During a classified briefing on Capitol Hill last fall, Rear Adm. Brian H. Bennett — a military officer overseeing Special Operations for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff — was asked if any of the people aboard the boat on September 2 could have been human trafficking victims. “They could be,” Bennett replied, according to two people present at the briefing. https://x.com/theintercept/status/2064800927681335584
My eldest was one of them. First class English degree. A year applying for everything and anything. Not even getting replies for most applications. Is now completing a Masters in HR and I have created a job for them in my business. Its *dire* out there. Catastrophic. And not just the lack of jobs, its the Fuck You attitude of recruiters that really damages them.
Which is likely to prompt a fuck society response from a very large number of young people. That is bad news for all of us.
This was quite telling. These two parties have VERY little in common other than offering fantasy solutions: ..While he doesn’t “particularly agree with any political party”, he believes only two, the Green party and Reform UK, “seem to have an agenda for young people”..
The political mainstream needs to get its act together.
Yet earlier you’re posting supporting policies that help bring this about purely to own Reform
Posting someone else's tweet, which makes a fair rhetorical point about the internal contradiction of Reform's claims, doesn't mean I support that poster (whom I'd never previously heard of).
Yes it does, at least sometimes, even if it shouldn't. Look at how many high profile ‘cancellations’ have followed not original posts but re-posts or likes. Fortunately PB does not follow that ridiculous standard.
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Except that's not possible because they're all over pension age now, so he can't give them early access to anything. Financial compensation is the only option.
Clearly Burnham has ruled out direct financial compensation in the form of a simple payment. But he's made the point that there are other means of "recompense" that could be targeted to those more in need of recompense (lack access to a car tends to be very broadly income related) and also drew attention to his own record. The question is whether there are any other similar means that could be applied to someone now in their 70s.
Why though ?
Why are these entitled boomers more deserving than anyone else
In other defence news... this sounds implausible to me. It's just as likely France trying to frustrate a German deal with Saab.
#France may be pivoting toward #Sweden’s Saab for its next-generation fighter ambitions as the Franco-German #FCAS program unravels. If confirmed, this would mark a significant shift in Europe’s defense landscape and reshape the continent’s next-generation fighter jet plans. https://x.com/Tom_Antonov/status/2064748878746779801
I can see what's in it for Sweden, but not what France gains.
Having said that they have done some big deals in both directions (GlobalEye, FDI) recently so they can obviously work together.
My eldest was one of them. First class English degree. A year applying for everything and anything. Not even getting replies for most applications. Is now completing a Masters in HR and I have created a job for them in my business. Its *dire* out there. Catastrophic. And not just the lack of jobs, its the Fuck You attitude of recruiters that really damages them.
I hope you call him a nepo baby at least once a month. Good for you; good luck for your ungendered offspring but there's an awful lot without the connections.
The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters
China isn't funding a thing, there are enough NIMBYs hating them without being paid.
It's nice to think that everyone with an agenda you dislike is being paid but reality is most of the time people simply like things as they are..
I think it's hard to say, what we do know is that using bunch of bots to produce clickbait and boost clickbait produced by other people is something that has been done very frequently by various people, and seems to have really good ROI. This doesn't contradict the fact that people are also inclined to like this stuff organically, they target messages that people will like.
What we know about AI datacenters is that there's very strong opposition to them based mainly on something that's totally fake (water usage). We also know that people are often using AI to make viral images to get people mad about AI.
I think the main problem with them is they demonstrate that increasing supply of electricity doesn’t necessarily mean reduced costs for households in a free market.
A bit like house building doesn’t impact house prices much…
Not to mention computer components have shot up in price and some have been withdrawn from the consumer market.
Though as some sceptics have noted, a lot more datacentres have been announced than built.
A primary school with just two pupils is to close at the end of the summer term.
Ysgol Y Garreg in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, currently has no pupils in nursery, reception or years one to five.
Its remaining two Year six pupils are due to start secondary school in September.
Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet voted unanimously to close the school on 31 August, saying it could not ignore the "seriousness of the situation".
The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable, despite the school's long history at the heart of the community.
Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said the proposal was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.
"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.
"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."
He paid tribute to the staff, governors, parents and community, saying Ysgol Y Garreg had served the area faithfully for over a century.
I fear we're going to see more of this. The number of children is, in many areas, falling.
This has been an issue in Highland for decades: a Council with an area larger than Wales and roughly the same population of Blackpool!!!
The problem here its that even if it has no children now, there might be some in a year or to so we mothball the school not close it.
It might seem daft to keep a school open with only a handful of kids, but if the alternative is busing five and six year olds for over at hour twice a day, sometimes it's the least worst option.
