The problem is that the basic claim, never mind the leaning tower of nonsense he builds on it, is entirely fictional.
It's actually about a move * to discourage use of Oasis flower foam, because it is petroleum based and leaves behind residue that that lasts centuries in the soil; in a churchyard that is held for 1000 years that is important. And there are alternatives available to Oasis. There's also a move to encourage use of local flowers, which I would expect to be supported by nationalists of the JRM ilk.
I think he is perhaps just reacting to twitter, and has a marketing need to fondle his outraged minority.
* For nerds, this is a nice illustration of how it works. A parish voted on a motion, which has gone up through the system and is now in General Synod, and JRM is having a fugue.
When he was an MP though Jacob as a Roman Catholic never voted on Church of England matters in Parliament
Perhaps he's going to defect.
To the CoE?
Unlikely now it has a female Archbishop, Jacob believes the Pope is the heir of St Peter
@patrickwintour For some reason the US tried to bury its national defence strategy published at 7pm in the US on Friday evening. It contains no mention of Taiwan three of Greenland and says it seeks respectful relations with China. Israel is described as a “model ally.” The priority, the document confirms, is homeland defence, burden sharing and preventing Chinese domination. The strategy is predictably dismissive of Europe saying US allies in NATO have been allowed to behave more like dependencies, than partners. It also suggests Europe shouldn’t aspire to be a global power- stating “we will be clear with our European allies that their efforts and resources are best focused on Europe.”
Three other passages on Europe are noteworthy.
1 “Moscow is in no position to make a bid for European hegemony. European NATO dwarfs Russian economic scale, population, and, thus, latent military power. At the same time, although Europe remains important, it has a smaller and decreasing share of global economic power. It follows that, although we are and will remain engaged we must—and will—prioritise defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China. Fortunately our NATO allies are substantially more powerful than Russia—it is not even close. Germany’s economy alone dwarfs that of Russia”. A table then shows non US NATO gdp is $26 trillion and Russia $2 trillion.
2 “Our NATO allies are strongly positioned to take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense, with critical but more limited U.S. support. This includes taking the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defense.”
3 “In Europe and other theaters, allies will take the lead against threats that are less severe for us but more so for them, with critical but more limited support from the United States. In all cases, we will be honest but clear about the urgent need for them to do their part and that it is in their own interests to do so without delay. We will incentivize and enable them to step up. This requires a change in tone and style from the past, but that is necessary not only for Americans but also for our allies and partners. For too long, allies and partners have been content to let us subsidize their defense. Our political establishment reaped the credit while regular Americans paid the bill. With President Trump, a new approach is in effect.”
Most of that, coming from a sane USA administration and accompanied by top level agreement within NATO countries and a realistic timetable would seem a reasonable set of targets WRT to European aspect of defence.
Ukraine is an interesting example. Not a NATO member. There is no reason in principle why this is not a European matter. The failure of course is that it was assumed for years that Russia had no imperial ambitions post cold war.
The U.S. was and is also bound to guarantee Ukraine’s security by treaty. A country’s word has to matter if it wishes to have allies and be believed again.
The problem is that the basic claim, never mind the leaning tower of nonsense he builds on it, is entirely fictional.
It's actually about a move * to discourage use of Oasis flower foam, because it is petroleum based and leaves behind residue that that lasts centuries in the soil; in a churchyard that is held for 1000 years that is important. And there are alternatives available to Oasis. There's also a move to encourage use of local flowers, which I would expect to be supported by nationalists of the JRM ilk.
I think he is perhaps just reacting to twitter, and has a marketing need to fondle his outraged minority.
* For nerds, this is a nice illustration of how it works. A parish voted on a motion, which has gone up through the system and is now in General Synod, and JRM is having a fugue.
When he was an MP though Jacob as a Roman Catholic never voted on Church of England matters in Parliament
Perhaps he's going to defect.
To the CoE?
