buctootim

Why stop there. I read one fairly persuasive academic earlier saying how the whole of Russia could well break apart once the illusion of a strong centre is shattered. Russia is a mish mash of different peoples and regions many of whom feel exploited by Moscow - Siberia, the Urals and the Far East all feel they get a raw deal from the centre. A friend in Omsk told me when this all started this would end in a Russian civil war. I thought she was beingh over the top then but now not so sure.

Its starting to look like wholesale collapse. Rumours 'leader' of DPR has fled. Huge amount of abandoned equipment

Apparently today Putin's main activity was opening the Ferris wheel. Talking about the biggest military reversal in modern Russian history not a priority.

Oh wow. There and Debaltseve have real significance for Ukraine. If they retake those two its massively symbolic for both them and Russia

Reports seem to indicate they are mostly just leaving. Whether is is organised withdrawal into 'core' territory of Donetsk and Lughansk or mass desertion is the big question.

Saw a video of Ukrainian troops in centre of Izium at dawn. Apparently the Russians just up and left without a fight.

Blind panic!

Kupyansk!

Just announced. Weirdly the Guardian tweeted at 3.26pm that she's died, then took it down.

Snowflake

Meeting both Truss and Johnson in a single day would make anybody queasy

Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer has been sacked. His wife isn't happy 😄

I could accept his comic character image and persona if he was competent. I dont even need to agree with him, simply being competent is enough. I just don't get though how or why he is a Cabinet Minister unless the past five years is all some massive 'how low can you go' troll of the public.

Im thinking about part exchanging my Honda CRV for one of these. Looks more fun than heated seats.

The total additional energy costs to UK households is going to be around £40 billion in the next year. Shell, BP and Centrica made an additional £10bn in profit (ie £10bn more than the same period in 2021) for the past three months alone - oddly enough also around £40bn pa. Remind me again why a windfall tax is so much more immoral than letting kids and pensioners freeze.

Story in the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/30/ukraine-russia-himars-decoy-artillery/ Back in July ton national TV the Russians claimed the pic below was a photo of a destroyed HIMARS. It turned out to be this.

The current problems don't stem from privatisation per se but from the regulation structure those companies work under. 60% of Britain's gas comes from the publicly owned seabed in the North Sea. Why should BP and Shell etc, who are only the exploitation rights holders, charge UK taxpayers who are the gasfield owners 10 times the usual price and not be be subject to a windafall tax?

It's just corporate BS designed to save money, knowing they wont be fined anything meaningful. There are two sets of drains. Blackwater sewage - which is used water from houses and commercial buildings (toilets, dishwashers, industrial processes etc) which should go to treatment works before being discharged (expensive) and rainwater runoff which goes directly into rivers (cheap). Increasingly water companies and private industry deliberately 'mix up' the two knowing they almost certainly wont get caught or prosecuted by the Environment Agency which has been emasculated and budget cut by successive Tory Governments.

I used family shower cubicles at a campsite in France in several holidays when my son and daughter were too young to go to separate cubicles or blocks by themselves. I guess it’s Biden, me the French and anybody who has every been camping there are the guilty ones. Thick people come out with thick non sequiturs and logic gaps (not you whitey). Surprise

On a cruise right now around Alaska. Loving it. 5 days madness of Las Vegas then Alask is a heck of a contrast

That article is written by a Russia Today columnist yet it’s posted as if it’s an independent free thinking piece. I think we all know who the real sheep are.