- “£3k a day: that’s what health officials are paying thousands of management consultants” – The soaring cost of outside help during the pandemic is uncovered by the Public Accounts Committee, which calls it “a miserable episode for the department”, the Telegraph reports.
- “Inflation soars again to 9% – the highest since 1982” – The headline CPI rate rose to 9% in April, up from 7% in March and the highest level since 1982, the Mail reports.
- “So that’s why the Bank of England is helpless! Staff only have to go to office one day a week amid backlash over Governor’s claim he’s unable to stem inflation” – The revelation caused outrage because Governor Andrew Bailey has warned he feels “helpless” in the face of surging inflation and “apocalyptic” food price rises, the Mail reports.
- “Labour chiefs fear 20 staff could be questioned over Starmer’s curry” – Labour insiders fear that up to 20 police questionnaires could be issued starting from next week, reports the Mail.
- “Sir JVT could not attend his investiture… because he had Covid!” – England’s former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam missed his knighthood yesterday because he was infected with Covid, the Mail reports.
- “Pivot into COVID-19 research eases as publishing surge starts to level off” – The rush to publish on COVID-19 is subsiding, according to a new study reported in Science.
- “China’s Zero-Covid industrial complex” – The biggest corporate winners from the country’s draconian pandemic strategy, according to the Economist.
- “Argentina’s society outraged as President ‘buys his way out of lockdown‘” – Argentina’s society was outraged Tuesday after it was announced that President Alberto Fernández and First Lady Fabiola Yáñez were let off the hook for violating the lockdown he had himself decreed during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports MercoPress.
- “End mask ‘requirement’ in healthcare settings” – Sign Smile Free’s open letter to the NHS Chief Executives to end the mask ‘requirement’ in healthcare settings.
- “Half of new nurses trained overseas, latest figures show” – Some 48% of the 48,436 people who joined the nursing and midwifery workforce came from abroad, with the vast majority hailing from India and the Philippines, the Mail reports.
- “Covid drama This England won’t cover ‘partygate’ scandal” – A new series on the handling of the pandemic, starring Sir Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson, will not dramatise the gatherings that nearly toppled the PM, according to the Telegraph.
- “Elite groupthink is driving Britain into a nightmare of inflation, idleness and rage” – We face a calamity even worse than the financial crisis thanks to the hubris of our failed ruling class, thunders Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
- “Open Letter from the U.K. Medical Freedom Alliance to Professor Asma Khalil” – The UKMFA raises serious concerns with the conclusions presented in Prof Khalil’s recent publication in Nature Medicine, entitled “Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness and perinatal outcomes of COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy”.
- “Back to the Office? Almost Nine in 10 UK Professionals Say No Thanks” – More than 85% of U.K. finance workers no longer view the office as their main place of work, highlighting the challenge the industry faces if it tries to persuade bankers to return to pre-pandemic norms, reports Bloomberg.
- “Finland and Sweden submit applications to join NATO” – Finland and Sweden have submitted formal letters of application to join NATO, which must now been reviewed and approved by all 30 members of the alliance before they are accepted, the Mail reports.
- “Just how long can Russia sustain the war in Ukraine?” – Charles Lipson in the Spectator cuts through the complexity and focuses on where the combatants now stand, how they got there and what is likely to happen next.
- “Vladimir Putin ‘weaponising’ world’s food supplies” – Western officials say the Kremlin is deliberately destroying farming equipment and grain stores in Ukraine, the Telegraph reports.
- “‘Smart people don’t get offended’: Ricky Gervais defends joking about AIDS, cancer and Hitler in Netflix special SuperNature – and tells Colbert he wants to get cancelled” – The 60-year-old English comedian doesn’t hold back in SuperNature, but insisted that “smart” people won’t get offended as they will understand the “irony”, the Mail reports.
- “How to stop children being indoctrinated” – Woke textbooks should be laughed at, not censored, says Andrew Doyle in UnHerd.
- “Buffalo and the myth of racist America” – Democrats want to create another George Floyd moment, says Ayaan Hirsi Ali in UnHerd.
- “The performative outrage over Tucker Carlson” – He’s being blamed for the Buffalo shooting despite never being mentioned by the killer, writes Stephen L. Miller in Spectator World.
- “There’s no case for Britain to pay reparations” – Large cheques aren’t going to alter the past, which is always more contentious than activists like to think, writes David Abulafia in the Telegraph.
- “It’s lovely out … so be sure to stay inside, says nannying Met Office” – Critics pour cold water on forecaster’s drive to inform people how they can keep themselves safe from the heat, reports the Telegraph.
- “The twilight of identity politics” – Progressive groupthink is falling to pieces, writes Park MacDougald in UnHerd.
- “The National Woke Service” – Why are NHS leaders being sent on microaggression courses, asks Frank Furedi in Spiked.
- “How the Biden administration let right-wing attacks derail its disinformation efforts” – The Washington Post is not happy the Biden administration’s Ministry of Truth has been “paused” indefinitely.
- “Elon Musk confirms he will switch to vote Republican” – Elon Musk is registered in the U.S. as an independent voter, and has described himself in the past as a moderate – but has hinted recently he is shifting further towards the right, the Mail reports.
