I doubt Dan Thomas is a foreign asset. You want to claim he is feel free. He may take issue with that. I ensured not to name or identify anyone with my comment.
Meanwhile this week three people have been arrested on suspicion of spying for China. All labour.
We had the collapse of the Chinese spying trial, thanks to the Tories.
I was talking about the one who is in jail for being a Russian asset
Have we discussed how, if this war is protracted, there could be a prolonged high oil price ?
Good for the US (and Russia); absolutely the opposite for the majority of its allies, to the extent of creating a recession.
Not particularly good for Republican chances in November though...
Won’t be an issue as, according to the PB USA experts, the GOP will steal the election.
And you this morning's snark expert.
What pretty well everyone has actually said is that he will try to do so. You really think he won't ?
Ah, it’s now ‘try’, I thought from the resident PB USA experts and Trump obsessives the USA was now under a full fascist takeover.
The Americans I speak to around here (and there's a remarkable number in the Cotswolds!) are concerned but not fatalistic.
The US tolerates gerrymandering and other dirty tricks to a greater extent than we do and of course both sides do it. I agree however with Marquee Mark that the more egregious interference that we are likely to see from Trump can up to a point become self-defeating in that it motivates the opposition to turn out in droves.
There does come a point however when the balance tips the other way and the perversion of the democratic system becomes so extreme that it effectively brings the system in that country to an end for the foreseeable future. This is what happened in Nazi Germany and we are right to note that many of the actions of Trump and the GoP are comparable.
I remain optimistic however. We are some way from the point of no return. Trump's favourability ratings are dire and if they are still that way in November are would expect his wings to be clipped regardless of rigging.
Things are in the balance though. I said I'm optimistic but not sanguine.
Are you familiar with many US citizens applying for UK citizenship? What is your impression of the reasons?
The numbers were 5320 in 2023, 6192 in 2024 and 8790 in 2025, with the last quarter in 2025 running at ~10000 when annualised. So that is not far off a doubling of rate in 2 years.
That is not huge, but that is on top of a pyramid of USA people coming here to live.
Of my acquaintances they tend to be Canadian ones, Matt. The threat of invasion has receded somewhat of late but if it revives we could see a trickle become a flood which would make current immigration levels seem trivial.
I wonder how the government and the local population would see that? Still, at least they wouldn't be coming by boat.
Yes, it's an intriguing thought - North American refugees fleeing Trump and arriving in droves on Europe's shores. I wonder where they would all go?
Have we discussed how, if this war is protracted, there could be a prolonged high oil price ?
Good for the US (and Russia); absolutely the opposite for the majority of its allies, to the extent of creating a recession.
Not particularly good for Republican chances in November though...
Won’t be an issue as, according to the PB USA experts, the GOP will steal the election.
And you this morning's snark expert.
What pretty well everyone has actually said is that he will try to do so. You really think he won't ?
Ah, it’s now ‘try’, I thought from the resident PB USA experts and Trump obsessives the USA was now under a full fascist takeover.
The Americans I speak to around here (and there's a remarkable number in the Cotswolds!) are concerned but not fatalistic.
The US tolerates gerrymandering and other dirty tricks to a greater extent than we do and of course both sides do it. I agree however with Marquee Mark that the more egregious interference that we are likely to see from Trump can up to a point become self-defeating in that it motivates the opposition to turn out in droves.
There does come a point however when the balance tips the other way and the perversion of the democratic system becomes so extreme that it effectively brings the system in that country to an end for the foreseeable future. This is what happened in Nazi Germany and we are right to note that many of the actions of Trump and the GoP are comparable.
I remain optimistic however. We are some way from the point of no return. Trump's favourability ratings are dire and if they are still that way in November are would expect his wings to be clipped regardless of rigging.
Things are in the balance though. I said I'm optimistic but not sanguine.
Are you familiar with many US citizens applying for UK citizenship? What is your impression of the reasons?
The numbers were 5320 in 2023, 6192 in 2024 and 8790 in 2025, with the last quarter in 2025 running at ~10000 when annualised. So that is not far off a doubling of rate in 2 years.
That is not huge, but that is on top of a pyramid of USA people coming here to live.
The South of France is seeing the same. I don't have figures but they seem to be taking over from the Russians in buying property and starting businesses. My friendly local estate agent is now American and apparently they're moving down in droves
Miliband has spent the last decade working on renewable energy. He has made some iffy compromises with the CCS people, and generally not got the best stuff past Labour leadership, but if anyone can claim a drive to invest in an energy independent UK future it’s him.
Obviously as a full on despiser of the fossil fuel industry and its neoliberal mates driving climate change for profit, I would say that. But I am right.
I’m not sold on Miliband’s “energy independence” schtick. On net zero, we’ve mostly cleaned up the UK accounting by shifting some production abroad and importing the embodied carbon. ONS consumption-based measures fall slower for a reason.
And on resilience, we’ve made ourselves more exposed to global shocks by running a transition that’s heavy on targets and light on firm domestic capacity and grids/storage. Domestic fossil production keeps declining, gas still dominates, and we’re signing long-dated import deals.
If the goal is security and decarbonisation: stop pretending territorial emissions are the whole story, and stop outsourcing both energy and industry while calling it progress.
Well, Miliband was the key figure for 10 yeass working on a plan to in-source green industry to the UK to the tune of billions, but Starmer and Reeves, in their great foresight , stopped him, also at the expense of U.K. growth.
Financial analyst is suggesting not to expect any interest rate reductions and mortgages are likely to rise
A week is a long time in politics isn't it Rachel
Wars are expensive especially when it screws up the global market for energy.
As TSE said yesterday this could easily create a Depression as an energy price shock takes out a whole set of companies...
I would like that but I really do not but so likely
Why would you like that ?
I was referring to ticking the like button, as I do not like the prospect of a depression
One reason I have long advocated decarbonising society - especially electrical generation & transport - is that you then disconnect the economy from the whatever lunatic decided to have a brain fart today and kick the oil and gas prices all over the shop.
As I grew up, it was like clockwork - some twat would throw something and then there was a price spike and recession.
Imagine the day - "War in WhereTheFuckIsThat. Energy prices flat like a strap."
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
Miliband has spent the last decade working on renewable energy. He has made some iffy compromises with the CCS people, and generally not got the best stuff past Labour leadership, but if anyone can claim a drive to invest in an energy independent UK future it’s him.
Obviously as a full on despiser of the fossil fuel industry and its neoliberal mates driving climate change for profit, I would say that. But I am right.
I’m not sold on Miliband’s “energy independence” schtick. On net zero, we’ve mostly cleaned up the UK accounting by shifting some production abroad and importing the embodied carbon. ONS consumption-based measures fall slower for a reason.
And on resilience, we’ve made ourselves more exposed to global shocks by running a transition that’s heavy on targets and light on firm domestic capacity and grids/storage. Domestic fossil production keeps declining, gas still dominates, and we’re signing long-dated import deals.
If the goal is security and decarbonisation: stop pretending territorial emissions are the whole story, and stop outsourcing both energy and industry while calling it progress.
But if we start charging carbon taxes on imports, the entire bullshit economic model of outsourcing goes away. That's racist and nativist*
*Actually had an investment "expert" tell me that, at a conference. The same one who wanted a US rocket company to move production to China.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
On that "praying for Trump in the Oval Office" video from yesterday, I had a quick look at who the people are.
The lady in red is Paula White-Cain, Trump's "faith adviser", and afaics the rest are a combination of Pastors or Leaders of independent megachurches, mainly from the South, people running "Christian-based" political campaign type organisation (think of the slot that used to be occupied by Moral Majority in Reagan times), political PAC type people who do funding, and a few others.
That is, the coalition who obtained religious support for Trump. I'm not saying Evangelical as there is also a Roman Catholic leg.
People present include Franklin Graham, who now runs the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and Samaritan's Purse - who are behind the "Operation Christmas Child" "shoebox of donations" relief operation, the head of the Family Research Council (formerly run by James Dobson), a chap from 'Hispanic Evangelicals for Trump'.
For the megachurches, think mainly Southern (eg Dallas), memberships from low thousands to low tens of thousands, and budgets in the low tens of millions range, and willing to put out political messages, and with little denominational structure directly involved.
There are several USA-style Christian Nationalists.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
If you believe in international law, then the Court determined the general war was not genocide and only Srebrenica reached the threshold.
