Tuesday 8th March 2022

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

[frog222]

Morning @RFM

[AnatolyKasparov]

Certain people should never have been so quick to lionise John Bercow.

Yes he was in many ways a good and effective Speaker, but that's it.

[refitman]

[gilsey]

Employers, if you tweet about International Women's Day, I'll retweet your gender pay gap

eg



Looks even worse when they delete it.

[AnatolyKasparov]

I presume they have been quite busy today then.

[frog222]

dianab on the LB -
Johnson can do the
"One of the proudest boasts now in the free world is “I am a Ukrainian”"
But he isn't interested in actually walking the walk

Ukrainians who worked at the British embassy in Kyiv are being told they will not get refuge in the UK as they seek to flee the war unless they can fulfil strict entry qualifications, The Independent has been told.
The staff, many of whom have worked at the mission for years, are believed to have been informed that they will only qualify for a visa if they have close relations in the UK.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 31024.html

---------------------------------------------------------
Ukrainian family describe trauma of UK visa processing
‘The treatment we received from the French and the British has been so different,’ says father Yakiv Voloshchuk
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... processing
----------------------------------------------------------

Cruelty is now a British government speciality .

[Sky'sGoneOut]

https://www.gov.pl/web/diplomacy/statem ... to-ukraine

The authorities of the Republic of Poland, after consultations between the President and the Goverment, are ready to deploy – immediately and free of charge – all their MIG-29 jets to the Ramstein Air Base and place them at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America.

At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities. Poland is ready to immediately establish the conditions of purchase of the planes.

The Polish Government also requests other NATO Allies – owners of MIG-29 jets – to act in the same vein.

So basically Poland is handing most of its airforce over to Ukraine while we give Russian oligarchs six months to hide their loot and make it near impossible for Ukrainian refugees to get into this country.

[frog222]

Evening @Sky
That sent shivers down my spine, when wondering what the Dictator will do in response.

[frog222]

I doubt if this AirMarshal would approve --


Of course those planes are some way from being delivered . Also as this Msnbc argues there is so far little fixed-wing activity on either side, long range S400's on one side and Stingers on the other are very discouraging ?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Ta for the videos Froggy.

I really don't understand the MSNBC confusion about sending the Mig's to the Rammstein air base, it's absolutely bloody obvious why the Poles are doing it.

As for their effectiveness, who knows? Better to have them than not I'd guess, but you're right, there's so much anti-aircraft stuff on the ground in Ukraine you can see why nobody wants to fly.

[gilsey]

I read a piece the other day suggesting that Russian air force isn't capable of carrying out the sort of missions NATO forces train for, ie long distance raids with a lot of planes, apparently over Syria they'd usually be operating in twos, 4 at the most.

The main impression I get is that Putin has miscalculated the scale of the task he's taken on. Surrounded by yes-men and high on his own supply.

[gilsey]

@ sky

The army camp in Berwick was where the Holiday Park is now. See page 50 of the PDF, p38 of the book. Gone before you were born I should think.

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-b ... pon-tweed/

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Cheers Gilsey, yes it was gone long before I graced the world with my presence. My mum worked at the holiday camp as a cleaner every summer when I was a kid so I spent a lot of time there. It had its own nightclub called 'The Apollo' and when she was cleaning in there I'd investigate every nook and cranny for dropped coins to use in the arcade. It was pretty rough back then but it's looking a lot nicer now.

Unfortunately the opposite is true of the high street, back then it was booming, whereas every time I go back there's more and more empty shops.

[gilsey]

Legend.

[gilsey]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Oh and Magdalene fields where the army camp/holiday camp/golf course was/is situated had a network of extensive defensive ditches. The only surviving ones are on the golf course and they're pretty impressive. They were dug to provide protected areas for cattle and sheep to be brought into the town when it was under attack by the English/Scots/Reavers, there's still the remains of a watchtower there. Everywhere you go there's evidence of Berwick's gruesome, bloody history.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I do worry that many of these wonderful Ukrainians we're all following on Twitter are going to die.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I mean it's all very well scoffing at the Russian fuck ups but the sad fact is they still have an overwhelming advantage in brute force artillery, missiles and troops.

With UK politics I'm confident enough to shoot my mouth off and with Covid I understood the science, but I make no attempt to pretend I've got a clue what I'm talking about when it comes to this madness. Because nobody fucking knows, one military expert gives one opinion and another gives the opposite. Empiricism is rendered completely useless and 'military science' is exposed for what it is, pure guesswork with a patina of game theory.

These military experts are brilliant when we're at peace mulling over various scenarios but when we're at war they're fucking useless, rather like economists when economies go to shit. Maybe because real science relies on, ultimately, the laws of phyics and mathematics while bullshit 'science' relies on money, prestige and ego.

[PorFavor]

True. Putin's ultimate weapon appears to be that he's mad. Getting rid of him one way or another is probably the best bet. And even then it's just that - a bet. And one that, to maximise our odds, needs careful timing. I hate to say so but the "window" was earlier on in the war and I think we now need to wait until one at least as good opens.



Edited - typo

[Sky'sGoneOut]

How do we assasinate him without drawing attention?

He has no moustache we can attempt to explode.

[PorFavor]

I thought we'd agreed that you'd be in charge of the practical stuff.

[PorFavor]

Night night.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[tinyclanger2]

These military experts are brilliant when we're at peace mulling over various scenarios but when we're at war they're fucking useless, rather like economists when economies go to shit.Maybe because real science relies on, ultimately, the laws of phyics and mathematics while bullshit 'science' relies on money, prestige and ego.

Quite. I was once an ecology conference where (I've forgotten his name, but he was scientific advisor to Blair for a bit) was presenting, and reported a study where economic prediction had performed "worse than random".