Is Trump illiterate? This is now a meme on social media after his failure to read the invitation letter from the King.
How do we know he didn’t read it?
He stared at it and then handed it back to Starmer and asked him to read that paragraph. As someone else suggested it might be that he refuses to wear spectacles.
He has read speeches many times. He reads from the lectern and interjects, then goes back to reading again. It is simply absurd to suggest he can't read, and hardly enhances the critique (probably from the same people) of Trump as untruthful.
The ultimate irony that the US political system, expressly designed to be full of so many checks and balances to avoid it being taken over by a populist lunatic, has now been taken over by populist lunatic. The only question now is whether populism stays popular.
None, presumably, over whether the lunatic remains lunatic ?
1. British households and businesses have spent too little and saved too much since the financial crisis. Private debt is way lower than it used to be. As a result government tax take is down and public debt is higher.
2. Labour came in on a manifesto of not raising VAT or income tax and employee NI, the big earners for the government.
3. Government needs more money and the economy needs more demand
Hence spend for victory. Here’s the bones of the speech: “We face the biggest security challenge since WW2, and we must fund a huge expansion in the defence budget while making sure we fix potholes, keep crime off the streets and reduce waiting lists. We promised not to raise tax. But you can do your bit. For every pound you spend on that new car (not Tesla) or that home extension or that trip to the cinema, or for you businesses that new IT system or warehouse automation, 20p goes straight to our fighting fund to get Britain growing and stick it to Putin. So I want you to go out and spend. Spend like you’ve never spent before. Your country needs you”
The people with the demand don't have the money.
The people with the money don't have the demand.
It leads back to housing, student debt and intergenerational inequality generally.
“Make saving expensive again”?
The previous govt was moving along those lines by lowering the amount of interest you could get before paying tax.
What Rachel Reeves could do is lower the limit you can pay into a cash ISA. It has been mooted.
If your savings cannot beat inflation then, apart from a buffer for an emergency, what is the point of it.
Other than house deposits, wedding funds, holidays, car replacements... absolutely nothing.
We started an ISA for each of our childen when they were born which was enough to pay for their maintainance fees at Uni and still leave enough for a house deposit. £100 a month each over 18 years with Skandia/Old Mutual (or whoever they have now become).
I’ve thought for a while now the govt, for the younger generations pensions, the govt should, for every child who turns 18, plonk £5,000 into a S&S ISA into something like an S&P 500 tracker, with low cost fees, which reinvests dividends and allow the power of compounding to do its work, and they would be able'to access this at the age of 67.
Blair started Child Trust Funds in 2001 for new babies with smaller sums - £250 to £500, with smaller installments at 5, 11 and 16; Cameron killed it in 2011. Worth about £1500 now.
TBF to Cameron, he did do auto-enrolment in pension schemes in 2012, which has resulted in long-term tax free savings contributions of 2% of salary for many (tax relief on 8% contributions). I think that's the maths.
Vance derangement syndrome is in danger of becoming a thing. Heaven knows there is enough wrong with the American regime without deliberately grasping the wrong end of the stick.
It was like this during the campaign when it became impossible to call out Trump's brain-freeze moments because it was drowned out by all the numpties pointing out his shark schtick.
So who was he dissing ?
The knob.
Hard to think of a European nation that didn't do *something* in Afghanistan, for instance.
Vance derangement syndrome is in danger of becoming a thing. Heaven knows there is enough wrong with the American regime without deliberately grasping the wrong end of the stick.
It was like this during the campaign when it became impossible to call out Trump's brain-freeze moments because it was drowned out by all the numpties pointing out his shark schtick.
So who was he dissing ?
The knob.
Hard to think of a European nation that didn't do *something* in Afghanistan, for instance.
Vance derangement syndrome is in danger of becoming a thing. Heaven knows there is enough wrong with the American regime without deliberately grasping the wrong end of the stick.
It was like this during the campaign when it became impossible to call out Trump's brain-freeze moments because it was drowned out by all the numpties pointing out his shark schtick.
So who was he dissing ?
The knob.
Hard to think of a European nation that didn't do *something* in Afghanistan, for instance.
Kemi Badenoch weighs in on JD Vance "random country" comments.
"I know JD Vance quite well. I've looked at the comments, I don't think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away. They're saying loads of things and getting quite animated let's keep cool heads.
America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they're looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well."
Sorry. But I still can't get my head round this. How can a leader of the opposition tanking in the polls look out at the bin-fire that is raging today and say "I know, I think I'll step in, big up my relationship with JD Vance and defend him". It's utter inanity.
On topic, it's going to be interesting to see if the Spring statement on 26th March changes anything:
Reeves has already reportedly used up her fiscal headroom and it's going to be hard to borrow more, so any increases in funding for defence and Ukraine mean:
- more tax rises - cuts to pensions/benefits - cuts to public services - cuts to investment e.g. Net Zero
I'd go for higher rate pension tax relief being removed to raise most of it. That and the lump sum reduced or being made more taxable you could raise £15-20 bn per annum, which would pretty much cover an uplift to 3% for defence.
European and NATO allies were not informed in advance, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
This is a very important decision and the situation is very serious. "The decision was made without any information or consultation with NATO allies or the Ramstein Group," Pavel Vronsky told reporters..."
The US's 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, in direct violation of a Treaty President Trump himself signed, demonstrates the extent to which one can trust the current US administration to keep its word.
Congress needs to act. The suspension of arms is likely illegal.
The damage is done regardless of what Congress does or doesn't do.
Vance derangement syndrome is in danger of becoming a thing. Heaven knows there is enough wrong with the American regime without deliberately grasping the wrong end of the stick.
It was like this during the campaign when it became impossible to call out Trump's brain-freeze moments because it was drowned out by all the numpties pointing out his shark schtick.
So who was he dissing ?
The knob.
Hard to think of a European nation that didn't do *something* in Afghanistan, for instance.
Kemi Badenoch has just shown she is on the side of JD Vance rather than our brave armed forces and the families who’ve lost loved ones in conflicts over the past 40 years.