- “Twitter employee tells undercover Project Veritas journalist that the company isn’t profitable because of their woke ideology” – He explains how Twitter puts the “correct” views in front of people and ridicules Elon Musk.
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“Pivot into COVID-19 research eases as publishing surge starts to level off” – The rush to publish on COVID-19 is subsiding, according to a new study reported in Science.
A study, studying studies.
FFS. Money for old rope.
I know this is hard for some folks to stomach, but time is on Russia’s side. Time is running out for US/NATO.
Whatever time parameters we apply, the Russian economy has shown strength and adaptability that US/NATO clearly didn’t anticipate.
There is also the critical issue of historical necessity. The Russians are indeed facing an existential crisis.
For them, defeat would not simply be a matter of losing face. They have faced the threat of annihilation before, against another enemy that regarded them as subhumans and their lands as places to plunder.
They fought with a determination and heroism that astonished the world, and they won. Look at these people in the streets of Moscow on May 9. I believe they would do the same, if called upon.
Торжественное шествие «Бессмертный полк». Запись трансляции 9 мая 2022 года – YouTube
That’s the Russian equivalent of our Poppy day.
Russians parade through the streets every year with photographs of their relatives who died at the hands of the Nazi’s (in particular) during WW2. Forty million of them.
Hype or otherwise, Putin’s popularity rating are at 83% during the Ukraine crisis, no doubt because he’s emphasising the annihilation of the Azov battalion.
Yes – I’ve posted it before. They carry photographs of those who served and survived as well.
Nobody knows the true number of those who lost their lives, of course – but a number as high as 40 million has been given.
The Russians concealed the true scale of the losses for years – putting them at 7 million – because the numbers were so horrific, and they thought it might make them appear vulnerable. In the 1960s, they acknowledged that it was at least 20 million.
It’s hard for many in the West to accept Putin’s popularity in Russia, even before this crisis. When he came to power, Russia was reeling from the Yeltsin years, when Western carpetbaggers (along with corrupt Russians) did pretty much what they liked. That no longer happens.
‘In the 1960s, they acknowledged that it was at least 20 million.’
If Mr Hitler hadn’t smashed the snot out of the USSR their plan to roll the red army across Europe may well have suceeded.
In that regard he did us a favour.
And for that matter, if it wasn’t for the Linz corporal’s armies, I probably wouldn’t be alive today. It’s funny how history works out..
Strange way to justify Naziism.
Do they carry photographs of their relatives who died at the hands of the Communists, do you know?
Yep.
I wouldn’t deny the Russian determination and heroism but remember much of the war was fought in Ukraine and proportionally Ukraine suffered more than any other part of Russia.
Ukraine’s human and material losses during World War II were enormous. Some 5 to 7 million people perished. Even with the return of evacuees from the east and the repatriation of forced labourers from Germany, Ukraine’s estimated population of 36 million in 1947 was almost 5 million less than before the war. Because more than 700 cities and towns and 28,000 villages had been destroyed, 10 million people were left homeless. Only 20 percent of the industrial enterprises and 15 percent of agricultural equipment and machinery remained intact, and the transportation network was severely damaged. The material losses constituted an estimated 40 percent of Ukraine’s national wealth.
It is also worth remembering that the Russian army was incredibly brutal in victory. There is a reason why at the end German units tried to surrender to the Americans not the Russians.
“ They have faced the threat of annihilation before, against another enemy that regarded them as subhumans and their lands as places to plunder.” An enemy they had a non-aggression pact with and a trait they shared with, they regarded the Kulaks as subhuman.
The Germans violated the non aggression pact (the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact) by attacking Russia in 1941 less than 2 years after signing it.
The pact was a non aggression agreement between Germany and Russia, it was not an agreement to jointly wage war in Europe.
“The pact followed the breakdown of British-Soviet-French negotiations for a tripartite alliance with Russia in early August 1939.” (Thought Co.)
“Joseph Stalin mistrusted British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and the Conservative party in England, and believed they would not fully support Russian interests.” (ThoughtCo.)
Thanks for posting AE. People showing loyalty to the nation like that will definitely NOT fold without a fight. God Bless Them.
Biden and Putin are exploding the NetZero myth.
Biden, because he and his government are incompetent, petulant, ideological children. Putin because he’s the smartest man in the room.
Can Russia afford the Ukraine conflict?
The US debt to GDP ratio is 120%.
The Russian debt to GDP ratio is 12%.
The US/UK and Europe are now caught in an ever decreasing spiral of printing money to ease inflation, which is causing inflation, so they’re printing more money to ease it.
There is a real big crunch coming very soon when inflation spirals completely out of control and interest rates rocket. The housing market will, once again, take a big hit and people will be homeless and saddled with debt.
Major financial businesses know this and have been buying up housing in America to offer for rent.
You will own nothing and you will be happy, was no idle threat.
There seems to be an epidemic of “incompetent, petulant, ideological children” in power in the West.
Can you imagine any of them ever being capable of the great European triumphs the world saw from the end of the fifteenth century? Those triumphs were cultural as well as military – they produced great beauty, as well as conquering land.
