Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
As I may have said before, also 3, the idealism of millions of people who wanted a just society for themselves and others (check out the original Communist Manifesto and count the number of points that have become part of uncontroversial government). That many of these people were betrayed by their leaders to the point of imprisonment and death doesn't detract from that idealism.
I can't imagine what sort of thesis could be put forward for Nazi idealism, or rather I can, but it would involve a Judenfrei world and German nationalism & Führer worship as a religion.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
As I may have said before, also 3, the idealism of millions of people who wanted a just society for themselves and others (check out the original Communist Manifesto and count the number of points that have become part of uncontroversial government). That many of these people were betrayed by their leaders to the point of imprisonment and death doesn't detract from that idealism.
I can't imagine what sort of thesis could be put forward for Nazi idealism, or rather I can, but it would involve a Judenfrei world and German nationalism & Führer worship as a religion.
ERic Hobsbawm: 'Let us not disarm, even in unsatisfactory times. Social injustice still needs to be denounced and fought. The world will not get better on its own.'
It's worth remembering however that one whole chapter of the book which closes with that remark (Interesting Times) was spent grumbling about the fact that some damn fool made him give up his second home in North Wales so that a local could live in it.
"Serco: the company that is running Britain From prisons to rail franchises and even London's Boris bikes, Serco is a giant global corporation that has hoovered up outsourced government contracts. Now the NHS is firmly in its sights. But it stands accused of mismanagement, lying and even charging for non-existent work John Harris"
Diane Abbott is trending - Corbynites think Sir Keir's solidarity with Lammy is an impicit insult to DA. Whilst reading their attacks I noticed this... who's in?
Just last week David Schneider, another left wing smart alec comic, was apparently unaware that medical products are routinely withdrawn for safety reasons. The government — doing it's usual terrible job of hiding such scandalous stuff — has literally hundreds of such notices on its main web site. Making snarky comments for a living doesn't make a person clever, or even moderately well informed.
Just last week David Schneider, another left wing smart alec comic, was apparently unaware that medical products are routinely withdrawn for safety reasons. The government — doing it's usual terrible job of hiding such scandalous stuff — has literally hundreds of such notices on its main web site. Making snarky comments for a living doesn't make a person clever, or even moderately well informed.
So if we know that in Trafford 80% of the cases are white people, an underepresentation of 6.5%, what are the percentages for the other parts of the NW that have been locked down? Does anybody know?
"Serco: the company that is running Britain From prisons to rail franchises and even London's Boris bikes, Serco is a giant global corporation that has hoovered up outsourced government contracts. Now the NHS is firmly in its sights. But it stands accused of mismanagement, lying and even charging for non-existent work John Harris"
It's seems they believed what Boris told them - more fool them..
And "oven ready deal" that trussed the Brexiteers up like chickens...
It goes back to Cameron's failure to force the Leavers to produce an actual plan for the referendum, and then Theresa May's not forcing the question before Article 50. We still have, like IDS, prominent Brexiteers not knowing what they want, how to get it, and how to recognise it when they have (or have not) got it.
ETA I very much doubt Boris has any particular end-state in mind either.
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
Why not just test them on arrival? We have around 200k spare testing capacity per day and rising, especially with the roll out of the new 90 minute tests.
As a "Briton" who got German citizenship this year, the reason why many of us have rushed to do this is that Germany does not normally allow dual citizenship. An exception is made for citizens of other EU countries. Applying for German citizenship in the next years would involve giving up British citizenship if successful, whereas those of us who have already done it can keep both. Numbers will definitely go down again. Also the process of getting citizenship is not much harder than getting leave to stay. 2 months after handing in a form and supporting documents and paying about 200 euros I got my citizenship.
I also know people who spend part of their lives in Germany who have formalised their status here, where previously they had just been here as EU citizens (with an EHIC card)
I'm not sure those figures are evidence of much. But I do know health professionals who had been considering moving TO the UK who ruled it out after the Brexit vote and May's later moronic comments about only wanting British doctors in the NHS.
I was lucky enough to be born with dual citizenship, but given the anti-Europe messages that come out of the UK Little England these days, I no longer identify as British and use my Irish passport when a passport is requested.
Its weird you say that when it appears our citizenship laws appear more open than many others.
They’re a *lot* tighter than they used to be. Try getting citizenship for your wife, if she’s not lived in the UK for at least half a decade.
The requirement is three years of legal residence for the spouses of UK citizens.
That's if they can get in in the first place. My Dad married an American in 2009, he tried desperately to get her over here for five years and eventually gave up and decided to stay in the USA. This was purely because his blue collar trade of being an electrician didn't meet the income threshold, despite living a fairly comfortable life in my home region (NE England). Britain is a hostile environment to even it's own taxpaying citizens who have the misfortune to fall in love with a foreigner.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
I think it's simpler than that. Communism was, ultimately, a failure, but it was a failure that at least superficially had some significant successes. The planned economy of Stalin, for example, created an economic superpower in the Soviet Union. In 1914 the largest armaments factory in the Russian Empire made 17 rifles. In 1945 they had churned out enough tanks to overrun all of Europe. When Mao took over China in 1949 it was a political, social and economic basket case. By 1976 it was a serious world power again.
Now you could argue - correctly - that these successes were at best decidedly mixed. For example, the Soviet economy grew at 5.5% a year from about 1922 to 1960. That's a remarkable rate of growth, but it's actually slightly lower than the rate under the Tsars (6%) and it disguises the fact that while industry exploded, agriculture imploded and millions starved. Far more people died in the Ukraine under Stalin than died in the Holocaust under Hitler. Similarly, had Deng been allowed to maintain his economic policies after the Great Famine of the late 1950s, China would have grown far faster and would also have been much less troubled and repressive. The Cultural Revolution was hugely damaging.
But they are at least, achievements. Name one achievement of Nazism that has actually stood the test of time. Economic recovery? Not really, they had food rationing even before the war, because they couldn't import both food and war materials. Architecture? Most of it was flattened in World War Two. Sustained, if modest and gradual, increases in living standards, which the Soviet Union did achieve from Khrushchev onwards? No.