JRM might add a bit to the gaiety of nations, but I doubt if anyone is interested in what he has to say about anything now. He attached his cart to the wrong horses, including Trump and 'unite the right' and this is not a good time for them.
Ukraine is an interesting example. Not a NATO member. There is no reason in principle why this is not a European matter. The failure of course is that it was assumed for years that Russia had no imperial ambitions post cold war.
Is the principle not that the US signed security agreements when they gave up their nukes?
“We want our allies to do more. We have been carrying them”:
Ok. Fine. You have a point.
“But we want to tell them exactly what to do, even as we withdraw”.
Errrm.
“And those other western democracies better stop going on about things like self determination, freedom of choice, and other liberal values”.
Riiiighhhht. Piss off.
Also, are you really, really sure of your global reach without allies…?
I absolutely agree on the first point however it was not just a case of us,living off the generosity of the USA taxpayer. It is something both sides were very happy to life with and perpetuate. Trump should just look to subtly get us to pay our way rather than his public outbursts.
After a terrible week who could have predicted it would end so well? I've always liked the saying about the dawn following the darkest night and so it has turned out. All we need is the foul stench that is Farage to get the opprobrium he deserves and we can all go home happy.
If you were watching the Dem/ anti-Trump YouTube channels I watch you would be completely depressed. In Nazi terms we are somewhere around 1936.
My excitement is that Starmer has done the right thing for the first time for at least a year. He's untied himself and us from Trump. He will get some credit and it'll turn out to be the beginning of a new direction. He has no choice. We are now firmly in the Carney Macron EU camp and more important he has joined the Human Beings and now sees Trump for what he is and the public are with him.
Yesterday was a very good day for the centre left though not everyone can see it yet. Charlie wont go visiting and if Starmer gets good advice he'll welcome Burnham with open arms and a new confident Starmer government will emerge.
Anthony Vincent Gallo on Occupy Democrats was a bit annoyed that Starmer equivocated over demanding the apology. I can understand why Starmer stopped short, with regard to Ukraine.
Starmer had his best PMQs since Rayner fell. But wasn't that simply because Badenoch was dire and Ed misread the room?
Starmer should watch Carney's speech and take notes.
There is of course radicalisation by social media, but there’s also a warping of sensibility and self awareness. As an addiction to platform Y, Z or literally X increases, their ability to persuade withers away. There are a few examples around, Paul Mason is a prime case. He’s like an AI idea of what a Labour loyalist should be.
Part of the self-radicalisation spiral is stopping listening to anything outside a smaller and smaller group. So you need up just restating the only opinions you hear. .
Rather like the warm cosy consensus on PB then.
Look at the US election when poor old William Glenn got a verbal shoeing for daring to think differently.
@patrickwintour For some reason the US tried to bury its national defence strategy published at 7pm in the US on Friday evening. It contains no mention of Taiwan three of Greenland and says it seeks respectful relations with China. Israel is described as a “model ally.” The priority, the document confirms, is homeland defence, burden sharing and preventing Chinese domination. The strategy is predictably dismissive of Europe saying US allies in NATO have been allowed to behave more like dependencies, than partners. It also suggests Europe shouldn’t aspire to be a global power- stating “we will be clear with our European allies that their efforts and resources are best focused on Europe.”
Three other passages on Europe are noteworthy.
1 “Moscow is in no position to make a bid for European hegemony. European NATO dwarfs Russian economic scale, population, and, thus, latent military power. At the same time, although Europe remains important, it has a smaller and decreasing share of global economic power. It follows that, although we are and will remain engaged we must—and will—prioritise defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China. Fortunately our NATO allies are substantially more powerful than Russia—it is not even close. Germany’s economy alone dwarfs that of Russia”. A table then shows non US NATO gdp is $26 trillion and Russia $2 trillion.
2 “Our NATO allies are strongly positioned to take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense, with critical but more limited U.S. support. This includes taking the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defense.”