Whoever it was, in the Inland Revenue, who woke up one morning and decided "you know what, today I won't spend the entire day on the sofa in my onesie, eating wasabl and Eccles cakes, pretending to look at my laptop, today I will actually go into work, in that office thing, and maybe get one document stamped, then I will go home again and watch the racing" - give that person a knighthood. This is service beyond duty to His Majesty's Realm
HMRC have had problems since about 2005 when they closed down all the local tax offices and regionalised them. Them being crap and taking decades to do anything when it's on their side to deal with is nothing new
Vance derangement syndrome is in danger of becoming a thing. Heaven knows there is enough wrong with the American regime without deliberately grasping the wrong end of the stick.
It was like this during the campaign when it became impossible to call out Trump's brain-freeze moments because it was drowned out by all the numpties pointing out his shark schtick.
So who was he dissing ?
The knob.
Hard to think of a European nation that didn't do *something* in Afghanistan, for instance.
Kemi Badenoch has just shown she is on the side of JD Vance rather than our brave armed forces and the families who’ve lost loved ones in conflicts over the past 40 years.
On topic, it's going to be interesting to see if the Spring statement on 26th March changes anything:
Reeves has already reportedly used up her fiscal headroom and it's going to be hard to borrow more, so any increases in funding for defence and Ukraine mean:
- more tax rises - cuts to pensions/benefits - cuts to public services - cuts to investment e.g. Net Zero
I'd go for higher rate pension tax relief being removed to raise most of it. That and the lump sum reduced or being made more taxable you could raise £15-20 bn per annum, which would pretty much cover an uplift to 3% for defence.
Says someone who has a decent pension. The problem with anything in that area is that people simply won't throw money into a pension and will do so by cutting back their hours...
On topic, it's going to be interesting to see if the Spring statement on 26th March changes anything:
Reeves has already reportedly used up her fiscal headroom and it's going to be hard to borrow more, so any increases in funding for defence and Ukraine mean:
- more tax rises - cuts to pensions/benefits - cuts to public services - cuts to investment e.g. Net Zero
I'd go for higher rate pension tax relief being removed to raise most of it. That and the lump sum reduced or being made more taxable you could raise £15-20 bn per annum, which would pretty much cover an uplift to 3% for defence.
Says someone who has a decent pension. The problem with anything in that area is that people simply won't throw money into a pension and will do so by cutting back their hours...
They'd still get tax relief, presumably, but at the basic rate not the higher rate.
Kemi Badenoch weighs in on JD Vance "random country" comments.
"I know JD Vance quite well. I've looked at the comments, I don't think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away. They're saying loads of things and getting quite animated let's keep cool heads.
America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they're looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well."
Perfectly sensible comments, not insulting the US VP while not supporting any criticism of our armed forces either
Back when Trump was first elected in 2016, I posted that we could see a slow reversal of human rights and liberalism in America. Sadly, I was proven correct. If you are different, or even female, you are lesser.
But what I did not expect was for him to make a significant reversal in foreign policy. Not just trying to extort good deals (for the US) out of countries, but actively shafting the countries that have been America's allies for many decades.
And most Americans appear to be just shrugging as the country they claim to love slides, at best, into dictatorship.
Trump is an utter horror show and the US under him can no longer be considered an ally.
Last night the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (a law which would have stopped men and boys who identify as women to play in women's sports in schools) had a majority in Congress. But it did not get the 60 votes it needed to become law because Democrats refused to support it. Women and girls always lose out, no matter who is in power, because the rights of men matter more.
I think we should embrace this and let dolphins compete in men's swimming competitions. Let dolphins win everything and men always lose. If it's good enough for women it should be good enough for men.
European and NATO allies were not informed in advance, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
This is a very important decision and the situation is very serious. "The decision was made without any information or consultation with NATO allies or the Ramstein Group," Pavel Vronsky told reporters..."
The US's 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, in direct violation of a Treaty President Trump himself signed, demonstrates the extent to which one can trust the current US administration to keep its word.
As Paul Krugman has just pointed out on his blog - the problem Canada and Mexico have in responding to the tariffs is that they haven’t a clue what they’ve done wrong and couldn’t fix it even if they did know.
So I can see Ottawa cutting electricity off because they may as well
On topic, it's going to be interesting to see if the Spring statement on 26th March changes anything:
Reeves has already reportedly used up her fiscal headroom and it's going to be hard to borrow more, so any increases in funding for defence and Ukraine mean:
- more tax rises - cuts to pensions/benefits - cuts to public services - cuts to investment e.g. Net Zero
I'd go for higher rate pension tax relief being removed to raise most of it. That and the lump sum reduced or being made more taxable you could raise £15-20 bn per annum, which would pretty much cover an uplift to 3% for defence.
Says someone who has a decent pension. The problem with anything in that area is that people simply won't throw money into a pension and will do so by cutting back their hours...
That's quite an assumption.
The point of a reduced tax relief rate is that it impacts the wealthier, not the less wealthy. 20% or 25% tax relief is still 20% or 25% tax relief.
On the "decent pension", for the record, my career in large industrials ended at age 31, so I have a modest corporate pension from back then, before I went to work as a contractor. In those days as contractors we did not get the proto-employee benefits that came in later.
I then had to throw it all up in the air at age 34 when my diagnosis of Type I Diabetes meant that my predicted life expectancy reduced by ~15 years (it's still the same prediction), which slightly undermines the rationale for pension schemes - even though I will get a for chronic health condition enhanced annuity. Looking after it properly means I get some of it back.
Kemi Badenoch weighs in on JD Vance "random country" comments.
"I know JD Vance quite well. I've looked at the comments, I don't think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away. They're saying loads of things and getting quite animated let's keep cool heads.
America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they're looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well."
Slight problem there - she doesn’t seem to have noticed that since January the USA has gone from closet friend / ally to someone who needs to be carefully managed and ideally should be in rehab for treatment
Ever since I got back from Singapore, it's been chilly mornings but glorious afternoons with wall to wall sunshine.
Reminds of the lockdown Spring in 2020.
Indeed - I well remember sitting in the garden in April 2020 enjoying two things - first, the clear air and second, the absence of traffic from the A406.
Halcyon days.
Everyone's pandemic was different. Many hated it, many lost people, for many its a terrible memory best forgotten. Yet for some with nice houses and gardens, jobs that you could WFH (or even those lucky buggers getting paid 80% to do nothing) that spring is a happy memory of lovely weather, mandated 1 hours dog walks and for once a country mostly pulling together.