It is worth pointing out though - in support of your argument - that I was once told Mussolini remains quite popular in Italy, as the man who gave them lots of new infrastructure and rebuilt the army and navy so Italy became a proper power. I don't know how true that is - @Cyclefree would be able to help - but it suggests that the reason for far right getting a worse press in this country than the far left is, straightforwardly, that 'far-right=Hitler' in the popular mind.
For sure, which is why I deliberately said Nazism rather than fascism.
It's ironic that the one thing that Communists were really good at is war - and building up the infrastructure needed to wage war - when in theory, communism will bring war to an end. Whereas the Nazis who actually glorified war were destroyed on the battlefield.
Why not just test them on arrival? We have around 200k spare testing capacity per day and rising, especially with the roll out of the new 90 minute tests.
Agreed - also, surely more than 50k people have been entering Scotland in July and August anyway?
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
I think it's simpler than that. Communism was, ultimately, a failure, but it was a failure that at least superficially had some significant successes. The planned economy of Stalin, for example, created an economic superpower in the Soviet Union. In 1914 the largest armaments factory in the Russian Empire made 17 rifles. In 1945 they had churned out enough tanks to overrun all of Europe. When Mao took over China in 1949 it was a political, social and economic basket case. By 1976 it was a serious world power again.
Now you could argue - correctly - that these successes were at best decidedly mixed. For example, the Soviet economy grew at 5.5% a year from about 1922 to 1960. That's a remarkable rate of growth, but it's actually slightly lower than the rate under the Tsars (6%) and it disguises the fact that while industry exploded, agriculture imploded and millions starved. Far more people died in the Ukraine under Stalin than died in the Holocaust under Hitler. Similarly, had Deng been allowed to maintain his economic policies after the Great Famine of the late 1950s, China would have grown far faster and would also have been much less troubled and repressive. The Cultural Revolution was hugely damaging.
But they are at least, achievements. Name one achievement of Nazism that has actually stood the test of time. Economic recovery? Not really, they had food rationing even before the war, because they couldn't import both food and war materials. Architecture? Most of it was flattened in World War Two. Sustained, if modest and gradual, increases in living standards, which the Soviet Union did achieve from Khrushchev onwards? No.
It is worth pointing out though - in support of your argument - that I was once told Mussolini remains quite popular in Italy, as the man who gave them lots of new infrastructure and rebuilt the army and navy so Italy became a proper power. I don't know how true that is - @Cyclefree would be able to help - but it suggests that the reason for far right getting a worse press in this country than the far left is, straightforwardly, that 'far-right=Hitler' in the popular mind.
For sure, which is why I deliberately said Nazism rather than fascism.
It's ironic that the one thing that Communists were really good at is war - and building up the infrastructure needed to wage war - when in theory, communism will bring war to an end. Whereas the Nazis who actually glorified war were destroyed on the battlefield.
Although don't forget Communism is based on the idea that there will be a war between different socio-economic groups before a Communist society can be established.
Apart from anything else, where could they quarantine? Not that we have proper quarantine, but they will have to give an address where they're meant to lock down for a fortnight.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
As I may have said before, also 3, the idealism of millions of people who wanted a just society for themselves and others (check out the original Communist Manifesto and count the number of points that have become part of uncontroversial government). That many of these people were betrayed by their leaders to the point of imprisonment and death doesn't detract from that idealism.
I can't imagine what sort of thesis could be put forward for Nazi idealism, or rather I can, but it would involve a Judenfrei world and German nationalism & Führer worship as a religion.
For all that, I think some communist organisations, such as the Khmer Rouge, were just in love with killing, and ideology hardly mattered.
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
The trouble with the pubs thesis is that most people do not go to pubs, even before Covid-19. It might still be true that pubs spread the virus but it would be nice to have some actual evidence.
Apart from anything else, where could they quarantine? Not that we have proper quarantine, but they will have to give an address where they're meant to lock down for a fortnight.
Freshers week 'quarantine' will be like the 'nightclub' that told the council it was opening as a 'pub' and then was given the condition of 'no dancing'. I do have some sympathy with the council that allowed the pub to open, as they did consult counsel on the matter; I reckon the nightclub (In Preston iirc) told the council it'd see them in court if they weren't allowed to open.
Apart from anything else, where could they quarantine? Not that we have proper quarantine, but they will have to give an address where they're meant to lock down for a fortnight.
The tweet is really misleading, it assumes that the same number of people who arrived last year will arrive this year. Not accounting for the transition to online-only, nor the depressed demand.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
The reasons why Communism was seen - by some - as more acceptable are more complicated I think.
In two parts (for length) - Part One
1. Much less is known about the suffering of people under Communism. Sure, there are plenty of learned books about the Gulags and Eastern Europe but very few films. The visual evidence is rarely there and so the suffering is hidden, very far away, unseen. There are few survivors and many do not talk or are silenced. The archives and historical records are largely closed. There has not been a moral confessional reckoning by the perpetrators and the old regimes, in the way there was by Germany. There have been few trials.
2. The defeat of Nazi Germany made the people realise and see what had happened. Soviet Communism was never defeated in the same way and so the full realisation of the horror it inflicted for decades was simply put in in a cupboard marked “old history” and the door closed.
3. The plight of the Ukrainian people who suffered a Holodomor, a holocaust quite as ghastly, malicious and intended as that perpetrated by the Germans, was ignored. Soviet Russia worked hard to ensure that the legal definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations excluded what was done to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians themselves were tarred as Nazi collaborators so never “enjoyed” a status as victim. Ditto for the Baltic states and Eastern Poland etc.
4. Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism was seen as excusing everything else, including its own help to the Nazis when Britain was fighting alone. The contributions of the Allies to Russia’s war effort has been ignored or downplayed.
5. The economic advances under Communism have IMO been hugely overplayed. Had Communism not been inflicted on Russia and China and elsewhere those countries would almost certainly have been in a better economic and social position. There is something grotesque about giving China credit for taking people out of poverty when it made them poor in the first place and killed many tens of millions through famine first.
