Stop voting for fucking Tories

[fishfoodie]

Chapter 1,024: In which Kemi Badenoch learns what "negotiations" mean when confronted with serious people.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68069994

And there we have it, once again it's someone else's fault™

She also continues to lie, & mis-attribute who owns Trade Deals in the US, & to ignore the almost complete absence of Trade deals being made by the US, with ...... anyone !

Congress approves Trade deals, & last time I checked, the GOP has been running since the losers term, & none of the dozen or so Trade secretaries since Brexit got anywhere.

A broad trade deal with the US was always a pipe dream, especially when the UK was fucking around with the Belfast agreement, but even if that hadn't happened, the US just doesn't do those kind of deals, unless you drop your pants and assume the position.

[Slick]

I have to say that in my experience, Scotland is a lot better for local butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, than the parts of England I know.

We get all our fresh stuff from local shops and never buy meat or fish from a supermarket.

One thing that does make me laugh is that the UK must be the only place on earth where it is more expensive to buy produce at a market than at the shops.

Scotland does shopping local, local brands etc much better than England, undoubtedly.

In general I observe less of a ‘middle market’ in Scotland. Things are either very, very high quality or total shit, there’s a lot more that fits somewhere in the middle of that down here IMO.

That's probably fair

[TB63]

Nicola Sturgeon urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as “Weaker than a nuns piss,” Liz Truss as “About as much use as a marzipan dildo,” and referring to Suella Braverman as “Shitler.”

[Biffer]

Nicola Sturgeon urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as “Weaker than a nuns piss,” Liz Truss as “About as much use as a marzipan dildo,” and referring to Suella Braverman as “Shitler.”

That's a satire account that's gone completely mad and people think it's real.

True satire is very believable.

[TB63]

Nicola Sturgeon urged to apologise after leaked WhatsApp messages describing Matt Hancock as “Weaker than a nuns piss,” Liz Truss as “About as much use as a marzipan dildo,” and referring to Suella Braverman as “Shitler.”

That's a satire account that's gone completely mad and people think it's real.

True satire is very believable.

Aah bugger...

[Jockaline]

What with one thing and another I haven't left these shores since Autumn 2019, but I would generally go city hopping round Europe for a couple of weeks prior to that and loved gorging myself on bread. It's something I very rarely eat here at home because it's rubbish unless you go the pricey, artisanal route. Even basic supermarket stuff on the continent is just much better.

The Co-op/Scotmid (maybe just in Scotland) do nice well fired rolls IMO.

[Camroc2]

Chapter 1,024: In which Kemi Badenoch learns what "negotiations" mean when confronted with serious people.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68069994

Did Obama not state that this would be the result when he was in the UK in 2016 ?

And anybody who thinks that dealing with a Trump administration would have been easier or resulted in a better (for the UK) result, needs their head examined.

[petej]

That's a satire account that's gone completely mad and people think it's real.

True satire is very believable.

Aah bugger...

Having unloaded a whole load of malcolm tuckers specials on a useless inept project manager on the shopfloor back in 2015-16 after his efforts crapped on 1+ years of work that I spent the next two weeks repairing including the marzipan dildo line i realised this was too good to be true.

[Insane_Homer]

your honours.jpeg (539.48 KiB) Viewed 10063 times

[inactionman]

I initially assumed all the fuss over Michelle Mone would blow over and she'd just ride it out like so many others.

It's looking increasingly likely that might not be the case.

The disgraced Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband have reportedly had about £75m of assets frozen or restrained by a court order.

The pair face an investigation by the National Crime Agency into alleged medical equipment fraud. The Financial Times reported that the frozen assets included a six-bedroom central London townhouse, a country estate on the Isle of Man, and 15 accounts with Coutts, C Hoare & Co and Goldman Sachs International.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ates-fraud

There's a part of me that wonders if she's getting it in the neck as she's not part of the old money school-tie brigade, but she is pretty awful - and the sheer cynicism and shit-headedness of defrauding the NHS during the covid pandemic still sickens (pardon pun). She's not even a particularly good businesswoman, her companies generally made significant losses and she just flogged it off - at least Rees-Mogg can turn his opportunism to raising a few bob.