3 “In Europe and other theaters, allies will take the lead against threats that are less severe for us but more so for them, with critical but more limited support from the United States. In all cases, we will be honest but clear about the urgent need for them to do their part and that it is in their own interests to do so without delay. We will incentivize and enable them to step up. This requires a change in tone and style from the past, but that is necessary not only for Americans but also for our allies and partners. For too long, allies and partners have been content to let us subsidize their defense. Our political establishment reaped the credit while regular Americans paid the bill. With President Trump, a new approach is in effect.”
It's hard to argue with much of this in all honesty.
It's a recognition the days of America as "global policeman" are over and that also may be no bad thing. It leaves areas like the Middle East and North Africa, which are geographically close to Europe, slightly in confusion as to whether they are part of Europe's sphere of interest or America's and let's not forget the oil - we must never forget that.
A shift towards the Pacific has always been the likely route of American foreign and military policy and I don't know what the document says about the role of Australia or New Zealand in all this as well as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
The shift in American thinking since the days of George HW Bush and Clinton is marked - the immediate post-war American generation saw the need for western Europe to rebuild economically as a bulwark against Communism and that meant more butter than guns but the world is different and understandably a prosperous Europe (by and large) can and should pay more toward its own defence upkeep.
Mind-blowing chart of the week here. Southern Europe has, for perhaps the first time in modern history, a lower headline unemployment rate than Northern Europe.
The problem is that the basic claim, never mind the leaning tower of nonsense he builds on it, is entirely fictional.
It's actually about a move * to discourage use of Oasis flower foam, because it is petroleum based and leaves behind residue that that lasts centuries in the soil; in a churchyard that is held for 1000 years that is important. And there are alternatives available to Oasis. There's also a move to encourage use of local flowers, which I would expect to be supported by nationalists of the JRM ilk.
I think he is perhaps just reacting to twitter, and has a marketing need to fondle his outraged minority.
* For nerds, this is a nice illustration of how it works. A parish voted on a motion, which has gone up through the system and is now in General Synod, and JRM is having a fugue.
When he was an MP though Jacob as a Roman Catholic never voted on Church of England matters in Parliament
Perhaps he's going to defect.
To the CoE?
JRM might add a bit to the gaiety of nations, but I doubt if anyone is interested in what he has to say about anything now. He attached his cart to the wrong horses, including Trump and 'unite the right' and this is not a good time for them.
There ought to be a sanity test to screen out nutters like him from standing in the first place
I'd hope Farage's gushing fandom of Trump would lose him support - but unless I've missed something in the polls we await evidence of that.
It gives him the gushing support of @Leon, and 15% of the electorate. It doesn't harm him with another 15%.
And then there's 65% of the electorate who really aren't big Trump fans at all.
I don't think it affects the headline polling for Reform much, but I do think it impacts the likelihood of people voting tactically against them.
I think your tactical voting point is spot on. I live in a Tory seat and would now vote for them to keep Farage out and I have never voted Conservative in my life before. That's how strongly I feel about Farage being in the Trump/Putin camp. His election would be an unmitigated disaster for our foreign policy.
There is of course radicalisation by social media, but there’s also a warping of sensibility and self awareness. As an addiction to platform Y, Z or literally X increases, their ability to persuade withers away. There are a few examples around, Paul Mason is a prime case. He’s like an AI idea of what a Labour loyalist should be.
Mason's recent development is interesting. I think he had a bit of a hinge-point in his publicly-expressed views after visiting Ukraine in February 2022. He has ancestors who left Eastern Europe.
The Far Left were more sympathetic to Putin, so there's been a stooshie.
It is in Labour's interest that there is no victor in the battle for the right between Tories and Reform.
We need a divided opposition to give us any chance of forming the next government.
The various contests that the next election will be is fascinating. Rather oddly the contest between right of centre and left of centre is being a bit overlooked. Each faction (however odd those two groupings looks in theory) command about half the votes. In respect of Labour retaining power with a majority, Tory and Reform are the opposition not the enemy. The enemy is Greens, LD, Jezzbollah, SNP, PC, Islamist Indies, Galloway.
