All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
And yes, Russians like that will already be cursing Putin. But it won't stop with the kids-of-oligarchs, it will soon be any middle class Russian with any aspirations. Putin has fucked their dreams
History shows us that the Russian people can endure pretty much anything.
We think we are lions led by donkeys. Next to them, it really ain't so.
It was not an option, if it was the very religious would likely have got it to at least 10 to 20%
Really? When 1.5% of the population are regular attenders of religious worship, and a whole bunch of those are probably not that radically superstitious, a 10x multiplier on that number seems a bit heavy.
17% attend services at least once a month whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu etc, over a third less regularly. So wrong
Yes, but weekly attendance is at about 1.5% of the population; You can multiply up from my figure, or divide down from yours, but I don't think it is realistic to suggest that the sporadic attenders include a high proportion of zealots who genuinely believe in a vengeful old testament God in any meaningful sense that isn't covered by the actuarial "acts of god" already in the list.
Oh, and Christian church attendance is down about 15% between 2014 (your figures) and 2019, according to Statistica, so I think you'll find those numbers are probably on the high side.
Still over 10% though and still way higher than the 1.5% you said.
1.5% is just the number who attend weekly Church of England services and members of the Church of England are only a minority of Christians and Christians are only a minority of religions as a whole
My 1.5% figure is the weekly attendance in 2019. 1.5% of the population go to church in any given week. You have monthly figures for 2014. It seems that there are very, very few who go every week, so I suspect my ~5% Christians + say 3-4% "others" is pretty close. And as I say, even fewer than that would be so superstitious as to believe in literal acts of and interventionist God - so I don't see you getting up to your original suggested value of 15-20% of people believing that GOD is at least as likely as a volcano.
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
And yes, Russians like that will already be cursing Putin. But it won't stop with the kids-of-oligarchs, it will soon be any middle class Russian with any aspirations. Putin has fucked their dreams
There are a number of rich Russians children at both my daughters schools.
There are all (according to my daughters), extremely woke, despise the whole Russian system and bang on about the "revolution"
I presume that comes after they have finished spending Daddies money, but I'm not sure that Putin & Co. have reckoned on what comes next....
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
The whole thread is fascinating - check the queues for McDonald's and ATMs in Moscow. And this is after just a couple of weeks of sanctions
As you say, societies can crumble very quickly in situations like this. There will also be a chain reaction, unexpected problems will multiply. The West has basically taken the world's biggest spanner and shoved it in the Russian economy and it is already spitting with sparks, and grinding metal on metal
Dangerous situation, tho. If Putin starts to panic... hmm. We do need to give him some kind of exit route, even if it sticks in the craw. Some face saving shit that he can just about sell to his people
His exit strategy is to turn his columns round and go back over the border into Russia proper. Now. Politically unpalatable? Tough shit. Plan B is they go home in body bags. And the sanctions stay in place months longer, just to make sure he has got the message.
The sanctions are going to stay in place for years - it's the final kick in the arse to get a Net Zero policy implemented.
Well, I'm not sure. As I have said before, I can see Putin demanding the lifting of all sanctions before they stop levelling Ukrainian cities, even if the Ukrainians conceded to all their demands.
"These deaths in Ukraine, they could stop - if only you lift all sanctions...."
Invidious choice for us. But even so, no western companies are going to be investing in Russia for twenty years because of the extreme risk they will have to do a BP or a Shell and walk away from it as a total loss. China will fill the gap, people say. Not if that puts at risk people buying their products. "Until they stop supporting Russia, buy China last." Not worth siding with Russia to have that spring up.
Lift them, he leaves, put them back up then. Harder to relaunch an invasion a second time.
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
They have already completely leveled the center of Kharkiv. That goes way beyond "kill some civilians in the process".
LuckyGuy was a serial denier about the MH17 shootdown. Whatever random sh*t came out if Russia's backside over the shooting, he would regurgitate on here.
Chelsea to seek changes to the licence so it can operate normally
It does not get it does it
Actually i don't blame them. Not being able to sell match day tickets is really silly. That's totally different from you can't spend £100 million on a new player. I imagine they don't think they will get total free nornal operation, but get some concessions to the licence.
Sky Sports News said that Chelsea can still receive TV revenue, which does make stopping the sale of tickets odd.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It was not an option, if it was the very religious would likely have got it to at least 10 to 20%
Really? When 1.5% of the population are regular attenders of religious worship, and a whole bunch of those are probably not that radically superstitious, a 10x multiplier on that number seems a bit heavy.
17% attend services at least once a month whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu etc, over a third less regularly. So wrong
Yes, but weekly attendance is at about 1.5% of the population; You can multiply up from my figure, or divide down from yours, but I don't think it is realistic to suggest that the sporadic attenders include a high proportion of zealots who genuinely believe in a vengeful old testament God in any meaningful sense that isn't covered by the actuarial "acts of god" already in the list.
Oh, and Christian church attendance is down about 15% between 2014 (your figures) and 2019, according to Statistica, so I think you'll find those numbers are probably on the high side.
Still over 10% though and still way higher than the 1.5% you said.
1.5% is just the number who attend weekly Church of England services and members of the Church of England are only a minority of Christians and Christians are only a minority of religions as a whole
The wrath of God is not an option among options, it is (if believed) the ultimate cause of an extinction whose proximate causes could be bees, climate change, Permian eruption or anything else.
It has a secular equivalent. In the naturalistic secular religion of science the ultimate explanation of all things is the necessitarian outworking of ineluctable laws which themselves have no further explanation; so whether or not its climate change or bees, it is the laws of matter, particles and forces which explains everything from galaxies to Shakespeare.
Agnostics are cautious about both of these, but lack 'ultimacy' in their explanations.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
If you were a Russian IT specialist until last week staying in Russia made sense, you earnt say 50% of a western wage but had a great lifestyle because everything cost say 25% of western prices.
That's now gone so anyone in a position to leave for elsewhere will be doing so as quickly / as safely as possible.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It is fascinating how polarised public opinion is by age across most countries. Hopefully the world will be a better place in a few decades when these young people can exercise more political influence everywhere, assuming we get there.
UK homes belonging to Abramovich and Deripaska won't be seized by the govt (would be illegal). But... the owners can't enter *any* transaction related to the properties: no builders, no cleaners, no security, no gardeners, no electricity, no water bill.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
Some young Russians however are heavily indoctrinated into the Putin cult and mother Russia
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It is fascinating how polarised public opinion is by age across most countries. Hopefully the world will be a better place in a few decades when these young people can exercise more political influence everywhere, assuming we get there.
There is a conservative and left liberal divide by age, however the most support for the far right like Le Pen tends to come from 25 to 50 year olds not pensioners
France 24 and reporters in Kyiv both saying that Russia's offensive has not gained any ground over the past day, and Ukr has made a key gain around Kharkiv, if it gets to the point where Ukraine starts consistently gaining ground I wonder what the retreat will be like. I can't imagine it'd be particularly orderly.