6. Too many people in the West believed implicitly (if not explicitly) in the maxim that the “end justifies the means” and so half excused what Communist dictatorships did. There were too many useful idiots in the West, too many who had been taken in by the propaganda, who had turned a blind eye. Admitting the sheer moral nihilism and brutality of Communism would also have meant admitting their own moral blindness and complicity. Easier to focus on Nazis and Fascists.
7. Controversial this but Communism was the end point of a leftist trajectory. So fellow socialists and others were perhaps inhibited in criticising communism too hard because it might have undermined the basis for socialism. After all the Communists called themselves socialists. Not all on the left did of course - but some of the most severe criticism was often reserved for people of the left who spoke out about the reality of communism (Koestler, Orwell etc). There were no (at least until recently) right of centre parties who felt that Nazism was part of their shared political family.
Communism and Nazism were and are both equally revolting. Torturing and killing people because of race or religion or class is disgusting. The result is misery. Those who defend Communism because a big factory or hospital was built somewhere, as if this was some kind of achievement which would not otherwise have happened, need to take a good long hard look at themselves.
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
The trouble with the pubs thesis is that most people do not go to pubs, even before Covid-19. It might still be true that pubs spread the virus but it would be nice to have some actual evidence.
We've reached the dangerous stage where people think that closing pubs is the equivalent risk to opening up the entirety of the education system. I mean, that's obviously ridiculous, in terms of numbers, hours per person and so on, but here we are. If the press and/or government don't admit soon just how much the economy will have to shut down again in order to have schools return fully, then there's going to be a lot of trouble. Some education on relative risk is needed pronto.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
I think it's simpler than that. Communism was, ultimately, a failure, but it was a failure that at least superficially had some significant successes. The planned economy of Stalin, for example, created an economic superpower in the Soviet Union. In 1914 the largest armaments factory in the Russian Empire made 17 rifles. In 1945 they had churned out enough tanks to overrun all of Europe. When Mao took over China in 1949 it was a political, social and economic basket case. By 1976 it was a serious world power again.
Now you could argue - correctly - that these successes were at best decidedly mixed. For example, the Soviet economy grew at 5.5% a year from about 1922 to 1960. That's a remarkable rate of growth, but it's actually slightly lower than the rate under the Tsars (6%) and it disguises the fact that while industry exploded, agriculture imploded and millions starved. Far more people died in the Ukraine under Stalin than died in the Holocaust under Hitler. Similarly, had Deng been allowed to maintain his economic policies after the Great Famine of the late 1950s, China would have grown far faster and would also have been much less troubled and repressive. The Cultural Revolution was hugely damaging.
But they are at least, achievements. Name one achievement of Nazism that has actually stood the test of time. Economic recovery? Not really, they had food rationing even before the war, because they couldn't import both food and war materials. Architecture? Most of it was flattened in World War Two. Sustained, if modest and gradual, increases in living standards, which the Soviet Union did achieve from Khrushchev onwards? No.
It is worth pointing out though - in support of your argument - that I was once told Mussolini remains quite popular in Italy, as the man who gave them lots of new infrastructure and rebuilt the army and navy so Italy became a proper power. I don't know how true that is - @Cyclefree would be able to help - but it suggests that the reason for far right getting a worse press in this country than the far left is, straightforwardly, that 'far-right=Hitler' in the popular mind.
For sure, which is why I deliberately said Nazism rather than fascism.
It's ironic that the one thing that Communists were really good at is war - and building up the infrastructure needed to wage war - when in theory, communism will bring war to an end. Whereas the Nazis who actually glorified war were destroyed on the battlefield.
It's surely equally ironic that the one thing that did more than anything else to tip the Soviet regime finally over the edge was the failed war in Afghanistan.
Not sure that holds together tbh, the R would decrease in a closed system as the virus has fewer uninfected or susceptible targets. Using a constant doubling period for the road not taken doesn't make sense.
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
The trouble with the pubs thesis is that most people do not go to pubs, even before Covid-19. It might still be true that pubs spread the virus but it would be nice to have some actual evidence.
'Course, if we had a decent (ahem, world-beating) track and trace system, we'd know.
Overall the end of the transition - i.e. Brexit in fact as well as in form - is shaping up to be an even bigger disaster, on multiple fronts, than ever seemed likely during the referendum campaign. Who on earth could have predicted lunacies such as not signing up to REACH?
I say this as someone who's job security hinges on people being able to fly easily:
The failure to shut down air transport at any point during this crisis is so self evidential stupid that I can't even begin to cope with how stupid it is.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
The reasons why Communism was seen - by some - as more acceptable are more complicated I think.
In two parts (for length) - Part One
1. Much less is known about the suffering of people under Communism. Sure, there are plenty of learned books about the Gulags and Eastern Europe but very few films. The visual evidence is rarely there and so the suffering is hidden, very far away, unseen. There are few survivors and many do not talk or are silenced. The archives and historical records are largely closed. There has not been a moral confessional reckoning by the perpetrators and the old regimes, in the way there was by Germany. There have been few trials.
2. The defeat of Nazi Germany made the people realise and see what had happened. Soviet Communism was never defeated in the same way and so the full realisation of the horror it inflicted for decades was simply put in in a cupboard marked “old history” and the door closed.
3. The plight of the Ukrainian people who suffered a Holodomor, a holocaust quite as ghastly, malicious and intended as that perpetrated by the Germans, was ignored. Soviet Russia worked hard to ensure that the legal definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations excluded what was done to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians themselves were tarred as Nazi collaborators so never “enjoyed” a status as victim. Ditto for the Baltic states and Eastern Poland etc.
4. Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism was seen as excusing everything else, including its own help to the Nazis when Britain was fighting alone. The contributions of the Allies to Russia’s war effort has been ignored or downplayed.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
Not sure that holds together tbh, the R would decrease in a closed system as the virus has fewer uninfected or susceptible targets. Using a constant doubling period for the road not taken doesn't make sense.
Australia is nowhere near the point having fewer susceptible in the pool would make any difference at all to the numbers.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
The reasons why Communism was seen - by some - as more acceptable are more complicated I think.
