A recent London Calling episode featured one of those signature exchanges between Toby Young and James Delingpole which on this occasion centred on my recent piece about whether or not NATO ‘provoked’ Russia into invading Ukraine. James said he didn’t need to read that piece, insisting that his interview with the retired Swiss military intelligence officer Col. Jacques Baud in a recent Delingpod episode provided all the support he needed for the ‘NATO provocation’ theory of the war.
I decided to delve into that interview.
First off, being curious by nature, I looked up Jacques Baud online and discovered that in 2020 he went on Russian state TV to say there is “no history of poisoning by the Russian secret services”, that the Skripals simply had a bad case of “food poisoning” and that Alexei Navalny was poisoned not by the state but by some “mafia” people around him. He wasn’t challenged on any of these controversial claims and, regrettably, the Delingpod interview is in a similar vein.
A key claim made by Baud, both to Delingpole and elsewhere, is that Ukraine’s armed forces have been thoroughly infiltrated by ‘far-right’ ultra-nationalists, and consequently that Russian ‘denazification’ was and is a legitimate Russian goal. Baud cites Reuters as having said there are 102,000 ‘far-right extremists’ in the Ukrainian armed forces, a figure that he appears to have considered ‘too good to check’. The Reuters article in fact says there were 102,000 ‘paramilitary’ soldiers in 2022, which isn’t quite the same as ‘far-right extremists’. The ultimate source for this number, of which Baud is seemingly unaware, is the 2022 edition of IISS’s Military Balance, which makes an estimate of 102,000 troops in the Ukrainian ‘Gendarmerie and Paramilitary’ forces, which consist of the National Guard (60,000) and the Border Guard (42,000).
The National Guard was formed from a core of 33,000 Internal Troops personnel in 2014 and was later expanded to include some volunteer battalions, including the Azov Battalion (with pre-war numbers perhaps approaching 2,500 troops) and the Donbas Battalion (~900), although not the ‘Right Sector’ (~5,000 strong). Of course we know that some members of Azov (at least) are far-right or neo-Nazi, but Baud is essentially making the ludicrous claim that everyone in every unit of the National and Border Guard has ultra-nationalistic, far-right political beliefs.
To smear everyone in the Ukrainian National Guard in this way is like the BBC’s smearing of UKIP as a ‘far-right’ organisation. Even if we just consider the so-called volunteer battalions (perhaps a few thousand in total), the notion that anyone volunteering to defend their country must be ‘far-right’ or ‘ultra-nationalist’ (rather than just patriotic or nationalist) isn’t credible, and it’s notable that James in particular has railed against ginned-up fears of the so-called ‘far-right’ plenty of times in the past – even making reference to this in the same London Calling podcast.
However, let’s try to establish the true extent of far-right ‘infiltration’ of the armed forces of Ukraine. We can do no better than by digging up the only other source that Baud makes reference to, which is a Jerusalem Post article that itself references a George Washington University report focusing on a far-right group called ‘Centuria’ that has supposedly infiltrated the Ukrainian armed forces. Baud calls this ‘disturbing’, but I have to admit I didn’t read the full 93 pages because I was disturbed by a spontaneous fit of giggles halfway down the first page. Perhaps I can illustrate my misgivings with some quotes:
[Centuria …] has attracted multiple members, including [some] now serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine
That’s multiple members – more than one. And some are in the military.
One apparent member of the group […] attended an 11-month Officer Training Course at […] Sandhurst […]. Another apparent member […] attended the 30th International Week held by the German Army Officers’ Academy […] in Dresden
That’s exactly two with a military background.
Despite this, Baud goes on to make claims about the power of these supposedly ‘far-right’ Ukrainian paramilitary forces in influencing and coercing Zelenskyy’s Government against seeking peace with Russia through threats of a coup or assassination. I’m intending to address these claims (as well as those surrounding Maidan 2014) on another occasion, but suffice it to say they also border on fantasy.
It’s worth noting here that the coalition of ‘far-right’ political parties garnered only 315,568 votes in the 2019 parliamentary elections in Ukraine (2.2% of votes cast, 0.9% of registered voters), gaining a total of one seat for the leader of Svoboda, whose paramilitary Sich Battalion has a total of 50 members. The threat from the Ukrainian far-right is not zero, but even if one doesn’t consider Putin himself to be the arch ultra-nationalist, we should bear in mind that Russia has its own far-right problems, and ironically the founder (and still apparently the leader) of the Wagner Group, which was sent to assassinate the notably-Jewish Zelenskyy, looks to have Nazi sympathies himself.
Baud implausibly asserts that all this supposed far-right infiltration explains why Zelenskyy’s ‘Holocaust comparison’ speech to the Knesset went down like a cup of cold sick, and why Israel isn’t providing much in the way of support to Ukraine. In fact, it was not that Knesset members believe Ukrainian armed forces are full of ‘far-right extremists’ (although plainly Azov is quite far-right, and some MKs will have been aware of a recent neo-Nazi march in Kyiv); rather, the reaction to the speech focused on the false comparison between the current war and the Holocaust, and the fact that Zelenskyy failed to make reference to the elephant in the room – that the Holocaust partly took place on Ukrainian soil. However, Israel has other considerations, such as their large Russian-speaking population and the situation in Syria – although the latter, at least, seems to be highly fluid.