Most existing mortgage loans in Britain are fixed-rate, which in a time of rampant inflation adds to the banks’ problems – and we all know the banks are masters at offloading their problems onto other people. The scale on which they might go for it this time could be staggering.
Agreed.
Stunning figures. I hadn’t realised it was so bad. I’m not an economist, but I’m pretty sure 120% is way too high, and none of these clowns seem to have the slightest clue about bringing it down.
I heard the last time inflation was this high, interest rates were 13%. These days, they simply rob savers. I wonder when interest rates will next be above inflation rates?
The IMF rule for interest rates is that they need to be 1% above the inflation rate.
Which I guess tells us what we pretty much knew already – we’re, er, done for. Anyone know any good dandelion or acorn recipes?
Apparently dandelion leaves are just as good as lettuce which let’s be honest, is not saying a lot!
I understand dandelions have more vitamin C. I’ve heard different stories about this, but according to Philip Day, the majority of our diet should be raw fruit and vegetables (or at least the ones that alkalize the body to prevent cancer). Anyway the proof of the pudding’s in the eating. It seems that people were healthier during war time rationing, and that in ancient Egypt, the less glutinous “working class” Egyptians were healthier than the “aristocrats”.
Anyhow, the way things are going, it may be that people will be just grateful to have enough to keep body and soul together. However, I can assure you that lettuce eaten with garlic, salt and olive oil is quite passable (and I dare say it could be further improved).
In Elizabethan times, I believe that the “peasants” were healthier than the “upper classes”, the royals and the “aristocracy” because they “the peasants” very rarely ate meat apart from offal, but offal contains vitamins and minerals (I believe) whereas the virtual all meat diet of the upper classes is certainly not healthy.
I think our whole concept of eating is wrong. For tens of thousands of years mankind ate nuts and berries etc. Hunter caught an animal, brought it home to family/tribe and the idea of mean and two veg went tout the window.
They gorged on the meat alone until it was finished, then went back to nuts and berries until the hunter returned.
Nothing stopping you eating that way now! How long did they live to in those days?
I didn’t suggest anyone was stopping me.
How much did they know about hygiene and medicine in those days. Did they have sanitation, clean water, and did they become a meal for a bear?
They’re bitter though…
small leaves are bitter, look for dandilions in uncut pasture/long grass, the leaves can get over a ft long, those are quite nice to eat.
Try nettles.
I’m not an economist, but I’m pretty sure 120% is way too high,
First is not 120% it is actually 106.7%. This is high but not so extraordinary. If you look at the table I linked to you will see that there are a whole bunch of countries around the 100% mark and many quite successful economies a lot higher.
123.6%. F’kin eejit.
Other than there are only three countries higher than it, Japan, Greece and Lebanon.
Can’t you ever get anything right?
https://www.worldeconomics.com/Debt/United%20States.aspx
It is kind of late but I have been researching why my figures for US Debt/GDP are so different from the ones you link to. It turns out that there are two ways of measuring US national debt. There is public debt – money the US government owes to private individuals, corporations and even other countries. This is the measure my link was based on. And there is also intergovernment debt – money the central US government owes to other government departments – this seems to be mainly commitments to fund programs which have not yet drawn on those commitments. Intergovernment debt plus public debt is the measure your link was based on (with several other adjustments). The difference is very significant – 106% versus 133%.
There are no interest payments on intergovernment debt but a limited time before they have to be paid – while public debt attracts interest but payment can usually be deferred for a very long time.
What I can’t work out is how this compares to other countries’ measurements of national debt. Obviously you want to compare similar measures.
In a way it is all irrelevant to the main question – which economy, Russia or the USA, is able to sustain a war for longer. I think the answer to that is fairly obvious given the enormous difference between the sizes of the two economies.
to bring it down.
Debt to GDP ratio is an important statistic but there are more important ones. Perhaps most important in this context is GDP.
Russia’s GDP: $1.4 trillion (that is smaller than Italy).
USA GDP: $20.1 trillion,
EU GDP $17.1 trillion.
UK GDP $2.7 trillion.
If you’re going to rely on a measure that says that the output of a celebrity hair stylist can be more significant than that of an engineer, that’s your lookout, but at least use it in a form that doesn’t shift with the vagaries of the exchange rate. GDP using ppp (2022 IMF estimates):
China GDP: $30.2 trillion
USA GDP: $25.3 trillion,
EU GDP $23.7 trillion.
Russia GDP: $4.4 trillion
UK GDP $3.8 trillion
Italy GDP: $3.0 trillion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)
However, I think you might find all those celebrity hair stylists are of limited utility when tshtf.
By either measure Russia is far smaller than the USA, never mind NATO and the other wealthy countries supporting Ukraine.
Obviously. That’s one reason why all the fear propaganda about Russia being a supposedly huge military threat was always just obviously dishonest lies to help convince gullible types like you that the aggressive policies of the US sphere neocon elites were necessary (along with the hugely profitable results for the military industrial types who fund so much of your indoctrination).
But that of course doesn’t mean the Russians can’t win a conflict on their home turf where the result matters much more to them than to the US, as in Ukraine. Nor does it mean that the US aggressors can use that gdp advantage effectively to crush resistance, in a country that is largely self sufficient and where the neocons have failed to persuade much of the world to kowtow to them yet.