[Tichtheid]

I initially assumed all the fuss over Michelle Mone would blow over and she'd just ride it out like so many others.

It's looking increasingly likely that might not be the case.

The disgraced Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband have reportedly had about £75m of assets frozen or restrained by a court order.

The pair face an investigation by the National Crime Agency into alleged medical equipment fraud. The Financial Times reported that the frozen assets included a six-bedroom central London townhouse, a country estate on the Isle of Man, and 15 accounts with Coutts, C Hoare & Co and Goldman Sachs International.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ates-fraud

There's a part of me that wonders if she's getting it in the neck as she's not part of the old money school-tie brigade, but she is pretty awful - and the sheer cynicism and shit-headedness of defrauding the NHS during the covid pandemic still sickens (pardon pun). She's not even a particularly good businesswoman, her companies generally made significant losses and she just flogged it off - at least Rees-Mogg can turn his opportunism to raising a few bob.

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

[inactionman]

I initially assumed all the fuss over Michelle Mone would blow over and she'd just ride it out like so many others.

It's looking increasingly likely that might not be the case.

The disgraced Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband have reportedly had about £75m of assets frozen or restrained by a court order.

The pair face an investigation by the National Crime Agency into alleged medical equipment fraud. The Financial Times reported that the frozen assets included a six-bedroom central London townhouse, a country estate on the Isle of Man, and 15 accounts with Coutts, C Hoare & Co and Goldman Sachs International.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ates-fraud

There's a part of me that wonders if she's getting it in the neck as she's not part of the old money school-tie brigade, but she is pretty awful - and the sheer cynicism and shit-headedness of defrauding the NHS during the covid pandemic still sickens (pardon pun). She's not even a particularly good businesswoman, her companies generally made significant losses and she just flogged it off - at least Rees-Mogg can turn his opportunism to raising a few bob.

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

I'd love to get her into an enquiry (or, better, trial) and let her rip on all the others.

Her peerage suggests she might know where a few bodies are buried, seeing as she didn't get it on merit (see Douglas Anderson's letter to Cameron decrying the award)

[Slick]

I initially assumed all the fuss over Michelle Mone would blow over and she'd just ride it out like so many others.

It's looking increasingly likely that might not be the case.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ates-fraud

There's a part of me that wonders if she's getting it in the neck as she's not part of the old money school-tie brigade, but she is pretty awful - and the sheer cynicism and shit-headedness of defrauding the NHS during the covid pandemic still sickens (pardon pun). She's not even a particularly good businesswoman, her companies generally made significant losses and she just flogged it off - at least Rees-Mogg can turn his opportunism to raising a few bob.

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

I'd love to get her into an enquiry (or, better, trial) and let her rip on all the others.

Her peerage suggests she might know where a few bodies are buried, seeing as she didn't get it on merit (see Douglas Anderson's letter to Cameron decrying the award)

Private Eye have a massive list of similar companies doing similar things but not sure what stage any of them are at in terms of legal.

Mone may have been able to make it fade into the background and cut some kind of deal if her and her husband hadn't decided to be such utter wankers publicly.

[I like neeps]

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

I'd love to get her into an enquiry (or, better, trial) and let her rip on all the others.

Her peerage suggests she might know where a few bodies are buried, seeing as she didn't get it on merit (see Douglas Anderson's letter to Cameron decrying the award)

Private Eye have a massive list of similar companies doing similar things but not sure what stage any of them are at in terms of legal.

Mone may have been able to make it fade into the background and cut some kind of deal if her and her husband hadn't decided to be such utter wankers publicly.

She deserves her peerage for (inadvertently) bringing the corrupt practices of the conservative party into the open. We can finally see them concretely for what they are. A cabal of spivs gorging themselves at our expense.

[SaintK]

I initially assumed all the fuss over Michelle Mone would blow over and she'd just ride it out like so many others.

It's looking increasingly likely that might not be the case.