Left of centre is much more divided than right of centre. The route to a Tory majority, while complicated, is much clearer than Labour's. The Tories have exactly one party to defeat, and that a party wedded to unfashionable Trumpism. Shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to devise a centre right strategy to see off Trump's ally Farage, and Trump's slightly obsequious servant Starmer.
The GE contests, and some current guesses as to figures
30 v 70 Reform v Not Reform 20 v 80 Govt v Not Govt 50 v 50 Right v Left 50 v 50 Establishment v Insurgent
“We want our allies to do more. We have been carrying them”:
Ok. Fine. You have a point.
“But we want to tell them exactly what to do, even as we withdraw”.
Errrm.
“And those other western democracies better stop going on about things like self determination, freedom of choice, and other liberal values”.
Riiiighhhht. Piss off.
Also, are you really, really sure of your global reach without allies…?
I absolutely agree on the first point however it was not just a case of us,living off the generosity of the USA taxpayer. It is something both sides were very happy to life with and perpetuate. Trump should just look to subtly get us to pay our way rather than his public outbursts.
Taking on the cost of fighting Russia, is simply transferring the cost of strengthening the US hegemon at the cost to European taxpayers. Best way to deal with this is to stop financing US debt.
There is of course radicalisation by social media, but there’s also a warping of sensibility and self awareness. As an addiction to platform Y, Z or literally X increases, their ability to persuade withers away. There are a few examples around, Paul Mason is a prime case. He’s like an AI idea of what a Labour loyalist should be.
Mason's recent development is interesting. I think he had a bit of a hinge-point in his publicly-expressed views after visiting Ukraine in February 2022. He has ancestors who left Eastern Europe.
The Far Left were more sympathetic to Putin, so there's been a stooshie.
There's a hinge point and there's unhinging from it, Mason is the latter. The chances of him persuading anyone to his ever changing world view via the medium of twitter rants are now zero. I mean he can't even persuade his beloved Labour party that he would be a suitable candidate for mp.
Ukraine is an interesting example. Not a NATO member. There is no reason in principle why this is not a European matter. The failure of course is that it was assumed for years that Russia had no imperial ambitions post cold war.
Is the principle not that the US signed security agreements when they gave up their nukes?
I am sure I hope this is right, IANAE. My point is just that in principle if Europe wants to defend non NATO European territory it's a Europe matter. Doubly so now that we know how the USA is shifting.
Ukraine is an interesting example. Not a NATO member. There is no reason in principle why this is not a European matter. The failure of course is that it was assumed for years that Russia had no imperial ambitions post cold war.
Is the principle not that the US signed security agreements when they gave up their nukes?
I am sure I hope this is right, IANAE. My point is just that in principle if Europe wants to defend non NATO European territory it's a Europe matter. Doubly so now that we know how the USA is shifting.
I still have this notion that, somehow, America would stick its oar in if the UK and France decided to at least station some of their nukes in Ukraine...
I'd hope Farage's gushing fandom of Trump would lose him support - but unless I've missed something in the polls we await evidence of that.
It gives him the gushing support of @Leon, and 15% of the electorate. It doesn't harm him with another 15%.
And then there's 65% of the electorate who really aren't big Trump fans at all.
I don't think it affects the headline polling for Reform much, but I do think it impacts the likelihood of people voting tactically against them.
I think your tactical voting point is spot on. I live in a Tory seat and would now vote for them to keep Farage out and I have never voted Conservative in my life before. That's how strongly I feel about Farage being in the Trump/Putin camp. His election would be an unmitigated disaster for our foreign policy.
Agree, though I am a usually Tory voter until the party went insane. If a GE were being held now it would be interesting to discern to what extent 'Anyone But Reform' would defeat 'Kick The Government Out' as a priority.