There is no GDP advantage when your creditors call in their loans.
But most US regime creditors are American, and many of the foreign creditors are US satellite states (Japan’s the biggest). And it’s denominated in dollars, which the US regime can just print more of, for as long as it can persuade people to accept the inflationary results
https://www.thebalance.com/who-owns-the-u-s-national-debt-3306124#:
I’m not saying debt isn’t a problem, just that it’s one the US regime can probably manage for quite a long time. Until it can’t, at which point collapse looms.
Nations probably go bankrupt like people do: “slowly, at first. Then quickly”.
I am talking about sustaining the war in the long term. In the short term Putin has a large (and theoretically modern) military which he seems to be prepared to use on neighbouring countries. I guess he calculated that it would all be over in a few weeks and NATO would be presented with a fait accompli and do nothing. He is now in a hole and time is against him as the far larger resources of NATO and other countries are gradually brought to bear.
But that of course doesn’t mean the Russians can’t win a conflict on their home turf where the result matters much more to them than to the US, as in Ukraine.
You might want to ask the Ukrainians whether Russia is fighting on its home turf and how much the result matters to them.
“I guess he calculated that it would all be over in a few weeks and NATO would be presented with a fait accompli and do nothing. “
I’ve no doubt the Russians (try not to be infantile unnecessarily, by personalising these things like a US regime propagandist) hoped the Ukrainians might collapse quickly, but the idea they had no plan for the alternative, or that they just assumed NATO would not intervene as it has, with “total hybrid war” against Russia, is literally stupid. Russia has been preparing for the final confrontation with the US regime since at last 2014, and is under no illusions about the obsessive hatred of Russia in US regime circles, nor about US sphere methods.
“He is now in a hole and time is against him as the far larger resources of NATO and other countries are gradually brought to bear.”
So you believe. It’s not clear though on what timescale those supposed resources (that huge advantage in celebrity hair stylists, for instance) can be brought to bear, and how effectively, in the actual fighting.
And remember that Russia intentionally has deployed only a small fraction of its military resources to this SMO. That it has not yet dramatically upped its commitments suggests Russia is not panicking about how things are going, yet.
At the moment I’d say Russia has weathered the major risk in initiating this action, by surviving the US “shock and awe” sanctions (to the very evident surprise and horror of US sphere elites). At the moment, they are just methodically grinding the Ukrainian military resistance into pink mist and twisted metal, and pounding Ukrainian infrastructure into a fuel-free wasteland incapable of supporting modern warfare. There’s no obvious reason why this should have to stop any time soon, but only time will tell.
“You might want to ask the Ukrainians whether Russia is fighting on its home turf and how much the result matters to them.”
The Ukrainians aren’t the ones with the money.
I’ve no doubt the Russians (try not to be infantile unnecessarily, by personalising these things like a US regime propagandist)
I am sorry but there is nothing infantile about recognising the reality. It is governments that make these decisions – not the people as a whole – and in the case of Russia, Putin makes pretty much all the major decisions – (can you think of a case where the parliament or other members of the government has even questioned any of his decisions?). In the case of real democracies decision making is more spread-out but it is still typically a small group that makes the decision – so it was Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld that decided to invade Iraq and Blair that decided to support him – not the American people or the British people.
And remember that Russia intentionally has deployed only a small fraction of its military resources to this SMO
Russia has about 100 BTGs in the Ukraine out of about 170 total. I don’t call that a small fraction.
“I am sorry but there is nothing infantile about recognising the reality. “
Your “reality” is a propaganda construct.
“in the case of Russia, Putin makes pretty much all the major decisions – (can you think of a case where the parliament or other members of the government has even questioned any of his decisions?).”
Here you merely display your own ignorance of Russia, again like a child repeating what he’s heard the grownups around him say because he knows no better.
Yes, there are always decision makers, no less so in the US sphere than in Russia, but the attack on Iraq was a US war, and the SMO in the Ukraine is a Russian war. Both Bush and Putin are responsible for their decisions, but in neither case did they act alone or without immense information, planning and political input.
“Russia has about 100 BTGs in the Ukraine out of about 170 total. I don’t call that a small fraction.”
Russia hasn’t even begun to mobilise for real war.
With an 83% approval rating from his voters right now, It seems he’s making the decisions the Russian public approve of.
More than can be said of any western government.
Where do you get the figure of 170BTG’s? The article doesn’t mention it as far as I can find.
“Should Mariupol fall to the Russians, that would free the dozen or so BTGs to be used elsewhere in the east or south of Ukraine, the official said. “That’s a big if because the Ukrainians are still fighting very, very hard for Mariupol.””
That didn’t last long, did it? A dozen BTG’s freed up as this article was being posted it seems.
And a nice example of your malicious dishonesty, and lies by omission when dribbling on about Russias inherent brutality. You read this, you creep, and deliberately failed to reflect it in your post’s continuing condemnation of Russia:
“The Pentagon’s assessment is that they are going after primarily military targets or what they believe to be military targets, the official said.”
You are lower than a snakes belly.
The Ukrainians aren’t the ones with the money.