Didn't last mind...
I liked it at first so long as I quelled the fear of catching Covid and dying. But by the end I was going slightly stir crazy and I was glad when it was over.
Pretty clear that Zelenskyy will have to sign the extortion deal and offer a grovelling apology within days .
I just don’t see any other option.
Why? Trump will offer him nothing in return.
I don’t think he has a choice . Clear that US won’t re-start any military aid without that .
It's not clear that the US will re-start any military aid with that
Grovelling and signing the deal might be necessary but not necessarily sufficient.
Zelensky won't hand 5 regions of his nation over to Putin for a deal, he will fight on regardless with the support he still gets from the non US Nato nations
Hope so. Frustrating Trump is a worthy addition to the calculus.
Vance derangement syndrome is in danger of becoming a thing. Heaven knows there is enough wrong with the American regime without deliberately grasping the wrong end of the stick.
It was like this during the campaign when it became impossible to call out Trump's brain-freeze moments because it was drowned out by all the numpties pointing out his shark schtick.
On topic, it's going to be interesting to see if the Spring statement on 26th March changes anything:
Reeves has already reportedly used up her fiscal headroom and it's going to be hard to borrow more, so any increases in funding for defence and Ukraine mean:
- more tax rises - cuts to pensions/benefits - cuts to public services - cuts to investment e.g. Net Zero
I'd go for higher rate pension tax relief being removed to raise most of it. That and the lump sum reduced or being made more taxable you could raise £15-20 bn per annum, which would pretty much cover an uplift to 3% for defence.
Says someone who has a decent pension. The problem with anything in that area is that people simply won't throw money into a pension and will do so by cutting back their hours...
That's quite an assumption.
The point of a reduced tax relief rate is that it impacts the wealthier, not the less wealthy. 20% or 25% tax relief is still 20% or 25% tax relief.
On the "decent pension", for the record, my career in large industrials ended at age 31, so I have a modest corporate pension from back then, before I went to work as a contractor. In those days as contractors we did not get the proto-employee benefits that came in later.
I then had to throw it all up in the air at age 34 when my diagnosis of Type I Diabetes meant that my predicted life expectancy reduced by ~15 years, which slightly undermines the rationale for pension schemes - even though I will get a for chronic health condition enhanced annuity. Looking after it properly means I get some of it back.
That's basically why I got more into property.
If money is being taxed both going in and going out of a pension it may as well not go into a pension.
That is why any idea to remove tax relief at source is a stupid idea.
Kemi Badenoch weighs in on JD Vance "random country" comments.
"I know JD Vance quite well. I've looked at the comments, I don't think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away. They're saying loads of things and getting quite animated let's keep cool heads.
America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they're looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well."
Slight problem there - she doesn’t seem to have noticed that since January the USA has gone from closet friend / ally to someone who needs to be carefully managed and ideally should be in rehab for treatment
If Starmer is vaguely sensible, he will be trying to get some kind of consensus from main parties (other than reform) on what is said. Given the diplomatic row, he is trying to hoe…
On topic, it's going to be interesting to see if the Spring statement on 26th March changes anything:
Reeves has already reportedly used up her fiscal headroom and it's going to be hard to borrow more, so any increases in funding for defence and Ukraine mean:
- more tax rises - cuts to pensions/benefits - cuts to public services - cuts to investment e.g. Net Zero
I'd go for higher rate pension tax relief being removed to raise most of it. That and the lump sum reduced or being made more taxable you could raise £15-20 bn per annum, which would pretty much cover an uplift to 3% for defence.
Says someone who has a decent pension. The problem with anything in that area is that people simply won't throw money into a pension and will do so by cutting back their hours...
That's quite an assumption.
The point of a reduced tax relief rate is that it impacts the wealthier, not the less wealthy. 20% or 25% tax relief is still 20% or 25% tax relief.
On the "decent pension", for the record, my career in large industrials ended at age 31, so I have a modest corporate pension from back then, before I went to work as a contractor. In those days as contractors we did not get the proto-employee benefits that came in later.
I then had to throw it all up in the air at age 34 when my diagnosis of Type I Diabetes meant that my predicted life expectancy reduced by ~15 years, which slightly undermines the rationale for pension schemes - even though I will get a for chronic health condition enhanced annuity. Looking after it properly means I get some of it back.
That's basically why I got more into property.
If money is being taxed both going in and going out of a pension it may as well not go into a pension.
That is why any idea to remove tax relief at source is a stupid idea.
State visit idea. Invite Vance too. But his programme just includes pubs in Aldershot.
Make that Hereford...
Can't quite make out the purpose of Vance. He was only there as a prop for Trump's 2024 campaign so is essentially irrelevant for the next 4 years. Perhaps he is searching for some relevance by being a shock jock like Bannon.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
European and NATO allies were not informed in advance, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
This is a very important decision and the situation is very serious. "The decision was made without any information or consultation with NATO allies or the Ramstein Group," Pavel Vronsky told reporters..."
The US's 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, in direct violation of a Treaty President Trump himself signed, demonstrates the extent to which one can trust the current US administration to keep its word.
As Paul Krugman has just pointed out on his blog - the problem Canada and Mexico have in responding to the tariffs is that they haven’t a clue what they’ve done wrong and couldn’t fix it even if they did know.
So I can see Ottawa cutting electricity off because they may as well
The US's tariffs on Canada are completely perplexing: I did a good post on it (that Ed Conway clearly read, because he then repeated it with a whole bunch of additional information )
Ever since I got back from Singapore, it's been chilly mornings but glorious afternoons with wall to wall sunshine.
Reminds of the lockdown Spring in 2020.
Indeed - I well remember sitting in the garden in April 2020 enjoying two things - first, the clear air and second, the absence of traffic from the A406.
Halcyon days.
Everyone's pandemic was different. Many hated it, many lost people, for many its a terrible memory best forgotten. Yet for some with nice houses and gardens, jobs that you could WFH (or even those lucky buggers getting paid 80% to do nothing) that spring is a happy memory of lovely weather, mandated 1 hours dog walks and for once a country mostly pulling together.
Didn't last mind...
I liked it at first so long as I quelled the fear of catching Covid and dying. But by the end I was going slightly stir crazy and I was glad when it was over.