The next few years of Trump will follow this pattern until he eventually separates his target (the US) from all its friends.
Key Psychological Aspects of Abusers
Need for Control: The primary goal is maintaining power over the partner, often by controlling their daily activities, finances, and social interactions.
Manipulation Tactics: Abusers use gaslighting (making victims doubt their sanity), love-bombing (intense affection early on), and isolation from friends/family.
Normalization of Violence: Many abusers have histories of childhood trauma or abuse, leading them to normalize violent behavior and lack healthy conflict resolution skills.
Trauma Bonding: Abusers use a cycle of abuse and affection ("dosing") to create intense,, dependent emotional bonds that make it difficult for victims to leave.
Projection and Blame: Perpetrators often justify their actions by accusing victims of causing the abuse or belittling them.
You simply have to step back and ride the storm as best you can. Intervention will never yield results unless it is internal (US) intervention. When Zelenskyy said 'Don't try to change Trump' he has an insight that few others have.
That was how I was understanding all the anti-Tourism things he has done (requiring social media history for a ESTA, the $100 surcharge at national parks). Aiming to cut off Americans from contact with foreigners.
I wonder if they understand what the internet is.
I've never been to America. Probably never will. Half my DnD group is American.
Mind-blowing chart of the week here. Southern Europe has, for perhaps the first time in modern history, a lower headline unemployment rate than Northern Europe.
Mind-blowing chart of the week here. Southern Europe has, for perhaps the first time in modern history, a lower headline unemployment rate than Northern Europe.
After a terrible week who could have predicted it would end so well? I've always liked the saying about the dawn following the darkest night and so it has turned out. All we need is the foul stench that is Farage to get the opprobrium he deserves and we can all go home happy.
If you were watching the Dem/ anti-Trump YouTube channels I watch you would be completely depressed. In Nazi terms we are somewhere around 1936.
My excitement is that Starmer has done the right thing for the first time for at least a year. He's untied himself and us from Trump. He will get some credit and it'll turn out to be the beginning of a new direction. He has no choice. We are now firmly in the Carney Macron EU camp and more important he has joined the Human Beings and now sees Trump for what he is and the public are with him.
Yesterday was a very good day for the centre left though not everyone can see it yet. Charlie wont go visiting and if Starmer gets good advice he'll welcome Burnham with open arms and a new confident Starmer government will emerge.
Anthony Vincent Gallo on Occupy Democrats was a bit annoyed that Starmer equivocated over demanding the apology. I can understand why Starmer stopped short, with regard to Ukraine.
Starmer had his best PMQs since Rayner fell. But wasn't that simply because Badenoch was dire and Ed misread the room?
Starmer should watch Carney's speech and take notes.
He hasn't got the deft touch of Carney. He needs to start on the basics. Stop wearing white shirts. He wears them badly and they don't suit him.He looks sweaty and he looks crumpled. Employ a stylist. If you look like a junior clerk that's how people will see you....... He was a human rights lawyer which is a great place to start. I know this sounds shallow but it's what he's got to do. I was shocked when I saw him on PMQs. So bad did he look I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. It sounds trivial but his image really isn't
@patrickwintour For some reason the US tried to bury its national defence strategy published at 7pm in the US on Friday evening. It contains no mention of Taiwan three of Greenland and says it seeks respectful relations with China. Israel is described as a “model ally.” The priority, the document confirms, is homeland defence, burden sharing and preventing Chinese domination. The strategy is predictably dismissive of Europe saying US allies in NATO have been allowed to behave more like dependencies, than partners. It also suggests Europe shouldn’t aspire to be a global power- stating “we will be clear with our European allies that their efforts and resources are best focused on Europe.”
Three other passages on Europe are noteworthy.