Peter.
It’s also an issue in Dumfries and Galloway, for example, Dalry High School has only 13 pupils and is at risk of closure, so it even affects secondary schools. OTOH, when Ardnamurchan High School opened in 2002, it allowed over 100 pupils to travel to school from home daily, instead of boarding in Fort William during the week,
D&G is facing quite severe problems with rural depopulation, and difficult choices over the next couple of decades. Too many retirees, particularly in the far flung and more rural areas.
Dalry High I think has had its own problems, New Galloway and Dalry are very small, around 300 or 400 and a large catchment area with few living in it. There has been problems there with some subjects not being offered beyond S4 or earlier and lack of staff to teach them. So essentially when kids reach potential leaving age, they were leaving to go to CD etc, but now the roll is so small theres no point in them even starting at Dalry.
The council have favoured mothballing a lot of primary schools, which I think can be triggered when they fall below a roll of 10 (may be 8?). Realistically a lot of these schools will eventually close.
I'd say Ardnamurchan is a special case due to its remoteness and the disruption if the Corran ferry is off. Pupils should/could be offered choice of boarding at Fort William, same for Jura kids heading to Islay
Strontian is probably a lengthy bus ride twice a day for some of those 100 kids...
It is indeed, and single track/passing places for a lot of road out in Ardnamurchan.
Wonder if some of the kids could get across to Mull for high school? May have been a factor in why the council decided to build the new high in Tobermory instead of closer to the ferry
Mull isn't part of Highland Council...It's Argyll & Bute.
Peter.
Ah of course, oops! confusing now as they have the same MP
The theory taking the rich by storm: China funds data center haters
China isn't funding a thing, there are enough NIMBYs hating them without being paid.
It's nice to think that everyone with an agenda you dislike is being paid but reality is most of the time people simply like things as they are..
I think it's hard to say, what we do know is that using bunch of bots to produce clickbait and boost clickbait produced by other people is something that has been done very frequently by various people, and seems to have really good ROI. This doesn't contradict the fact that people are also inclined to like this stuff organically, they target messages that people will like.
What we know about AI datacenters is that there's very strong opposition to them based mainly on something that's totally fake (water usage). We also know that people are often using AI to make viral images to get people mad about AI.
I think the main problem with them is they demonstrate that increasing supply of electricity doesn’t necessarily mean reduced costs for households in a free market.
A bit like house building doesn’t impact house prices much…
Not to mention computer components have shot up in price and some have been withdrawn from the consumer market.
Though as some sceptics have noted, a lot more datacentres have been announced than built.
The thing is the last thing you want in your town is a half finished and no longer required data centre - whose builder and owner has gone bankrupt leaving the tax payers to deal with the resulting mess.
Fair to say he thinks that most of the problems go back decades.
And giving them more money won't fix any of them.
More money for Defence is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Britain isn't going to fix its defence issues with a standstill budget.
Or we could restructure or commitments and stop pretending that we have any kind of global presence.
Forget about Diego Garcia, pull out of the Gulf and Cyprus and leave the Med to Turkey, Greece and Italy. Sell the Aircraft Carriers and stop building Frigates Destroyers and Attack Submarines and police out to our 200 mile limit by air and drone while spend the savings on the Army largely perminantly deployed to Poland.
The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
This doesn't sound good, and the media and the markets don't seem to have been aware of it, as yet. Calm stalemate on this front has become the normality now, for about two months.
In other defence news... this sounds implausible to me. It's just as likely France trying to frustrate a German deal with Saab.
#France may be pivoting toward #Sweden’s Saab for its next-generation fighter ambitions as the Franco-German #FCAS program unravels. If confirmed, this would mark a significant shift in Europe’s defense landscape and reshape the continent’s next-generation fighter jet plans. https://x.com/Tom_Antonov/status/2064748878746779801
I can see what's in it for Sweden, but not what France gains.
Having said that they have done some big deals in both directions (GlobalEye, FDI) recently so they can obviously work together.
Some talk about it being about a UCAV collaboration, which isn't so daft.
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Except that's not possible because they're all over pension age now, so he can't give them early access to anything. Financial compensation is the only option.
Clearly Burnham has ruled out direct financial compensation in the form of a simple payment. But he's made the point that there are other means of "recompense" that could be targeted to those more in need of recompense (lack access to a car tends to be very broadly income related) and also drew attention to his own record. The question is whether there are any other similar means that could be applied to someone now in their 70s.
Why though ?
Why are these entitled boomers more deserving than anyone else
They aren't entitled to anything. They are a bunch of selfish entitled women who in a decade of campaigning have achieved nothing other than put money in the hands of expensive PR advisors and lawyers.
