Meanwhile in Ukraine

[Cheese]

35 minutes ago, Whitestar said:

Next level is what is becoming the majority, the plastic wealthy, we all know them (might be them) couple of holidays a year, £600 new tattoo, 11reg range rover sport ( private reg & all dash lights flashing but ya know) tanned wife with turkey teeth & hair extensions (would be quite fit if they stopped using just eat) gym membership, skin fade every 2weeks, media wall and an American fridge.

 

 

Edited February 26, 2025 by Cheese

[Dimron]

12 hours ago, Cheese said:

^ See. "It's all the working class Eastern Europeans' fault!"

I don't see it as all the Eastern Europeans' fault.

About 20 odd years ago I worked on a big distribution centre for Sports Direct on a former colliery site in Shirebrook near Mansfield, paid for using EU regeneration grant money on the basis that it will revitalise the local economy now the pit had been lost.

About 18 months later I went back to carry out some maintenance and it was full of Romanians, the signage was in Romanian and they even sold their sausages in the canteen, not a local in sight. When I went into the town it was worse that previous, more shops boarded up and more betting and money shops.

Then, to really cement my opinion, Mike Ashley rocked up in his private helicopter... "you really have been taking the piss" I thought to myself as he glowered at me. The actions of blokes like him and Philip Green and Bezos have kept the wages depressed, the money the immigrant workers earn is worth three times when they spend it back home.... why give UK workers more money when I get get dozens of Eastern Europeans dirt cheap?

Hence us now being saddled with \ low productivity, low investment economy

[Dimron]

12 hours ago, Winchester White said:

A bricklayer or chippie is earning that these days. It's the way things go, supply and demand.

You also have a very old school thinking of everything eastern European. Sure some is still true but you could say the same for many western countries, Italy especially.

Rest assured I do not pay operatives an architect's wage.

The £200 per day they earn on my sites has three times the value when they spend it back home... the Eastern European economies are very much less developed than the Western causing big imbalances. This has affected the natural wage progression of our home workforce, loos at all the Amazon van drivers... they are happy bombing around on half the wages of what a British worker would need as the money is worth so much more when they go home.

[Zico]

10 hours ago, wanderer1984 said:

That's what I said ... Starmer doing the right thing.

But because of Trump x

Praise him for once.

 

the bit I'm currently struggling with is Trump's stance on Ukraine starting the war, Zelensky being a dictator and rejecting the UN resolution to hold Russia accountable

it may be that once everyone has chipped in their extra bit of spending and made it more fair and equal in Trump's eyes, goes back on all that and calls it all out for what it is

I am very happy that we're upping our spending to help Ukraine

in the mean time, I'll hold off on the praise for Trump until I see what the mid-to-long term impact of his actions are

but if anyone wants to congratulate on a job well done, go for it

[crawshawbooth]

14 minutes ago, Dimron said:

Rest assured I do not pay operatives an architect's wage.

The £200 per day they earn on my sites has three times the value when they spend it back home... the Eastern European economies are very much less developed than the Western causing big imbalances. This has affected the natural wage progression of our home workforce, loos at all the Amazon van drivers... they are happy bombing around on half the wages of what a British worker would need as the money is worth so much more when they go home.

Its absolutely this , the wage they get is a fortune back home. Worked with half a dozen young eastern European couples that have built new houses back home while working here , now gone back.

The South Asian contingent work for a few months and then take a couple of months off , in general they life in big family set ups so come and go with family commitments.I have worked with a few that have arrived here through first Spain, then Germany and ended up in Italy ,came here and dipped their toes in the water but our NHS is not good enough for their sick kids. 

Sacked us off and gone back to Italy , had financial help in every European country they passed through

[Sweep]

3 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

It is blatantly obvious that American posturing in the past and now has played a part in getting European nations to increase spending. 

We started to increase it around 2020, but from a low base, after decades of reductions, and it still wasn't enough. 

1960 @ 7.09%

1970 @ 5.2%

1980 @ 5.02%

1990 @ 3.98%

2000 @ 2.37%

2010 @ 2.57%

2020 @ 2.16%

It's certainly been reducing dramatically over the last 50~60 years

The Conservative and Labour Party are both guilty in allowing this to reduce so much. 

I heard a ridiculous stat on the radio earlier, that was basically saying what a shit state our forces are in, apparently we have 200 Generals in the Army* (across just 75K soldiers) , and we have 40 Admirals (across just 60 "active" vessels)   -  so we certainly have the top brass in place, it's the underlings and grunts that we're sadly lacking in

 

*I presume this is just the Army, and doesn't include the RM, who are Navy aren't they? (fucked if I know)

[Spider]

If trump is bringing all this peace to the world, bigly peace, peace like we’ve never seen before like the world has never known

If trump is bringing that

Why are we suddenly increasing defence spending?

Its sending the wrong message to trump, almost like they don’t believe he’s bringing the bigly peace.

 

[Casino]

9 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

We know the reasons housing is in short supply, and therefore more costly.

That isn't going to change any time soon.

 

im not sure 'we' do

and even if we did, the solution wouldn't be as easy as you think it is

 

 

fwiw, theres many reasons property is in short supply

[royal white]

The Don ☮️🕊️

 

[Spider]

4 minutes ago, royal white said:

The Don ☮️🕊️

 

Sir Keir can withdraw that increase of funding now.

No point buying guns and super army soldiers when world peace is about to break out.

 

[London Wanderer]

11 minutes ago, Spider said:

Sir Keir can withdraw that increase of funding now.