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
What on Earth does that consist of?
Doesn't strike me as very much. Assuming 30 people travel, spend of £1,000 per person for two night in a five star hotel including meals and other stuff. Easy to see how they reach £30k.
Do premier league players even share rooms these day? I think they do, at least I remember staying in hotel with an European team over here playing champions league and i know they did, as they were on our floor.
Sleeping on someone else's floor would be going a bit far even for Chelsea.
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
And yes, Russians like that will already be cursing Putin. But it won't stop with the kids-of-oligarchs, it will soon be any middle class Russian with any aspirations. Putin has fucked their dreams
History shows us that the Russian people can endure pretty much anything.
We think we are lions led by donkeys. Next to them, it really ain't so.
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
Have they tried it with the same players as attackers AND defenders? Might be fun...
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
They have already completely leveled the center of Kharkiv. That goes way beyond "kill some civilians in the process".
LuckyGuy was a serial denier about the MH17 shootdown. Whatever random sh*t came out if Russia's backside over the shooting, he would regurgitate on here.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Yep it's the same with Erdogan in Turkey - his support doesn't come from the young or those in the large cities. It comes from those left behind in the countryside.
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
American football at NFL level is an incredibly specialised game. They have a dedicated "long snapper", a guy who only comes in to snap the ball back for kicks. The reason is being able to snap it back fractions of a second faster with precision can be difference between getting a kick off or not. The average wage of said player, $1 million a year.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
The whole thread is fascinating - check the queues for McDonald's and ATMs in Moscow. And this is after just a couple of weeks of sanctions
As you say, societies can crumble very quickly in situations like this. There will also be a chain reaction, unexpected problems will multiply. The West has basically taken the world's biggest spanner and shoved it in the Russian economy and it is already spitting with sparks, and grinding metal on metal
Dangerous situation, tho. If Putin starts to panic... hmm. We do need to give him some kind of exit route, even if it sticks in the craw. Some face saving shit that he can just about sell to his people
His exit strategy is to turn his columns round and go back over the border into Russia proper. Now. Politically unpalatable? Tough shit. Plan B is they go home in body bags. And the sanctions stay in place months longer, just to make sure he has got the message.
The sanctions are going to stay in place for years - it's the final kick in the arse to get a Net Zero policy implemented.
Well, I'm not sure. As I have said before, I can see Putin demanding the lifting of all sanctions before they stop levelling Ukrainian cities, even if the Ukrainians conceded to all their demands.
"These deaths in Ukraine, they could stop - if only you lift all sanctions...."
Invidious choice for us. But even so, no western companies are going to be investing in Russia for twenty years because of the extreme risk they will have to do a BP or a Shell and walk away from it as a total loss. China will fill the gap, people say. Not if that puts at risk people buying their products. "Until they stop supporting Russia, buy China last." Not worth siding with Russia to have that spring up.
Lift them, he leaves, put them back up then. Harder to relaunch an invasion a second time.
Are you suggesting we....learn from Putin's playbook? How sneaky of us.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It is fascinating how polarised public opinion is by age across most countries. Hopefully the world will be a better place in a few decades when these young people can exercise more political influence everywhere, assuming we get there.
It's weird, as I dont feel like my political or other opinions have changed that much as I've aged (more woke, harder on economics perhaps), yet that polarising trend is sustained enough that a significant number of people must be transitioning as they age
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It is fascinating how polarised public opinion is by age across most countries. Hopefully the world will be a better place in a few decades when these young people can exercise more political influence everywhere, assuming we get there.
There is a conservative and left liberal divide by age, however the most support for the far right like Le Pen tends to come from 25 to 50 year olds not pensioners
ISTR the AfD and Linke in Germany was similar. The old stuck with Union/SPD. The young FDP/Green.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Yep it's the same with Erdogan in Turkey - his support doesn't come from the young or those in the large cities. It comes from those left behind in the countryside.
France 24 and reporters in Kyiv both saying that Russia's offensive has not gained any ground over the past day, and Ukr has made a key gain around Kharkiv, if it gets to the point where Ukraine starts consistently gaining ground I wonder what the retreat will be like. I can't imagine it'd be particularly orderly.
If I was Russian forces heading towards Odessa I would be nervously tugging my colar.
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
Have they tried it with the same players as attackers AND defenders? Might be fun...
High school does and College you get some players who play multiple roles. But in the big show, the level required makes it nearly impossible to even play more than one position. Taysom Hill does, but a very rare example.
NFL is 4d chess played at break neck speed by enormous men allegedly pumped full of PED...a split second of hesitatation and some 6ft 6' 350 pound gaint will smash into you.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Yep it's the same with Erdogan in Turkey - his support doesn't come from the young or those in the large cities. It comes from those left behind in the countryside.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Yep it's the same with Erdogan in Turkey - his support doesn't come from the young or those in the large cities. It comes from those left behind in the countryside.
Yet who keep being left behind.
That's the irony of the situation, their support (as is the case in other cases) is dependent on delivering something to them but not too much....
It was not an option, if it was the very religious would likely have got it to at least 10 to 20%
Really? When 1.5% of the population are regular attenders of religious worship, and a whole bunch of those are probably not that radically superstitious, a 10x multiplier on that number seems a bit heavy.
17% attend services at least once a month whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu etc, over a third less regularly. So wrong
Yes, but weekly attendance is at about 1.5% of the population; You can multiply up from my figure, or divide down from yours, but I don't think it is realistic to suggest that the sporadic attenders include a high proportion of zealots who genuinely believe in a vengeful old testament God in any meaningful sense that isn't covered by the actuarial "acts of god" already in the list.
Oh, and Christian church attendance is down about 15% between 2014 (your figures) and 2019, according to Statistica, so I think you'll find those numbers are probably on the high side.
Still over 10% though and still way higher than the 1.5% you said.
1.5% is just the number who attend weekly Church of England services and members of the Church of England are only a minority of Christians and Christians are only a minority of religions as a whole
My 1.5% figure is the weekly attendance in 2019. 1.5% of the population go to church in any given week. You have monthly figures for 2014. It seems that there are very, very few who go every week, so I suspect my ~5% Christians + say 3-4% "others" is pretty close. And as I say, even fewer than that would be so superstitious as to believe in literal acts of and interventionist God - so I don't see you getting up to your original suggested value of 15-20% of people believing that GOD is at least as likely as a volcano.
No, your figures are wrong.
