RIP Great Britain
On July 7, when Boris Johnson finally stepped down as Prime Minister of great Britain, I wrote:
A current poll says that party members would favor the current defense secretary Ben Wallace. But that does not mean they will get him as one of the two candidates to vote on as the MPs have the say over that choice.
Johnson may try to get someone elected who would look worse in office than he did. Liz Truss is a good candidate for that.
The process will be, as usual, a very dirty business - knives will be out to backstab certain candidates, deals will be made, favors will be promised and not be held, people will be lied to.
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The Independent later confirmed my hunch:
At his final Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson dropped a particularly heavy hint to the cheering benches behind him – some of whom actually cannot wait to be rid of him – that his favoured candidate in the leadership election is Liz Truss.Perhaps exaggerating the facts and over-simplifying complex arguments, the prime minister declared that his successor should go for tax cuts and deregulation.
...
Given that Rishi Sunak was in charge of the Treasury until recently, and wants to put beating inflation before tax cuts, it doesn’t take Alan Turing-level skills to decipher that remark.
Today Boris Johnson got his wish fulfilled.
The Spectator Index @spectatorindex - 11:38 UTC · Sep 5, 2022BREAKING: Liz Truss wins Conservative Party leadership, will become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Liz Truss is less competent than Boris Johnson but at the same level when it comes to lying. She also has no empathy. In the end she will look worse in office than Johnson did.
The damage of the Brexit disaster is still getting worse. The energy crunch, caused by the economic war waged against Russia, is tearing the country apart. The British aircraft carrier Prince of Wales, which has no aircraft, broke a shaft and needs to pull into a drydock. The National Health Service is turning patients away for lack of resources.
Truss will worsen all that.
But the billionaires and banksters of the City of London will still applause her for lowering their taxes.
The first world war in Europe was largely about a declining British empire that feared the upcoming German competitor. It severely damaged the empire. The second world war finished it off.
Boris Johnson's Brexit has ruined Britain's real economy by cutting off its European markets. Now Liz Truss will ruin whatever is left of a once great empire.
With the election process rigged for the Tories and the Labour leadership held by the hapless and vindictive Keir Starmer there is little chance for regime change in Britain. When Truss falls the premiership could even go back to Boris Johnson.
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RIP Great Britain.
Posted by b on September 5, 2022 at 13:02 UTC | Permalink
next page »This will end up into #CityofLondonExit and good riddance.
Mark my word.
Posted by: Greg Galloway | Sep 5 2022 13:17 utc | 3
Yeah, these islands are pretty grim these days. The only thing that's keeping me going is a resurgent trade union movement, several parallel and escalating social movements, and the fact that the last 12 years have been as deleterious to the capacity of the state to resist threats as it has been to the working classes here. Watch this space!
Posted by: Kaiser Bill | Sep 5 2022 13:20 utc | 4
According to gCaptain HMS Prince of Wales is likely headed for repairs at a dry dock in Amsterdam. The Royal Navy no longer has their own dry docks?
Posted by: Setebos777 | Sep 5 2022 13:21 utc | 6
So it seems that China's UnionPay system has locked out Russian users, furthermore Huawei is now transferring it's workers to Central Asia from Russia.
RIP Europe (which includes Russia) would be a more accurate sentiment.
Posted by: Bernd | Sep 5 2022 13:21 utc | 7
About the damage to the aircraft carrier, I suppose human error or just good old fashioned bad luck could be the cause.
But in the times we are in, and with Russia showing it's superiority recently by showing up everywhere from the Eastern Mediterranean to the coast of Ireland, the North Atlantic and the Baltic, an equally likely cause would be sabotage or a covert Russian attack on the boat.
If so, that's your war trigger.
Posted by: Orchard1 | Sep 5 2022 13:33 utc | 9
I commented a while ago to friends that each prime minister since Harold Wilson, 1974 or thereabouts, has been worse than the predecessor. I didn’t think that anyone worse than Johnson could be found, but dear Lord they have managed to continue the process with this one.
The golden years were 1945 to 1979, and as a resident back then I became a Labour supporter and member, I guess I was a patriot and proud of the land of my birth. But I simply don’t recognise it any more as having any resemblance to that country.
It is clear that the UK like most of the EU countries is wrecked and I am glad to be out of it, but I watch the developments with a mixture of horror and, let’s be honest, a little touch of schadenfreude. Keep passing the popcorn, b.
Posted by: Walt | Sep 5 2022 13:36 utc | 10
On the matters of Europe I really enjoy Tom Luongo’s analysis. I hate to see the EU crash and burn. My son has a good friend I’m Germany, a chemical engineer turned full time getting the family farm ready for the coming disaster. He has the God given skills and is able bodied but my prayers are with him and his family.