In two parts (for length) - Part One
1. Much less is known about the suffering of people under Communism. Sure, there are plenty of learned books about the Gulags and Eastern Europe but very few films. The visual evidence is rarely there and so the suffering is hidden, very far away, unseen. There are few survivors and many do not talk or are silenced. The archives and historical records are largely closed. There has not been a moral confessional reckoning by the perpetrators and the old regimes, in the way there was by Germany. There have been few trials.
2. The defeat of Nazi Germany made the people realise and see what had happened. Soviet Communism was never defeated in the same way and so the full realisation of the horror it inflicted for decades was simply put in in a cupboard marked “old history” and the door closed.
3. The plight of the Ukrainian people who suffered a Holodomor, a holocaust quite as ghastly, malicious and intended as that perpetrated by the Germans, was ignored. Soviet Russia worked hard to ensure that the legal definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations excluded what was done to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians themselves were tarred as Nazi collaborators so never “enjoyed” a status as victim. Ditto for the Baltic states and Eastern Poland etc.
4. Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism was seen as excusing everything else, including its own help to the Nazis when Britain was fighting alone. The contributions of the Allies to Russia’s war effort has been ignored or downplayed.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
They had tried to become independent from 1918 to 1922. It was in effect an extension of the reconquest.
You must understand, Russia began in Kiev, not Moscow or St Petersburg. They see the Ukraine as the very heartland of the Russian Empire. The Ukrainians however see it differently.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which it wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes. The history is relatively unknown in the West.
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
People who became infected down the pub then passing it on at an Eid celebration.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
Diane Abbott is trending - Corbynites think Sir Keir's solidarity with Lammy is an impicit insult to DA. Whilst reading their attacks I noticed this... who's in?
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
People who became infected down the pub then passing it on at an Eid celebration.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
Diane Abbott is trending - Corbynites think Sir Keir's solidarity with Lammy is an impicit insult to DA. Whilst reading their attacks I noticed this... who's in?
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
The reasons why Communism was seen - by some - as more acceptable are more complicated I think.
In two parts (for length) - Part One
1. Much less is known about the suffering of people under Communism. Sure, there are plenty of learned books about the Gulags and Eastern Europe but very few films. The visual evidence is rarely there and so the suffering is hidden, very far away, unseen. There are few survivors and many do not talk or are silenced. The archives and historical records are largely closed. There has not been a moral confessional reckoning by the perpetrators and the old regimes, in the way there was by Germany. There have been few trials.
2. The defeat of Nazi Germany made the people realise and see what had happened. Soviet Communism was never defeated in the same way and so the full realisation of the horror it inflicted for decades was simply put in in a cupboard marked “old history” and the door closed.
3. The plight of the Ukrainian people who suffered a Holodomor, a holocaust quite as ghastly, malicious and intended as that perpetrated by the Germans, was ignored. Soviet Russia worked hard to ensure that the legal definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations excluded what was done to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians themselves were tarred as Nazi collaborators so never “enjoyed” a status as victim. Ditto for the Baltic states and Eastern Poland etc.
4. Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism was seen as excusing everything else, including its own help to the Nazis when Britain was fighting alone. The contributions of the Allies to Russia’s war effort has been ignored or downplayed.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
They had tried to become independent from 1918 to 1922. It was in effect an extension of the reconquest.
You must understand, Russia began in Kiev, not Moscow or St Petersburg. They see the Ukraine as the very heartland of the Russian Empire. The Ukrainians however see it differently.
So in that respect, the Soviets were identifying with the Tsars? (and Stalin was a huge admirer of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great).
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
5. The economic advances under Communism have IMO been hugely overplayed. Had Communism not been inflicted on Russia and China and elsewhere those countries would almost certainly have been in a better economic and social position. There is something grotesque about giving China credit for taking people out of poverty when it made them poor in the first place and killed many tens of millions through famine first.
6. Too many people in the West believed implicitly (if not explicitly) in the maxim that the “end justifies the means” and so half excused what Communist dictatorships did. There were too many useful idiots in the West, too many who had been taken in by the propaganda, who had turned a blind eye. Admitting the sheer moral nihilism and brutality of Communism would also have meant admitting their own moral blindness and complicity. Easier to focus on Nazis and Fascists.
7. Controversial this but Communism was the end point of a leftist trajectory. So fellow socialists and others were perhaps inhibited in criticising communism too hard because it might have undermined the basis for socialism. After all the Communists called themselves socialists. Not all on the left did of course - but some of the most severe criticism was often reserved for people of the left who spoke out about the reality of communism (Koestler, Orwell etc). There were no (at least until recently) right of centre parties who felt that Nazism was part of their shared political family.
Communism and Nazism were and are both equally revolting. Torturing and killing people because of race or religion or class is disgusting. The result is misery. Those who defend Communism because a big factory or hospital was built somewhere, as if this was some kind of achievement which would not otherwise have happened, need to take a good long hard look at themselves.
In 1914, the Russian economy was taking off. It was experiencing enormous growth and foreign investors were piling in. This growth was a factor in the feeling of encirclement in Germany - France had recovered from 1870 and was now funding the Russian expansion. The plans for the Russian Navy were startling...
If is arguable that a cause of the revolution was this growth - growth in education and opportunity among the less privileged hitting the wall of incompetent aristocracy.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which it wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes. The history is relatively unknown in the West.
I honestly think Eastern Europe from 1914 to 1960 was about as bad a place as any to be alive in in any period of history. Almost as bad as Northern China in the time of Genghis Khan.
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
The trouble with the pubs thesis is that most people do not go to pubs, even before Covid-19. It might still be true that pubs spread the virus but it would be nice to have some actual evidence.
'Course, if we had a decent (ahem, world-beating) track and trace system, we'd know.
If we didn't, the media we ensure we knew even sooner....
They seem to have gone very quiet though. I assume it doesn't contain many problems with which to beat the Govt. around the head.
Diane Abbott is trending - Corbynites think Sir Keir's solidarity with Lammy is an impicit insult to DA. Whilst reading their attacks I noticed this... who's in?
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
People who became infected down the pub then passing it on at an Eid celebration.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
I think it's simpler than that. Communism was, ultimately, a failure, but it was a failure that at least superficially had some significant successes. The planned economy of Stalin, for example, created an economic superpower in the Soviet Union. In 1914 the largest armaments factory in the Russian Empire made 17 rifles. In 1945 they had churned out enough tanks to overrun all of Europe. When Mao took over China in 1949 it was a political, social and economic basket case. By 1976 it was a serious world power again.