The disgraced Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband have reportedly had about £75m of assets frozen or restrained by a court order.

The pair face an investigation by the National Crime Agency into alleged medical equipment fraud. The Financial Times reported that the frozen assets included a six-bedroom central London townhouse, a country estate on the Isle of Man, and 15 accounts with Coutts, C Hoare & Co and Goldman Sachs International.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ates-fraud

There's a part of me that wonders if she's getting it in the neck as she's not part of the old money school-tie brigade, but she is pretty awful - and the sheer cynicism and shit-headedness of defrauding the NHS during the covid pandemic still sickens (pardon pun). She's not even a particularly good businesswoman, her companies generally made significant losses and she just flogged it off - at least Rees-Mogg can turn his opportunism to raising a few bob.

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

This article is worth a read. Shows just how "succesful" an entrepreneur she really was
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2 ... aroness

[Biffer]

I initially assumed all the fuss over Michelle Mone would blow over and she'd just ride it out like so many others.

It's looking increasingly likely that might not be the case.

The disgraced Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband have reportedly had about £75m of assets frozen or restrained by a court order.

The pair face an investigation by the National Crime Agency into alleged medical equipment fraud. The Financial Times reported that the frozen assets included a six-bedroom central London townhouse, a country estate on the Isle of Man, and 15 accounts with Coutts, C Hoare & Co and Goldman Sachs International.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ates-fraud

There's a part of me that wonders if she's getting it in the neck as she's not part of the old money school-tie brigade, but she is pretty awful - and the sheer cynicism and shit-headedness of defrauding the NHS during the covid pandemic still sickens (pardon pun). She's not even a particularly good businesswoman, her companies generally made significant losses and she just flogged it off - at least Rees-Mogg can turn his opportunism to raising a few bob.

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

That's my worry. The govt will give it 'look we chased down fraud, aren't you happy?' having made sure that the one thrown to the wolves isn't one of them (i.e. private school, Oxbridge, old money kind of chaps, proper upbringing, not commoners).

Fortunately, Mone looks like she's very prepared to go down all guns blazing and take some of the fuckers with her.

[sockwithaticket]

I'd love to get her into an enquiry (or, better, trial) and let her rip on all the others.

Her peerage suggests she might know where a few bodies are buried, seeing as she didn't get it on merit (see Douglas Anderson's letter to Cameron decrying the award)

Private Eye have a massive list of similar companies doing similar things but not sure what stage any of them are at in terms of legal.

Mone may have been able to make it fade into the background and cut some kind of deal if her and her husband hadn't decided to be such utter wankers publicly.

She deserves her peerage for (inadvertently) bringing the corrupt practices of the conservative party into the open. We can finally see them concretely for what they are. A cabal of spivs gorging themselves at our expense.

That was fairly out in the open even before she opened her gob to defend the indefensible, no?

[Slick]

I initially assumed all the fuss over Michelle Mone would blow over and she'd just ride it out like so many others.

It's looking increasingly likely that might not be the case.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ates-fraud

There's a part of me that wonders if she's getting it in the neck as she's not part of the old money school-tie brigade, but she is pretty awful - and the sheer cynicism and shit-headedness of defrauding the NHS during the covid pandemic still sickens (pardon pun). She's not even a particularly good businesswoman, her companies generally made significant losses and she just flogged it off - at least Rees-Mogg can turn his opportunism to raising a few bob.

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

That's my worry. The govt will give it 'look we chased down fraud, aren't you happy?' having made sure that the one thrown to the wolves isn't one of them (i.e. private school, Oxbridge, old money kind of chaps, proper upbringing, not commoners).

Fortunately, Mone looks like she's very prepared to go down all guns blazing and take some of the fuckers with her.

Most of the abusers that the Eye have uncovered definitely do not fit in that category, most seem to be wide boys

[fishfoodie]

Hopefully she’s not just the fall guy and the other fraudulent/incompetent activities of that time will be made public too

That's my worry. The govt will give it 'look we chased down fraud, aren't you happy?' having made sure that the one thrown to the wolves isn't one of them (i.e. private school, Oxbridge, old money kind of chaps, proper upbringing, not commoners).

