The DNE looks like it's done the best out of the DIP, and that's really only properly funding what was previously committed to anyway. The RAF next best, as it's prioritised air defence and FCAS.
It's slim pickings for the Army, which should really be expanded to 85-90k personnel right now to permanently field a full mechanized division in Europe
"Right now" is completely unrealistic, I'm afraid.
There's both an awful lot of rebuilding to do, and also figuring out how our ground forces might fight future wars, before we could contemplate spending the billions that would require. Even if we could magic up the troop numbers, the vehicles don't exist, and would take years to assemble.
In the meantime the front line European states are rebuilding their ground forces far faster than us.
I disagree.
The announcement and funding could be committed now, and the Army could be readily rebuilt over the next few years.
I didn't mean it'd suddenly be ready to deploy tomorrow, and I'm sure you knew that.
Does anyone else wonder whether these Colonel Blimps know what they're talking about when they say we'll be invaded by Russia in 2030? It's bonkers! Can't they make the leap that Ukraine was invaded because Russia has a claim on it? I don't think even that batty soldier who's spent too long under the sun lamp can think they have a similar claim to the UK.
It is Scrödingers Russia: similtaneously collapsing in chaos due to fuel shortages and unable to occupy a Donbas colliery, and also a major military threat requiring every country in Europe to spend tens of Billions on boy-toys.
Let me introduce you the concept of asymmetrical warfare.
Let me remind you that Russia was behind the arson on the properties of the Prime Minister.
Let me remind you on more than one occasion Russia has used chemical weapons on the streets of Britain and it it sheer luck that they didn't turn into massive casualties events.
How do new ships and tanks protect us from that?
It is security theatre on a national scale.
Because the Russian fleets keeps on trying to attack our infrastructure.
How does that protect about Arson on Starmer or spies with chemical weapons?
It's part of a broader defence policy.
After 14 years of underspending by Conservative led govts it must be a relief to Conservatives that there's now a Labour govt they can bully into increasing defence spending. Particularly as it's at the expense of Labour policies.
I cancelled my Conservative membership way back in 2010 over defence cuts.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
Does anyone else wonder whether these Colonel Blimps know what they're talking about when they say we'll be invaded by Russia in 2030? It's bonkers! Can't they make the leap that Ukraine was invaded because Russia has a claim on it? I don't think even that batty soldier who's spent too long under the sun lamp can think they have a similar claim to the UK.
It is Scrödingers Russia: similtaneously collapsing in chaos due to fuel shortages and unable to occupy a Donbas colliery, and also a major military threat requiring every country in Europe to spend tens of Billions on boy-toys.
Let me introduce you the concept of asymmetrical warfare.
Let me remind you that Russia was behind the arson on the properties of the Prime Minister.
Let me remind you on more than one occasion Russia has used chemical weapons on the streets of Britain and it it sheer luck that they didn't turn into massive casualties events.
How do new ships and tanks protect us from that?
It is security theatre on a national scale.
Because the Russian fleets keeps on trying to attack our infrastructure.
How does that protect about Arson on Starmer or spies with chemical weapons?
It's part of a broader defence policy.
After 14 years of underspending by Conservative led govts it must be a relief to Conservatives that there's now a Labour govt they can bully into increasing defence spending. Particularly as it's at the expense of Labour policies.
I cancelled my Conservative membership way back in 2010 over defence cuts.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
Does anyone else wonder whether these Colonel Blimps know what they're talking about when they say we'll be invaded by Russia in 2030? It's bonkers! Can't they make the leap that Ukraine was invaded because Russia has a claim on it? I don't think even that batty soldier who's spent too long under the sun lamp can think they have a similar claim to the UK.
It is Scrödingers Russia: similtaneously collapsing in chaos due to fuel shortages and unable to occupy a Donbas colliery, and also a major military threat requiring every country in Europe to spend tens of Billions on boy-toys.
Let me introduce you the concept of asymmetrical warfare.
Let me remind you that Russia was behind the arson on the properties of the Prime Minister.
Let me remind you on more than one occasion Russia has used chemical weapons on the streets of Britain and it it sheer luck that they didn't turn into massive casualties events.
How do new ships and tanks protect us from that?
It is security theatre on a national scale.
Because the Russian fleets keeps on trying to attack our infrastructure.
How does that protect about Arson on Starmer or spies with chemical weapons?
It's part of a broader defence policy.