In fact more people attend Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Baptist and Methodist services combined in the UK than Church of England services. Indeed almost as many go to Roman Catholic Mass each week than attend Church of England services. So just using Church of England weekly attendance figures is inaccurate https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html
Those who do attend will also tend to be more religious and committed in their views than past token Christians who just attended on occasion and were not as strong in their faith too. Christianity in that sense is purer in the UK than it was 50 years ago even if smaller (outside of say growing Pentecostal churches).
Plus add in that at least half of Muslims would put the Koran first over UK law and add Orthodox Jews, strict Hindus and Sikhs etc too
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Yep it's the same with Erdogan in Turkey - his support doesn't come from the young or those in the large cities. It comes from those left behind in the countryside.
Ditto to a large extent, Trump and the US.
Isn't it largely a myth that Trump's supporters were poorer than average?
Even if Chelsea receive a special licence to sell it’s still not going to be easy as the ownership and corporate structure and loans are not in UK and so it’s a complicated mass of companies in different jurisdictions that need to be checked, controlled, paid etc.
Just an example below from today of some of the layers….. the 1.5b loan for example which most likely legally has to be paid off so the money is not just going to one lot that the govt can sit on.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
I haven't traveled as much as you but I have done a fair bit, and I am struck by how this is true virtually everywhere. Whether it's pretty wealthy Costa Ricans or dirt poor Ethiopians, all of them are Westernizing rapidly and want to be part of Western culture (even if they don't see it as "Western" themselves). The one massive exception to this is in many Muslim parts of the world, which seem to have a conscious rejection of Western fashion (with exceptions like Tunisia and Lebanon).
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
Have they tried it with the same players as attackers AND defenders? Might be fun...
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It is fascinating how polarised public opinion is by age across most countries. Hopefully the world will be a better place in a few decades when these young people can exercise more political influence everywhere, assuming we get there.
It's weird, as I dont feel like my political or other opinions have changed that much as I've aged (more woke, harder on economics perhaps), yet that polarising trend is sustained enough that a significant number of people must be transitioning as they age
The nominal left right labels can change over time so that you get re-assigned. Say, for instance, you campaigned hard in the past for "colour blind" anti-racism, against apartheid and so on. Without changing your views you would have moved from left to centre right or even right depending on who is commentating.
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
That doesn't make any sense. Faking a hospital bombing or rather lying about military use of it which would make it a legitimate target would not benefit the Ukrainians in the slightes since it would come out and would prevent an international response to a future event as it would be doubted.
If it doesnt benefit Russia to do it it makes even less sense and doesn't benefit Ukraine to lie about provoking it.
This seems on the same lines as 'X wouldn't do Y because theyd know it would hinder them, therefore it must be Z' yet people do counterproductive things all the time - the invasion itself being a case in point.
You have to commend the Ukrainians commitment to the deception - getting a pregnant women in to be stretchered across the blast zone
The trans 'debate' and White Helmets were the two subjects I wouldn't touch with a bargepole on twitter. I think there may soon be another.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Yep it's the same with Erdogan in Turkey - his support doesn't come from the young or those in the large cities. It comes from those left behind in the countryside.
Ditto to a large extent, Trump and the US.
Isn't it largely a myth that Trump's supporters were poorer than average?
Rural versus urban - not the same thing. And it's hardly a surprise that a lot of poorer folk vote Democrat.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It is fascinating how polarised public opinion is by age across most countries. Hopefully the world will be a better place in a few decades when these young people can exercise more political influence everywhere, assuming we get there.
Also fascinating is the global demand for flinty phalluses, crossing borders, language and class.
It was not an option, if it was the very religious would likely have got it to at least 10 to 20%
Really? When 1.5% of the population are regular attenders of religious worship, and a whole bunch of those are probably not that radically superstitious, a 10x multiplier on that number seems a bit heavy.
17% attend services at least once a month whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu etc, over a third less regularly. So wrong
Yes, but weekly attendance is at about 1.5% of the population; You can multiply up from my figure, or divide down from yours, but I don't think it is realistic to suggest that the sporadic attenders include a high proportion of zealots who genuinely believe in a vengeful old testament God in any meaningful sense that isn't covered by the actuarial "acts of god" already in the list.
Oh, and Christian church attendance is down about 15% between 2014 (your figures) and 2019, according to Statistica, so I think you'll find those numbers are probably on the high side.
Still over 10% though and still way higher than the 1.5% you said.
1.5% is just the number who attend weekly Church of England services and members of the Church of England are only a minority of Christians and Christians are only a minority of religions as a whole
My 1.5% figure is the weekly attendance in 2019. 1.5% of the population go to church in any given week. You have monthly figures for 2014. It seems that there are very, very few who go every week, so I suspect my ~5% Christians + say 3-4% "others" is pretty close. And as I say, even fewer than that would be so superstitious as to believe in literal acts of and interventionist God - so I don't see you getting up to your original suggested value of 15-20% of people believing that GOD is at least as likely as a volcano.
No, your figures are wrong.
In fact more people attend Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Baptist and Methodist services combined in the UK than Church of England services. Indeed almost as many go to Roman Catholic Mass each week than attend Church of England services. So just using Church of England weekly attendance figures is inaccurate https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html
Those who do attend will also tend to be more religious and committed in their views than past token Christians who just attended on occasion and were not as strong in their faith too. Christianity in that sense is purer in the UK than it was 50 years ago even if smaller (outside of say growing Pentecostal churches)
OK, for the sake of "it not mattering a jot" let's use your attendance figures.
You are telling me that all of them, and more, are of a mind to believe in an active, vengeful God likely to bring about the imminent destruction of humanity, and report such on a survey. Rather than of the "ambient traditional churchgoer", "community churchgoer" or "need to get their kids into the good school" variety?
It doesn't seem remotely plausible.
BUT! I feel that positions are not going to shift regardless, as we are arguing suppositions not data (in that I am happy to use your data to support my suppositions, and vice-versa).
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
That doesn't make any sense. Faking a hospital bombing or rather lying about military use of it which would make it a legitimate target would not benefit the Ukrainians in the slightes since it would come out and would prevent an international response to a future event as it would be doubted.
If it doesnt benefit Russia to do it it makes even less sense and doesn't benefit Ukraine to lie about provoking it.
This seems on the same lines as 'X wouldn't do Y because theyd know it would hinder them, therefore it must be Z' yet people do counterproductive things all the time - the invasion itself being a case in point.
No, it wouldn't 'come out', and it's breathtakingly naive to suggest it would. We're on one side of this and so are our media.
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
The key there is "all the Russians you have met." The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either. They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
Yep it's the same with Erdogan in Turkey - his support doesn't come from the young or those in the large cities. It comes from those left behind in the countryside.
Ditto to a large extent, Trump and the US.
Isn't it largely a myth that Trump's supporters were poorer than average?
Less educated than average not poorer.
In 2020 for example 67% of non college educated whites voted for Trump and 51% of college educated whites voted for Biden (albeit Trump did 1% better with college educated non whites than non college educated non whites).