It devalues the word to say that casualties = genocide, it is not what the word means nor what it should ever mean.
Have we discussed how, if this war is protracted, there could be a prolonged high oil price ?
Good for the US (and Russia); absolutely the opposite for the majority of its allies, to the extent of creating a recession.
Not particularly good for Republican chances in November though...
Won’t be an issue as, according to the PB USA experts, the GOP will steal the election.
And you this morning's snark expert.
What pretty well everyone has actually said is that he will try to do so. You really think he won't ?
Ah, it’s now ‘try’, I thought from the resident PB USA experts and Trump obsessives the USA was now under a full fascist takeover.
The Americans I speak to around here (and there's a remarkable number in the Cotswolds!) are concerned but not fatalistic.
The US tolerates gerrymandering and other dirty tricks to a greater extent than we do and of course both sides do it. I agree however with Marquee Mark that the more egregious interference that we are likely to see from Trump can up to a point become self-defeating in that it motivates the opposition to turn out in droves.
There does come a point however when the balance tips the other way and the perversion of the democratic system becomes so extreme that it effectively brings the system in that country to an end for the foreseeable future. This is what happened in Nazi Germany and we are right to note that many of the actions of Trump and the GoP are comparable.
I remain optimistic however. We are some way from the point of no return. Trump's favourability ratings are dire and if they are still that way in November are would expect his wings to be clipped regardless of rigging.
Things are in the balance though. I said I'm optimistic but not sanguine.
Are you familiar with many US citizens applying for UK citizenship? What is your impression of the reasons?
The numbers were 5320 in 2023, 6192 in 2024 and 8790 in 2025, with the last quarter in 2025 running at ~10000 when annualised. So that is not far off a doubling of rate in 2 years.
That is not huge, but that is on top of a pyramid of USA people coming here to live.
Of my acquaintances they tend to be Canadian ones, Matt. The threat of invasion has receded somewhat of late but if it revives we could see a trickle become a flood which would make current immigration levels seem trivial.
I wonder how the government and the local population would see that? Still, at least they wouldn't be coming by boat.
Yes, it's an intriguing thought - North American refugees fleeing Trump and arriving in droves on Europe's shores. I wonder where they would all go?
Scandinavia is under-populate, and they all speak English
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
There was also a range of Croat atrocities against the Serbs alongside the Serb ones. Culpability was wide-ranging in that conflict, but Milosevic was certainly a major factor.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Politico has a report saying the Iranian war is likely to last until September at least (from a US perspective). I guess the thinking now is: once you’ve started you might as well finish. Totally obliterate Iran as a threat and adversary for a generation. Regime change is a bonus
If and when that happens Iran will go down, all drones blazing, destabilising the region for a looooooong time
This has the potential to destroy Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi - all of them - as tourist/tech/financial hubs. Even zero income tax won’t make up for months of potential death by Shahed
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
Seen little evidence of number 4. He doesn't seem to understand how the energy markets work with renewable contracts etc. Which is his brief.
Financial analyst is suggesting not to expect any interest rate reductions and mortgages are likely to rise
A week is a long time in politics isn't it Rachel
Wars are expensive especially when it screws up the global market for energy.
As TSE said yesterday this could easily create a Depression as an energy price shock takes out a whole set of companies...
I would like that but I really do not but so likely
Why would you like that ?
I was referring to ticking the like button, as I do not like the prospect of a depression
One reason I have long advocated decarbonising society - especially electrical generation & transport - is that you then disconnect the economy from the whatever lunatic decided to have a brain fart today and kick the oil and gas prices all over the shop.
As I grew up, it was like clockwork - some twat would throw something and then there was a price spike and recession.
Imagine the day - "War in WhereTheFuckIsThat. Energy prices flat like a strap."
Saving the planet is nice bonus on top of that.
Gas still matters because power markets don’t price electricity by averaging costs across the fleet. They clear at the margin. You stack bids by short-run marginal cost, dispatch up the stack until demand is met, and the last unit needed sets the clearing price for that settlement period. Everyone dispatched gets that price, not their own cost.
In the UK, that marginal unit is very often CCGT, because wind and solar are non-dispatchable and you still need something controllable to cover peaks and, more importantly, lulls. So even if 70% of the MWh on a given day come from renewables at near-zero marginal cost, the price you pay is still anchored by “what does it cost to run the marginal gas plant right now?” whenever gas is the thing balancing the system. Those expensive hours can do a lot of work in an annual average, because scarcity pricing at the margin bites hard.
“Full renewable” doesn’t actually mean “gas becomes irrelevant”. It means “renewables plus a firm backstop”. If the backstop is gas (or anything gas-priced), then gas sets the price in the periods that matter. If the backstop is storage, demand response, nuclear, hydro, interconnectors, whatever, then those become the marginal setters instead. But until you have enough of that firm, low-carbon flexibility, you’re still effectively importing gas volatility into the power price, even while you’re generating a lot of energy from wind.
CfDs complicate it in a helpful way: a chunk of UK renewables are on contracts that pay back when wholesale prices run above strike, so billpayers get some rebate in gas-spike conditions. That cushions the impact, but it doesn’t change the underlying fact that the wholesale market clears at the marginal unit.
And while we’re here, the UK habit of importing more gas while sitting on domestic resources is just incoherent on three fronts. Climate: importing (especially LNG) bakes in extra emissions from liquefaction, shipping, regasification and generally leakier upstream. Volatility: you’re tying your marginal price setter to global LNG competition and geopolitics rather than whatever you can produce domestically with more stable fiscal and regulatory assumptions. Security: you’re swapping “we control the taps and the infrastructure” for “hope the global market and shipping lanes behave”, which is a weird strategy for an island that keeps rediscovering it needs energy to function.
So the energy-security argument for decarbonising is basically correct, but it only becomes true once you’ve built enough firm, domestic flexibility that “wind drops” doesn’t automatically translate into “gas sets the price again”. Otherwise you’ve decarbonised a lot of generation and still left the price formation mechanism hooked up to the same lunatics kicking oil and gas around, while also choosing to buy more of it from abroad.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Politico has a report saying the Iranian war is likely to last until September at least (from a US perspective). I guess the thinking now is: once you’ve started you might as well finish. Totally obliterate Iran as a threat and adversary for a generation. Regime change is a bonus
If and when that happens Iran will go down, all drones blazing, destabilising the region for a looooooong time
This has the potential to destroy Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi - all of them - as tourist/tech/financial hubs. Even zero income tax won’t make up for months of potential death by Shahed
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
Talk of “Creating a level killing field” was a very dishonest way of weighting things in favour of the Serbians.
If one side is subject to unprovoked aggression, then levelling the situation is the ethical course of action.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
There was also a range of Croat atrocities against the Serbs alongside the Serb ones. Culpability was wide-ranging in that conflict.
It was a civil war - and therefore uncivil in the extreme. The issue was that the Serbs had the advantage of numbers, most of the old Yugoslav military and massive backing from Russia. So they tend to be doing more.. damage on a percentage basis.
The eventual American intervention backed the anti-Serb forces in a nuanced way - any anti-Serb forces that took the opportunity to start dong their own nasty shit got cut off from support and slaughtered in Serb counter attacks.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Politico has a report saying the Iranian war is likely to last until September at least (from a US perspective). I guess the thinking now is: once you’ve started you might as well finish. Totally obliterate Iran as a threat and adversary for a generation. Regime change is a bonus
If and when that happens Iran will go down, all drones blazing, destabilising the region for a looooooong time
This has the potential to destroy Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi - all of them - as tourist/tech/financial hubs. Even zero income tax won’t make up for months of potential death by Shahed
Hmm. It also has the potential to absolutely stuff the global economy, especially if it were to go on to Seotember. That is the kind of uncontained effect the Iranians ate looking for.
On that "praying for Trump in the Oval Office" video from yesterday, I had a quick look at who the people are.
The lady in red is Paula White-Cain, Trump's "faith adviser", and afaics the rest are a combination of Pastors or Leaders of independent megachurches, mainly from the South, people running "Christian-based" political campaign type organisation (think of the slot that used to be occupied by Moral Majority in Reagan times), political PAC type people who do funding, and a few others.
That is, the coalition who obtained religious support for Trump. I'm not saying Evangelical as there is also a Roman Catholic leg.
People present include Franklin Graham, who now runs the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and Samaritan's Purse - who are behind the "Operation Christmas Child" "shoebox of donations" relief operation, the head of the Family Research Council (formerly run by James Dobson), a chap from 'Hispanic Evangelicals for Trump'.