After 14 years of underspending by Conservative led govts it must be a relief to Conservatives that there's now a Labour govt they can bully into increasing defence spending. Particularly as it's at the expense of Labour policies.
I cancelled my Conservative membership way back in 2010 over defence cuts.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
Well as we haven't had a war in those last 15 years the 2010 Tory government must have saved us a fortune. Well done them. They got it right -you got it wrong!
Does anyone else wonder whether these Colonel Blimps know what they're talking about when they say we'll be invaded by Russia in 2030? It's bonkers! Can't they make the leap that Ukraine was invaded because Russia has a claim on it? I don't think even that batty soldier who's spent too long under the sun lamp can think they have a similar claim to the UK.
It is Scrödingers Russia: similtaneously collapsing in chaos due to fuel shortages and unable to occupy a Donbas colliery, and also a major military threat requiring every country in Europe to spend tens of Billions on boy-toys.
Let me introduce you the concept of asymmetrical warfare.
Let me remind you that Russia was behind the arson on the properties of the Prime Minister.
Let me remind you on more than one occasion Russia has used chemical weapons on the streets of Britain and it it sheer luck that they didn't turn into massive casualties events.
How do new ships and tanks protect us from that?
It is security theatre on a national scale.
Because the Russian fleets keeps on trying to attack our infrastructure.
How does that protect about Arson on Starmer or spies with chemical weapons?
It's part of a broader defence policy.
After 14 years of underspending by Conservative led govts it must be a relief to Conservatives that there's now a Labour govt they can bully into increasing defence spending. Particularly as it's at the expense of Labour policies.
I cancelled my Conservative membership way back in 2010 over defence cuts.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
we believe you
Good, because it's true. You can review my posts in the threads from the time that corroborate it.
Does anyone else wonder whether these Colonel Blimps know what they're talking about when they say we'll be invaded by Russia in 2030? It's bonkers! Can't they make the leap that Ukraine was invaded because Russia has a claim on it? I don't think even that batty soldier who's spent too long under the sun lamp can think they have a similar claim to the UK.
It is Scrödingers Russia: similtaneously collapsing in chaos due to fuel shortages and unable to occupy a Donbas colliery, and also a major military threat requiring every country in Europe to spend tens of Billions on boy-toys.
Let me introduce you the concept of asymmetrical warfare.
Let me remind you that Russia was behind the arson on the properties of the Prime Minister.
Let me remind you on more than one occasion Russia has used chemical weapons on the streets of Britain and it it sheer luck that they didn't turn into massive casualties events.
How do new ships and tanks protect us from that?
It is security theatre on a national scale.
Because the Russian fleets keeps on trying to attack our infrastructure.
How does that protect about Arson on Starmer or spies with chemical weapons?
It's part of a broader defence policy.
After 14 years of underspending by Conservative led govts it must be a relief to Conservatives that there's now a Labour govt they can bully into increasing defence spending. Particularly as it's at the expense of Labour policies.
I cancelled my Conservative membership way back in 2010 over defence cuts.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
Well as we haven't had a war in those last 15 years the 2010 Tory government must have saved us a fortune. Well done them. They got it right -you got it wrong!
Does anyone else wonder whether these Colonel Blimps know what they're talking about when they say we'll be invaded by Russia in 2030? It's bonkers! Can't they make the leap that Ukraine was invaded because Russia has a claim on it? I don't think even that batty soldier who's spent too long under the sun lamp can think they have a similar claim to the UK.
It is Scrödingers Russia: similtaneously collapsing in chaos due to fuel shortages and unable to occupy a Donbas colliery, and also a major military threat requiring every country in Europe to spend tens of Billions on boy-toys.
Let me introduce you the concept of asymmetrical warfare.
Let me remind you that Russia was behind the arson on the properties of the Prime Minister.
Let me remind you on more than one occasion Russia has used chemical weapons on the streets of Britain and it it sheer luck that they didn't turn into massive casualties events.
How do new ships and tanks protect us from that?
It is security theatre on a national scale.
Because the Russian fleets keeps on trying to attack our infrastructure.
How does that protect about Arson on Starmer or spies with chemical weapons?
It's part of a broader defence policy.
After 14 years of underspending by Conservative led govts it must be a relief to Conservatives that there's now a Labour govt they can bully into increasing defence spending. Particularly as it's at the expense of Labour policies.
I cancelled my Conservative membership way back in 2010 over defence cuts.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
Well as we haven't had a war in those last 15 years the 2010 Tory government must have saved us a fortune. Well done them. They got it right -you got it wrong!