No point buying guns and super army soldiers when world peace is about to break out.

 

It's a mineral deal to repay the money and weapons that were leant. 

How someone on here has translated that as a peace deal is beyond me 😂

[Ani]

2 minutes ago, London Wanderer said:

It's a mineral deal to repay the money and weapons that were leant. 

How someone on here has translated that as a peace deal is beyond me 😂

Tbf all the Nations who have military support have some type of repayment built in. 
 

The terms of the deal will show how ‘good’ a deal it is. Seems crazy that Russia could end up keeping land that they have taken by force and is full of all the natural resources that is now being used in the ‘deal’.  

[Tonge moor green jacket]

12 minutes ago, London Wanderer said:

It's a mineral deal to repay the money and weapons that were leant. 

How someone on here has translated that as a peace deal is beyond me 😂

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-ukraine-sign-landmark-100-year-partnership-to-deepen-security-ties-and-strengthen-partnership-for-future-generations#:~:text=The unbreakable bonds between the,and enabling closer community links.

Well, we've already done similar, so maybe Trump was a little peeved that we got there first.

The concept isn't so outrageous (though not guaranteed): companies don't like investing in unstable countries, though some American ones gave already done so in Ukraine, so it will be in the interests of all to stop the scrap, to allow the investment to flow.

I've posted an article elsewhere about the "missing minerals", but one they do have is Uranium ore. As the article says, America gets much of its material from Russia for its power stations, so the prospect of losing business to Ukraine may make it think again about its own role in the conflict.

[Dimron]

1 hour ago, London Wanderer said:

It's a mineral deal to repay the money and weapons that were leant. 

How someone on here has translated that as a peace deal is beyond me 😂

Trump can now meet Putin and tell him... We are no longer supporting Ukraine by sending them weapons to use against you free of charge, they are now going to buy those arms and pay for them in the future... big shift which should defuse some objections from Mr P

[Casino]

Listened to a chap earlier

His theory is that ukraine has played a blinder in convincing the orange cunt that they are sitting on way more resources than they actually are

The daft twat thinks these rare earth minerals are up there with lithium, when in reality, theyre nowt special, the world market isnt that big

The US have loads more but cost to process makes it prohibitive

The chinese produce loads but theyre not over bothered about shit like not killing folk

[kent_white]

3 minutes ago, Casino said:

Listened to a chap earlier

His theory is that ukraine has played a blinder in convincing the orange cunt that they are sitting on way more resources than they actually are

The daft twat thinks these rare earth minerals are up there with lithium, when in reality, theyre nowt special, the world market isnt that big

The US have loads more but cost to process makes it prohibitive

The chinese produce loads but theyre not over bothered about shit like not killing folk

And most of it is in Eastern Ukraine which would be likely given away to Russia as part of any deal? 

[Casino]

4 minutes ago, kent_white said:

And most of it is in Eastern Ukraine which would be likely given away to Russia as part of any deal? 

Fella actually said REM are all over

We probably have some in the soil in our gardens but good luck making it a business

 

Lots of coal and iron ore, though, but like you say, over in the east

[London Wanderer]

3 hours ago, Ani said:

Tbf all the Nations who have military support have some type of repayment built in. 
 

The terms of the deal will show how ‘good’ a deal it is. Seems crazy that Russia could end up keeping land that they have taken by force and is full of all the natural resources that is now being used in the ‘deal’.  

Aye. I don’t doubt they do

 such a deal can never be seen as creating peace

Edited February 26, 2025 by London Wanderer

[Dimron]

38 minutes ago, Casino said:

Listened to a chap earlier

His theory is that ukraine has played a blinder in convincing the orange cunt that they are sitting on way more resources than they actually are

The daft twat thinks these rare earth minerals are up there with lithium, when in reality, theyre nowt special, the world market isnt that big

The US have loads more but cost to process makes it prohibitive

The chinese produce loads but theyre not over bothered about shit like not killing folk

It's a negotiation ploy... whatever is in there can't be extracted by either side because no mining company would invest in operating in a war zone... as I said, its all about being able to say to Vlad the Ukrainians are paying for their weapons and we are just the suppliers... we're no longer (if we ever did) taking sides... lets move forward.

[Zico]

42 minutes ago, Casino said:

Listened to a chap earlier

His theory is that ukraine has played a blinder in convincing the orange cunt that they are sitting on way more resources than they actually are

The daft twat thinks these rare earth minerals are up there with lithium, when in reality, theyre nowt special, the world market isnt that big

The US have loads more but cost to process makes it prohibitive

The chinese produce loads but theyre not over bothered about shit like not killing folk

 

38 minutes ago, kent_white said:

And most of it is in Eastern Ukraine which would be likely given away to Russia as part of any deal? 

 

32 minutes ago, Casino said:

Fella actually said REM are all over

We probably have some in the soil in our gardens but good luck making it a business

 

Lots of coal and iron ore, though, but like you say, over in the east

Makes me think Russia have played a blinder and are playing Trump like a balalaika

[Spider]

Trumps fanboys will be along shortly to flesh out why all this is a win for everyone 

[Sweep]

13 hours ago, Spider said:

Trumps fanboys will be along shortly to flesh out why all this is a win for everyone 

has a peace deal been signed, or is it getting close? - I'm losing track

[Traf]

1 hour ago, Sweep said:

has a peace deal been signed, or is it getting close? - I'm losing track

Oven ready

[Gonk]

Well that went well.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

No peace deal, no minerals deal.