Now you could argue - correctly - that these successes were at best decidedly mixed. For example, the Soviet economy grew at 5.5% a year from about 1922 to 1960. That's a remarkable rate of growth, but it's actually slightly lower than the rate under the Tsars (6%) and it disguises the fact that while industry exploded, agriculture imploded and millions starved. Far more people died in the Ukraine under Stalin than died in the Holocaust under Hitler. Similarly, had Deng been allowed to maintain his economic policies after the Great Famine of the late 1950s, China would have grown far faster and would also have been much less troubled and repressive. The Cultural Revolution was hugely damaging.
But they are at least, achievements. Name one achievement of Nazism that has actually stood the test of time. Economic recovery? Not really, they had food rationing even before the war, because they couldn't import both food and war materials. Architecture? Most of it was flattened in World War Two. Sustained, if modest and gradual, increases in living standards, which the Soviet Union did achieve from Khrushchev onwards? No.
It is worth pointing out though - in support of your argument - that I was once told Mussolini remains quite popular in Italy, as the man who gave them lots of new infrastructure and rebuilt the army and navy so Italy became a proper power. I don't know how true that is - @Cyclefree would be able to help - but it suggests that the reason for far right getting a worse press in this country than the far left is, straightforwardly, that 'far-right=Hitler' in the popular mind.
For sure, which is why I deliberately said Nazism rather than fascism.
It's ironic that the one thing that Communists were really good at is war - and building up the infrastructure needed to wage war - when in theory, communism will bring war to an end. Whereas the Nazis who actually glorified war were destroyed on the battlefield.
The Nazis were good at war until they stopped being good at it, or at least when the luck of their mug punter of a leader ran out.
It's an uncomfortable thought, or is since Stalin stopped being our honoured ally and became one of history's monsters, that JS was a superior leader to Hitler, able to pragmatically discard ideology in a way that Hitler couldn't. Also his decision to stay in Moscow in 1941 while all the apparatchiki were shitting themselves and booking seats on the 16:45 to Kuibyshev could be seen as one of the turning points in the war (in the east at least).
As a "Briton" who got German citizenship this year, the reason why many of us have rushed to do this is that Germany does not normally allow dual citizenship. An exception is made for citizens of other EU countries. Applying for German citizenship in the next years would involve giving up British citizenship if successful, whereas those of us who have already done it can keep both. Numbers will definitely go down again. Also the process of getting citizenship is not much harder than getting leave to stay. 2 months after handing in a form and supporting documents and paying about 200 euros I got my citizenship.
I also know people who spend part of their lives in Germany who have formalised their status here, where previously they had just been here as EU citizens (with an EHIC card)
I'm not sure those figures are evidence of much. But I do know health professionals who had been considering moving TO the UK who ruled it out after the Brexit vote and May's later moronic comments about only wanting British doctors in the NHS.
I was lucky enough to be born with dual citizenship, but given the anti-Europe messages that come out of the UK Little England these days, I no longer identify as British and use my Irish passport when a passport is requested.
Its weird you say that when it appears our citizenship laws appear more open than many others.
???
I do not have to apply for British citizenship, but I know a few Americans who have done so and they describe it as an expensive, time consuming and difficult process.
Does anyone know how we are doing these days granting residency to EU people who have lived here for 20 or 30 years?
Guess what - there is lots of paperwork and expense in most countries when applying for residency or citizenship. The UK is little better or worse than everywhere else. I am just starting it in Spain right now. Presumably your dislike of the UK means you no longer live there which seems sensible given your hostility to all things British.
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
People who became infected down the pub then passing it on at an Eid celebration.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
The reasons why Communism was seen - by some - as more acceptable are more complicated I think.
In two parts (for length) - Part One
1. Much less is known about the suffering of people under Communism. Sure, there are plenty of learned books about the Gulags and Eastern Europe but very few films. The visual evidence is rarely there and so the suffering is hidden, very far away, unseen. There are few survivors and many do not talk or are silenced. The archives and historical records are largely closed. There has not been a moral confessional reckoning by the perpetrators and the old regimes, in the way there was by Germany. There have been few trials.
2. The defeat of Nazi Germany made the people realise and see what had happened. Soviet Communism was never defeated in the same way and so the full realisation of the horror it inflicted for decades was simply put in in a cupboard marked “old history” and the door closed.
3. The plight of the Ukrainian people who suffered a Holodomor, a holocaust quite as ghastly, malicious and intended as that perpetrated by the Germans, was ignored. Soviet Russia worked hard to ensure that the legal definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations excluded what was done to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians themselves were tarred as Nazi collaborators so never “enjoyed” a status as victim. Ditto for the Baltic states and Eastern Poland etc.
4. Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism was seen as excusing everything else, including its own help to the Nazis when Britain was fighting alone. The contributions of the Allies to Russia’s war effort has been ignored or downplayed.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
They had tried to become independent from 1918 to 1922. It was in effect an extension of the reconquest.
You must understand, Russia began in Kiev, not Moscow or St Petersburg. They see the Ukraine as the very heartland of the Russian Empire. The Ukrainians however see it differently.
Although they were happy for their greatest monarch to be a German (Prussian).
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which it wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes. The history is relatively unknown in the West.
Not sure that holds together tbh, the R would decrease in a closed system as the virus has fewer uninfected or susceptible targets. Using a constant doubling period for the road not taken doesn't make sense.
Australia is nowhere near the point having fewer susceptible in the pool would make any difference at all to the numbers.
But it's not Australia, it's Melbourne plus there is always some level of local burnout within community groups and social groups which is a downwards push factor.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
The Holdomar was before WWII, not after it. It's the reason the Ukrainians were so keen on the Nazis, whom they saw as liberators.
Snyders "Bloodlands" is good on the subject.
Stalin was particularly suspicious of the loyalties of non Russian people, and the terror was much worse for them, particularly Ukranians, Lithuanians and Poles. Much of these lands were Hapsburg before 1918, and recently acquired in the Twenties, with longstanding suspicion of Moscow.
