A revival of muscular Christianity - the church of the Templars, of Arthur and Lancelot, of Milton and Newman - is exactly what Britain needs. It is the necessary first step to regaining our cultural self confidence
Well a broken and contrite heart the Lord will not despise.
Which of the deadly sins are you going to repent of first? Pride? Wrath? Lust? Greed? Gluttony? Envy or Sloth?
Hypocrisy is not one if the big ones but we should still try and avoid it if we can.
Is someone going to explain to Leon what the phrase means?
Clue: Tom Brown's schooldays, with mens sana in corpore sano.
(Enjoy the cold showers.)
And a spot of the old flage, this hurts me more than it hurts you, stuff?
Erm. Um.
Leon is going to volunteer to run boys' clubs and manage parish football leagues in the slums of London, in between holding prayer meetings on the evils of alcohol and other drugs?
And self-abuse. Maybe he can get his stalker in to explain the dangers.
(Actually, a few too many public school Muscular Christians running the CofE is one of its current problems, I reckon.)
Oh, thanks. I forgot the cold baths. Very important.
Of all the stupid fucking shit I've read over the years on here, and that includes kjh toying with the idea of buying a Panther Kallista, the idea that it was a VVP body double in Alaska is stupidest fuckingest shit of all.
@Dura_Ace - It got worse. I almost bought a Panther J72 as well. I was within a hairs breadth. We were within £1000 of agreeing on a price. I then bought the Cobra 427 replica instead. I think you were almost as dismissive of that, although mainly on safety grounds (it is never going out in the wet), rather than me doing a Noddy impersonation.
Could be worse Mathewson’s have a Morris Minor Traveller up for sale and Mrs Eek wants it
You have to completely rebuild the fucking things every 10-15 years. Total garbage. Watch the Cambrian Classics videos on replacing the timber bits then do anything else with your money.
They are also really slow, dangerous, uncomfortable and unreliable.
Apart from all that, great fucking motors.
Tell me something I don't already know - the last thing I want is a classic car but my wife has no taste or concept of money pits...
Tell her you are getting a mistress instead. It will prove to be cheaper and less painful...
Wouldn't the Morris Minor help with that given according to @Dura_Ace it's a 'great fucking motor?'
For that purpose you are better with the MM Traveller, and an old mattress in the back, a classic passion wagon.
Chap round the back has a Traveller - he seems to keep it in the garage all the time, presumably worried about wet rot.
Though apparently some of them had plastic rather than real wood. Cheating.
Mind, another chap in the same street has wee grey Fergie tractors in his garage. Tastes vary.
Certainly having wee grey Fergie tractors rather than normal sexual partners, garage or elsewhere, is an - individual - taste?
Ambiguity is the sin that always gets found out on PB.
Six monthly tracker, and both the 16 and 45 are oddly cherry-picked. (The most recent survey is back to 37-32 belief.)
Does look like something interesting happened between August 2022 and February 2023, but not on the scale suggested here. Maybe the rapid fall of Truss caused people to say "Thank God for that".
Yes, that's a weird selection. But let's disentangle them (with the SUBSET CAVEAT in mind)
In August 2019, a total of 39% of young people believed either in God/Gods or a "spiritual greater power". Whereas 42% declared total atheism - the atheists had a narrow but clear majority
Now? In August 2025? A total of 55% of young people believe in God/Gods or a spiritual greater power, and just 32% are convinced atheists, the believers are now in the majority and by a big distance
That is a profound change, and does suggest Something is Going On
What offices can you still run for under our electoral system if you are a disqualified Director, or have previously received a 16-month prison sentence?
Six monthly tracker, and both the 16 and 45 are oddly cherry-picked. (The most recent survey is back to 37-32 belief.)
Does look like something interesting happened between August 2022 and February 2023, but not on the scale suggested here. Maybe the rapid fall of Truss caused people to say "Thank God for that".
Yes, that's a weird selection. But let's disentangle them (with the SUBSET CAVEAT in mind)
In August 2019, a total of 39% of young people believed either in God/Gods or a "spiritual greater power". Whereas 42% declared total atheism - the atheists had a narrow but clear majority
Now? In August 2025? A total of 55% of young people believe in God/Gods or a spiritual greater power, and just 32% are convinced atheists, the believers are now in the majority and by a big distance
That is a profound change, and does suggest Something is Going On
Six monthly tracker, and both the 16 and 45 are oddly cherry-picked. (The most recent survey is back to 37-32 belief.)
Does look like something interesting happened between August 2022 and February 2023, but not on the scale suggested here. Maybe the rapid fall of Truss caused people to say "Thank God for that".
Yes, that's a weird selection. But let's disentangle them (with the SUBSET CAVEAT in mind)
In August 2019, a total of 39% of young people believed either in God/Gods or a "spiritual greater power". Whereas 42% declared total atheism - the atheists had a narrow but clear majority
Now? In August 2025? A total of 55% of young people believe in God/Gods or a spiritual greater power, and just 32% are convinced atheists, the believers are now in the majority and by a big distance
That is a profound change, and does suggest Something is Going On
What’s going on, as usual, is your inability to understand basic maths.
Six monthly tracker, and both the 16 and 45 are oddly cherry-picked. (The most recent survey is back to 37-32 belief.)
Does look like something interesting happened between August 2022 and February 2023, but not on the scale suggested here. Maybe the rapid fall of Truss caused people to say "Thank God for that".
Yes, that's a weird selection. But let's disentangle them (with the SUBSET CAVEAT in mind)
In August 2019, a total of 39% of young people believed either in God/Gods or a "spiritual greater power". Whereas 42% declared total atheism - the atheists had a narrow but clear majority
Now? In August 2025? A total of 55% of young people believe in God/Gods or a spiritual greater power, and just 32% are convinced atheists, the believers are now in the majority and by a big distance
That is a profound change, and does suggest Something is Going On
What’s going on, as usual, is your inability to understand basic maths.
Look at the graph
On the 12th August 2019, of 18-24 year olds (so, yes, a SUBSET):
42% said I do not believe in any God/s or spiritual power
22% said I believe in God/s
17% said I do not believe in God/s but I do believe in a spiritual higher power
Five years later on 6th August 2025:
37% said I believe in God/s (up 15%)
18% said I I do not believe in God/s but I do believe in a spiritual higher power (up 1%)
32% said I do not believe in any of this nonsense (down 10%)
I have excluded Don't Knows coz agnostics are boring
And of course you dig into the details and find she had a visa to work and a visa to live and she now admits she didn't pay to renew the visa to actually live in the US because it seemed expensive and didn't think it was necessary. Living in the Pacific north West you will be well aware there are lots of Canadians come across that border with permission to work but not live in the US.
The detention is OTT, but people seem to haven't clocked that just ignoring the visa rules in the US is no longer an option. It's more than likely the same would have happened at any point in the past because you will be flagged as an overstayed your legal rights to be in the US.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
What offices can you still run for under our electoral system if you are a disqualified Director, or have previously received a 16-month prison sentence?
