Betfred will close all of its 1,300 high street betting shops if Rachel Reeves imposes a £3bn raid on the gambling industry, the company’s boss has warned.
Joanne Whittaker, chief executive, said the closure of Betfred’s retail business would lead to the loss of 6,800 jobs.
“The most frightening element is we’re going to lose the whole retail business,” Ms Whittaker told the Sunday Times. “We’ve got people in the Treasury who don’t understand our business.”
So that's about 400k per job. If they go through with the threat, which I suspect they won't. (And yes I know, that's a tax on a whole industry and I'm dividing by the number of jobs lost at one company. The Betting and Gaming Council claim 46 000 employees in total, so 65k per job tops. I wonder what the FT/PT split is?)
It does look like the gaming industry have got the people who did the PR for private schools against VAT in.
£65k extra cost per job would shutter quite a lot of businesses.
It’s like the raid on waste costs for building. If you charge an extra £55k per house for disposing of the soil and rubble from construction, then a bunch of houses won’t get built and prices will go up.
The rumours are that will not now go ahead.
I really wish this Government realised that there is no magic pot that can be taxed that isn't already taxed as much as possible,
What they are left with is Income Tax, VAT and property / council tax - and Starmer shouldn't have been so quick in saying all 3 were protected.
The other thing is that the employment winds are turning against the government. A lot of young people are finding it very hard to get jobs. There is something quite broken in the job market.
£14 an hour does that.... (£12.21 minimum wage + £1.80 in Employer NI).
Hang on that’s about 28 grand a year minimum wage for an unskilled worker. No wonder employers are not hiring.
I’m surprised you’re surprised. The numbers are what they are.
A little while back, IIRC, some people here calculated that a 24/7 x 365 minimum wage employee (think care for children) would cost £132k a year.
I don't know?
PB high earners bemoaning peasants working 24 hours a day 365 days a year earning what they earn plus free share options, Bupa, 8 weeks holiday and a free Audi Q8 for a 36 hour week, and of course that's the lower end of the PB scale.
I must be one of the PB peasants, then.
Me too.
It would be helpful in assessing the merit of comments if pbers were to state their monthly take home pay after each post.
Betfred will close all of its 1,300 high street betting shops if Rachel Reeves imposes a £3bn raid on the gambling industry, the company’s boss has warned.
Joanne Whittaker, chief executive, said the closure of Betfred’s retail business would lead to the loss of 6,800 jobs.
“The most frightening element is we’re going to lose the whole retail business,” Ms Whittaker told the Sunday Times. “We’ve got people in the Treasury who don’t understand our business.”
So that's about 400k per job. If they go through with the threat, which I suspect they won't. (And yes I know, that's a tax on a whole industry and I'm dividing by the number of jobs lost at one company. The Betting and Gaming Council claim 46 000 employees in total, so 65k per job tops. I wonder what the FT/PT split is?)
It does look like the gaming industry have got the people who did the PR for private schools against VAT in.
£65k extra cost per job would shutter quite a lot of businesses.
It’s like the raid on waste costs for building. If you charge an extra £55k per house for disposing of the soil and rubble from construction, then a bunch of houses won’t get built and prices will go up.
The rumours are that will not now go ahead.
I really wish this Government realised that there is no magic pot that can be taxed that isn't already taxed as much as possible,
What they are left with is Income Tax, VAT and property / council tax - and Starmer shouldn't have been so quick in saying all 3 were protected.
The Ming Vase strategy has been a shambles. They should have said ‘no plans’, done it, rode out the anger and hoped to win in 2029.
Well, they didn't have any plans.
Their plan was to not be the nasty Tories. Collection of useless tosspots.
I think they genuinely thought at some level that just not being the Tories would magically unlock growth and investment into the UK.
In some respects there might have been a little of something to that thought. Years of unstable government doesn't give business confidence to invest. The problem is Labour came in, clearly clueless without any real plan meaning they had to delay for months only to deliver a terrible budget, everybody with half a brain thought this is going to lead to more tax rises next time, and confidence immediately blown.
Europe really needs to get its act together, before it allows Trump to sell us down the river by default.
‘Donald Trump urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending its war in a volatile White House meeting on Friday, warning that Vladimir Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree.
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents descended many times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”, people familiar with the matter said.
They added that the US president tossed aside maps of the frontline in Ukraine, insisted Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region to Putin, and repeatedly echoed talking points the Russian leader had made in their call a day earlier.’ https://x.com/HoansSolo/status/1979960397445616085
If I was Zelenskyy I just wouldn't go back. What is the point in expecting rational behaviour in the asylum? It reminds me of the definition of insanity.
And, how much leverage does Trump have over Ukraine, anyway? He stopped providing assistance in January.
He then reinstated some assistance. He's nothing if not capricious.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
FWIW: Some months ago, Megan McArdle, writing in the WaPo, described a study that found that homelessness in the US was positively correlated with the minimum wage. The higher the minimum in an area, the higher the level of homelessness.
A likely mechanism is easy to find: As minimum wages rose, more and more workers were not worth hiring, and so they became long-term unemployed. Which in turn meant that there was no profit in building housing for them. And so, less expensive kinds of housing, for example, boarding houses, began to disappear.
Naturally, this result should be checked by other economists, but it does not seem implausible.