Considering all of this, I find Baud’s assessment to be misinformed and misleading. The fundamental problem is that he’s clearly an intelligent and articulate man who can string together factoids into a coherent and persuasive-sounding whole – which is pernicious, when those facts are wrong. But I would still urge readers to listen to the interview: it’s informative for its clever-sounding, insidious mendacity.
Another key point Baud tries to establish is that “Ukraine started this” and he builds a narrative that: (1) Ukraine began shelling the Donbas on February 16th 2022 in an attempt to provoke a Russian invasion; (2) Joe Biden knew this was the plan, and due to intolerable provocation (3) the Russian parliament and then (4) Putin was forced unwillingly into action. He begins this thread at sixteen minutes into the podcast by saying:
In March 2021, President Zelensky issued a law to reconquer, by military means, Crimea and the south of Ukraine, meaning that they were preparing an offensive to attack Crimea and the Donbas.
What he’s referring to is a Presidential decree, the text of which is here. Quoting a journalistic summary:
[T]he basis of the strategy is the implementation of a complex of measures of a diplomatic, military, economic, informational, humanitarian and other nature with a parallel strengthening of defense capability and the development of European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Ukraine considers the political and diplomatic path to be a priority in resolving the conflict.
To suggest that this represented a prelude to a military re-conquest of Ukraine’s internationally-recognised territories is not terribly serious – it seems perfectly reasonable for Ukraine to have a strategy for what they’d need to do (e.g. build civil institutions, hold elections, etc.) in the event that Ukraine could – diplomatically or otherwise – ‘deoccupy’ Crimea. Baud goes on to say:
And [on] February 11th you may remember that Joe Biden said he knew that Russia would attack on the 16th of February. Now how could he know that? In fact, he knew that because he knew that the Ukrainians had planned to start their offensive on the 16th of February, and if you look at what the observers of the OSCE have reported from the 16th of February onwards, you see a dramatic increase of shelling from [the] Ukrainian side into the Donbas that forced the Donbas authorities to evacuate the Donbas population because they were under heavy artillery fire.
It seems obvious to a layman such as me that the U.S. could well have been aware of Russia’s intentions using well-established intelligence collection methods, such as signals intelligence gathered from the ~150,000 Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border whom we now know to have been using insecure mobile phones – making Baud’s statement a telling solecism from a former intelligence officer. However, more to the point, it’s simply not true that Biden predicted February 16th to be the invasion date. In fact, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was reported to have said on February 11th:
Now, we can’t pinpoint the day at this point, and we can’t pinpoint the hour but what we can say is that there is a credible prospect that a Russian military action would take place, even before the end of the Olympics [on Feb 20th].
Reading the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission reports from the period, it’s clear there was a marked uptick in ceasefire violations (with ‘explosions’ – everything from RPGs to artillery – recorded at about 20 times the previous 30-day average), although it’s not possible to determine from these reports alone precisely who was responsible for the majority of the fire, or who started it – with both sides making accusations, and explosions reported on both sides of the line of contact. However, the OSCE maps suggest it was roughly an even exchange from both sides. You’d expect one side to respond to shelling from the other, and that seems to be what happened.
But Baud strongly implies that the OSCE reports blame Ukraine for the shelling, which is patently false, and which is again very telling because I’m confident he’s actually read the reports. The reason I can be confident is because he makes an interesting mistake, saying that on one particular day (February 18th) the rate of shelling was 40 times previous levels. But it’s clear he’s referring to one of the daily reports that actually covers two days of reporting, which is why his number is double the correct figure. Consequently, he has no excuse for suggesting the OSCE blamed the shelling on Ukraine.
As to the Russian evacuation of Donbas civilians which Baud claims was the direct result of Ukrainian shelling, there’s compelling evidence that Russia pre-planned the evacuation on or before the 16th as a pretext for the full-scale invasion, and indeed it seems that Donbas residents were confused as to the reasons – or the need – for an evacuation.
Baud’s narrative breaks down still further when he asserts that it was only after the supposed Ukrainian shelling that the Russian Duma voted to implore Putin to recognise the Donbas territories. In fact, this happened on February 15th. Then – remarkably quickly – on February 16th Russia put its claim to the UN Security Council. This was part of a planned strategy to establish the legal fiction, under Article 51 of the UN Charter, that Russia was merely defending the supposedly-independent states of Donetsk and Luhansk from outside aggression.
But if Baud is correct that the full-scale Russian invasion on the 24th was an unplanned and necessary response, it was rather convenient that those hordes of Russian troops just happened to be on Ukraine’s borders at the right time, and doubly convenient that – despite claiming on the 15th that they were withdrawing forces – Russia secretly moved another 7,000 troops to the area just before the 16th, in time for the start of these completely unexpected hostilities.
Baud may be cynically hoping that critics of Western foreign policy won’t be bothered to do their own research and will simply nod their heads sagely, feeling themselves privy to secret knowledge and safe in their titanium-lined bunker of naïveté. Sadly, it’s not clear that’s a bad strategy. But with events like the massacres in Bucha (which Baud has also denied), the rapes, forced deportations and the deliberate bombardment of non-military targets, it’s reached the point where those too cocksure to examine the facts look a lot like a modern-day Walter Duranty, albeit without the Pulitzer and with only the stench of death surrounding them.