Posted by: Earl | Sep 5 2022 13:37 utc | 11
Even the most cynical will now realise the importance of the internationally backed Establishment assault on Jeremy Corbyn.
Were he or another socialist leading the Labour Party the UK would be on the verge of radical changes-re-nationalisation of the energy companies, the other utilities and transit for a start. A reversal of the 'death by a thousand cuts' commercialisation of the Health Service. And, most significant of all, withdrawal from NATO and the ending of the 'special, lap dog, relationship' with the US.
The alternative to the EU, always evident to socialists, was and is the BRI-the UK, for all its weaknesses, is still superbly equipped to complement the economies of eurasia.
I posted this a to Roberts' blog yesterday, he underlines and details the disasters which will afflict the people of England this winter. Perhaps they will wake up and, to paraphrase Chesterton, 'speak' at last.
The UK is going to need more than "a supportive device, usually a pad with a belt, worn to prevent enlargement of a hernia or the return of a reduced hernia" to get through this winter. On the other hand these are very interesting times.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 5 2022 13:38 utc | 12
Yes Bernd, the entire Russian economy is dependent on Russian consumers being able to use China’s Union Pay (rather than their own Mir, or opening bank accounts in third countries so they can use Visa) and Huawei’s current recruitment priorities (whilst ignoring the increasingly complex inter-connections into basic research being conducted between Huawei and Russian universities + Russia being one of the largest and wealthiest markets for its goods as it’s also being excluded from Western markets).
The Russian economy has some big challenges but Union Pay and Huawei’s moves don’t determine its success or otherwise.
Posted by: Macu | Sep 5 2022 13:41 utc | 13
Sorry the link:
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2022/09/04/energy-cost-of-living-and-recession/
Posted by: bevin | Sep 5 2022 13:41 utc | 14
The table for WW3 is now almost set! Iron Bitch 2.0 aka Maggie Lite is now in charge of "great" Britain (if she makes it till 2025 that is). Next, we shall have the Orange Clown aka Reagan Lite in charge of the "great" United States in 2025!
Boy, are we living in "interesting times"!
Posted by: Sam Smith | Sep 5 2022 13:45 utc | 15
I should have added “Russians opening bank accounts with third party countries so they can keep using Visa abroad (as visa still works within the country).
Posted by: Macu | Sep 5 2022 13:46 utc | 16
@Setebos777
They may need an xtra long dry dock to replace the shaft from behind the ship.
Or else they will have to take the ship apart?
Posted by: Trond | Sep 5 2022 13:49 utc | 17
"RIP Wankeristan". And good riddance.
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"RIP Europe (which includes Russia) would be a more accurate sentiment."
Russia is not Europe. Neither is Turkey. You guys need to face the reality. Also have some self respect. To European ears this all sounds very pathetic, which is one reason they don't really respect you!
+ All this Russian propaganda about "Russia is Europe" is beginning to rub us Asians the wrong way. What's wrong with Asia? Are you ashamed of your roots? Are you saying we Asians are somehow inferior to Europeans? Is that why "Caucasian" is a slur in Russia?
Posted by: feedback4RussianBots | Sep 5 2022 13:51 utc | 18
But the billionaires and banksters of the City of London will still applause her for lowering their taxes.
The esteemed residents of the City of London don't pay any taxes to the UK. The City of London does NOT belong to the UK. It's like the City of Rome aka the Vatican.
RIP Great Britain 1945.
Posted by: Sam Smith | Sep 5 2022 13:54 utc | 19
Really, is Starmer vindictive? You mean Corbyn, I guess. If so, far less than the Tories. Johnson sacked all the elder statesmen of his party. What Starmer did was just copy-cat. The real problem with Starmer is that he is under control of a foreign power, referring to the MOSSAD agent he has working in his private office, to communicate the orders from Tel Aviv. One of those orders will have been to sack Corbyn, who was always far too pro-Palestinian.
Posted by: laguerre | Sep 5 2022 13:54 utc | 20
Well, all I can say is that it says a lot about the Tory Party Grassroot members. They must be Sun readers. This country is already F.U.C.K.E.D now, it's going to be well and truly sunk. A Prime Minister who does not in the least understand international protocol, geopolitics, even pure and simple geography and has no grasp of economics is a complete disaster for this country. I thought BoJo was a complete and utter disaster and he didn't last long as Prime Minister.
The working people of this country are going to bear the brunt of all of this. When Truss talks about Tax Cuts she means them for the very rich of course not us plebs.
Well, God only knows what kind of Cabinet she is going to put together, I shudder to think.
