badgerx16

There is fuck all substance in his head.

So what we should have done is simply sit by and let Putin 'de-nazify' and de-militarise Ukraine, seizing as much of it's territory as he wants ? Do you think that if the West had sat idly by there would not have been the massacres of unarmed civilians, the obliteration of towns and cities, the looting and raping, nor the deportations of large numbers to Siberia ? Of course there is a bias in Western reporting, but NOBODY forced Putin's hand here., and he is solely to blame. Was Ukraine threatening to invade Russia ? Perhaps at some point it might have tried to take back the occupied parts that Russia had annexed, but realistically that 'frozen war' would have stretched on because no Ukrainian leader would have thought that attacking it's, ( on paper ), larger and much more powerful neighbour was a good idea. Looking at things dispassionately, what Putin has done is to strengthen the thing he sees as his biggest threat - NATO, beyond even it's wildest expectations. Sweden and Finland, both firmly historically neutral, are now likely to join, without any great pressure from the existing members, but as a response to Russian threats. Germany and Japan, both of whose constitutions are strictly based on self-defence within their territorial borders, are sending military aid to Ukraine, and even Switzerland looks like it is going to move from it's non-aligned neutrality. It is always easy to sit in our comfortable Western homes, with their security of energy and food supplies and plenty of consumer goodies, and set the World to rights; whataboutery over Yemen or some other 'distant' conflict in a hot and dusty foreign land, or wringing our hands over whether previous military interventions were "illegal" or "immoral". The truth is that the World is imperfect, and everybody wants to look after "number one", countries define and defend their National Interests, and in the current situation things have come too uncomfortably close for the West not to act.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59532066 "The Metropolitan Police has said it does not routinely probe "retrospective breaches" of Covid laws amid calls for an investigation of a No 10 Christmas party held during 2020's restrictions."

Apparently yesterday, whilst the Victory Parade was taking place in Moscow, a Ukrainian armoured brigade held it's own event with a parade of captured tanks.

I think the way the country is being governed is criminal.

Where have I "cried" over Brexit "ruining everything" ? I think it will turn out to be a bad move, but in many many points across this thread have stated that it is a fait-accomplis and we need to move on and try to make the best of a bad job. Stop feeling guilty over having voted to leave. And as for your "massive" wage hike over the last 2 years, I am surprised you haven't mentioned it earlier 😉

What other laws ( rules ) introduced by Parliament can we dismiss and ignore then ? Who gets to choose ?

What else other than Brexit can you blame for the NI Protocol ? The point is that before Brexit, we were just about hanging together as the "United" Kingdom. Now we have easily defined fault lines between 'Leave' supporting England and 'Remain' voting Scotland and Northern Ireland.

All that will happen is that Labour will have to go through a new leadership election whilst BoJo stays in office and continues to bluff it out because "there are more important issues that need to be addressed". Boris is gambling that by the time of the next GE this will all be ancient history.

Oh I know what happened with the Pact, but my argument is that it was accepted by both sides that it was a fig leaf, and bound to be broken once one or both of the megalomaniacal leaders decided to show their true intentions. There was no way that 2 such ideologically opposed powers could exist as peaceful neighbours for long.

I don't think this is correct. The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was negotiated to buy both sides time; for the Russians to try the Winter War against Finland whilst rebuilding their officer corps after Stalin's purge, and for the Germans to knock out the Western allies so as to not face the risk of a war on 2 fronts. A conflict between Nazism and Communism was always going to happen, as Hitler predicted, driven by the desire for Lebensraum. Some sources even claim that Barbarossa pre-empted Soviet plans to attack westwards.

I think most of the protesters were Ukrainian refugees.

The Scottish and NI situations were entirely predictable, but the Brexiteers wanted to chase their unicorn.

Regardless of his domestic issues, he was one of my wife's favourite actors. Does that surprise you ?

Have they fitted those exhaust boxes that sound like a Vulcan taking off ? We had a Micra driving up and down our road yesterday, it sounded like a broken tank, and you could hear it half a mile away.

Fur

Smile lads, be grateful that you are in Moscow and not Ukraine.

There is also this drone footage of a Russian helo dropping troops off onto the island and getting totally blatted during disembarkation;

What are Stock and Aitken going to do now ?

Gcuti Fatwa might well be the first "person of colour" to play The Doctor as the lead character, but he isn't the first to play conti an incarnation - Jo Martin played the Fugitive Doctor in 3 episodes earlier in Jodie Whittaker's tenurre. If all the necessary boxes are to be ticked, presumably Whittaker's Doctor will continue to develop her apparent infatuation with Yas.

Or the Ukrainian Nazis did it themselves, like all those dead bodies in Bucha that appeared after the Russians took over.

Pre-arranged business meetings were permitted under Tier 2 rules: "Sport, live performances and business meetings limited to 50% capacity or 1000 people indoors". Also, restaurants were allowed to open, but had to stop taking orders by 22:00, and close by 23:00. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/944213/COVID-19_Tier_Posters_16_December_2020_High.pdf

So tomorrow I have to be a Leicester and Arsenal fan.

We have 4 strikers in our first team squad, and AB's loss of form doesn't explain the defensive performances.