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
Putin and sincere are words that don't belong in the same sentence...
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
Yup.
At the final Japanese war cabinet meeting they faced the following
1) the idea that the Americans could only produce one atomic bomb every 2 years was exploded (ha!) by Nagasaki. Weekly was apparently possible 2) Le May was running low on cities to burn down conventionally. 3) the Japanese merchant marine had been sunk. All of it. Trade had stopped. 4) the Japanese navy wasn’t much better off. 5) a famine, caused by a poor harvest, was coming for the winter of 1945 6) the Allied invasion was imminent 7) allied aircraft anger air superiority over much of Japan itself. Allied battleships were bombarding the coast from in sight of the shore. 8) the Russians had declared war and were chopping through the Japanese army like a chainsaw through cheese.
The war cabinet was split 3-3 on
1) continue the war and lose, dying to last Japanese civilian 2) surrender
Of all the stupid fucking shit I've read over the years on here, and that includes kjh toying with the idea of buying a Panther Kallista, the idea that it was a VVP body double in Alaska is stupidest fuckingest shit of all.
Where do you think he keeps his body double, then?
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
Yup.
At the final Japanese war cabinet meeting they faced the following
1) the idea that the Americans could only produce one atomic bomb every 2 years was exploded (ha!) by Nagasaki. Weekly was apparently possible 2) Le May was running low on cities to burn down conventionally. 3) the Japanese merchant marine had been sunk. All of it. Trade had stopped. 4) the Japanese navy wasn’t much better off. 5) a famine, caused by a poor harvest, was coming for the winter of 1945 6) the Allied invasion was imminent 7) allied aircraft anger air superiority over much of Japan itself. Allied battleships were bombarding the coast from in sight of the shore. 8) the Russians had declared war and were chopping through the Japanese army like a chainsaw through cheese.
The war cabinet was split 3-3 on
1) continue the war and lose, dying to last Japanese civilian 2) surrender
The Hirohito broke the unwritten rules and voted.
I didn't know that fascinating detail about Hirohito
I met* his granddaughter last year, by the way, as she walked from consulting with her literally divine great ggggggg grandmother, the sun goddess, at the Ise Shrine
When I say "met" I mean she walked right past me, followed by a dozen Shinto priests, wearing enormous orange velvet Crocs
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
Thats where the defensive belt remains - ie Putin wants the equiv of the Sudentenland - Ukraine would be foolish if they accepted that. It would mean the end of Ukraine within a decade.
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
Yup.
At the final Japanese war cabinet meeting they faced the following
1) the idea that the Americans could only produce one atomic bomb every 2 years was exploded (ha!) by Nagasaki. Weekly was apparently possible 2) Le May was running low on cities to burn down conventionally. 3) the Japanese merchant marine had been sunk. All of it. Trade had stopped. 4) the Japanese navy wasn’t much better off. 5) a famine, caused by a poor harvest, was coming for the winter of 1945 6) the Allied invasion was imminent 7) allied aircraft anger air superiority over much of Japan itself. Allied battleships were bombarding the coast from in sight of the shore. 8) the Russians had declared war and were chopping through the Japanese army like a chainsaw through cheese.
The war cabinet was split 3-3 on
1) continue the war and lose, dying to last Japanese civilian 2) surrender
The Hirohito broke the unwritten rules and voted.
I didn't know that fascinating detail about Hirohito
I met* his granddaughter last year, by the way, as she walked from consulting with her literally divine great ggggggg grandmother, the sun goddess, at the Ise Shrine
When I say "met" I mean she walked right past me, followed by a dozen Shinto priests, wearing enormous orange velvet Crocs
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
Yup.
At the final Japanese war cabinet meeting they faced the following
1) the idea that the Americans could only produce one atomic bomb every 2 years was exploded (ha!) by Nagasaki. Weekly was apparently possible 2) Le May was running low on cities to burn down conventionally. 3) the Japanese merchant marine had been sunk. All of it. Trade had stopped. 4) the Japanese navy wasn’t much better off. 5) a famine, caused by a poor harvest, was coming for the winter of 1945 6) the Allied invasion was imminent 7) allied aircraft anger air superiority over much of Japan itself. Allied battleships were bombarding the coast from in sight of the shore. 8) the Russians had declared war and were chopping through the Japanese army like a chainsaw through cheese.
The war cabinet was split 3-3 on
1) continue the war and lose, dying to last Japanese civilian 2) surrender
The Hirohito broke the unwritten rules and voted.
I didn't know that fascinating detail about Hirohito
I met* his granddaughter last year, by the way, as she walked from consulting with her literally divine great ggggggg grandmother, the sun goddess, at the Ise Shrine
When I say "met" I mean she walked right past me, followed by a dozen Shinto priests, wearing enormous orange velvet Crocs
Interesting you didn’t know.
It was the reason the coup attempt happened, immediately afterwards.
It also sparked a major fissure between the ultra militarists and The Throne. Which led to Hirohito throwing his weight behind the more democratic elements post war - which is one of the reason that keeping the Emperor was acceptable to the US, in the end.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
Thats where the defensive belt remains - ie Putin wants the equiv of the Sudentenland - Ukraine would be foolish if they accepted that. It would mean the end of Ukraine within a decade.
They should fight on.
Yup. It’s about having a better place to kick off from, next time. See the German peace plans for Russia and France in WWI.
Zelensky and an unspecified number of European leaders expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with US delegation including Trump on Monday. Telegraph reporting.
Zelensky and an unspecified number of European leaders expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with US delegation including Trump on Monday. Telegraph reporting.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
Thats where the defensive belt remains - ie Putin wants the equiv of the Sudentenland - Ukraine would be foolish if they accepted that. It would mean the end of Ukraine within a decade.
Zelensky and an unspecified number of European leaders expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with US delegation including Trump on Monday. Telegraph reporting.
Will that include Never Here Keir, I wonder?
If there is the possibility for some more freebie tiny toiletries count him in.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Is well worth a read. It started out as a memoir by a crew member of the last conventional B29 raid on Japan - after the atomic bombs. But his research got deeper, got help from professional historians and did some primary research on what was happening in the Japanese high command at the same time.
So he recounts the sequence of events in realtime. Which included the blackout in Tokyo, caused by the raid he was flying in, which caused the coup against the Emperor to fail.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
Thats where the defensive belt remains - ie Putin wants the equiv of the Sudentenland - Ukraine would be foolish if they accepted that. It would mean the end of Ukraine within a decade.
They should fight on.
Indeed.
Low commitment people with substandard IQ think or pretend it will all go away and that they wont have to think about the issue any more.
They're probably think if Ukraine would just agree to be genocided then we could have lower energy bills and defence cuts.
The names, passport information and Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) details of up to 3,700 Afghans have potentially been compromised after Inflite The Jet Centre, which provides ground-handling services for flights at London Stansted airport, suffered a cyber-security incident.
Now of course this won’t happen to all those uploading their ids and mugs to the third party providers for authentication under the OSA.
