BBC reporting that IS flags and banners are flying over Kobane.
It's horrendous. There are still tens of thousands of people in that city, most of them Kurds. They will be raped and enslaved, many will be shot. Imagine the fate of any female Kurdish soldiers. Unspeakable.
If I was an American taxpayer, contributing to the world's mightiest military, at a cost of $650 BILLION a year, I'd be really quite angry. How mighty is the USA if it can't stop teenage jihad rapists in Toyotas?
It's not mighty at all. It is a chimera, a delusion, a fake. It's like buying the world's biggest golden dildo, to disguise the fact you are impotent, and you never meet any women anyway.
The tin-foil hatted conspiracy theorists would suggest America's problem is working out who is my enemy's enemy's enemy -- that while it wants ISIL defeated, it does not want any of ISIL's enemies (Iran, Kurds, Assad, Russia, and so on) to win. More likely it is that no-one wants to commit thousands of troops to a war that is likely to be open-ended since there is no state actor inn a position to surrender.
Trouble with your second suggestion is that ti doesn't explain America's apparent inactivity in the air.
Multiple tweets from Kobane say that ISIS are using tanks, and heavy artillery. These things are easy to spot from a satellite, they cannot be hidden, they can be taken out with drones and air strikes in a trice.
Yet that doesn't seem to be happening. Why? Tin foilers say Obama has done some dirty deal with Turkey. Chastise the Kurds and let Kobane fall - then Turkey will enter the war against ISIS, but only then.
Who knows. It is odd. And extremely grim.
I agree with you, Turkey has amassed a large number of forces on the Syrian border and its parliament has voted to invade, so what are they waiting for? Looking at all the published material from Turkish newspapers and other foreign media, Turkey has made many deals with Al Qaeda and ISIS and is simply waiting for ISIS to crush the kurds in order to take the territory from ISIS later.
The foreign policy priorities of the west and Turkey on this issue collide, the west wants to mitigate or contain islamic extremism while Turkey sees them as allies in its quest to revive the Ottoman empire. I will not be surprised if the Turkish aim is to plant the turkish flag in Damascus for the first time since Lawrence of Arabia.
Note the (deserved) ratings for Steve Webb. 20/1 widely available on him being the next Lib Dem leader. It's a mystery to me why the party doesn't make more of an undoubted asset.
Clegg doesnt like him (infamously slagging him off within earshot of a reporter).
Terrible to hear of what's going on in Kobane. As suggested, it seems odd that tanks and artillery (especially the latter) could not be taken our by air strikes. What was the point of Turkey's Parliament authorising military action and doing nothing?
Terrible to hear of what's going on in Kobane. As suggested, it seems odd that tanks and artillery (especially the latter) could not be taken our by air strikes. What was the point of Turkey's Parliament authorising military action and doing nothing?
Civil wars end with one side winning. Not with an external power trying to force themselves into the conflict on behalf of one of the belligerents. Even as @DecrepitJohnL says, if they could work out whose side they wanted to be on.
The reality of it is that a surge was attempted and failed in Iraq so the chances of US+ dropping hundreds of thousands, literally hundreds of thousands of troops into the Levant to subdue IS (pls note: from 29 June 2014 = IS) is fantasy.
Some options (from a whole lot of very very bad ones) are a) send hundreds of thousands of allied troops to subdue IS, impose a legal, political, bureaucratic system on the region and then prop up their favoured government for the subsequent 50 years; b) to treat with them, draw a green line around where they are today or next week and say - here's your caliphate, please don't be so beastly; c) organise a (somehow anti-Sunni) Sunni coalition of the willing but frankly, it will be so US military advisor heavy we are kind of in "surge" territory again; d) impress upon Iran to reawaken it's Shia-Sunni, Iran-Iraq war consciousness and somehow what? Invade the Levant? Fund counter-groups? We are back in civil war territory and do we want Iran to win that one?
My $0.02? God that's tricky - probably "b)", realpolitikally. Not 100% sure that is the answer, can't think of any other options, however.
I used to believe in 2. Hence the reason I wrote my "quarantine the Islamists" blog some months ago.
But things have changed. ISIS is rapidly evolving from a local threat to a regional and then global menace. Their whole ethos is rapid conquest and expansion - they are Alien, designed to conquer and kill. They won't be happy sorting out postal services in Mosul.
Even if we manage to corral them, they will try and export terror - with their vast new oil wealth - into the west, and they will provide bases for training terrorists within their "frontiers" - it will Afghanistan under the Taliban, but nearer, and much more potent.
No, option B doesn't really work.
Well that is the issue - "the Levant" includes some pretty far gone will never be conquered kind of places. So to say "stop here" it would make no sense (if I were IS) to say ok well we said we were going to reconquer the Levant but we are happy where we are. But everyone compromises we at least have learned that over the years so it is worth a shot.
Exporting terror? Yes perhaps but then plenty of places on the planet can do that, not least, ahem, Afghan and Pakistan.
Nor am I expecting the new caliphate to settle into the community of nations and agree a cotton export subsidy agreement with US cotton producers or sign double taxation treaties with the West.
We are only able to do that which is a) doable and b) least dreadful.
At the moment I'm struggling to work out any least dreadful alternative.
I had a colleague who dealt with the internal comms at the CSA and it sounded like a basket case. My condolences for your time there. Danger money seemed appropriate.
Another at the Passport & Immigration Service said the whole place was in meltdown and recommended it as the last place he'd want to work ever again. He couldn't be more scathing.
We had our own issues at the Rural Payments Agency - the Select Committee reports into that one burned the paper it was printed on. And then Margaret Hodge got promoted... And Brian Bender [top mandarin] moved to another post. It was staggering.
