moonraker

Despite all the drivel from Duckie and GM they are still unable to identify a single benefit from BREXIT. Taking back control does not count.

They are coming to Bath and Bristol soon.

But so on the money, and sums up the country the the Mail-reading, red meat-eating, gamonati voted for.

Boris has neither the commitment nor attention to detail to lead an effective opposition. Not that he would acknowledge that, if it were to happen then it would be a gift for Labour.

Oh wasn’t that fun, as many fireworks as we could buy. We’re you a Paines or Brocks boy.

Whoever is stupid enough to become the leader of this pathetic party will be signing up for failure. Who in their right mind would want to lead them, not just as PM but at a General Election. Whoever does accept the post either accepts that they are a sacrificial lamb, or they are just another arrogant narcissistic twat.

A general election is the only way forward. Sadly the entitled Tory party and their sycophantic supporters will continue to act in their own best interests. They have no patriotism, no dignity and no honour. Starting with the Brexit referendum, purely called because Cameron was a coward and could not manage his own party we have seen this pathetic excuse for a political party dive to ever lower depths to maintain their grip on power, and all at the expense of our country and our people. They must go, and go now.

I agree with the thrust of your argument. There is a possibility of a Tory implosion and the party splitting. I do not think the LDs will welcome many if any of the current crop of cowardly backbenchers who have been complicit in facilitating this shit show. The ERG types will claim the party as theirs the centre right one nation mob will claim its as theirs, could end up in court! No matter how much I despise the Tories and their ideology there is a need for a centre right party if only to remind us how self serving a section of our society is. The long standing Tory supporters on here have stopped defending them, claiming they are not true Tories, the problem is they can’t agree amongst themselves what constitutes a true Tory.

And this from the twat that we had negotiating the Brexit deal, amateurs the lot of them. I would not employ any of the current crop of senior Tories to clean my windows for fear or indelible smears.

The problem is the Tories introduced it to to lure the pensioners votes. They have a track record of luring votes, the sacred Margaret’s council house cut price sell of being the biggest. These short term populist policies always come back to bite you.

I do question the policy of allowing inmates unfettered access to the internet.

No it’s akin to the beer hall putsch. That failed but it set the scene for 1932/3. The people who breached congress should be tried for treason, the USA needs to defend their democracy, currently they are pussy footing.

Whilst never having conservative tendencies it is absolutely shocking to see how “Brexit” has effectively destroyed the Tories. David Cameron lit a very long fuse by calling a totally unnecessary referendum because he was unable to manage the loony ERG, and when calling their bluff failed he ran away and hid. We have as a consequence had to suffer May, Johnson and now Trussfuck. If ever a political party can be accused of treason the Tory’s, their myopic supporters and the absolute incompetents they vote in are prime candidates.

Meaningless, the U.K. has no plans to unilaterally invade one of its neighbours. We are members of NATO for collective security, international collaboration has so many more benefits than nationalistic posturing. I am not laughing at Russia just painting a picture of where they are. Numbers are meaningless if you do not have the command, leadership, morale and equipment to use them. The idea the U.S. could have stopped it is absurd, no NATO country was attacked it would have meant the US declaring war on Russia. History of warfare is littered with much larger armies being routed by smaller better motivated and equipped opponents. The definition of madness is to continue to do the same thing even when it fails.

I do have a military/defence background. Some of the most knowledgeable analysts of military capability have no military background but do have a deep understanding of military campaigns, doctrine and what works. As I said above logistics are critical to a successful military campaign. But you also have to be fully prepared. Whilst the Russians started with some well trained troops these cannot be replaced by conscription. The very minimum training required for a half decent infantry soldier is 6 months, other combat troops, artillery, armour etc. take longer to train and that assumes you have sufficient equipment, supplies and experienced trainers. You then need capable and experienced NCOs and junior officers to lead them in the field. Russian doctrine is top down command with little if any autonomy for commanders at the operational and tactical levels. When you add to this the questionable quality of their maintenance, reliability, and operation of their combat systems, they have a serious problem that I contend their military and political culture is incapable of fixing, certainly not within the time frame of “The Special Military Operation”. A final caveat, there is never certainty in war, but if I were a betting man I know where my money would go.

I disagree, to conduct a credible and successful military campaign logistic are everything. Disrupting supplies and support, even on a temporary basis, has as much if not greater value than shooting down a couple of MIGs or blowing up a few tanks. Throughout history the victors in military campaigns have been those who ,understood, managed and prioritised logistics. The Russians have been very poor at this to date and anything the Ukraine can do to disrupt their efforts even further will pay dividends. That is not to mention the PR value of this strike.

Duckie for once I agree, 2 bands should be sufficient, and the 40% thread hold needs to be raised significantly. My point was we are not a high tax country compared to comparable countries.

I was responding to Duckies specific point, our Tax rates are competitive even with a top rate of 45%. Most European countries have additional "Taxes" similar to our NI as your source shows. I also looked at a listing that looked at all personal forms of "Tax" and the table was essentially the same the UK is not close to being the highest taxed. It is interesting that the lowest taxed countries are also the poorer ones. One of the issues is that comparing different tax jurisdictions is like comparing apples and pears.

With the UK personal tax burden 17th out of 27 European countries with the 45% many would conclude we are competitive. Its also interesting that all the countries with higher tax rates have better per capita GDP than the UK so somewhat unusually both you and Alister Darling may be wrong.

Perfect for Rishi to mount a second bid. Even the swivel eyed geriatrics who populate the Tory membership must see they got it wrong the first time, not that any of the current Tory parliamentary party has much appeal as a PM. If Bojo is found in breech of parliamentary rules he may well be barred from standing.

Truss won’t be PM by the next election.

Comrade Alexi please tell us it is all going to plan. The superior technology and fighting capability of the mighty Russian army is inflicting unsustainable damage on the NAZIs of Ukraine. Tell us the truth, as you seem to believe you have a far greater insight than the rest of us.

He will also have to consider Chinas reaction if he were to use a nuclear weapon. So far they have been passively supportive, I am not sure they would sanction a nuclear strike, even tactical. China may be building ever bigger and presumably more effective military capability, it’s core strategy is economic dominance any escalation or spread of the war in Ukraine will not serve their interests.

Who the fuck are they anyway!

Cracking build up thread, obviously infiltrated by Ralph luvies as I have not seen much discussion on the game or the genetic Ralph hasn’t got a clue posts. If it’s allowed I’d like to comment on the game, whatever their recent form and obvious internal problems Utd are full of quality. We are more than capable of matching their intensity combine this with some clever winding up of a couple of their prima donnas and we have a very good chance.