And they now have a neon problem. Half the world’s supply of semiconductor-grade neon, a key ingredient in the manufacture of microchips, has been provided by companies in Mariupol and Odessa.
The majority of that came from Mariupol, where Ukrainian state power is unlikely to return.
As your earlier post indicated, economic considerations need to factor in issues of relative productive importance.
Where is your evidence for any of this utter bullshit.
Those other countries are not wealthy if their debt exceeds their income.
Why are you the only person on this whole blog who doesn’t get that?
You seem to be confusing debt and deficit and government with the nation as a whole.
The debt is the total amount the government owes its various creditors. The deficit is the amount its expenditure exceeds its income in a particular year. Almost all governments carry a significant debt – it is the accumulated deficits over the years – and it is not generally considered an enormous problem unless it gets totally out of control. It is analogous to having a mortgage which exceeds your annual salary.
Anyway – this is only the position of the government, not the nation. The wealth of the nation is the wealth of all its citizens (roughly). In most countries this is vastly greater than the wealth of the government. But it also reflects the resources of the nation in times of stress.
I’m not confusing anything numpty. That’s why I posted the debt to GDP ratio, as it’s described in a variety of economics publications e.g. https://www.worldeconomics.com/Debt/United%20States.aspx
It says it in the title:
United States’s Debt-to-GDP Ratio
Clear enough for you clown, or should I illustrate it in another way?
Wazzok – dribbling again.
so assets don’t count for anything? Who knew?
What assets?
Describe them instead of just bloviating as usual.
Russian housewife: How rich are you?
American housewife: I earn $20.1tn a year.
Russian housewife: What do you pay for house, car etc.?
American housewife: More than I earn.
Russian housewife: How do you pay for food?
American housewife: Credit card.
Russian housewife: How do you pay it back if you spend more than you earn?
American housewife: I have no idea.
I was responding to the claim that Russia is better able to maintain the war in the long term than NATO. I wasn’t comparing quality of life.
Good luck using all those celebrity hair stylists to “maintain the war”.
So just how does America pay for $40bn worth of arms to Ukraine other than on credit, which will eventually be called in?
You’re squirming as usual.
The USA has an annual defence budget of about $800 billion and a total annual public expenditure of about $7,000 billion. $40 billion will hardly register.
Government borrowing is usually in the form of bonds which have very long terms – we have only just settled some of the bonds that were raised to finance the first world war. By the time they are due for repayment they seem very small. Even then they can easily be financed by further borrowing as governments are generally taken to be A1 credit risks. Government debt is mostly a problem because of interest payments, not repayment.
And the interest payments on Russia’s 12% debt to GDP ratio Vs. interest payments on America’s 120% debt to GDP ratio would be?
Go on, shoot yourself in the foot again.
What an utter Richard. You have no idea what you are talking about so you adopt the Fingal principle, just make shit up.
Where do people put their money when confidence in currencies drops? Tranditional safe havens, comodities, and hard assets.
When there are comodity shortages due to global lockdowns and war, and liquidity goes into comodities, what happens to the price of comodities?
Rising interest rates cannot stop a liquidity crisis caused by shortages, it can only exaserbate the problem.
Exactly, yet the Bank of England look set to make exactly the same mistakes as in 2007 and raise rates to plunge us into recession.
Raising interest rates is the quick and dirty solution to addressing inflation. It’s not nice and it causes recessions but the other solution, lowering Taxes to stimulate business, takes too long.
What a load of bollocks
Describe it then, in your kindergarten terms.
Maybe you’re right…..
‘Retired Russian Colonel Khodaryonok says: “The situation from the overall strategic position is that the Ukrainian armed forces are able to arm a million people.
“They’re saying it themselves, that ‘for us, there’s no difficulty in mobilising a million people’.
“The whole issue is to what extent they’re able to supply this army of modern weapons and military hardware.”
He says if Ukraine had no help, it would struggle to do that, but with foreign help they will be equipped in the “near future”, massively expanding Kyiv’s forces.
Mr Khodaryonok goes on to say the situation will “frankly, get worse”.
ROSSIYA 1
‘Ukrainian fighters have blown up an armoured train carrying Russian troops using an explosive device in the occupied southern city of Melitopol, the Ukrainian territorial defence force said today.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
The city of Melitopol in the region of Zaporizhzhia lies in a belt of southern Ukrainian land that was occupied by Russian forces after they invaded on 24 February.
The Ukrainian territorial defence, the reservist branch of the armed forces, said an explosive device detonated directly under a carriage carrying servicemen.’
Or maybe an old Russian Colonel might know a thing or two…..
Khodaryonok still alive then?
Gosh, murderous dictators just ain’t what they used to be, eh?
Andrei Martyanov, in his inimitable style, had words to say on Khodaryonok in his blog on May 17.
This is the most polite part:
First, about his qualifications as a competent observer of the international arena–he has none. Nor is he that good of a General Staff officer since I personally know people who retired in the same rank as officer-operators but much later (a decade later) and know things Khodaryonok, who is stuck in 1990s psychologically and militarily, could not have possibly learn in 1998 or 2000. They are also much better professionals. But the audacity of this loser to offer his judgement on “isolation” and foreign affairs is remarkable. Not to mention the fact that he, being excluded from modern General Staff of Russia due to retiree status, can not possibly have any inkling about how modern command and control work and what intel is processed there.