Zelensky and an unspecified number of European leaders expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with US delegation including Trump on Monday. Telegraph reporting.
Will that include Never Here Keir, I wonder?
It should be right at the top of every European leader’s inbox.
It shouldn’t take much creative military accounting to agree to send a huge amount of US surplus kit on the way to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are already doing a pretty good job of ensuring not a lot of O&G sites, military factories, nor key railway lines West of the Urals will be there by the end of this year, as the Russian economy is now seriously falling apart.
Squeeze the Hell out of Russia until Putin surrenders, then give Trump his peace prize and we can all go back to domestic politics for a bit.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Zelensky and an unspecified number of European leaders expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with US delegation including Trump on Monday. Telegraph reporting.
Will that include Never Here Keir, I wonder?
It should be right at the top of every European leader’s inbox.
It shouldn’t take much creative military accounting to agree to send a huge amount of US surplus kit on the way to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are already doing a pretty good job of ensuring not a lot of O&G sites, military factories, nor key railway lines West of the Urals will be there by the end of this year, as the Russian economy is now seriously falling apart.
Squeeze the Hell out of Russia until Putin surrenders, then give Trump his peace prize and we can all go back to domestic politics for a bit.
Trouble is, however many military targets Ukraine KOs, Russia still occupies large parts of Ukraine.
Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy
“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour
The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.
The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.
The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.
The Bank were wrong to cut interest rates at a time when inflation is over target and rising. The Bank are a bit like the Americans who want to make up for being late in the last 2 world wars by being really early the next time. They failed to raise interest rates fast enough and now they are cutting them too quickly. A genuinely independent Bank looking at our monetary and fiscal position critically simply would not be doing this.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
The names, passport information and Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) details of up to 3,700 Afghans have potentially been compromised after Inflite The Jet Centre, which provides ground-handling services for flights at London Stansted airport, suffered a cyber-security incident.
Now of course this won’t happen to all those uploading their ids and mugs to the third party providers for authentication under the OSA.
I’ve read the header and text. I like pineapple on pizza. That’s all I understood.
The site you are looking at is not one bit, but several bits. Some of those bits are currently held in one place. @rcs1000 is moving them to another place. He's doing it in three stages: firstly the numeric address of the site, then the registration of the alphabetic address of the site. then another thing called "proxying", which I don't understand.
Websites like PB have two addresses: the alphabetic one ("politicalbetting.com") and the numeric one (34.105.39.7 in this case). The latter has to be registered for the thing to work.
When the relevant bits of PB have been moved to its new location, the mods believe that PB will be quicker and less liable to collapse
Here are three counter proposals: 1. The Ukrainians should demand a free, internationally supervised, election in Belarus. 2. The Ukrainians should demand control of St. Petersburg for the next 10 years, at which time there will be a referendum on them keeping it. 3. Putin must agree to war crimes trials for the worst of his army.
No doubt many of you can think of alternate and/or additional demands.
Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy
“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour
The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.
The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.
The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.
The Bank were wrong to cut interest rates at a time when inflation is over target and rising. The Bank are a bit like the Americans who want to make up for being late in the last 2 world wars by being really early the next time. They failed to raise interest rates fast enough and now they are cutting them too quickly. A genuinely independent Bank looking at our monetary and fiscal position critically simply would not be doing this.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
Its not going to be long before the amount we pay foreigners in interest is greater than the amount we're newly borrowing from foreigners.
Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy
“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour
The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.
The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.
The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.
The Bank were wrong to cut interest rates at a time when inflation is over target and rising. The Bank are a bit like the Americans who want to make up for being late in the last 2 world wars by being really early the next time. They failed to raise interest rates fast enough and now they are cutting them too quickly. A genuinely independent Bank looking at our monetary and fiscal position critically simply would not be doing this.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
Yet when faced with a small cut to the rise of the benefits bill, not even a real terms cut, Labour folded in the face of pressure from backbenchers.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
As my granny used to say "I want never gets".
It has been clear for months now that Putin's strategy has been to throw everything he has at gaining ground - regardless of cost in men and materiel. The losses are unsustainable. The war-footing economy: unsustainable. Putin has gambled on getting to a point where Trump will force the war to stop - or more importanlty, to freeze. That will give Putin what he cannot otherwise keep.
If Putin's gamble fails - if Trump doesn't deliver him a pause to regroup, rebuild, then return - Russia's options point forward are very limited. They can keep smashing missiles into tower blocks, hospitals, schools, they can keep grinding out a few hectares of massively mined farmland here and there. But the price is the destruction by drone of its own industrial base. Factories and refineries and storage long thought safe from all any enemy action short of MAD are now burning, night after night. Russia is just too vast to protect - especially when so much of its missile shield is based around Putin's own favoured palaces. Everything west of the Urals is now in range - and short of adequate protection.
Russia has far more of value that can be readily trashed than does Ukraine. Russians are seeing drones flying overhead, are filming as they drop in their terminal dive. Are publishing them before the authorities can close down the local internet. Putin - the strong man who would make Russia safe for Russians - is failing in that basic job. In amongst that, he is freezing bank accounts to pay for a war a Russia denuded of its hydrocarbons cash cows cannot afford.
The state of Russia is very sickly indeed. Putin desperately needs a pause that is not a loss of the war. It is no longer likely he can engineer it.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Looked at dispassionately, it’s obviously a deal the Ukrainians should take if it’s seriously on offer.
Zelensky would bite your hand off if offered frozen lines and a security guarantee. Which of course means that deal is not one that can be realistically achieved as it takes two to tango. They will have to give up more than they’ve already lost if they want it to stop, as Putin will think nothing of throwing another few million lives at grinding out the same outcome.
As for the rest of us, a dial down in nuclear risk and a chance to rebuild our conventional capability would be a good outcome.
Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy
“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour
The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.
The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.
The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.
The Bank were wrong to cut interest rates at a time when inflation is over target and rising. The Bank are a bit like the Americans who want to make up for being late in the last 2 world wars by being really early the next time. They failed to raise interest rates fast enough and now they are cutting them too quickly. A genuinely independent Bank looking at our monetary and fiscal position critically simply would not be doing this.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
Its not going to be long before the amount we pay foreigners in interest is greater than the amount we're newly borrowing from foreigners.
It was announced on Wednesday and, as always, not reported on by the media.
Our utter indifference to our ongoing trade deficit is simply bewildering. The fact that it is ignored by the same people who object to our companies and assets being sold to foreigners is just laughable. The consequences for the standard of living of people in this country is severe, more and more of what profits we do earn go abroad.
And no one wants to talk about it. Not anywhere on the political spectrum that I can detect. It is ignored because it requires hard choices. A reduction in consumption, more investment in output, a reduction in borrowing by both the general public and the government, especially the government. Things simply cannot go on like this. Whether it is a fiscal crisis in the gilt market or a monetary crisis caused by inflation something is going to have to change soon and it is not going to be pleasant.