Roger.
Wrong about everything.
All the time.
There is literally a war on our continent going on today that are munitions and forces (via training etc) have been taking part in.
But then again, this is the same Roger who batted away that war justifying it by claiming Russia has "a claim" on Ukraine.
Does anyone else wonder whether these Colonel Blimps know what they're talking about when they say we'll be invaded by Russia in 2030? It's bonkers! Can't they make the leap that Ukraine was invaded because Russia has a claim on it? I don't think even that batty soldier who's spent too long under the sun lamp can think they have a similar claim to the UK.
It is Scrödingers Russia: similtaneously collapsing in chaos due to fuel shortages and unable to occupy a Donbas colliery, and also a major military threat requiring every country in Europe to spend tens of Billions on boy-toys.
Let me introduce you the concept of asymmetrical warfare.
Let me remind you that Russia was behind the arson on the properties of the Prime Minister.
Let me remind you on more than one occasion Russia has used chemical weapons on the streets of Britain and it it sheer luck that they didn't turn into massive casualties events.
How do new ships and tanks protect us from that?
It is security theatre on a national scale.
Because the Russian fleets keeps on trying to attack our infrastructure.
How does that protect about Arson on Starmer or spies with chemical weapons?
It's part of a broader defence policy.
After 14 years of underspending by Conservative led govts it must be a relief to Conservatives that there's now a Labour govt they can bully into increasing defence spending. Particularly as it's at the expense of Labour policies.
I cancelled my Conservative membership way back in 2010 over defence cuts.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
Well as we haven't had a war in those last 15 years the 2010 Tory government must have saved us a fortune. Well done them. They got it right -you got it wrong!
Roger.
Wrong about everything.
All the time.
There is literally a war on our continent going on today that are munitions and forces (via training etc) have been taking part in.
But then again, this is the same Roger who batted away that war justifying it by claiming Russia has "a claim" on Ukraine.
I doubt any of us could be this consistently wrong even if we tried.
Paraguay defended really well against Germany. Admittedly the Germans were poor. But the Dutch put 5 past Sweden...
Yes but France to seem be on a different level to all the other teams in this competition.
Agreed. I'm on a France Argentina final again.
I'm on France to win. Allez les Bleus. If it weren't for the dodgy conditions over there, I'd be all in.
Watched the highlights of their match against Sweden this morning. They are so far the best team in this WC that it would be a travesty if they didn't win it. But with Messi anything is possible.
Paraguay defended really well against Germany. Admittedly the Germans were poor. But the Dutch put 5 past Sweden...
Yes but France to seem be on a different level to all the other teams in this competition.
Agreed. I'm on a France Argentina final again.
I'm on France to win. Allez les Bleus. If it weren't for the dodgy conditions over there, I'd be all in.
Watched the highlights of their match against Sweden this morning. They are so far the best team in this WC that it would be a travesty if they didn't win it. But with Messi anything is possible.
Good morning, everyone.
I haven't bet on them, but I'm pretty sure I backed France in the prediction competition.
It is alleged that the former Lagan Valley MP sexually pestered women, visited a gay sauna while denouncing homosexuality and got drunk on foreign trips – and vomited over the mayor of Beijing – while professing to be a teetotaller
So, I decided that I need an ephemeral version of Slack. Basically, I need the ability to colaborate with people temporarily by creating a chatroom, with file upload, webhooks, etc. But all simple and anonymous: you just need a -say- 8 character room ID (and rooms get deleted after 60 minutes if no one is logged in).
And I thought ... you know what, I'll try this with Antigravity, Claude Code and Qwen3.6bn 35bn MoE / OpenCode.
Claude Code and Qwen/OpenCode one shotted it: they both got it working off one (long-ish) prompt. Now, obviously, I then spent 30 minutes refining their output. And Claude showed by far the better design chops. But -you know what- Qwen/OpenCode got the technical side of it absolutely spot on. And it was running on my laptop (a fairly beefy 48gb MBP). And it was actually quickler than Claude Code.
I'd give Claude 9/10, and Qwen/OpenCode 8/10. (Crucially, both of them sketched out a basic test framework, and didn't hand back control to me until tests were passing. Claude loses points for being really irritating, and asking me permission for running grep commands in the working directory.)
Both handily beat out Antigravity. Which produced a really beautiful home page, but it didn't actually work, and needed some debugging. Plus, when you got into using the app, there were some very questionable design choices.
