In a recent article, I was rather critical of Calvin Robinson’s GB News Ukraine monologue on May 13th, and have since been not-angry-just-disappointed to see his responses on Twitter, beginning with this:
Who’d have thought the Free Speech Union would be arguing in favour of compelled speech?
“It’s not the Ukraine, it’s Ukraine”
“It’s not Kiev, it’s Kyiv”
All I said was this war has to stop.
When the FSU becomes the language police, you know things have gone too far.
Perhaps Calvin should have taken more time to digest both his Chicken Kiev and the substance of my article before responding. I didn’t demand anyone say “Kyiv” instead of “Kiev”, or “Ukraine” instead of “the Ukraine”. I merely pointed out that the use of those dated terms – as well as being the kind of patriotic mispronunciation of foreign place-names that many of us enjoy – has mainly served as an in-group signifier for those who take a broadly anti-Ukraine/Kremlin-curious position. This is often done under cover of calls for “peace” – which usually means appeasement, or pacifism of the sort Orwell critiqued. But if Calvin is so piqued by the notion of the name “Kiev” going out of fashion, he’ll presumably be equally upset about the loss of “Leningrad” or “Karl-Marx-Stadt”, and will persist with Soviet nomenclature. Good luck to him.
It was also disappointing that Calvin took my article to be a position statement emanating from the Free Speech Union simply because I’m associated with that excellent organisation (and deeply proud of the fact). It would be rather odd if the FSU did have a position on Ukraine, but of course it doesn’t, and I was merely expressing my personal views – although it shouldn’t be necessary to have to point that out, or for Calvin to have to dissociate his political views from the official position of the Free Church of England.
As to Calvin’s claim that “[a]ll I said was this war has to stop”, that’s simply not true. It was a two-minute monologue which broached a range of topics that I covered in my article.
There were some other rebarbative tweets which I’ll pass over in relative silence, merely noting Calvin’s mockery of Zelenskyy and a possible attempt at exorcism, but notable in all this was the absence of any attempt to engage with the substantive points I made regarding his claims of neo-Nazism, persecution of Christians and so on inside Ukraine. In fact, Calvin said that he doesn’t “write rebuttals to hit pieces” – frustrating, because he missed the obvious punchline: “I reserve that for puff pieces.”
Of course, I can understand Calvin’s irritation with the tone of my article, which was at times ad hominem. “Why so over the top?” I’ve heard people say.
To answer that, it might be helpful to understand that while I’ve been writing at home, safe in the English countryside, I’ve also been psychologically inhabiting a Ukrainian trench since last February. Through news outlets and social media, I’ve read reports and seen videos of the war that will stay with me – despite having previously worked on documenting crimes against humanity, which I thought had made me immune. Much of it I try not to think about, but I’m profoundly sorrowful not just for the Ukrainians and all they’ve suffered, but also for the brainwashed Russian troops who have been ordered to attack a peaceful nation and then commit suicide rather than surrender, and who have done so with rifles and grenades – and for that Russian soldier seen praying in his last moments.
I’ve also seen lies and half-truths spread from Moscow, as they have since the 1920s. Information being crucial in this war, those engaged in the information war are fighting in the battlefield of the mind for one side or the other, whether they know it or not. Perhaps Calvin didn’t realise this, but in saying the things he said on national TV, he marked himself out as an enemy combatant. I saw red and leapt out of my trench to attack him with everything I could muster. And if I did get a bit carried away then that’s regrettable, since what I really want is for Calvin to seriously consider and reflect on the substantive points I raised – without any of the collateral damage.
On this point about collateral damage, Toby has been an excellent Editor-in-Chief throughout all this: the kind that any writer would want, a blue-blooded aristocrat of free speech. He didn’t even mention to me the kind of flack he’s been receiving for my article until I asked him about it – and he would of course publish any rebuttal of my articles (within reason), and rightly expect me to suck it up too. Give that man a peerage, I say!
Moving back to the topic of Ukraine, Calvin did say that he’d be “debating the topic properly on television”. He then appeared in such a debate with Brooks Newmark on May 15th, which began with a question about whether the U.K. should continue to fund the Ukrainian war effort, to which Calvin replied:
So my problem isn’t necessarily with the funding – I think we should support our allies, absolutely. My problem is that everyone’s looking at this as a winning vs. losing situation, and I’m saying: who’s asking the question about raising peace?
But war is about winning and losing – existentially, for Ukraine. There are no “participation trophies”. And it is always, fundamentally, about achieving an eventual peace – with the winner getting to set the terms. It is both deeply naïve and otiose to talk about “peace” in the abstract without reference to “facts on the ground”. One way to bring about an immediate peace (or at least the cessation of violence, prior to an eventual treaty) would be for the aggressor to withdraw, but it seems Calvin is suggesting something different – that Ukraine should be prepared to cede territory to the aggressor, without considering the consequences for the people of Ukraine and those left in the occupied territories (the rapes, torture, murder, deportations and “re-education”), much less the consequences for the rest of the world in enabling an aggressor in this way. “Peace” is not synonymous with “occupation”, and a real, enduring peace cannot be achieved through appeasement.
Calvin goes on to say:
The only person, the only world leader I’ve seen [talk about peace] so far is President Donald Trump, who when CNN tried to back him into a corner, [asking] “Will you back Ukraine or will you back Russia?” he said “Actually, I’m backing the people. It’s the people that are dying”, and world leaders all around the West are pushing for more and more war […]
There’s a lot to unpack here, but firstly Donald Trump is not, at present, a world leader. Secondly, world leaders have been talking about peace – quite a lot, in fact. We could discuss, for instance, Ukraine’s own detailed Peace Formula, first introduced on November 15th. We could discuss President Macron’s visit to China in April, in which he encouraged Xi Jinping to be more active in pursuit of peace. We could discuss China’s own changing position, and Xi Jinping’s more recent decision to talk to Zelenskyy and to send a peace envoy to the region, who was recently in Kyiv and is shortly to visit Moscow. We could talk about President Biden’s offer to meet Putin to talk peace last December, which was rebuffed because Putin won’t negotiate unless the West accepts his illegal annexations of territory. The list goes on, but it seems Calvin has skipped the lectio and moved straight on to the disputatio.