Fortunately, Mone looks like she's very prepared to go down all guns blazing and take some of the fuckers with her.

Most of the abusers that the Eye have uncovered definitely do not fit in that category, most seem to be wide boys

By volume, or amount grifted ?

I can see the wide boys happily grifting 10's of K, but you had to be connected to get onto the VIP lane & make millions with a company they only existed a week or two.

[Paddington Bear]

That's my worry. The govt will give it 'look we chased down fraud, aren't you happy?' having made sure that the one thrown to the wolves isn't one of them (i.e. private school, Oxbridge, old money kind of chaps, proper upbringing, not commoners).

Fortunately, Mone looks like she's very prepared to go down all guns blazing and take some of the fuckers with her.

Most of the abusers that the Eye have uncovered definitely do not fit in that category, most seem to be wide boys

By volume, or amount grifted ?

I can see the wide boys happily grifting 10's of K, but you had to be connected to get onto the VIP lane & make millions with a company they only existed a week or two.

I suppose it’s comforting to pretend we still live in 1950. Mone & Barrowman got in the VIP LANE and are both Glaswegian. The old school tie ain’t what it used to be

[Slick]

That's my worry. The govt will give it 'look we chased down fraud, aren't you happy?' having made sure that the one thrown to the wolves isn't one of them (i.e. private school, Oxbridge, old money kind of chaps, proper upbringing, not commoners).

Fortunately, Mone looks like she's very prepared to go down all guns blazing and take some of the fuckers with her.

Most of the abusers that the Eye have uncovered definitely do not fit in that category, most seem to be wide boys

By volume, or amount grifted ?

I can see the wide boys happily grifting 10's of K, but you had to be connected to get onto the VIP lane & make millions with a company they only existed a week or two.

No, you didn't. Lots and lots of examples of punters doing the same. I'm sure the guy that made the most of any UK company was a Spanish teacher or something. The majority were either new companies or companies that had turnover in the £10's of thousands and suddenly £100M. You needed to get to the VIP lanes, but I am sure there were a few people making intros and taking a cut, in fact I know there was.

Wasn't the landlord of Matt Hancocks local making millions from it?

[Slick]

Most of the abusers that the Eye have uncovered definitely do not fit in that category, most seem to be wide boys

By volume, or amount grifted ?

I can see the wide boys happily grifting 10's of K, but you had to be connected to get onto the VIP lane & make millions with a company they only existed a week or two.

No, you didn't. Lots and lots of examples of punters doing the same. I'm sure the guy that made the most of any UK company was a Spanish teacher or something. The majority were either new companies or companies that had turnover in the £10's of thousands and suddenly £100M. You needed to get to the VIP lanes, but I am sure there were a few people making intros and taking a cut, in fact I know there was.

Wasn't the landlord of Matt Hancocks local making millions from it?

Sorry, jewellery designer, not Spanish teacher:

https://www.private-eye.co.uk/special-r ... ts-of-doom

[C69]

Most of the abusers that the Eye have uncovered definitely do not fit in that category, most seem to be wide boys

By volume, or amount grifted ?

I can see the wide boys happily grifting 10's of K, but you had to be connected to get onto the VIP lane & make millions with a company they only existed a week or two.

I suppose it’s comforting to pretend we still live in 1950. Mone & Barrowman got in the VIP LANE and are both Glaswegian. The old school tie ain’t what it used to be

Not really comforting tbh money trumps the old school tie in the new Tory Party.

[Biffer]

By volume, or amount grifted ?

I can see the wide boys happily grifting 10's of K, but you had to be connected to get onto the VIP lane & make millions with a company they only existed a week or two.

I suppose it’s comforting to pretend we still live in 1950. Mone & Barrowman got in the VIP LANE and are both Glaswegian. The old school tie ain’t what it used to be

Not really comforting tbh money trumps the old school tie in the new Tory Party.

When it comes to making money, and grifting, absolutely. But when the shit hits the fan they're protecting their own, and that's still the old school tie set.