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Sporting fixtures canceled for fear of a cold. A proud statement of the qualities of the modern nanny state nation that is Britain.
Anna deBuisseret – No Jab, No Job – Senior UK Lawyer – NHS – Employment Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTapu3sSkRI
Henley 11 Dec 2021
Anna talks about the current situation in the UK with respect to the UK prime minister’s recent comments on mandatory medical treatment, experimental injections, the NHS, employment law, case law, common law, criminal law and our rights as citizens.
Anna takes questions from the crowd including #NHS health care professionals facing dismissal. If you know of anyone that would benefit from this information, please please share. Ms Random
Join the friendly resistance before it’s too late.
Saturday 8th January 2pm – Marlow – Our first main event of 2022.
Berks & Bucks Freedom Day
Higginson Park corner of High Street & Pound Lane
Marlow SL7 1NF
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Stand in the Park Sundays from 10am – make friends & keep sane
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Join our Telegram Group and have some fun
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Bless Anna deBuisseret – she is a true warrior and one of the (very) good people.
The Anna de Buisseret video has cheered me up – thank you.
How bad is the football problem, really? The local sports radio station reported it yesterday, and the presenter said the Premier League had been ‘ravaged’ by covid.
He actually used the word twice. I was hoping he’d go full psycho with RAVAGED! RAVAGED, I TELL YOU! after that, but I was disappointed.
At least he wasn’t misusing ‘decimated’.
Perhaps he could try Slaughtered; eviscerated might be a bit too delicate.
“Lib Dems ‘to win comfortably’ ” (Sky News, c. 01.50)
Good. At least they stood up to the apartheid (and I’ve never voted for them before).
Just go Boris, and bring in one of the hundred, before it’s too late for this country.
My sentiments exactly. I’ve never voted Liberal, but will from now on until the Conservatives get the message about “vaccine passports”.
Me too. Get vaccine passports off the table – we can sort the other stuff out later.
Confirmed. 17,957 votes for the Lib Dems.
12,032 for the tories
1,427 for Reform UK.
Labour 3,686
Total votes:38,096
Sod off Piffle, and take your apartheid with you.
Did the Libdems campaign as just ‘not Tory’ or specifically against lockdown measures and/or vaccines?
I don’t know. Their candidate did wear a mask for the count (unlike the rather less loony Loony candidate). Still, I hope it will be taken as a vote against a two tier society and further restrictions. That certainly frames the context of the election.
Be careful what you wish for – they might be against passports but have no issues with locking down every 5 minutes and making everyone distance/wear a mask the rest of the time.
Ideally we’d have something like Reform UK or Heritage. But I’d rather have the things we’ve had already than apartheid, which was always dangerous nonsense and may be hard to reverse.
Pity it was just the yellow brand of the uniparty BUT HEY!
Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!’
Reform UK were nowhere near unfortunately (And doesn’t it need reforming!).
Word is that the LibDems have won the North Shropshire by-election, overturning the 23000 majority that the Tory crook Owen Paterson held over Labour (!).
Bye bye Boris Johnson.
As I said before, let’s hope Graham Brady’s postman stays in good health. The number of letters needed is only 55. It will be best if enough Tory MPs bring about a confidence vote. Don’t let this ludicrous excuse for a prime minister leave office “for health reasons”. Boot him out publicly.
Can we imagine his last speech from the Despatch Box? How will he summarise what he has achieved in office? Er…er…er… “I signed some big deals with Pfizer… Some stuff happened with Northern Ireland… I stood in front of a lectern a lot… I led some clapping…”
I’m actually still on the same prediction as a few hours ago: aim to release the party photo some time around 7am. Nail in his political coffin. Bye, Alex.
I would prefer that the Pig Dictator stayed in place
IMO better a tired wounded rancid leader than a shiny brand new one that reinvigorates the lunacy
I agree, I just don’t see anything good replacing him.
Quite. Imagine if old Rubber-Lips Gove managed to insert himself as leader …
No that’s unthinkable, just too horrific to contemplate.
As someone commented here before, “we’d all have been tattooed already” if he was in charge.
Yes, I’ve said this before. Keep him there.. he’s an asset.. for us..
Of course playing the long game might go wrong too
Not unlike Diane Abbot
Who voted against the passports & the mandatory jabs for the NHS.
Credit where credit is due.
Corbyn voted against all 3 measures.
I’m no fan of either of these two but they at least voted to uphold the law & human rights.
I’m a lifelong conservative but when only a quarter of the party could find the decency to vote against the medical passes as a precondition for entry to society in the vote this week, I moved to Liberals, so I hope they won. I am not a liberal under any circumstances and hate just about everything they stand for, but this passport situation trumps everything right now, and only the liberals stood firmly against it.
Only continuing liberal victories against the current government can make them understand we will not tolerate “vaccine passports”.
I couldn’t bring myself to vote Tory, ever, even during Treason Mays shenanigans during Brexit & Depifffel being the only chance of brexit I still couldn’t bring myself to vote for him, & that’s the only reasons the Tories won the last election, Brexit an amazing recovery, bozo literally saved the party from extinction.