Since Calvin made his remarks, on May 17th the 46 Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (supported by the EU, Canada, Japan and the U.S.) issued the Reykjavík Declaration, adopting Ukraine’s Peace Formula:
We express our full support to Ukraine and its people. We will stand with Ukraine, for as long as it takes. Without accountability, there can be no lasting peace and we support the principles for a just and lasting peace as outlined in President Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula. We therefore reaffirm the need for an unequivocal international legal response for all victims, as well as for the State of Ukraine.
So world leaders really are talking about peace, and in some detail. But Trump, being Trump, has declared he can somehow bring about peace in 24 hours, refusing to say how. And in case anyone imagines Trump is some kind of magician when it comes to diplomacy, his attempt to stop Erdoğan attacking Kurdish forces in Syria following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2019 should undeceive them. Trump wrote to Erdoğan on Oct 9th 2019 as follows:
Dear Mr. President:
Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy – and I will. I’ve already given you a little sample with respect to Pastor Brunson.
I have worked hard to solve some of your problems. Don’t let the world down. You can make a great deal. General Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you, and he is willing to make concessions that they would never have made in the past. I am confidentially enclosing a copy of his letter to me, just received.
History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!
I will call you later.
Sincerely,
Donald Trump
It’s hard to read that without wincing. Erdoğan, for his part, threw the letter in the bin and ordered the attack that same day. And it would be fair to say that Trump’s interventions on Ukraine are probably the least helpful of any public figure outside Russia or its allies to date, merely emboldening Russia – which has returned the favour by pointedly sanctioning some of Trump’s enemies. (Incidentally, it’s high time for Russia to update its list of sanctioned U.K. journalists. Hint hint, Пыня.)
Calvin goes on to say:
[…] The idea that there could only be one solution, and that solution is Russia being defeated, it terrifies me because Russia is, like I say, a nuclear power. And that means that if that’s the only option, then we’re looking at a world war […] But the biggest problem I’m seeing here is just raising that conversation, raising that point, has people going “Ha! Putin apologist! Ha!” and it’s like we have lost all sense of nuance.
Calvin complaining about being called a “Putin apologist” is clearly a reference to my previous article, in which I called him precisely that – because he raised, in an uncritical manner, some of the Kremlin’s favourite fake justifications for their invasion. But Calvin didn’t raise the nuclear issue in his monologue, and I didn’t base my characterisation of him on that, so Calvin is once again misrepresenting things. He then talks about “nuance”. Lawdy!
As to the nuclear issue, I’ve previously written about it (specifically in relation to “tactical” or low-yield nuclear weapons), so I’ll try not to repeat myself, and will refer anyone who may be interested in understanding why Putin won’t escalate to that article. However, I’ll note that the public’s understanding of the matter is generally very wrong, and Russia has been taking advantage of these false perceptions – with Dmitry Medvedev, in particular, repeatedly threatening nuclear escalation in response to this, that or the other. But nuclear powers have lost wars before. Putin will lose this war, and will just have to accept it.
More importantly, to give in to nuclear blackmail is to create a very much more dangerous world, in which nuclear proliferation (and therefore nuclear war) becomes much more likely. Besides being common sense, this is a very well-established and non-controversial view in the field of nuclear deterrence, arms control and proliferation, and we have a deep moral and existential responsibility not to make mistakes – based on emotion and ignorance – that could seriously endanger us or our children in future. I therefore view Calvin’s rhetoric on this topic as deeply unwise.
Asked whether continued support for the war should be a question for the people of Ukraine, Calvin said:
I would love to hear from the people of the Ukraine, actually, because I’m sick of hearing from Western leaders who have no input in the Ukraine. I’d love to hear from the citizens, the people that are actually on the ground – and both the Russian citizens too – because it’s the people on the ground that are dying […]
This is a rather strange remark, since there’s no indication that Western leaders have misjudged attitudes in Ukraine, or that Calvin has made an effort to find out the views of Ukrainians.
It’s not difficult to find respectable polling showing a 91% approval rating for Zelenskyy, with 97% of Ukrainians believing they will win the war and roughly 98% support for their armed forces. Nobody is seriously suggesting Ukraine isn’t united in this. However, given the extent to which Calvin seems to have swallowed Russian propaganda, I can’t give him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t believe the Kremlin line – that Zelenskyy is a corrupt, deviant, authoritarian, neo-Nazi drug-addict who is hated by his people. That might explain why he’s so dismissive of the statements made by his opponent in this debate, Brooks Newmark, who’s spent the past year talking to Ukrainians, and who reports roughly 90% of Ukrainian people want to continue fighting. Calvin calls these reports “anecdotes”.
But there’s more to it than that. What I’ve personally heard from Ukrainians, and what I’ve heard reported many times, is that they greatly appreciate Western support, but fear that the West might someday abandon them. This came up when Boris Johnson was ousted, with a great deal of anxiety being expressed on Ukrainian social media about whether the new Prime Minister would still support Ukraine. Those fears have been put to rest (and all credit to Liz Truss and especially to Rishi Sunak for carrying the torch), but it’s plain as day from statements made by Ukrainian officials that they believe the long-awaited spring counter-offensive needs to be successful in order to maintain levels of Western support. So if there’s any concern in Ukraine about the war, it’s only that they might not prevail quickly enough to satisfy their international allies.