Just last week David Schneider, another left wing smart alec comic, was apparently unaware that medical products are routinely withdrawn for safety reasons. The government — doing it's usual terrible job of hiding such scandalous stuff — has literally hundreds of such notices on its main web site. Making snarky comments for a living doesn't make a person clever, or even moderately well informed.
So if we know that in Trafford 80% of the cases are white people, an underepresentation of 6.5%, what are the percentages for the other parts of the NW that have been locked down? Does anybody know?
Not much difference between 80% and 86% - and that 80% sounds like a rounded figure anyway. You'd need to do a proper check of the primaruy data and a proibability analysis for the null hypothesis, but I wouldn't rely on that 6 percentage points if I were you.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
Just last week David Schneider, another left wing smart alec comic, was apparently unaware that medical products are routinely withdrawn for safety reasons. The government — doing it's usual terrible job of hiding such scandalous stuff — has literally hundreds of such notices on its main web site. Making snarky comments for a living doesn't make a person clever, or even moderately well informed.
So if we know that in Trafford 80% of the cases are white people, an underepresentation of 6.5%, what are the percentages for the other parts of the NW that have been locked down? Does anybody know?
Not much difference between 80% and 86% - and that 80% sounds like a rounded figure anyway. You'd need to do a proper check of the primaruy data and a proibability analysis for the null hypothesis, but I wouldn't rely on that 6 percentage points if I were you.
The local media has reported that the outbreak in Trafford is especially focused on Altrincham and Hale, the very rich part of the borough which is overwhelmingly white.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
Wasn't it a similar story in the Baltic States to an extent?
Yes, some similar dynamics. Ukraine was especially bad though, partly because both the Soviets and the Nazis regarded it as one huge wheatfield which was essential to providing their food supplies, and in which the locals were very much expendable.
It just means the teachers were ridiculously over generous to start with. Results overall "better" than last year so this downgrading if anything didn't go far enough.
Not necessarily. I thought most of the downgradings were just by one grade, which probably represents a couple of percentage points, somewhere on the borderline.
If you are trying to judge the quality of an examination paper overall, it is very hard to distinguish between 65% and 68%, for example. Especially so, when all the comparisons are within a single school. So the teachers have done well in very difficult circumstances.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
Because the Nazis lost. You can put a moral gloss over it, but that's really all there is.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
It just means the teachers were ridiculously over generous to start with. Results overall "better" than last year so this downgrading if anything didn't go far enough.
Not necessarily. I thought most of the downgradings were just by one grade, which probably represents a couple of percentage points, somewhere on the borderline.
If you are trying to judge the quality of an examination paper overall, it is very hard to distinguish between 65% and 68%, for example. Especially so, when all the comparisons are within a single school. So the teachers have done well in very difficult circumstances.
SQA are *claiming* that that is what has happened.
Given that they have made a statistical adjustment based on invalid evidence, I think we should treat their claims with extreme caution.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
As I may have said before, also 3, the idealism of millions of people who wanted a just society for themselves and others (check out the original Communist Manifesto and count the number of points that have become part of uncontroversial government). That many of these people were betrayed by their leaders to the point of imprisonment and death doesn't detract from that idealism.
I can't imagine what sort of thesis could be put forward for Nazi idealism, or rather I can, but it would involve a Judenfrei world and German nationalism & Führer worship as a religion.
Motorways, animal rights, vegetarianism and anti-smoking campaigns are all considered normal these days...……..
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
Very sorry to hear this David. Can you appeal?
Don't think so. You can only appeal classifications not bands.
"My experience of UK elections is that the postal voters are generally older and frailer than those who turn up in person and they are more likely to edge towards the Conservatives. I’m sure the same is replicated in the US."
Not so sure about that, Mike. I think in some states, particularly amongst minority communities underserved with polling stations and limited public transport, churches and the like have traditionally bussed in the vote but in recent elections have been promoting and facilitating mail in voting (as it's even more convenient for low-paid workers who have to work long shifts on election day).
Sea Shanty will probably have a better take on this, but I really do not think the US mirrors the UK here. The fact that registered Dems often outnumber Republicans in requests for mail in ballot forms would back this up.
That said, I think the story is right in saying that, by trashing the concept of mail in voting, Trump is selectively suppressing his own vote.
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
Very sorry to hear this David. Can you appeal?
Don't think so. You can only appeal classifications not bands.
That sucks.
Have you had a chance to discuss it with his college yet? (Assuming he isn't applying next year.)
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
As I may have said before, also 3, the idealism of millions of people who wanted a just society for themselves and others (check out the original Communist Manifesto and count the number of points that have become part of uncontroversial government). That many of these people were betrayed by their leaders to the point of imprisonment and death doesn't detract from that idealism.
I can't imagine what sort of thesis could be put forward for Nazi idealism, or rather I can, but it would involve a Judenfrei world and German nationalism & Führer worship as a religion.
Motorways, animal rights, vegetarianism and anti-smoking campaigns are all considered normal these days...……..
Not sure if there was much discussion of these issues in Mein Kampf, but will yield to anyone who has plodded through that particular collection of the wit and wisdom of AH.
O/T In some GP surgeries all the GPs are still working from home. Now I realise that a telephone consultation can help in some circumstances but how many life threatening illnesses are being missed by the failure of GPs to see their patients.
That is brutal. That inverts everything supporters of the SQA have been assuming about grade inflation.
It also strongly suggests they have wrongfully clobbered every bright pupil in an inner city school.
If John Swinney doesn't resign over this...
How could the SQA have seen this and gone "Yup, that seems totally above board and without bias"
Because as other people haven't pointed out Quango's don't think as the people there are usually at best second rate people sent there by people who want rid of them.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
It's rather complicated, and absolutely horrific, but basically many Ukrainians sided enthusiastically with the Nazis to save themselves from the Russians, conducting their own atrocities which in some cases even the Nazis thought were over the top. As things developed - badly - the Nazis started rounding up Ukrainians, so it wasn't even successful as a mode of self-preservation. Then as the tide turned the Russians advanced over Ukraine and took a horrendous revenge.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which in wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes, but is relatively unknown in the West.