France 24 and reporters in Kyiv both saying that Russia's offensive has not gained any ground over the past day, and Ukr has made a key gain around Kharkiv, if it gets to the point where Ukraine starts consistently gaining ground I wonder what the retreat will be like. I can't imagine it'd be particularly orderly.
If I was Russian forces heading towards Odessa I would be nervously tugging my collar.
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
That doesn't make any sense. Faking a hospital bombing or rather lying about military use of it which would make it a legitimate target would not benefit the Ukrainians in the slightes since it would come out and would prevent an international response to a future event as it would be doubted.
If it doesnt benefit Russia to do it it makes even less sense and doesn't benefit Ukraine to lie about provoking it.
This seems on the same lines as 'X wouldn't do Y because theyd know it would hinder them, therefore it must be Z' yet people do counterproductive things all the time - the invasion itself being a case in point.
You have to commend the Ukrainians commitment to the deception - getting a pregnant women in to be stretchered across the blast zone
The trans 'debate' and White Helmets were the two subjects I wouldn't touch with a bargepole on twitter. I think there may soon be another.
I rarely agree with you but on this I think you are right. I am giving trans a wide berth now too.
It was not an option, if it was the very religious would likely have got it to at least 10 to 20%
Really? When 1.5% of the population are regular attenders of religious worship, and a whole bunch of those are probably not that radically superstitious, a 10x multiplier on that number seems a bit heavy.
17% attend services at least once a month whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu etc, over a third less regularly. So wrong
Yes, but weekly attendance is at about 1.5% of the population; You can multiply up from my figure, or divide down from yours, but I don't think it is realistic to suggest that the sporadic attenders include a high proportion of zealots who genuinely believe in a vengeful old testament God in any meaningful sense that isn't covered by the actuarial "acts of god" already in the list.
Oh, and Christian church attendance is down about 15% between 2014 (your figures) and 2019, according to Statistica, so I think you'll find those numbers are probably on the high side.
Still over 10% though and still way higher than the 1.5% you said.
1.5% is just the number who attend weekly Church of England services and members of the Church of England are only a minority of Christians and Christians are only a minority of religions as a whole
My 1.5% figure is the weekly attendance in 2019. 1.5% of the population go to church in any given week. You have monthly figures for 2014. It seems that there are very, very few who go every week, so I suspect my ~5% Christians + say 3-4% "others" is pretty close. And as I say, even fewer than that would be so superstitious as to believe in literal acts of and interventionist God - so I don't see you getting up to your original suggested value of 15-20% of people believing that GOD is at least as likely as a volcano.
No, your figures are wrong.
In fact more people attend Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Baptist and Methodist services combined in the UK than Church of England services. Indeed almost as many go to Roman Catholic Mass each week than attend Church of England services. So just using Church of England weekly attendance figures is inaccurate https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html
Those who do attend will also tend to be more religious and committed in their views than past token Christians who just attended on occasion and were not as strong in their faith too. Christianity in that sense is purer in the UK than it was 50 years ago even if smaller (outside of say growing Pentecostal churches)
OK, for the sake of "it not mattering a jot" let's use your attendance figures.
You are telling me that all of them, and more, are of a mind to believe in an active, vengeful God likely to bring about the imminent destruction of humanity, and report such on a survey. Rather than of the "ambient traditional churchgoer", "community churchgoer" or "need to get their kids into the good school" variety?
It doesn't seem remotely plausible.
BUT! I feel that positions are not going to shift regardless, as we are arguing suppositions not data (in that I am happy to use your data to support my suppositions, and vice-versa).
Yes once you add in the fact that a quarter of British Muslims want Sharia law and about half think homosexuality should be illegal and 39% think wives must always obey their husbands and Muslims are growing as a percentage of the UK population. Plus that Christians in the UK are more evangelical and Bible based with the Pentecostal Church growing fastest as a percentage of UK Christians and add in Orthodox Jews and strict Hindus and Sikhs then 10% does not seem implausible for belief that if humanity became extinct God would be the cause. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
That doesn't make any sense. Faking a hospital bombing or rather lying about military use of it which would make it a legitimate target would not benefit the Ukrainians in the slightes since it would come out and would prevent an international response to a future event as it would be doubted.
If it doesnt benefit Russia to do it it makes even less sense and doesn't benefit Ukraine to lie about provoking it.
This seems on the same lines as 'X wouldn't do Y because theyd know it would hinder them, therefore it must be Z' yet people do counterproductive things all the time - the invasion itself being a case in point.
No, it wouldn't 'come out', and it's breathtakingly naive to suggest it would. We're on one side of this and so are our media.
We have a free media. We can see stories coming from both sides: the Ukrainian and the Russian. The Ukrainian story makes sense, even if their figures are on the high side. The Russian stories do not make sense.
(Not for the first time: they're still claiming an American astronaut drilled a hole in a Soyuz...)
You might also want to ask yourself why there is no free media in Russia. Perhaps because the regime know their stories do not hold water?
Beautiful beautiful day here. Bright blue skies, 14C, the first real day of spring
March 10! Somehow it is always March 10, the second week of March, the true end of winter.
Life is still shit, but, hey, spring. That's something
No, the true end of winter and start of spring is March 20th, so we still have 10 days of astronomical winter to go
Seriously, what is wrong with you?
Nothing, I still keep my winter coat and scarf on and drink red wine and eat winter vegetables until March 20th.
I only take off my coat and scarf and switch to white wine and salad once spring starts on March 21st
Bloody hell, Putin won't have a clue what he's up against if he takes on the English.
TBF - I live in one of the hottest parts of southern Spain - on Sep1st without fail all the Spanish women seem to switch from dresses and skirts to tights and trousers regardless of the temperature!
"Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, political news website Politico reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Mr Schröder has come under fierce criticism at home and abroad for refusing to sever his close ties to Moscow following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Several of his office staff quit last week after he insisted on keeping his senior roles at Kremlin-linked energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom. Schröder, a Social Democrat, served as German chancellor from 1998 to 2005. He has since enjoyed a lucrative business career thanks to his Russian energy roles."
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
That doesn't make any sense. Faking a hospital bombing or rather lying about military use of it which would make it a legitimate target would not benefit the Ukrainians in the slightes since it would come out and would prevent an international response to a future event as it would be doubted.
If it doesnt benefit Russia to do it it makes even less sense and doesn't benefit Ukraine to lie about provoking it.
This seems on the same lines as 'X wouldn't do Y because theyd know it would hinder them, therefore it must be Z' yet people do counterproductive things all the time - the invasion itself being a case in point.
No, it wouldn't 'come out', and it's breathtakingly naive to suggest it would. We're on one side of this and so are our media.
We have a free media. We can see stories coming from both sides: the Ukrainian and the Russian. The Ukrainian story makes sense, even if their figures are on the high side. The Russian stories do not make sense.