Grotesquely they compare themselves to the suffragettes while having themselves photographed at £225 per head dinners with their PR advisors.
Wow. The Defence Investment Plan. I have spoken to a number of very senior sources this evening and it is, frankly, a circus behind the scenes. The dates now circulating may well be the plan. But discussions are still live, with changes being made late in the day and not cleanly.
I understand that those working around this announcement have seen planning change not day by day but hour by hour over the past few days. Arrangements made in the morning have not survived to the evening.
Industry is frozen and earlier today I spent time with a major player in the UGV world, who told me the delay has effectively stopped the customer community from starting anything, because any programme begun now could be cancelled the moment the plan lands. Everything is paused, waiting to see what the document says. In the meantime, they said, the lack of UK spend has forced British-based firms to chase business in Europe, the Middle East and the US instead, in a field the UK once led and has let drift.
The settlement between the MoD and the Treasury may be being agreed at some level, but the manner of the past few days suggests rather less is settled than the official line implies. Even by the standards of this process, in which autumn became Christmas and Christmas became spring, the degree of last-minute change is something I have not seen before.
As ever, things may shift again and it is a case of believe it when you see it. But this is where things stand as of this evening, this is unprecedented. https://x.com/geoallison/status/2064829022714945876
The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
The lunatic is awake and posting. I'm sure the US will do the first. Taking Kharg island is also possible, though not with the assets currently in theatre. But once taken, the US soldiers there just get droned to death over the following weeks and months unless the US goes for broke and launches a full ground invasion (hint - it won't - it doesn't have enough soldiers to do so; not soldiers in theatre or in reserve, but total soldiers worldwide).
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Except that's not possible because they're all over pension age now, so he can't give them early access to anything. Financial compensation is the only option.
Clearly Burnham has ruled out direct financial compensation in the form of a simple payment. But he's made the point that there are other means of "recompense" that could be targeted to those more in need of recompense (lack access to a car tends to be very broadly income related) and also drew attention to his own record. The question is whether there are any other similar means that could be applied to someone now in their 70s.
Why though ?
Why are these entitled boomers more deserving than anyone else
As I posted earlier it really is VERY SIMPLE
You add a set sum monthly to the recipients set Pension in the form of a token ex gratia payment.
I think a token and ongoing small additional payment would placate many.
Funded by removal of non means tested universal pensioner benefits like WFA to richer pensioners who opt out or set on wealth and asset wealth via tax system
Fair to say he thinks that most of the problems go back decades.
And giving them more money won't fix any of them.
More money for Defence is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Britain isn't going to fix its defence issues with a standstill budget.
Or we could restructure or commitments and stop pretending that we have any kind of global presence.
Forget about Diego Garcia, pull out of the Gulf and Cyprus and leave the Med to Turkey, Greece and Italy. Sell the Aircraft Carriers and stop building Frigates Destroyers and Attack Submarines and police out to our 200 mile limit by air and drone while spend the savings on the Army largely perminantly deployed to Poland.
Peter.
My plan is similar, but I want to keep the carriers. We need
A North Atlantic and High North capability: anti-ship and anti-sub A South Atlantic capability: amphibious landing, long-range air A Intermarium capability: drones, artillery, IFVs, possibly tanks A Space capability: pop-up satellite launchers, anti-sat A Air capability: air superiority, AEW, ground attack A Strategic capability: nukes
We don't need and should not commit to
A Pacific capability. The most we can do is let British F35Bs fly off US carriers, but I'm not sending our carriers there.
If Starmer isn't already done for, Healey has just done for Starmer. Starmer is out of his depth and it's time to say goodbye.
Nick Ferrari commenting on Shelagh Fogerty about how wonderful Kemi is, and eulogising at her calling out of Starmer over Healey. I wonder who Ferrari posts as on PB? In this instance she is not wrong though.
The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
This doesn't sound good, and the media and the markets don't seem to have been aware of it, as yet. Calm stalemate on this front has become the normality now, for about two months.
Trump posts anywhere between 30-50 times a day, most of them just dementia addled rants about Joe Biden, Obama, Clinton, Iran or whatever else has popped into his head at the time. I don't think anyone takes them seriously anymore, and no one reacts to them.
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Except that's not possible because they're all over pension age now, so he can't give them early access to anything. Financial compensation is the only option.
Clearly Burnham has ruled out direct financial compensation in the form of a simple payment. But he's made the point that there are other means of "recompense" that could be targeted to those more in need of recompense (lack access to a car tends to be very broadly income related) and also drew attention to his own record. The question is whether there are any other similar means that could be applied to someone now in their 70s.