The Holdomar was before WWII, not after it. It's the reason the Ukrainians were so keen on the Nazis, whom they saw as liberators.
Unfortunately the Nazis weren't so keen on the Ukrainians:
"We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here." - Erich Koch in 1943.
Erich Koch was "Reichskommissar" for Ukraine 1941 to 1944.
That is brutal. That inverts everything supporters of the SQA have been assuming about grade inflation.
It also strongly suggests they have wrongfully clobbered every bright pupil in an inner city school.
If John Swinney doesn't resign over this...
How does it suggest that they've wrongfully clobbered every bright pupil in an inner city school? The figures they've ended up with look to be in line with 2016 to 2019 actuals, in fact a bit more generous to all categories.
Of course the 2016 to 2019 figures might not be ideal, but presumably the idea was to make the grades as compatible as possible with what would have happened if the exams had taken place as normal.
I agree that politically it looks potentially dangerous, but, objectively speaking, it's not obvious that it's wrong overall. That's not to say that there won't be much individual unfairness hidden in the statistics, of course.
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
That sucks man, any chance of an appeal or sitting the exam?
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
As I may have said before, also 3, the idealism of millions of people who wanted a just society for themselves and others (check out the original Communist Manifesto and count the number of points that have become part of uncontroversial government). That many of these people were betrayed by their leaders to the point of imprisonment and death doesn't detract from that idealism.
I can't imagine what sort of thesis could be put forward for Nazi idealism, or rather I can, but it would involve a Judenfrei world and German nationalism & Führer worship as a religion.
Motorways, animal rights, vegetarianism and anti-smoking campaigns are all considered normal these days...……..
It's too early for any Eid spike to show up, the current increase seems to me to be from pubs being allowed to open up - that's pushed r slightly above 1 I think.
People who became infected down the pub then passing it on at an Eid celebration.
Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That said, there is nothing that can be said for the regimes of Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung, which were as cruel as the Nazis.
The reasons why Communism was seen - by some - as more acceptable are more complicated I think.
In two parts (for length) - Part One
1. Much less is known about the suffering of people under Communism. Sure, there are plenty of learned books about the Gulags and Eastern Europe but very few films. The visual evidence is rarely there and so the suffering is hidden, very far away, unseen. There are few survivors and many do not talk or are silenced. The archives and historical records are largely closed. There has not been a moral confessional reckoning by the perpetrators and the old regimes, in the way there was by Germany. There have been few trials.
2. The defeat of Nazi Germany made the people realise and see what had happened. Soviet Communism was never defeated in the same way and so the full realisation of the horror it inflicted for decades was simply put in in a cupboard marked “old history” and the door closed.
3. The plight of the Ukrainian people who suffered a Holodomor, a holocaust quite as ghastly, malicious and intended as that perpetrated by the Germans, was ignored. Soviet Russia worked hard to ensure that the legal definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations excluded what was done to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians themselves were tarred as Nazi collaborators so never “enjoyed” a status as victim. Ditto for the Baltic states and Eastern Poland etc.
4. Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism was seen as excusing everything else, including its own help to the Nazis when Britain was fighting alone. The contributions of the Allies to Russia’s war effort has been ignored or downplayed.
What was the reason for what seems a special degree of hatred for the Ukrainians?
They had tried to become independent from 1918 to 1922. It was in effect an extension of the reconquest.
You must understand, Russia began in Kiev, not Moscow or St Petersburg. They see the Ukraine as the very heartland of the Russian Empire. The Ukrainians however see it differently.
Comments
I can't imagine what sort of thesis could be put forward for Nazi idealism, or rather I can, but it would involve a Judenfrei world and German nationalism & Führer worship as a religion.
It's worth remembering however that one whole chapter of the book which closes with that remark (Interesting Times) was spent grumbling about the fact that some damn fool made him give up his second home in North Wales so that a local could live in it.
"Serco: the company that is running Britain
From prisons to rail franchises and even London's Boris bikes, Serco is a giant global corporation that has hoovered up outsourced government contracts. Now the NHS is firmly in its sights. But it stands accused of mismanagement, lying and even charging for non-existent work
John Harris"
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/29/serco-biggest-company-never-heard-of
https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1288917229585805316?s=20
Out of curiosity, why are you reposting it now? Is Serco up to something?
https://twitter.com/AlexInAir/status/1290603339256922113?s=20
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8591263/Female-officer-28-facing-sack-carrying-sex-acts-married-sergeant-police-station.html#comments
'Female police officer, 28, who 'carried out sex acts on married sergeant at their busy city centre station during ten month fling' faces the sack'
I do hope not, that was exactly what caused the issue in the first place...
ETA I very much doubt Boris has any particular end-state in mind either.
It's ironic that the one thing that Communists were really good at is war - and building up the infrastructure needed to wage war - when in theory, communism will bring war to an end. Whereas the Nazis who actually glorified war were destroyed on the battlefield.
Apart from anything else, where could they quarantine? Not that we have proper quarantine, but they will have to give an address where they're meant to lock down for a fortnight.
https://twitter.com/sturdyalex/status/1290578227568795648?s=21
https://twitter.com/sophiescott2/status/1290565821148749824
I do have some sympathy with the council that allowed the pub to open, as they did consult counsel on the matter; I reckon the nightclub (In Preston iirc) told the council it'd see them in court if they weren't allowed to open.
In two parts (for length) - Part One
1. Much less is known about the suffering of people under Communism. Sure, there are plenty of learned books about the Gulags and Eastern Europe but very few films. The visual evidence is rarely there and so the suffering is hidden, very far away, unseen. There are few survivors and many do not talk or are silenced. The archives and historical records are largely closed. There has not been a moral confessional reckoning by the perpetrators and the old regimes, in the way there was by Germany. There have been few trials.
2. The defeat of Nazi Germany made the people realise and see what had happened. Soviet Communism was never defeated in the same way and so the full realisation of the horror it inflicted for decades was simply put in in a cupboard marked “old history” and the door closed.
