Can’t help himself can he? Of course it’s red meat for the base and unfortunately it will be popular with them. As a Pro-EU Unionist it’s frustrating to see him literally write SNP manifesto lines as well.
There was a good article on line about this issue in the week on the BBC. The statistic being so high was explained by the fact that the Russian military brass was restructured fairly recently with the the suggestion that the number of generals had, in fact, been increased quite considerably and that they were now very much involved in the fighting on the front line. There was a suggestion that the recent promotions had let to a degredation in the quality of the management of the Russian army as well as senior staff also being specifically targeted by the Ukranians. There was a comment that I read which compared the disastrous performance of the Russian army in Afghanistan with what has happened in Ukraine and the suggestion was that the failures have been far worse in the recent conflict. Everything you read about the Russian army has been extremely negative and even yesterday I read a piece which outlined that even NATO chiefs had been shocked at how poor the Russian army was. They had expected it to perform much better and the errors the Russians have made have staggered our military heirachy. There seems to be a combination of poor logistics, poor planning, lack of supplies and general incompetence. This is why we are seeing cities being devastated because that is the only solution the Russian armyy has. What will be fascinating will be how the Russian army behaves when it realises it is not going to be paid. The sanctions have only been in play for about three weeks and the effects of not getting paid will still be a few days off. It is a shame that the Russians have nuclear weapons both for deployment on an inter-continental basis and smaller missles which I believe the generals on the grown have permission to use without any sanction from the Kremlin if they deem their use necessary. I think this is the frightening thing. Take the nuclear threat away and I just feel that NATO would have quickly vanquished the Russian army. Someone also mad a good point on "Any Questions" on Radio 4 yesterday that the issue of the No Fly zone should not be managed by NATO but by a consortium of nations from across the globe that included as far away countries as South Africa, Australia, Israel. Saudo Arabia, South Korea, Brazil, etc which would demonstrate just how isolated Russia is. I think this idea has some merit however I am concerned that the Chinese will now start assisting Russia. Maybe the global powers should have acted sooner.
Reference the P&O debacle, some cabinet ministers were so outraged that they sent a strongly worded letter to the P&O chairman. Well, when I say chairman, I mean the man who WAS chairman last year, but no longer is. They can’t even get their faux outrage right, and it is faux outrage because the Tories voted against a law that would have made fire and rehire illegal.
It does indeed, There's not much if any, respect for the UK government here in the Netherlands or for brexit and its ongoing problems. The visa situation is shameful.
I am sure that I read somewhere today that the number of refugees in Ukraine is around the 3 million mark.. It does seem remarkable that the displacement of a countries population can be so substantial yet the bulk of the world is largely inactive in addressing this matter. No one seems to be asking just how viable a future Ukraine will be if no one is living there or what is the long term future of what is likely to be one of the world's largest disaporas. I concur with Jabbo that the reaction of Europe had, on the whole, been better than the UK and that this is probably the EU's finest moment albeit I think the the likes of Merkel have actually contributed to the problem by entertaining Putin for far too long. I heard Arnie's speach to the Russian people in full for the first time today and have to admit I was staggered how well it was worded and wonderfully delivered. For me, it was Churchillian but the tone with which it was delivered truly made him stand out as probably the best orator regarding this matter that we have seen so far in the West. I find it disconcerting that neither our own politicians or anyone else's seem to truly risen to the occasion with regard to how to deal with Putin. It was an excellent speech yet I find it depressing that it is likely to fall on deaf ears and seriously doubt whether there is a solution to the problem of a beligerent Russia. Previously, the USSR represented an idealogical threat to the West yet this seems all too far more dangerous as Putin does not have anything to offer other than bullying weaker nations for no other reason than his own agrandissement. I am reading a book about Roman generals at the moment and the most recent chapter concerned Pompey who carried out a similar style of destruction in this region simply to improve his own reputation in Rome. It is quite shocking that someone like Putin can share the same outlook as a general / politician from the first century BC. Ultimately Pompey was brought down by Caesar whose own action in Gaul slighly later were no less horrific. Just goes toshow how little progress there has been in 2100 years.
There's a chasm of gigantic proportions between how most of us are governed and the Russian/Chinese people. Democratic leaders are temporary, theirs are pretty near permanent. So they play much longer political and power strategies than any democratically elected governments. Hence Putin's gradual increase in his way of gaining advantage, challenges the Western governments to do the unacceptable. He knows how unpopular the Iraq war was, he knows how much most of us wanted out of Afghanistan, he knows that the electorate in the West have no appetite for any more foreign military involvement. But, he knows too that even if a harder response started coming from the West, until now 'we've' been prepared to have a moan, set up a few sanctions and that's that, because around the corner, general elections interfere with the international focus and the need is to get elected on a popular set of proposals which do not include offering Russia or China any serious military challenge. That approach does not win elections, here in the West. So he can then move back onto his agenda and, even now, knows the West will not take him on, despite having a technically superior range of weapons. However, this time he's in a corner of his own making and has offered the chance of himself being displaced by his own people. That is realistically speaking our best hope at present. Any attempt to negotiate with him will end in long term failure as his mindset appears completely at variance to most leaders of the NATO alliance and others too. The fear of a nuclear war is, I'm afraid, why we are where we are. The Chinese too are playing a much longer game than the rest of us and we have to rid ourselves of the current level of reliance on what make and the money they seem to throw at simply gaining influence. We shall see.
From the Guardian. "British prime minister Boris Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine and has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people, the Tory party chair has claimed. It was reported at the weekend that Johnson wanted to go to Kyiv but on Monday No 10 sources indicated this was unlikely to happen" What emotional connection keeps the visa requirement in place and causes so much distress to those trying to enter? He really is a slimy opportunist, arsehole first class and bar. The brexshit speech and the slow sanctioning confirm his ****hood.
Totally agree with this, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Putin has struck now when the west has the most inept, narcissistic & selfish leaders ever elected. Boris here and Biden/Harris in the US are beyond terrible. I don’t think there is much chance of Russians turning on Putin unfortunately. From all I have seen it looks as though a lot of them are supporting the invasion
Hold up. Most inept, narcissistic and selfish leaders EVER? Did you not see the previous guy in charge of America. Even if you wish to debate over who is more inept he is definitely more narcissistic and selfish than the current guy. And if you rule he is not as inept - it certainly isn’t by a very big margin I agree in principle but if it were purely down to what you said he would have timed it for when trump was in. But there are other factors - trumps unpredictability is one. And the fact he didn’t really need to do anything when trump was in - he wanted trump there. That much is apparent
Good to see where the Tory MP’s loyalties lie, with regards to Fire and Rehire. Labour called an emergency, but unbinding, vote to make the practice illegal and not one Tory MP voted. They really should change their name to the Faux Outrage Party. The acronym FOP would be welcomed by cnuts like Rees Smug.