(Fun fact: In the early US Congresses, many congressmen stayed in boarding houses. As did Lincoln when he was 21.)
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
Imagine how well it would be going with a US President who was not in thrall to Putin.
By the way, let me repeat my recommendation for Mr Nobody Against Putin. Great documentary.
I've no idea if the figures are accurate or even representative. What struck me is the cluster of France, USA & China, and the higher 2-node cluster of Britain and Italy.
It's a load of bollocks.
In the various debunkings I've seen online, the most interesting was that the UK median worker pays less in tax than a US median earner. A bit of a mindfuck given the narrative around tax at the moment:
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Betfred will close all of its 1,300 high street betting shops if Rachel Reeves imposes a £3bn raid on the gambling industry, the company’s boss has warned.
Joanne Whittaker, chief executive, said the closure of Betfred’s retail business would lead to the loss of 6,800 jobs.
“The most frightening element is we’re going to lose the whole retail business,” Ms Whittaker told the Sunday Times. “We’ve got people in the Treasury who don’t understand our business.”
So that's about 400k per job. If they go through with the threat, which I suspect they won't. (And yes I know, that's a tax on a whole industry and I'm dividing by the number of jobs lost at one company. The Betting and Gaming Council claim 46 000 employees in total, so 65k per job tops. I wonder what the FT/PT split is?)
It does look like the gaming industry have got the people who did the PR for private schools against VAT in.
£65k extra cost per job would shutter quite a lot of businesses.
It’s like the raid on waste costs for building. If you charge an extra £55k per house for disposing of the soil and rubble from construction, then a bunch of houses won’t get built and prices will go up.
The rumours are that will not now go ahead.
I really wish this Government realised that there is no magic pot that can be taxed that isn't already taxed as much as possible,
What they are left with is Income Tax, VAT and property / council tax - and Starmer shouldn't have been so quick in saying all 3 were protected.
The other thing is that the employment winds are turning against the government. A lot of young people are finding it very hard to get jobs. There is something quite broken in the job market.
£14 an hour does that.... (£12.21 minimum wage + £1.80 in Employer NI).
Hang on that’s about 28 grand a year minimum wage for an unskilled worker. No wonder employers are not hiring.
I’m surprised you’re surprised. The numbers are what they are.
A little while back, IIRC, some people here calculated that a 24/7 x 365 minimum wage employee (think care for children) would cost £132k a year.
I don't know?
PB high earners bemoaning peasants working 24 hours a day 365 days a year earning what they earn plus free share options, Bupa, 8 weeks holiday and a free Audi Q8 for a 36 hour week, and of course that's the lower end of the PB scale.
I must be one of the PB peasants, then.
Me too.
It would be helpful in assessing the merit of comments if pbers were to state their monthly take home pay after each post.
You can assume after every post that I am always undervalued and underpaid.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Not only China. Remember President Trump recently made a song and dance of moving nuclear submarines around in response to Russian sabre rattling.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
On a different subject, I'm off abroad for a few days and will need to keep monitoring/working stuff including banks while I am there. Not too convinced of the wifi security where I am so was looking at a VPN. Nord seem to have a good deal on at the moment - does anyone have any thoughts on how good/safe/reliable they are?
I’ve used Nord VPN for the last year or so and find their service to be excellent. Was nothing at all to do with cycling being transferred to TNT with an increase of an order of magnitude in cost. No sirree, nothing at all.
Nord is good, and cheap if you sign up for IIRC three years. No problem watching Netflix anywhere in the world.
My bank works find from anywhere. Are you sure you need it? The bigger problem can be if you're using a foreign SIM and can't get the text message 2FA codes...
I used to use Nord, and now use Proton. (And I use Proton because it offers email hosting too.)
At home I run a Unifi gateway, and it automatically routes some traffic over the VPN connection so I don't need to run anything on client devices.
I've no idea if the figures are accurate or even representative. What struck me is the cluster of France, USA & China, and the higher 2-node cluster of Britain and Italy.
It's a load of bollocks.
In the various debunkings I've seen online, the most interesting was that the UK median worker pays less in tax than a US median earner. A bit of a mindfuck given the narrative around tax at the moment:
The UK in recent years has shifted to taxing the rich more and middle income earners less.
Yes. We have a remarkably progressive system of taxation of income, though coupled with a regressive tax on housing (council tax).
We have a very regressive system of taxation at the low end when you include UC taper and NICs.
Our tax rate is quite U bend shaped.
The real problem with our tax system is NI which warps the whole thing atrociously. There should be no reduced rate over £50K and it should apply to all income, earned and unearned even after retirement.
In the spirit of Peter the Punter, £11K a month after tax and 60 years old. I am one who would end up paying a huge amount more if my own suggestions were adopted.
Hace the Israelis played everybody? Bibi got his hostages home, so Hamas don't have any leverage left.
Possibly. But the hostages weren't providing much leverage. If anything the opposite. They were one of the justifications for continued aggression.
I am not sure how much longer Bibi could have dragged that out. Israelis were protesting regularly about just do a deal to get them back.
Now he has the narrative of we got back all those still alive, and Hamas played silly buggers with hostage bodies and they were killing their own people / started attacking us again. We gave them a chance, but given an inch look what they did, they must disarm or be destroyed.