He was my boss at DWP for a bit. A nice and very ambitious/smart guy. He was the wrong sort of Labourite at the time. And wisely resigned. That caused quite a splash. IIRC he did it just as the 10pm news was starting.
This is just ridiculous. Alan Johnson has a reasonable future playing the well meaning straight guy on HIGNFY and other such tat until pretty much everyone has forgotten who he is, something I fear will not take as long as he would like.
His political career is over. Finished. An ex parrot etc.
It does show, however, that David Miliband was smart to get out of the building.
A Labour party led by James Parnell would be out of sight by now. But he probably made the right call that it was never going to happen.
But what do you make of James Purnell David?
I think it is worth remembering that he only had relatively modest jobs albeit he received rapid promotions to cabinet. He was involved in more than his fair share of controversy, not least in relation to expenses and CGT. It would be foolish to project Blairite ideals onto him in a way that might never have happened. The most impressive thing about his Parliamentary career was his resignation and, on one view, even that proved to be a miscalculation.
All that said I think the Labour party is desperately short of people with his level of competence and decision making skills. He would almost certainly have kept the Labour party in a position closer to that maintained by Blair and he would not have shied away from necessary modernisation of public services in fear of upsetting the Unions. I think he would have been a much more difficult person for the Tories to challenge than Ed is. But then there are a lot of people who fall within that definition.
I was at the CSA at the time.Another case of government being crap at buying IT software which only someone who is a black-belt in the World of Warcraft could make work.
Mr. Speedy, hmm, frankly. By that time, ISIS would have the majority (perhaps all) of Iraq and Syria. It's like letting a dragon grow big enough to eat your enemies before slaying it.
Tories are getting more and more desperate.DT hyperbole gives it away,"a cohort" of Labour MPs.A cohort consisted of approximately 480 men and commanded by one man.
Then you must request that the DT prove which meaning has more essence.My own memory of Roman legions is that a cohort is quite a powerful looking group of people of a number of substance.The question for the DT is,show us your numbers so the meaning can be substantiated.Of course,there is the similar structure of various mafia,who operate in smaller numbers but act with lethal force.This is not the usual MO of Alan Johnson.Pasok is organised into cadres,which I guess,are a bit like cohorts.Unfortunately for them,they are like LibDem cadres,tiny and without that much meaning. Let the DT provide the evidence for a judgement, otherwise it is safe to conclude a DT cohort is no more than a LibDem cadre.
Mr. Speedy, hmm, frankly. By that time, ISIS would have the majority (perhaps all) of Iraq and Syria. It's like letting a dragon grow big enough to eat your enemies before slaying it.
Not sure if you'd want to watch it Mr Dancer, but there's a clear and fairly horrific video of Bianchi's crash on YouTube. I won't link to it, but let's just say he's lucky to be alive. The impact actually moved the back of the digger a few yards.
@SeanT What would you estimate IS's "fighting strength" is? Strikes me that it is a lot of area for them to hold without complicity from the locals.
Well I can give you my estimates, which vary a little because ISIS is able to recruit about 1000-2000 fighters per week while ISIS casualties vary per week but much lower that recruitment numbers. During the summer I estimated about 40000 doubling to 80000 after the fall of northern and central Iraq, so I guess around 90000 troops right now. Fighting strength isn't though just numbers, ISIS training, morale, supplies and tactics seem very good while they have a large number of heavy american weapons. ISIS is right now stronger militarily than Syria and Iraq, I put them around no.6-7 as the most powerful military in the middle east.
Mr. Speedy, hmm, frankly. By that time, ISIS would have the majority (perhaps all) of Iraq and Syria. It's like letting a dragon grow big enough to eat your enemies before slaying it.
The americans know it, but Turkey is too strong these days to be controlled:
Mr. T, Baghdad would be a hard nut for them to crack, but we'd be foolish to think it cannot happen. One would hope air strikes might actually happen to protect Baghdad, but it seems inexplicable they aren't to try and save Kobane.
As long as Turkey refuses to get involved militarily, any land ISIS takes in the north (that doesn't border Syrian or Iraqi forces) can be left, and the scum who took it can be redeployed to face Kurds, FSA, Iraqi army or Syrian army forces.
It's odd to think the situation in Syria began with peaceful protests calling for Assad to go.
Edited extra bit: Mr. Speedy, but surely the Turks know it too? Do they want almost their whole southern border to have ISIS on the other side?
That emphasises to me how catastrophically western policy in Afghanistan and Iraq has failed over the last decade or so. We need to stop making things worse, and the two most obvious things we could do that would help would be to (1) stop supporting repressive dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf and (2) move away from fossil fuels so that we can stop buying oil from the Middle East [and gas from Russia while we're at it].
Mr. Me, Afghanistan might have worked well, solo. But by moving soldiers, resources and focus to the needless war in Iraq we not only screwed up Iraq but lost any real hope of trying to make Afghanistan stable.
@Speedy How powerful is an army without proper air cover?
As shown in Ukraine, a superior airforce can be grounded by anti air missiles. ISIS has captured and acquired a lot of equipment, a lot of american equipment, some of them are anti air systems. That is why the american are using F-22 stealth fighters and B-1 bombers instead of the more classic stuff.
@Speedy Given the number of flights, you would have expected such a sophisticated air defense system would have accounted for at least one aircraft by now?
Mr. Me, Afghanistan might have worked well, solo. But by moving soldiers, resources and focus to the needless war in Iraq we not only screwed up Iraq but lost any real hope of trying to make Afghanistan stable.
Maybe, but it seems to be easier for Western politicians to lob a few missiles around, rather than to do the things that would give the locals something to fight for.