For the megachurches, think mainly Southern (eg Dallas), memberships from low thousands to low tens of thousands, and budgets in the low tens of millions range, and willing to put out political messages, and with little denominational structure directly involved.
There are several USA-style Christian Nationalists.
Have we discussed how, if this war is protracted, there could be a prolonged high oil price ?
Good for the US (and Russia); absolutely the opposite for the majority of its allies, to the extent of creating a recession.
Not particularly good for Republican chances in November though...
Won’t be an issue as, according to the PB USA experts, the GOP will steal the election.
And you this morning's snark expert.
What pretty well everyone has actually said is that he will try to do so. You really think he won't ?
Ah, it’s now ‘try’, I thought from the resident PB USA experts and Trump obsessives the USA was now under a full fascist takeover.
The Americans I speak to around here (and there's a remarkable number in the Cotswolds!) are concerned but not fatalistic.
The US tolerates gerrymandering and other dirty tricks to a greater extent than we do and of course both sides do it. I agree however with Marquee Mark that the more egregious interference that we are likely to see from Trump can up to a point become self-defeating in that it motivates the opposition to turn out in droves.
There does come a point however when the balance tips the other way and the perversion of the democratic system becomes so extreme that it effectively brings the system in that country to an end for the foreseeable future. This is what happened in Nazi Germany and we are right to note that many of the actions of Trump and the GoP are comparable.
I remain optimistic however. We are some way from the point of no return. Trump's favourability ratings are dire and if they are still that way in November are would expect his wings to be clipped regardless of rigging.
Things are in the balance though. I said I'm optimistic but not sanguine.
Are you familiar with many US citizens applying for UK citizenship? What is your impression of the reasons?
The numbers were 5320 in 2023, 6192 in 2024 and 8790 in 2025, with the last quarter in 2025 running at ~10000 when annualised. So that is not far off a doubling of rate in 2 years.
That is not huge, but that is on top of a pyramid of USA people coming here to live.
Of my acquaintances they tend to be Canadian ones, Matt. The threat of invasion has receded somewhat of late but if it revives we could see a trickle become a flood which would make current immigration levels seem trivial.
I wonder how the government and the local population would see that? Still, at least they wouldn't be coming by boat.
Yes, it's an intriguing thought - North American refugees fleeing Trump and arriving in droves on Europe's shores. I wonder where they would all go?
Scandinavia is under-populate, and they all speak English
Plus it's got free/cheap healthcare
My understanding of US employee longterm financial planning "everyone in those boxes has a number, it's a combination of their 401(k) and how many years until the Company covers their health insurance for life. The moment they hit that number they retire."
If you don't need the company health insurance, that number is a lot smaller.
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
I wonder if, in these horrible times, the options for PM/party leader have to seem credible in the difficult role of war leader when atavistic expectations of the UK's capacity for either defence or attack far exceed the reality.
Reasonably statesmanlike and very boring, willing to be manager just above the relegation zone, seem to be needed qualities. Maybe Starmer is the best fit. There is a long list of worse fits: Badenoch, Farage, Polanski, Rayner, Miliband (E), Burnham.
Might be OK: Cooper, Stride, Hunt, Miliband (D), Jones.
I'm not sure I'd put Polanski in the no-no list. The number of US podcasters who are ripping chunks out of Trump Hegseth and Rubio has reached unprecedented levels. They are being ridiculed word by word. Hegseth most of all. The only leading British politicians who could join in are Zack and Ed Davey. And Ed doesn't do humour
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
If only Max Verstappen had followed Adrian Newey to Aston Martin.
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
If only Verstappen had followed Adrian Newley to Aston Martin.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
If you believe in international law, then the Court determined the general war was not genocide and only Srebrenica reached the threshold.
It devalues the word to say that casualties = genocide, it is not what the word means nor what it should ever mean.
The court found that Srebrenica was a single act constituting genocide. However the Wiki article quotes the following from the IC trial chamber
246. On the basis of the inference that may be drawn from this evidence, a Trial Chamber could be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there existed a joint criminal enterprise, which included members of the Bosnian Serb leadership, whose aim and intention was to destroy a part of the Bosnian Muslim population, and that genocide was in fact committed in Brčko, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Srebrenica, Bijeljina, Ključ and Bosanski Novi. The genocidal intent of the Bosnian Serb leadership can be inferred from all the evidence, including the evidence set out in paragraphs 238–245. The scale and pattern of the attacks, their intensity, the substantial number of Muslims killed in the seven municipalities, the detention of Muslims, their brutal treatment in detention centres and elsewhere, and the targeting of persons essential to the survival of the Muslims as a group are all factors that point to genocide.[33]
The conduct of Republika Srpska and associated forces was clearly genocidal in intent. Not only ethnic cleansing but the killing of fighting-age men, rape of Bosnia women to force them to carry "Serb" children, selective sniping during the siege of Sarajevo (pregnant women were a particular target) etc etc.
Just as Russian actions in Ukraine are designed to wipe out any idea of Ukrainian identity in the areas they occupy.
Have you been to Boania? Do visit. Your tour guide will probably be a war veteran (one of mine was too young but had spent time in a concentration camp at the age of 6). It will show you what genocide looks like.
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
If only Verstappen had followed Adrian Newley to Aston Martin.
‘She has decided to focus on other projects’
That’s ruddy lawyer speak !
As a red blooded male I am going to miss her but as a F1 fan I’m not going to miss her.
Jensen Button is either going to very sad or happy at her departure.
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
I wonder if, in these horrible times, the options for PM/party leader have to seem credible in the difficult role of war leader when atavistic expectations of the UK's capacity for either defence or attack far exceed the reality.
Reasonably statesmanlike and very boring, willing to be manager just above the relegation zone, seem to be needed qualities. Maybe Starmer is the best fit. There is a long list of worse fits: Badenoch, Farage, Polanski, Rayner, Miliband (E), Burnham.
Might be OK: Cooper, Stride, Hunt, Miliband (D), Jones.
I'm not sure I'd put Polanski in the no-no list. The number of US podcasters who are ripping chunks out of Trump Hegseth and Rubio has reached unprecedented levels. They are being ridiculed word by word. Hegseth most of all. The only leading British politicians who could join in are Zack and Ed Davey. And Ed doesn't do humour
It would be a mistake to elevate someone to suitability merely because he happens to dislike the same people. My enemy's enemy is NOT my friend, he is my ally. (cf. Hitler/Stalin)
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
If only Verstappen had followed Adrian Newley to Aston Martin.
‘She has decided to focus on other projects’
That’s ruddy lawyer speak !
As a red blooded male I am going to miss her but as a F1 fan I’m not going to miss her.
Jensen Button is either going to very sad or happy at her departure.
Have you seen Jenson's wife Brittany? I don't believe he will miss Danica.
Have we discussed how, if this war is protracted, there could be a prolonged high oil price ?
Good for the US (and Russia); absolutely the opposite for the majority of its allies, to the extent of creating a recession.
Not particularly good for Republican chances in November though...
Won’t be an issue as, according to the PB USA experts, the GOP will steal the election.
And you this morning's snark expert.
What pretty well everyone has actually said is that he will try to do so. You really think he won't ?
Ah, it’s now ‘try’, I thought from the resident PB USA experts and Trump obsessives the USA was now under a full fascist takeover.
The Americans I speak to around here (and there's a remarkable number in the Cotswolds!) are concerned but not fatalistic.
The US tolerates gerrymandering and other dirty tricks to a greater extent than we do and of course both sides do it. I agree however with Marquee Mark that the more egregious interference that we are likely to see from Trump can up to a point become self-defeating in that it motivates the opposition to turn out in droves.
There does come a point however when the balance tips the other way and the perversion of the democratic system becomes so extreme that it effectively brings the system in that country to an end for the foreseeable future. This is what happened in Nazi Germany and we are right to note that many of the actions of Trump and the GoP are comparable.
I remain optimistic however. We are some way from the point of no return. Trump's favourability ratings are dire and if they are still that way in November are would expect his wings to be clipped regardless of rigging.
Things are in the balance though. I said I'm optimistic but not sanguine.
Are you familiar with many US citizens applying for UK citizenship? What is your impression of the reasons?