Yes he doesn't seem to want to stop. There are similarities to Putin in the dynamics of it. Differences in the substance of course.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Chinese weapons are very largely based off Soviet technology and doctrine. They are beginning to diverge now and do their own thing, but the bulk of their forces use kit that is often clones of Russian equipment.
The ability of a small nation, allied with the West, to humiliate a larger opponent armed with such weapons, may not be entirely what they are looking for.
Russia and left-wingers ‘trying to flood Europe with illegal migrants’
Daniel Mitov, Bulgaria’s interior minister, said hostile states were teaming up with criminals ‘to destabilise Europe’ — helped unwittingly by aid organisations
Russia and left-wingers ‘trying to flood Europe with illegal migrants’
Daniel Mitov, Bulgaria’s interior minister, said hostile states were teaming up with criminals ‘to destabilise Europe’ — helped unwittingly by aid organisations
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Chinese weapons are very largely based off Soviet technology and doctrine. They are beginning to diverge now and do their own thing, but the bulk of their forces use kit that is often clones of Russian equipment.
The ability of a small nation, allied with the West, to humiliate a larger opponent armed with such weapons, may not be entirely what they are looking for.
In the stuff that counts - electronics, radar; missiles; aircraft; drones; progress towards duplicating SpaceX launch capabilities .. and particularly in manufacturing capacity - China is way ahead of Russia.
Much of the Russian legacy stuff (tanks; armour etc) is of declining importance in the battlefield.
I don't think you can usefully draw direct lessons from one to the other.
(Note that many, if not most of the components for the millions of drones used so far by both sides in Ukraine are of Chinese origin.)
I've no idea if the figures are accurate or even representative. What struck me is the cluster of France, USA & China, and the higher 2-node cluster of Britain and Italy.
It's a load of bollocks.
In the various debunkings I've seen online, the most interesting was that the UK median worker pays less in tax than a US median earner. A bit of a mindfuck given the narrative around tax at the moment:
The UK in recent years has shifted to taxing the rich more and middle income earners less.
Yes. We have a remarkably progressive system of taxation of income, though coupled with a regressive tax on housing (council tax).
We have a very regressive system of taxation at the low end when you include UC taper and NICs.
Our tax rate is quite U bend shaped.
The real problem with our tax system is NI which warps the whole thing atrociously. There should be no reduced rate over £50K and it should apply to all income, earned and unearned even after retirement.
In the spirit of Peter the Punter, £11K a month after tax and 60 years old. I am one who would end up paying a huge amount more if my own suggestions were adopted.
The thing to do is to get rid of national insurance and increase income tax.
Hace the Israelis played everybody? Bibi got his hostages home, so Hamas don't have any leverage left.
Possibly. But the hostages weren't providing much leverage. If anything the opposite. They were one of the justifications for continued aggression.
I am not sure how much longer Bibi could have dragged that out. Israelis were protesting regularly about just do a deal to get them back.
Now he has the narrative of we got back all those still alive, and Hamas played silly buggers with hostage bodies and they were killing their own people / started attacking us again. We gave them a chance, but given an inch look what they did, they must disarm or be destroyed.
They must disarm or be destroyed, it is not remotely unreasonable to say that.
If they lay down their arms unconditionally, then great, fantastic. Peace is viable.
If they don't, then they can't be allowed free reign in a vacuum. They have to be destroyed if they won't disarm.
Hopefully therefore they will disarm, but anyone suggesting they shouldn't is just wanting the conflict to continue.
I've no idea if the figures are accurate or even representative. What struck me is the cluster of France, USA & China, and the higher 2-node cluster of Britain and Italy.
It's a load of bollocks.
In the various debunkings I've seen online, the most interesting was that the UK median worker pays less in tax than a US median earner. A bit of a mindfuck given the narrative around tax at the moment:
The UK in recent years has shifted to taxing the rich more and middle income earners less.
Yes. We have a remarkably progressive system of taxation of income, though coupled with a regressive tax on housing (council tax).
We have a very regressive system of taxation at the low end when you include UC taper and NICs.
Our tax rate is quite U bend shaped.
The real problem with our tax system is NI which warps the whole thing atrociously. There should be no reduced rate over £50K and it should apply to all income, earned and unearned even after retirement.
In the spirit of Peter the Punter, £11K a month after tax and 60 years old. I am one who would end up paying a huge amount more if my own suggestions were adopted.
The thing to do is to get rid of national insurance and increase income tax.
Russia and left-wingers ‘trying to flood Europe with illegal migrants’
Daniel Mitov, Bulgaria’s interior minister, said hostile states were teaming up with criminals ‘to destabilise Europe’ — helped unwittingly by aid organisations
On a different subject, I'm off abroad for a few days and will need to keep monitoring/working stuff including banks while I am there. Not too convinced of the wifi security where I am so was looking at a VPN. Nord seem to have a good deal on at the moment - does anyone have any thoughts on how good/safe/reliable they are?
I’ve used Nord VPN for the last year or so and find their service to be excellent. Was nothing at all to do with cycling being transferred to TNT with an increase of an order of magnitude in cost. No sirree, nothing at all.
Nord is good, and cheap if you sign up for IIRC three years. No problem watching Netflix anywhere in the world.
My bank works find from anywhere. Are you sure you need it? The bigger problem can be if you're using a foreign SIM and can't get the text message 2FA codes...
I used to use Nord, and now use Proton. (And I use Proton because it offers email hosting too.)