Apparently donor countries still haven't coughed up the cash to pay for education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. If we spent money on giving these kids an education, rather than on missiles and bombs to make IS look like brave heroes, then we'd be creating a generation of people who would fight IS themselves.
That's one of the reasons why the Iraqi army collapsed against ISIS. They had nothing to fight for.
Tories are getting more and more desperate.DT hyperbole gives it away,"a cohort" of Labour MPs.A cohort consisted of approximately 480 men and commanded by one man.
2 jags might have taken the bait but some are much poorer than him,and a lot wiser.
Not necessarily. Napoleon formed the National Guard into cohorts and these were neither 480 men nor commanded by one man.
/pedant
Its also defined as a group of people with a shared characteristic. As a generational group for instance its often used in a health service context. It's a perfectly plausible use of the word and I'm a bit surprised the discussion ever got off the ground.
"The phrase "latte liberal" is a familiar pejorative in the US. What is it about milky coffee that people associate with left-of-centre politics?
It is light and frothy, say conservatives. Foreign-sounding. An expensive indulgence. They don't think much of the coffee, either.
In the tribal discourse of US politics, the espresso with steamed milk is identified squarely with one side. It is the warm beverage of progressivism - more specifically, that proverbial subset of affluent, coastal-dwelling, Prius-driving intellectuals whom talk radio hosts like to lambast.
The term "latte liberal" applies, according to the website Urban Dictionary, to those "who sit around and drink overpriced diluted Starbucks coffee while lamenting the plight of the poor".
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
“Turkey will not allow coalition members to use its military bases or its territory in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) if the objective does not also include ousting the Bashar al-Assad regime, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hinted on Oct. 1…
Isreal's, and thus America's, primary concern is still to see the downfall of the Assad regime, a key ally of Hezbollah and Iran as well as supporter of the Palestinians. Turkey, the Sunni states and the US created Islamic State, it still has it's purpose for the time being.
That said I can understand why the Sunni's of the region support IS, terrified of the Kurds and Shias, with good reason.
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
Imagine ISIS with an income of just ten percent of $89 billion a year. And this could actually happen. A nightmare unfolds.
Baghdad is a Shia city, how on earth are IS going to take it? Iran would never allow it.
IS is constrained by Shia, Alawites and Christians to the West, Shias to the South and East, and Kurds to the north. IS will cease to exist when the Sunnis rise up against it as they did with Al Qaeda before.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
Mr. T, Baghdad would be a hard nut for them to crack, but we'd be foolish to think it cannot happen. One would hope air strikes might actually happen to protect Baghdad, but it seems inexplicable they aren't to try and save Kobane.
As long as Turkey refuses to get involved militarily, any land ISIS takes in the north (that doesn't border Syrian or Iraqi forces) can be left, and the scum who took it can be redeployed to face Kurds, FSA, Iraqi army or Syrian army forces.
It's odd to think the situation in Syria began with peaceful protests calling for Assad to go.
Edited extra bit: Mr. Speedy, but surely the Turks know it too? Do they want almost their whole southern border to have ISIS on the other side?
If the Turks feel that ISIS is their friend or that they can brush ISIS easily once their job done they wont have a problem.
This the most weird thing I've read though about ISIS from the al-monitor article:
"Burhan Kuzu, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy from Istanbul and a constitutional committee chairman in parliament, also downplayed the problem, tweeting Oct. 1: “20% of IS members are Harvard graduates. Many have Ph.D. and masters degrees. That means even education did not prevent them from becoming terrorists. It’s important to give them the right religious education.” "
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
Imagine ISIS with an income of just ten percent of $89 billion a year. And this could actually happen. A nightmare unfolds.
We should have just divided up Iraq into three separate states when we occupied the place (with backing by popular referenda of course). The whole reason ISIS have emerged, an Al-Qaeda in Iraw before them, was because the Shia government of Iraq has been utterly sectarian.
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
Mr. Speedy, hmm, frankly. By that time, ISIS would have the majority (perhaps all) of Iraq and Syria. It's like letting a dragon grow big enough to eat your enemies before slaying it.
The americans know it, but Turkey is too strong these days to be controlled:
Lets not forget this was all caused by the invasion of Iraq, cheer-led by the same folks advocating intervention today. The late General William Odom testimony on the consequences seven years ago. http://www.antiwar.com/orig/odom.php?articleid=10396
Mr. Speedy, hmm, frankly. By that time, ISIS would have the majority (perhaps all) of Iraq and Syria. It's like letting a dragon grow big enough to eat your enemies before slaying it.
The americans know it, but Turkey is too strong these days to be controlled:
Lets not forget this was all caused by the invasion of Iraq, cheer-led by the same folks advocating intervention today. The late General William Odom testimony on the consequences seven years ago. http://www.antiwar.com/orig/odom.php?articleid=10396
Syria's civil war is rooted much more in the Arab Spring than in the Iraqi invasion. What the Iraq invasion did create were armed bands who could exploit the Syrian civil war.
@Speedy Given the number of flights, you would have expected such a sophisticated air defense system would have accounted for at least one aircraft by now?
Not many aircraft sorties and most of them done by stealth aircraft.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
Sorry to hear about your broken foot. None of the buses in London take cash now, I think, so even a sympathetic fellow passenger wouldn't have been able to help.
One thing the driver might have been worried about was "mystery shoppers". Potentially the driver could have lost their job if they let a mystery shopper on the bus without paying a fare. And then they would be reliant on social security - and there's precious little social solidarity on display for those out of work.
As many as 100 British jihadists are believed to be stranded in Turkey because they are too scared to return to the UK after leaving Islamic State militants.