I let the LLMs chose the name of the app.
Antigravity went with VaporChat (7/10). Qwen went with FlashChat (5/10).
And Claude really hit it out the park (so to speak) with "poof". (Which I'm going to give 1/10.)
My main takeaway, though, was that Qwen/OpenCode -which was running on my laptop- was much, much better than I would have expected. I can see myself using it on planes or whenever there is no (or limited) web access.
Surely that means openAI et al are appsolutely shafted. Their whole business model has been to spend billions on racks of servers, then hope that somehow they can charge users enough per token to get it back.
That was looking like a shaky assumption anyway, but if we're now at the point where you just need a decent gaming laptop, who on earth will be paying the true cost of tokens for chatGPT?
MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. The Russian government decreed to close several railway border crossings on the state border with Latvia, Finland and Estonia.
"The movement of people, vehicles, goods and cargoes" via the border crossings designated by the government is suspended. The Russian Foreign Ministry was instructed to notify Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki about the decision made by Moscow and effective from July 1.
The closed border crossings include St. Petersburg-Finlyandsky, Vyborg, Vyartsilya, Ljuttja and Svetogorsk (all of them for Finland), Pechory-Pskovskiye on the border with Estonia, and Pytalovo bordering on Latvia.
Been following this series avidly. Really well done.
...and horribly prescient
You may be interested to know that FixEdit's similar adaptation of "Red Storm Rising" is on archive.org . I'll DM you the links [EDIT: I just did so: check your inbox]
That looks interesting.
Watching the first episode published in 2023, it's fascinating how things on the ground around the Suwalki Gap are changing in such a short time.
Paraguay defended really well against Germany. Admittedly the Germans were poor. But the Dutch put 5 past Sweden...
Yes but France to seem be on a different level to all the other teams in this competition.
Agreed. I'm on a France Argentina final again.
I'm on France to win. Allez les Bleus. If it weren't for the dodgy conditions over there, I'd be all in.
Watched the highlights of their match against Sweden this morning. They are so far the best team in this WC that it would be a travesty if they didn't win it. But with Messi anything is possible.
France barely came out of second gear to beat Sweden, a far inferior and, crucially, European team. It is the heat and humidity (and lack of oxygen in Mexico) that worry me. Already we have seen two top European teams – Germany & Netherlands – knocked out by, on paper, worse sides, and I think acclimatisation has a good deal to do with that.
Something tells me this was a financially driven conclusion.
The same day the British government announced Storm Shadow cruise missiles would be phased out, citing "lessons" learnt "from Ukraine", the Ukrainian government announced negotiations to manufacture Storm Shadow's French variant, SCALP-EG, in Ukraine. https://x.com/JimmySecUK/status/2072078515051110500
The ephemeral, instant Slack/Discord alternative I built is here: https://zwip.chat
It's got webhooks. If you need to pull together a chat conversation, share files, etc., really easily... then I think it's pretty cool.
On your note about claude asking too many approvals - if you run `claude --enable-auto-mode` (you might need to shift-tab too - can't remember now) it'll pass approvals to sonnet with a little context and have it judge 'does this look sane in the circumstances?' and if so it gets auto-approves. Really cuts down on the approvals for 'obvious yes' questions.
Paraguay defended really well against Germany. Admittedly the Germans were poor. But the Dutch put 5 past Sweden...
Yes but France to seem be on a different level to all the other teams in this competition.
Agreed. I'm on a France Argentina final again.
I'm on France to win. Allez les Bleus. If it weren't for the dodgy conditions over there, I'd be all in.
Watched the highlights of their match against Sweden this morning. They are so far the best team in this WC that it would be a travesty if they didn't win it. But with Messi anything is possible.
France barely came out of second gear to beat Sweden, a far inferior and, crucially, European team. It is the heat and humidity (and lack of oxygen in Mexico) that worry me. Already we have seen two top European teams – Germany & Netherlands – knocked out by, on paper, worse sides, and I think acclimatisation has a good deal to do with that.
It's why I think we did the wrong thing winning our group. Against Mexico in Mexico City is a game no country (even France) can win.
The DNE looks like it's done the best out of the DIP, and that's really only properly funding what was previously committed to anyway. The RAF next best, as it's prioritised air defence and FCAS.
It's slim pickings for the Army, which should really be expanded to 85-90k personnel right now to permanently field a full mechanized division in Europe
"Right now" is completely unrealistic, I'm afraid.