At home I run a Unifi gateway, and it automatically routes some traffic over the VPN connection so I don't need to run anything on client devices.
I use mullvad. Apart from seeming quite determined to make it awkward to trace you - they are also the 'white label' behind Mozilla's VPN service who did a quite thorough audit of all their practices before choosing them. Though I keep meaning to move a gmail account to protonmail - so possibly I'll shift VPNs if/when I do.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Lovely Siberia you've got there. Shame if something 'appened to it. What with it being full of minerals and close to the Arctic. Terrible.... shame.
I've no idea if the figures are accurate or even representative. What struck me is the cluster of France, USA & China, and the higher 2-node cluster of Britain and Italy.
It's a load of bollocks.
In the various debunkings I've seen online, the most interesting was that the UK median worker pays less in tax than a US median earner. A bit of a mindfuck given the narrative around tax at the moment:
Every time I use the trains in this country there are mammoth delays. Euston station now closed completely with everyone waiting outside in the rain.
Looks like I was fortunate to have only a twenty minute delay on my way back to Kings Cross from Wakefield Kirkgate and Leeds.
Anyway, despite the dosmal weather: Hare Park Junction to Crofton West Junction done both ways. Altofts Junction to Methley Junction done northbound (southbound done way back in 2017!).
I've no idea if the figures are accurate or even representative. What struck me is the cluster of France, USA & China, and the higher 2-node cluster of Britain and Italy.
It's a load of bollocks.
In the various debunkings I've seen online, the most interesting was that the UK median worker pays less in tax than a US median earner. A bit of a mindfuck given the narrative around tax at the moment:
The UK in recent years has shifted to taxing the rich more and middle income earners less.
Yes. We have a remarkably progressive system of taxation of income, though coupled with a regressive tax on housing (council tax).
We have a very regressive system of taxation at the low end when you include UC taper and NICs.
Our tax rate is quite U bend shaped.
The real problem with our tax system is NI which warps the whole thing atrociously. There should be no reduced rate over £50K and it should apply to all income, earned and unearned even after retirement.
In the spirit of Peter the Punter, £11K a month after tax and 60 years old. I am one who would end up paying a huge amount more if my own suggestions were adopted.
The thing to do is to get rid of national insurance and increase income tax.
Just merge them both. Which is effectively the same thing.
I've no idea if the figures are accurate or even representative. What struck me is the cluster of France, USA & China, and the higher 2-node cluster of Britain and Italy.
It's a load of bollocks.
In the various debunkings I've seen online, the most interesting was that the UK median worker pays less in tax than a US median earner. A bit of a mindfuck given the narrative around tax at the moment:
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Lovely Siberia you've got there. Shame if something 'appened to it. What with it being full of minerals and close to the Arctic. Terrible.... shame.
It's only Putin's nukes that keeps everything east of the Urals out of Beijing's bailiwick. When the Russian economy collapses, Xi can buy it for a few kopecks on the ruble.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Whilst I would love this to be true, and howl with laughter, China aren’t going to, and don’t really need to, take over that land. They don’t want to risk, should Russia be so unstable that it’s an option, some last days in the bunker Putin realising that all he has left are nukes, and they still have the most nukes and do you want to risk most don’t work?
Also China’s MO seems more, let’s just use our economy to control everywhere. If you,are people or a business in such a region you just let the Chinese have what they want for a quiet life. There comes a point where they don’t care who is paying. Chines/Russia.
China can rule its sphere of influence without having to fight wars, it’s been doing it and building it in Africa, across Asia. Why bother with a war when you have the money, influence, threat and reward over people who already live in crapholes.
"Labour braces for defeat in Caerphilly by-election Governing party faces potential loss of Senedd control amid Reform and Plaid Cymru surge in Welsh heartlands" (£)
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Lovely Siberia you've got there. Shame if something 'appened to it. What with it being full of minerals and close to the Arctic. Terrible.... shame.
It's only Putin's nukes that keeps everything east of the Urals out of Beijing's bailiwick. When the Russian economy collapses, Xi can buy it for a few kopecks on the ruble.
Lease with invasion a few decades later. I don't think any Russian president would willingly sell.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
The frustration in the frontline states when Trump rowed back on the Tomahawks was very obvious. Thing is, the Ukrainians have already split open Russian air defences and its getting worse for Russia by the day. Putin pulled out all the stops to get Trump to change course, which is a tribute to the pressure that Russia is now under. However, across the US the political climate has turned positive for the Ukrainians- Putin keeps playing Trump and Hegseth, but the voters don't like it, so pretty soon Trump will be between a rock and a hard place.
In Tallinn we are pretty weary- I got a question from the foreign office of a country I am close to asking if it was safe to travel in Estonia- which of course it is, but counteracting Russian threats and propaganda is a full time job. The Saatse "boot" (a 1km access road across Russian territory) has just been closed and a by pass road is being constructed in double quick time so that the Estonians can close the fence. Now the details of the air incursion have been released, it seems that the Russians delayed leaving, even after they were intercepted by the Italians- hence the loud discussion in NATO about the rules of engagement. At least now, the Finns will be able to intercept, providing that the Amari air police squadron have the Finnish planes in the friendly list. Defences are being updated, the "drone wall", mined death strip, and all, but investment is low and the Estonian economy is under pressure- the current government is likely going to get a kicking in the local elections announced later tonight.
