Off Topic Politics Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
ChilcoSaint said:
I completely agree, but in Putin Russia has the equivalent of a Trump or a Johnson given almost unlimited power, with no public accountability whatsoever. Putin is spinning that threat into an excuse, with the braggadocio of every dictator in history, just as Hitler did with Poland.
Click to expand...


Well yeah. Putin is a gangster, and under him Russia has become a kleptocracy. His insistence that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO, is not unreasonable imo. Threatening invasion, even tacitly, is certainly not reasonable. I don't know how this plays out, but trying to force Putin to back down with complete loss of face, sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Whilst I recognise the Hitler and Poland analogy, I don't think it's particularly helpful or appropriate in this instance. Hitler was an aggressive expansionist from day one. Russia's theatre of influence has been contracting, not expanding, since 1989.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kaito
Archers Road said:
Well yeah. Putin is a gangster, and under him Russia has become a kleptocracy. His insistence that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO, is not unreasonable imo. Threatening invasion, even tacitly, is certainly not reasonable. I don't know how this plays out, but trying to force Putin to back down with complete loss of face, sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Whilst I recognise the Hitler and Poland analogy, I don't think it's particularly helpful or appropriate in this instance. Hitler was an aggressive expansionist from day one. Russia's theatre of influence has been contracting, not expanding, since 1989.
Click to expand...
I can’t agree that their influence is contracting, with the amount of funding for the Brexit campaign that came from them.
 
Archers Road said:
I've noticed Boris' readiness to do a bit of needless, jingoistic tub thumping. And the readiness of some sections of our press, to join in. But Britain really is a minor player on the world stage, even more so post Brexit. No one outside the UK is listening to that fool, thank God.

What does concern me is the near universal perception in the west, that Russia is the sole aggressor here. If Ukraine is allowed to join NATO, that effectively brings the military reach of the USA even further towards Moscow. Russia has been invaded from the west twice in the last two centuries, once by Napoleon, once by Hitler. I can understand them feeling threatened by NATO.
Click to expand...
ChilcoSaint said:
I completely agree, but in Putin Russia has the equivalent of a Trump or a Johnson given almost unlimited power, with no public accountability whatsoever. Putin is spinning that threat into an excuse, with the braggadocio of every dictator in history, just as Hitler did with Poland.
Click to expand...
Just thought I'd throw this in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Archers Road and ChilcoSaint
Archers Road said:
Well yeah. Putin is a gangster, and under him Russia has become a kleptocracy. His insistence that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO, is not unreasonable imo. Threatening invasion, even tacitly, is certainly not reasonable. I don't know how this plays out, but trying to force Putin to back down with complete loss of face, sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Whilst I recognise the Hitler and Poland analogy, I don't think it's particularly helpful or appropriate in this instance. Hitler was an aggressive expansionist from day one. Russia's theatre of influence has been contracting, not expanding, since 1989.
Click to expand...

And Putin's doing what he is doing because the primary way he retains power is by projecting chauvinist nationalism and the restoration of Russia to its former glory, in order to keep the population on side, because economically the country is in ruins, and their response to COVID (namely, pretending that it hadn't resulted in the death of over 1m Russians, per The Economist's excess deaths tracker) laid bare the sheer incompetence of their internal governance.

Taking part of/all of Ukraine is not a strategic move for the state; it is a strategic move for Putin, personally. So the only way he backs down is in a scenario where the costs to his personal position exceed the potential gains, and that's unlikely.
 
Schad said:
And Putin's doing what he is doing because the primary way he retains power is by projecting chauvinist nationalism and the restoration of Russia to its former glory, in order to keep the population on side, because economically the country is in ruins, and their response to COVID (namely, pretending that it hadn't resulted in the death of over 1m Russians, per The Economist's excess deaths tracker) laid bare the sheer incompetence of their internal governance.

Taking part of/all of Ukraine is not a strategic move for the state; it is a strategic move for Putin, personally. So the only way he backs down is in a scenario where the costs to his personal position exceed the potential gains, and that's unlikely.
Click to expand...

It may or may not be unlikely. If he does actually invade, it could spell the end of him. The Ukrainians will fight, and will fight with guerìlla tactics largely. Russia has a conscript army as well, which doesn’t tend to lend itself too effectively to those kind of circumstances - there’s nothing that will bring a Russian adventure down harder than body bags being flown back in, and a long, protracted conflict (see Afghanistan for details). It’s not going to be nice at all, but in the long term it might, thankfully, spell the end of Putin.
 