(Not for the first time: they're still claiming an American astronaut drilled a hole in a Soyuz...)
You might also want to ask yourself why there is no free media in Russia. Perhaps because the regime know their stories do not hold water?
I agree, there isn't a free media in Russia, and much of the propaganda that comes out of Russia is risible. But Kle4 is talking about the British media. We do have a free media, but the extent to which it is influenced, or influences itself into alignment with the state is debatable. We still had a free press in WW2, but were pro-German talking points giving an airing? Was there a raging debate on the appropriateness of Dresden in the popular press? Perhaps there was, but I doubt it.
An investigation into this hospital bombing with a pro-Russian outcome is not going to make a splash, or even a ripple. This story has done what it's done; the agenda will move on to the next dastardly thing the enemy does.
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
American football at NFL level is an incredibly specialised game. They have a dedicated "long snapper", a guy who only comes in to snap the ball back for kicks. The reason is being able to snap it back fractions of a second faster with precision can be difference between getting a kick off or not. The average wage of said player, $1 million a year.
Yep, he's one of the three kick specialists, along with the punter and the kicker.
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
Regarding the maternity hospital, the Russians claim that the hospital had ceased to function as a hospital several days ago, and had become a base for a Ukrainian military division. This seemed likely to me yesterday, even without the claims - using schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques etc. as military bases is a very common tactic of urban warfare, because when they're attacked, it's of course considered an atrocity.
One side of this conflict is in the right, one side is in the wrong, but that doesn't stop the Ukrainians from fighting a propaganda war. As Western countries, we need to be extremely conscious of this, because the Ukrainians are desperate for Western nations to attack Russia, and will use every lever possible to make this a reality.
It seems "likely" to you based on no evidence at all except Russia claims it.
No, it seemed likely to me BEFORE I read the Russians' claims. As I said, basing themselves in a building like a hospital is a common and logical tactic for a military defending urban territory. It also seemed unlikely that Russia would actively bomb a hospital full of expectant mothers and newborns, even if they were the embodiment of evil, because it would hand a propaganda coup to the other side. The other alternative was that it was a cock up, which was highly possible.
Russia has spent the last week completely leveling a Russian speaking city to the ground. After their Plan A has fallen apart, and they know they can't win militarily so hope to force Ukraine to give some concessions to avoid the sort of destruction seen in Chechnya. They have deliberately switched to a policy of terror so don't care about PR value any more. It serves their purposes that stuff is as brutal as possible.
I've seen the argument that the Russians just don't care because they now just want to kill, and the alternative riff, which is that they are attempting actively to provoke a NATO response. I really don't buy either of these. I think they're determined to plow on and are prepared to kill some civilians in the process (which is bad) but I don't think they benefit from bombing normal hospitals. Qui Bono is a sound principle, and the benefit in this to me is all the Ukrainians'.
That doesn't make any sense. Faking a hospital bombing or rather lying about military use of it which would make it a legitimate target would not benefit the Ukrainians in the slightes since it would come out and would prevent an international response to a future event as it would be doubted.
If it doesnt benefit Russia to do it it makes even less sense and doesn't benefit Ukraine to lie about provoking it.
This seems on the same lines as 'X wouldn't do Y because theyd know it would hinder them, therefore it must be Z' yet people do counterproductive things all the time - the invasion itself being a case in point.
No, it wouldn't 'come out', and it's breathtakingly naive to suggest it would. We're on one side of this and so are our media.
We have a free media. We can see stories coming from both sides: the Ukrainian and the Russian. The Ukrainian story makes sense, even if their figures are on the high side. The Russian stories do not make sense.
(Not for the first time: they're still claiming an American astronaut drilled a hole in a Soyuz...)
You might also want to ask yourself why there is no free media in Russia. Perhaps because the regime know their stories do not hold water?
I agree, there isn't a free media in Russia, and much of the propaganda that comes out of Russia is risible. But Kle4 is talking about the British media. We do have a free media, but the extent to which it is influenced, or influences itself into alignment with the state is debatable. We still had a free press in WW2, but were pro-German talking points giving an airing? Was there a raging debate on the appropriateness of Dresden in the popular press? Perhaps there was, but I doubt it.
An investigation into this hospital bombing with a pro-Russian outcome is not going to make a splash, or even a ripple. This story has done what it's done; the agenda will move on to the next dastardly thing the enemy does.
Just accept that Russia has invaded another country, and is performing acts that are, at least, slightly whiffy.
Your trolling for Russia gets ever more ridiculous.
As for WW2:Lord Haw-Haw gave the British population the German perspective on many events. The British, wisely, turned them into a comedy.
But what 'pro-German talking points' are you referring to? Can you give examples?
It was not an option, if it was the very religious would likely have got it to at least 10 to 20%
Really? When 1.5% of the population are regular attenders of religious worship, and a whole bunch of those are probably not that radically superstitious, a 10x multiplier on that number seems a bit heavy.
17% attend services at least once a month whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu etc, over a third less regularly. So wrong
Yes, but weekly attendance is at about 1.5% of the population; You can multiply up from my figure, or divide down from yours, but I don't think it is realistic to suggest that the sporadic attenders include a high proportion of zealots who genuinely believe in a vengeful old testament God in any meaningful sense that isn't covered by the actuarial "acts of god" already in the list.
Oh, and Christian church attendance is down about 15% between 2014 (your figures) and 2019, according to Statistica, so I think you'll find those numbers are probably on the high side.
Still over 10% though and still way higher than the 1.5% you said.
1.5% is just the number who attend weekly Church of England services and members of the Church of England are only a minority of Christians and Christians are only a minority of religions as a whole
My 1.5% figure is the weekly attendance in 2019. 1.5% of the population go to church in any given week. You have monthly figures for 2014. It seems that there are very, very few who go every week, so I suspect my ~5% Christians + say 3-4% "others" is pretty close. And as I say, even fewer than that would be so superstitious as to believe in literal acts of and interventionist God - so I don't see you getting up to your original suggested value of 15-20% of people believing that GOD is at least as likely as a volcano.
No, your figures are wrong.
In fact more people attend Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Baptist and Methodist services combined in the UK than Church of England services. Indeed almost as many go to Roman Catholic Mass each week than attend Church of England services. So just using Church of England weekly attendance figures is inaccurate https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html
Those who do attend will also tend to be more religious and committed in their views than past token Christians who just attended on occasion and were not as strong in their faith too. Christianity in that sense is purer in the UK than it was 50 years ago even if smaller (outside of say growing Pentecostal churches)
OK, for the sake of "it not mattering a jot" let's use your attendance figures.
You are telling me that all of them, and more, are of a mind to believe in an active, vengeful God likely to bring about the imminent destruction of humanity, and report such on a survey. Rather than of the "ambient traditional churchgoer", "community churchgoer" or "need to get their kids into the good school" variety?