Zelensky and an unspecified number of European leaders expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with US delegation including Trump on Monday. Telegraph reporting.
Here are three counter proposals: 1. The Ukrainians should demand a free, internationally supervised, election in Belarus. 2. The Ukrainians should demand control of St. Petersburg for the next 10 years, at which time there will be a referendum on them keeping it. 3. Putin must agree to war crimes trials for the worst of his army.
No doubt many of you can think of alternate and/or additional demands.
Demanding the Russians drop the central spans of the Crimean Bridge would be a good one...
These dipshits left schedules and protocol details on a printer in Alaska. Nothing earthshaking - menu for a lunch that didn't happen, seating chart for the bilat, revelation that Trump gave Putin a present - but it's yet another embarrassing opsec fail for a guy who ran on protecting secret info.
I’ve read the header and text. I like pineapple on pizza. That’s all I understood.
The site you are looking at is not one bit, but several bits. Some of those bits are currently held in one place. @rcs1000 is moving them to another place. He's doing it in three stages: firstly the numeric address of the site, then the registration of the alphabetic address of the site. then another thing called "proxying", which I don't understand.
Websites like PB have two addresses: the alphabetic one ("politicalbetting.com") and the numeric one (34.105.39.7 in this case). The latter has to be registered for the thing to work.
When the relevant bits of PB have been moved to its new location, the mods believe that PB will be quicker and less liable to collapse
Great development but just to say I have never found the site slow or unreliable.
Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy
“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour
The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.
The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.
The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.
The Bank were wrong to cut interest rates at a time when inflation is over target and rising. The Bank are a bit like the Americans who want to make up for being late in the last 2 world wars by being really early the next time. They failed to raise interest rates fast enough and now they are cutting them too quickly. A genuinely independent Bank looking at our monetary and fiscal position critically simply would not be doing this.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
Yet when faced with a small cut to the rise of the benefits bill, not even a real terms cut, Labour folded in the face of pressure from backbenchers.
This country is fucked, deservedly so.
The limits on our autonomy were Liz Truss's one significant contribution during her short, benighted Premiership. We are so much closer to the edge than we want to acknowledge. And we are getting closer every month.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Looked at dispassionately, it’s obviously a deal the Ukrainians should take if it’s seriously on offer.
Zelensky would bite your hand off if offered frozen lines and a security guarantee. Which of course means that deal is not one that can be realistically achieved as it takes two to tango. They will have to give up more than they’ve already lost if they want it to stop, as Putin will think nothing of throwing another few million lives at grinding out the same outcome.
As for the rest of us, a dial down in nuclear risk and a chance to rebuild our conventional capability would be a good outcome.
Giving up the whole of Donetsk is a very bad move for Ukr because of the defensive line they have created.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Leon can't tell the difference between the Sudetenland and Korea when he chucks out daft metaphors.
And it's not "BREAKING"; the idea that Ukraine hand over its hard built fortifications in exchange for a ceasefire was what Witkoff reported after his visit to Putin. With the (mistaken) addition that Russia would offer territory in return.
It was a non starter then, and is still.
As for "if this is sincere", Putin has broken just about every agreement he's entered into.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
They are up for a deal. They'd accept loss of territory if the residual was given meaningful security guarantees leading to a European not Russian future. But it's not on offer.
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
The message it sent to the Soviets was "you guys had better get some of these too and sharpish".
Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy
“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour
The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.
The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.
The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.
The Bank were wrong to cut interest rates at a time when inflation is over target and rising. The Bank are a bit like the Americans who want to make up for being late in the last 2 world wars by being really early the next time. They failed to raise interest rates fast enough and now they are cutting them too quickly. A genuinely independent Bank looking at our monetary and fiscal position critically simply would not be doing this.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
Its not going to be long before the amount we pay foreigners in interest is greater than the amount we're newly borrowing from foreigners.
It was announced on Wednesday and, as always, not reported on by the media.
Our utter indifference to our ongoing trade deficit is simply bewildering. The fact that it is ignored by the same people who object to our companies and assets being sold to foreigners is just laughable. The consequences for the standard of living of people in this country is severe, more and more of what profits we do earn go abroad.
And no one wants to talk about it. Not anywhere on the political spectrum that I can detect. It is ignored because it requires hard choices. A reduction in consumption, more investment in output, a reduction in borrowing by both the general public and the government, especially the government. Things simply cannot go on like this. Whether it is a fiscal crisis in the gilt market or a monetary crisis caused by inflation something is going to have to change soon and it is not going to be pleasant.
Politically, it's taboo because everyone is complicit and has been for decades.
Parties in government have gone along with it, because it allows them to tell voters that they're richer than they really are. Parties who want to be in government have to go along with it, or they don't get to be in government. Voters go along with it, because who wants to admit that we're not as rich as we would like?
I wouldn't mind so much if I could see where the money all went.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
They are up for a deal. They'd accept loss of territory if the residual was given meaningful security guarantees leading to a European not Russian future. But it's not on offer.
I think it is too early to say that that’s not on offer. It might be.
Can’t believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer who sobbed and blubbed in the House of Commons because mean people said hurty things turns out to be catastrophically useless at running the UK economy
“The "When the Facts Change" post I wrote a couple of days ago is becoming more relevant by the hour
The UK 30-year gilt yield is now approaching 5.6pc.
The Bank of England CUT the policy rate by 25 basis points last Thursday.
The UK's long-term sovereign borrowing cost has meanwhile gone UP by almost 25bps.
The Bank were wrong to cut interest rates at a time when inflation is over target and rising. The Bank are a bit like the Americans who want to make up for being late in the last 2 world wars by being really early the next time. They failed to raise interest rates fast enough and now they are cutting them too quickly. A genuinely independent Bank looking at our monetary and fiscal position critically simply would not be doing this.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
The tendency to overcompensate for previous errors isn't due to lack of independence, I don't think. It's more a general human failing from which BoE decision makers are not exempt.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
Yup.
At the final Japanese war cabinet meeting they faced the following
1) the idea that the Americans could only produce one atomic bomb every 2 years was exploded (ha!) by Nagasaki. Weekly was apparently possible 2) Le May was running low on cities to burn down conventionally. 3) the Japanese merchant marine had been sunk. All of it. Trade had stopped. 4) the Japanese navy wasn’t much better off. 5) a famine, caused by a poor harvest, was coming for the winter of 1945 6) the Allied invasion was imminent 7) allied aircraft anger air superiority over much of Japan itself. Allied battleships were bombarding the coast from in sight of the shore. 8) the Russians had declared war and were chopping through the Japanese army like a chainsaw through cheese.
The war cabinet was split 3-3 on
1) continue the war and lose, dying to last Japanese civilian 2) surrender
The Hirohito broke the unwritten rules and voted.
Was he “the Hirohito”? I assumed it was his first name (ie “Hirohito, the Emperor”)
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
The problem with that school of thought is that it is directly contradicted by the actual history.
This SoT used the discussions of *what would follow from the dropping of the bombs* to claim that one item on the list was the primary reason for dropping the bombs.