There's both an awful lot of rebuilding to do, and also figuring out how our ground forces might fight future wars, before we could contemplate spending the billions that would require. Even if we could magic up the troop numbers, the vehicles don't exist, and would take years to assemble.
In the meantime the front line European states are rebuilding their ground forces far faster than us.
I disagree.
The announcement and funding could be committed now, and the Army could be readily rebuilt over the next few years.
I didn't mean it'd suddenly be ready to deploy tomorrow, and I'm sure you knew that.
Of course. But the point is that the cost would be in the multiple billions, we'd be buying kit that's likely obsolescent, it would take more than "a few" years to deliver the capability, the ongoing costs of maintaining an armoured regiment overseas would also be in the billions, and a rearming Europe probably doesn't need that contribution.
It would be far better both for our defence, and that of Europe, to rebuild RAF capability. Based here, it can be in Europe in hours.
Reconstituting the army on current lines would be investing in obsolescence. Doing it a manner more suited to future threats isn't something we can fund and commit now.
Paraguay defended really well against Germany. Admittedly the Germans were poor. But the Dutch put 5 past Sweden...
Yes but France to seem be on a different level to all the other teams in this competition.
Agreed. I'm on a France Argentina final again.
I'm on France to win. Allez les Bleus. If it weren't for the dodgy conditions over there, I'd be all in.
Watched the highlights of their match against Sweden this morning. They are so far the best team in this WC that it would be a travesty if they didn't win it. But with Messi anything is possible.
France barely came out of second gear to beat Sweden, a far inferior and, crucially, European team. It is the heat and humidity (and lack of oxygen in Mexico) that worry me. Already we have seen two top European teams – Germany & Netherlands – knocked out by, on paper, worse sides, and I think acclimatisation has a good deal to do with that.
It's why I think we did the wrong thing winning our group. Against Mexico in Mexico City is a game no country (even France) can win.
As the game will be played at stupid o'clock, I won't get to witness our suffering.
Law professor briefly sets out the chief logical fallacies in Thomas's opinion.
Justice Thomas's legal argument in full:
I'm a Supreme Court Justice, bitch.
The interpretation of law has, in my view, always been opinion dressed up in a cloak of intellectual superiority.
There's an element of that in interpretation, certainly. But the Thomas opinion is plain violation of the simple language of statute, sets aside a century and more of stare decisis (which the court itself recently and without dissent re-affirmed as a guiding principle), and is chock full of logical fallacies.
The DNE looks like it's done the best out of the DIP, and that's really only properly funding what was previously committed to anyway. The RAF next best, as it's prioritised air defence and FCAS.
It's slim pickings for the Army, which should really be expanded to 85-90k personnel right now to permanently field a full mechanized division in Europe
"Right now" is completely unrealistic, I'm afraid.
There's both an awful lot of rebuilding to do, and also figuring out how our ground forces might fight future wars, before we could contemplate spending the billions that would require. Even if we could magic up the troop numbers, the vehicles don't exist, and would take years to assemble.
In the meantime the front line European states are rebuilding their ground forces far faster than us.
I disagree.
The announcement and funding could be committed now, and the Army could be readily rebuilt over the next few years.
I didn't mean it'd suddenly be ready to deploy tomorrow, and I'm sure you knew that.
Of course. But the point is that the cost would be in the multiple billions, we'd be buying kit that's likely obsolescent, it would take more than "a few" years to deliver the capability, the ongoing costs of maintaining an armoured regiment overseas would also be in the billions, and a rearming Europe probably doesn't need that contribution.
It would be far better both for our defence, and that of Europe, to rebuild RAF capability. Based here, it can be in Europe in hours.
Reconstituting the army on current lines would be investing in obsolescence. Doing it a manner more suited to future threats isn't something we can fund and commit now.
It would fund the expansion needed to restore the British Army's ability to field a full warfighting division in Europe. One capable of deploying and being sustained as a credible deterrent. That investment needs to be committed now if the UK is to continue to actively deter Russia and exercise leadership within NATO. As one of the Alliance's leading members, we must be able to provide that level of capability.
A division is the smallest self-sustaining formation capable of conducting large-scale combined-arms operations independently, bringing together infantry, armour, artillery, engineers and logistical support under a single headquarters. It's not new. It's broadly restoring the capability and deployment the Army maintained until the post-Cold War reductions of the 1990s.
