POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

Rees Mogg says there is nothing wrong with importing Foie Gras, he reckons eating it is part of the inalienable right of every Englishman so under the new sovereignty it cannot be banned.

[Tizer]

Speaking of whom...
`The Guardian view on Jacob Rees-Mogg: opportunities to do damage' Guardian
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False flag incidents - a reminder of previous examples...
`False flags: What are they and when have they been used?' LINK

[Stanley]

That's a good article on Rees Mogg and illustrates the problem. He says he is going to question every appointment to the Civil Service.... (As if!) What he should be doing is asking why people have to wait so long for decisions out of HMRC.... Short of staff? Look at the Home Office with Afghan refugees not getting processed. Has he any idea these things are happening?
I'm afraid that deregulation and tax cutting are the Tory version of good governance. Look at what it did to the banks and hope for an early election!
Looking at Munich.... Contrast the positive report from the Ukraine PM and the hysterical rant from PM Johnson....

[plaques]

Liz Truss and our Buffoon have put the fear of God into Putin. Jaw, Jaw, seems to taking over from War, War. All we appear to have done is to bring Putin to centre stage and commit the West to supporting Ukraine. This will mean pumping loads of money, trade etc into the area to bring their living standards up to ours. All part of the levelling up the Buffoon will claim.

Free ports are in vogue again. We couldn't have these if we in the Common Market. Yes we could and yes we did. Cameron did away with them because they were costing too much and money was being lost to the economy because no import duty was being paid. Rather than raising local wages they actually drove them down but the background social costs remained the same. A Brexit benefit that turns out to be a lie.

[Stanley]

As usual Ken, spot on. Freeports, every time I hear Sunak boosting them I remember the general global opinion that they are nothing more than a way of evading taxes and the trade they 'attract' would have come in anyway and as you say, paid normal duties. (I did read an explanation as to why Sunak boosts them, something to to with his blind trust I think but I forget.
We have the unedifying sight of the PM being told by one of his backbenchers that if he gets a fixed penalty fine from the Met as a result of the Partygate enquiry he must resign. Haven't they seen all his statesman-like activities and recognise that he has saved the world from WW3.
As you note Ken, once more Putin has played a blinder and his sides must be sore from laughing at the pantomime horses in Munich. The most impressive representative there was the Ukraine Leader who showed his beliefs by going to the conference even though all the doom sayers telling him Putin would walk in while he was out of the country. He spoke moderate common sense not jingoistic BS like Johnson, Truss and the US 'experts'.

[Tizer]

Eight years ago it was the pro-West Ukrainians ousting the pro-Russia President. Putin now wants revenge...

February 22, 2014: Forty-eight hours ago, Ukraine suffered the deadliest day in its three-month uprising against President Viktor Yanukovych. Twenty-four hours ago, Yanukovych inked a deal with opposition leaders to hold early elections and limit his powers. Now, in the space of a day, everything has changed, again. Yanukovych has fled to an unknown location in the country’s east or south near the Russian border, where his support is strongest, while parliament has voted 328-0 to remove the president from office and hold early presidential elections in May....But what’s most striking is just how quickly Yanukovych’s government has crumbled all around him, particularly in the capital. The Ukrainian parliament is now effectively running the country. Security forces have stopped guarding administrative buildings and sided with the protesters.

[PanBiker]

As if by magic £500 million for Ukraine and we now seem to be having a repeat of 1939. Albeit with a different country to be defended and a different aggressor. Boris has just said that he is willing to commit more UK troops into the situation.

[plaques]

Its a well known fact that Russia was in favour of Brexit. How much money they pumped into the campaign is unknown arguably because Theresa May stopped any investigation. The Russians are also big donors to the Tory Party acting like a big lobbying group. With Brexit Done they now openly declare that the UK has lost its influence in World stage and can safely be ignored. This wasn't written on the side of the bus since as a special favour it was thrown under the bus. The UK will now impose sanctions on Russian money and investments but this is all in the future, another promise, Boris is good at that. Of course no retrospective action will be taken especially on investments and donations that would be going too far but we may stop their banks laundering more dirty money unless they let us in on the action.

