Lighthouse

Nothing quite says, "got us by the bollocks," like closing your stock market for two weeks, half the worlds banks and payment solutions pulling out and a rouble that’s worth it’s weight in toilet paper.

Finish!

Sister Mary is having none of it.

Russia should depose Putin, admit this whole thing was an obscene and tragic waste of innocent lives right from the start, pull out of everywhere (including Crimea and the so called LPR/DPR) and the world can return to sanity. What will happen is a long and protracted continuation of what's happening now. Russia will eventually amass an unknown area of Ukraine but continue to face stiff resistance until eventually this whole thing collapses in on itself and they simply don't have the money to keep the war going. It'll take years and tens of thousands of lives.

Bhutan have never attacked Guinea Bissau with land, sea or air power, so we can pretty much do away with our armed forces completely. Thank you Warrior, your insight will save this country billions in tax spending.

Interesting that members of the SNP have chosen now to reiterate their desire to scrap Trident.

We just need to keep cracking on with wind turbines and form a concerted effort with the rest of Europe not to rely on hydrocarbons in the future.

I’m guessing it’s somewhere between erectile dysfunction and rabies but like you say, start small and work our way up.

Some of the Ukraine chat has been moved to the lounge, if anyone wants to carry it on there.

I doubt it. Only the most expert of antivaxxers on Twitter are able to accurately diagnose heart problems that quickly, with just a cursory glance. I think this is just a thing that started when some fans managed to stop a game once, and it seems to have spread with no official protocol or directive.

This BS with stopping games for medical problems in the crowd has to stop. We’ve always let the St John’s guys deal with it in the past, that didn’t need to change. All that’s going to happen, if it isn’t already, is that clubs will abuse it tactically, like we do with our 60 minute ‘injuries’. Play a high intensity pressing game and then on 35 minutes, matey in block 12 goes down feeling a bit faint.

Watching the games this weekend, I wish I’d bought shares in Ukrainian Flags Ltd.

He’d make a great Russian military planner. Just find 200 of their oldest, rustiest Migs, crash them into the Dnepr reservoir and that equals all the RAF Typhoons destroyed, somehow.

Just been speaking to my friend from Kharkiv who has made it as far west as Lutsk and is now trying to get into Poland. It sounds like a proper ordeal; a three day journey including 24 hours solid on one train, absolutely packed with people. An overnight sleep in Ternopil train station, nothing with her but a suitcase and a rucksack with her cat in it. I’ll never complain about SW Trains or a Travelodge ever again.

We don’t want to engage in any military engagement with Putin, at all. It’s an escalation NATO doesn’t want or need, harsh though it may be on Ukrainians. Putin clearly wants it as the war isn’t going well or looking good back home, he is now claiming economic sanctions constitute and act of war. He needs a big, scary, foreign enemy, rather than bombing Russian speaking school children. On a separate note, The Kremlin seem to be going to some effort to hide the whole isolation and paranoia issue.

whelk, thank you for opening my heart to two genuinely new emotions. Hoping someone has cancer Hoping a Daily Star headline is true

How have you managed to translate Russia's clusterf**k of an invasion, against one of the most chronically underfunded militaries in Europe, to Britain losing all our F35s, tanks, helicopters and the paras?

South Africa weren’t trying to wage a war against a country of 44 million people during apartheid.

That’s pretty much my point, you’ve just said oil was recently reading around $50, so why on Earth would people be rushing to buy now when it’s $115? The price will stabilise eventually, the sanctions will still be in place and Russia's economy will suffer for it. They will be tied up in Ukraine for the foreseeable future and won’t have the financial or military resources to launch an offence in Finland or any NATO country.

So why on Earth would China start buying massive quantities of it right now?

Yes but they NEED to sell to China at pretty much whatever price the Chinese offer. Russia can't just cut the USA and EU out of it's trade and carry on with China as if nothing happened.

Finland look very likely to join, with the threat being the way it is and I still don’t see how any why there’s going to be another Yugoslav war, just because Serbia is pro-Russian. Russia can’t send any military hardware there without passing through a NATO country first. China may well take advantage of the situation but it’ll be completely on their own terms. Russia has literally nothing to bargain with. It may well take the sting off things but it won’t pay for a marauding Russian sweep across central and Northern Europe.

How does he invade Bosnia, without first sending his forces through a NATO country? I’ll be wildly optimistic on Putin’s behalf and say Belarus complies with no opposition and Ukraine and Moldova both collapse. Then what? Supposing he attacks Finland, NATO would respond, then he find himself facing a far superior force along a border thousands of miles long. His resources and logistics are already stretched trying to get hold of half of Ukraine.

Where does he realistically have to go without invading a NATO country. Finland and Sweden are hurriedly talking about joining, Belarus is Russian territory in all but name, He's going to be bogged down in a civil war in Ukraine, which basically leaves Moldova to invade before he's essentially toe-to-toe with NATO all along his Western border. All the while, his economy continues to tank and he has a very expensive war and occupation to pay for.

Watching Puel’s teams made me not want to go to games any more, I can’t put it any more simply than that.