It doesn't seem remotely plausible.
BUT! I feel that positions are not going to shift regardless, as we are arguing suppositions not data (in that I am happy to use your data to support my suppositions, and vice-versa).
Yes once you add in the fact that a quarter of British Muslims want Sharia law and about half think homosexuality should be illegal and 39% think wives must always obey their husbands and Muslims are growing as a percentage of the UK population. Plus that Christians in the UK are more evangelical and Bible based with the Pentecostal Church growing fastest as a percentage of UK Christians and add in Orthodox Jews and strict Hindus and Sikhs then 10% does not seem implausible for belief that if humanity became extinct God would be the cause. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law
OK, you've already lowered your expectation to "10% would not be totally unreasonable" from your original "at least 10-20%" so I think we're heading towards a consensus.
"Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western leaders have gone out of their way to condemn Putin and express their solidarity with the victims of the conflict. And yet, one cannot help but suspect that behind closed doors they are raising toasts to the Russian President.
After all, this war is nothing less than a godsend for Western elites. Domestically, it is a well-known fact that periods of international crisis or war tend to bolster the popularity of a country’s government or political leaders (the rally-around-the-flag effect) — especially if the country in question doesn’t actually have boots on the ground, and therefore coffins returning home, in which case it’s all gain and no pain."
Already frozen! OGH leading Western sanctions days and weeks ahead of HMG...and HY was maintaining that Boris Johnson was "the new leader of the West", Pah!
'Russia-Ukraine war: Jeremy Corbyn was right all along about Putin and his oligarchs
..In this column I will defend the former Labour leader against these latest attacks.
There are three good reasons for coming to the rescue of this failed politician whose time as a major player in British politics is over. The first is a simple matter of putting the record straight. Corbyn's leadership of Labour was defined by one slur and lie against him after another. The lies have started again and simple decency suggests they should be rebutted. The second is that the Tory Party and Labour establishment have their reasons for taking aim at Corbyn. He gives them an alibi. For the Tories and the Labour establishment, mocking Corbyn distracts from their own long-lived collaboration with Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs. The third reason is the most important of all. The smearing of Jeremy Corbyn tells us there is something very wrong about contemporary public discourse. The former Labour leader may be a dissident, but he speaks with deep knowledge of foreign affairs. We need more such dissident voices, not less.'
Excellent thread on relevant Russian history (esp the Russo-Jap war) and sanctions. Loved this bit:
"Economic sufferings in Russia are now absolutely obvious. Here you see two women fighting over a frying pan in the last day before IKEA closes its business in Russia"
It’s still very much first world problems in Moscow at the moment, but it’s not going to take too long before it’s bread lines and soup kitchens in many Russian cities.
Shit will really hit the fan when they default without an IMF backstop.
If they are already fighting over the last IKEA frying pan, what is going to like when they are fighting over the last bottle of vodka? Or the last potato?
Life in Russia is very, very soon going to be very, very unpleasant. But hey, nobody is bombing the shit out of their apartment blocks, or their maternity hospitals, so it could be worse....
All the Russians I have met REALLY enjoy a western-style consumer society. They LOVE western products, fashions, etc (tho I guess some can be replaced by China), they adore escaping the Russian winter and going on hols to the tropics
Putin has taken all of that away, for the next ten years Russians will be holidaying in Crimea, if they can get there over the landmines. Their roubles are now worthless so they will be eating parsnips
Putin could become wildly unpopular in a short space of time. And for what? Russia was not threatened. Such madness
Yes but I would imagine the Russians you know are more likely to be middle class and more educated, liberal and wealthier than the average Russian and living in big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg. There is resistance already to Putin there.
Out in rural Russia though where voters are less wealth off, less likely to travel abroad and less educated voters are more nationalist and more pro Putin
That's not entirely true. I have travelled quite widely in Russia and I've met a lot of ordinary Russians in remote places like the Solovetsky islands, just as much as I've met rich people in St Petersburg
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It is fascinating how polarised public opinion is by age across most countries. Hopefully the world will be a better place in a few decades when these young people can exercise more political influence everywhere, assuming we get there.
Also fascinating is the global demand for flinty phalluses, crossing borders, language and class.
Flinty Phalluses did a great John Peel session back in '77.
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
A munity on a battleship was one of the triggering points of the Russian revolution...
More details: Schröder went to meet with Putin at Ukrainian request. German government officials said weren’t informed of the initiative: Schröder didn’t bother to inform Olaf Scholz or the chancellery. 👉 https://twitter.com/florianeder/status/1501916338008338433
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
American football at NFL level is an incredibly specialised game. They have a dedicated "long snapper", a guy who only comes in to snap the ball back for kicks. The reason is being able to snap it back fractions of a second faster with precision can be difference between getting a kick off or not. The average wage of said player, $1 million a year.
Yep, he's one of the three kick specialists, along with the punter and the kicker.
Presumably they have infinite substitutions - so as soon as you lose possession for whatever reason they then all stop and switch the teams around again?
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
American football at NFL level is an incredibly specialised game. They have a dedicated "long snapper", a guy who only comes in to snap the ball back for kicks. The reason is being able to snap it back fractions of a second faster with precision can be difference between getting a kick off or not. The average wage of said player, $1 million a year.
Yep, he's one of the three kick specialists, along with the punter and the kicker.
Presumably they have infinite substitutions - so as soon as you lose possession for whatever reason they then all stop and switch the teams around again?
Yes, but they must all come from the 48 player match day squad. It happened last season that teams had injuries during the game and were left without a kicker, leading to very funny sight of people trying to kick it that haven't done so for 10+ years.
Even going from field goal kicker to punter or vice versa is very difficult. All they do is train very specific muscles for those dedicated actions, because in terms of bio-mechanics optimal punting a ball (which NFL kickers can send 80 yards) is very different from place kicking.
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
A munity on a battleship was one of the triggering points of the Russian revolution...
Flinty Phalluses did a great John Peel session back in '77.
From The Remarkable Tale of Radio 1:- When David arrived, Peel was outside the venue, done up quite smartly, and polishing his Land Rover. ‘Then an hour later when the gig started,’ David remembers, ‘John had gone into the dressing room and changed into the T-shirt with the built-in sweat stains, messed his hair up a bit, and put on his vegetarian loafers. John Peel was entirely self-created.’
More details: Schröder went to meet with Putin at Ukrainian request. German government officials said weren’t informed of the initiative: Schröder didn’t bother to inform Olaf Scholz or the chancellery. 👉 https://twitter.com/florianeder/status/1501916338008338433
It's easy to forget he was running Germany for quite a while, from 1998 to 2005.
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
A munity on a battleship was one of the triggering points of the Russian revolution...