Why though ?
Why are these entitled boomers more deserving than anyone else
As I posted earlier it really is VERY SIMPLE
You add a set sum monthly to the recipients set Pension in the form of a token ex gratia payment.
I think a token and ongoing small additional payment would placate many.
Funded by removal of non means tested universal pensioner benefits like WFA to richer pensioners who opt out or set on wealth and asset wealth via tax system
It’s even more simple
Tell them to fuck off and give them nothing over and above the state pension and invite them to take legal action
All that bluster yesterday from Starmer at PMQs. He's dreadful. His Defence Secretary resigns just weeks ahead of the NATO summit that Starmer had said he will produce the review just before. Utterly embarrassing. Completely unravelling. Our partners must look at this lot and despair.
Luckily Burnham will come in and spend that extra money on WASPI women. Buckle up.
No Burnham won't.
From the Guardian rolling politics blog, just:
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying: "Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced. As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits. He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model."
Except that's not possible because they're all over pension age now, so he can't give them early access to anything. Financial compensation is the only option.
Clearly Burnham has ruled out direct financial compensation in the form of a simple payment. But he's made the point that there are other means of "recompense" that could be targeted to those more in need of recompense (lack access to a car tends to be very broadly income related) and also drew attention to his own record. The question is whether there are any other similar means that could be applied to someone now in their 70s.
Why though ?
Why are these entitled boomers more deserving than anyone else
As I posted earlier it really is VERY SIMPLE
You add a set sum monthly to the recipients set Pension in the form of a token ex gratia payment.
I think a token and ongoing small additional payment would placate many.
Funded by removal of non means tested universal pensioner benefits like WFA to richer pensioners who opt out or set on wealth and asset wealth via tax system
It’s even more simple
Tell them to fuck off and give them nothing over and above the state pension and invite them to take legal action
Fair to say he thinks that most of the problems go back decades.
And giving them more money won't fix any of them.
More money for Defence is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Britain isn't going to fix its defence issues with a standstill budget.
Or we could restructure or commitments and stop pretending that we have any kind of global presence.
Forget about Diego Garcia, pull out of the Gulf and Cyprus and leave the Med to Turkey, Greece and Italy. Sell the Aircraft Carriers and stop building Frigates Destroyers and Attack Submarines and police out to our 200 mile limit by air and drone while spend the savings on the Army largely perminantly deployed to Poland.
Peter.
My plan is similar, but I want to keep the carriers. We need
A North Atlantic and High North capability: anti-ship and anti-sub A South Atlantic capability: amphibious landing, long-range air A Intermarium capability: drones, artillery, IFVs, possibly tanks A Space capability: pop-up satellite launchers, anti-sat A Air capability: air superiority, AEW, ground attack A Strategic capability: nukes
We don't need and should not commit to
A Pacific capability. The most we can do is let British F35Bs fly off US carriers, but I'm not sending our carriers there.
Tbf it’d be a damn close run thing that they’d make it that far.
Fair to say he thinks that most of the problems go back decades.
And giving them more money won't fix any of them.
More money for Defence is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Britain isn't going to fix its defence issues with a standstill budget.
Or we could restructure or commitments and stop pretending that we have any kind of global presence.
Forget about Diego Garcia, pull out of the Gulf and Cyprus and leave the Med to Turkey, Greece and Italy. Sell the Aircraft Carriers and stop building Frigates Destroyers and Attack Submarines and police out to our 200 mile limit by air and drone while spend the savings on the Army largely perminantly deployed to Poland.
Peter.
My plan is similar, but I want to keep the carriers. We need
A North Atlantic and High North capability: anti-ship and anti-sub A South Atlantic capability: amphibious landing, long-range air A Intermarium capability: drones, artillery, IFVs, possibly tanks A Space capability: pop-up satellite launchers, anti-sat A Air capability: air superiority, AEW, ground attack A Strategic capability: nukes
We don't need and should not commit to
A Pacific capability. The most we can do is let British F35Bs fly off US carriers, but I'm not sending our carriers there.
Why keep the carriers if you’re not going to deploy them to the Pacific.
You could defend the Falklands but that’s the same old issue of skewing the defence of the UK for a colonial left over.
As to the North Atlantic and the nonsense about the high north (Russia isn’t expanding in the HN it’s abandoning the Northern Atlantic & Pacific) what use are carriers there when Russian Air Power won’t get past the Norway/Spitsbergen gap, let alone the G/UK/I.
It must be a tough job resisting the demands of heavily-armed admirals, field marshals and air commodores on a daily basis. But our only foreseeable adversary has just been humiliated by Ukraine. What are we actually afraid of?