ChilcoSaint said:
Here’s what I was summarising earlier, in full. Note that this isn’t the complete list:
You must log in or register to see media
Click to expand...
My biggest hope, now, is that Led By Donkeys, Momentum and Labour are already laying plans to sabotage his replacement, when he does inevitably go.
The Tory party must not be allowed to turn this into a scenario where ALL the blame falls on Johnson (although he is the worst of a very poor bunch), that allows them to rebrand themselves for the umpteenth time.
Time after time, after time, his Cabinet and MPs have stood shoulder to shoulder and supported his every lie and his draconian law changes that will continue to make this country a worse place to live, unless you want to be ruled by an autocracy rather than a democracy.
Every MP who puts him/herself in the race to replace him, must be targeted and tarnished by their backing of our worst ever PM and when the next election arrives the same should happen to every single MP that supported him.
I understand that Starmer has mentioned, in PMQs that the Cabinet has been increasingly complicit, in Johnson’s behaviour and he really has to make this an issue every time he has air time.
The party is rotten to the core.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Schrodinger's Cat, davecg69, Saints_Alive and 4 others
St Badger said:
My biggest hope, now, is that Led By Donkeys, Momentum and Labour are already laying plans to sabotage his replacement, when he does inevitably go.
The Tory party must not be allowed to turn this into a scenario where ALL the blame falls on Johnson (although he is the worst of a very poor bunch), that allows them to rebrand themselves for the umpteenth time.
Time after time, after time, his Cabinet and MPs have stood shoulder to shoulder and supported his every lie and his draconian law changes that will continue to make this country a worse place to live, unless you want to be ruled by an autocracy rather than a democracy.
Every MP who puts him/herself in the race to replace him, must be targeted and tarnished by their backing of our worst ever PM and when the next election arrives the same should happen to every single MP that supported him.
I understand that Starmer has mentioned, in PMQs that the Cabinet has been increasingly complicit, in Johnson’s behaviour and he really has to make this an issue every time he has air time.
The party is rotten to the core.
Click to expand...
Totally agree, and the latest exploit of the Nasty As **** Party is to cut the benefit period before you have to take the first job you’re offered from 12 weeks to 4. This has been described as “designed to appeal to Tory backbenchers”. Not to employers, not even to the voting public, but to the rabid hordes who will decide whether the lying **** keeps his job.

Any semblance of decency and humanity was purged from the Turd Party when they expelled Clarke, Grieve, Stewart and co. And quite why Labour welcome an opportunist like Christian Wakeford into their ranks I completely fail to understand.
 
  • Like
Reactions: davecg69, Saints_Alive, Kaito and 2 others
ChilcoSaint said:
Totally agree, and the latest exploit of the Nasty As **** Party is to cut the benefit period before you have to take the first job you’re offered from 12 weeks to 4. This has been described as “designed to appeal to Tory backbenchers”. Not to employers, not even to the voting public, but to the rabid hordes who will decide whether the lying **** keeps his job.

Any semblance of decency and humanity was purged from the Turd Party when they expelled Clarke, Grieve, Stewart and co. And quite why Labour welcome an opportunist like Christian Wakeford into their ranks I completely fail to understand.
Click to expand...

I did think they missed a trick there by not saying he couldn't join them, would've made a powerful point and grabbed the high moral ground.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Archers Road, Saints_Alive and ChilcoSaint
ChilcoSaint said:
Totally agree, and the latest exploit of the Nasty As **** Party is to cut the benefit period before you have to take the first job you’re offered from 12 weeks to 4. This has been described as “designed to appeal to Tory backbenchers”. Not to employers, not even to the voting public, but to the rabid hordes who will decide whether the lying **** keeps his job.

Any semblance of decency and humanity was purged from the Turd Party when they expelled Clarke, Grieve, Stewart and co. And quite why Labour welcome an opportunist like Christian Wakeford into their ranks I completely fail to understand.
Click to expand...

Wakeford is politically convenient for both imo.

He might just be a careerist who knows which way the wind is blowing, but as long as he now follows the Labour whip and amends his behaviour accordingly then it all serves a purpose, that being damaging the Conservatives at every possible opportunity.

I believe he should stand for re election though (as should all who switch parties) I think he has a very good chance of winning and it would add further pressure to the Anti-British Pocket Lining Leech Party.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StJabbo1, davecg69, Saints_Alive and 1 other person
StJabbo1 said:
She has history, a dinner at venue run by a Tory donor at double the cost of a suitable alternative.
Click to expand...

Also Remember when Angela Rayner tried to use the expenses system to buy a £200 pair of AirPods that shed get a tonne of use out of on Zoom meetings etc? Remember how the right wing media how they ripped her apart?
I bet they are silent now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Archers Road, ChilcoSaint, StJabbo1 and 1 other person
saintrichie123 said:
<grr>
https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...ss-australia-private-jet-flight-b2001692.html
Click to expand...
A ****ing disgrace. But just what we’ve come to expect of this bunch of privileged, cheating, thieving, bastard scum. And what really hurts? None of this will be reported in the rightwing media, but if an opposition MP spends something ( just seen the post about Rayner) those ****ing rags tear them apart! And, the stupid British voter will still vote the bastards back in ….. :emoticon-0121-angry
 
  • Like
Reactions: Archers Road, thereisonlyoneno7, saintrichie123 and 2 others
The £200 ones are great at protecting your hearing. I got some recently and my phone tracks the decibels and it turns out I was really risking damaging my ears just from listening to lots of podcasts whilst walking (comment added because it isn’t even a case of heavy metal music or the like)
 
  • Like
Reactions: thereisonlyoneno7 and davecg69
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back