Never forget it’s the Tories that have implemented all this Draconian surveillance legislation, it’s Tories facilitating censorship (hate freedom bill) & it is Tories that brought into statute, equalities & minority rights that’s tearing this country apart.
And I still can’t see any possibility labour can ever recover. I’ve no idea where that leaves this country.
Same policies enacted worldwide by governments of all persuasions including those who dont even pretend to have democratic legitimacy.
Apart from a Tanzanian president who was apparently bumped off (and maybe a Brazilian one who nearly was).
Career politicians all with the same university indoctrination, lobbied & bribed by neoliberal globalists. To top it off, advised by liberal leftist civil servants.
Communism!
I despise marxism, but it’s nearer feudalism than anything else.
I know marxism inevitably evolves into a bureaucrat-feudalist 2 class society, like ours is heading with “key worker” nonsense.
Marxist communism is liberal middle class idealism & whatever we call it, totalitarianism is where it’s heading.
The Soviet system did not permit a Billionaire are class (although the Nomenclatura were very comfortable).
The CCP on the other hand seems to encourage it in the same way as Silicon Valley and with the same result. How is the middle class in China these days?
NB. I was a ‘key worker’ from March 2020 onwards; while life was more acceptable than being locked down I didn’t make any more money out of it, neither did nurses, binpersons or highway workers.
you didnt have to queue for petrol etc.
If you are talking about the USSR that’s because you didn’t have car to put petrol in but the rest of life was just one big queue.
Ed. I got it now, you mean I didn’t have to queue for petrol during lockdown proper, quite right but I couldn’t use their toilets either “because Covid”.
Yes but Labour have supported it all the way. It’s now the Labservative party
How many Tory rebels (ie more like true Conservatives) would there need to be for one of them to step into the ring?
55 for the 1922 committee to act. I understand that it was almost half the baxk benchers who rebelled on Tuesday, so I assume we’re not far off.
55 would just result in more if the same with a replacement leader. I meant how many to get a PM who might change direction.
Are Tory leadership ballots private? In which case such a candidate might find they had more support than anticipated.
From her remarks about not stop-starting the economy Mrs. May would get my vote, not something I thought I would ever say.
Mrs. May would get my vote
WTF?
She recently said in Parliament that we cannot keep on stopping the economy every time a new variant comes along.
Gets my vote.
She abstained on the votes for passports & mandatory jabs!
A total coward!
Point taken BB, but my main interest has always been lockdownsceptics.
While sympathetic to vax skepticism they are of no direct threat to me personally.
Mrs May????
Get a grip KV!
ITEM: “Madness of Australia’s zero-Covid obsession could yet ruin the Ashes” – Australians have been conditioned not to find it strange that Pat Cummins is in isolation despite not having the virus, reports the Telegraph.
Sport in Australia is being managed by some of the dumbest but most dangerous fanatics that the whole Covid fandango has elevated to positions of authority. It is completely nuts that the pointless Covid ‘bio-security’ measure of isolating ‘close contacts’ means we now have the enforced isolation of the perfectly healthy Australian Test captain because he ate at a steakhouse restaurant in Adelaide’s CBD on the eve of the Second Test where some other perfectly healthy diner returned a positive but clinically meaningless PCR test result.
And because even though Cummins tested negative following his ‘exposure’ and still has to isolate, this means that South Australia is now vying for Most Stupid Covid State in Australia (and there is stiff competition for that title). In every other state, Cummins would have been allowed to play but, oh no, not here in Adelaide where our Public Health lamebrains decree that he must twiddle his thumbs in hard quarantine simply BECAUSE HE WAS AT AN EXPOSURE SITE (sorry about the all caps, but JEEZ!). Bet the Contact Tracer who got to make the phone call/text message to Cummins is feeling chuffed, pumped up with public service pride.
In other sports news, the Australian ‘teenage sensation’ tennis player, Olivia Gadecki, who has been slaying veteran players left, right and centre and is Australia’s Next Bright Hope post-Ash Barty, has been booted from the Australian Open in Melbourne in January 2022 because she rejects the experimental, risky, gene-therapy drug and has thus fallen foul of Daniel Andrews Covid Vaxx tyranny.
At least she will be in good company, with unvaxxed French tennis player Pierre-Hugues Herbert who has been similarly disinvited, another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, who also won’t be playing at the tournament after having suffered a severe adverse reaction to Pfizer in September, and, possibly, World No. 1, Novak Djocavik.
In better news, Daniel Andrews has gone into in isolation (awaiting a negative PCR test) after being at an upscale social event with a positive test result ‘case’ – just five days into his Christmas break. Unfortunately, if he is infected, it will be with Omicron which is so mild that he will 100% survive. Damn it!
It’s not just Australia, of course. We follow the English Soccer down here and reports of games being cancelled and players pulled under ‘Covid protocols’ are proliferating, whilst in the NFL in the US, around a hundred gridiron footballers, out of approximately 1,700 on the roster, are sitting out games because someone somewhere who they were in the vicinity of tested positive. By the way, 94% of NFL players are fully-jabbed. That’s working out well, isn’t it.
Welcome to the New Stupid.