Increasing the Army from around 72,000 to 76,000 regulars is a very modest increase, and nowhere near enough. A regular strength of around 90,000 would be a more credible if the aim is to generate and sustain a full warfighting division alongside our other commitments.
Sure, there would also need to be some additional equipment—such as more Challenger 3 tanks and RCH 155 artillery—but the key decision is committing now to the manpower and funding needed to rebuild that capability.
MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. The Russian government decreed to close several railway border crossings on the state border with Latvia, Finland and Estonia.
"The movement of people, vehicles, goods and cargoes" via the border crossings designated by the government is suspended. The Russian Foreign Ministry was instructed to notify Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki about the decision made by Moscow and effective from July 1.
The closed border crossings include St. Petersburg-Finlyandsky, Vyborg, Vyartsilya, Ljuttja and Svetogorsk (all of them for Finland), Pechory-Pskovskiye on the border with Estonia, and Pytalovo bordering on Latvia.
The first two weeks are to watch the world cup and visit friends in the UK and the last two weeks to go on holiday.
I'm not sure the fates care what you are planning to do with your time off, they simply register that you have time off and rub their evil little hands together.
Can't see how the Suwalki Gap holds to be honest.
Poles. They are armed to the teeth. They will burn Moscow again if we don't stop them.
They are just starting their buildup.
Putin may be about to go Even Fuller Tonto.
If he thinks the situation is personally existential, what does he have to lose.
Grabbing a land corridor to Kallingrad might keep the windows closed for him, for example.
Seriously with what; a couple of hundred vintage tanks crewed with kids with a fortnights training.
We watched them build up their full arm for months before they invaded Ukraine and thy struggled to get forty miles against a far smaller army.
For an offensive you need at least 3 to 1 concentrated to 7 to 1 for breakthrough!
Poland has 200k troops! Where are Russia getting 600k new troops of any standard. Poland has almost 800 tanks and outwith what is stuck in Ukraine the entire Russian tank force from Europe to China is less than 1,500!
Peter.
That sounds exactly like the thinking before many wars kick off - “the rational calculus is X therefore Y won’t happen”.
How many times in history has the country that started/expanded a war, actually won?
Over 90% of US households have air conditioning, compared to barely 20% of Europe’s. That needs to change.
I still hear middle class people complain about the "environmental" impact of air conditioning, whenever I mention I have it. Invariably, they don't, and this is presumably a way they make themselves feel better about it - whilst secretly planning to do the same.
Samsung and SK Hynix are each planning to spend well over double the cost of HS2 on building new chip fabs.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/companies/20260630/samsung-sk-chip-investment-timelines-leave-room-for-adjustment Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix announced a combined 800 trillion won ($516.4 billion) investment commitment to establish advanced chip plants in Gwangju and South Jeolla Province in Korea's southwest, but stopped short of providing a timeline for when the investments will be made or construction will begin, leaving room to adjust their spending plans until the long-term memory chip cycle becomes clearer..
Astonishing levels of investment, probably financed from cash flow.
The Hynix chip business was acquired by SK Telecom in 2012 for a mere $3bn...
Nick Robinson absolutely lost the plot this morning "When did Andy Burnham sign off on this? When was Andy Burnham consulted? When was Andy...." Only for the MOD would the media have launched a weeks long concerted campaign for more funding, funding that will be effortlessly absorbed with no discernible benefit.
At 9am More or Less are looking at the stats for "Manchesterism" to determine whether it is real or BS...
Nick Robinson absolutely lost the plot this morning "When did Andy Burnham sign off on this? When was Andy Burnham consulted? When was Andy...." Only for the MOD would the media have launched a weeks long concerted campaign for more funding, funding that will be effortlessly absorbed with no discernible benefit.
At 9am More or Less are looking at the stats for "Manchesterism" to determine whether it is real or BS...
Manchester doesn't need defence.
It'll be untouched by the world due to its great cultural "scene".
Nick Robinson absolutely lost the plot this morning "When did Andy Burnham sign off on this? When was Andy Burnham consulted? When was Andy...." Only for the MOD would the media have launched a weeks long concerted campaign for more funding, funding that will be effortlessly absorbed with no discernible benefit.
At 9am More or Less are looking at the stats for "Manchesterism" to determine whether it is real or BS...