His style is definitely inimitable, albeit of the grumpy old professor ilk. But it’s the impatience of the master for fools and the ignorant, I feel. Which isn’t to say he’s necessarily right in everything he says, merely that he has earned the right to have his opinion taken seriously.
Agree. There’s an air of exasperation, based upon actually knowing his subject – in a field where ill-informed pontification abounds!
You keep repeating this bullshit, but repeating it doesn’t make it any more right than it was the first time.
But I guess when you only have one argument you may as well flog it to death even if it’s nonsense.
London news: Tory MP Andrew Rosindell and Havering council leader Damian White oppose the extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone. They have known each other for many years: White was paid to be Rosindell’s parliamentary assistant when White was 16. Rosindell has also been a councillor in Romford where White is now the council leader.
But Rosindell didn’t make any points to Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday in connection with his opposition to ULEZ extension. Indeed he didn’t even attend PMQs.
Rosindell has called for the reintroduction of flogging and the castration of rapists.
He is a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship.
As for Damian White, he revealed a few weeks ago that he has suffered from mental illness throughout his life and that at least once he has tried to commit suicide. I don’t agree with his politics but I wish him good health.
Oh come on. A Guardian report on Rosindell from 2001.
A quick look on his website reveals nothing about flogging and castration.
https://www.rosindell.com
Nor has he “called” for them:
His opinion is not calling for something which again, was reported in 2001 and not a mention since I suspect.
Anything to smear a tory.
Andrew Rosindell is a politician who has expressed his wish for a return of flogging and for the castration of (persistent) rapists. Why is that not “calling” for these policies? That article listing his known “views” was published at the time when he was standing in the 2001 general election.
According to Guido Fawkes at order-order.com, Rosindell’s office is not answering Fawkes’s queries.
My expression of the hope that Damian White lives in good health is sincere.
His wish is his personal opinion, from 2001 FFS!
Rosindell has evidently been arrested on suspicion of rape, that’s why Guido is keen to talk to him, and evidently muck rake to hold the usual trial by media.
The man is innocent until proven guilty but that won’t make a difference to the likes of Guido and the rest of the filthy journalists out there.
You are clearly in thrall to the media.
Published: 7:29 PM March 24, 2022 Updated: 4:30 PM March 29, 2022
Is there an election or something brewing in the area?
A 2016 event dragged up in 2022? Am I missing something or is this another Smear a Tory Day?
And yes, I’d have a problem with this being done to labour members as well.
Is he (Rosindell) the one we’re not supposed to mention certain allegations about?
What allegations?
https://twitter.com/RespectIsVital/status/1526637014422114312
Yep, found it just before you posted it.
I won’t pre judge. Innocent until found guilty.
Absolutely. I’m just assuming that’s why Star mentioned him here.
As you say, these are just allegations, and furthermore allegations of a kind that are notoriously often false, so it makes no difference to my view of the man.
In Star’s case, it’s very obvious that he has a strong aversion to his politics and so is inclined both to assume guilt and to spread it around as much as possible.
Fair enough. I’d probably do the same if it were Johnson, or Starmer, or Gove, or any of the rest of the Blairite globalists in senior positions.
Judging by his comments, he’s been stalking Guido Fawkes
I don’t know, but conservatives (I mean real conservatives) do seem more likely to get in trouble over such things. I remain convinced that Owen Paterson’s views on the “green blob” were a factor in what happened to him. And then there’s the “United States”…
The old fashion view was Tories had sex scandals and Labour had financial scandals.
“BREAKING: Twitter employee tells undercover Project Veritas journalist that the company isn’t profitable because of their woke ideology. He explains how Twitter puts the “correct” views in front of people and ridicules “
Hilarious. Project Veritas has done some sterling work.
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1526336405663776768
Senior Engineer, Twitter:
“Ideologically it does not make sense, because we’re actually censoring the right and not the left. So, everyone on the right wing will be like “bro, it’s okay to say it, just gotta tolerate it”, the left will be like “no, I’m not going to tolerate it. I need it censored or I’m not gonna be on the platform.”
Truth.
Wasn’t Kilroy-Silk’s party called Veritas? Strange choice of name…
Truth? Kind of makes sense in both cases…
Another strange choice of name. This England is a patriotic cultural magazine that wanted freedom from Brussels before it was fashionable.
Another thing the drama should (but probably won’t) cover is Boston United fan Vincent Van Tam’s steadfast refusal to acknowledge the death of a West Bridgford football player after playing in a youth match against Boston United, at a time that young men of this age were being offered the “vaccines” (and the refusal of MPs currently to acknowledge MP Christopher Chope’s campaign for those who have suffered “vaccine” injuries).
Ah, the new Luddites…
Western officials would say that, wouldn’t they…….
Western media will repeat it.
Western public will get scared, again.
Pattern emerging here?
So why doesn’t Putin allow these crops to leave Ukraine? Give your head a shake FFS
Show me the evidence before bloviating.
And this is the official Bank of England figure. Imagine what the real percentage is.