State visit idea. Invite Vance too. But his programme just includes pubs in Aldershot.
Make that Hereford...
Can't quite make out the purpose of Vance. He was only there as a prop for Trump's 2024 campaign so is essentially irrelevant for the next 4 years. Perhaps he is searching for some relevance by being a shock jock like Bannon.
State visit idea. Invite Vance too. But his programme just includes pubs in Aldershot.
Make that Hereford...
Can't quite make out the purpose of Vance. He was only there as a prop for Trump's 2024 campaign so is essentially irrelevant for the next 4 years. Perhaps he is searching for some relevance by being a shock jock like Bannon.
As Trump would say SAD.
The purpose of Vance, to Trump, is to fill the VP chair, while being more Trumpite than Trump.
Kemi Badenoch weighs in on JD Vance "random country" comments.
"I know JD Vance quite well. I've looked at the comments, I don't think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away. They're saying loads of things and getting quite animated let's keep cool heads.
America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they're looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well."
Slight problem there - she doesn’t seem to have noticed that since January the USA has gone from closet friend / ally to someone who needs to be carefully managed and ideally should be in rehab for treatment
She had looked in recent days to be marching down Sensible Street.
Now she seems to have gone off down C*ntish Cul-de-sac....
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
When I lived in Southam, one of the local boys was killed in Afghanistan. His name was Private Jeff Doherty and he died under enemy fire two days after his 21st birthday. There was absolute silence - save for the wind rustling through the trees and the tolling church bells - as his coffin came down the High Street. HIs weeping family followed behind and the whole town, heads bowed, lined both sides of the road. They even brought the kids out of the schools, the ones he had attended, to pay their respects. It still brings tears to my eyes remembering it now.
This scene was repeated across the UK countless times, while similar ones happened in many other countries too. All because, for the only time in history, the US invoked NATO Article 5.
If I believed in hell I would be praying for JD Vance and his apologists to burn there for eternity.
Politically, if Labour and the Tories do not have the skill to bury the Trump/Vance/Putin-backing Reform party, they need to dissolve themselves and let someone else have a go
Very sad and a very brave guy.
Article 5 was invoked immediately after 9/11 and as you well know obligates countries to "take such actions as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force".
I think you'll find that the generals and Downing Street needed no encouragement to deploy and to Helmand (Pte Doherty died in 2008), of all places, where it didn't do much except become a self-licking lollipop, heroically bravely fending off attack after attack by the Taliban until eventual withdrawal.
I don't think JD Vance was responsible for that.
Great story, though.
Nobody is saying Vance was responsible for that. We are saying he's either ignorant of the support given to the US or, more likely, wilfully trying to wipe it from the history books because it doesn't fit his warped view of the world.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Didn't you also say that voting for Trump was like having a baby.
Ever since I got back from Singapore, it's been chilly mornings but glorious afternoons with wall to wall sunshine.
Reminds of the lockdown Spring in 2020.
Indeed - I well remember sitting in the garden in April 2020 enjoying two things - first, the clear air and second, the absence of traffic from the A406.
Halcyon days.
Everyone's pandemic was different. Many hated it, many lost people, for many its a terrible memory best forgotten. Yet for some with nice houses and gardens, jobs that you could WFH (or even those lucky buggers getting paid 80% to do nothing) that spring is a happy memory of lovely weather, mandated 1 hours dog walks and for once a country mostly pulling together.
Didn't last mind...
I liked it at first so long as I quelled the fear of catching Covid and dying. But by the end I was going slightly stir crazy and I was glad when it was over.
Itching to get back to something productive, eh.
You really are in limbo on here, aren't you.
Ah it's Captain Contra. How are we doing? Waking up to things yet?
When I lived in Southam, one of the local boys was killed in Afghanistan. His name was Private Jeff Doherty and he died under enemy fire two days after his 21st birthday. There was absolute silence - save for the wind rustling through the trees and the tolling church bells - as his coffin came down the High Street. HIs weeping family followed behind and the whole town, heads bowed, lined both sides of the road. They even brought the kids out of the schools, the ones he had attended, to pay their respects. It still brings tears to my eyes remembering it now.
This scene was repeated across the UK countless times, while similar ones happened in many other countries too. All because, for the only time in history, the US invoked NATO Article 5.
If I believed in hell I would be praying for JD Vance and his apologists to burn there for eternity.
Politically, if Labour and the Tories do not have the skill to bury the Trump/Vance/Putin-backing Reform party, they need to dissolve themselves and let someone else have a go
Very sad and a very brave guy.
Article 5 was invoked immediately after 9/11 and as you well know obligates countries to "take such actions as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force".
I think you'll find that the generals and Downing Street needed no encouragement to deploy and to Helmand (Pte Doherty died in 2008), of all places, where it didn't do much except become a self-licking lollipop, heroically bravely fending off attack after attack by the Taliban until eventual withdrawal.
I don't think JD Vance was responsible for that.
Great story, though.
Nobody is saying Vance was responsible for that. We are saying he's either ignorant of the support given to the US or, more likely, wilfully trying to wipe it from the history books because it doesn't fit his warped view of the world.
No that's not what he has said. He used a rhetorical device, likely for consumption at home, about the likely benefits of a military contribution from eg the Canary Islands and then people read into it that he meant the UK and France and he actually clarified that he didn't mean the UK and France.
And the way Southam's heartfelt post read was that he absolutely was holding Vance responsible "If I believed in hell I would be praying for JD Vance and his apologists to burn there for eternity." etc
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Didn't you also say that voting for Trump was like having a baby.
I've actually found the original comment where I carefully constructed this metaphor. October 2023
"I think Wokeness is much worse than Trump. In all seriousness. You don't understand
However Wokeness is a generational challenge to us all and can only be defeated over decades. Trump is a more proximate and immediate danger, to the most powerful democracy in the West, so Trump must not win in 2024
To adapt an analogy of my own, we are trapped on an ice floe, the ice floe is heading to the warm sea where it will eventually melt and we will definitely drown. The sea current carrying us is: Wokeness
However, sharing this same ice floe with us is a polar bear. That's Trump. It doesn't matter if we manage to steer the ice floe in a different direction if the polar bear comes over and eats several of our limbs in the meantime
Ergo, we have to shoot the polar bear first, then work out how to stop drowning"
Ever since I got back from Singapore, it's been chilly mornings but glorious afternoons with wall to wall sunshine.