The numbers were 5320 in 2023, 6192 in 2024 and 8790 in 2025, with the last quarter in 2025 running at ~10000 when annualised. So that is not far off a doubling of rate in 2 years.
That is not huge, but that is on top of a pyramid of USA people coming here to live.
Of my acquaintances they tend to be Canadian ones, Matt. The threat of invasion has receded somewhat of late but if it revives we could see a trickle become a flood which would make current immigration levels seem trivial.
I wonder how the government and the local population would see that? Still, at least they wouldn't be coming by boat.
Yes, it's an intriguing thought - North American refugees fleeing Trump and arriving in droves on Europe's shores. I wonder where they would all go?
Scandinavia is under-populate, and they all speak English
I think they would follow jobs and markets, if not rich enough to retire. UK is easy on the culture, Portugal and Spain and France for the weather. The EU would be a big draw. Ireland gives both benefits, and lots of US companies.
Here's a vid about it from an interesting & brief commentator called House of El, who is finance / tech with broad horizons but imo slightly overdoes her headlines, Youtube style.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
Talk of “Creating a level killing field” was a very dishonest way of weighting things in favour of the Serbians.
If one side is subject to unprovoked aggression, then levelling the situation is the ethical course of action.
Indeed, people I met spoke of Douglas Hurd in much the same terms as Ratko Mladic. Levelling the killing field was clearly the ethical thing to do.
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
No he wasn't, Gaddaffi is no longer in charge there as a result of the intervention by Cameron and Sarkozy
The question is whether that actually leaves the people in a better state than they were before.
Looking at the table on page 274 of the UN Human Development Report for 2025, Libya isn't doing too well at position 115, though not as badly as Iraq at position 126. Interestingly, Iran is at position 75 - not great, but still in the top half of the table. I expect Iran's position will now plummet as the country's infrastructure is destroyed and civil war takes hold.
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
I wonder if, in these horrible times, the options for PM/party leader have to seem credible in the difficult role of war leader when atavistic expectations of the UK's capacity for either defence or attack far exceed the reality.
Reasonably statesmanlike and very boring, willing to be manager just above the relegation zone, seem to be needed qualities. Maybe Starmer is the best fit. There is a long list of worse fits: Badenoch, Farage, Polanski, Rayner, Miliband (E), Burnham.
Might be OK: Cooper, Stride, Hunt, Miliband (D), Jones.
I'm not sure I'd put Polanski in the no-no list. The number of US podcasters who are ripping chunks out of Trump Hegseth and Rubio has reached unprecedented levels. They are being ridiculed word by word. Hegseth most of all. The only leading British politicians who could join in are Zack and Ed Davey. And Ed doesn't do humour
Ed doesn't do humour, Roger? Surely he is the Harry Worth of British Politics.
We'll know things are really bad in the Gulf when the Arab owners withdraw from British horse racing (which, incidentially, would be a catastrophe for the industry in general and Newmarket in particular).
Petrol at my local Tesco garage is 5p higher than this time last week but still well below where it got to in 2008 and on other occasions. I've heard anecdotal reports of panic buying and queues but seen none myself so hopefully it won't become a problem and we seem to have for now reached a new low level intensity (though high enough for the Iranians I would imagine).
As always, the questions are when does this end and what does the end look like? Simply overthrowing the theocracy in Iran doesn't of itself bring peace and stability to the region and while I imagine the Straits of Hormuz can and will be reopened sooner or later, the truth of all this being about oil supplies will be confirmed if and when it's the American Navy escorting tankers through said Straits.
Maintaining the flow of oil is more important for the West than the freedom of the Iranian people - we all know that. IF what follows the mullahs is still a dictatorship but a more pragmatic regime which stays within its own borders and does nothing to stop said flow, I imagine Washington will be more than happy.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
If you believe in international law, then the Court determined the general war was not genocide and only Srebrenica reached the threshold.
It devalues the word to say that casualties = genocide, it is not what the word means nor what it should ever mean.
No-one is saying casulaties = genocide.
It's the repeated comments from Israeli politicians about wiping out or kicking out the population of Gaza that gives the game away. For example, Israel Katz, then the energy minister but later defense minister, said, "All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world." Deputy Speaker of the Knesset said the country's goal was "erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth." He later said that Gaza's inhabitants must be destroyed.
Mandy Rice-Davies, who appeared in series 1 of the excellent Bird of Prey and is from Solihull as am I and Mexicanpete, applies here.
‘ FT Exclusive: Qatar’s energy minister has warned that war in the Middle East could 'bring down the economies of the world', predicting that all Gulf energy exporters would shut down production within weeks and drive oil to $150 a barrel. ft.trib.al/EekmlhF’
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
Talk of “Creating a level killing field” was a very dishonest way of weighting things in favour of the Serbians.
If one side is subject to unprovoked aggression, then levelling the situation is the ethical course of action.
Indeed, people I met spoke of Douglas Hurd in much the same terms as Ratko Mladic. Levelling the killing field was clearly the ethical thing to do.
Yet Lord Hurd was also the Foreign Secretary when the UK won the Gulf War with a UN mandate for the action and of course many leftwingers thought Nato action against the Serbs in Kosovo was illegal only UN peacekeepers were legal in the former Yugoslavia
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Politico has a report saying the Iranian war is likely to last until September at least (from a US perspective). I guess the thinking now is: once you’ve started you might as well finish. Totally obliterate Iran as a threat and adversary for a generation. Regime change is a bonus
If and when that happens Iran will go down, all drones blazing, destabilising the region for a looooooong time
This has the potential to destroy Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi - all of them - as tourist/tech/financial hubs. Even zero income tax won’t make up for months of potential death by Shahed
That's Leondamus and Nostradamus both predicting the end of times starting in the Middle East in 2026 and leading to the third and final World War.............
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
I wonder if, in these horrible times, the options for PM/party leader have to seem credible in the difficult role of war leader when atavistic expectations of the UK's capacity for either defence or attack far exceed the reality.
Reasonably statesmanlike and very boring, willing to be manager just above the relegation zone, seem to be needed qualities. Maybe Starmer is the best fit. There is a long list of worse fits: Badenoch, Farage, Polanski, Rayner, Miliband (E), Burnham.
Might be OK: Cooper, Stride, Hunt, Miliband (D), Jones.
I'm not sure I'd put Polanski in the no-no list. The number of US podcasters who are ripping chunks out of Trump Hegseth and Rubio has reached unprecedented levels. They are being ridiculed word by word. Hegseth most of all. The only leading British politicians who could join in are Zack and Ed Davey. And Ed doesn't do humour
Ed doesn't do humour, Roger? Surely he is the Harry Worth of British Politics.
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
If only Verstappen had followed Adrian Newley to Aston Martin.
‘She has decided to focus on other projects’
That’s ruddy lawyer speak !
As a red blooded male I am going to miss her but as a F1 fan I’m not going to miss her.
Jensen Button is either going to very sad or happy at her departure.
Have you seen Jenson's wife Brittany? I don't believe he will miss Danica.
Shock news, some men like to stir their spoon in more than bowl of porridge.
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
There might be something in Peter Cook's remarks on how well the Berlin satirical scene saved Germany from the Nazis.
Perhaps we do lampoon our leaders too much. How many of us could survive this much aggressive scrutiny?
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
I wonder if, in these horrible times, the options for PM/party leader have to seem credible in the difficult role of war leader when atavistic expectations of the UK's capacity for either defence or attack far exceed the reality.
Reasonably statesmanlike and very boring, willing to be manager just above the relegation zone, seem to be needed qualities. Maybe Starmer is the best fit. There is a long list of worse fits: Badenoch, Farage, Polanski, Rayner, Miliband (E), Burnham.
Might be OK: Cooper, Stride, Hunt, Miliband (D), Jones.
I'm not sure I'd put Polanski in the no-no list. The number of US podcasters who are ripping chunks out of Trump Hegseth and Rubio has reached unprecedented levels. They are being ridiculed word by word. Hegseth most of all. The only leading British politicians who could join in are Zack and Ed Davey. And Ed doesn't do humour
Ed doesn't do humour, Roger? Surely he is the Harry Worth of British Politics.
Omg, I haven't heard of Harry Worth in many years.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
There was also a range of Croat atrocities against the Serbs alongside the Serb ones. Culpability was wide-ranging in that conflict, but Milosevic was certainly a major factor.
Croat (and Bosnia) atrocities happened, but were relatively minor and what you might expect in an inter-ethnic civil war. The Bosniaks certainly prosecuted people for them.
