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Foreign affairs and laying Michael Gove – politicalbetting.com
Foreign affairs and laying Michael Gove – politicalbetting.com
Inevitably there is now a market up on the next Foreign Secretary and this market from Smarkets is worth a look (even if there’s next to no liquidity in it.)
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Or something like that.
"Polling Canada
@CanadianPolling
Federal Polling:
Con: 33% (-1)
Lib: 31% (-2)
NDP: 18% (+2)
BQ: 6% (-2)
People's Party: 6% (+4)
Green: 5% (-2)"
https://twitter.com/CanadianPolling/status/1429196195294027784
(Very ish)
Morning all.
Initial estimates suggest the Taliban may now also possess several Black Hawk helicopters and other US-funded military aircraft, according to a congressional source…That potentially includes roughly 20 A-29 Tucano attack planes, the source said, noting there are some indications that only a small number of aircraft were relocated from a base in Kandahar before it was overrun by the Taliban..
Between 2013 and 2016, the US gave Afghan forces more than 600,000 light weapons, such as M16 and M4 rifles and nearly 80,000 vehicles, as well as night vision goggles, radios and more, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report. Even more recently, the US Defense Department supplied the Afghan military with 7,000 machine guns, 4,700 Humvees and more than 20,000 grenades between 2017 and 2019, In the last two years alone, the US has also given the Afghan military more than 18 million rounds of 7.62mm and .50-caliber ammunition..
While the Taliban can certainly make immediate use of US-made small arms and armored vehicles, officials are skeptical they can turn American aircraft into a viable fighting unit.
Excellent news: I finished Polybius off last night and will shortly start writing up an exciting blog on the subject.
If Gove is the one pushing ID cards I hope his career falls off a cliff.
So time to man up and say 'I'm a Tory and I'm proud"
I never got the hang of Top Gear.
Now almost all of our politicians seem to be in politics for ego reasons. They view their role as managerial and tactical: what is going to look good, what makes my opponents make bad, what's going to advance my career? It makes our politicians superficial, intellectually lazy, vacuous and pretty unprincipled.
Of course Gove has an ego too, an enormous one, and not all of the changes he wants to make will meet general approval, but he gets things done and gives the government a purpose. Since his role in Brexit wound down he has been somewhat under utilised. I suggested when that happened where Boris put Gove next would give a good clue about his priorities. So far these remain well disguised if they exist at all.
Is the FO really the place for Gove? I would think not. Its not a major role these days given so much international stuff is done at PM level. The FO could certainly do with a serious shake up but its hardly a priority. And then there is the flying thing. I would really like to see him at the Home Office, but then I'd rather see almost anyone than Patel at the Home Office.
In a Cobra meeting on Friday August 13, Raab was “obsessed with the airport”, according to some who were present, and was intervening on micro issues such as plane timetables. “When it came to the bigger picture of what this might mean for foreign policy Michael [Gove, the cabinet office minister] seemed to have thought about it more than Dominic.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shops-farms-and-restaurants-turn-to-prisons-to-fill-staff-shortages-j2qgd38td
We have 5-6m Europeans with residency rights here, most of working age. That really should be enough.
Nice to see Tony Blair wading in. His invasion of Iraq was one of the most ill-conceived decisions in the history of western foreign policy. However, since that aberration (which he refuses to own up to) he's been on good form and for the most part calls things right.
He is, of course, right about Biden. The man's an imbecile.
It's a foreign policy disaster. Heads should roll but won't because Johnson is too weak to appoint people with actual gumption and savvy e.g. Penny Mordaunt.
Someone posted on here that Raab was good during Boris' hospital stay and I nearly choked with laughter on my cornflakes. That was the time I knew Dominic Raab would never be leader. He looked like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights. Way out of his depth.
Another of Boris Johnson's weak and inept ministers. How many does that now make? Michael Gove is about the only one left who is any good but the thread writer is probably right to lay him.
Will any of this cut through? Yep. This one will hurt Boris Johnson because it's the kind of thing that gets his Brexit types irate. All sorts of reasons for that:
- the awful sight of western forces running away
- scenes of horror in Kabul
- Taliban back in charge
- 20 years down the drain including lives lost and, of course,
- thousands more refugees into the UK
That is not a good thing by any measure.
Poultry factories have been so badly hit that branches of Nando’s had to close last week, while some KFC items were unavailable. Suppliers have also warned of turkey shortages at Christmas.
“The situation is getting worse. One member said, at this rate, Christmas is going to be a disaster.”
James Bielby, chief executive of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, said: “Any discerning shoppers can see there’s already less choice available on the shelves. It won’t go away until after Christmas at the earliest unless the government intervenes.”
Maybe Gove could look into that...
I think Brexit is a good thing (currently it's causing if anything less disruption than I anticipated, and it's effect on low paid wages has happened much faster than I anticipated).