Healey - you've left us unable to defend ourselves
Wow wow wow
It is quite an amazing development and Healey's letter an earth shattering moment for Starmer and Reeves
The amazing development is that Healey is signalling the gutting of the country's defence by the Conservatives is not worth mentioning. He's gone native and been captured by the (anaemic and bloated) Defence industry. Will watch where he ends up.
Comments
During a classified briefing on Capitol Hill last fall, Rear Adm. Brian H. Bennett — a military officer overseeing Special Operations for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff — was asked if any of the people aboard the boat on September 2 could have been human trafficking victims. “They could be,” Bennett replied, according to two people present at the briefing.
https://x.com/theintercept/status/2064800927681335584
Why are these entitled boomers more deserving than anyone else
Having said that they have done some big deals in both directions (GlobalEye, FDI) recently so they can obviously work together.
I’m alright jack
Though as some sceptics have noted, a lot more datacentres have been announced than built.
Forget about Diego Garcia, pull out of the Gulf and Cyprus and leave the Med to Turkey, Greece and Italy. Sell the Aircraft Carriers and stop building Frigates Destroyers and Attack Submarines and police out to our 200 mile limit by air and drone while spend the savings on the Army largely perminantly deployed to Poland.
Peter.
Grotesquely they compare themselves to the suffragettes while having themselves photographed at £225 per head dinners with their PR advisors.
Wow. The Defence Investment Plan. I have spoken to a number of very senior sources this evening and it is, frankly, a circus behind the scenes. The dates now circulating may well be the plan. But discussions are still live, with changes being made late in the day and not cleanly.
I understand that those working around this announcement have seen planning change not day by day but hour by hour over the past few days. Arrangements made in the morning have not survived to the evening.
Industry is frozen and earlier today I spent time with a major player in the UGV world, who told me the delay has effectively stopped the customer community from starting anything, because any programme begun now could be cancelled the moment the plan lands. Everything is paused, waiting to see what the document says. In the meantime, they said, the lack of UK spend has forced British-based firms to chase business in Europe, the Middle East and the US instead, in a field the UK once led and has let drift.
The settlement between the MoD and the Treasury may be being agreed at some level, but the manner of the past few days suggests rather less is settled than the official line implies. Even by the standards of this process, in which autumn became Christmas and Christmas became spring, the degree of last-minute change is something I have not seen before.
As ever, things may shift again and it is a case of believe it when you see it. But this is where things stand as of this evening, this is unprecedented.
https://x.com/geoallison/status/2064829022714945876
SHE IS VERY THICK
I'm sure the US will do the first. Taking Kharg island is also possible, though not with the assets currently in theatre. But once taken, the US soldiers there just get droned to death over the following weeks and months unless the US goes for broke and launches a full ground invasion (hint - it won't - it doesn't have enough soldiers to do so; not soldiers in theatre or in reserve, but total soldiers worldwide).
You add a set sum monthly to the recipients set Pension in the form of a token ex gratia payment.
I think a token and ongoing small additional payment would placate many.
Funded by removal of non means tested universal pensioner benefits like WFA to richer pensioners who opt out or set on wealth and asset wealth via tax system
A North Atlantic and High North capability: anti-ship and anti-sub
A South Atlantic capability: amphibious landing, long-range air
A Intermarium capability: drones, artillery, IFVs, possibly tanks
A Space capability: pop-up satellite launchers, anti-sat
A Air capability: air superiority, AEW, ground attack
A Strategic capability: nukes
We don't need and should not commit to
A Pacific capability. The most we can do is let British F35Bs fly off US carriers, but I'm not sending our carriers there.
Nick Ferrari commenting on Shelagh Fogerty about how wonderful Kemi is, and eulogising at her calling out of Starmer over Healey. I wonder who Ferrari posts as on PB? In this instance she is not wrong though.
🎶🎵Oh, Andy Burnham 🎵🎶
NEW THREAD
HEZZA put a slow incendiary device under Thatcher over Westland... A bit like the first 633 bomb hitting the Cliff overhang.
HEALY has bounced Barnes Wallis style right in to the middle of the Dam with bullseye precision.
Tell them to fuck off and give them nothing over and above the state pension and invite them to take legal action
Your proposal was nuts
Touchez
You could defend the Falklands but that’s the same old issue of skewing the defence of the UK for a colonial left over.
As to the North Atlantic and the nonsense about the high north (Russia isn’t expanding in the HN it’s abandoning the Northern Atlantic & Pacific) what use are carriers there when Russian Air Power won’t get past the Norway/Spitsbergen gap, let alone the G/UK/I.
Peter.