Ratko Mladic stood in the town square of Srebrenica and declared vengeance on "the Turks"
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
If only Max Verstappen had followed Adrian Newey to Aston Martin.
I know Newey is regarded as a genius, but if you read his book it is easy to come away with the impression that his bad design at Williams was to blame for Ayrton Senna's crash
They have 1 battery left in each car and the batteries are being broken by the vibrations from the engines. I don't give them much chance of both cars starting the race and we know they won't finish it.
If only Max Verstappen had followed Adrian Newey to Aston Martin.
I know Newey is regarded as a genius, but if you read his book it is easy to come away with the impression that his bad design at Williams was to blame for Ayrton Senna;s crash
Sad to say our Council by-election resulted in a Reform gain from Independent (although the latter wasn't opposed by, and was would have sat with, the Greens.). They only bright spot was that Conservative candidate, in a once reasonably Conservative seat, came fourth. About 3.30pm, while we were watching the cricket, we had a knock on the door. Very pleasant lady there ...... "You do know it's Election Day today?". My wife said we'd already voted. "Conservative by any chance?" asked the lady. "No" said my wife and closed the door.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
Talk of “Creating a level killing field” was a very dishonest way of weighting things in favour of the Serbians.
If one side is subject to unprovoked aggression, then levelling the situation is the ethical course of action.
Indeed, people I met spoke of Douglas Hurd in much the same terms as Ratko Mladic. Levelling the killing field was clearly the ethical thing to do.
Yet Lord Hurd was also the Foreign Secretary when the UK won the Gulf War with a UN mandate for the action and of course many leftwingers thought Nato action against the Serbs in Kosovo was illegal only UN peacekeepers were legal in the former Yugoslavia
By the time they tried the same thing on with the Kosovars, I think the western world knew what Serbian nationalism was capable of.
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
No he wasn't, Gaddaffi is no longer in charge there as a result of the intervention by Cameron and Sarkozy
The question is whether that actually leaves the people in a better state than they were before.
Looking at the table on page 274 of the UN Human Development Report for 2025, Libya isn't doing too well at position 115, though not as badly as Iraq at position 126. Interestingly, Iran is at position 75 - not great, but still in the top half of the table. I expect Iran's position will now plummet as the country's infrastructure is destroyed and civil war takes hold.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
Talk of “Creating a level killing field” was a very dishonest way of weighting things in favour of the Serbians.
If one side is subject to unprovoked aggression, then levelling the situation is the ethical course of action.
Indeed, people I met spoke of Douglas Hurd in much the same terms as Ratko Mladic. Levelling the killing field was clearly the ethical thing to do.
Yet Lord Hurd was also the Foreign Secretary when the UK won the Gulf War with a UN mandate for the action and of course many leftwingers thought Nato action against the Serbs in Kosovo was illegal only UN peacekeepers were legal in the former Yugoslavia
By the time they tried the same thing on with the Kosovars, I think the western world knew what Serbian nationalism was capable of.
By the time of Kosovo War, which may have been an over reaction by the West, the previous Serbian behaviour meant that when they started firing up the TurboEthincNationalism thing, everyone said "Fuck That".
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
There might be something in Peter Cook's remarks on how well the Berlin satirical scene saved Germany from the Nazis.
Perhaps we do lampoon our leaders too much. How many of us could survive this much aggressive scrutiny?
Some people revel in it. And so rise above it.
And when people get brought down by "scrutiny" it's often for things that are basic sanity checks. Such as
- Don't commit sexual assaults on a regular basis - Don't be a slum landlord - Ease up on selling secrets to criminals and foreign powers.
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
I wonder if, in these horrible times, the options for PM/party leader have to seem credible in the difficult role of war leader when atavistic expectations of the UK's capacity for either defence or attack far exceed the reality.
Reasonably statesmanlike and very boring, willing to be manager just above the relegation zone, seem to be needed qualities. Maybe Starmer is the best fit. There is a long list of worse fits: Badenoch, Farage, Polanski, Rayner, Miliband (E), Burnham.
Might be OK: Cooper, Stride, Hunt, Miliband (D), Jones.
I'm not sure I'd put Polanski in the no-no list. The number of US podcasters who are ripping chunks out of Trump Hegseth and Rubio has reached unprecedented levels. They are being ridiculed word by word. Hegseth most of all. The only leading British politicians who could join in are Zack and Ed Davey. And Ed doesn't do humour
Ed doesn't do humour, Roger? Surely he is the Harry Worth of British Politics.
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
Getting a replacement key for a hotel room is surprisingly easy, only ever been asked name and room number. They should probably ask for something like postcode as well.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Politico has a report saying the Iranian war is likely to last until September at least (from a US perspective). I guess the thinking now is: once you’ve started you might as well finish. Totally obliterate Iran as a threat and adversary for a generation. Regime change is a bonus
If and when that happens Iran will go down, all drones blazing, destabilising the region for a looooooong time
This has the potential to destroy Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi - all of them - as tourist/tech/financial hubs. Even zero income tax won’t make up for months of potential death by Shahed
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
There was also a range of Croat atrocities against the Serbs alongside the Serb ones. Culpability was wide-ranging in that conflict, but Milosevic was certainly a major factor.
Croat (and Bosnia) atrocities happened, but were relatively minor and what you might expect in an inter-ethnic civil war. The Bosniaks certainly prosecuted people for them.
Ratko Mladic stood in the town square of Srebrenica and declared vengeance on "the Turks"
But that's ignoring the history. Nothing excuses what the Serbs did in the 90s, but they do have historical reasons to feel aggrieved. Right back to the Muslim Ottoman Empire whuch used to kidnap Christian boys across the Balkans in a yearly "tax" and take them away forever, to become soldiers for the Sultan
Some Balkan communities have never forgotten this. If you want to see true pure "Islamophobia" chat to people in Montenegro, for example. They hate "the Turks", even now, and despise and fear Islam
But the Christians themselves have very chequered records. Some of the Croats were so violently anti-Semitic they made the Nazis wince in distaste
There's a story of some Nazi bigwig dining with a Balkan politician early in the war. The Nazi pointed out that the politician's chef was Jewish, expecting the poor chef to be fired, or pumished, or maybe sent to a ghetto
Instead the Balkan guy had the chef brought into the room and he personally shot the chef dead, there and then. The Nazi apparently complained that it was a vulgar overreaction, and it totally ruined his dinner
Milliband was right about not getting involved in Libya as well...
It would save a lot of time.........
1. He has a seat so no more 'Gorton and Denton' issues. 2. In these barmy times where ethnicity in the middle east is relevant. He's Jewish and can't be painted by the Israeli supporting ethno bores of being anti semitic. 3. He's compassionate. 4. He's bright. 5. His values unlike Starmer's are Labour ones 6. By a factor of 10 he's better than Andy Burnham 7. By a factor of 20 he's better than Kemi Badenoch
I wonder if, in these horrible times, the options for PM/party leader have to seem credible in the difficult role of war leader when atavistic expectations of the UK's capacity for either defence or attack far exceed the reality.
Reasonably statesmanlike and very boring, willing to be manager just above the relegation zone, seem to be needed qualities. Maybe Starmer is the best fit. There is a long list of worse fits: Badenoch, Farage, Polanski, Rayner, Miliband (E), Burnham.
Might be OK: Cooper, Stride, Hunt, Miliband (D), Jones.
I'm not sure I'd put Polanski in the no-no list. The number of US podcasters who are ripping chunks out of Trump Hegseth and Rubio has reached unprecedented levels. They are being ridiculed word by word. Hegseth most of all. The only leading British politicians who could join in are Zack and Ed Davey. And Ed doesn't do humour
Ed doesn't do humour, Roger? Surely he is the Harry Worth of British Politics.
Omg, I haven't heard of Harry Worth in many years.
I still remember the Civic adverts - I think he did those.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
Talk of “Creating a level killing field” was a very dishonest way of weighting things in favour of the Serbians.
If one side is subject to unprovoked aggression, then levelling the situation is the ethical course of action.
Indeed, people I met spoke of Douglas Hurd in much the same terms as Ratko Mladic. Levelling the killing field was clearly the ethical thing to do.
Yet Lord Hurd was also the Foreign Secretary when the UK won the Gulf War with a UN mandate for the action and of course many leftwingers thought Nato action against the Serbs in Kosovo was illegal only UN peacekeepers were legal in the former Yugoslavia
By the time they tried the same thing on with the Kosovars, I think the western world knew what Serbian nationalism was capable of.