[Tizer]

`Boris Johnson announces UK sanctions against Russia' LINK
`Boris Johnson has announced sanctions against five Russian banks and three billionaires, after Russia ordered troops into two rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine....In his statement to MPs, he said the UK would be targeting Russian banks Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank. The three individuals hit by sanctions are Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Igor Rotenberg, he added. They would have their UK assets frozen, and be prevented from travelling to the UK. Mr Johnson also welcomed Germany's decision to announce it would suspend certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia. The EU has published its own set of sanctions proposals which include targeting members of the Russian parliament and banks financing Russia's military. Mr Johnson's announcement comes as the US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that prohibits new investment, trade and financing by Americans in the breakaway regions.

[Stanley]

I've had one world war and am too old to be called up so I refuse to panic about what is happening. Johnson and the other politicians should stop grandstanding and talking about WW2, they weren't even alive. Sanctions should be hard and immediate. People Like Tugendhat and others calling for troops to be sent should shut up.
The only thing that will avoid escalation is quiet old fashioned diplomacy. So less grandstanding and more quiet talking.
Those with long memories will remember that after WW2 the USA needed an enemy to prevent people withdrawing their war bond moneys. They chose Communism in general (Remember the Domino Theory, Korea, Vietnam etc.?) and Russia in particular completely ignoring that it was Russia that sapped Germany dry on the Eastern Front. (Remember Stalingrad and 40million Russian Dead?) Putin knows his history and some very old pigeons are coming to roost but they will be ignored by the West.

[plaques]

Russia has moved into the Ukraine. Basically there is nothing the West can do only threaten sanctions. In spite of the West supplying weapons to Ukraine there doesn't appear any appetite for the Ukrainians to enter into a full scale shooting war. Who can blame them? Meanwhile Russia has spent the last six years moving away from America's dollar and increasing its trade towards the east. As far as Dirty money is concerned nobody really knows how far into the banking system it has penetrated. The media is reporting five Russian banks mainly owned and operated by a few oligarchs. Nothing is being mentioned about the dirty money laundered by crime syndicates which can be larger than some countries GDP, a lot which originates in America And then we have Tory party donations glossed over in parliament. A whole can of worms like Pandora's box that is best left closed.

[Tizer]

The UK government hasn't applied full sanctions - it's too cosy with the oligarchs and letting them shift their cash elsewhere first.

Meanwhile Russia is setting up a completely independent money transfer system to avoid the Western banks.

[Stanley]

I watched Johnson bumbling about sanctions in reply to Ian Blackford's well argued attack on Tory Party Funding.
The system is corrupt with revolving doors, dodgy funding and payments to MPs allowed as long as the donor has a visa(?). It must fall, question is when.

[Tizer]

Laura Kuennsberg has also been saying a lot about our governments having blithely invited in lots of money from Russian individuals and businesses. Next we'll probably hear Johnson's mates demanding that she's replaced by the BBC for being biased. How can we criticise Putin for lying when our PM does it all the time?

I'm hoping that the Russian people will get more angry at Putin for waging war when their economy is already in a bad state and they want money spent on improving their lives and their country. This is especially so for the young who don't watch Putin's misinformation and get their news from around the world via the internet. A recent survey shows not all Russians support what Putin's doing and many of them thought he wouldn't attack Ukraine - this CNN article covers the report: LINK

As Ernie Bevin once said: "Once you open that Pandora's Box you don't know what horses might be let loose".

[Tripps]

Speaking of animals in boxes. . . .Jimmy James Roy Castle Eli Woods

I hadn't seen this version - not for everyone, but it still makes me smile.

There is little else to smile about today.

PS - Now notice it's not Jimmy James but someone called James Casey who was Jimmy James son.

Interesting how Parkinson pretended to like it.

Sorry to digress - now let's get back to WW III.

[Stanley]

Digress as much as you like David. I have been studiously avoiding all war 'news', (Actually the same facts regurgitated endlessly.) I feel sick every time I see Johnson's face on the screen (or one of his lickspittles!)
As for Russian money, reported on time and time again by Private Eye and the Brass Plate Business registration industry that supports dodgy business. (LINK)
(A thought for you.... We rabbit on about Putin illegally taking control of parts of the Ukraine. We do the same thing on a smaller scale with Chagos. Remember this.... "By an overwhelming majority, the UN general assembly accepted in 2019 an opinion by the international court of justice that the Chagos Islands were unlawfully detached from Mauritius by the UK when it granted Mauritius independence in 1968.". The size is different but the principle is the same.

[Stanley]

I said I was avoiding the news but I have found myself listening to Ben Wallace trying to persuade a Ukraine politician that what we have done is a major contribution to their defence. Can't stand it, I am going back to bed.....