However I don't believe in the current tax and borrow state of affairs (some of it was necessary, but they've launched into it with all the enthusiasm of a bunch of Corbinites meeting at a print works).
I'm appalled that the Covid restrictions ever had force of law rather than being just strong advise. I'm ahast at the idea of forcing people to have a medical procedure to do everyday things and given what we know about vaccines not blocking transmission it's pretty much pointless anyway (I'm in no way an antivaxer, I've had mine, and think they are largely safe and effective, I just think it's wrong to force people to have medical procedures they don't want to undergo).
I'm not overly impressed with the generally shambolic approach this government has to pretty much everything.
The trouble is, who exactly do you vote for? Labour stand for all the same stuff, but harder and faster, with a side helping of letting blokes in frocks into women's changing rooms.
I've no idea what the Lib Dems stand for, but it's probably incoherent and mostly wrong.
So what will I do with my vote next time? At the locals I voted RefUK, and lib dem (County and Town Council). I can't see me voting for the Tories unless something changes. Maybe I'll spoil my vote, maybe I'll vote RefUK if they stand. But certainly I'm currently not a Tory, if I ever was.
This is where I think Pagan and Another Richard have probably got to as well.
He did not call Biden an imbecile.
There is a difference.
Also, 800 arrivals across the channel yesterday. GG Patel.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/live-updates/covid-delta-variant/?id=79475515&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_three_posts_card_hed#79582379
Consistency is not a Unionist trait.
But we all know this is really about economic migration.
He's the real-life human incarnation of the Scorpion and the Frog.
A deeply troubled man.
They won a plurality of the vote last time, and could do so again this time, but it won't be enough.
No longer. The structural damage has gone too far. They've swapped a bunch of Wolfie Smith wannabes for the traditional supporters. The Red wall is history. Even the LDs have morphed into a one issue party, in danger of being taken over by the Greens.
And this when the Tories have BoJo, a man who no one would trust to wipe his own arse.
Can't the 'None of the above' voters set up their own party?
I spoke to my son in Vancouver last night and he says there is little love for Trudeau and he expects he may be returned, but with little power
As I said last night my son has serious mental health issues, and he broke down during the conversation recounting in graphic detail the sights he witnessed at ground zero in Christchurch, NZ in 2011 when 189 people lost their lives in the main collapsed building, many of whom were young students from across the world.
The description was so horrific that I did not even mention it to my wife or my daughter
He has PTSD and it is sobering to think just how many will suffer this life changing condition and are currently in Kabul and Afghanistan
We should all try to be a 'wee' bit more compassionate
Much less good at creating successor systems that work better, or at all.
Much like his most famous SPAD, really.
As Priti would put it, the n does not require dublin'.
All I have to do
Is mark my 'X' by you
And then I'm not so blue
When you're close to me
I can feel your conceit
I can hear you briefing
'gainst Sir Keir
Wouldn't you agree
Baby, you and me
Got a groovy kind of Gove
He's an absolute top banana.
I enjoy watching/listening to Gove in roughly the same way as Maggie. The awe of seeing someone like that in that position simply takes the breath away. First class entertainment.
I personally credit Gove with virtually single-handedly turning one of my best friends from SLab to SNP. She simply cannot tolerate the man’s fizzog. I think a lot of Scots get a primeval urge to give him a well-deserved slapping. Not me: I love the guy.
Cheers Maggie!
Cheers Michael!
Would you turn your back on wee Jimmy?
He is utterly traumatised and has not worked for two years
Indeed he has recently undergone 16 electroconvulsive sessions and is unlikely to be able to work in the foreseeable future
At 55 his future is very uncertain, and a huge worry to his mother and I and of course his wife
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16, KJV).
When Jesus told the Twelve to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, He laid down a general principle about how we take the gospel to a hostile world. We must be wise (avoiding the snares set for us), and we must be innocent (serving Him blamelessly). Wisdom does not equal dishonesty, and innocence does not equal gullibility.
So when employing ex-convicts, which is a good thing, we should not put them in a position where they are at risk to themselves of re-offending, thereby falling back into sin, and damaging the business. So for example employing someone with convictions for GBH as door security, or someone convicted of burglary with locking up at the end of the day.
Understanding that convicts had issues with conventional work or relationships does not hamper rehabilitation, it is rather the key to doing it successfully.
I can manage Scots, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian and French, and at a pinch Dutch, German and Castilian, without resorting to Google Translate. But the key problem is they haven’t programmed in Yoonish yet.
Wee Jimmy comes across as a good politician, but that isn't a compliment. Poor old Alex, he fell foul of her ambition. Not that I have much sympathy for him.
In the end, you have to trust politicians but not hero-worship them. They are mostly in it for their own good, or they have a fanatical desire to make the world a better place by doing down others, Neither are healthy.
I was absolutely delighted to see him again.