The CPI sys 9%. The old Retail Price Index (which is still used to calculate some index linked payments is at 11.1%
Lidl is the Harrods of a year ago.
Pensioners get £7000 per year; it costs £11500 to house one refugee in a hotel for three months
There is an enormous disparity between the amount of money spent on pensioners in Britain and the almost limitless sums lavished on refugees and asylum-seekers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O89sSO6qSu8
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Ukraine: what is likely to happen next?
Russian Armoured Train blown up at Melitopol.
Oops…..it’s the supply lines…….
Well I don’t think The Ukraine is going to get Mariupol back any time soon. Or The Crimea, or Donetsk…
I don’t know what Russia’s war aims are, but they are certainly going to end up with more than if they hadn’t intervened – but at considerable cost to all of us. And to think this war could easily have been avoided.
And speaking of Russia, how is their close ally Belarus’s all cause mortality looking? Are they a disaster zone from not locking down and continuing spectator sport through 2020? Are they?
its the stupid sanctions that are costing us.
We could have come out more lightly, certainly, though I suspect the Ukrainian harvest would still have been hit.
And I was going to add, is Belarus in the WHO? Will they take orders from them to lock down any time soon? And do they take refugees from lockdown madness? You never know. I heard a story about Turkish Cyprus, who tend to get pilloried in the West, but they took a British refugee from the corrupt family courts.
Someone once said that, whether they would want to join or not, certainly the EU should be looking to encourage Russia to join them. Sadly the EU chose the path of confrontation.
Its Biden shutting down Oil and gas exploration that’s costing us. Inflation and supply chain issues were happening long before Russia intervened in Ukraine.
Yes! Inflation was taking off in 2021 though it was only transitory back then
I expect Ukrainian refugees in the UK and other European countries will end up with more money than they’d have seen if they’d have stayed in Ukraine.
If Ukraine had joined the EU many people would have left Ukraine and come to Europe to seek work – as did the Polish, Romanians, Bulgarians, Estonians, etc.
East Ukraine was the objective. Putin stated this early on, he’s not interested in the rest of Ukraine.
Donbas was about to become the next Bosnia or Rwanda (and others), ethnically cleansed with unimaginable numbers of deaths.
Unlike the west which ignored Bosnia and Rwanda until it was too late, it seems Putin wasn’t prepared to wait for that to happen.
I suspect the cost to ethnic Donbass Russians would have been far higher than the cost to us will ever be.
Had NATO (US/UK/Europe) not interfered and supported western Ukraine in their desire for genocide, Russia’s intervention would have been over long ago with minimal bloodshed.
‘Some 48% of the 48,436 people who joined the nursing and midwifery workforce came from abroad’
If mass immigration continues the indigenous British will find themselves a minority group in the UK some time in the 2060s.
Can you imagine that hell?
Africans wanting revenge for slavery being whipped up by the progressives, Muslims seeking to impose Islamic doctrines on the entire population, the multitude of different people pushing to push their particular ethnic/religous groups desires.
The progressive globalist are actively seeking to wipe out Britain as a nation and the British people.
I’m not sure the progressives will get their way. Those who have arrived here from overseas soon take on our British character.
At one place I worked just before the Brexit vote the most outspoken anti-immigration points of view were expressed by the lady on the till in the canteen.
She was, if I can say it, black as the ace of spades, and had come over from Jamaica in the 1960s.
Some do, in some aspects at least (and see the Tucker Carlson link in my reply to MrTea for the same argument in the US context).
But they also in many cases and on many issues retain attitudes, loyalties and hostilities they brought with them, and that makes it harder to reach consensus and ensure security, and drives involvement in foreign quarrels (the muslim/islamist groups being only one of those, perhaps the most obvious).
And it’s not time limited. The children and grandchildren of immigrants often adopt stances that are far more hostile to the host community than their parents, and activists and even terrorists are often drawn from those.
Basically, mass immigration imports division, and division is not a good thing for a nation, whatever the “diversity is our strength” morons and liars pretend to believe.
“Can you imagine that hell?”
You don’t need to imagine it, there are many towns in the UK where you can sit for a few hours and wonder where all the ‘native Brits’ have gone to.
“29.5.2019 — The Fawlty Towers actor John Cleese has been criticised for repeating his 2011 claim that London was no longer an English city.”
Parts if Birmingham, or the English Punjab.
Skating close to one of those Truths We Aren’t Allowed To Notice, there, MrTea.
Tucker: These people are lunatics
Correct. Always part of Agenda 2030.
‘He’s being blamed for the Buffalo shooting despite never being mentioned by the killer, writes Stephen L. Miller in Spectator World.’
The Buffalo shooting incident tells us a lot.
The MSM is focusing on this incident because the shooter is white and most victims are brown.
Around 104 other people were shot in the USA that same weekend but none of the other shooters were white so the MSM isn’t that bothered.
In one incident a Chinese origin man went into church and murdered several Taiwanese but that isn’t getting much coverage at all.
The Buffalo shooter is supposed to have published a manifesto, most of it is cut and paste from the Christchurch shooter manifesto with a portion of it claiming to explain that the shooter was radicalised by reading things online.
His explanation of being radicalised online dovetails perfectly with the trend amongst globalists to censor the internet so that no views they disapprove of may be discussed.