Putin is being badly hurt, and yet is still trying to go all in, especially with the draft being extended to Moscow and St Petersburg, but it is all beginning to look a bit Black Knight- massive casualties, growing shortages of equipment, and the mincing machine spitting out thousands of dead Russians every week. So Trump's pathetic shilly-shallying is getting pretty short shrift and more military aid to Kyiv will be announced in the coming days.
Estonians know whose side they are on even if Trump doesn't.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Whilst I would love this to be true, and howl with laughter, China aren’t going to, and don’t really need to, take over that land. They don’t want to risk, should Russia be so unstable that it’s an option, some last days in the bunker Putin realising that all he has left are nukes, and they still have the most nukes and do you want to risk most don’t work?
Also China’s MO seems more, let’s just use our economy to control everywhere. If you,are people or a business in such a region you just let the Chinese have what they want for a quiet life. There comes a point where they don’t care who is paying. Chines/Russia.
China can rule its sphere of influence without having to fight wars, it’s been doing it and building it in Africa, across Asia. Why bother with a war when you have the money, influence, threat and reward over people who already live in crapholes.
Ukraine is formenting Yakutian separatists. It would suit China for Yakutia to become independent. Might they lend some support as well?
Somewhat off topic, but today I received an email which conformed more strongly to a national stereotype than any I've ever had before.
At work I have a project I've been working on since before Brexit for a French client (never, ever again!). It has involved my receiving a large component (the boiler) of a historic French steam railway loco, and building a new one. The loco is a scheduled "national treasure" (a bit like a listed building, except it doesn't have to be a building).
The job is finally finished (it took 3 years of backward and forwards to get the committee of Frenchmen to approve the design I drew up) , and the old and new boilers are ready to go back to France.
Except it seems there is a problem. Since Brexit, it has apparently been necessary to get an export licence for "national treasures" to go outside the EU. Someone at my French client had therefore obtained one in 2022 (the old boiler has been in the UK since 2017), but apparently they are only annual, and it ran out 18 months ago. Also, it was apparently sent to various parties in triplicate, but both the client and the French government have lost their copies (I don't think I ever saw mine!).
So today's email was to inform me that it is apparently impossible to *import* this old boiler back into France without a French *export* licence, as it shouldn't be outside France without one, also somehow this was *my* problem, and they wouldn't pay the final invoice until it was resolved.
I was tempted to ask if I needed a licence to fire the wretched thing back across the channel on a giant trebuchet. I wouldn't care, but they owe me quite a lot of money...
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Whilst I would love this to be true, and howl with laughter, China aren’t going to, and don’t really need to, take over that land. They don’t want to risk, should Russia be so unstable that it’s an option, some last days in the bunker Putin realising that all he has left are nukes, and they still have the most nukes and do you want to risk most don’t work?
Also China’s MO seems more, let’s just use our economy to control everywhere. If you,are people or a business in such a region you just let the Chinese have what they want for a quiet life. There comes a point where they don’t care who is paying. Chines/Russia.
China can rule its sphere of influence without having to fight wars, it’s been doing it and building it in Africa, across Asia. Why bother with a war when you have the money, influence, threat and reward over people who already live in crapholes.
Ukraine is formenting Yakutian separatists. It would suit China for Yakutia to become independent. Might they lend some support as well?
Doesn’t every country support separatists when it’s in their interests? I just don’t see, as horribly amusing as it would be, China rolling in and taking swathe of Russian territory.
Israeli police have just cancelled a Maccabi Tel-Aviv game due to fan violence, FWIW.
The Israeli police lurk on pb where some of us have been warning about Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in the last few days.
There was the assumption that the police intelligence was saying the away fans wouldn't be safe from the Birmingham public, not that the Birmingham public wouldn't be safe from them.
I did say any politician jumping on this probably should be asked to see the briefing first.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
That figure sounds high. It used to be that abortion statistics included miscarriages but I think that is no longer the case. I suspect it is 1 in 3 pregnancies ends in abortion which is not quite the same as 1 in 3 women, since some women will have more than one.
Lucy Powell. Not giving the WASPI women a handout was a ‘mistake’
Politics is infested with useless morons with over inflated opinions,of their own abilities. This whole interview with her just reeks of it. This is just one segment.
Sigh. Remember folks, before they get rid of that useless prat Starmer they really need to be sure his replacement is not even worse. Powell is worse.
She is, and it’s not just her. Hopeless as she is. Across the political spectrum it is hard to see where there are real leaders. The Tories, no, the Lib Dem’s have a twat in a wetsuit and a load of bland backbencher types. Reform, not a chance. Farage is no leader, he’s a disruptor and where is the scrutiny of their politics. The Greens are all student politics.
It’s most disheartening.
Cleverly on that basis might be good. Warmer and more charismatic than Starmer, a former Home and Foreign Secretary and more serious than Davey and more heavyweight than Kemi, more centrist than Farage and Jenrick and not as populist and anti immigrant and not a hard left ranter like Polanski
I'll give you warmer and more charismatic than Starmer, but so is a Siberian public lavatory.
Success in politics is not pure a matter of political triangulation based on current voting patterns.
Firstly, there is the issue of momentum - current momentum in British politics is rightward (with a smaller move to the exteme left), and the current failing Government is a centrist one. There is absolutely zero point in jumping on to that sinking bit of jetsom with Labour, the Lib Dems, and the nationalist partes already clinging on. What was the market for a neoliberal party before 1979? None.