Yes, but it was the 1905 revelation not the more fames 1917 revelations.
Also a transformative film came out of it, which while not an accurate portrayal of the events of the munity was I believe the first time a Montage was used.
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
A munity on a battleship was one of the triggering points of the Russian revolution...
"Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western leaders have gone out of their way to condemn Putin and express their solidarity with the victims of the conflict. And yet, one cannot help but suspect that behind closed doors they are raising toasts to the Russian President.
After all, this war is nothing less than a godsend for Western elites. Domestically, it is a well-known fact that periods of international crisis or war tend to bolster the popularity of a country’s government or political leaders (the rally-around-the-flag effect) — especially if the country in question doesn’t actually have boots on the ground, and therefore coffins returning home, in which case it’s all gain and no pain."
Thanks for that. I enjoy your Unherd links even though I rarely agree. He asserts "Biden, Macron, Johnson and Trudeau have all been performing abysmally in the polls". Is that true? Every poll for years shows Macron re-elected. Trudeau just has been. Boris is behind, but only recently and not greatly for a mid-term incumbent. Biden's polling is poor, but again, not unprecedentedly so. He then asserts this to be because of authoritarian responses to COVID. The only surprise is how well most governments popularity held up. The rest seems to be a thinly veiled attempt to show how the West forced Putin to invade to shore up domestic support. In short. Usual bollocks.
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
A munity on a battleship was one of the triggering points of the Russian revolution...
Yes, but it was the 1905 revelation not the more fames 1917 revelations.
Also a transformative film came out of it, which while not an accurate portrayal of the events of the munity was I believe the first time a Montage was used.
Isn't that the one with the baby's pram going down steps?
Good point about the timing: but it's part of the revolution's folklore (hence the film).
I doubt if nuclear war would lead to the extinction of humanity (it would largely result in the extinction of the British population, however).
Much of the world would be left more or less unscathed, and even a big drop in temperature would leave much of the world habitable.
Direct casualties, and then indirect casualties through cancer and starvation, would likely top a billion, but billions would live.
Nuclear war would be a very low energy event compared to the Chicxulub asteroid impact approximately 66 million years ago, and life on Earth survived that. The asteroid impact had an energy of around 100,000,000 Megatonnes of TNT. Life and humanity will survive nuclear war, but civilisation and the economy will probably be disrupted for many decades.
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
That's good news if accurate, if they do stay in port then the Ukrainians may be able to redeploy some of the forces that were tied-up in the area ready to defend/push back any amphibians invasion.
However, it may be that the ships are just pulling back to refuel resupply, having been at see for 2 weeks, and will be back out soon.
"Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western leaders have gone out of their way to condemn Putin and express their solidarity with the victims of the conflict. And yet, one cannot help but suspect that behind closed doors they are raising toasts to the Russian President.
After all, this war is nothing less than a godsend for Western elites. Domestically, it is a well-known fact that periods of international crisis or war tend to bolster the popularity of a country’s government or political leaders (the rally-around-the-flag effect) — especially if the country in question doesn’t actually have boots on the ground, and therefore coffins returning home, in which case it’s all gain and no pain."
Football bod saying on Sky typical spend for EPL club on away travel to other EPL games is £30k. Puts into perspective what a totally different world players live in.
I dread to think what is is for the NFL.
They seem to have so many players, for an 11-a-side game.
46 for any game. And it's effectively 25 a side - 11 offensive starters, 11 defensive starters, and three kick specialists who never do anything else. That leaves the other 21 for special teams, rotation and injuries.
American football at NFL level is an incredibly specialised game. They have a dedicated "long snapper", a guy who only comes in to snap the ball back for kicks. The reason is being able to snap it back fractions of a second faster with precision can be difference between getting a kick off or not. The average wage of said player, $1 million a year.
Yep, he's one of the three kick specialists, along with the punter and the kicker.
Presumably they have infinite substitutions - so as soon as you lose possession for whatever reason they then all stop and switch the teams around again?
Once the ball is next dead. So you can occasionally see a 300 pound-plus defensive player pick up a loose ball at one end of the field and try to run it back 90-plus yards...
Interesting if true. Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
A munity on a battleship was one of the triggering points of the Russian revolution...
Yes, but it was the 1905 revelation not the more fames 1917 revelations.
Also a transformative film came out of it, which while not an accurate portrayal of the events of the munity was I believe the first time a Montage was used.
Isn't that the one with the baby's pram going down steps?
And then stolen, er, given the homage treatment in The Untouchables.
Comments
We think we are lions led by donkeys. Next to them, it really ain't so.
There are all (according to my daughters), extremely woke, despise the whole Russian system and bang on about the "revolution"
I presume that comes after they have finished spending Daddies money, but I'm not sure that Putin & Co. have reckoned on what comes next....
The young, especially - of every class - are heavily oriented towards western culture and lifestyles - via the internet. They can see what everyone else has, and they were starting to get their own version. Many of them will hate this development
It has a secular equivalent. In the naturalistic secular religion of science the ultimate explanation of all things is the necessitarian outworking of ineluctable laws which themselves have no further explanation; so whether or not its climate change or bees, it is the laws of matter, particles and forces which explains everything from galaxies to Shakespeare.
Agnostics are cautious about both of these, but lack 'ultimacy' in their explanations.
That's now gone so anyone in a position to leave for elsewhere will be doing so as quickly / as safely as possible.
https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1501905372742828034?t=pl3HJCE2-q-B6xQNatBM8A&s=19
https://twitter.com/GicAriana/status/1501676938238246918?s=20&t=V8fxu2U9UeBQ2IjcRXkNjg
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-russian-gymnast-ivan-kuliak-who-brandished-z-symbol-at-competition-says-he-has-no-regrets-12560670
The majority haven't been abroad. Not to Moscow or St Petersburg either.
They are the bedrock of Putin's support.
NFL is 4d chess played at break neck speed by enormous men allegedly pumped full of PED...a split second of hesitatation and some 6ft 6' 350 pound gaint will smash into you.
In fact more people attend Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Baptist and Methodist services combined in the UK than Church of England services. Indeed almost as many go to Roman Catholic Mass each week than attend Church of England services. So just using Church of England weekly attendance figures is inaccurate
https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html
Those who do attend will also tend to be more religious and committed in their views than past token Christians who just attended on occasion and were not as strong in their faith too. Christianity in that sense is purer in the UK than it was 50 years ago even if smaller (outside of say growing Pentecostal churches).
Plus add in that at least half of Muslims would put the Koran first over UK law and add Orthodox Jews, strict Hindus and Sikhs etc too
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19983461.cumbernauld-town-centre-demolished-redeveloped-north-lanarkshire-council/?ref=ebbn
Just an example below from today of some of the layers….. the 1.5b loan for example which most likely legally has to be paid off so the money is not just going to one lot that the govt can sit on.