1 “Moscow is in no position to make a bid for European hegemony. European NATO dwarfs Russian economic scale, population, and, thus, latent military power. At the same time, although Europe remains important, it has a smaller and decreasing share of global economic power. It follows that, although we are and will remain engaged we must—and will—prioritise defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China. Fortunately our NATO allies are substantially more powerful than Russia—it is not even close. Germany’s economy alone dwarfs that of Russia”. A table then shows non US NATO gdp is $26 trillion and Russia $2 trillion.
2 “Our NATO allies are strongly positioned to take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense, with critical but more limited U.S. support. This includes taking the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defense.”
3 “In Europe and other theaters, allies will take the lead against threats that are less severe for us but more so for them, with critical but more limited support from the United States. In all cases, we will be honest but clear about the urgent need for them to do their part and that it is in their own interests to do so without delay. We will incentivize and enable them to step up. This requires a change in tone and style from the past, but that is necessary not only for Americans but also for our allies and partners. For too long, allies and partners have been content to let us subsidize their defense. Our political establishment reaped the credit while regular Americans paid the bill. With President Trump, a new approach is in effect.”
Can’t disagree with points 1, 2 and 3 at all.
I can certainly disagree with point three. US military spending has always been as much about maintaining its global hegemony as is has about defending its allies.
If they really believe they derive no benefit from their European bases, then suggest that they leave them, and watch the reaction.
After a terrible week who could have predicted it would end so well? I've always liked the saying about the dawn following the darkest night and so it has turned out. All we need is the foul stench that is Farage to get the opprobrium he deserves and we can all go home happy.
If you were watching the Dem/ anti-Trump YouTube channels I watch you would be completely depressed. In Nazi terms we are somewhere around 1936.
My excitement is that Starmer has done the right thing for the first time for at least a year. He's untied himself and us from Trump. He will get some credit and it'll turn out to be the beginning of a new direction. He has no choice. We are now firmly in the Carney Macron EU camp and more important he has joined the Human Beings and now sees Trump for what he is and the public are with him.
Yesterday was a very good day for the centre left though not everyone can see it yet. Charlie wont go visiting and if Starmer gets good advice he'll welcome Burnham with open arms and a new confident Starmer government will emerge.
Anthony Vincent Gallo on Occupy Democrats was a bit annoyed that Starmer equivocated over demanding the apology. I can understand why Starmer stopped short, with regard to Ukraine.
Starmer had his best PMQs since Rayner fell. But wasn't that simply because Badenoch was dire and Ed misread the room?
Starmer should watch Carney's speech and take notes.
He hasn't got the deft touch of Carney. He needs to start on the basics. Stop wearing white shirts. He wears them badly and they don't suit him.He looks sweaty and he looks crumpled. Employ a stylist. If you look like a junior clerk that's how people will see you....... He was a human rights lawyer which is a great place to start. I know this sounds shallow but it's what he's got to do. I was shocked when I saw him on PMQs. So bad did he look I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. It sounds trivial but his image really isn't
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Britain's sexiest man of the 90s, Colin Firth, was trying to emulate Keir Starmer:
The problem is that the basic claim, never mind the leaning tower of nonsense he builds on it, is entirely fictional.
It's actually about a move * to discourage use of Oasis flower foam, because it is petroleum based and leaves behind residue that that lasts centuries in the soil; in a churchyard that is held for 1000 years that is important. And there are alternatives available to Oasis. There's also a move to encourage use of local flowers, which I would expect to be supported by nationalists of the JRM ilk.
I think he is perhaps just reacting to twitter, and has a marketing need to fondle his outraged minority.
* For nerds, this is a nice illustration of how it works. A parish voted on a motion, which has gone up through the system and is now in General Synod, and JRM is having a fugue.
When he was an MP though Jacob as a Roman Catholic never voted on Church of England matters in Parliament
Perhaps he's going to defect.
To the CoE?
JRM might add a bit to the gaiety of nations, but I doubt if anyone is interested in what he has to say about anything now. He attached his cart to the wrong horses, including Trump and 'unite the right' and this is not a good time for them.