By the time of Kosovo War, which may have been an over reaction by the West, the previous Serbian behaviour meant that when they started firing up the TurboEthincNationalism thing, everyone said "Fuck That".
Even the "Level Killing Field" types.
The Kosovo War is often erroneously conflated with the Bosnian one in the Western imagination. There's still been very little attention given to the impending large-scale war crimes trial of Nato's lynchpin in the region, Hashim Thaci, for instance, for fear of aiding a Russian narrative.
They gave her attacker a keycard and her room number. FFS.
I've noticed that hotels are increasingly not installing the mechanical door closure things - so that you can prevent someone, even with a key, entering.
Like the "safes" room security in many hotels is a joke.
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
There might be something in Peter Cook's remarks on how well the Berlin satirical scene saved Germany from the Nazis.
Perhaps we do lampoon our leaders too much. How many of us could survive this much aggressive scrutiny?
As maybe the only identifiable ex-MP on PB, I'm not convinced by the alleged deterioration of quality - Parliament has always been largely made up of people who were pretty hard-working and moderately competent. The difficulty is at the top - people's expectations of the national leadership have always been exaggerated and I think that assessment of their qualities has declined in recent years as the gap between perfection and reality becomes more obvious.
The current gap is not in basic competence - there are lots of senior MPs who could do the basic job of leadership adequately, and Starmer is certainly one of them. The gap is in a clear and reasonably achievable vision of what we are trying to achieve over the next 10-20 years. I have very little idea what Starmer hopes to achieve or which policies are proof against being reversed if they prove temporarily unpopular. Some of the alternatives, notably the Greens (and, albeit in a form that I find repulsive, Reform), do offer broadly-sketched visions, The problem is in demonstrating that they've thought them through and taken adequate account of the difficulties and likely opposition.
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
There might be something in Peter Cook's remarks on how well the Berlin satirical scene saved Germany from the Nazis.
Perhaps we do lampoon our leaders too much. How many of us could survive this much aggressive scrutiny?
Some people revel in it. And so rise above it.
And when people get brought down by "scrutiny" it's often for things that are basic sanity checks. Such as
- Don't commit sexual assaults on a regular basis - Don't be a slum landlord - Ease up on selling secrets to criminals and foreign powers.
100%
The real problem isn’t that scrutiny is too harsh. It’s that politics has become a job where the marginal rewards go to people who can survive permanent exposure and conflict, not necessarily people who can govern. The sane, competent ones who could handle it often look at the life-collateral damage and decide it’s not worth it. Meanwhile the actual wrong’uns often do survive because they’re shameless and tribal loyalty covers a lot.
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
There was also a range of Croat atrocities against the Serbs alongside the Serb ones. Culpability was wide-ranging in that conflict, but Milosevic was certainly a major factor.
Croat (and Bosnia) atrocities happened, but were relatively minor and what you might expect in an inter-ethnic civil war. The Bosniaks certainly prosecuted people for them.
Ratko Mladic stood in the town square of Srebrenica and declared vengeance on "the Turks"
But that's ignoring the history. Nothing excuses what the Serbs did in the 90s, but they do have historical reasons to feel aggrieved. Right back to the Muslim Ottoman Empire whuch used to kidnap Christian boys across the Balkans in a yearly "tax" and take them away forever, to become soldiers for the Sultan
Some Balkan communities have never forgotten this. If you want to see true pure "Islamophobia" chat to people in Montenegro, for example. They hate "the Turks", even now, and despise and fear Islam
But the Christians themselves have very chequered records. Some of the Croats were so violently anti-Semitic they made the Nazis wince in distaste
There's a story of some Nazi bigwig dining with a Balkan politician early in the war. The Nazi pointed out that the politician's chef was Jewish, expecting the poor chef to be fired, or pumished, or maybe sent to a ghetto
Instead the Balkan guy had the chef brought into the room and he personally shot the chef dead, there and then. The Nazi apparently complained that it was a vulgar overreaction, and it totally ruined his dinner
Ah yes - "Someone was bad 200 years ago, so I am justified in rape and murder today"
If you visit the region today, you'll notice that one thing everyone is utterly determined about, is not doing that again.
Sad to say our Council by-election resulted in a Reform gain from Independent (although the latter wasn't opposed by, and was would have sat with, the Greens.). They only bright spot was that Conservative candidate, in a once reasonably Conservative seat, came fourth. About 3.30pm, while we were watching the cricket, we had a knock on the door. Very pleasant lady there ...... "You do know it's Election Day today?". My wife said we'd already voted. "Conservative by any chance?" asked the lady. "No" said my wife and closed the door.
Never known anyone do that before.
31% is probably a fairly big undershoot for Reform in Essex despite winning, and on a big turnout. The CC might be rather variable. Greens stand a chance at CC level in your neck of the woods
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
Obviously we need to turn to business for the real talent. Dyson, Sugar, Ratcliffe, Mullins and that twat that ran Brewdog, your country needs you.
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
There might be something in Peter Cook's remarks on how well the Berlin satirical scene saved Germany from the Nazis.
Perhaps we do lampoon our leaders too much. How many of us could survive this much aggressive scrutiny?
Some people revel in it. And so rise above it.
And when people get brought down by "scrutiny" it's often for things that are basic sanity checks. Such as
- Don't commit sexual assaults on a regular basis - Don't be a slum landlord - Ease up on selling secrets to criminals and foreign powers.
100%
The real problem isn’t that scrutiny is too harsh. It’s that politics has become a job where the marginal rewards go to people who can survive permanent exposure and conflict, not necessarily people who can govern. The sane, competent ones who could handle it often look at the life-collateral damage and decide it’s not worth it. Meanwhile the actual wrong’uns often do survive because they’re shameless and tribal loyalty covers a lot.
I'v mentioned before, a relative who has a great CV for politics - PhD, wrote some interesting papers, then started a company from scratch. Literally working with his hands. Built that into a business. For hobbies, coached a sport to national level.
In times past, he would have been dragged onto the council and pushed into a seat - "It's your duty"
These days - why take the pay cut to be a social worker without career progression or training?
Considering there was no genocide that html link is clearly not an impartial source.
The genocide in Srebrenica involved the death of over 30% of the population. That would be approaching a million people had there been a like-for-like "Gaza genocide". BS.
Srebrenica is a small town in Bosnia. No-one (other than some Serbs probably) says it wasn't genocide because it was only 0.5% of the population of Bosniaks.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
"It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide."
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
There was also a range of Croat atrocities against the Serbs alongside the Serb ones. Culpability was wide-ranging in that conflict, but Milosevic was certainly a major factor.
Croat (and Bosnia) atrocities happened, but were relatively minor and what you might expect in an inter-ethnic civil war. The Bosniaks certainly prosecuted people for them.
Ratko Mladic stood in the town square of Srebrenica and declared vengeance on "the Turks"
But that's ignoring the history. Nothing excuses what the Serbs did in the 90s, but they do have historical reasons to feel aggrieved. Right back to the Muslim Ottoman Empire whuch used to kidnap Christian boys across the Balkans in a yearly "tax" and take them away forever, to become soldiers for the Sultan
Some Balkan communities have never forgotten this. If you want to see true pure "Islamophobia" chat to people in Montenegro, for example. They hate "the Turks", even now, and despise and fear Islam
But the Christians themselves have very chequered records. Some of the Croats were so violently anti-Semitic they made the Nazis wince in distaste
There's a story of some Nazi bigwig dining with a Balkan politician early in the war. The Nazi pointed out that the politician's chef was Jewish, expecting the poor chef to be fired, or pumished, or maybe sent to a ghetto
Instead the Balkan guy had the chef brought into the room and he personally shot the chef dead, there and then. The Nazi apparently complained that it was a vulgar overreaction, and it totally ruined his dinner
Ah yes - "Someone was bad 200 years ago, so I am justified in rape and murder today"
If you visit the region today, you'll notice that one thing everyone is utterly determined about, is not doing that again.
I have visited that region, many times, indeed last year I toured Kosovo. And I can safely say that you are talking total bollocks. The tension still simmers - I saw it, with my own eyes, in Kosovo (and also Montenegro) - it really wouldn't take much to make it kick off, again
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
Not sure why anyone would put themselves and their families into the social media firing line these days and I think that largely explains the calibre of politicians we are getting.