Phil
Adelaide
Deaar Phil, the New Stupid began in March 2020 and has been in top gear ever since. Except that it’s clear that most people were already that stupid, but society was not previously run entirely on their level.
Remembering an old Monty Python sketch, I’m now convinced that the omnibollox has been engineered by blobby things from Outer Space, so that their team can win not inly Wimbledon (like last time) but also the Ashes.
I’m not a great sports fan Phil but do appreciate the effort that you put into providing that summary.
Presumably those levels of unnecessary sporting isolation will be reflected in most other walks of life which don’t attract publicity. All the fault of other people who keep getting themselves tested even though they must know that the tests are pretty useless and Covid itself is becoming ever less ‘dangerous’ as it follows the route that virus always do.
As predicted here and elswhere as soon as a ‘variant’ appeared 12 months ago (Kent?).
I’ve only ever been tested as a hospital inpatient (15 times, all negative) but the only time I would do so voluntarily would be as an attempt to skive off work (not that I do).
Oh yes, the same ‘close contact therefore quarantine yourself’ lunacy is happening to heaps of ordinary people, too, but because sport is such a secular religion in Australia, when it happens to key figures like the Australian Test cricket captain it becomes more noteworthy in the media. The sports angle may help to change minds on the silliness of the authorities’ Covid response but what seems to be happening is that, under the rubric of ‘keeping us all safe’, the Covid-compliant media is still accepting the nuttiness as normal and glibly referring to ‘Covid protocols’ as the unquestioned font of public health wisdom. Most people seem to be following this line, alas, but ‘optimism of the will’ and all that…..
How are sports fans taking it? Any push back or are they going along with it?
Maybe they will notice id significant numbers have their performance affected by those “vaccines”. I heard it’s a problem for some free divers…
The problem is it that it won’t take many years for all this to become completely normal, unnewsworthy. Being ‘off for Covid’ will be regarded in the same way as off sick or on holiday.
For my sins I did support Chelsea FC in my early teens (early 70s). Those who had been supporting them for longer were forever going on about a player (Hutchins?) who had been seriously injured but whose comeback was bound to rescue the clubs fortune.
To me his prolonged absence was entirely normal (as was the club’s poor performance) and if he ever did come back it was after my interest had waned.
Oh I don’t think this will stop with “covid”.
(P.S> I bet Chelsea was fun in the 70’s!).
Yes it was, proper fans stood in The Shed, after that it all became about the New Ground and an ego maniac Chairman, Ken Something.
Bates.
Master?
Probably Lord knowing him.
Isn’t he the one that said “go back to your tenement blocks” or something?
Still a similar attitude today from the globalist scum.
It was that experience that made me realise that football was not about the game or camaraderie, it was just about money like everything else up to and including Covid vaccines.
Thank you for this update. Much appreciated even though I fell out with most professional sports many years ago.
Kudos to every sporting figure who says Phuk Tha Vax. Their response has got to be seeping into the minds of a few of their young fans. And maybe the older ones, too.
The tremendous damage and harm, including deaths, caused to people through the government policies of lockdowns and vaccines, is becoming clearer. Serious people are talking about trials, and even mentioning crimes against humanity. I support this, as do millions of us. But the Cabinet and their gimps are not going to accept this outcome under any circumstances. Luckily, the governments of the rest of NATO (and others) committed the same crimes, so they can act in concert and cascade us into another crisis. This is why NATO is now reported to be refusing to respond to numerous Russian calls for a security dialogue over Ukraine.
London and Washington and Paris want Putin to invade Ukraine more than Putin does.
I think you may be right. They’re certainly provoking every possibility at WW3, it seems to just be a matter of where it’ll start.
Correct me if I’m wrong but surely there won’t be anything like world war 3 (yet) as the Ukraine aren’t in NATO.
In any case, Putin may well just carry on as he has, incrementally advancing, testing what he can get away with, rather than any dramatic escalation (which in any case might be more trouble than it’s worth).
I don’t think Russia, China, Iran etc are the ones wanting war. I doubt Putin has much say in it.
I’d be more worried if it was war monger Hillary. Sleepy Jo just gifted Afghanistan to China though.
Is Hilary finished?
The democrats are clinging to relevance with extant fossils, the upcoming progressives have no real support or mandate. The Clinton mafia looks more vulnerable every day, I think their only possibility of defibrillation is Hilary.
Goodness, I hope so.
Yes. Historically, Hitler’s big mistake was the full scale invasion of Poland, when a more limited operation (to “liberate” some areas in Poland where there were significant ethnic German populations) might have encouraged Britain and France to continue to look the other way.
Crimea depends for 80% of its fresh water on a single canal which comes over the strait from Ukraine who cut it off shortly after the first Russian intervention.
While Mr. Putin might have predicted this response Russia cannot continue to truck in vast amounts of water on the new road they built over the Kersch peninsula.
That alone is enough for new hostilities, incremental as Hugh says.
Putin’s between a rock & a hard place. A. Invade Ukraine, face the consequences (I doubt westerns powers will respond militarily) or B. Face Nato camped on Russia’s doorstep for decades! I suspect they’ll go with option A (its a calculated risk) pushed into it by Biden, why?