Secondly there's the issue of personal qualities.
Cleverly gave Starmer a lifeline with his stupid China speech as Foreign Sec. He was a useless, lazy, supine Foreign Secretary who let his civil servants run the department, which included him negotiating the Chagos Surrender Deal, which Cameron, to give him his dues, booted into the long grass. In his own leadership campaign he was so stupid that he tried to lend votes to knock out an opponent and ended up knocking himself out.
If you want a rightwing government which is hardline on immigration you will vote Reform anyway, even if Jenrick is Tory leader. If you want an extreme left government you will vote Green.
If the Tories want to survive at the next general election they primarily need to hold most of their current MPs and maybe pick up a few from Labour in London and a few middle class patches of the home countries and areas like Altrincham they held until last year as a result of Labour's unpopularity.
To do that, they largely need Labour and LD tactical votes in Conservative held seats where Reform are the likely challengers. Labour and LD voters won't tactically vote for a Jenrick led Tories, if Kemi goes ever more culture war they likely won't vote for her candidates either. They may however tactically vote for a Cleverly led Tories to beat Farage's candidate.
Cleverly of course also set tighter visa wage requirements which has started to reduce the Boriswave, so Farage can't hit him on that.
Kemi has 6 more months to see if her neoliberal on economics, culture wars on social issues starts to see the Conservatives rise in the polls. If not then I predict Tory MPs will remove her after losses in the May local elections and elect Cleverly to replace her
Altrincham is just the sort of seat I could see going LibDem if they could get a foot in the door. I think there will be a more nuanced vote from left and centre left voters next time. Reform are marmite and people will work out how to stop them in many seats, that’s assuming they don’t collapse in the next 3 years. Or merge with the Jenrick led Tories.
I live in the Altrincham constituency and it is and always has been a two way contest between Labour and the Tories, with third parties squeezed when the gap between the 2 main parties is small. The LDs are only strong in a couple of wards in Timperley, likewise the Greens in 3 other wards. The constituency is too middle class for Reform to gain much traction.
There's a Gail's AND a Waitrose in Altringham. Come on. Must be a LD gain!
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
To really get a handle on the scale of the problem, we need to also include all the male emissions where the primary purpose is not procreation. Each one of those sperm could have gone onto to be a human. When men casually abort their sperm, it is little different in effect to physically murdering babies.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
Which says sod all about the proportion of women having them, since some women may have more than one, let alone issues of data conflating miscarriages with abortions.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
To really get a handle on the scale of the problem, we need to also include all the male emissions where the primary purpose is not procreation. Each one of those sperm could have gone onto to be a human. When men casually abort their sperm, it is little different in effect to physically murdering babies.
"Every sperm is sacred Every sperm is great If a sperm is wasted God gets quite irate"
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
That figure sounds high. It used to be that abortion statistics included miscarriages but I think that is no longer the case. I suspect it is 1 in 3 pregnancies ends in abortion which is not quite the same as 1 in 3 women, since some women will have more than one.
I know of what I speak. (My dad co-wrote the 1967 Abortion Act.)
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
To really get a handle on the scale of the problem, we need to also include all the male emissions where the primary purpose is not procreation. Each one of those sperm could have gone onto to be a human. When men casually abort their sperm, it is little different in effect to physically murdering babies.
What have the dinosaurs done to deserve that remark?
At least they became extinct
Here's praying
Dinosaurs, of course, did not become extinct and remain common. They’re just smaller and have wings.
Ian Malcolm: "God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man, man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs" Ellie Sattler: "Dinosaurs eat man..... Woman inherits the earth”
The source of that claim provided and linked to as the source of the claim in that evidence is an opinion piece in the Independent, which itself cites it without providing any source.
Opinion pieces are not a legitimate source.
It may be a true piece of data, or it may be the person writing the opinion article misunderstood the data, especially since some abortion data includes miscarriages and dividing abortions by people would not be accurate. Either way though, if it is true, there should be a more rigorous source than an Op-Ed in the Independent.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
Which says sod all about the proportion of women having them, since some women may have more than one, let alone issues of data conflating miscarriages with abortions.
Nonetheless while the case for banning abortion is weak, the case for people conducting their lives in such a way that there are a lot fewer is strong.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
To really get a handle on the scale of the problem, we need to also include all the male emissions where the primary purpose is not procreation. Each one of those sperm could have gone onto to be a human. When men casually abort their sperm, it is little different in effect to physically murdering babies.
Perhaps that view can with effort be turned into a rational argument, but just at the moment I can't think of how.
The source of that claim provided and linked to as the source of the claim in that evidence is an opinion piece in the Independent, which itself cites it without providing any source.
Opinion pieces are not a legitimate source.
It may be a true piece of data, or it may be the person writing the opinion article misunderstood the data, especially since some abortion data includes miscarriages and dividing abortions by people would not be accurate. Either way though, if it is true, there should be a more rigorous source than an Op-Ed in the Independent.
This is basic abortion 101 knowledge, not some highly contested theory.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
Which says sod all about the proportion of women having them, since some women may have more than one, let alone issues of data conflating miscarriages with abortions.