As Richard Rhodes detailed, the reason for dropping the bomb was actually that no one decided not to drop them. The assumption from the start of the Manhattan Project was that 2 bombs on Nazi Germany or Japan would end the war. 2 because physicists around the world thought it might take years to make each bomb. 2 would prove a production line existed.
Germany surrendered before the bomb was ready. So the target became Japan, automatically.
The bombs existed, they were assumed to end the war, they were dropped to do so.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
They are up for a deal. They'd accept loss of territory if the residual was given meaningful security guarantees leading to a European not Russian future. But it's not on offer.
I think it is too early to say that that’s not on offer. It might be.
It looks a distant prospect to me given the mindsets of Trump and Putin.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important to you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
The message it sent to the Soviets was "you guys had better get some of these too and sharpish".
Except the Soviet nuclear weapons program started in 1942, spurred in part by a scientist noticing that the Yanks and British had stopped publishing scientific papers on atomic science. As ever, his spies were also rather helpful.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
Well yes. Most people would pick up a rifle to defend their families. There are a few out there but I’ve never met a Brit prepared to die for Ukrainian sovereignty over the Donbas.
If a deal is struck, we then enter a period of serious work, to shore up continental defence capabilities. But with a strong enough conventional deterrent then in place, western civ would be in a far less precarious place than it is today.
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
The message it sent to the Soviets was "you guys had better get some of these too and sharpish".
Except the Soviet nuclear weapons program started in 1942, spurred in part by a scientist noticing that the Yanks and British had stopped publishing scientific papers on atomic science. As ever, his spies were also rather helpful.
The new Neal Stephenson trilogy - Bomblight - is all about the Russian atomic bomb project.
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
The message it sent to the Soviets was "you guys had better get some of these too and sharpish".
Except the Soviet nuclear weapons program started in 1942, spurred in part by a scientist noticing that the Yanks and British had stopped publishing scientific papers on atomic science. As ever, his spies were also rather helpful.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
Which is why I said "we must hasten to shore up Ukrainian defences, so Putin cannot do it again, as he would face certain defeat"
Does that sound like I am convinced that all will be "sweetness and light" at the end of this? No, it does not. So stop creating straw men
As for Putin's offer, I am not saying Ukraine must now instantly agree to all of Putin's terms - that would be absurd - I am saying that as an offer is being made, perhaps there is a deal to be done
The fact is, neither side can win this war. Putin is not strong enough to take all of Ukraine, but - crucially - nor can he be defeated. Why? Because
1. he has nukes
and, apparently forgotten by all the tiny tin soldiers on PB -
2. China, easily as powerful here as America, has said it will not allow Russia to be defeated
"China tells EU it can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine, official says"
China is the world's largest trading economy, the largest economy by PPP, and the world's biggest manufacturer. If it wants to keep Russia in the war it can do so for eternity, providing materiel and money
So there we have it. Neither side can win. Putin can't beat Ukraine backed by Europe, but Ukraine, no matter how much help we give it, cannot beat Russia backed by China
Ergo, at some point a deal will be done. The question is, where and when. Perhaps starting here and now would save some lives
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
The message it sent to the Soviets was "you guys had better get some of these too and sharpish".
Except the Soviet nuclear weapons program started in 1942, spurred in part by a scientist noticing that the Yanks and British had stopped publishing scientific papers on atomic science. As ever, his spies were also rather helpful.
The new Neal Stephenson trilogy - Bomblight - is all about the Russian atomic bomb project.
Are you sure that's a Neal Stephenson story - book 1 looks to be 1/3 of his normal length...
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
Well yes. Most people would pick up a rifle to defend their families. There are a few out there but I’ve never met a Brit prepared to die for Ukrainian sovereignty over the Donbas.
If a deal is struck, we then enter a period of serious work, to shore up continental defence capabilities. But with a strong enough conventional deterrent then in place, western civ would be in a far less precarious place than it is today.
Which is why "go and enlist then" is not much of a riposte to somebody arguing that for Ukraine no deal is better than a bad deal.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
A discursive piece by old c-word (contrarian) Peter Hitchens, sometimes eccentric but usually interesting. I hadn’t heard of the theory that Japan surrendered to stop Russia/USSR gobbling up more Japanese territory, quite convincing.
The Russian invasion of Japan is a frequently-given reason for Japan ending the war, especially amongst the anti-nuke people.
IMV, and IANAE etc etc, the reason they capitulated was *everything* they faced. Japan was facing obliteration in several different ways: from a Soviet invasion; an American/allied invasion; firebombing of its cities and industry, the effective loss of China and Korea (because of sea blockade) and finally, the new weapon. The emperor and the army could probably believe they could withstand and fight off one or two of these; but all of them, at once?
And even then, there were many who still thought it was the wrong thing to do. Hence the attempted coup and the Kyojo incident.
There is also a school of thought that the primary reason for dropping the atomic bombs was to sent a message to the Soviets rather than to hasten the end of the war. It was obvious that Japan was beaten, and the idea that the Japanese would otherwise fight on to the last civilian was more propaganda than actual military thinking.
The message it sent to the Soviets was "you guys had better get some of these too and sharpish".
Except the Soviet nuclear weapons program started in 1942, spurred in part by a scientist noticing that the Yanks and British had stopped publishing scientific papers on atomic science. As ever, his spies were also rather helpful.
The new Neal Stephenson trilogy - Bomblight - is all about the Russian atomic bomb project.
Any good ? Or should we just reread Rhodes' Dark Sun ?
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Was he “the Hirohito”? I assumed it was his first name (ie “Hirohito, the Emperor”)
It was his only name -- the Japanese imperial dynasty has no name, and its members have no surname/family name. Since he's dead, you can also now refer to him by his era name (Emperor Shōwa).
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
The only sensible thing for Putin to do is to settle for Crimea and whatever scraps are Russian favourable. If a deal is struck which leaves a whole load of Ukrainians focused on reclaiming territory then eventually they will do just that.
Meanwhile it baffles me that we in the UK allow Russians to swan about, trade in their usual corrupt manner, and generally look like a Tesco bag with a wallet in our country.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
that like the last guarantee that was fecking useless
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Boots in the ground, or it's an empty promise. We've bern here before (Minsk, etc) to know that promises mean nothing. And a similar promise from Trump less than nothing.