Reminds of the lockdown Spring in 2020.
Indeed - I well remember sitting in the garden in April 2020 enjoying two things - first, the clear air and second, the absence of traffic from the A406.
Halcyon days.
Everyone's pandemic was different. Many hated it, many lost people, for many its a terrible memory best forgotten. Yet for some with nice houses and gardens, jobs that you could WFH (or even those lucky buggers getting paid 80% to do nothing) that spring is a happy memory of lovely weather, mandated 1 hours dog walks and for once a country mostly pulling together.
Didn't last mind...
I liked it at first so long as I quelled the fear of catching Covid and dying. But by the end I was going slightly stir crazy and I was glad when it was over.
Itching to get back to something productive, eh.
You really are in limbo on here, aren't you.
Ah it's Captain Contra. How are we doing? Waking up to things yet?
So what were you itching to get back to after those months of enforced inactivity at home.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Didn't you also say that voting for Trump was like having a baby.
I've actually found the original comment where I carefully constructed this metaphor. October 2023
"I think Wokeness is much worse than Trump. In all seriousness. You don't understand
However Wokeness is a generational challenge to us all and can only be defeated over decades. Trump is a more proximate and immediate danger, to the most powerful democracy in the West, so Trump must not win in 2024
To adapt an analogy of my own, we are trapped on an ice floe, the ice floe is heading to the warm sea where it will eventually melt and we will definitely drown. The sea current carrying us is: Wokeness
However, sharing this same ice floe with us is a polar bear. That's Trump. It doesn't matter if we manage to steer the ice floe in a different direction if the polar bear comes over and eats several of our limbs in the meantime
Ergo, we have to shoot the polar bear first, then work out how to stop drowning"
Once again, the King showing the colonials how it's done
@RoyalFamily Almost 50 years ago, in 1977, The King, as Prince of Wales, flew in a Buccaneer jet to HMS Ark Royal from Royal Navy Air Station Yeovilton.
🚢 Today, His Majesty recalled the experience whilst aboard HMS Prince of Wales at sea, where he saw F-35B Lightning jets operating from the flight deck.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
It was a good metaphor but a phony one because you wanted him to win. Don't bother lying that you didn't.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Didn't you also say that voting for Trump was like having a baby.
I've actually found the original comment where I carefully constructed this metaphor. October 2023
"I think Wokeness is much worse than Trump. In all seriousness. You don't understand
However Wokeness is a generational challenge to us all and can only be defeated over decades. Trump is a more proximate and immediate danger, to the most powerful democracy in the West, so Trump must not win in 2024
To adapt an analogy of my own, we are trapped on an ice floe, the ice floe is heading to the warm sea where it will eventually melt and we will definitely drown. The sea current carrying us is: Wokeness
However, sharing this same ice floe with us is a polar bear. That's Trump. It doesn't matter if we manage to steer the ice floe in a different direction if the polar bear comes over and eats several of our limbs in the meantime
Ergo, we have to shoot the polar bear first, then work out how to stop drowning"
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
It was a good metaphor but a phony one because you wanted him to win. Don't bother lying that you didn't.
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Ever since I got back from Singapore, it's been chilly mornings but glorious afternoons with wall to wall sunshine.
Reminds of the lockdown Spring in 2020.
Indeed - I well remember sitting in the garden in April 2020 enjoying two things - first, the clear air and second, the absence of traffic from the A406.
Halcyon days.
Everyone's pandemic was different. Many hated it, many lost people, for many its a terrible memory best forgotten. Yet for some with nice houses and gardens, jobs that you could WFH (or even those lucky buggers getting paid 80% to do nothing) that spring is a happy memory of lovely weather, mandated 1 hours dog walks and for once a country mostly pulling together.
Didn't last mind...
I liked it at first so long as I quelled the fear of catching Covid and dying. But by the end I was going slightly stir crazy and I was glad when it was over.
Itching to get back to something productive, eh.
You really are in limbo on here, aren't you.
Ah it's Captain Contra. How are we doing? Waking up to things yet?
So what were you itching to get back to after those months of enforced inactivity at home.
The simple things. A pint in the sun was probably tops.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Why are you such an utter wet wipe?
Trump has been in for all of 10 minutes - apart from causing pearls to be clutched to breaking point every six seconds on PB, I can't see any world catastrophe he is responsible for. If he manages to bring peace to Ukraine in a rude and obnoxious way, I prefer that infinitely to continuing the war in Ukraine for another 5 years in a huggy, diplomatic way. One means a lot more suffering and death; one doesn't.
The only electoral despatch we need to see is our own adenoidal treacherous lardbucket currently wrapping himself in red white and blue whilst presiding over the economic and social demise of the country he 'leads'.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Why are you such an utter wet wipe?
Trump has been in for all of 10 minutes - apart from causing pearls to be clutched to breaking point every six seconds on PB, I can't see any world catastrophe he is responsible for. If he manages to bring peace to Ukraine in a rude and obnoxious way, I prefer that infinitely to continuing the war in Ukraine for another 5 years in a huggy, diplomatic way. One means a lot more suffering and death; one doesn't.
The only electoral despatch we need to see is our own adenoidal treacherous lardbucket currently wrapping himself in red white and blue whilst presiding over the economic and social demise of the country he 'leads'.
What part of give up more land to Russia than Russia has currently stolen makes you think Ukraine is going to agree to the US’s terms
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Blatant violation of the First Amendment
Remember first amendment rights are only there for rich people.
I don’t think Trump has ever read / watched Animal Farm 1984 or the Handmaid’s tale
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Why are you such an utter wet wipe?
Trump has been in for all of 10 minutes - apart from causing pearls to be clutched to breaking point every six seconds on PB, I can't see any world catastrophe he is responsible for. If he manages to bring peace to Ukraine in a rude and obnoxious way, I prefer that infinitely to continuing the war in Ukraine for another 5 years in a huggy, diplomatic way. One means a lot more suffering and death; one doesn't.