Miscarriages are medically termed "spontaneous abortions", though that terminology is generally not used with patients due to the connotations of the word in lay usage. These are not included in the numbers. 87% are non surgical. 41% of those having abortions had had one or more previously.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
Unless that's an exceptionally wide definition of abortion, including things like the morning after pill, I find that figure hard to believe.
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
There are about 600 000 births and 250 000 abortions each year in the UK.
Which says sod all about the proportion of women having them, since some women may have more than one, let alone issues of data conflating miscarriages with abortions.
Nonetheless while the case for banning abortion is weak, the case for people conducting their lives in such a way that there are a lot fewer is strong.
Oh, absolutely agreed, 100%
I believe in women's rights until birth.
A woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy at any stage upto birth, with the proviso that if the state wishes it could say that after a point of viability the termination of pregnancy might occur with a live delivery of a viable birth . . . but what should not be possible is to tell a woman they are to be a human incubator for the next few months because they have a viable pregnancy but we won't deliver it yet so they are required to remain pregnant even if they do not wish to be.
1 in 3 women in the UK have an abortion during their life. Who here wants to send 1 in 3 women to jail?
That figure sounds high. It used to be that abortion statistics included miscarriages but I think that is no longer the case. I suspect it is 1 in 3 pregnancies ends in abortion which is not quite the same as 1 in 3 women, since some women will have more than one.
I know of what I speak. (My dad co-wrote the 1967 Abortion Act.)
"James Orr is understood to be close to JD Vance and influential in Donald Trump’s administration"
yep.
Labour, if there is any life left in them, need to hammer this message over and over: Farage is Trump 2.0's representative on these islands and if elected he will attempt to copy and enact pretty much every one of the insane and dangerous policies of that administration.
Vote Farage get Trump.
Forget tax bombshell posters: this is the message.
Comments
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/04/politics/real-alpha-house
By the way, let me repeat my recommendation for Mr Nobody Against Putin. Great documentary.
Our tax rate is quite U bend shaped.
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX9qwsAVnCo
And involves the UK.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
At home I run a Unifi gateway, and it automatically routes some traffic over the VPN connection so I don't need to run anything on client devices.
We can't give all our weapons to Ukraine. We simply can't do that. I've been very kind to Zelensky and Ukraine, but I can't endanger the US, — Trump.
50-100 Tomahawks out of the approximately 4,500 that analysts say the US has..
https://x.com/jurgen_nauditt/status/1979919737963561043
In the spirit of Peter the Punter, £11K a month after tax and 60 years old. I am one who would end up paying a huge amount more if my own suggestions were adopted.
The ability of a small nation, allied with the West, to humiliate a larger opponent armed with such weapons, may not be entirely what they are looking for.
Daniel Mitov, Bulgaria’s interior minister, said hostile states were teaming up with criminals ‘to destabilise Europe’ — helped unwittingly by aid organisations
https://www.thetimes.com/article/470ce199-3773-4fd4-9d6a-c09300c468f8?shareToken=1a010f2c7f752c44043e358eb68288f2
We're paying the price now for not heating stood to sustained incredibly bad behavior.
Much of the Russian legacy stuff (tanks; armour etc) is of declining importance in the battlefield.
I don't think you can usefully draw direct lessons from one to the other.
(Note that many, if not most of the components for the millions of drones used so far by both sides in Ukraine are of Chinese origin.)
If they lay down their arms unconditionally, then great, fantastic. Peace is viable.
If they don't, then they can't be allowed free reign in a vacuum. They have to be destroyed if they won't disarm.
Hopefully therefore they will disarm, but anyone suggesting they shouldn't is just wanting the conflict to continue.
Similarly for wealth per adult:
UK
Median $163
Mean $350
USA
Median $112
Mean $564
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult
Anyway, despite the dosmal weather:
Hare Park Junction to Crofton West Junction done both ways.
Altofts Junction to Methley Junction done northbound (southbound done way back in 2017!).
Also China’s MO seems more, let’s just use our economy to control everywhere. If you,are people or a business in such a region you just let the Chinese have what they want for a quiet life. There comes a point where they don’t care who is paying. Chines/Russia.
China can rule its sphere of influence without having to fight wars, it’s been doing it and building it in Africa, across Asia. Why bother with a war when you have the money, influence, threat and reward over people who already live in crapholes.
@SpencerHakimian
·
2h
Ohio - Senate Polling:
🔵 Brown: 49%
🔴 Husted: 48%
YouGov
Governing party faces potential loss of Senedd control amid Reform and Plaid Cymru surge in Welsh heartlands" (£)
https://www.ft.com/content/5e77c6d7-bc74-44db-b1c5-772479682bae
In Tallinn we are pretty weary- I got a question from the foreign office of a country I am close to asking if it was safe to travel in Estonia- which of course it is, but counteracting Russian threats and propaganda is a full time job. The Saatse "boot" (a 1km access road across Russian territory) has just been closed and a by pass road is being constructed in double quick time so that the Estonians can close the fence. Now the details of the air incursion have been released, it seems that the Russians delayed leaving, even after they were intercepted by the Italians- hence the loud discussion in NATO about the rules of engagement. At least now, the Finns will be able to intercept, providing that the Amari air police squadron have the Finnish planes in the friendly list. Defences are being updated, the "drone wall", mined death strip, and all, but investment is low and the Estonian economy is under pressure- the current government is likely going to get a kicking in the local elections announced later tonight.