3. The plight of the Ukrainian people who suffered a Holodomor, a holocaust quite as ghastly, malicious and intended as that perpetrated by the Germans, was ignored. Soviet Russia worked hard to ensure that the legal definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations excluded what was done to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians themselves were tarred as Nazi collaborators so never “enjoyed” a status as victim. Ditto for the Baltic states and Eastern Poland etc.
4. Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Nazism was seen as excusing everything else, including its own help to the Nazis when Britain was fighting alone. The contributions of the Allies to Russia’s war effort has been ignored or downplayed.
5. The economic advances under Communism have IMO been hugely overplayed. Had Communism not been inflicted on Russia and China and elsewhere those countries would almost certainly have been in a better economic and social position. There is something grotesque about giving China credit for taking people out of poverty when it made them poor in the first place and killed many tens of millions through famine first.
6. Too many people in the West believed implicitly (if not explicitly) in the maxim that the “end justifies the means” and so half excused what Communist dictatorships did. There were too many useful idiots in the West, too many who had been taken in by the propaganda, who had turned a blind eye. Admitting the sheer moral nihilism and brutality of Communism would also have meant admitting their own moral blindness and complicity. Easier to focus on Nazis and Fascists.
7. Controversial this but Communism was the end point of a leftist trajectory. So fellow socialists and others were perhaps inhibited in criticising communism too hard because it might have undermined the basis for socialism. After all the Communists called themselves socialists. Not all on the left did of course - but some of the most severe criticism was often reserved for people of the left who spoke out about the reality of communism (Koestler, Orwell etc). There were no (at least until recently) right of centre parties who felt that Nazism was part of their shared political family.
Communism and Nazism were and are both equally revolting. Torturing and killing people because of race or religion or class is disgusting. The result is misery. Those who defend Communism because a big factory or hospital was built somewhere, as if this was some kind of achievement which would not otherwise have happened, need to take a good long hard look at themselves.
'Course, if we had a decent (ahem, world-beating) track and trace system, we'd know.
https://twitter.com/DavidHenigUK/status/1290603087112151040
Overall the end of the transition - i.e. Brexit in fact as well as in form - is shaping up to be an even bigger disaster, on multiple fronts, than ever seemed likely during the referendum campaign. Who on earth could have predicted lunacies such as not signing up to REACH?
The failure to shut down air transport at any point during this crisis is so self evidential stupid that I can't even begin to cope with how stupid it is.
You must understand, Russia began in Kiev, not Moscow or St Petersburg. They see the Ukraine as the very heartland of the Russian Empire. The Ukrainians however see it differently.
The whole WWII history of Eastern Europe is full of multi-faceted horrors, in which it wasn't just the Nazis and Soviets who were guilty of war crimes. The history is relatively unknown in the West.
This is an excellent book on the subject:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitlers-Empire-Nazi-Occupied-Europe/dp/0141011920
Updated guidance on how to register your (or your daughter's) restaurant:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-your-establishment-for-the-eat-out-to-help-out-scheme
Election day.
If is arguable that a cause of the revolution was this growth - growth in education and opportunity among the less privileged hitting the wall of incompetent aristocracy.
They seem to have gone very quiet though. I assume it doesn't contain many problems with which to beat the Govt. around the head.
It's an uncomfortable thought, or is since Stalin stopped being our honoured ally and became one of history's monsters, that JS was a superior leader to Hitler, able to pragmatically discard ideology in a way that Hitler couldn't. Also his decision to stay in Moscow in 1941 while all the apparatchiki were shitting themselves and booking seats on the 16:45 to Kuibyshev could be seen as one of the turning points in the war (in the east at least).
Presumably your dislike of the UK means you no longer live there which seems sensible given your hostility to all things British.
Stalin was particularly suspicious of the loyalties of non Russian people, and the terror was much worse for them, particularly Ukranians, Lithuanians and Poles. Much of these lands were Hapsburg before 1918, and recently acquired in the Twenties, with longstanding suspicion of Moscow.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/bang-up-date-coronavirus-infection-18698047
"Public Health Officials in Trafford believe the rise is concentrated to the south of the borough, around Hale and Altrincham."
If you are trying to judge the quality of an examination paper overall, it is very hard to distinguish between 65% and 68%, for example. Especially so, when all the comparisons are within a single school. So the teachers have done well in very difficult circumstances.
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
Given that they have made a statistical adjustment based on invalid evidence, I think we should treat their claims with extreme caution.
https://twitter.com/JakubKrupa/status/1289206307631767553?s=20
Jokes about Russian royalty aren't puns.
They're Tsarcasm.
'We should use education to make a more literature country and a hopefuller country.'
Not so sure about that, Mike. I think in some states, particularly amongst minority communities underserved with polling stations and limited public transport, churches and the like have traditionally bussed in the vote but in recent elections have been promoting and facilitating mail in voting (as it's even more convenient for low-paid workers who have to work long shifts on election day).
Sea Shanty will probably have a better take on this, but I really do not think the US mirrors the UK here. The fact that registered Dems often outnumber Republicans in requests for mail in ballot forms would back this up.
That said, I think the story is right in saying that, by trashing the concept of mail in voting, Trump is selectively suppressing his own vote.
Have you had a chance to discuss it with his college yet? (Assuming he isn't applying next year.)
Many of the worst concentration camp guards in the Holocaust were Croatian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian.
It also strongly suggests they have wrongfully clobbered every bright pupil in an inner city school.
If John Swinney doesn't resign over this...
In some GP surgeries all the GPs are still working from home. Now I realise that a telephone consultation can help in some circumstances but how many life threatening illnesses are being missed by the failure of GPs to see their patients.
Doesn't the Scottish government/SQA realise they may have utterly screwed the lives of an entire cohort of a school year?
Only he advocates and implements something so aggressively regressive.
"We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here." - Erich Koch in 1943.
Erich Koch was "Reichskommissar" for Ukraine 1941 to 1944.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskommissariat_Ukraine
Of course the 2016 to 2019 figures might not be ideal, but presumably the idea was to make the grades as compatible as possible with what would have happened if the exams had taken place as normal.
I agree that politically it looks potentially dangerous, but, objectively speaking, it's not obvious that it's wrong overall. That's not to say that there won't be much individual unfairness hidden in the statistics, of course.
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