Wednesday 26th February 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Frog222]

Morning
From last night's LabourList article --

" Former shadow chancellor and suspended Labour MP John McDonnell also warned: “People will understand an increase in defence spending to pay for peacekeeping in Ukraine but to cut spending on tackling famine & poverty in the poorest areas of the world will cost lives.” "

I'll lend him a microscope to see the 'peace' that is to be 'kept'

Clare Short follows the noble tradition of Arthur Greenwood in the Thirties, opposing the evil Neville Chamberlain on Rearmament ... "splashing money on defence" is nothing compare to the Thirties ?

Anyway, for even more exaggeration here's Rafael Behr today --

" The verdict this time is that Britain is transitioning to a wartime economy. If there was a lingering question about what this Labour government was for – what Starmer’s ministry would ultimately be about – this is the answer. It is a gruelling mission of rearmament and renewed national focus on security, in a dangerous world where the US is an unreliable source of protection and its president can’t be counted as a friend."

Great stuff, the keels for TWO new dreadnoughts are being laid tomorrow, and ration books are being printed as I write

[Frog222]

Seriously though , Starmer is taking the obvious easy way out, however morally vacuous, because he has not and perhaps can not do the hard work of analysing why the treasury is short of cash and fixing the problem . Sundry ways of raising it exist but somehow they never surface in the debates , lobby power rules !

Dunno how it's getting on, but a 2% Wealth Tax has been floated in our Lower House, to the usual chorus that the rich will all leave, as 'proven' here and in rich Norway .

Meanwhile the number of millions still in poverty persist, despite the fact they are employed ... Farage licks his lips .

[Frog222]

Without knowin details, just imagine using the ISDS system to arbitrate differences on that 'rare earth' deal .........

[AnatolyKasparov]

I'm not against a wealth tax, but it has already been "spent" several times over by many of those who advocate it

If there is a real way to go, its taxation on land. But look at the blue murder that was called after a very small example of that (the farmers thing)

[RogerOThornhill]

So how long do we give it before Farage & Cummings have a massive falling out?

[Frog222]

He has an article today too, plus a review of his book elsewhere --

[Frog222]

"" Before the invasion, the enemy will try to unsettle the internal political situation. Local rightwing radical movements and parties will rise, financed by Russia. They won’t need to ram you with their tanks immediately, as they can simply bribe hundreds of useful idiots and bloggers to sow chaos and stir up distrust towards the authorities. They will disseminate targeted social media content that will provoke you, pressing hard on your society’s sore points – all generated by Russian bot factories and psychological operations specialists.

Russia will use teenagers as an instrument of chaos. As if on a bizarre quest, they will receive tasks from their handlers via messengers. They will set fire to military vehicles, plant explosives under a local power station, place a phone call to a school to report an explosion – anything to sow chaos. ""

[Frog222]

I wonder if Trump Minerals will join Trump Steaks Trump University and all the other Trump Wheezes ?

Threatening to cut off Starlink to Ukraine to force a 'Deal' is surely the classic example of Duress , which should nullify the whole thing ?

[RogerOThornhill]

Well done to the England cricket team.

They seemed to have achieved the impossible in both appearing morally bankrupt in not boycotting the match...and by losing it appear to be utterly useless.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I've been trawling through some Scottish polling trying to get a handle on where Reform's rise in Scotland is coming from and it's consistently clear in the polls that it's coming from ex-Labour voters. What I hadn't realised was just how catastrophic the collapse in the Labour vote has been since the GE, I knew it was bad but to lose over half your voters in a matter of months is unprecedented.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Badenoch was rubbish again at PMQs today, even if not quite as much so as a fortnight ago.