Many of the disillusioned fighters are seeking to travel to countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh where their parents have roots because they fear imprisonment if they come back to Britain.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
re IS - yes they could have split it up. Again. I mean that was what got us into trouble in 1922. In some ways, lose the viciousness, rebrand into an independence party and IS would gain a lot of sympathy from a lot of people, not least the US, if they followed Wilson (Woodrow, not Harold).
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
Could it be privatization the reason for such rigor to get your money?
I suspect the main combatants are looking at what is best for them rather than what is moral.
Turkey is clearly suspicious of the Kurds and won't move too far to help unless IS crosses their border. The US is being cautious because Obama is a cautious man. The rest don't matter and Iran will only bother about Shias.
The Mongols used to call upon towns to surrender and only slaughtered them if they fought. A sound tactical move. IS are bonkers by comparison and will eat themselves eventually.
So I suspect no one's in a rush. My cynical and ignorant view from afar. Unfortunately, this view is often the correct one.
Islamic State militants are planning to insert operatives into Western Europe disguised as refugees, claim US intelligence sources, who unencrypted locked communications of the caliphate’s leadership.
Thankfully we have a highly competent border agency led by a very able Home Minister who would never allow any holes in our border controls to happen on her watch.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
Could it be privatization the reason for such rigor to get your money?
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
Imagine ISIS with an income of just ten percent of $89 billion a year. And this could actually happen. A nightmare unfolds.
We've known for four decades that relying on Middle Eastern oil was a bad idea. You might have thought we would have done something about it by now.
Like what? What could we have done to reduce reliance on Middle Eastern oil?
We've had thirtyforty years. I'm sure that if we'd put some effort in we would have been able to find solutions in all sorts of unexpected places.
For example, we could have followed the French in building more nuclear power stations, electrified our railways and kept more freight moving by rail rather than in diesel powered trains or lorries.
Yes, whatever we had done would be more expensive than buying oil - but only if you neglect the huge costs of all the Middle East wars we've been involved in, etc.
Thankfully we have a highly competent border agency led by a very able Home Minister who would never allow any holes in our border controls to happen on her watch.
Are there any particular holes in our border controls that you would like her to watch out for?
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
If only there was a party we could vote for that would turn back the clock to a time when everything was better.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
Sorry to hear about your broken foot. None of the buses in London take cash now, I think, so even a sympathetic fellow passenger wouldn't have been able to help.
One thing the driver might have been worried about was "mystery shoppers". Potentially the driver could have lost their job if they let a mystery shopper on the bus without paying a fare. And then they would be reliant on social security - and there's precious little social solidarity on display for those out of work.
More than once I've paid other people's fares but of course you cannot do that any more now buses have gone cashless as part of Boris's war against Cameron's big society and unsuspecting tourists.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
You can't pay in cash, and the card I had on me wasn't contactless.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
You can't pay for bus fares in London by cash any more. It's infuriating.
The turks seem to be behaving like the Russians before the gates of Warsaw.
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
Except that the Germans were obviously on the retreat, then, and staring at ultimate defeat - so the Red Army could afford to wait.
ISIS are on the rise. The Turks are deluded if they think the Caliphate won't turn on them, too, in the end.
And what if ISIS do take Baghdad? Then they control Iraq, essentially - and they will have access to Iraq's oil wealth - which, last year, produced $89 billion.
Imagine ISIS with an income of just ten percent of $89 billion a year. And this could actually happen. A nightmare unfolds.
We've known for four decades that relying on Middle Eastern oil was a bad idea. You might have thought we would have done something about it by now.
Like what? What could we have done to reduce reliance on Middle Eastern oil?
Moved towards renewables?
When even some citizens of our supposed ally Qatar are funding some of those who wish us harm our move away from petroleum and gas imports makes increasing sense.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
You can't pay in cash, and the card I had on me wasn't contactless.
I'd forgotten cash was now verboten - I can't remember the last time I used it on a TFL journey as Oyster and Auto-topup are a wonderful combination*. Therefore I now agree with others that the driver was a miserable twat.
* Unless your card is nicked and you don't realise it. Then you go on holiday. Fortunately in my case, the toe-rag who lifted it was too stupid to realise it had filled up again and the loss was just £20-worth of bus journeys around Elephant and Castle.
Confirms there were 400,000 people in the Kobane region. 160,000 have fled. That implies 200,000 left, perhaps. There is a quote claiming "thousands remain in the city".
The flag of ISIS can now clearly be seen flying on high ground overlooking the town.
Reports say the Americans have made a total of two airstrikes today.
It looks to me like it will probably fall. Setting aside the atrocities that will ensue, this means ISIS will then control an entire stretch of the border with Turkey, enabling them to smuggle more oil out, and suck more weapons and fighters in, so they will just gain in power and wealth.
It's like some geopolitical horror film, expertly scripted.
And now, back to the Lib Dem conference and "Vince" Cable.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
Sorry to hear about your broken foot. None of the buses in London take cash now, I think, so even a sympathetic fellow passenger wouldn't have been able to help.
One thing the driver might have been worried about was "mystery shoppers". Potentially the driver could have lost their job if they let a mystery shopper on the bus without paying a fare. And then they would be reliant on social security - and there's precious little social solidarity on display for those out of work.
More than once I've paid other people's fares but of course you cannot do that any more now buses have gone cashless as part of Boris's war against Cameron's big society and unsuspecting tourists.
Well, yes, I was in Edinburgh not too long ago and a lady gave me £1 for the bus because my only alternative was to pay £20 as they run an "exact fare" policy and there was nowhere around for me to buy something to get change.