In this light, Calvin’s question about what the Ukrainians think about the war is no different from his other seemingly-innocent “questions” about things that he seems unwilling or unable to learn about himself, and which he poses – like Pilate – without waiting for an answer. In this particular case, it’s highly disingenuous to claim to care about the views of the Ukrainian people, while cynically maintaining the slanders in his May 13th monologue that, in all likelihood, he picked up from Westerners spouting Kremlin talking-points. I’d like to think it’s simple naïveté, but it isn’t “nuance”.
Ian Rons is the President of the Free Speech Union, but this article reflects his views alone and not those of the Free Speech Union.
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I don’t give a phlying phuck who wins, I don’t want a foreign war that I never asked for and I don’t want my taxpayer pounds to pay for it.
The downvoters apparently want to keep paying for a foreign war…probably fully jabbed, maskwearing, lockdown embracing drag queens.
No one wins. Millions die.
at least you didn’t bring the ‘rolling donut’ into it!
nice comment!
The Only Way to Bring Peace to Ukraine is to Defeat Zelensky.
There, fixed it for you.
…doesn’t mention that this week, on his PR trip, puppet Elenskyy telling the Pope..the fricken Pope, that he wasn’t going to talk to Russia about peace….
Not my Pope.
As a Catholic, I can say Frank is not Catholic. A Rothschild-WEF ‘Pope’.
Nor mine.
FFS
With a headline like that there is no need to read
I really cannot be bothered about a spat between Ian Rons and Calvin Robinson.
We have no business being involved in a war against Russia.
It’s “The Ukraine”, it’s “Kiev”, and Zelensky is working for the WEF. Biden can’t afford the details of his corrpution to be exposed and so has to supply Zelensky at any cost to the west.
We are all guilty of using anecdotal evidence, and Rons simply saying anecdotes are not anecdotal is not exactly convincing. Every comment I make on here about the SMO is anecdotal since I have not witnessed any of the conflict first hand, and I guess that goes for most of us.
Well said, Ian. Keep up the good work. Very much appreciated.
Britain signed the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing Ukrainian territorial integrity in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear warheads. It would have only been a matter of time before they developed a delivery system. And they would, as we now know, have been correct so to do.
We failed to live up to our guarantee to Ukraine after the invasion of Crimea by Russia in 2014. Nevertheless we provided military training assistance thereafter along with a number of other countries.
The threat from Russia to Moldova is well documented, as is the intention by Putin to incorporate Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, with Russia, into a ‘Union State’.
Thereafter a simple glance at a map tells us he will move on the Baltic States to form a new ‘iron curtain’ from Kaliningrad to Moldova.
That is why Poland has ordered 1250 new tanks and will become Europe’s most powerful Land Power after Russia.
And that is why Finland, Sweden now wish to join NATO, their reasoning crystal clear.
There can only be one reason why your articles (and my comments) about Ukraine on here attract so much opprobrium.
Russia has covertly given at least $300 million to political parties, officials and politicians in more than two dozen countries since 2014, and plans to transfer hundreds of millions more, with the goal of exerting political influence.
Russia has probably given even more that has gone undetected.
The need for more assured revenue and/or loans and financial facilities on easy terms has led to a number of far-right parties across Europe currying favour with sources in the Russian finance sector, all of which are assumed to take their ultimate authorization from President Putin.
Over recent years, numerous reports have emerged of such far-right leaders as France’s Front National and Marine le Pen, Italy’s Lega and Matteo Salvini, Austria’s FPO and Heinz-Christian Strache and others, securing such assistance on a large scale from Russia.
British far-right groups no doubt will also have sought similar assistance.
Says the spokesman for the MIC….
Oh just fu** off with your nonsense..how many times?? There are NO Guarantees in the bullshit Budapest memorandum..NONE…there’s no threat to Moldova..other than in your head….Bakhmut has gone..apparently a group of convicts with shovels are better than the whole of NATO … deal with it…
In January 1917, Vladimir Lenin had said he doubted his generation would live to see the fall of the Tsarist regime and that was less than one month before the revolution started.
“This divide can end as in 1917 with a revolution,”
“First the soldiers will stand up, and after that – their loved ones will rise up. There are already tens of thousands of them – relatives of those killed. And there will probably be hundreds of thousands – we cannot avoid that.”
Prighozin 23 May 23
“There can only be one reason why your articles (and my comments) about Ukraine on here attract so much opprobrium.
Russia has covertly given at least $300 million to political parties, officials and politicians in more than two dozen countries since 2014, and plans to transfer hundreds of millions more, with the goal of exerting political influence.”
I don’t think I’ve thrown any opprobrium your way, or Ian’s way, but I am far from convinced that the UK has a compelling interest in throwing so much money at this war, nor am I convinced our reasons are honest, nor am I convinced that we have any hope of achieving whatever it is we say we want to achieve. The most likely outcome seems to me an expensive, bloody, stalemate that benefits no-one except arms manufacturers and those with an interest in weakening the rich West. I’ve not received any financial or other support from Russia
Claiming people – often conservatives, libertarians and classical liberals – are Putin supporters has been the default for some years. I was called a ‘Putin supporter’ for attacking lockdowns and thus ‘undermining’ the UK Government’s response to the scamdemic. The accusation is the left’s revenge for HUAC in the 1950s, which conveniently overlooks that HUAC and Joseph McCarthy were right.
You have most certainly not thrown any opprobrium my way, have distinguished yourself by your civilised, cogent and concise contributions.
And you are, of course, perfectly entitled to your opinion in all things.
I am sorry to hear that you have not received any financial or other support from Russia. I am in a similar doleful position of not receiving any financial or other support from anyone.
I am an erstwhile ‘cold war warrior’
I have stared, armed, through binoculars at ‘goons’, also armed, in ‘goon towers’ the other side of their mined barbed wire entanglements patrolled by guard dogs so I have seen, at first hand, what socialist fascism looks like in uniform.
It is not a pretty sight. It is certainly worth fighting against.
I freely accept that both sides are, effectively, ‘soviets’ with all that baggage.
However over 90% of Ukrainians, majorities in all districts, voted for independence.
We signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994.
‘The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression’
That is a commitment.
We failed to honour that commitment in 2014.
We have made some redress since then.
Putin’s stated aim is De-Europeanisation.
Clearly you are not concerned by that. I am. We can certainly agree to differ.
Good day to you.
Indeed.
It’s hard to know what I would think were I a Ukrainian. As it stands I would not want to live in either country.
I’d be more enthusiastic about the UK honouring international commitments if I thought we were consistent and sincere in our approach.
The Budapest Memorandum was signed on December 5, 1994 by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Britain and the United States. Under the treaty Ukraine agreed to eliminate its nuclear arsenal, while Russia, the United States and Britain guaranteed Kiev’s security.
On February 10, 2022 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after a meeting with his British counterpart Liz Truss recalled at a news conference that the Budapest Memorandum was accompanied by a declaration, also signed by France and Ukraine, which required that all signatories should refrain from any violations of the OSCE principles, including respect for the rights of ethnic minorities. Ukraine has ignored this document to this day.
..the word guarantee doesn’t appear in the document at all..there are assurances…..this was deliberate, and US lawyers discussed it for several days and drafted it that way purposely so that there were no ‘guarantees’ or any lawful or binding contracts… and so that none of the signatories are ‘obliged’ to take action…..
Otherwise I agree with what you say….
Russia didn’t invade Crimea in 2014.
Crimeans themselves overwhelmingly desired for Crimea to leave Ukraine. An official 1994 referendum found that nearly 80 percent of Crimeans desired greater regional autonomy.
Russia’s “annexation” of Crimea (by military personnel already stationed there for their Black Sea fleet, no Russian troops needed to be sent as they have been there by agreement for many decades) was more of a “reunification” and was with a 96% approval rating by the 1.5 million people of Crimea in a referendum. They needed to vote in 2014 as they saw the rise of the ultranationalists and neo-Nazis after the US led Maidan coup and the persecution of ethnic Russians in the east and south of Ukraine.
“The men occupying Crimea’s parliament came to be recognised by locals and by international media as Russian soldiers without insignia. For the pro-Russian groups that believed that Right Sector and other Ukrainian nationalists were a threat, the gunmen became a symbol of salvation and safety.”
The West called them “little green men” but the Crimeans called them “the polite people”.
You attract so much opprobrium because you parrot the same lies and propaganda as Western governments and their presstitutes in the main stream media.
Russia are not a threat to any country who does not threaten Russia first.
The idea that all of us who disagree with you are right wing and being paid by Russia is puerile.
Landlady: Of course it’s his big day Thursday. They’ve been planning it for months.
Johnson: What’s happening then?
Landlady: Well it’s the North Minehead bye-election. Mr Hilter is standing as the National Bocialist candidate. He’s got wonderful plans for Minehead!
Johnson: Like what?
Landlady: Well, for a start he wants to annex Poland.
Johnson: Oh, North Minehead’s Conservative, isn’t it?
Landlady: Well, yes, he gets a lot of people at his rallies.
Johnson: Rallies?
LandLady: Well, they’re Bocialist meetings down at the Axis Cafe on Rosedale Road.
(Short scene cut: huge crowds outside going “Sieg Heil. Sieg Heil. Sieg Heil.”)
Hilter: I am not a racialist, but…and dis is a big but…the National Bocialist party says that das (stream of German).
Bimmler: Mr Hitler (Hilter slaps him) …Hilter says historically Taunton is a part of Minehead already!
Hilter: Und der Minehead ist nicht die letze (stream of German)…in die Welt!
Crowd: Sieg Heil
Your made-up ‘off your trolley’ nonsense..v..reality..
https://www.salon.com/2022/01/11/the-us-drops-an-average-of-46-bombs-a-day-why-should-the-world-see-us-as-a-force-for-peace/
The Pentagon has finally published its first Airpower Summary since President Biden took office nearly a year ago. These monthly reports have been published since 2007 to document the number of bombs and missiles dropped by U.S.-led air forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria since 2004. But President Trump stopped publishing them after February 2020, shrouding continued U.S. bombing in secrecy.
The new Airpower Summary data reveal that the United States has dropped another 3,246 bombs and missiles on Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria (2,068 under Trump and 1,178 under Biden) since February 2020.
https://www.twn.my/title/half-cn.htm
Geneva, 21 Dec 99 — More than half of the world’s population in 75 countries is subject to unilateral coercive economic measures or ‘sanctions’ by one country alone – the United States of America – according to a recent report by the United Nations.
Now do a little skit about the REAL deaths and misery caused by that….
Grow up!
..I would also add that if the $300 million is correct, it’s peanuts compared to what the USA has paid to countries to ‘effect change’..so what? They’ve already spent more than that in Ukraine!
Respectable polling! Is there such a thing?
This article states;
”who have been ordered to attack a peaceful nation”
Ukraine a peaceful nation? a demi Paradise, a Garden of Eden full of peace love and flowers? That is not the impression that I have of Ukraine prior to this war.
But anyway to get to the point, which this article struggles to achieve, what has all this got to do with the UK? Russia is a huge country with huge resources why is it not better for us to do a deal with Russia than to attack it?
I am no fan of China but I cannot but help to admire their pragmatism, they have just done a deal to allow China to use the port of Vladivostok and they are announcing huge trade deals with Russia.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202305/1291224.shtml
I do get the impression that China is now calling the shots on all this, looking to maintain the stalemate whilst NATO and the USA fall apart. Waiting patiently for the dollar to fall and the BRICs currencies to strengthen. As Confucius once said;
”The superior man is quiet and calm, waiting for the appointments of heaven, while the mean man walks in dangerous paths, looking for lucky occurrences.”
LOL..because when the US/ NATO attacks it’s just un-peaceful nations?