Putin is being badly hurt, and yet is still trying to go all in, especially with the draft being extended to Moscow and St Petersburg, but it is all beginning to look a bit Black Knight- massive casualties, growing shortages of equipment, and the mincing machine spitting out thousands of dead Russians every week. So Trump's pathetic shilly-shallying is getting pretty short shrift and more military aid to Kyiv will be announced in the coming days.
Estonians know whose side they are on even if Trump doesn't.
RFK Jr. explains why socializing with Jeffrey Epstein wasn't such a big deal for him:
"…I ran into everybody in NY. I mean, I knew Harvey Weinstein, I knew Roger Ailes, I knew -- O.J. Simpson came to my house. Bill Cosby came to my house.”
https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1979804876092690916
Reform are getting some thinkers behind them.
Keith Joseph of 2030s?
Zia Yusuf
@ZiaYusufUK
I’m delighted to welcome James Orr to Reform UK.
James is a brilliant academic, theologian, thinker.
He has been a bastion of common sense and patriotism at Cambridge University.
He has become a close friend, and is someone who I believe will have a pivotal role in shaping the future of this country.
James is now a senior member of our team, a senior advisor to
@Nigel_Farage
and he will bring even more talented patriots to the Reform family.
https://x.com/ZiaYusufUK/status/1979886492706037993
https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1980010760416972822
At work I have a project I've been working on since before Brexit for a French client (never, ever again!). It has involved my receiving a large component (the boiler) of a historic French steam railway loco, and building a new one. The loco is a scheduled "national treasure" (a bit like a listed building, except it doesn't have to be a building).
The job is finally finished (it took 3 years of backward and forwards to get the committee of Frenchmen to approve the design I drew up) , and the old and new boilers are ready to go back to France.
Except it seems there is a problem. Since Brexit, it has apparently been necessary to get an export licence for "national treasures" to go outside the EU. Someone at my French client had therefore obtained one in 2022 (the old boiler has been in the UK since 2017), but apparently they are only annual, and it ran out 18 months ago. Also, it was apparently sent to various parties in triplicate, but both the client and the French government have lost their copies (I don't think I ever saw mine!).
So today's email was to inform me that it is apparently impossible to *import* this old boiler back into France without a French *export* licence, as it shouldn't be outside France without one, also somehow this was *my* problem, and they wouldn't pay the final invoice until it was resolved.
I was tempted to ask if I needed a licence to fire the wretched thing back across the channel on a giant trebuchet. I wouldn't care, but they owe me quite a lot of money...
After studying Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, Orr became a corporate lawyer first at Freshfields, then Sullivan & Cromwell, in London.
An Oxford educated corporate lawyer.
I did say any politician jumping on this probably should be asked to see the briefing first.
https://x.com/theonlypeterkay/status/1979472913674715618
Professor James Orr is understood to be close to JD Vance and influential in Donald Trump’s administration with his right-wing views on abortion and immigration
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/farage-james-orr-rightwing-theologian-reform-b2848126.html
https://x.com/politicshome/status/1963609673006784907
Never heard of the guy, but a quick look at his postings on X don't suggest a huge amount in the way of original thinking.
Horrible policy
Might be true, but it just doesn't feel right.
Here's praying
There's a Gail's AND a Waitrose in Altringham.
Come on. Must be a LD gain!
t-shirtbottle of soy sauce...https://x.com/DAZN_Sport/status/1979981315349889081
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/124043/pdf/
Every sperm is great
If a sperm is wasted
God gets quite irate"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUspLVStPbk
https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-10-12-1-3-women-uk-will-have-abortion-so-why-it-so-secret
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/1-in-3-women-have-an-abortion-and-95-don-t-regret-it-so-why-aren-t-we-talking-about-it-10392750.html
https://www.rcog.org.uk/about-us/campaigning-and-opinions/position-statements/reforming-abortion-law/
https://www.bpas.org/media/2nelmu3y/10-abortion-myths-booklet.pdf
Ellie Sattler: "Dinosaurs eat man..... Woman inherits the earth”
Opinion pieces are not a legitimate source.
It may be a true piece of data, or it may be the person writing the opinion article misunderstood the data, especially since some abortion data includes miscarriages and dividing abortions by people would not be accurate. Either way though, if it is true, there should be a more rigorous source than an Op-Ed in the Independent.
Here’s the Royal College of Obs & Gynae: https://www.rcog.org.uk/about-us/campaigning-and-opinions/position-statements/reforming-abortion-law/ Are they expert enough for you?
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales-2022/abortion-statistics-england-and-wales-2022#:~:text=There were 251,377 abortions for,17% over the previous year.
I believe in women's rights until birth.
A woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy at any stage upto birth, with the proviso that if the state wishes it could say that after a point of viability the termination of pregnancy might occur with a live delivery of a viable birth . . . but what should not be possible is to tell a woman they are to be a human incubator for the next few months because they have a viable pregnancy but we won't deliver it yet so they are required to remain pregnant even if they do not wish to be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_common_sense_realism
yep.
Labour, if there is any life left in them, need to hammer this message over and over: Farage is Trump 2.0's representative on these islands and if elected he will attempt to copy and enact pretty much every one of the insane and dangerous policies of that administration.
Vote Farage get Trump.
Forget tax bombshell posters: this is the message.