I know I am not necessarily the most knowledgeable chap on here when it comes to London, but not being able to pay with money [aside from fulfilling a prophecy of a Satanic future in the Book of Revelation] sounds like some sort of dystopian nightmare.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
You can't pay for bus fares in London by cash any more. It's infuriating.
I quite agree. It's also potentially dangerous: what if a girl late at night is turned off a bus because she has no card but does have cash, has to walk home and is raped/attacked?
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
You can't pay for bus fares in London by cash any more. It's infuriating.
It's fantastic. The delays that people who paid by cash used to cause responsible citizens who had organised travel cards or oyster cards or whatever were infuriating.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
You can't pay for bus fares in London by cash any more. It's infuriating.
I quite agree. It's also potentially dangerous: what if a girl late at night is turned off a bus because she has no card but does have cash, has to walk home and is raped/attacked?
Never mind, I'm sure it's more administratively convenient for TfL.
"The term "latte liberal" applies, according to the website Urban Dictionary, to those "who sit around and drink overpriced diluted Starbucks coffee while lamenting the plight of the poor".
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
You go out with no contactless cards or cash? What if you were taken by a sudden urge for a pint? Or wanted to pop in the bookies!?! You have nobody to blame but yourself...
You can't pay for bus fares in London by cash any more. It's infuriating.
I quite agree. It's also potentially dangerous: what if a girl late at night is turned off a bus because she has no card but does have cash, has to walk home and is raped/attacked
Good point. It seems silly, too, given that cash was hardly used at all except in such pressing circumstances. The gulf in price made sure of that.
@Neil - I prefer it from that perspective, but I only saw people pay with cash once a week or so. I guess in the touristy bits the frequency would be higher...
@Peter_the_Punter (and anyone else who's on the Nats, or just wants a value 1/5 poke)
There's 3 grand sitting at 1.2 on Betfair for the San Francisco Giants to win the series, which is more than fair. You can also take 30.0 on the Nats (probably value too) if you feel like doubling down. Or you can do both, as I have.
We've had thirtyforty years. I'm sure that if we'd put some effort in we would have been able to find solutions in all sorts of unexpected places.
For example, we could have followed the French in building more nuclear power stations, electrified our railways and kept more freight moving by rail rather than in diesel powered trains or lorries.
Yes, whatever we had done would be more expensive than buying oil - but only if you neglect the huge costs of all the Middle East wars we've been involved in, etc.
Nuclear is/was a way forward, but one that the green lobby kyboshed (and also decimated our nuclear knowledge industry as well). But most of our oil is not used to generate electricity, but for transport (around 75%). And the technology for practical electric cars is not there yet (hybrids excluded because they are still infernal combustion engines at heart).
As for finding solutions in all sorts of expected places: that's wishing upon a star. And whilst we wished for something to come along, the economy would have tanked.
My hunch is that we'll find a new exploitable energy tech in an unexpected place. But the very nature of such discoveries is that we cannot bet the house on them.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is. I was in Dubai recently, and I realised that, on current trends, that's where London (and the rest of the UK, albeit 20 years behind it) is going. No-one with any sense of national identity or solidarity, manual labour from a hundred different nations stuffed into crowded accommodation, regular ethnic tensions between the different groups, a rich elite getting ferried about in private cards that doesn't give a damn about anyone else, and vague foreboding of an Islamically-tinted authoritarianism lurking in the background.
Confirms there were 400,000 people in the Kobane region. 160,000 have fled. That implies 200,000 left, perhaps. There is a quote claiming "thousands remain in the city".
The flag of ISIS can now clearly be seen flying on high ground overlooking the town.
Reports say the Americans have made a total of two airstrikes today.
It looks to me like it will probably fall. Setting aside the atrocities that will ensue, this means ISIS will then control an entire stretch of the border with Turkey, enabling them to smuggle more oil out, and suck more weapons and fighters in, so they will just gain in power and wealth.
It's like some geopolitical horror film, expertly scripted.
And now, back to the Lib Dem conference and "Vince" Cable.
Vince Cable who? Whatever happened to him?
"may soon take" is BBCese for "betting certainty to fall" isn't it.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is. I was in Dubai recently, and I realised that, on current trends, that's where London (and the rest of the UK, albeit 20 years behind it) is going. No-one with any sense of national identity or solidarity, manual labour from a hundred different nations stuffed into crowded accommodation, regular ethnic tensions between the different groups, a rich elite getting ferried about in private cards that doesn't give a damn about anyone else, and vague foreboding of an Islamically-tinted authoritarianism lurking in the background.
Where on Maslow's hierarchy of needs is national identity again?
I suspect the main combatants are looking at what is best for them rather than what is moral.
Turkey is clearly suspicious of the Kurds and won't move too far to help unless IS crosses their border. The US is being cautious because Obama is a cautious man. The rest don't matter and Iran will only bother about Shias.
The Mongols used to call upon towns to surrender and only slaughtered them if they fought. A sound tactical move. IS are bonkers by comparison and will eat themselves eventually.
So I suspect no one's in a rush. My cynical and ignorant view from afar. Unfortunately, this view is often the correct one.
As has been pointed out before (@Speedy?), ISIS has nearing what 100,000 fighters. Although formidable fighter-wise, there is no state apparatus behind them to do anything. They would have to take over the existing state infrastructure in their conquered areas (= there is none) or create new institutions (= they would lose momentum on the ground).
So I don't see them taking over the world and when they come close to some of their supposed targets (Turkey, Jordan, ahem, Israel) they will bump into a pretty solid wall of munitions so I don't see them as a "take over the world" kind of threat. More a nasty, localised, group of bandits.
