The UK is by no means the most expensive energy in Europe. Prices go up again in April so we'll see what the govt does then.
Wow, watching Channel 4 news for the first time for ages. What a car crash. Matt Frei, interviewing the (excellent) former Vice President of Ukraine, and Cathy Newman, with the similarly very good deputy prime minister of Lithuania. These two obviously very talented ladies, both operating seamlessly in a second language, were both bombarded with moronic questions ‘is Putin rational?’, ‘will there be a nuclear war’ FFS. And then Frei and Newman clearly didn’t even listen to the answers. I hope they don’t form an opinion of the U.K. from this experience. Can’t stop watching this. It’s hypnotically useless.
Relative to the overall cost of living I’d have thought we’re right up there. April is too far away for a lot of people. There are measures that could have been taken before now that any government that gives a **** about ‘levelling up’ would have put in place. We all know they don’t give a ****.
Excuse coming up Well not exactly an excuse. When listening to Putin you have to read between the lines - and when he said there were no plans to invade Ukraine he was actually spinning with words. Of course if he has recognized the two separatist provinces as being independent then they are not, in his eyes, in the Ukraine. The presidents of those two states had declared independence and had asked Russia for help. Of course it is not complying by international law to recognize unilateral declarations of independence in the breakaway areas of neighbouring states - but in this case a lot of EU countries were also guilty of exactly this when they recognized the unilateral independence declarations of Slovenia and Croatia before it all kicked off in Yugoslavia. The German recognition of Croatia came over to Serbia like a red rag to a bull. But of course those were allied countries and were not breaking international law as interpreted in the West ! I am not apologizing for Putin because if he wasn't there someone else would be. What we are harvesting here is the culmination of 30 years of failed diplomacy in relation to Russia. It's not just the fact that Nato has expanded Eastwards to Russia's doorstep against all promises to the contrary, but the fact that the Russians were unable to do anything about this. They were just bystanders the whole time and have been excluded from all consultation on matters of World security. This is felt as a humiliation in a country where (according to polls) most people think of the USSR in a nostalgic way. This feeling of a great power being cast on the sidelines of history has led to a nationalist reaction in which Putin is a result, not the cause. This is the parallel to the rise of the Nazis between the wars - someone came along to a humiliated people (ie. as a result of the Versailles treaty) and convinced them they could be a great power again. The same is observable in other countries in milder ways - didn't Trump make ''Lets make America great again'' his catch phrase, feeding on the general belief that it no longer was. Or in the UK - ''Lets put the Great back into Britain''. National humiliation can lead to all sorts of distortions - and Putin is one of them. Unfortunately big countries feel that they should have a sphere of influence in the World - as if it belongs to the job. My feeling is that the last 30 years could have been played out in a different way leading to a different result today. It should have been possible to guarantee the sovereignty of Eastern European states without marching to Russia's doorstep, and without alienating Russia in the process. But unfortunately the West was too drunk with success after the fall of the USSR and diplomacy was not the order of the day.
I suspect they'll have to, given the size of people's bills coming in. As governments will across the whole of Europe.
They were quick enough to hand out juicy contracts to companies only just created by their mates with no obligation to deliver anything. This feels more urgent.
We both know how corrupt this government is as much as we both know how little they give a **** about the serfs unable to pay to heat their homes.
Most people couldn’t name half a dozen politicians. The Tories will present themselves yet again as the only Party capable of fixing the mess of the last government. The same 40-ish per cent will either fall for it or somehow convince themselves that Starmer is worse for buying his disabled mum a donkey sanctuary. The cycle goes on. Under FPTP we’re forever ****ed.
There really aren’t many candidates to lead Labour next once you’ve ruled out anyone who has ever lived within ten miles of Islington, those who earned more than £50k a year in a previous career and anyone in a seat south of Coventry.