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS then ask yourself how lighting Downing Street in Ukraine's national colours helps. Laura Kuenssberg is right, this is war in Europe and none of our leaders has any experience of war. I can give them one clue, the first thing you do is stop squabbling internally, appoint a War Cabinet and attack the practical problems that will come thick and fast now, not just externally in relation to Ukraine but internally as the economic consequences of this hit home.
Any meaningful change will not come from what the West does.... It will come from the young in Russia who have access to world news and affairs and who will be dead against war and reclaiming territory. But don't hold your breath, that won't kick in soon.
We are looking at an episode of madness..... We have learned nothing.

[plaques]

Meanwhile Priti Patel will be looking at asylum for the Ukrainians . This should have been sorted weeks ago with a plan of action to be implemented immediately. Of course it will blow a big hole in her inhumane immigration bill. Let them in. What kind of country have we sunk down to. Disgusting is the only comment.

[Stanley]

I couldn't agree more Ken. From your mouth to God's ear!

[Tizer]

Any meaningful change will not come from what the West does.... It will come from the young in Russia who have access to world news and affairs and who will be dead against war and reclaiming territory. But don't hold your breath, that won't kick in soon.

I agree that the young in Russia are unhappy about Putin's mad warmongering but I think they could have an effect faster than you suggest. They know there's a very different world outside Russia and they want to live that way, not Putin's way. Even older people there are getting concerned - think back to the `mothers' who were so angry with Putin when their son's were dying unnecessarily in Afghanistan. Many young Russians have friends in the West, even if only through social media. And now Putin is closing off Facebook and other social media sites. This modern connected world is very different to the one in Putin's head and he's showing himself to be outdated, past his use by date. Even in Russia most people have better things to do in the 21st Century - if they want war games they can play them on their smartphones or watch movies on TV or YouTube. At the moment all the men closely surrounding Putin will agree with him but we know how things work, especially in places like Russia - it could all suddenly collapse and Putin could disappear overnight.

[Sue]

I live in hope Tiz. I don’t understand how international or even national politics worse, but I feel very threatened at the moment. Forget covid, this is , I feel, a much greater threat to us all

[plaques]

I live in hope Tiz. I don’t understand how international or even national politics worse, but I feel very threatened at the moment. Forget covid, this is , I feel, a much greater threat to us all

I remember the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. My thoughts were 'this isn't going to end well. Kennedy and Khrushchev acting like two psychopaths so that nobody really knew what the outcome would be. I fear that Putin and whoever is pushing the NATO missile deployments is following the same game plan. I agree very frightening times.

PS. Can you believe it. Amongst all this turmoil Jacob Rees-Mogg is studying whether to re-introduce Imperial Units. That will bring the EU and Russia to their knees.

[Stanley]

Funny, I was wondering what Rees Mogg was doing only this morning. That man is as useful in practical terms as a chocolate teapot.
On timescale, I hope you are right Peter. The problem I see is that Putin holds all the levers of power and experience teaches us he will use them to defend his position. The usual route to change when the problem is a deluded dictator is by military coup or violence. The longer Putin has control, the greater the price Ukraine (and eventually Russia) will pay.
As for being frightened Sue, even at four years old, sitting in that Anderson shelter and listening to 500kg bombs exploding as close as 500 yards away I can never remember fear, it was more a detached interest. Sounds funny but if you have no control over something there is no other rational response.
On the broader front of politics, I am still looking for some sign that rational thinking is at work rather than the tawdry Churchillian impersonation we are getting at the moment. The truth is that in terms of readiness for an event like a dictator running berserk, the west has failed miserably. The older truth is that the major political failure of the last 100 years (and even further back) is the way we treated Russia once they had ceased to be useful to us in overcoming Hitler. Led largely by the USA it was shameful.

[plaques]

Tizer is right that people expect a better standard of living in today's world. After WW2 the EU showed that the way forward was more trade between countries trying to lift war torn Europe into higher living standards and social equality. So far this has worked with the exception of Russia which from the America standpoint has always been considered as a pariah state and should be kept in the dark ages. Any serious trade with Russia has been frowned on and avoided at all costs. If open trade worked for the EU why not for Russia and the surrounding eastern European countries?

Meanwhile just to prove a point the UK has chosen to leave the EU and consequently we are seeing trade and living standards sink as a result.