[Paddington Bear]

I suppose it’s comforting to pretend we still live in 1950. Mone & Barrowman got in the VIP LANE and are both Glaswegian. The old school tie ain’t what it used to be

Not really comforting tbh money trumps the old school tie in the new Tory Party.

When it comes to making money, and grifting, absolutely. But when the shit hits the fan they're protecting their own, and that's still the old school tie set.

When you look at the make up of the Tory benches, this is clearly much less true than it was. If you wander round Mayfair? Absolutely still holds.

[C69]

I suppose it’s comforting to pretend we still live in 1950. Mone & Barrowman got in the VIP LANE and are both Glaswegian. The old school tie ain’t what it used to be

Not really comforting tbh money trumps the old school tie in the new Tory Party.

When it comes to making money, and grifting, absolutely. But when the shit hits the fan they're protecting their own, and that's still the old school tie set.

I'm with Toynbee on this matter.

[inactionman]

Seems like a good idea to put some distance between yourself and Mone/Barrowman

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... reputation

Michelle Mone’s former lawyer is demanding that she apologise and make a donation to a charity for allegedly inflicting “severe and irreparable damage” to his reputation by suggesting he had advised her to tell lies.

Jonathan Coad, a media lawyer and commentator, threatened to issue a preliminary letter for a libel claim against the Conservative peer. In a letter seen by the Guardian, he accused her and her husband of having “abused the hard-won reputation and standing that I enjoyed in the media industry by instructing me repeatedly to disseminate lies”.

I'm no political analyst, but I'd say sharks are beginning to circle and the life rafts are drifting away.

[dpedin]

Seems like a good idea to put some distance between yourself and Mone/Barrowman

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... reputation

Michelle Mone’s former lawyer is demanding that she apologise and make a donation to a charity for allegedly inflicting “severe and irreparable damage” to his reputation by suggesting he had advised her to tell lies.

Jonathan Coad, a media lawyer and commentator, threatened to issue a preliminary letter for a libel claim against the Conservative peer. In a letter seen by the Guardian, he accused her and her husband of having “abused the hard-won reputation and standing that I enjoyed in the media industry by instructing me repeatedly to disseminate lies”.

I'm no political analyst, but I'd say sharks are beginning to circle and the life rafts are drifting away.

Barrowman also up to his neck in shit with dodgy tax avoidance schemes through a variety of dodgy companies he claimed were nothing to do with him but Dan Neidle has proven otherwise.

[Paddington Bear]

Seems like a good idea to put some distance between yourself and Mone/Barrowman

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... reputation

Michelle Mone’s former lawyer is demanding that she apologise and make a donation to a charity for allegedly inflicting “severe and irreparable damage” to his reputation by suggesting he had advised her to tell lies.

Jonathan Coad, a media lawyer and commentator, threatened to issue a preliminary letter for a libel claim against the Conservative peer. In a letter seen by the Guardian, he accused her and her husband of having “abused the hard-won reputation and standing that I enjoyed in the media industry by instructing me repeatedly to disseminate lies”.

I'm no political analyst, but I'd say sharks are beginning to circle and the life rafts are drifting away.

What does a man who knows that pretty much all evidence he’d have for this is privileged think he’s playing at threatening libel action here? Self righteous clown

[_Os_]

Why the fuck are Tories starting to openly support Trump?

Truss did months back already. Johnson has an article in the Mail, Frost in the Telegraph, some Tory MP on Peston. In both the Johnson and Frost articles they seemed mostly concerned about "triggering the liberals", supporting Trump was worth it to annoy their opponents. Is that all it's about? Importing the most moronic urges of US politics into the UK, making any immensely damaging thing acceptable as long as your opponent gets mad?

A Trump second term would be extremely bad for the UK.

Cutting Ukraine off is becoming a central Trump campaign pledge, Trump wants the US to quit NATO, and if Taiwan is attacked he would let it burn (because of some nonsense about Taiwan stealing US jobs). Big Dog claims Trump will keep supporting Ukraine, when there's zero evidence Trump will support Ukraine, Republicans on team Trump in Congress are already blocking aid for Ukraine.