PB is one of the more civilised and educated sites but if you look at the comments on any given day the level of personal abuse aimed at political leaders of all stripes is horrendous. Most sane people would take easier and less stressful options.
Healey might be worth going for: 1) Compromise candidate 2) Defence, highly relevant for current matters 3) Not totally mental
So we are at the "not totally mental" stage. Just as well there is nothing too serious going on.
We had the same with the equivalent Tory non-entity Ben Wallace.
Very true. The quality of options available to all of our parties these days is so far down on what it used to be. Where are the people with genuine talent who have decided that doing well for their country is more important than doing well for themselves? In any party? Is politics such a miserable game these days that they have decided it simply isn't worth the candle and left the field to a variety of buffoons and crackpots?
There might be something in Peter Cook's remarks on how well the Berlin satirical scene saved Germany from the Nazis.
Perhaps we do lampoon our leaders too much. How many of us could survive this much aggressive scrutiny?
Some people revel in it. And so rise above it.
And when people get brought down by "scrutiny" it's often for things that are basic sanity checks. Such as
- Don't commit sexual assaults on a regular basis - Don't be a slum landlord - Ease up on selling secrets to criminals and foreign powers.
100%
The real problem isn’t that scrutiny is too harsh. It’s that politics has become a job where the marginal rewards go to people who can survive permanent exposure and conflict, not necessarily people who can govern. The sane, competent ones who could handle it often look at the life-collateral damage and decide it’s not worth it. Meanwhile the actual wrong’uns often do survive because they’re shameless and tribal loyalty covers a lot.
This is clearly true
We need the Greek method (sortition?) where governance is seen like Jury Service but for smart people. If you are a bright capable person, you may get selected, by lottery, to run the country for five years. Yes, this is a real bummer, but we will give you £300k a year to sweeten the deal
The alternative is rule by robots, which is probably coming anyway. I'd rather have a Sinclair Spectrum, as PM, than Skyr Toolmakersson
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are discussing pulling back from U.S. and other investments as the toll from this regional war with Iran mounts.
Senedd election is referendum on Starmer's leadership, says Nigel Farage
Um, shouldn't the Senedd election be a referendum on the government in Wales?
Not even that. Given it's Farage asking, the question should be, will the party of Russian spies do a better job of running the Senedd than the others?
Comments
As a founder member of the Royal Society For The Advancement and Public Reputation of Comminuted Bovine Products, I object.
If you have minced beef, you have the basis for nutritious meals. You can feed the starving.
David Lammy... not so much.
I wonder how the government and the local population would see that? Still, at least they wouldn't be coming by boat.
Yes, it's an intriguing thought - North American refugees fleeing Trump and arriving in droves on Europe's shores. I wonder where they would all go?
Alonso fears ‘permanent nerve damage’ from Aston Martin’s disastrous car
Violent vibrations causing problems for ex-world champion plus, Newey’s genius can make the team competitive... eventually
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/formula-1/2026/03/05/fernando-alonso-aston-martin-melbourne-grand-prix/
As I grew up, it was like clockwork - some twat would throw something and then there was a price spike and recession.
Imagine the day - "War in WhereTheFuckIsThat. Energy prices flat like a strap."
Saving the planet is nice bonus on top of that.
*Actually had an investment "expert" tell me that, at a conference. The same one who wanted a US rocket company to move production to China.
In any case it is a poor comparator. It was a deliberate Einsatzgruppen-type action that is easy to characterise as an individual act of genocide. What is a better comparison is the general genocide against Bosniaks (and Croats) during the whole war. More diffuse, but still genocide. Gaza likewise in my opinion.
This. And this in turn was the end for the Lord Turd types who wanted another round of negotiations with the Serbs, while they carried on "creating facts on the ground".
On that "praying for Trump in the Oval Office" video from yesterday, I had a quick look at who the people are.
The lady in red is Paula White-Cain, Trump's "faith adviser", and afaics the rest are a combination of Pastors or Leaders of independent megachurches, mainly from the South, people running "Christian-based" political campaign type organisation (think of the slot that used to be occupied by Moral Majority in Reagan times), political PAC type people who do funding, and a few others.
That is, the coalition who obtained religious support for Trump. I'm not saying Evangelical as there is also a Roman Catholic leg.
People present include Franklin Graham, who now runs the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and Samaritan's Purse - who are behind the "Operation Christmas Child" "shoebox of donations" relief operation, the head of the Family Research Council (formerly run by James Dobson), a chap from 'Hispanic Evangelicals for Trump'.
For the megachurches, think mainly Southern (eg Dallas), memberships from low thousands to low tens of thousands, and budgets in the low tens of millions range, and willing to put out political messages, and with little denominational structure directly involved.
There are several USA-style Christian Nationalists.
https://x.com/MargoMartin47/status/2029662638506979757
It devalues the word to say that casualties = genocide, it is not what the word means nor what it should ever mean.
But we'll probalby let China buy it...
Politico has a report saying the Iranian war is likely to last until September at least (from a US perspective). I guess the thinking now is: once you’ve started you might as well finish. Totally obliterate Iran as a threat and adversary for a generation. Regime change is a bonus
If and when that happens Iran will go down, all drones blazing, destabilising the region for a looooooong time
This has the potential to destroy Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi - all of them - as tourist/tech/financial hubs. Even zero income tax won’t make up for months of potential death by Shahed
In the UK, that marginal unit is very often CCGT, because wind and solar are non-dispatchable and you still need something controllable to cover peaks and, more importantly, lulls. So even if 70% of the MWh on a given day come from renewables at near-zero marginal cost, the price you pay is still anchored by “what does it cost to run the marginal gas plant right now?” whenever gas is the thing balancing the system. Those expensive hours can do a lot of work in an annual average, because scarcity pricing at the margin bites hard.
“Full renewable” doesn’t actually mean “gas becomes irrelevant”. It means “renewables plus a firm backstop”. If the backstop is gas (or anything gas-priced), then gas sets the price in the periods that matter. If the backstop is storage, demand response, nuclear, hydro, interconnectors, whatever, then those become the marginal setters instead. But until you have enough of that firm, low-carbon flexibility, you’re still effectively importing gas volatility into the power price, even while you’re generating a lot of energy from wind.
CfDs complicate it in a helpful way: a chunk of UK renewables are on contracts that pay back when wholesale prices run above strike, so billpayers get some rebate in gas-spike conditions. That cushions the impact, but it doesn’t change the underlying fact that the wholesale market clears at the marginal unit.
And while we’re here, the UK habit of importing more gas while sitting on domestic resources is just incoherent on three fronts. Climate: importing (especially LNG) bakes in extra emissions from liquefaction, shipping, regasification and generally leakier upstream. Volatility: you’re tying your marginal price setter to global LNG competition and geopolitics rather than whatever you can produce domestically with more stable fiscal and regulatory assumptions. Security: you’re swapping “we control the taps and the infrastructure” for “hope the global market and shipping lanes behave”, which is a weird strategy for an island that keeps rediscovering it needs energy to function.
So the energy-security argument for decarbonising is basically correct, but it only becomes true once you’ve built enough firm, domestic flexibility that “wind drops” doesn’t automatically translate into “gas sets the price again”. Otherwise you’ve decarbonised a lot of generation and still left the price formation mechanism hooked up to the same lunatics kicking oil and gas around, while also choosing to buy more of it from abroad.
If one side is subject to unprovoked aggression, then levelling the situation is the ethical course of action.
The eventual American intervention backed the anti-Serb forces in a nuanced way - any anti-Serb forces that took the opportunity to start dong their own nasty shit got cut off from support and slaughtered in Serb counter attacks.
It’s like Johnny Cyclops !!
My understanding of US employee longterm financial planning "everyone in those boxes has a number, it's a combination of their 401(k) and how many years until the Company covers their health insurance for life. The moment they hit that number they retire."
If you don't need the company health insurance, that number is a lot smaller.
Sky jettisons MAGA pundit.
https://racingnews365.com/sky-sports-f1-part-ways-with-controversial-pundit-ahead-of-2026-season
We need more Bernie Collins.
That’s ruddy lawyer speak !