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/05/16/the-war-on-terror-led-to-over-4-5-million-deaths-report/
America’s post-9/11 wars have led to more than 4.5 million deaths, according to a major new report from the Costs of War Project at Brown University.
Roughly 1 million of these deaths came from direct combat in war zones across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, while the remaining 3.5 million are “indirect deaths” that resulted from the conflicts’ “destruction of economies, public services, and the environment,” according to the report.
…but but ….obviously the good guys??
OK this seems like an appropriate place I can talk about piss and deliver an off-territory dump. So if this doesn’t scream, ”I’m completely unhinged and a menace to society so please ring for the men in white coats, stat!”…I don’t know what does. Absolutely chuffing mental!
”Trans activists in London staged a urine-filled protest outside of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Monday in response to proposed alterations to the Equality Act which would strengthen women’s sex-based rights.
Members of the organization Pissed Off Trannies (POT) gathered outside of the EHRC on May 22 to leave 90 liters of human urine around the perimeter of the building. The protest was in response to a recent statement by chief executive of the EHRC, Melanie Field, in which she affirmed the definition of “sex.” Field’s comment reflects a slow-moving trend at the EHRC to implement stronger protections for biological sex as a protected characteristic, as well as recent plans to prevent trans-identified males from accessing women’s facilities unless they have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
GRCs are documents which legally recognize a person’s transgender identity in the United Kingdom. The bar for acquiring one is not particularly high, having two primary requirements of a gender dysphoria diagnosis, and the individual having “lived” as their “preferred gender” for at 2 years. The fee is nominal at £5, but it can be waived entirely for low-income people.
The proposals have been met with extreme backlash by trans activists, who have branded the EHRC’s attempts to consider further protections for women as “anti-trans bias.”
This Monday, masked POT trans activists gathered outside of the EHRC office to leave bottles of human urine in protest of the considerations. The activists also poured the bottles of piss on the sidewalks.”
https://reduxx.info/uk-trans-activists-stage-piss-filled-protest-in-front-of-londons-equality-and-human-rights-commission/
What a petulant article. I dont understand why Toby gave this rubbish a platform.
Putin will never be defeated and Ukraine can’t win this war of attrition.
The bodies and suffering increase whilst western leaders grandstand and our armed forces deflate themselves.
The only solution is international pressure for a ceasefire with sanctions on both sides.
..agreed Neil….the ‘incursion’ into Belgorod just seems to have been a bullshit PR stunt to cover the Bakhmut failure..and yet again more young Ukrainian men die..and for what?? The PR media war? The only one they are winning?…
Hundreds of thousands dead now…for American hegemony, and the US/Ukrainian war machine..I thank God I have never called for a continuation of this horror…and I have no time for Mr Ron’s or the morons virtue signalling while Ukrainian men and women die for their hubris, stupidity..and a sound bite in an egregious article…….shocking depressing and vile….
This is from a Telegram post: an update on Bakhmut from a Russian perspective.
What struck me was the senseless slaughter & maiming of thousands of young men. Stuff the politics, well over 100,000 dead & injured on just the Ukrainian side, numbers not given for Russian casualties.
This is an abject failure of the political class to broker peace, but then peace isn’t as profitable as a war & TPTB see the dead & wounded as useless eaters, so why should they broker peace?
Yevgeniy Prigozhin
Bakhmut results:
1. 6.5 thousand foreign mercenaries of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were destroyed.
2. 10 thousand units of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed.
3. 35 thousand units of weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were taken as trophies.
4. More than 50 aircraft and helicopters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed.
5. 55,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed.
6. 85 thousand soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were wounded.
7. Such a large percentage of the dead was due to the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were almost surrounded and did not have time to take out the wounded.
8. PMC Wagner has also losses, but several times less.
9. 10 brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were completely destroyed and deprived of combat capability.
10. 21 brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were defeated and withdrawn to the rear for reorganization.
11. All these brigades were preparing for the offensive but instead of an offensive, they were defeated in Bakhmut.
All of it is just horrendous, and of course from the beginning peace and diplomacy should have been sought. We are led by political pygmies…
America is following the exact same path against China..I can’t find anything that China has done in the last couple of years to make the US reaction and Sinophobia what it is at the moment..like the totally unjustified hatred of Russia, it’s off the charts for no logical reason..it’s purely political propaganda nonsense…and who suffers….the poor ordinary person…..always…..
Zaluzhnyi wanted to withdraw from Bakhmut weeks ago…to stop the amount of deaths and casualties they were receiving…..now he’s missing, presumed dead or injured…and it’s still been taken….
‘They had, say, 500 tanks at the start of the special operation, now they have 5,000 tanks.
They had 20,000 people who could fight back then, now 400,000 can.
In what way have we demilitarized it (Ukraine)?
It turns out we did the opposite.’
Prighozin May 2023
Absolutely right. Russia will not be defeated. During Operation Barbarossa Hitler initially made quick gains taking 600 000 Russian prisoners, but the Russians simply replaced them with 2 million more. They stood their ground at Stalingrad, organised their industry to make thousands of T34 tanks, and then pushed the Germans right back to Berlin taking 1.5 million prisoners in the process. Russia is a country with tremendous resources, underestimate them at your peril.
Great that Toby and the Daily Sceptic give Mr Rons a voice. His is a fairly mainstream, Narrative stance, which allows us to critique, without being censored.
I soundly disagree with him, but it’s his and our free speech, and he’s not actually killing anyone.
Yes, it’s reminiscent of Fraser Myers’ recent petulant behaviour.
The most ridiculous part of this is this ‘Putin’ nonsense. I say with complete honesty that in much of Russia Putin is seen as a pussy and it is his weakness tha will be his undong in the months to come in my opinion. The view among the masses is way more aggresive than he has been. This is yet another stupid blind alley that the West has fallen into which means that whoever comes next will have to be much more ruthless. I don’t even like addressing these matters in a sincere fashion given the lies that underpin these discussions. You want to be more careful. Not long ago there was a taboo about mentioning the nuclear option. Now it is just bandied about like the most natural thing in the world. Do you really want to continue a path of escalation based upon a foreign affairs doctrine that is twenty five years out of date?