I have no attachment or sympathy for Russia or Putin, but any claims Russia has expansionist ambitions is absurd. China’s a different story.
China doesn’t expand territorial it exerts control see especially
That’s right, but technically neither does the empire, at least not physically waving the star & stripes on foreign territory its all very much more subtle now via NGO’s & politics. China has similar tactics & ambitions via industry i think.
(Got interrupted)
see especially Africa which China controls much of in the same way that Britain controlled much of South America economically in the 19thC (since supplanted by the US) and which was much more profitable than formal rule as an occupied colony.
A very recent article by The Times has the Liberals claiming a “comfortable” win over the Tories – in their previously 23k majority seat. This is the kind of swing that will have the anti-British, anti-democrat traitors in the Conservative Party filling their pants. Good. No vaxports and if that means No Tories, then No More Tories.
Trouble is (& i’ve NEVER voted tory, never & never will) what we get instead is even woker. Vax passes may be the most pressing issue ATM but all the other stuff is just as important for the future.
Mind like I’ve said many times before, all this woke nonsense gained momentum under the Tories watch. Despite appearances, I have strong socialist sympathies, but I can’t support the authoritarianism that it depends on.
We have to abandon voting the 2 party system, if I do vote it will only be for the freedom alliance & I don’t even know much about them, I’m not really party political.
If your MP voted FOR vaxpass, you MUST boot them out.
It’s as simple as that.
Liberals about to declare victory in safe Tory seat in clear rejection of Boris Johnson’s fascist covid regulations. Good. Now letters to the 1922 Committee and a serious leader WHO STANDS AGAINST LOCKDOWNS, MASKS AND GENE THERAPY MANDATES can be in No 10 in the New Year. If not this type of leader, the Tories will continue to lose to Liberals.
Could even be the biggest swing from Tories to Liberals since WWII. Thanks Bojo.
As has been pointed out, nothing good may come from it. Still, I will always want an anti-apartheid party to win rather than an apartheid one.
For one tiny minute there, I only saw your capital letters sentence and thought the WHO was against all this nonsense!
Covid/Vaccine discussion: Dr. Peter McCullough with Joe Rogan – The Joe Rogan Experience #1747 December 13, 2021 The full interview, 2hrs 45mins.
& or
The Union of the Unwanted – Episode #40: Dr. Peter McCullough 2hrs 37mins
CIIHA interview with Matt le Tissier 37mins
Lib Dems have won the North Shropshire with 47.1% of the vote.
A start after the shameful events of Tuesday.
I’m conflicted.
It is what it is.
I still maintain almost anything was better than the Conservatives winning after Tuesday.
I agree. Shows more and more are waking up.
The libdems aren’t anti-lockdown! This isn’t a victory, the Tories are still here until 2024, If bozo resigns who do think will take over?
If anything, this means things can get a whole lot worse.
It’s not a victory, it’s a small mercy – at least it will be harder for them to claim a mandate for apartheid, and in that sense there is more of a case for one of the hundred to take over, though as you rightly point out something else could easily happen.
I’m not celebrating, but it would have been unbearable if the Conservatives had won after Tuesday. Be clear, apartheid is the most poisonous measure so far and maybe something people can rally against.
Vax passports are a weapon for totalitarian control. It they don’t get them everything else will fall.
I’m stunned by the Omicron ‘restrictions the Welsh tinpot dictator has put into place – from the 27th of December:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/covid-restrictions-christmas-mark-drakeford-22489363
Dunno if he thinks the Welsh weather will drown that virus, but it’s nice of him to let people have pre-Christmas drinkies and go on the Boxing Day Christmas Sales marathon before creeping back indoors …
The fact that Boxing Day is a Sunday this time might have an effect on trade. However, there’ll probably be quite a few hounds chasing down the foxes (otherwise known as something else officially – trails?). Events like that are common on that day.
North Shropshire.
4990 more people went out and voted for the opposition, 45,165 stayed at home.
It really ought to be the case that an MP’s position stays vacant unless the majority of the electorate turns up to vote.
But polling stations are dangerous! Somebody might Omnicrone you! Hide under the bed!
Alternatively: as one of our stalwarts keep saying, so the constituents mostly said: fuck ’em, fuck ’em all.
Don’t forget that turnouts for local gov elections are often less than 50% in most wards. Maybe the voters have realised that P is just as bad as Councils? No-one votes for the bureaucrats, after all – the ones who tell the politicians what to do.
Well well, Dungford hath spoken, or at least excreted again through his filthy, gibbering gob.
I was confidently expecting him to require Nazipapiere in pubs etc., but instead I gather that he’s just telling shops to get out the measuring rule and the sticky tape. As for nightclubs … ok till after Christmas, eh? Stay of execution. Great. Big deal. I’n sure they will be so, sooooo grateful.
Even by the logic of Dung’s criminal insanity, this is a humdinger. But at least I can book us a Sunday lunch.
I thought you’d be plesed!
So. What next?
Will Piffle go in the morning, and if so, then who? (Or do I not want to know?) Can this rotten government really carry on like this?
(P.S. Johnson joined that Christmas party, according to the Independent).
I posted the attached somewhat later yesterday.