The only electoral despatch we need to see is our own adenoidal treacherous lardbucket currently wrapping himself in red white and blue whilst presiding over the economic and social demise of the country he 'leads'.
As I said, I approve of much of what Trump is doing domestically - Woke, DEI, migration, elements of DOGE - I want Reform to do the same here, ASAP, as soon as we can get rid of the ludicrous Labour government
But his economic policies are needlessly alienating and silly AT BEST and potentially truly calamitous for world trade - and for the US economy itself. ALSO, Trump and Co are being so counter-productively crude, rude and offensive they are actively hindering right wing, alt-right and conservative forces abroad. See how Trump has single-handedly revived the liberals and crippled the right in Canada, in just four weeks
Ever since I got back from Singapore, it's been chilly mornings but glorious afternoons with wall to wall sunshine.
Reminds of the lockdown Spring in 2020.
Indeed - I well remember sitting in the garden in April 2020 enjoying two things - first, the clear air and second, the absence of traffic from the A406.
Halcyon days.
Everyone's pandemic was different. Many hated it, many lost people, for many its a terrible memory best forgotten. Yet for some with nice houses and gardens, jobs that you could WFH (or even those lucky buggers getting paid 80% to do nothing) that spring is a happy memory of lovely weather, mandated 1 hours dog walks and for once a country mostly pulling together.
Didn't last mind...
I liked it at first so long as I quelled the fear of catching Covid and dying. But by the end I was going slightly stir crazy and I was glad when it was over.
Itching to get back to something productive, eh.
You really are in limbo on here, aren't you.
Ah it's Captain Contra. How are we doing? Waking up to things yet?
So what were you itching to get back to after those months of enforced inactivity at home.
The simple things. A pint in the sun was probably tops.
LOL you really are a lost soul.
My advice: relax, no need to try so hard on here, just be yourself.
When I lived in Southam, one of the local boys was killed in Afghanistan. His name was Private Jeff Doherty and he died under enemy fire two days after his 21st birthday. There was absolute silence - save for the wind rustling through the trees and the tolling church bells - as his coffin came down the High Street. HIs weeping family followed behind and the whole town, heads bowed, lined both sides of the road. They even brought the kids out of the schools, the ones he had attended, to pay their respects. It still brings tears to my eyes remembering it now.
This scene was repeated across the UK countless times, while similar ones happened in many other countries too. All because, for the only time in history, the US invoked NATO Article 5.
If I believed in hell I would be praying for JD Vance and his apologists to burn there for eternity.
Politically, if Labour and the Tories do not have the skill to bury the Trump/Vance/Putin-backing Reform party, they need to dissolve themselves and let someone else have a go
Very sad and a very brave guy.
Article 5 was invoked immediately after 9/11 and as you well know obligates countries to "take such actions as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force".
I think you'll find that the generals and Downing Street needed no encouragement to deploy and to Helmand (Pte Doherty died in 2008), of all places, where it didn't do much except become a self-licking lollipop, heroically bravely fending off attack after attack by the Taliban until eventual withdrawal.
I don't think JD Vance was responsible for that.
Great story, though.
Nobody is saying Vance was responsible for that. We are saying he's either ignorant of the support given to the US or, more likely, wilfully trying to wipe it from the history books because it doesn't fit his warped view of the world.
No that's not what he has said. He used a rhetorical device, likely for consumption at home, about the likely benefits of a military contribution from eg the Canary Islands and then people read into it that he meant the UK and France and he actually clarified that he didn't mean the UK and France.
And the way Southam's heartfelt post read was that he absolutely was holding Vance responsible "If I believed in hell I would be praying for JD Vance and his apologists to burn there for eternity." etc
Cometh the hour cometh the man with a bit of "cold hard analysis" to counter the hysteria.
Ever since I got back from Singapore, it's been chilly mornings but glorious afternoons with wall to wall sunshine.
Reminds of the lockdown Spring in 2020.
Indeed - I well remember sitting in the garden in April 2020 enjoying two things - first, the clear air and second, the absence of traffic from the A406.
Halcyon days.
Everyone's pandemic was different. Many hated it, many lost people, for many its a terrible memory best forgotten. Yet for some with nice houses and gardens, jobs that you could WFH (or even those lucky buggers getting paid 80% to do nothing) that spring is a happy memory of lovely weather, mandated 1 hours dog walks and for once a country mostly pulling together.
Didn't last mind...
I liked it at first so long as I quelled the fear of catching Covid and dying. But by the end I was going slightly stir crazy and I was glad when it was over.
Itching to get back to something productive, eh.
You really are in limbo on here, aren't you.
Ah it's Captain Contra. How are we doing? Waking up to things yet?
So what were you itching to get back to after those months of enforced inactivity at home.
The simple things. A pint in the sun was probably tops.
LOL you really are a lost soul.
My advice: relax, no need to try so hard on here, just be yourself.
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
You know, I think Vance was right about the US and Europe having different attitudes towards free speech.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Why are you such an utter wet wipe?
Trump has been in for all of 10 minutes - apart from causing pearls to be clutched to breaking point every six seconds on PB, I can't see any world catastrophe he is responsible for. If he manages to bring peace to Ukraine in a rude and obnoxious way, I prefer that infinitely to continuing the war in Ukraine for another 5 years in a huggy, diplomatic way. One means a lot more suffering and death; one doesn't.
The only electoral despatch we need to see is our own adenoidal treacherous lardbucket currently wrapping himself in red white and blue whilst presiding over the economic and social demise of the country he 'leads'.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
It was a good metaphor but a phony one because you wanted him to win. Don't bother lying that you didn't.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Didn't you also say that voting for Trump was like having a baby.
I've actually found the original comment where I carefully constructed this metaphor. October 2023
"I think Wokeness is much worse than Trump. In all seriousness. You don't understand
However Wokeness is a generational challenge to us all and can only be defeated over decades. Trump is a more proximate and immediate danger, to the most powerful democracy in the West, so Trump must not win in 2024
To adapt an analogy of my own, we are trapped on an ice floe, the ice floe is heading to the warm sea where it will eventually melt and we will definitely drown. The sea current carrying us is: Wokeness
However, sharing this same ice floe with us is a polar bear. That's Trump. It doesn't matter if we manage to steer the ice floe in a different direction if the polar bear comes over and eats several of our limbs in the meantime
Ergo, we have to shoot the polar bear first, then work out how to stop drowning"
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Why are you such an utter wet wipe?