Everything you said..but applied to Biden and the USA..for which there is actual evidence..
This is why we need to understand true power relations if we are to have any hope at all. Corporate control, you can call it neocon or neoliberal it doesn’t matter – this is a very tough nut to crack.
Putin is a moderate yet the calls to replace him will only result in a hardliner taking over and that can only result in WW3, which is apparently what the West seems to want. We are governed by crazy people and Putin seems to be the only adult. We need more Putins and less Biden and Sunak!
I think if we all red flag the spamming troll-bot, or whatever ‘Timans’ is, hopefully the DS team will deal with it. It’d be even better if it swore then I’m sure the DS mods would react even quicker! lol
The war in Ukraine is a sad,sad situation. Of course, Putin is the obvious aggressor and bad guy, but Zelensky and the corrupt Ukrainians, and their Nazi sympathiser supporters are hardly angels either. Not to mention many acquisitive American fingers in the pie..
Putin and Russia will not be defeated without a nuclear holocaust. Get real Mr Rons, reenter the world of Realpolitik, and recognise that we need a climbdown/compromise in this situation, regardless of whether it fits your high minded principles or not (PS Putin is not Adolf Hitler)
…oh yes America wins, whichever way you look at it..and if there’s no one left to argue about who owns what …all the better……??
But I’m sure Mr Ron’s thinks this is just democracy in action and totally normal…
https://www.kmu.gov.ua/en/news/ministerstvo-ekonomiki-ukrayini-pidpisalo-memorandum-iz-najbilshoyu-investkompaniyeyu-svitu
INVESTMENTS
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and BlackRock, the world’s largest investment company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing on a framework for consultative assistance in developing a special platform to attract private capital for the recovery and support of Ukraine’s economy.
The platform will focus on mobilizing investment in key sectors of Ukrainian economy, while taking into account the reconstruction needs resulting from the full-scale russian invasion.
I wonder when Ian Rons starts working at Marianna Spring’s new ‘Disinformation’ unit?
I would advise anyone who is hungry for war to look at industrial capacity. The hope of the West is that they can take this to an airborne war and a war of exchange of missiles. This is a very irresponsible view for obvious reaons and they would retort that we are faced with annihilation and so anything goes. This is going to start in the next three weeks and I think it is important that when it does we need to make our views known. Because looked at from every angle and every possible outcome the only resolution comes through nuclear conflict. And a post-nuclear world is a dreary inheritance for anyone. It is about to happen. the air war and the consequences of an air war go way beyond bombs being dropped, in terms of trade,
If you sense the gravity of the situation and the alignment of the BRICS coubtries in recent months then you will adopt a conciliatory response. From the Western perspective it would be foolish try to assert dominance at this point. There are pathways to major influence if you can see them. The late twentieth century through so much mud in our faces that we founf it difficult to discern the most simple truths.
At least we are starting to understand things and bear in mind that our enemies assume that we will never understand. Understanding throws a spanner into the works – they don’t know how to deal with it.
This is the voice of the Mister Rons.
Difficult to remain calm reading this drivel. I suggest the writer does some research. Slava Russia!
Oh my bloody hell.
What an annoying screed.
Your call to Orwell is dated. This was Orwell 1942, prior to his awakening to the horror of authoritarianism home grown and insidious found in his 1984 script penned in 1949.
Many may sympathise with getting carried away with government propaganda, like you, and only after the fact, like Iraq, do they realise they were foolish. I’ll wait.
But really you are quite ill. You rant and rave and TY gives you a forum which makes him look really bad. Indeed so bad i personally am not sure I can keep funding both the FSU and the DS. It’s just getting irritating. You aren’t sceptical, you are nauseatingly mainstream. You don’t bring anything to the table.
If fisticuffs were a thing I’d ask you to bring them.
And you are the president of the FSU.
Oh boy.
Quite agree with you.
Apparently Ian Rons is described by The Daily Sceptic on Twitter and facebook as a “military expert” but he won’t reply to me with his qualifications.
He has also found Jesus.
Anyone with a religious fervour shows they are not a critical thinker and can be easily swayed by indoctrination.
I delayed resubscribing to The Daily Sceptic because of Ian Rons but I couldn’t put up with his lies and propaganda any longer without replying to his nonsense which is no different to what we read every day in the main stream media and has no place in The Daily Sceptic.
This is a ‘war’ made up of ignorant people posturing for social media in the West while Ukraine is used as a proxy battlefield. Post your little Ukraine flag icon next to your name on Twitter and feel really proud of yourself when people ‘like’ it!
Get real! This is war! Real war! This is bombs dropping, body parts and blood spattered across streets, people burning to death, the smell of roasted meat as bodies cook and the stench of rotted meat as dead bodies get turned into scrap food for stray dogs amidst the ruins of your home. This is your parents, siblings, children and friends dying. This is a Western proxy war using Zelenskyy as a front! Most ordinary people are not behind it.
Wars end with negotiation in the present day, because nuclear, chemical and biological weapons ensure no one can be defeated without taking their opponents with them. There’s no comparison with the lead up to WWII. Negotiating a settlement is not ‘appeasement’ which is the lazy recourse. Putin is not Adolf Hitler. No one gets everything he wants from negotiation, but ordinary people stop being killed in vast numbers. Wars that end in the utter defeat of one side invariably involve the destruction of all sides. Look at the aftermath of WWII – the real one, not the fantasy movie version people bang on about. What was left of the UK after WWII? A battered, ruined nation with vast numbers of us dead. Are we willing to accept that happening again? And the same from Calais to the Urals?
Who are the combatants in the present conflict? Nato countries, including us, and Russia. Ukraine is a convenient ‘offsite’ battlefield. Our governments pretend to care about Ukrainian citizens, but they don’t give a s***. If they did, they’d stop sending weapons and dragging out this conflict.