If Europe designs a deal which Europe has the capacity to enforce, then that might be a different matter. Trump has made it clear, repeatedly, that the US won't take any kind of military role.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine had security guarantees after it gave away its nukes. They were meaningless. So will these be.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
Which is why I said "we must hasten to shore up Ukrainian defences, so Putin cannot do it again, as he would face certain defeat"
Does that sound like I am convinced that all will be "sweetness and light" at the end of this? No, it does not. So stop creating straw men
As for Putin's offer, I am not saying Ukraine must now instantly agree to all of Putin's terms - that would be absurd - I am saying that as an offer is being made, perhaps there is a deal to be done
The fact is, neither side can win this war. Putin is not strong enough to take all of Ukraine, but - crucially - nor can he be defeated. Why? Because
1. he has nukes
and, apparently forgotten by all the tiny tin soldiers on PB -
2. China, easily as powerful here as America, has said it will not allow Russia to be defeated
"China tells EU it can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine, official says"
China is the world's largest trading economy, the largest economy by PPP, and the world's biggest manufacturer. If it wants to keep Russia in the war it can do so for eternity, providing materiel and money
So there we have it. Neither side can win. Putin can't beat Ukraine backed by Europe, but Ukraine, no matter how much help we give it, cannot beat Russia backed by China
Ergo, at some point a deal will be done. The question is, where and when. Perhaps starting here and now would save some lives
you would have been waving a bit of paper in 1938, how cowardly and pathetic can you be.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important to you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
Luckily it is feck all to do with you and also that Ukranians are not yellow belly cowards who would give up.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine had security guarantees after it gave away its nukes. They were meaningless. So will these be.
Effectively it's "here's a deal I made with my friend Vlad. You (Europe) get to commit tens of thousands of men, and billions in armament, to enforce it. We'll give you moral support."
That makes zero sense.
If we have the capacity to enforce the deal, we should negotiate it.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine had security guarantees after it gave away its nukes. They were meaningless. So will these be.
Something of which the Ukrainians are well aware. They’ll want to see exactly what the security guarantees look like in practice - in terms of border walls, air and ground defences, and peacekeeping troops on the ground.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine had security guarantees after it gave away its nukes. They were meaningless. So will these be.
Something of which the Ukrainians are well aware. They’ll want to see exactly what the security guarantees look like in practice - in terms of border walls, air and ground defences, and peacekeeping troops on the ground.
"Hackers capture personal data of former Tory ministers, British troops and thousands of Afghans allies in latest Ministry of Defence blunder By David Williams"
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Looked at dispassionately, it’s obviously a deal the Ukrainians should take if it’s seriously on offer.
Zelensky would bite your hand off if offered frozen lines and a security guarantee. Which of course means that deal is not one that can be realistically achieved as it takes two to tango. They will have to give up more than they’ve already lost if they want it to stop, as Putin will think nothing of throwing another few million lives at grinding out the same outcome.
As for the rest of us, a dial down in nuclear risk and a chance to rebuild our conventional capability would be a good outcome.
they had guarantee before and US and UK welched on it , same would happen again when the arsescame back in a year or two and they have all the Ukraine defenses, bollox offer
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine had security guarantees after it gave away its nukes. They were meaningless. So will these be.
Effectively it's "here's a deal I made with my friend Vlad. You (Europe) get to commit tens of thousands of men, and billions in armament, to enforce it. We'll give you moral support."
That makes zero sense.
If we have the capacity to enforce the deal, we should negotiate it.
That will probably be the case. We i.e. Europe, need to treat Trump’s America as the scumbags they are.
Zelensky and an unspecified number of European leaders expected to travel to Washington for a meeting with US delegation including Trump on Monday. Telegraph reporting.
Will that include Never Here Keir, I wonder?
he will be there grovelling and butt licking Trump as usual
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Looked at dispassionately, it’s obviously a deal the Ukrainians should take if it’s seriously on offer.
Zelensky would bite your hand off if offered frozen lines and a security guarantee. Which of course means that deal is not one that can be realistically achieved as it takes two to tango. They will have to give up more than they’ve already lost if they want it to stop, as Putin will think nothing of throwing another few million lives at grinding out the same outcome.
As for the rest of us, a dial down in nuclear risk and a chance to rebuild our conventional capability would be a good outcome.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yeard away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Stop you're self-satisfied self-pity.
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
Off you go then, Sergeant Small Dick Energy: go join the foreign legion in Kherson. They are there, including Brits - I met a couple on my travels
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important tou you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
I would fight and rush death to prevent the Russian invasion of Britain.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
A Korea style armistice only works if there is credible deterrence of a repeat invasion.
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine. The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Torygraph:
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine had security guarantees after it gave away its nukes. They were meaningless. So will these be.
Something of which the Ukrainians are well aware. They’ll want to see exactly what the security guarantees look like in practice - in terms of border walls, air and ground defences, and peacekeeping troops on the ground.
I can tell them now. There won't be any.
To be fair to Trump that is not quite accurate. He may well generously offer security guarantees he will immediately renege on.
BREAKING: Putin demands Ukraine surrender Donetsk in exchange for peace
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
So Russia cannot gain it so it wants to be given it.
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
Er, it also means thousands of dead Ukrainians. Maybe tens of thousands
End the war. Do a Korea
By 'do a Korea' do you mean that £50k US troops will be stationed in Ukraine with nuclear weapons ?
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
Sweet Jesus, are we back to "stop it, you're lowering PB morale"?
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Looked at dispassionately, it’s obviously a deal the Ukrainians should take if it’s seriously on offer.
Zelensky would bite your hand off if offered frozen lines and a security guarantee. Which of course means that deal is not one that can be realistically achieved as it takes two to tango. They will have to give up more than they’ve already lost if they want it to stop, as Putin will think nothing of throwing another few million lives at grinding out the same outcome.
As for the rest of us, a dial down in nuclear risk and a chance to rebuild our conventional capability would be a good outcome.
another idiot, a bollox offer indeed.
What’s the counterfactual? Keep fighting an endless attritional war against a country that has a population 3-4x your own and is essentially being bankrolled by China and India? And that has a seemingly infinite political capacity to absorb battlefield losses?
I do not envy Zelensky, there are no good options available to him. There was a window for a fast moving manoeuvre warfare victory, it was in late 2022. But the moment was lost. By summer 2023 the chance had gone.
Comments
In August 2019, a total of 39% of young people believed either in God/Gods or a "spiritual greater power". Whereas 42% declared total atheism - the atheists had a narrow but clear majority
Now? In August 2025? A total of 55% of young people believe in God/Gods or a spiritual greater power, and just 32% are convinced atheists, the believers are now in the majority and by a big distance
That is a profound change, and does suggest Something is Going On
https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/1956702674751021330?s=61
2025q2 -0.1%
2025q1 +0.3%
2024q4 +0.2%
2024q3 0.0%
2024q2 -0.3%
2024q1 -0.1%
2023q4 -0.3%
2023q3 0.0%
2023q2 -0.1%
2023q1 -0.5%
2022q4 -0.3%
2022q3 +0.3%
https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/gdp-growth
Perhaps Germany should join the Single Market. Oh wait ...