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2022/03/10/exclusive-jerseys-links-to-abramovichs-millions/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-platoon_system#:~:text=For the 1964 season, the,be employed in kicking situations.
If it does, would Mike have to freeze their accounts?
And it's hardly a surprise that a lot of poorer folk vote Democrat.
You are telling me that all of them, and more, are of a mind to believe in an active, vengeful God likely to bring about the imminent destruction of humanity, and report such on a survey. Rather than of the "ambient traditional churchgoer", "community churchgoer" or "need to get their kids into the good school" variety?
It doesn't seem remotely plausible.
BUT! I feel that positions are not going to shift regardless, as we are arguing suppositions not data (in that I am happy to use your data to support my suppositions, and vice-versa).
In 2020 for example 67% of non college educated whites voted for Trump and 51% of college educated whites voted for Biden (albeit Trump did 1% better with college educated non whites than non college educated non whites).
Trump did best with voters earning over $100,000 though, Biden won voters earning less than $100,000. Albeit Biden did tie Trump with the richest voters earning over $200,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election#Statistics
While they had a very powerful system ready for deployment, I don't think they got many (if any) fully into service.
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/ukraines-navy-acquires-first-neptune-cruise-missiles.html?cn-reloaded=1
Odessa residents are likely just as nervous.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/11/british-muslims-strong-sense-of-belonging-poll-homosexuality-sharia-law
(Not for the first time: they're still claiming an American astronaut drilled a hole in a Soyuz...)
You might also want to ask yourself why there is no free media in Russia. Perhaps because the regime know their stories do not hold water?
Much of the world would be left more or less unscathed, and even a big drop in temperature would leave much of the world habitable.
Direct casualties, and then indirect casualties through cancer and starvation, would likely top a billion, but billions would live.
Mr Schröder has come under fierce criticism at home and abroad for refusing to sever his close ties to Moscow following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Several of his office staff quit last week after he insisted on keeping his senior roles at Kremlin-linked energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom. Schröder, a Social Democrat, served as German chancellor from 1998 to 2005. He has since enjoyed a lucrative business career thanks to his Russian energy roles."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/10/russia-ukraine-news-latest-war-putin-zelensky-weapons-attacks/
An investigation into this hospital bombing with a pro-Russian outcome is not going to make a splash, or even a ripple. This story has done what it's done; the agenda will move on to the next dastardly thing the enemy does.
PB collective:
I missed this last night
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/michael-mosley-who-made-britain-fat
I'd presumed it would be on a catchup service.... I was wrong. Any ideas on how to find E01?
Channel 4-7 Tue 15 Mar 3:40am - 4:40am according to RT (Radio Times). Whether it will be online after that is anyone's guess.
Odesa Military Administration rep says that squadrons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet withdrew from Odesa to occupied Crimea and postponed a landing on the Odesa coast
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1501921361106771969
Your trolling for Russia gets ever more ridiculous.
As for WW2:Lord Haw-Haw gave the British population the German perspective on many events. The British, wisely, turned them into a comedy.
But what 'pro-German talking points' are you referring to? Can you give examples?
https://www.getthegloss.com/news/fast-800-keto-diet-dr-michael-mosley-explains
After all, this war is nothing less than a godsend for Western elites. Domestically, it is a well-known fact that periods of international crisis or war tend to bolster the popularity of a country’s government or political leaders (the rally-around-the-flag effect) — especially if the country in question doesn’t actually have boots on the ground, and therefore coffins returning home, in which case it’s all gain and no pain."
https://unherd.com/2022/03/america-has-won-europes-war/
"The government will use state regulation of prices for socially significant goods as a last resort, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said"
Special economic operation.
@d_d ?
Already frozen! OGH leading Western sanctions days and weeks ahead of HMG...and HY was maintaining that Boris Johnson was "the new leader of the West", Pah!
'Russia-Ukraine war: Jeremy Corbyn was right all along about Putin and his oligarchs
..In this column I will defend the former Labour leader against these latest attacks.
There are three good reasons for coming to the rescue of this failed politician whose time as a major player in British politics is over.
The first is a simple matter of putting the record straight. Corbyn's leadership of Labour was defined by one slur and lie against him after another. The lies have started again and simple decency suggests they should be rebutted.
The second is that the Tory Party and Labour establishment have their reasons for taking aim at Corbyn. He gives them an alibi. For the Tories and the Labour establishment, mocking Corbyn distracts from their own long-lived collaboration with Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs.
The third reason is the most important of all. The smearing of Jeremy Corbyn tells us there is something very wrong about contemporary public discourse. The former Labour leader may be a dissident, but he speaks with deep knowledge of foreign affairs. We need more such dissident voices, not less.'
https://twitter.com/OborneTweets/status/1501934856682426372?s=20&t=7SkCLRGPnOja-TiRdlGFpw
Also fascinating is the global demand for flinty phalluses, crossing borders, language and class.Flinty Phalluses did a great John Peel session back in '77.
Iconic Russian Car Maker, Known for Cold War Self-Reliance, Halts Production
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-car-maker-known-for-cold-war-self-reliance-idles-factories-11646828796
And Odessa featured in the story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Potemkin
Even going from field goal kicker to punter or vice versa is very difficult. All they do is train very specific muscles for those dedicated actions, because in terms of bio-mechanics optimal punting a ball (which NFL kickers can send 80 yards) is very different from place kicking.
When David arrived, Peel was outside the venue, done up quite smartly, and polishing his Land Rover. ‘Then an hour later when the gig started,’ David remembers, ‘John had gone into the dressing room and changed into the T-shirt with the built-in sweat stains, messed his hair up a bit, and put on his vegetarian loafers. John Peel was entirely self-created.’
Boris Johnson is a 2-bob John Peel tribute act.
Also a transformative film came out of it, which while not an accurate portrayal of the events of the munity was I believe the first time a Montage was used.
He asserts "Biden, Macron, Johnson and Trudeau have all been performing abysmally in the polls".
Is that true?
Every poll for years shows Macron re-elected. Trudeau just has been.
Boris is behind, but only recently and not greatly for a mid-term incumbent.
Biden's polling is poor, but again, not unprecedentedly so.
He then asserts this to be because of authoritarian responses to COVID. The only surprise is how well most governments popularity held up.
The rest seems to be a thinly veiled attempt to show how the West forced Putin to invade to shore up domestic support.
In short. Usual bollocks.
Progress. Of a sort.
Good point about the timing: but it's part of the revolution's folklore (hence the film).
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19983918.zoe-covid-study-uk-government-axes-funding/
However, it may be that the ships are just pulling back to refuel resupply, having been at see for 2 weeks, and will be back out soon.
https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1501939991479394325
Writing for Unherd, Spiked Online *and* Open Democracy is quite the range.