People want Nato countries to ‘defeat Putin’ do they? Fine. Are they willing to see their home towns burn? Are they ready to put bomb shelters back in their gardens, cower in Tube stations during missile and drone attacks on London, gas masks at the ready? Because if we’re serious about ‘defeating Putin’, ie properly going to war with Russia and defeating Russia’s entire military arsenal, including nukes, that means Russia has the right to go to war with us. And they will. They will rain death from the skies, launch Novichok and Sarin gas attacks in our streets and buildings and public transport, dirty bombs that will make areas uninhabitable for centuries… Or are we so naive to think that can’t happen here the same way we’d never lock up all our citizens for years over a novel virus?
Columnists and social media users who think this war will stay in Ukraine if they ‘defeat Putin’ are idiots. This is currently a small conflagration in a giant dry tinder box. Yet the incompetent, moronic leaders and paid-for press commentators in the West are perfectly happy to escalate it, because they’re too dumb to believe these consequences will happen in their safe, elitist, technocratic bubble.
We can settle this conflict in days by dragging Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table now. Or we’ll have to stop being cowards and hiding behind Zelenskyy and openly go to war in full acceptance that millions of us will die and that, even if we win, our cities will resemble those of present day Ukraine. Is it really worth it?
Excellent! And spot on – we have had such a good life for so long in the West, we just can’t imagine things going wrong and certainly not the harsh reality you paint.
Yep, this thing could get out of control and drag many many millions more in, eventually still leading to a negotiated peace. Having said that, I can’t quite determine whether that is the plan or not. Current Western leaders seem so hell bent on destroying out contries by destroying our energy supply and our economies with their ridiculous net-zero nonsense, our security by giving all our weapons to the Ukraine with zero oversight into where they’ve gone and our cultures and way of life by unfettered immigration from cultures so different that it is inevitable that ours will either disappear or be diluted to a shadow of what they once were, it’s hard to figure out if this is sheer incompetence (for many hack MPs who just show up to vote as they’re told to vote, yes) or outright intent by puppet cabinets whose strings are pulled, like senile Biden, by players behind the scenes.
Another tedious, rambling, ad hominem piece from Mr. Rons, who already has form having previously written an article parroting pro-war propaganda pulled from the British MSM. The appeal to his FSU links is unhelpful and denigrating to that organisation. Questionable judgment also on the part of whoever authorised publication of this piece.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” – Sir Walter Scott
You can say this about Mr Rons – he sure draws a crowd!
Wrong.
The endless US wars. The US coups in Uketopia starting in 2004. The US pushing NATO to Moscow. The US aka the Ukes murdering some 15.000 Russians post the 2014 coup.
The US biolabs. The US military equipment sent post 2004. The US has been begging for a war since 1991. And now they got one. And they and their 51rst state are losing and losing badly. The Russias are quite happy to grind the US 51rst state into meal powder. And they will.
Personally, I’m sick to death of seeing Zelensky prancing around the world and posing in his “fatigues.”
Crude propaganda …. which may work in Ukraine, but when he’s visiting the UK, USA, Japan or anywhere else and posing with other (so-called) world leaders, there is no reason whatsoever why he can’t put a suit on.
He’s a scruffy so and so with his bottomless begging bowl that he demands to be filled with taxpayers money at every opportunity in his global jaunts.
Ditto! Can’t stand the fake fatigues he puts on for the cameras. A basic, simple suit when showing up at a big event where no one else would even dream of showing up without being dressed to the nines is the least he could do. In the beginning a lot of people fell for the idea it represented, that Zelensky himself was out there fighting on the front line and didn’t even have the time between battles to change his fighting clothes. Do they still really believe that now? It’s a joke – just like wearing a dress does not make a man a woman, wearing khaki green sweats all the time does not make you a soldier.
Hitler and the Wehrmacht couldn’t defeat Russia, so the money laundering tee -shirted shirtlifter Zelensky has no chance. He’s got more chance of winning the Eurovision Thong contest.
The polls about Ukrainians’ attitudes to the war presumably are only taken in the part of Ukraine that is still in Ukrainian hands. There might be a different result in the Eastern part, and especially in Crimea.
The real problem is that there are two Ukraines, with different cultures and even different languages. Any solution to the war needs to take that into account, as well as the security interests of Russia
Ian needs to explain what he means by “victory” for Ukraine. Presumably he would answer withdrawal of the Russians to internationally recognised borders. He really needs to say what he thinks about Crimea. Does he want that area handed back to Ukraine as well? That would obviously mean Sevastopol becoming a US naval base. Is that what he wants? Does he think Russia could ever accept that? Does he think the citizens of Sevastopol would want that?
The war will clearly eventually end with a peace deal of some sort, and that surely would need to include Ukraine giving up some territory, if only Crimea.
The real problem is that there are two Ukraines, with different cultures and even different languages. Any solution to the war needs to take that into account, as well as the security interests of Russia.
Indeed. Which makes Rons’s mockery of the use of the term ‘The Ukraine’ all the more ridiculous.
More brainwashing going on in the daily sceptic? Not a word about the Johnson investigation, not a word about Ron DeSantis’ announcement on twitter last night. just more bs about the proxy war in Russia/ukraine, no wonder britain is going down hill at such a rapid rate. The UK, is on its knees. Look after your own country. When the cabal decided Russia and ukraine is over it will be over.
I wonder which one of these coves on here is the real Spode?
‘The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone.
You hear them shouting “Heil, Spode!” and you imagine it is the Voice of the People.
That is where you make your bloomer.
What the Voice of the People is saying is:
‘Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags!
Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?’
You have a romanticised concept of war: preppy young men whistling the Colonel Bogey March marching off to a recruitment station. Many of those men in 1914 never came home and the ones who did had lungs wrecked by poison gas and were traumatised for life.
