their own mess and to begin to build their own futures.
Time to allow internal Arab differences and ethnic and religious issues to be solved amongst themselves....give peace a chance, let them marshal and contain their own excesses and frankly BUTT OUT!
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lcrl7jf4c22v
Abandoned Syrian army uniforms in the streets::
https://bsky.app/profile/amermatar.bsky.social/post/3lcrahie76c2m
Like the fall of Kabul or Saigon all over again.
@HYUFD completely wrong. No one wants to die for Assad.
And I doubt the new government, or governments, of Syria will be very friendly towards Russia or Iran.
edit; also, as I've seen elsewhere: Iran may find it much harder to get stuff to Lebanon.