To me he has a very narrow base, a strange split between his religion and his politics, and a laziness in finding out about the topics of his commentary.
The rest of that video is about the 'slavery reparations' issue, where he evaluated it as "paying reparations to individuals" (which is an untrue characterisation). He approaches it through a pseudo-Thatcherite individualist lens and a self-righteous base, rather than through RC moral teaching which has always been collectivist and community based.
Even his history of responses to slavery is quite ignorant. He pretends that slavery was normal and acceptable in almost all societies up to 1600. And ignores the Anselm organised Council of London in 1107 which condemned the Slave Trade - which was organised by the Roman Catholic Church.
He welcomes a "national church", then finds a problem with said national church applying their religion to political concerns - which is one reason it exists in that position.
Comments
It is in Labour's interest that there is no victor in the battle for the right between Tories and Reform.
We need a divided opposition to give us any chance of forming the next government.
The Guardian and The Telegraph have been putting the boot in too.
Drives engagement I guess.
Starmer had his best PMQs since Rayner fell. But wasn't that simply because Badenoch was dire and Ed misread the room?
Starmer should watch Carney's speech and take notes.
Look at the US election when poor old William Glenn got a verbal shoeing for daring to think differently.
It's a recognition the days of America as "global policeman" are over and that also may be no bad thing. It leaves areas like the Middle East and North Africa, which are geographically close to Europe, slightly in confusion as to whether they are part of Europe's sphere of interest or America's and let's not forget the oil - we must never forget that.
A shift towards the Pacific has always been the likely route of American foreign and military policy and I don't know what the document says about the role of Australia or New Zealand in all this as well as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
The shift in American thinking since the days of George HW Bush and Clinton is marked - the immediate post-war American generation saw the need for western Europe to rebuild economically as a bulwark against Communism and that meant more butter than guns but the world is different and understandably a prosperous Europe (by and large) can and should pay more toward its own defence upkeep.
Mind-blowing chart of the week here. Southern Europe has, for perhaps the first time in modern history, a lower headline unemployment rate than Northern Europe.
https://x.com/birdyword/status/2014473026440409169?s=46
The Far Left were more sympathetic to Putin, so there's been a stooshie.
https://htsf.substack.com/p/ukraine-the-endgame-of-leninism
Left of centre is much more divided than right of centre. The route to a Tory majority, while complicated, is much clearer than Labour's. The Tories have exactly one party to defeat, and that a party wedded to unfashionable Trumpism. Shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to devise a centre right strategy to see off Trump's ally Farage, and Trump's slightly obsequious servant Starmer.
The GE contests, and some current guesses as to figures
30 v 70 Reform v Not Reform
20 v 80 Govt v Not Govt
50 v 50 Right v Left
50 v 50 Establishment v Insurgent
Tell Trump we want Hawaii....because flag.
Then sell it to China. That would bugger up his Pacific security...
NEW THREAD
Will he- won't he?
I've never been to America. Probably never will. Half my DnD group is American.
Pulling the trigger at this point in the cycle makes him uniquely unsuited for high office.
US military spending has always been as much about maintaining its global hegemony as is has about defending its allies.
If they really believe they derive no benefit from their European bases, then suggest that they leave them, and watch the reaction.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c5ydq5ppg2qo
The rest of that video is about the 'slavery reparations' issue, where he evaluated it as "paying reparations to individuals" (which is an untrue characterisation). He approaches it through a pseudo-Thatcherite individualist lens and a self-righteous base, rather than through RC moral teaching which has always been collectivist and community based.
Even his history of responses to slavery is quite ignorant. He pretends that slavery was normal and acceptable in almost all societies up to 1600. And ignores the Anselm organised Council of London in 1107 which condemned the Slave Trade - which was organised by the Roman Catholic Church.
He welcomes a "national church", then finds a problem with said national church applying their religion to political concerns - which is one reason it exists in that position.
It's all very bizarre.