Incidentally, that San Francisco bet I just recommended has a very peculiar trading history, with bets of £100 matched at every other price from 1.98 down to 1.36, more or less. Bot gone wrong?
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is.
Yes, of course London's a s#!thole. Nonone really likes it here. Everyone is clamouring to leave.
Mr. Antifrank, I know (we,, hope ) you're being sarcastic, but that would seem to be the thinking. A transport system designed for administrators rather than the passengers is crackers.
Mr. 1000, I wouldn't cherrypick a single psychological theory and consider it some sort of absolute truth.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is. I was in Dubai recently, and I realised that, on current trends, that's where London (and the rest of the UK, albeit 20 years behind it) is going. No-one with any sense of national identity or solidarity, manual labour from a hundred different nations stuffed into crowded accommodation, regular ethnic tensions between the different groups, a rich elite getting ferried about in private cards that doesn't give a damn about anyone else, and vague foreboding of an Islamically-tinted authoritarianism lurking in the background.
Where on Maslow's hierarchy of needs is national identity again?
It fits into the "belonging" segment pretty well, I'd say. And, of course, pride in your society leads to people taking care of their physical environment and looking out for others' whose basic needs are not being met.
Presumably you think Dubai's "everyone in it for themselves" mentality is something to emulate?
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is. I was in Dubai recently, and I realised that, on current trends, that's where London (and the rest of the UK, albeit 20 years behind it) is going. No-one with any sense of national identity or solidarity, manual labour from a hundred different nations stuffed into crowded accommodation, regular ethnic tensions between the different groups, a rich elite getting ferried about in private cards that doesn't give a damn about anyone else, and vague foreboding of an Islamically-tinted authoritarianism lurking in the background.
Where on Maslow's hierarchy of needs is national identity again?
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is.
Yes, of course London's a s#!thole. Nonone really likes it here. Everyone is clamouring to leave.
I've been in London for just under 25 years now. No one has ever stood up for the elderly on public transport. Ever.
Nonsense. I am not elderly - a very long away, in fact - but surprisingly often get offered a seat on the tube or the bus, usually in the morning when, depressingly, I like to think I look my best. I smile graciously and always always accept the seat. Mind you, I have taught my children to offer up their seats.
(To be honest, I now get offered a seat more often than when I was visibly pregnant.)
Maybe my bit of North London is full of very polite people.......or maybe I look incredibly haggard and/or fat.
@LordAshcroft: Ashcroft National Poll, 3-5 October: CON 32%, LAB 30%, LDEM 7%, UKIP 17%, GRN 7%. Full details on @ConHome, 4pm.
I'm not sure PB should report Populus polls from now on. They're truly the Panelbase of national pollsters, and should be cast into the void until they show a Tory lead.
I've been in London for just under 25 years now. No one has ever stood up for the elderly on public transport. Ever.
Nonsense. I am not elderly - a very long away, in fact - but surprisingly often get offered a seat on the tube or the bus, usually in the morning when, depressingly, I like to think I look my best. I smile graciously and always always accept the seat. Mind you, I have taught my children to offer up their seats.
(To be honest, I now get offered a seat more often than when I was visibly pregnant.)
Maybe my bit of North London is full of very polite people.......or maybe I look incredibly haggard and/or fat.
Antifrank's bit of London is shared by bankers and lawyers. Theirs is a cut-throat world.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is.
Yes, of course London's a s#!thole. Nonone really likes it here. Everyone is clamouring to leave.
I just had to walk twenty minutes home on a broken foot because my Oyster card inexplicably stopped working and the bus driver refused to show any leniency. Seriously, what the hell happened to this country? In just the 1990s I remember bus drivers telling people they could just pay tomorrow when they outright forgot their wallet. It seems all sense of social solidarity and helping out your fellow man has gone out the window in modern London.
The bus driver was a d*ck. He would have been a d*ck 20 years ago.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
Given the amount of people that throw empty bottles and other litter over my fence it seems like there's a lot more d*cks about these days. Equally standing up for the elderly on public transport: 20 years ago you would be socially ostracised for not doing it. Now, frequently I'm the only one that says something.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
Unless you're super wealthy, it really is. I was in Dubai recently, and I realised that, on current trends, that's where London (and the rest of the UK, albeit 20 years behind it) is going. No-one with any sense of national identity or solidarity, manual labour from a hundred different nations stuffed into crowded accommodation, regular ethnic tensions between the different groups, a rich elite getting ferried about in private cards that doesn't give a damn about anyone else, and vague foreboding of an Islamically-tinted authoritarianism lurking in the background.
Where on Maslow's hierarchy of needs is national identity again?
It fits into the "belonging" segment pretty well, I'd say. And, of course, pride in your society leads to people taking care of their physical environment and looking out for others' whose basic needs are not being met.
Presumably you think Dubai's "everyone in it for themselves" mentality is something to emulate?
Research has been carried out on this, of course our ruling elites have taken no notice whatsoever.
I've been in London for just under 25 years now. No one has ever stood up for the elderly on public transport. Ever.
Nonsense. I am not elderly - a very long away, in fact - but surprisingly often get offered a seat on the tube or the bus, usually in the morning when, depressingly, I like to think I look my best. I smile graciously and always always accept the seat. Mind you, I have taught my children to offer up their seats.
(To be honest, I now get offered a seat more often than when I was visibly pregnant.)
Maybe my bit of North London is full of very polite people.......or maybe I look incredibly haggard and/or fat.
Antifrank's bit of London is shared by bankers and lawyers. Theirs is a cut-throat world.
So is mine. Perhaps we have all the nice honest ones......(Smiley Face!!)