246. On the basis of the inference that may be drawn from this evidence, a Trial Chamber could be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there existed a joint criminal enterprise, which included members of the Bosnian Serb leadership, whose aim and intention was to destroy a part of the Bosnian Muslim population, and that genocide was in fact committed in Brčko, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Srebrenica, Bijeljina, Ključ and Bosanski Novi. The genocidal intent of the Bosnian Serb leadership can be inferred from all the evidence, including the evidence set out in paragraphs 238–245. The scale and pattern of the attacks, their intensity, the substantial number of Muslims killed in the seven municipalities, the detention of Muslims, their brutal treatment in detention centres and elsewhere, and the targeting of persons essential to the survival of the Muslims as a group are all factors that point to genocide.[33]
The conduct of Republika Srpska and associated forces was clearly genocidal in intent. Not only ethnic cleansing but the killing of fighting-age men, rape of Bosnia women to force them to carry "Serb" children, selective sniping during the siege of Sarajevo (pregnant women were a particular target) etc etc.
Just as Russian actions in Ukraine are designed to wipe out any idea of Ukrainian identity in the areas they occupy.
Have you been to Boania? Do visit. Your tour guide will probably be a war veteran (one of mine was too young but had spent time in a concentration camp at the age of 6). It will show you what genocide looks like.
https://youtu.be/cN283e8XOEw?si=LVzTsEwdQT6wAT0Y
Jensen Button is either going to very sad or happy at her departure.
A price worth paying to keep Bibi out of jail
‘ Massive shock to global food supply is coming if the war continues, as it likely will.’
https://x.com/policytensor/status/2029729738097655907?s=61
Stock up,everyone !!
Here's a vid about it from an interesting & brief commentator called House of El, who is finance / tech with broad horizons but imo slightly overdoes her headlines, Youtube style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAYuMY_85to
This was her anti-drugs campaign when governor.
'Meth. We're on it' – South Dakota's new public health ads raise eyebrows
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/18/south-dakota-meth-were-on-it-addiction-campaign
We'll know things are really bad in the Gulf when the Arab owners withdraw from British horse racing (which, incidentially, would be a catastrophe for the industry in general and Newmarket in particular).
Petrol at my local Tesco garage is 5p higher than this time last week but still well below where it got to in 2008 and on other occasions. I've heard anecdotal reports of panic buying and queues but seen none myself so hopefully it won't become a problem and we seem to have for now reached a new low level intensity (though high enough for the Iranians I would imagine).
As always, the questions are when does this end and what does the end look like? Simply overthrowing the theocracy in Iran doesn't of itself bring peace and stability to the region and while I imagine the Straits of Hormuz can and will be reopened sooner or later, the truth of all this being about oil supplies will be confirmed if and when it's the American Navy escorting tankers through said Straits.
Maintaining the flow of oil is more important for the West than the freedom of the Iranian people - we all know that. IF what follows the mullahs is still a dictatorship but a more pragmatic regime which stays within its own borders and does nothing to stop said flow, I imagine Washington will be more than happy.
It's the repeated comments from Israeli politicians about wiping out or kicking out the population of Gaza that gives the game away. For example, Israel Katz, then the energy minister but later defense minister, said, "All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world." Deputy Speaker of the Knesset said the country's goal was "erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth." He later said that Gaza's inhabitants must be destroyed.
‘ FT Exclusive: Qatar’s energy minister has warned that war in the Middle East could 'bring down the economies of the world', predicting that all Gulf energy exporters would shut down production within weeks and drive oil to $150 a barrel. ft.trib.al/EekmlhF’
https://x.com/ft/status/2029852017737286014?s=61
Anyway I can't forgive her promotion of RFK Jnr. back before the Presidential primaries.
https://bsky.app/profile/coachfinstock.bsky.social/post/3mgebg3oryc2h
Perhaps we do lampoon our leaders too much. How many of us could survive this much aggressive scrutiny?
Ratko Mladic stood in the town square of Srebrenica and declared vengeance on "the Turks"
Sad to say our Council by-election resulted in a Reform gain from Independent (although the latter wasn't opposed by, and was would have sat with, the Greens.). They only bright spot was that Conservative candidate, in a once reasonably Conservative seat, came fourth.
About 3.30pm, while we were watching the cricket, we had a knock on the door. Very pleasant lady there ...... "You do know it's Election Day today?". My wife said we'd already voted. "Conservative by any chance?" asked the lady. "No" said my wife and closed the door.
Never known anyone do that before.
@chadbourn.bsky.social
The Iran War could “bring down the economies of the world”, Qatar’s Energy Minister tells the FT.
https://bsky.app/profile/chadbourn.bsky.social/post/3mgf2h2hf7k2y
I like most of Sky’s other pundits/presenters.
Nico Rosberg needs to be on more.
Even the "Level Killing Field" types.
And when people get brought down by "scrutiny" it's often for things that are basic sanity checks. Such as
- Don't commit sexual assaults on a regular basis
- Don't be a slum landlord
- Ease up on selling secrets to criminals and foreign powers.
Travelodge staff gave attacker key to woman's room
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3v77w5d437o
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/04/aws_saas_middle_east_customer_warnings
AWS says drones hit two of its datacenters in UAE, urges users to move resources to different regions
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/02/amazon_outages_middle_east/
Some Balkan communities have never forgotten this. If you want to see true pure "Islamophobia" chat to people in Montenegro, for example. They hate "the Turks", even now, and despise and fear Islam
But the Christians themselves have very chequered records. Some of the Croats were so violently anti-Semitic they made the Nazis wince in distaste
There's a story of some Nazi bigwig dining with a Balkan politician early in the war. The Nazi pointed out that the politician's chef was Jewish, expecting the poor chef to be fired, or pumished, or maybe sent to a ghetto
Instead the Balkan guy had the chef brought into the room and he personally shot the chef dead, there and then. The Nazi apparently complained that it was a vulgar overreaction, and it totally ruined his dinner
God how we'll miss Eddie.
impending large-scale war crimes trial of Nato's lynchpin in the region, Hashim Thaci, for instance, for fear of aiding a Russian narrative.
I've noticed that hotels are increasingly not installing the mechanical door closure things - so that you can prevent someone, even with a key, entering.
Like the "safes" room security in many hotels is a joke.
The current gap is not in basic competence - there are lots of senior MPs who could do the basic job of leadership adequately, and Starmer is certainly one of them. The gap is in a clear and reasonably achievable vision of what we are trying to achieve over the next 10-20 years. I have very little idea what Starmer hopes to achieve or which policies are proof against being reversed if they prove temporarily unpopular. Some of the alternatives, notably the Greens (and, albeit in a form that I find repulsive, Reform), do offer broadly-sketched visions, The problem is in demonstrating that they've thought them through and taken adequate account of the difficulties and likely opposition.
The real problem isn’t that scrutiny is too harsh. It’s that politics has become a job where the marginal rewards go to people who can survive permanent exposure and conflict, not necessarily people who can govern. The sane, competent ones who could handle it often look at the life-collateral damage and decide it’s not worth it. Meanwhile the actual wrong’uns often do survive because they’re shameless and tribal loyalty covers a lot.
If you visit the region today, you'll notice that one thing everyone is utterly determined about, is not doing that again.
Senedd election is referendum on Starmer's leadership, says Nigel Farage
Um, shouldn't the Senedd election be a referendum on the government in Wales?
In times past, he would have been dragged onto the council and pushed into a seat - "It's your duty"
These days - why take the pay cut to be a social worker without career progression or training?
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years
He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
And he knows he shouldn't kill, and he knows he always will
Kill you for me, my friend, and me for you
And he's fighting for Canada, he's fighting for France
He's fighting for the USA
And he's fighting for the Russians and he's fighting for Japan
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way
And he's fighting for democracy, he's fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide who's to live and who's to die
And he never sees the writing on the wall
But without him, how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him, Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body as the weapon of the war
And without him all this killing can't go on
He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him and you and me, and brothers, can't you see?
This is not the way we put an end to war
PB is one of the more civilised and educated sites but if you look at the comments on any given day the level of personal abuse aimed at political leaders of all stripes is horrendous. Most sane people would take easier and less stressful options.
https://x.com/peterrhague/status/2029840799924400489?s=61
We need the Greek method (sortition?) where governance is seen like Jury Service but for smart people. If you are a bright capable person, you may get selected, by lottery, to run the country for five years. Yes, this is a real bummer, but we will give you £300k a year to sweeten the deal
The alternative is rule by robots, which is probably coming anyway. I'd rather have a Sinclair Spectrum, as PM, than Skyr Toolmakersson