On the 12th August 2019, of 18-24 year olds (so, yes, a SUBSET):
42% said I do not believe in any God/s or spiritual power
22% said I believe in God/s
17% said I do not believe in God/s but I do believe in a spiritual higher power
Five years later on 6th August 2025:
37% said I believe in God/s (up 15%)
18% said I I do not believe in God/s but I do believe in a spiritual higher power (up 1%)
32% said I do not believe in any of this nonsense (down 10%)
I have excluded Don't Knows coz agnostics are boring
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/trackers/brits-beliefs-about-gods?crossBreak=1824
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/16/new-zealand-woman-and-six-year-old-son-released-from-us-detention
And of course you dig into the details and find she had a visa to work and a visa to live and she now admits she didn't pay to renew the visa to actually live in the US because it seemed expensive and didn't think it was necessary. Living in the Pacific north West you will be well aware there are lots of Canadians come across that border with permission to work but not live in the US.
The detention is OTT, but people seem to haven't clocked that just ignoring the visa rules in the US is no longer an option. It's more than likely the same would have happened at any point in the past because you will be flagged as an overstayed your legal rights to be in the US.
Telegraph
If that is correct, and Putin is "sincere", then the Ukes should take that. It's a dismal outcome, but continuing this horrific war is even worse
I'd be slightly surprised in this is a genuine offer. Putin will have sacrificed 100,000s of his young men for a fairly impoverished coalmining bit of East Ukraine. Will his nationalist supporters buy that?
Continuing the war is far, far better as it steadily ruins the Russian economy, destroys the Russian military and kills hundred of thousands more Russians.
The underlying fact that Europeans leaders need to remember is:
THE MORE DEAD RUSSIANS THE BETTER.
End the war. Do a Korea
At the final Japanese war cabinet meeting they faced the following
1) the idea that the Americans could only produce one atomic bomb every 2 years was exploded (ha!) by Nagasaki. Weekly was apparently possible
2) Le May was running low on cities to burn down conventionally.
3) the Japanese merchant marine had been sunk. All of it. Trade had stopped.
4) the Japanese navy wasn’t much better off.
5) a famine, caused by a poor harvest, was coming for the winter of 1945
6) the Allied invasion was imminent
7) allied aircraft anger air superiority over much of Japan itself. Allied battleships were bombarding the coast from in sight of the shore.
8) the Russians had declared war and were chopping through the Japanese army like a chainsaw through cheese.
The war cabinet was split 3-3 on
1) continue the war and lose, dying to last Japanese civilian
2) surrender
The Hirohito broke the unwritten rules and voted.
I met* his granddaughter last year, by the way, as she walked from consulting with her literally divine great ggggggg grandmother, the sun goddess, at the Ise Shrine
When I say "met" I mean she walked right past me, followed by a dozen Shinto priests, wearing enormous orange velvet Crocs
They should fight on.
It was the reason the coup attempt happened, immediately afterwards.
It also sparked a major fissure between the ultra militarists and The Throne. Which led to Hirohito throwing his weight behind the more democratic elements post war - which is one of the reason that keeping the Emperor was acceptable to the US, in the end.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/critical-importance-ukraine’s-fortress-belt-donetsk-oblast
Nor did South Korea give up any land.
You really do have a substandard IQ.
Nor do you give a toss about the Ukrainians, if you did you would support them.
Instead you just want to give Russia whatever it wants because you're bored and lack commitment.
https://amzn.eu/d/ifJZttw
Is well worth a read. It started out as a memoir by a crew member of the last conventional B29 raid on Japan - after the atomic bombs. But his research got deeper, got help from professional historians and did some primary research on what was happening in the Japanese high command at the same time.
So he recounts the sequence of events in realtime. Which included the blackout in Tokyo, caused by the raid he was flying in, which caused the coup against the Emperor to fail.
Low commitment people with substandard IQ think or pretend it will all go away and that they wont have to think about the issue any more.
They're probably think if Ukraine would just agree to be genocided then we could have lower energy bills and defence cuts.
Now of course this won’t happen to all those uploading their ids and mugs to the third party providers for authentication under the OSA.
It shouldn’t take much creative military accounting to agree to send a huge amount of US surplus kit on the way to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are already doing a pretty good job of ensuring not a lot of O&G sites, military factories, nor key railway lines West of the Urals will be there by the end of this year, as the Russian economy is now seriously falling apart.
Squeeze the Hell out of Russia until Putin surrenders, then give Trump his peace prize and we can all go back to domestic politics for a bit.
I've been to Ukraine, during this war. Twice. You have not.
I've been to Lviv, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Odesa, all over. I've been in trains and buses and taxis - and bomb shelters. I've been on an Odesan boulevard as a chunk of drone hit the road creating the loudest, most terrifying noise I've ever heard. I've watched from a hotel balcony as Putin tried to bomb my very hotel, at night. The next night a missile took out a building about 300 yards away, as I slept
I've met dozens of Ukrainians of all ages, I've seen the flags of the dead in Maidan square, I've seen all the young men in crutches, missing limbs, in wheelchairs. I've had drinks with Ukrainians and listened to them casually say "oh yes, my three best friends from college are already dead, I'm going back to the front tomorrow, I'm not expecting to survive"
And so on, and so forth
I don't want any more of them to die. I like Ukrainians. I also like Russians (even as I despise their regime). I don't want them to die, either. I like humans in general, and I have a special fondness for young humans, who are the future, I don't want them to die
If the war can be stopped in a way that ends the killing while securing most of Ukraine (ex Donetsk) they should try and do that deal. We will then need to shore up Ukraine's defences, indeed all our defences, so Putin can never try this again because he would meet with certain defeat
So, with all due respect, go jump in a toxic lake
Wars are are bad but sometimes they have to be fought.
And its a lot better for the Ukrainians to fight this war now than after giving Russia a few years to recover,
Want some proof ?
Then think about this:
Do you think that a PM Farage, who you so yearn for, would send the British military to defence Ukraine from another Russian invasion ?
No he wouldn't and we all know it.
So stop all your mealy-mouthed mendacity about shoring up defences.
You don't want to shore up Ukraine's defences, you want to give then to Russia.
1) Tell Ukraine to give up its defensive positions.
2) Say we should shore up Ukraine's defences at some point in the future.
3) Yearn for a politician with Putinist sympathies to become prime minister.
Our gilt rates are a massive concern, in some ways an even greater concern than what Reeves is going to have to do to keep her financial rules (daft though they are) at the budget. We are basically being assessed as an ever increasing risk and borrowing is becoming ever more expensive as a result. Those who do not see the urgency of radical steps to reduce our borrowing requirement in the face of this are frankly simply delusional.
Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5504196/trump-putin-summit-documents-left-behind
Websites like PB have two addresses: the alphabetic one ("politicalbetting.com") and the numeric one (34.105.39.7 in this case). The latter has to be registered for the thing to work.
When the relevant bits of PB have been moved to its new location, the mods believe that PB will be quicker and less liable to collapse
1. The Ukrainians should demand a free, internationally supervised, election in Belarus.
2. The Ukrainians should demand control of St. Petersburg for the next 10 years, at which time there will be a referendum on them keeping it.
3. Putin must agree to war crimes trials for the worst of his army.
No doubt many of you can think of alternate and/or additional demands.
Meanwhile the Q2 trade balance has worsened:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/timeseries/ikbj/mret
It was announced on Wednesday and, as always, not reported on by the media.