What Trump means for UK is the following (I don't think he'll win, but I'm not supporting him unlike two former PMs):

1. Europe (which will include the UK under any likely PM) having to support Ukraine on its own without the US. Ukraine probably doesn't completely collapse, but the situation becomes much worse for Ukraine.
2. Russia annexes Belarus. This is already underway, and can be done without much pushback Belarus already being a dictatorship inside the Russian sphere etc. Doing this moves Russia further into the rogue state category, making containment through sanctions or diplomacy less likely.
3. If the US is still in NATO or not, it becomes obvious Trump will ignore European security. Trump would be attempting to force a Ukrainian surrender and getting frustrated it isn't happening, if he even cared at all.
4. Europe is now stretched having to support Ukraine, and defend Polish/Baltic borders with Belarus/Russia. In 2025-2028 (the potential Trump term) Putin moves on the Baltics in a broad full scale ground invasion. The Russian troops/equipment/tactics are the same shit we've seen in Ukraine, but there's a lot of it and the Baltics are geographically smaller than Ukraine with much smaller populations (6m people). Even with Russia's awful force projection Vilnius is near the Belarus border and would immediately be sieged, given Russia's performance in Ukraine maybe Tallinn and Riga would do better. Europe's stockpile of armaments is all used in about a month (mostly from airstrikes). Europe isn't equipped/ready for a conventional full scale ground war against Russia at the same intensity as in Ukraine, so doesn't fully engage on the ground. Once Russia has the southern part of Lithuania (which Vilnius is in) there's no land resupply route for the Baltics. In every wargame I've seen of a Russian invasion of the Baltics, Lithuania doesn't last long, and resupply/manpower/geography issues means it ends in something like a US marines last stand in Riga (but with Trump there's no US marines).
5. If that came to pass Ukraine would collapse at some point after x years, even hard bastards need ammo. The next target would be Moldova which has no military worth mentioning. By this point every European economy would have taxes and debt through the roof and wartime levels of defence spending, in preparation for defending Poland.

This isn't outlandish. 1 and 2 are already happening. 3 is what Trump says. 4 and 5 are the logical outcome given Russia's/Putin's position and 1/2/3 being in place.

If you're in Europe supporting Trump is incredibly stupid.

[dpedin]

Why the fuck are Tories starting to openly support Trump?

Truss did months back already. Johnson has an article in the Mail, Frost in the Telegraph, some Tory MP on Peston. In both the Johnson and Frost articles they seemed mostly concerned about "triggering the liberals", supporting Trump was worth it to annoy their opponents. Is that all it's about? Importing the most moronic urges of US politics into the UK, making any immensely damaging thing acceptable as long as your opponent gets mad?

A Trump second term would be extremely bad for the UK.

Cutting Ukraine off is becoming a central Trump campaign pledge, Trump wants the US to quit NATO, and if Taiwan is attacked he would let it burn (because of some nonsense about Taiwan stealing US jobs). Big Dog claims Trump will keep supporting Ukraine, when there's zero evidence Trump will support Ukraine, Republicans on team Trump in Congress are already blocking aid for Ukraine.

What Trump means for UK is the following (I don't think he'll win, but I'm not supporting him unlike two former PMs):