Trump has been in for all of 10 minutes - apart from causing pearls to be clutched to breaking point every six seconds on PB, I can't see any world catastrophe he is responsible for. If he manages to bring peace to Ukraine in a rude and obnoxious way, I prefer that infinitely to continuing the war in Ukraine for another 5 years in a huggy, diplomatic way. One means a lot more suffering and death; one doesn't.
The only electoral despatch we need to see is our own adenoidal treacherous lardbucket currently wrapping himself in red white and blue whilst presiding over the economic and social demise of the country he 'leads'.
As I said, I approve of much of what Trump is doing domestically - Woke, DEI, migration, elements of DOGE - I want Reform to do the same here, ASAP, as soon as we can get rid of the ludicrous Labour government
But his economic policies are needlessly alienating and silly AT BEST and potentially truly calamitous for world trade - and for the US economy itself. ALSO, Trump and Co are being so counter-productively crude, rude and offensive they are actively hindering right wing, alt-right and conservative forces abroad. See how Trump has single-handedly revived the liberals and crippled the right in Canada, in just four weeks
This is a big development. Only recently, there was quite a big rift between market ppl and foreign policy ppl, with the former throwing a party and the latter saying the sky is falling.
Now, a finance friend just messaged me saying “I have never see US assets been considered this toxic”.
people whose literal job was always meant to factor in political risk but who thought "political risk" was restricted to countries they couldn't find on a map
The Telegraph has Farage and Badenochs' comments on Vance. Interesting to see that Farage is to the left of Badenoch on this:
Mrs Badenoch, the Tory leader, said: “I know JD Vance quite well. I’ve looked at the comments, I don’t think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away.
“They’re saying loads of things and getting quite animated. Let’s keep cool heads – America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they’re looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well.”
But Mr Farage, the Reform leader, said: “JD Vance is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. For 20 years in Afghanistan pro rata, our size against America’s, we spent the same amount of money, we put the same number of men and women in. We suffered the same losses.
“We stood by America all through those 20 years putting in exactly the same contribution. And alright, they may be six times bigger but we did our bit. So, on this one JD is wrong.”
I can't say I have much sympathy with Vance. For some time now he's been dining out on being the archetypal MAGA loudmouth who slags off every other country that isn't the US. Now we're all supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt when he employs clumsy, ambiguous phrasing. Too bad. If he didn't want to be thought a twit he shouldn't have gone out of his way to act like one.
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
You know, I think Vance was right about the US and Europe having different attitudes towards free speech.
I'm going to show you all the stamp. The official, regal, elaborate imprimatur of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. The Seal of Royal Approval. This thing that has taken well over a year, five earthly seasons, to be stamped in all in stampiness in the stamp-ready place on the page that has to be stampethed
Prepare to be impressed
Or prepare to remember fondly the old off topic button.
Be sympathetic for poor little @Leon . His shtick has been praising Trump and Farage, and now he doesn't know what to say.
I think Trump is splendid and right on Woke and DEI, I think he is catastrophic on economics and most foreign policy, and the latter outweighs the former
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
Didn't you also say that voting for Trump was like having a baby.
I've actually found the original comment where I carefully constructed this metaphor. October 2023
"I think Wokeness is much worse than Trump. In all seriousness. You don't understand
However Wokeness is a generational challenge to us all and can only be defeated over decades. Trump is a more proximate and immediate danger, to the most powerful democracy in the West, so Trump must not win in 2024
To adapt an analogy of my own, we are trapped on an ice floe, the ice floe is heading to the warm sea where it will eventually melt and we will definitely drown. The sea current carrying us is: Wokeness
However, sharing this same ice floe with us is a polar bear. That's Trump. It doesn't matter if we manage to steer the ice floe in a different direction if the polar bear comes over and eats several of our limbs in the meantime
Ergo, we have to shoot the polar bear first, then work out how to stop drowning"
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
You know, I think Vance was right about the US and Europe having different attitudes towards free speech.
What's an illegal protest?
That's easy: one where you don't agree with the protestors.
Comments
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1297324.stm
TBF to Cameron, he did do auto-enrolment in pension schemes in 2012, which has resulted in long-term tax free savings contributions of 2% of salary for many (tax relief on 8% contributions). I think that's the maths.
It may now be from age 18.
That's probably better than a lump sum at 18.
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/2/pdf/2020-02-RSM-Placemat.pdf
and others come to mind
As seems to have sunk in.
Estonia is a small country but for our population our losses were up there with US's and UK's.
As president I went to every funeral.
You can write off Trump's inanities to IQ but a man with a Yale law degree says this???
What an absolutely disgusting thing to say.
Apologise.
https://x.com/IlvesToomas/status/1896891480775811217
Kemi Badenoch weighs in on JD Vance "random country" comments.
"I know JD Vance quite well. I've looked at the comments, I don't think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away. They're saying loads of things and getting quite animated let's keep cool heads.
America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they're looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well."
"Marine Le Pen condemns the "brutality" of the United States' decision to suspend aid to Ukraine"
Sorry. But I still can't get my head round this. How can a leader of the opposition tanking in the polls look out at the bin-fire that is raging today and say "I know, I think I'll step in, big up my relationship with JD Vance and defend him". It's utter inanity.
There is no need to take offence at JD Vance’s comments. There are ample other adequate reasons…
PS She needs to have a word with her own Defence spokesman.
https://ifs.org.uk/articles/raising-revenue-reforms-pensions-taxation
IIRC the French pulled out of Afghanistan around 2015 - they had had a substantial force there up to that time.
Politics is about whose side you’re on.
Kemi Badenoch has just shown she is on the side of JD Vance rather than our brave armed forces and the families who’ve lost loved ones in conflicts over the past 40 years.
So, proportionally, 42 Estonian soldiers is equivalent to the US sending more than 10 thousand.
NEW: Kemi Badenoch slapped down Alicia Kearns at shadow cabinet today, I’m told.
Alicia had called for the Trump state visit to be postponed.
Kemi said you can’t have shadow ministers freelancing on defence in the media, I’m told.
We were doing a regatta there, once. So I've actually drunk in that bar.