The globalists couldn’t have written a better manifesto themselves if they wanted to justify their censorship plans.
The Buffalo shooter was known to authorities in relation to mental health problems, he had threatened to kill fellow pupils at his school.
It would be interesting to know if he had been put on any of the psychiatric medications that are well known to make people violent.
Being on psychiatric medication is a very common feature amongst shooters in the USA, it is almost like the brain medicine is a key feature of these shooting crimes.
I suppose it’s nothing to do with Buffalo Bill?
Sorry, but I didn’t read about this one, If he cited the Christchurch fellow, perhaps he mentioned Rotherham.
A point repeatedly made by Peter Hitchens is that these mass murderers are almost always on drugs. With millions of people on prescription drugs in “America” thanks to the big pharma con, there must be huge numbers of people there with mental health problems liable to commit violent acts.
“How to stop children being indoctrinated” – Woke textbooks should be laughed at
I have been laughing at everything for over 65 years, obviously not always out loud, god help me I would not wish to offend the NHS nurse who can’t speak a word of English. Yes, I remember being told many times by my parents that I must take things more seriously, naturally it had the opposite effect. In summation I recommend that we all take life more seriously and if someone with a speech impediment does tell you a woke, think twice before laughing out loud.
Inflation is rising because they printed too much debt money with no intention of paying it back. Liquidity piled onto comodities because of shortages due to lockdown of the global economy and war/sanctions, the BOE can’t do anything about it, because raising interest rates won’t correct a liquidity crisis caused by shortages, it will only make it worse.
Keynesian economics is in it’s death throes, the central banksters planned this crisis, in order to shepheard in CBDC, order ab chao. You don’t need to be an economist to see this, tho some economists can explain it better than I can:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/economics/the-coming-liquidity-crisis/
Inflation may be at the same levels as 1982, however mortgage rate and savings interest rates are not by a long way.
Give it time.
Inflation will be allowed to run rampant in order to destroy the wealth of the lower orders, interest rates will not be raised as this would reward savers.
If the banks need new money to lend it will be created out of thin air, this will of course help stoke up more inflation and to flatten the lower orders.
You will own nothing and be happy.
Banks don’t need to acquire money in order to lend it: the money is created by the act of lending.
There is a limit, UK banks need a reserve ratio of 12.5%, 10% for finance houses.
Noting the finance workers article it’s worth remembering that the FCA have extensive powers – more so than the police in some instances.
For example they have the right to enter your place of work without notice. So if your place of work is now your home they have the right to turn up on your doorstep abs demand to be let in.
In addition your working environment must meet certain standards. Phone calls must be recorded, activity must be recorded etc which I’m sure the persons other half or kids would love. Having all their phone conversations recorded, their browsing history available to view abs the idea that the FCA could kick your door in!
During the second lockdown the FCA send an email around warning people about this.
Clearly it didn’t scare enough people
An absolute classic:
Former U.S. President George W. Bush: “The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean, of the Ukraine.”
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1527096243821989888
Marvellous thing, a guilty conscience…
So dropping interest rates to zero, printing money, paying people to sit in the garden and closing down the economy causes inflation.? No one could have seen that coming
Not to worry though the BOE geniuses along with our super chancellor are going to get on top of it by increasing interest rates 1/4% every couple of months. At this rate the time they catch up with the todays RPI rate it will be 2029!!!
Do purported journalists at the Guardian read the DS?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FcJrdELEPY
Due to donate my 94th donation of blood tomorrow.
For over 2 weeks now I have been bombarded with texts begging me to donate because “we are desperate for your donation, etc”
Yesterday I received the latest text: “unless you have a medical exemption, wear a mask”
After almost 50 years of donations, the Blood donor service are really trying my patience now.
Anyway, along with all my fellow sceptics, I do have a medical exemption; A severe allergy to BS!!
After children caught hepatitis and there was seemingly no link between cases in various countries. Now we have a growing number of Monkey Pox spreading around and coincidently no link between the various countries again.
All too much to believe. But I am a sceptic!
Ok maybe i have found a reason? https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1527175250978414593
Will currygate become a bigger deal than cakegate? No. Starmer just is too dull.
He promised to resign if fined; I take it that he already knew he wasn’t going to be fined. Co Durham Police; Previous Head Prosecution Shyster – a deal has been done, I’d say.
I believe that the Bozzer as a child wanted to be “world king”.
Well, he’s made a good start with his belief that he’s got a devine right to rule this country.
Whilst not trivialising the present financial situation, I do seriously question the intellect of some people.
BIL and his partner (70 and 67 respectively) when advised by your’s truly and Mrs FP to enquire about a “economy 7” electric tariff, the reply was: “we can’t have economy 7”: REALLY?
and then proceeding to tell us that they only ever use a towel, bath and hand, once and then wash them, everyday.
When I asked “why on earth, why?” BIL’s partner replied: “Because that’s what my mother did”.
Honestly, you can’t help some people or more to the point, save them any money!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10828627/Sir-JVT-not-attend-investiture-Covid.html
that’s cheered me up. Surely he needs to be rushed into ITU and ventilated for a few weeks – just to be on the safe side, of course.