1. Europe (which will include the UK under any likely PM) having to support Ukraine on its own without the US. Ukraine probably doesn't completely collapse, but the situation becomes much worse for Ukraine.
2. Russia annexes Belarus. This is already underway, and can be done without much pushback Belarus already being a dictatorship inside the Russian sphere etc. Doing this moves Russia further into the rogue state category, making containment through sanctions or diplomacy less likely.
3. If the US is still in NATO or not, it becomes obvious Trump will ignore European security. Trump would be attempting to force a Ukrainian surrender and getting frustrated it isn't happening, if he even cared at all.
4. Europe is now stretched having to support Ukraine, and defend Polish/Baltic borders with Belarus/Russia. In 2025-2028 (the potential Trump term) Putin moves on the Baltics in a broad full scale ground invasion. The Russian troops/equipment/tactics are the same shit we've seen in Ukraine, but there's a lot of it and the Baltics are geographically smaller than Ukraine with much smaller populations (6m people). Even with Russia's awful force projection Vilnius is near the Belarus border and would immediately be sieged, given Russia's performance in Ukraine maybe Tallinn and Riga would do better. Europe's stockpile of armaments is all used in about a month (mostly from airstrikes). Europe isn't equipped/ready for a conventional full scale ground war against Russia at the same intensity as in Ukraine, so doesn't fully engage on the ground. Once Russia has the southern part of Lithuania (which Vilnius is in) there's no land resupply route for the Baltics. In every wargame I've seen of a Russian invasion of the Baltics, Lithuania doesn't last long, and resupply/manpower/geography issues means it ends in something like a US marines last stand in Riga (but with Trump there's no US marines).
5. If that came to pass Ukraine would collapse at some point after x years, even hard bastards need ammo. The next target would be Moldova which has no military worth mentioning. By this point every European economy would have taxes and debt through the roof and wartime levels of defence spending, in preparation for defending Poland.

This isn't outlandish. 1 and 2 are already happening. 3 is what Trump says. 4 and 5 are the logical outcome given Russia's/Putin's position and 1/2/3 being in place.

If you're in Europe supporting Trump is incredibly stupid.

Dont disagree with any of this but these UK politicians have to support their Russian paymasters. I have no doubt they are in hock or are compromised in some way or another to dodgy dark money flowing from Putin, much like Trump is. Oh ... and they are all as stupid as a pound of cheddar!

[Insane_Homer]

Why the fuck are Tories starting to openly support Trump?

Follow the $$$ back to Putin

[lemonhead]

They've already given up £9B of tax revenue in cuts to NI and now more on the way apparently.

Daft.

[Paddington Bear]

World leading university sector latest:

https://archive.ph/bRQoL

[sockwithaticket]

One lecturer from a London university, speaking anonymously, said the poor English of some overseas students was affecting teaching: “They might struggle to keep up on the courses, especially with the written work, and this can mean more work for me and a slower pace for the rest of the students in the class.”

Obviously the unfairness of such disparate entry requirements is ridiculous, but this is perhaps worse.

15 years ago a mate of mine doing engineering basically did a three person project on his own because he got saddled with a couple of Asian students who could barely read and write English (personal grades suffering because of rubbish group partners is a general educational bugbear), it can only have gotten worse since then given the exponential increase in these substandard foreign students being waived through into classes.

There's a reason we set for ability at secondary level and it's completely antithetical to the purpose of higher education to effectively stop doing so at tertiary level.

[_Os_]

Why the fuck are Tories starting to openly support Trump?

Follow the $$$ back to Putin

Only really works with Big Dog, his Russia links are well known, if the FSB have anything on him it probably can't be used to control him as what could possibly ruin his reputation?
Frost, I'm unaware of any Russian links.
Truss, is strongly linked to the IEA and whatever dark money sits behind that (the known ones are US oil and cigarette businesses/US billionaires). Her motivations are always short term and mercenary. She spent August last year lobbying for UK defence industry products to be exported to China, so a business in her constituency could make money:
https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-tru ... rts-china/

It just looks like the Tories are being sucked into Republican radical right positions without much thought being applied. The Tory MP on Peston supporting Trump looked a lot like that. Jenrick's latest Telegraph article looked like that too, in it he said "McCarthy was correct" (he wasn't, he found no communist agents) and offered a defence of McCarthyism, trying to rehabilitate McCarthy is a US radical right thing. The Trump stuff about "the swamp" is the same as Tory attacks on "the blob", which really means a civil service being asked to do impossible things and not being able to.

Trump polls very badly in the UK, not a good idea to come out for him (Badenoch blaming Biden for there being no trade deal with the US, could also be interpreted that way). There's zero advantage for them in publicly backing Trump, yet that is what they're doing. There's a strong chance both the US and UK elections will be held at the same time, "who do you support in the US election?" is something that will be asked during the campaign, if the answer isn't some version of "that's not for me to say it's for the American people" then the Tories have manufactured a way to lose votes.

