Yes. It turns out that the innovations and skills developed fighting in war, makes a country useful to other countries in the same situation. This is good for Ukraine. Utility is more valuable than sympathy.
A people who made maximalist rejectionism and armed struggle the foundation of their identity, whose neighbors (and the world) encouraged them to be generational martyrs for an unwinnable war. I feel sorry for them. But unless this changes there will never be peace.
Unintended but not unforseeable. But along with the many and probable bad outcomes from this war, can we allow that there might potentially be some good too? It’s not like the status quo before was peaceful and constructive.
This government has been such a waste of a stonking majority. Imagine what it could be achieving with some vision and leadership and discipline.
The sad thing is, it's working. Leaning into populism and outrage-bait has getting the Greens media traction and attention, where before they were languishing in obscurity.
Reciprocal action is firing back at those who are attacking you. The Gulf states did not attack Iran. They did not allow the US to use their bases to attack Iran. Iran is bombing civilian airports and hotels in countries that did not aggress against them and indeed tried had to prevent this war.
Who do you think is making the decision on what to target? Senior Iranian leadership are dead or incommunicado. Were these pre-decided war plans or is some mid-level IRGC flunky improvising? The attacks on Gulf civilian targets seem particularly stupid. Those countries lobbied hard against this war.
And Bluesky. The trending feed is a shitshow.
Yes it’s woeful.
Twitter is a hard-right sewer. Bluesky is a progressive echo chamber. Comparing the reaction to Venezuela was fascinating. It’s like two different universes.
And if we had the strength to take on the US I would agree with you. But we do not. They are a superpower. We are a middling power. And we need them far more than they need us. The real world is not some idealistic vision. It’s picking the least bad of a selection of shit choices.
I was reading through various ‘2026 predictions’ posts on Substack and one was that 2026 will be a make-or-break year for Europe. Guess I’ll have to renew that subscription! It only took 3 days to be fulfilled…
You know fine well that the British PM is not in a position to attack the US president. If it were you in No 10, you wouldn’t either. Honestly this style of opposition is so tedious. Cheap point-scoring instead of saying anything actually useful.
Yes this is a perfect demonstration of my point. To have no shame appropriating a word describing the worst horror imaginable: to describe a war Hamas needlessly started, every day chose to continue, and still refuses to end. Hysteria, historical ignorance, and a total lack of perspective.
There’s a strain of narcissism in Palestinian activism. They’re self-righteously convinced that their cause is the most important thing in the world, and angrily demand attention if others get sympathy. Especially if it’s Jews. This is entirely about reminding everyone who the *real* victims are.
Most enduring stable societies develop this. We had it, but are currently going through a prolonged midlife crisis. We will recover.
I’m not a Reform voter and I don’t care. I remember being a teenager. I had stupid uninformed opinions, zero life experience and thrilled to break taboos. Do they really have to dig up schoolyard gossip to find something Farage can be attacked on?
As I understand it the current fiscal projections are good for about 2 years then crunch hard right before election 2029. I sense the hand of McSweeney in this.
Boycotting South Africa? Man the 2020s really are attempting to replay all the key geopolitical events of the 20th century.
The problem is that the Reform discontents don’t have policy demands. They have a nostalgic dream, fuelling a scream of rage. Want they want can never be delivered, and nothing that could be plausibly achieved in the real world will ever satisfy them.
That’s my morning procrastination sorted ;) looking forward!
It just wasn’t very good :/ scanted the long-term structural causes of Rome’s decline in favour of a trite narrative and anvilicious parallels to modern world problems. Disappointed, I was really looking forward to it.
As a percentage of earnings it absolutely is true. But really this argument boils down to a belief that no one anywhere 'should' be rich - no matter how hard they work or how much value they contribute - while any amount of poverty exists. That's bonkers. Communism failed for a reason!
'The rich' already contribute by far the majority of the tax revenues that support our country and subsidise the welfare state. If it's greed to want to keep some of what you earned, what is it to demand more and more redistribution of others' money?
A peace deal 'on its own terms' is called a 'victory'.
This one feels more performance than substance to me. More an attempt to balance accounts on paper than raise substantial revenue in practise. Council tax has needed total overhaul for years and I can't see this government being the ones to grasp that nettle.
While I believe that some aspects of UK welfare spending are excessive or misallocated, I have no problem with this. Children and education are exactly where spending ought to be focused. Triple lock on child benefit and not on pensioners, please.
The problem with Polanski and others like this, is everything is approached from the position ‘We must have x social/economic outcome’. All else is expected to contort to accommodate justice or equality. But history has a solid track record here: when ideology conflicts with reality, reality wins.
It’s a great feature. Some of the most divisive accounts (on many subjects) have turned out to be misrepresentations. Keep shining the disinfectant of sunlight.
People talk like it’s a singular entity making malevolent decisions. ‘The bond market’ is just the aggregate all the people and institutions we have sold debt to. Getting annoyed at them when they act in rational self-interest and not like an indulgent extension of UK government policy, is absurd.