This country is fucked, deservedly so.
It has been clear for months now that Putin's strategy has been to throw everything he has at gaining ground - regardless of cost in men and materiel. The losses are unsustainable. The war-footing economy: unsustainable. Putin has gambled on getting to a point where Trump will force the war to stop - or more importanlty, to freeze. That will give Putin what he cannot otherwise keep.
If Putin's gamble fails - if Trump doesn't deliver him a pause to regroup, rebuild, then return - Russia's options point forward are very limited. They can keep smashing missiles into tower blocks, hospitals, schools, they can keep grinding out a few hectares of massively mined farmland here and there. But the price is the destruction by drone of its own industrial base. Factories and refineries and storage long thought safe from all any enemy action short of MAD are now burning, night after night. Russia is just too vast to protect - especially when so much of its missile shield is based around Putin's own favoured palaces. Everything west of the Urals is now in range - and short of adequate protection.
Russia has far more of value that can be readily trashed than does Ukraine. Russians are seeing drones flying overhead, are filming as they drop in their terminal dive. Are publishing them before the authorities can close down the local internet. Putin - the strong man who would make Russia safe for Russians - is failing in that basic job. In amongst that, he is freezing bank accounts to pay for a war a Russia denuded of its hydrocarbons cash cows cannot afford.
The state of Russia is very sickly indeed. Putin desperately needs a pause that is not a loss of the war. It is no longer likely he can engineer it.
Zelensky would bite your hand off if offered frozen lines and a security guarantee. Which of course means that deal is not one that can be realistically achieved as it takes two to tango. They will have to give up more than they’ve already lost if they want it to stop, as Putin will think nothing of throwing another few million lives at grinding out the same outcome.
As for the rest of us, a dial down in nuclear risk and a chance to rebuild our conventional capability would be a good outcome.
And no one wants to talk about it. Not anywhere on the political spectrum that I can detect. It is ignored because it requires hard choices. A reduction in consumption, more investment in output, a reduction in borrowing by both the general public and the government, especially the government. Things simply cannot go on like this. Whether it is a fiscal crisis in the gilt market or a monetary crisis caused by inflation something is going to have to change soon and it is not going to be pleasant.
These dipshits left schedules and protocol details on a printer in Alaska. Nothing earthshaking - menu for a lunch that didn't happen, seating chart for the bilat, revelation that Trump gave Putin a present - but it's yet another embarrassing opsec fail for a guy who ran on protecting secret info.
https://bsky.app/profile/helenkennedy.bsky.social/post/3lwjk42rb5c2i
Giving up the whole of Donetsk is a very bad move for Ukr because of the defensive line they have created.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/critical-importance-ukraine’s-fortress-belt-donetsk-oblast
Of course Putin wants that line out of the picture so he can regroup and try again in a couple of years.
And it's not "BREAKING"; the idea that Ukraine hand over its hard built fortifications in exchange for a ceasefire was what Witkoff reported after his visit to Putin.
With the (mistaken) addition that Russia would offer territory in return.
It was a non starter then, and is still.
As for "if this is sincere", Putin has broken just about every agreement he's entered into.
The old Leon was smarter than this one.
Parties in government have gone along with it, because it allows them to tell voters that they're richer than they really are. Parties who want to be in government have to go along with it, or they don't get to be in government. Voters go along with it, because who wants to admit that we're not as rich as we would like?
I wouldn't mind so much if I could see where the money all went.
This SoT used the discussions of *what would follow from the dropping of the bombs* to claim that one item on the list was the primary reason for dropping the bombs.
As Richard Rhodes detailed, the reason for dropping the bomb was actually that no one decided not to drop them. The assumption from the start of the Manhattan Project was that 2 bombs on Nazi Germany or Japan would end the war. 2 because physicists around the world thought it might take years to make each bomb. 2 would prove a production line existed.
Germany surrendered before the bomb was ready. So the target became Japan, automatically.
The bombs existed, they were assumed to end the war, they were dropped to do so.
If you are so determined to sacrifice lives for this purpose, as it is so important to you that the war continues, I suggest you have a bash, yourself
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that after Russia wins, all is sweetness and light.
If a deal is struck, we then enter a period of serious work, to shore up continental defence capabilities. But with a strong enough conventional deterrent then in place, western civ would be in a far less precarious place than it is today.
Does that sound like I am convinced that all will be "sweetness and light" at the end of this? No, it does not. So stop creating straw men
As for Putin's offer, I am not saying Ukraine must now instantly agree to all of Putin's terms - that would be absurd - I am saying that as an offer is being made, perhaps there is a deal to be done
The fact is, neither side can win this war. Putin is not strong enough to take all of Ukraine, but - crucially - nor can he be defeated. Why? Because
1. he has nukes
and, apparently forgotten by all the tiny tin soldiers on PB -
2. China, easily as powerful here as America, has said it will not allow Russia to be defeated
"China tells EU it can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine, official says"
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/04/europe/china-ukraine-eu-war-intl
China is the world's largest trading economy, the largest economy by PPP, and the world's biggest manufacturer. If it wants to keep Russia in the war it can do so for eternity, providing materiel and money
So there we have it. Neither side can win. Putin can't beat Ukraine backed by Europe, but Ukraine, no matter how much help we give it, cannot beat Russia backed by China
Ergo, at some point a deal will be done. The question is, where and when. Perhaps starting here and now would save some lives
Surrendering Ukraine's most defensible fortifications in return for little more than a promise, from a guy who has broken every one he's made, does absolutely nothing to provide that.
Trump's US has been crystal clear that it won't provide any of that future deterrence, or a tingle US soldier in Ukraine.
The only conceivable deal can obviously be negotiated only with Europe.
For now Putin refuses to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign nation, has refused every offer of direct discussions with Zelensky (whom he's still trying to murder), and continues demanding further territory be given to him.
Any peace starts with Europe actually getting its act together; it won't come from anything designed by Putin. Or for that matter, Trump.
Or should we just reread Rhodes' Dark Sun ?
US ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, Merz says
The United States is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday.
Mr Merz was speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF after being briefed together with other European leaders by Donald Trump on his talks with Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile it baffles me that we in the UK allow Russians to swan about, trade in their usual corrupt manner, and generally look like a Tesco bag with a wallet in our country.
We've bern here before (Minsk, etc) to know that promises mean nothing.
And a similar promise from Trump less than nothing.
If Europe designs a deal which Europe has the capacity to enforce, then that might be a different matter.
Trump has made it clear, repeatedly, that the US won't take any kind of military role.
We'll give you moral support."
That makes zero sense.
If we have the capacity to enforce the deal, we should negotiate it.
By David Williams"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15005041/Hackers-personal-data-former-Tory-ministers-British-troops-thousands-Afghans-allies-latest-Ministry-Defence-blunder.html
I do not envy Zelensky, there are no good options available to him. There was a window for a fast moving manoeuvre warfare victory, it was in late 2022. But the moment was lost. By summer 2023 the chance had gone.