[Paddington Bear]

One lecturer from a London university, speaking anonymously, said the poor English of some overseas students was affecting teaching: “They might struggle to keep up on the courses, especially with the written work, and this can mean more work for me and a slower pace for the rest of the students in the class.”

Obviously the unfairness of such disparate entry requirements is ridiculous, but this is perhaps worse.

15 years ago a mate of mine doing engineering basically did a three person project on his own because he got saddled with a couple of Asian students who could barely read and write English (personal grades suffering because of rubbish group partners is a general educational bugbear), it can only have gotten worse since then given the exponential increase in these substandard foreign students being waived through into classes.

There's a reason we set for ability at secondary level and it's completely antithetical to the purpose of higher education to effectively stop doing so at tertiary level.

It’s a well known meme of being allocated to group projects with international students - the tutors will quietly move you into a British group if you complain. Then somehow this group who can’t speak English produce an amazingly written final product.

We’re an expose away from all of our degrees being an international laughing stock

[fishfoodie]

Why the fuck are Tories starting to openly support Trump?

Follow the $$$ back to Putin

Only really works with Big Dog, his Russia links are well known, if the FSB have anything on him it probably can't be used to control him as what could possibly ruin his reputation?
Frost, I'm unaware of any Russian links.
Truss, is strongly linked to the IEA and whatever dark money sits behind that (the known ones are US oil and cigarette businesses/US billionaires). Her motivations are always short term and mercenary. She spent August last year lobbying for UK defence industry products to be exported to China, so a business in her constituency could make money:
https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-tru ... rts-china/

It just looks like the Tories are being sucked into Republican radical right positions without much thought being applied. The Tory MP on Peston supporting Trump looked a lot like that. Jenrick's latest Telegraph article looked like that too, in it he said "McCarthy was correct" (he wasn't, he found no communist agents) and offered a defence of McCarthyism, trying to rehabilitate McCarthy is a US radical right thing. The Trump stuff about "the swamp" is the same as Tory attacks on "the blob", which really means a civil service being asked to do impossible things and not being able to.

Trump polls very badly in the UK, not a good idea to come out for him (Badenoch blaming Biden for there being no trade deal with the US, could also be interpreted that way). There's zero advantage for them in publicly backing Trump, yet that is what they're doing. There's a strong chance both the US and UK elections will be held at the same time, "who do you support in the US election?" is something that will be asked during the campaign, if the answer isn't some version of "that's not for me to say it's for the American people" then the Tories have manufactured a way to lose votes.

I think they're just performatively supporting these US Right talking points, because the Tories are skint, & they want the resources of US donors to help them out in the the coming GE campaign

[_Os_]

World leading university sector latest:

https://archive.ph/bRQoL

There's some framing in that article. Access courses are available for UK students, nursing courses will have an access course with rock bottom GCSE requirements for example (the other two are usually business and computing). Listing Russell group unis offering access courses doesn't explain much unless we know for what courses and if UK applicants can also use them. The impression is given they're all offering access courses only to non-UK students, but that may not be the case. I know a British guy who do an access course with a private provider in the area he was interested in as an adult and used that to get into a good uni, he didn't have GCSEs/A-Levels worth anything.

What is never explained is where the money comes from if the foreign students aren't there. As that article makes clear it's not going to work pretending that the better unis will not be impacted, they will be.

The government aren't going to pay, so it'll mean much higher debt for UK students. Which is why where the replacement money will come from is never mentioned. Not easy gaining entry to a services economy without a degree, £45k+ of debt for an entry level job doesn't sound great.

[Paddington Bear]

Every time we discuss this you bring up the financing, every time you get told those of us who think this is a problem are happy to see some universities fold rather than let this persist. I am aware of the finances, I am also conscious that our reputation for high quality education is made a mockery of by this system, and it now exists at such an extent it may well drag the whole system down with it.