It a text from my very large GP Practice who have suddenly decided to ditch everything else (no routine appointments) for the foreseeable future in favour of the booster Programme.
No doubt because the NHS have finall offered them a suitable bribe.
It’s insane at the moment. Nearly 800,000 in a day. Some people must be making a lot of money…
(You replied before I could edit Hugh which is why my post doesn’t make sense.)
This is the same GP Practice that granted me a telephone ‘appointment’ a month hence for urgent (‘routine’) matters.
Update to yesterday.
The day after receiving the attached text I received a Reminder because their computer had noticed that I had not immediately clicked their “book your booster here” link (grab a jab?).
Clearly they are keeping a close eye on who takes up thei boost and who does not.
Sorry! I’ve beenthere myself.
So I wonder how many people are going to be able to access personal health information about me? Sodding covid1984…
My text says ‘evidence is clear that a completed programme including a booster shot is vital protection against serious symptoms from Omicron.’ Strangely, my pithy reply wouldn’t send.
Lying bastards.
Metnhinks a letter is in order. And a different practice.
(and a different keyboard)
Pithy reply:
Evidence is clear that 2 doses MAY give some protection against serious illness (for the original strain – much less effective against delta)
Evidence is clear that this supposed protection wears off in 3-6 months, becoming negative thereafter.
Evidence is clear that it is VERY UNLIKELY that a booster will – or even can – protect against omicron when 2 doses do not.
Evidence is clear that trials were fraudulent and grossly insufficient, such that nobody knows what the medium- or long-term effects of the jab will be.
Evidence is clear that this is NOT a vaccine, but is an experimental synthetic gene therapeutic.
Evidence is clear that these jabs are killing and maiming thousands of people.
Evidence is clear that these jabs compromise immune systems for at least 2 weeks.
Evidence is clear that heart attacks, strokes, embolisms, myocarditis, cancers and autoimmune conditions have increased dramatically since the rollout began.
Evidence is clear that spike proteins go to/are created by cells in epithelium & major organs, and can remain for months.
Evidence is clear that this S1 spike protein is a deadly toxin.
Evidence is clear that vitamin D levels are a critical factor in covid, and that treatment protocols based on hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin are very effective (80%+) against covid development.
Evidence is clear that my risk of injury from the jab is far greater than from covid, especially if the above treatments were permitted.
Don’t lie to me.
“Grab a Jab” – this trivialising is just offensive.
There was a film about Cambodia called “The Killing Fields”. For some unfathomable reason it sprang to my mind the other day when I heard the jabbing targets….
Criminal negligence and medical malfeasance. Keep lists, names, etc. Try and record conversations if you’re denied care. The tsunami of lawsuits heading towards the Govt/NHS is already visible on the horizon.
NHS is clinically insane, its mantra stay at home, to save lives, is literally killing people in favour of covid!
What does it matter if hospitals are overwhelmed if they aren’t treating anyone?
Schizophrenic liberals are responsible for this, I’ve no empathy for the Tories but the illiberal undems are not a good result for us, even if they do oppose the vax pass.
I am doing precisely that.
Happily I am getting NHS care but only through the intervention of my specialist Consultant who seems to be able to open all sorts of doors.
My GP Practice were not particularly interested and will now be even less so in their rush to Booster profits.
May I borrow your binoculars?
British Prime Minister and world-famous Churchill impersonator Alexander Kemal, better known by his stage name Bojo the Dancing Clown, has led the Tories to another catastrophic by-election defeat, losing a safe seat, blue since 1906. He has also created a chaotic executive full of people breaking covid rules and mocking the public over it, such as Allegro “Hatchback” Stratton and Jacob Rees-Mock, and of course himself, recently outed by The Independent for having been at the party and of course lying about it to the nation.
Adieu, Bojo. But remember this, our loss is the circus’s gain.
Lots of people on here who have voted Conservative before. Guess how many would at the moment. The only surprise is that they got as many as twelve thousand last night.
Tory for over 200 years, I believe.
Pity that the Lib Dem victors are out and out lockdown fanatics.
Yes, there is no good force in mainstream British politics, but sending liberals into Tory seats will focus the minds of the 1922 Committee, one hopes.
Good point.
Blimey, 1906 ! I knew it was a poor showing for the Tories but, not reading newspapers or watching telly news, had no idea it was that bad for them.
a rotten borough!
>The nation with the oldest people in the world has lower serious infections and fatalities – scientists think they know why.
Let me guess it’ll be nothing to do with IVERMECTIN….
If every true anti-lockdown, anti-mask, anti-therapy mandate conservative were to vow to vote liberal until the Tories change course, the signal might be strong enough to effect change in the right direction.
Can these questions be answered?:
How are ‘cases’ being identified as being caused by Omicron?
Is there any data emerging to show the vaccinated v unvaccinated breakdown for Omicron ‘cases’ and, in particular, the numbers for the recently vaccinated who count as unvaccinated in the official statistics?
Reason for the questions is the suspicion that Omicron is a reaction to the booster.
Hmm, I’m dubious about the last sentence: surely South Africa was not dishing out boosters a month ago?!