The other way in which R4 Today lost the plot - along with all the others - is that they have focussed on the the question of this and that bit of magical performance in grafting together the alleged funding for defence. They have done this to the exclusion of the actual question which is: Do the present and new plans provide proper and effective defence of the realm and also play our part in NATO.
The issue of where this or that billion comes from is secondary. Primary is: Is our defence secure, and if not, how not?
Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpU_0fA_gJ4
The announcement and funding could be committed now, and the Army could be readily rebuilt over the next few years.
I didn't mean it'd suddenly be ready to deploy tomorrow, and I'm sure you knew that.
I have a very long history of opposing irresponsible policy decisions on defence.
I'm a Supreme Court Justice, bitch.
@JohnO @TheScreamingEagles and @Sean_F can vouch for it as well.
Wrong about everything.
All the time.
I have a long shot bet I'd like to place!
An uber right wing woman hiding in plain sight who would fit the racist / neo fascist / MAGA ticket to a tee!
But then again, this is the same Roger who batted away that war justifying it by claiming Russia has "a claim" on Ukraine.
It's like a piece of performance art.
I haven't bet on them, but I'm pretty sure I backed France in the prediction competition.
That was looking like a shaky assumption anyway, but if we're now at the point where you just need a decent gaming laptop, who on earth will be paying the true cost of tokens for chatGPT?
Watching the first episode published in 2023, it's fascinating how things on the ground around the Suwalki Gap are changing in such a short time.
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-reform-leader
My hunch is not on there yet!
https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/2072134707957895508
The same day the British government announced Storm Shadow cruise missiles would be phased out, citing "lessons" learnt "from Ukraine", the Ukrainian government announced negotiations to manufacture Storm Shadow's French variant, SCALP-EG, in Ukraine.
https://x.com/JimmySecUK/status/2072078515051110500
But the point is that the cost would be in the multiple billions, we'd be buying kit that's likely obsolescent, it would take more than "a few" years to deliver the capability, the ongoing costs of maintaining an armoured regiment overseas would also be in the billions, and a rearming Europe probably doesn't need that contribution.
It would be far better both for our defence, and that of Europe, to rebuild RAF capability. Based here, it can be in Europe in hours.
Reconstituting the army on current lines would be investing in obsolescence. Doing it a manner more suited to future threats isn't something we can fund and commit now.
That's assuming we aren't humiliated today.
And that even before you start me on kissing bugs and Chagas
But the Thomas opinion is plain violation of the simple language of statute, sets aside a century and more of stare decisis (which the court itself recently and without dissent re-affirmed as a guiding principle), and is chock full of logical fallacies.
A division is the smallest self-sustaining formation capable of conducting large-scale combined-arms operations independently, bringing together infantry, armour, artillery, engineers and logistical support under a single headquarters. It's not new. It's broadly restoring the capability and deployment the Army maintained until the post-Cold War reductions of the 1990s.
Increasing the Army from around 72,000 to 76,000 regulars is a very modest increase, and nowhere near enough. A regular strength of around 90,000 would be a more credible if the aim is to generate and sustain a full warfighting division alongside our other commitments.
Sure, there would also need to be some additional equipment—such as more Challenger 3 tanks and RCH 155 artillery—but the key decision is committing now to the manpower and funding needed to rebuild that capability.
(year not times)
Surely she won't be daft enough to criticise Labour on defence spending.
Does she eat her steak before or after PMQs?
😂
https://fortune.com/2026/06/26/heat-death-europe-ac-american-gun-violence-climate-change-hot-summer/
NEW THREAD
I still hear middle class people complain about the "environmental" impact of air conditioning, whenever I mention I have it. Invariably, they don't, and this is presumably a way they make themselves feel better about it - whilst secretly planning to do the same.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/companies/20260630/samsung-sk-chip-investment-timelines-leave-room-for-adjustment
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix announced a combined 800 trillion won ($516.4 billion) investment commitment to establish advanced chip plants in Gwangju and South Jeolla Province in Korea's southwest, but stopped short of providing a timeline for when the investments will be made or construction will begin, leaving room to adjust their spending plans until the long-term memory chip cycle becomes clearer..
Astonishing levels of investment, probably financed from cash flow.
The Hynix chip business was acquired by SK Telecom in 2012 for a mere $3bn...
At 9am More or Less are looking at the stats for "Manchesterism" to determine whether it is real or BS...
It'll be untouched by the world due to its great cultural "scene".
The issue of where this or that billion comes from is secondary. Primary is: Is our defence secure, and if not, how not?