(PS And actually I work about 5 minutes away from Antifrank. Sigh: it's obviously because I need better make-up.......)
Comments
Looking at all the published material from Turkish newspapers and other foreign media, Turkey has made many deals with Al Qaeda and ISIS and is simply waiting for ISIS to crush the kurds in order to take the territory from ISIS later.
The foreign policy priorities of the west and Turkey on this issue collide, the west wants to mitigate or contain islamic extremism while Turkey sees them as allies in its quest to revive the Ottoman empire. I will not be surprised if the Turkish aim is to plant the turkish flag in Damascus for the first time since Lawrence of Arabia.
Terrible to hear of what's going on in Kobane. As suggested, it seems odd that tanks and artillery (especially the latter) could not be taken our by air strikes. What was the point of Turkey's Parliament authorising military action and doing nothing?
What would you estimate IS's "fighting strength" is?
Strikes me that it is a lot of area for them to hold without complicity from the locals.
Exporting terror? Yes perhaps but then plenty of places on the planet can do that, not least, ahem, Afghan and Pakistan.
Nor am I expecting the new caliphate to settle into the community of nations and agree a cotton export subsidy agreement with US cotton producers or sign double taxation treaties with the West.
We are only able to do that which is a) doable and b) least dreadful.
At the moment I'm struggling to work out any least dreadful alternative.
Another at the Passport & Immigration Service said the whole place was in meltdown and recommended it as the last place he'd want to work ever again. He couldn't be more scathing.
We had our own issues at the Rural Payments Agency - the Select Committee reports into that one burned the paper it was printed on. And then Margaret Hodge got promoted... And Brian Bender [top mandarin] moved to another post. It was staggering.
Let the DT provide the evidence for a judgement, otherwise it is safe to conclude a DT cohort is no more than a LibDem cadre.
During the summer I estimated about 40000 doubling to 80000 after the fall of northern and central Iraq, so I guess around 90000 troops right now.
Fighting strength isn't though just numbers, ISIS training, morale, supplies and tactics seem very good while they have a large number of heavy american weapons.
ISIS is right now stronger militarily than Syria and Iraq, I put them around no.6-7 as the most powerful military in the middle east.
How powerful is an army without proper air cover?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/joe-biden-accuses-allies-of-helping-islamic-state-militants/story-fnb64oi6-1227081181315?nk=239e5cc836697cb49c5dfd6080ec3b0a
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/05/vp-biden-apologizes-for-telling-truth-about-turkey-saudi-and-isis.html
As long as Turkey refuses to get involved militarily, any land ISIS takes in the north (that doesn't border Syrian or Iraqi forces) can be left, and the scum who took it can be redeployed to face Kurds, FSA, Iraqi army or Syrian army forces.
It's odd to think the situation in Syria began with peaceful protests calling for Assad to go.
Edited extra bit: Mr. Speedy, but surely the Turks know it too? Do they want almost their whole southern border to have ISIS on the other side?
That emphasises to me how catastrophically western policy in Afghanistan and Iraq has failed over the last decade or so. We need to stop making things worse, and the two most obvious things we could do that would help would be to (1) stop supporting repressive dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf and (2) move away from fossil fuels so that we can stop buying oil from the Middle East [and gas from Russia while we're at it].
Let's allow the Germans to slaughter the poles before we move in.
ISIS has captured and acquired a lot of equipment, a lot of american equipment, some of them are anti air systems.
That is why the american are using F-22 stealth fighters and B-1 bombers instead of the more classic stuff.
Given the number of flights, you would have expected such a sophisticated air defense system would have accounted for at least one aircraft by now?
Apparently donor countries still haven't coughed up the cash to pay for education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. If we spent money on giving these kids an education, rather than on missiles and bombs to make IS look like brave heroes, then we'd be creating a generation of people who would fight IS themselves.
That's one of the reasons why the Iraqi army collapsed against ISIS. They had nothing to fight for.
It's a perfectly plausible use of the word and I'm a bit surprised the discussion ever got off the ground.
Are You a Latte-Liberal?
"The phrase "latte liberal" is a familiar pejorative in the US. What is it about milky coffee that people associate with left-of-centre politics?
It is light and frothy, say conservatives. Foreign-sounding. An expensive indulgence. They don't think much of the coffee, either.
In the tribal discourse of US politics, the espresso with steamed milk is identified squarely with one side. It is the warm beverage of progressivism - more specifically, that proverbial subset of affluent, coastal-dwelling, Prius-driving intellectuals whom talk radio hosts like to lambast.
The term "latte liberal" applies, according to the website Urban Dictionary, to those "who sit around and drink overpriced diluted Starbucks coffee while lamenting the plight of the poor".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29449037
Isreal's, and thus America's, primary concern is still to see the downfall of the Assad regime, a key ally of Hezbollah and Iran as well as supporter of the Palestinians. Turkey, the Sunni states and the US created Islamic State, it still has it's purpose for the time being.
That said I can understand why the Sunni's of the region support IS, terrified of the Kurds and Shias, with good reason.
IS is constrained by Shia, Alawites and Christians to the West, Shias to the South and East, and Kurds to the north. IS will cease to exist when the Sunnis rise up against it as they did with Al Qaeda before.
Here's 2 middle of the road articles about ISIS and Turkey, though I regard them as being behind the curve:
http://carnegieeurope.eu/2014/10/02/turkey-s-isis-crisis/hqxm
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/10/turkey-syria-isis-coalition-polls.html#
This the most weird thing I've read though about ISIS from the al-monitor article:
"Burhan Kuzu, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy from Istanbul and a constitutional committee chairman in parliament, also downplayed the problem, tweeting Oct. 1: “20% of IS members are Harvard graduates. Many have Ph.D. and masters degrees. That means even education did not prevent them from becoming terrorists. It’s important to give them the right religious education.” "
The easiest way of reducing reliance on ME oil would be to ruin our economy. Second to that is to do a deal with the Russians.