Just came across this. Relates to my second question – starts just over 28 minutes in:
https://rumble.com/vqx57g-episode-246-covid-cover-up.html
“The Chief Medical Officer came under fire from Conservative backbenchers after he urged the public to stay at home”
It is working. Was out in London last night, felt like the tail end of previous lockdowns. Whatever shit he is chatting is approved by the scum in charge, all part of the pysop.
“Variant could skew hospital and deaths figures to the point that they become largely useless in driving policy”
That’s been the case from the start. Quite deliberate.
Au Contraire: It looks like April 2020. In town yesterday,
Christmasfestive-season crowds, chocker, at least 95%+ muzzled, with the addition of paramilitary style ‘security’ goons loitering at shop entrances.Much as I appreciate the Tories getting a sound thrashing in the North Shropshire by-election I am disappointed that the Lib Dims
were successful. Any sort of salvation for this country and indeed the world is not going to come via the ballot box. To all intents and purposes we are now living in a one party state.
The turnout percentage looks low so what does that say about the British public?
Perhaps the electorate are fed up, or ground down with the daily C1984 lies. Perhaps many, like me, believe that our old parliamentary “democracy” is now finished and gone the way of the Dodo.
In olden days and following on from Tuesday’s result this would be the end for any PM. Unfortunately, a change in PM may not lead to a change of course given that we are now being governed by a Globocap elite. This scenario will doubtless have already been ‘gamed’ so a replacement eager for a place in the history books, even if it is for mass murder, will already be primed.
For certain there is no chance of an exit from our current Orwellian situation simply based on an insignificant by-election result; Globocap have been planning the coming Technocracy for too long.
Mass compliance might help but as yet there appears to be very little appetite amongst the population.
Until people wake up this result is nothing but a blip, a lost skirmish for the marauding, murdering elite.
The really good news from this, for the little it is worth, is that Kneel Starmer is now a dead man walking although nobody with a brain would want his job.
Step forward Andy Burnham.
Still, we have a day of hand-wringing and recriminations to look forward to.
As you were.
As I write above, the one good thing from this is it’s harder for them to claim a mandate for apartheid now.
As for Andy Burnham, he should have been elected that time he stood.
Actually, for a bye-election, the turnout is rather high. As for the LibDems, they are just the dustbin into which the voters would like to place Bozo!
Well said Matt Le Tissier. The sad demise of sporting professionals in recent times needs to be investigated. Even people in the crowd are dropping. What is going on?
I actually think that players collapsing on pitch, and people dropping in the crowd, will happen on such a regular basis that it will become ‘normal’ and no longer remarked upon.
Like Strawberry’s warren of shining wires in Watership Down.
Goodbye Johnson, your time is up! Your P45 is in the post. Don’t forget to take your backroom staff with you.
The Lib-Dems victory is an extra vote against vax pass, but an Allie for covidian lockdown zealots.
Just a game of snakes & Ladders.
I rate health apartheid as the biggest of snakes (and maybe their ultimate goal).
p.s. You might like to eject the alley cat that did for you.
Japan’s success against Covid is nothing to do with their regular use of Ivermectin then? Funny that. It’s all just a coincidence after all. So many coincidences.
No it isn’t. Because Ivermectin is a de-worming drug and isn’t required in an advanced economy like Japan.
https://swprs.org/the-ivermectin-debate/
What effect there was, is likely down to the de-worming effect in parts of the world where intestinal worms remain a problem. Worms aren’t good if you’re trying to tame an inflammation response.
Quite why people get religiously attached to positions is beyond me. Follow the data and beware of biases.
It’s precisely because I follow data not dogma that I ask the question. The use of the term “de-worming” in relation to Ivermectin is a shibboleth for a troll on this topic, There should be an equivalent of Godwin’s law for this – anyone who mentions worms immediately invalidates their argument. Bonus point if you get “horse” in there too.
Also the genetic-makeup theory is slightly complicated by the fact that Covid mortality in Japanese Americans in California is higher (admittedly from a small sample) than among most other ethnic groups. So unless Japanese people mutate genetically when they move abroad we can probably discount that idea, and at that point look elsewhere.
Who knows….
I found this quite interesting.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-12-15/ivermectin-fans-have-new-champion-root-3cl-protease-inhibitor-tollovid
Yes, it’s basically an ad, it’s overpriced and there is very little hard data, but the logic behind it and the explanation for why Ivermectin’s efficiency is still questioned is quite compelling.
(Some further colour also BTL.)
Newly Weds Foods UK (https://newlywedsfoods.co.uk) aren’t paying they’re Christmas bonus to employees who hasn’t chosen to have the experimental therapy.
Please post this your social media accounts
Dreadful and more than likely illegal.
Legal action will, I hope, follow quickly
I’ve just spoke to somebody senior in their HR department who wouldn’t confirm or deny that Newly Weds Foods won’t be giving their Christmas bonus to staff who have chosen not to have the experimental therapy.
If anybody wants to ask them, feel free +44 (0)1924 280444
MATT LE TISSIER FOR PM..
Not only an outstanding footballer in his time, but he tells the truth, unlike others I could mention..
Blimey, you’ll be saying Trevor Sinclair next…
Mind you, I could imagine Djokovich going into politics.
I was thinking Trevor Sinclair as sports minister actually..
Daniel Andrews has a big one.
Of course, size is no guarantee of authenticity.