You know nothing of war.
2,466,719 of the British Army were documented as volunteers 1914-15.
Similarly hundreds of thousands have volunteered in Ukraine, 20,000 of them from overseas, including, as we have recently seen, from Russia.
War is a brutal and unpleasant, inhuman, experience.
These volunteers only join up because:
“Before the full-scale invasion started, I was 100 per cent a civilian person,”
“I didn’t see any other options for myself. I had to go to the army to defend my home country, my family, my children. And also to defend all the freedoms that we have, which Russians unfortunately don’t have.”
Artem 17 Feb 2023
Bore off you total more on
A two syllable word……congratulations!
Point…..made
Not so good this time….baby steps…….
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The ingestion of harmful chemicals is associated with excessive daytime sleepiness in adolescents.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150213164721.htm#:~:text=Marijuana%20use%20is%20associated%20with%20excessive%20daytime%20sleepiness%20in%20adolescents,-Date%3A%20February%2013&text=Summary%3A,drug%20s
You people are going to cause a flipping nuclear war.
In fact ‘we people’ prevented a flipping nuclear war by persuading Ukraine to give up its nuclear warheads in 1994.
Ukraine only gave them up in return for this commitment from us:
‘ The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression
Should we honour our signature on international agreements, or should we not?
‘Provide assistance’. That includes insisting on negotiations. It doesn’t say ‘arm the country for a war of attrition.’ And one of those signatories is the Russian Federation. So the entire agreement is now null and void.
The real way to have avoided nuclear war was not to recognise the country called ‘Ukraine’ in the Ukraine in the first place and allowed a better controlled breakup of the former Soviet Union.
It’s even weaker than that – the commitment itself is to “seek” immediate action. That’s the same as saying we’ll try to have a babble at the UN Security Council and see if we can maybe get something done. It also talks about UN action, not individual action of the US or UK.
Are you a politician?
Somebody punches you in the mouth.
One bystander says ‘lets all sit down and talk about this. Try and walk a mile in your attacker’s shoes.’
Another bystander gives you a baseball bat.
Which one is ‘providing assistance’?
Fatuous comparison.
Grow up.
Bad news for you.
‘Behavioral therapies are currently the mainstay of treating cannabis misuse, with no pharmacotherapies currently approved by the FDA for cannabis use disorder in youth.’
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7380653/
To be clear, you’re accusing me – someone who has been teetotal for several years – of drug abuse. Are you willing to back that up in court?
Clearly a sensitive subject.
I would be delighted to see you in court.
Many judges enjoy a good laugh.
You may very well be teetotal now; completely irrelevant.
Did you ever ingest harmful chemicals in your youth?
The reference concerns adolescents.
Have you even read it?
Not a word on Gov DeSantis announcement on Twitter last night. Good for the world, good for the USA. Daily sceptic what is going on?
Ian Rons should work in a Cinema as he is a world class “projectionist”
I can do without Rons’ tub periodic tub thumping and MSM propaganda repetition for Ukraine. I do know a little as to what is going on, from friends in UK who are Ukrainian emigres and those who live in Ukraine on both sides. None favour war; they can see that everyday life has gone downhill since 2014. My lifetime’s experience starting with working in Northern Ireland during the ‘troubles’ has been that whatever story the media comes out with is slanted and the real situation is orders of magnitude more complex.
I had no idea that Rons is FSU President. I will probably not suspend my occasional contributions, it is supposed to support free speech after all. I would prefer that someone who was in that position both researched the situtaion before writing shallow opinions that now descend to what are childish spats.
It is an American war with Russia, just a continuation of the Cold War with the objective of America establishing itself as the dominant world power. It is America we should be concerned about.
Very disappointed to see Rons double down on his ad hominem line-to-take versus Calvin Robinson, but mostly because of the vacuity of Rons’ arguments and the vacuity of his pro-Zelenskyy invective. I would not have expected to read this in the Daily MSM Parrot, let alone the Daily Sceptic.
Rons has been “psychologically inhabiting a Ukrainian trench since last February” and Robinson had “marked himself out as an enemy combatant”. Rons then “saw red and leapt out of [his] trench to attack him with everything [he] could muster”, before launching into a little side-puff piece thanking “blue-blooded aristocrat Editor-in-chief” Toby Young for publishing his article.
This is not the content that I subscribe for.
I am not, in fact, sure precisely what made Young agree to publish, but it would seem his sub-editors have turned their noses up at the article, as why else would the next sentence have left the grievous typo ‘flack’ for ‘flak’?
That aside, I defend Rons’ right to write whatever he wishes to write. But by publishing, he should also address the holes in his underlying thesis (c.f. “Putin will lose this war, and will just have to accept it”). I think the only part of his article that I agree with is this statement: “we have a deep moral and existential responsibility not to make mistakes”… but I come to an alternative conclusion to Rons, i.e. that the one-sided support we are giving to an unsavoury regime to assist the US fighting a proxy war is unconscionable.
I would invite Rons to answer these key challenges that I have previously roughly outlined here: https://reaction.life/letters-enough-with-the-zelensky-hero-worship-ukraine/:
It would seem that a proxy war in Ukraine is very much in the USA interests, and those of the industrial military-complex. Rons does not seem to exhibit the curious scepticism one would expect from writers in Daily Sceptic, a publication that has been a welcome addition over the last few years of madness. Reading this pro-establishment-line puff piece does raise the uncomfortable thought – are there other topics where the Daily Sceptic fears to challenge the official narrative? I very much hope not… but this article by Rons leaves a somewhat uncomfortably-sized niggle of doubt about that. Ugh.
Jeffrey Sachs’ latest: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/the-war-in-ukraine-was-provoked-and-why-that-matters-if-we-want-peace
Genuinely ill-informed and clear unhinged. Rons seems intent on fleecing The DS of its donors with this over;-emotive drivel.