Neither of these are particularly appealing.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/06/americas-terrorist-academy-in-iraq-produced-isis-leaders/
Lets not forget this was all caused by the invasion of Iraq, cheer-led by the same folks advocating intervention today. The late General William Odom testimony on the consequences seven years ago.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/odom.php?articleid=10396
all Nick Clegg needs now is a peaked cap and some searchlights.
One thing the driver might have been worried about was "mystery shoppers". Potentially the driver could have lost their job if they let a mystery shopper on the bus without paying a fare. And then they would be reliant on social security - and there's precious little social solidarity on display for those out of work.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/disillusioned-british-jihadists-stuck-in-turkey-because-they-are-too-scared-to-come-back-to-uk-9775281.html
As many as 100 British jihadists are believed to be stranded in Turkey because they are too scared to return to the UK after leaving Islamic State militants.
Many of the disillusioned fighters are seeking to travel to countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh where their parents have roots because they fear imprisonment if they come back to Britain.
Yesterday or tomorrow you might have got one who said - on you go.
re IS - yes they could have split it up. Again. I mean that was what got us into trouble in 1922. In some ways, lose the viciousness, rebrand into an independence party and IS would gain a lot of sympathy from a lot of people, not least the US, if they followed Wilson (Woodrow, not Harold).
Sean T,
I suspect the main combatants are looking at what is best for them rather than what is moral.
Turkey is clearly suspicious of the Kurds and won't move too far to help unless IS crosses their border. The US is being cautious because Obama is a cautious man. The rest don't matter and Iran will only bother about Shias.
The Mongols used to call upon towns to surrender and only slaughtered them if they fought. A sound tactical move. IS are bonkers by comparison and will eat themselves eventually.
So I suspect no one's in a rush. My cynical and ignorant view from afar. Unfortunately, this view is often the correct one.
Does anyone know if they're going to count the votes overnight?
The council website says:
"The verification of the ballot boxes and counting of the votes will take place as soon as possible following the close of poll."
http://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/council/elections-voting/clacton-constituency-parliamentary-election
http://www.willmiot.com/2014/10/isis-militants-coming-to-europe.html
Thankfully we have a highly competent border agency led by a very able Home Minister who would never allow any holes in our border controls to happen on her watch.
For example, we could have followed the French in building more nuclear power stations, electrified our railways and kept more freight moving by rail rather than in diesel powered trains or lorries.
Yes, whatever we had done would be more expensive than buying oil - but only if you neglect the huge costs of all the Middle East wars we've been involved in, etc.
OP may have fallen through the cracks of the escape mechanisms and had a Jobsworth driver -- perhaps in the literal sense of being afraid for his job.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/buses/cash-free-buses?intcmp=17374
* Unless your card is nicked and you don't realise it. Then you go on holiday. Fortunately in my case, the toe-rag who lifted it was too stupid to realise it had filled up again and the loss was just £20-worth of bus journeys around Elephant and Castle.
Whatever happened to him?
I'm very much obliged to her.
Indeed.
London really is a s#!thole, isn't it?
@Neil - I prefer it from that perspective, but I only saw people pay with cash once a week or so. I guess in the touristy bits the frequency would be higher...
There's 3 grand sitting at 1.2 on Betfair for the San Francisco Giants to win the series, which is more than fair. You can also take 30.0 on the Nats (probably value too) if you feel like doubling down. Or you can do both, as I have.
As for finding solutions in all sorts of expected places: that's wishing upon a star. And whilst we wished for something to come along, the economy would have tanked.
My hunch is that we'll find a new exploitable energy tech in an unexpected place. But the very nature of such discoveries is that we cannot bet the house on them.
So I don't see them taking over the world and when they come close to some of their supposed targets (Turkey, Jordan, ahem, Israel) they will bump into a pretty solid wall of munitions so I don't see them as a "take over the world" kind of threat. More a nasty, localised, group of bandits.
Lord Ashcroft @LordAshcroft · 31s 32 seconds ago
My Heywood & Middleton by-election poll: LAB 47%, UKIP 28%, CON 16%, LDEM 5%, GRN 4%.
Full details on @ConHome, 4pm. ANP to follow...
http://www.betfair.com/exchange/baseball/marketactivity?id=1.115761527&selectionId=29178
Ashcroft National Poll, 3-5 October: CON 32%, LAB 30%, LDEM 7%, UKIP 17%, GRN 7%. Full details on @ConHome, 4pm.
@pppolitics: BETTING SUSPENDED ON NEXT TO LEAVE COALITION CABINET following flood of cash for Alistair Carmichael
@LordAshcroft: Ashcroft National Poll, 3-5 October: CON 32%, LAB 30%, LDEM 7%, UKIP 17%, GRN 7%. Full details on @ConHome, 4pm.
Mr. 1000, I wouldn't cherrypick a single psychological theory and consider it some sort of absolute truth.
Presumably you think Dubai's "everyone in it for themselves" mentality is something to emulate?
http://yougov.co.uk/news/2012/11/27/52-londoners-want-leave/
#nonprogressivemajority
(To be honest, I now get offered a seat more often than when I was visibly pregnant.)
Maybe my bit of North London is full of very polite people.......or maybe I look incredibly haggard and/or fat.
Not quite the same as wanting to leave.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/fragmented-future/
(PS And actually I work about 5 minutes away from Antifrank. Sigh: it's obviously because I need better make-up.......)