The editor of Reform UK's official magazine. 👀 ~AA
Last night the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (a law which would have stopped men and boys who identify as women to play in women's sports in schools) had a majority in Congress. But it did not get the 60 votes it needed to become law because Democrats refused to support it. Women and girls always lose out, no matter who is in power, because the rights of men matter more.
I think we should embrace this and let dolphins compete in men's swimming competitions. Let dolphins win everything and men always lose. If it's good enough for women it should be good enough for men.
So I can see Ottawa cutting electricity off because they may as well
The point of a reduced tax relief rate is that it impacts the wealthier, not the less wealthy. 20% or 25% tax relief is still 20% or 25% tax relief.
On the "decent pension", for the record, my career in large industrials ended at age 31, so I have a modest corporate pension from back then, before I went to work as a contractor. In those days as contractors we did not get the proto-employee benefits that came in later.
I then had to throw it all up in the air at age 34 when my diagnosis of Type I Diabetes meant that my predicted life expectancy reduced by ~15 years (it's still the same prediction), which slightly undermines the rationale for pension schemes - even though I will get a for chronic health condition enhanced annuity. Looking after it properly means I get some of it back.
That's basically why I got more into property.
Please stick to that.
Who's deranged here?
That is why any idea to remove tax relief at source is a stupid idea.
As Trump would say SAD.
My post: https://substack.com/@robertsmithson1/note/c-89286559
Ed Conway's post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-156309285
You really are in limbo on here, aren't you.
Mouth of Sauron etc.
Now she seems to have gone off down C*ntish Cul-de-sac....
This is why, before the election, I constructed my elaborate and oft-repeated metaphor: the voter in the USA is like someone stuck on a melting ice floe heading to warmer waters (= the drift to catastrophic Woke-ism etc). However on the ice floe there is also a hungry polar bear - the bear is Trump
The voter has a gun - his vote
What to do? The ice floe on its present course will eventually melt and you will definitely drown, but that will take a while. Right now the proximate, immediate danger is the hungry bear, who could maul or eat you any minute - so there is no choice: you have to shoot the bear, first. Despatch Trump, vote him down, then think about the mortally dangerous drift of the ice floe beneath you
That's what I said before the US election, Trump was the bigger immediate threat
"I am not voting for Trump cos of economics or policy, I am voting for Trump cos he hates the same people I do"
Now those people are finding out...
Perhaps also the next Canadian prime minister would be good
And the way Southam's heartfelt post read was that he absolutely was holding Vance responsible "If I believed in hell I would be praying for JD Vance and his apologists to burn there for eternity." etc
"I think Wokeness is much worse than Trump. In all seriousness. You don't understand
However Wokeness is a generational challenge to us all and can only be defeated over decades. Trump is a more proximate and immediate danger, to the most powerful democracy in the West, so Trump must not win in 2024
To adapt an analogy of my own, we are trapped on an ice floe, the ice floe is heading to the warm sea where it will eventually melt and we will definitely drown. The sea current carrying us is: Wokeness
However, sharing this same ice floe with us is a polar bear. That's Trump. It doesn't matter if we manage to steer the ice floe in a different direction if the polar bear comes over and eats several of our limbs in the meantime
Ergo, we have to shoot the polar bear first, then work out how to stop drowning"
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/4564553#Comment_4564553
@RoyalFamily
Almost 50 years ago, in 1977, The King, as Prince of Wales, flew in a Buccaneer jet to HMS Ark Royal from Royal Navy Air Station Yeovilton.
🚢 Today, His Majesty recalled the experience whilst aboard HMS Prince of Wales at sea, where he saw F-35B Lightning jets operating from the flight deck.
https://x.com/RoyalFamily/status/1896928163898282325
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Trump has been in for all of 10 minutes - apart from causing pearls to be clutched to breaking point every six seconds on PB, I can't see any world catastrophe he is responsible for. If he manages to bring peace to Ukraine in a rude and obnoxious way, I prefer that infinitely to continuing the war in Ukraine for another 5 years in a huggy, diplomatic way. One means a lot more suffering and death; one doesn't.
The only electoral despatch we need to see is our own adenoidal treacherous lardbucket currently wrapping himself in red white and blue whilst presiding over the economic and social demise of the country he 'leads'.
I don’t think Trump has ever read / watched Animal Farm 1984 or the Handmaid’s tale
But his economic policies are needlessly alienating and silly AT BEST and potentially truly calamitous for world trade - and for the US economy itself. ALSO, Trump and Co are being so counter-productively crude, rude and offensive they are actively hindering right wing, alt-right and conservative forces abroad. See how Trump has single-handedly revived the liberals and crippled the right in Canada, in just four weeks
My advice: relax, no need to try so hard on here, just be yourself.
https://x.com/jamesdfmellor/status/1896834523444494451?s=46&t=fJymV-V84rexmlQMLXHHJQ
Everything Trusk is doing domestically is severely damaging. Lots of people will die as a result.
Who's best then iyo, Vance or his boss?
I still can't believe 77 million people rebooked on the Titanic.
This is a big development. Only recently, there was quite a big rift between market ppl and foreign policy ppl, with the former throwing a party and the latter saying the sky is falling.
Now, a finance friend just messaged me saying “I have never see US assets been considered this toxic”.
@cjayanetti.bsky.social
people whose literal job was always meant to factor in political risk but who thought "political risk" was restricted to countries they couldn't find on a map
It's that he demands everyone be respectful towards him, while hurling insults towards everyone else on Twitter.
The expertise is not in the EU which is why you end up with Canada and probably Australia also involved...
Edit and I wonder if China may be interested...
Mrs Badenoch, the Tory leader, said: “I know JD Vance quite well. I’ve looked at the comments, I don’t think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away.
“They’re saying loads of things and getting quite animated. Let’s keep cool heads – America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they’re looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well.”
But Mr Farage, the Reform leader, said: “JD Vance is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. For 20 years in Afghanistan pro rata, our size against America’s, we spent the same amount of money, we put the same number of men and women in. We suffered the same losses.
“We stood by America all through those 20 years putting in exactly the same contribution. And alright, they may be six times bigger but we did our bit. So, on this one JD is wrong.”
So you can ask it to find (say) examples of me saying nice things about President Trump.