Dimron

My father, father in law and grandfather were veterans of World Wars, I had the privilege to discuss experiences with my father and father in law and as a result i have taken the time to read up on the history of 20th Century warfare. The more I read, the more I see the futility and I become more anti-war and I truly wanted all of the politicians to avoid the current situation rather than stand up and shout "get at 'em". We have now got urban warfare with the associated civilian casualties which I hate, so many similarities with WW2 campaigns and mass casualties. However I am beginning to think the only way to get out of this is to get fully involved, give Putin a big snotting and maybe then the Oligarchs who originally put him into power will move him into a Datcha where he can live in fear of that eventual knock in the night and a bullet in the back of the head in the basement of the Lubyanka.

Throughout its history Russia has always been invaded from the west which makes their population and leaders particularly paranoid. When you look at the map you can see a steady creep of NATO membership towards Russia and Ukraine was that step too far in Russian eyes, geographically it punches right into Russia with Belarus to the north and the Black Sea in the south. I can see Putin's point but obviously cannot agree with his recent actions, I first hoped the exercises along the borders were a demonstration of what could happen if we don't come to an agreement regarding NATO, but both sides have now let the genie out of the bottle and it is going to be bloody difficult, if not impossible to put it back. We had an opportunity for a short sharp action particularly against the stalled convoy outside Kiev but things have now become mudded throughout the theatre and both sides appear to have lost the will to talk, hence my fears about European stability. I heard a proposal this morning about Ukraine being fast-tracked into the EU, they had been denied as they are one of the poorest nations in Europe with an equally poor human rights record, being homosexual is illegal. Since when has it been acceptable for an applicant to be at war?

War is grim. Too many people see it as a video game. It's about death, brutality and destruction. The more weapons we ship over the more we feed the flames, needs to stop sometime. Never trust politicians, blind faith in nationalism can get you killed.

The Russian tactics are straight from 1944

Happened the last couple of times, what will make WW3 any different? We staggered into the first one by accident and it looks like the third one will be the same

A massive parliamentary majority can be bad for democracy. He won this by deception and unfortunately his party is now addicted like the Republicans in the US, which is the reason for him being allowed to hang on. Not sure whether the electorate will tolerate the rising costs of living caused by his disassociation with the reality of living in England, we have food banks while his own Chancellor is involved in tax avoidance and he allows piss ups on the eve of a national funeral.

At least he tried. Bit more than the UK & US... the US. although the biggest NATO stakeholder, will stand back with the Chinese and watch Europe burn.

Unfortunately we'll never know, we are in the position of experiencing what was threatened rather than mitigate it,,, maybe it might have gone "Look Poots, I'll talk to Mackers in Paris and Sleep Joe and we'll get together and thrash out a Ukraine Neutrality Treaty and fk what that short arse tv actor president thinks or says"

Did very little to even attempt to avert the invasion as he was looking after his own skin at home... sent the cheese lady over to Moscow as Foreign Secretary and snubbed a pre-arranged telephone call with Putin as he had to go to a Party meeting to explain his bad behaviour

From what I saw, it was like BJ walking around some hospital making almost impossible to deliver promises (see my earlier question about the armoured vehicles)... all vote grabbing. The unwritten goal is of the west is regime change and Putin knows this, he agreed to supporting a limited action against Gadafi and he saw "mission creep" and the eventual murder of the dictator. Putin will not stand down as he knows he will be handed over as part of an appeasement process, there will not be a popular uprising as he has ensured these things are crushed at onset and controls the media, nor will there be an internal coup as he has flushed all dissent out of the Kremlin, as has BJ done in a smaller way in our country.

What happened to the initial peace talks? Demilitarisation & Neutrality? How are the 120 armoured vehicles going to be delivered? Big old British Armour will be a politically high priority target for the Ruskies. By sea? It won't be by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and they have to get through the sea blockade, maybe that is what the anti ship weapons are for although the Black Sea Fleet has a good submarine ability, that is if the Turks allow the shipment through the Bosphorus. That leaves rail and we'll find out who really does have air superiority, if I was leading a ground attack squadron I'd be drooling at the thought of such a juicy target. The inevitable escalation appears to be happening.

I went to school with David Vickers who lived just off Thicketford Road, he'll be 65-66 like me now, coincidence or a big family? Anyway, well done pal

He obviously wasn't at work today, I think they're playing Crystal Palace tomorrow... probably getting something for his pack up

Caused a traffic hold up in my village today swapping vans and stuff around, waited until everything was clear and cracked on, next car around the corner was a bloke driving a VDY plated Mercedes jeep thing... Jamie lives less than a mile up the road and was obviously going to the Co-Op... I s-l-o-w-e-d right down and made sure he clocked the BWFC badge, in the words of the prophet "fukkim"

This is what you get from Ocado

Can't think of anything worse than sitting in a wooden tub sharing other folks fluids and flaking skin pretending to be in a Swedish Erotica film under a grey British sky drinking some pissy coloured "rose" wine from Asda. Jumping into a free flowing mountain stream for a laugh, that's different.

Free loader 😉

Modern life is too stressful man

Give her 3 kids, 50 fags a day and a council flat and they'll soon be on it

I recall when Sunak came into mainstream politics he transferred his many shares and investments to his wife's name and therefore she is very much involved

A non-domicile is someone who lives in the UK and is a tax resident here but has their Permanent Home outside the UK. I think living in a mansion in Richmond and 11, Downing St in London is a pretty good illustration of someone having a permanent home in the UK and therefore they should pay tax accordingly. Free loader

Had to slow down for a tractor this morning and then a cyclist, then a postie, one hell of a commute, it usually takes me 5 minutes to my office (which I rent on a local farm) with my new dog sitting in the truck as co-pilot. Took me all of 6 minutes, thought I'd never get there!

The cynic in me thinks Santos & Dapo have had upper league teams sniffing around them, now we're out of the promotion run we're preserving their value

I'll go with that. We can play without their pressure

Pardon?