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Sep 5 2022 13:56 utc | 21
The collective west has gone insane and it appears the heart of the insanity rests in the UK, with the US running a close second. Make no mistake where this all leads. The UK and it's NATO partners are in too deep now and cannot back off without suffering a catastrophic backlash from their humiliating defeat, so they will go all in and escalate. Even if it means their own (and our) destruction.
We ride the knife edge of oblivion with psychopaths at the controls. Incompetent, arrogant psychopaths at that.
I somehow found myself yesterday reading the comment section of a UK YouTube channel yesterday and the commenters were as lost as lost can be. The propaganda programming is deep and wide and the masses are at this point just zombie sheep gleefully being lead to the slaughterhouse.
In the US it's all Donald Trumps fault. In the UK and Europe it is all Putin's fault. When the obvious truth is, it's their own damn fault.
While these comments are about Liz Truss and UK politics I have to take a moment and ask you to appreciate that in America we face a similar situation. How can America not also be doomed when the choice ahead of it is either The Moron From Highcastle, or the Orange Monster. We are well and truly screwed.
Posted by: JustAMaverick | Sep 5 2022 14:00 utc | 22
I loved the cartoon. Now that's out of the way, I'm sure the new British PM will find a way to blame Europe, Russia, Putin, China, and last but not least, India - for buying up all that yummy Russian oil.
Posted by: AmusedIndian | Sep 5 2022 14:01 utc | 23
i have to admit i don't have enough data to analyze these things unlike many of you, but to me you are taking opposing views at the same time.
why? a few days ago some poster named atom/photon/rocket### talked about germany and europe being the next sacrificial pig and this planned decades ago.
which is interesting and makes some[1] sense and i would like to read more (rocket, please!).
now asumming this is the true intent, now we have the context, wouldn't that make the brexit a great decision and execution?
[1] /some/ because i do not see any difference between texas, new-york, berlin, london, germany, israel. that is, anglo-empire. everyone under its domain is either entirely captured or occupied. all this theater looks as if europe is suicidal, but remember they are financial powerhouses. and as long as nonsense remains this is still murdering the south (race for food and energy is a real race for south, it is a choice for you) and the inevitable suicide is always sometime in the future.
Posted by: brexitquestion | Sep 5 2022 14:06 utc | 25
ol mop top had the right qualifications to destroy his nation at the behest of the puppeteers. dating ghislaine maxwell in his college days was a start.
Posted by: hankster | Sep 5 2022 14:08 utc | 26
Posted by: Setebos777 | Sep 5 2022 13:21 utc | 7
It is probably that there is no dry dock for a 65,000 tonne ship in UK - this is the largest ship ever built
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:13 utc | 27
Walt no. 11
I can agree with all that. I left the uk many yeas ago and on a brief visit some 20 years later i was simply astounded at the dismal change. But i suppose that goes for all countries.
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Sep 5 2022 14:14 utc | 28
Completely agree with everything you say. Yes, Britain is finished with truss as PM. I read today she is focussed on "growth" and not redistribution. This of course another lie. She is 100% focussed on redistribution (from poor to rich). The inability to grasp that the economy must crash if most people have no money to buy things I take as insidious creeping cretinism among the upper classes.
Cameron was supposed to have been the worst PM ever - but every successive PM since then has been successively worse. Is Truss the last in the series? It seems hardly possible to imagine a worse PM. But then I remembered Priti Patel.
Posted by: Tim | Sep 5 2022 14:14 utc | 29
It wasn't that long ago that the Brits having a go at the Russians when the Admiral Kusnetsov was limping back to home base with a tug in tow it in case in broke down..
The Portsmouth-based Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans is keeping watch on the Admiral Kuznetsov carrier, which is being accompanied by the Petr Velikiy battlecruiser and a salvage tug as it passes close to UK territorial waters on its way home from operations in war-worn Syria.
And how the worm turns. Just five years later, Mighty Blighty who heaped scorn on the state of the Russian navy is now looking for a tow for their shiny new flattop! Maybe that tug that followed the Kusnetsov could spared to haul that junk to drydock.
Talk about a downfall. A carrier without in drydock is worth fuck all...
Posted by: RiNS | Sep 5 2022 14:15 utc | 30
@feedback4RussianBots | Sep 5 2022 13:51 utc | 19
+ All this Russian propaganda about "Russia is Europe" is beginning to rub us Asians the wrong way.Look at a map. But for sure you are trolling.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 14:21 utc | 31
apparently human kinds greatest scientific achievement is to be shut due to power costs etc. The Hadron collider cant guarantee its power source so will shut down indefinite.
Posted by: hankster | Sep 5 2022 14:23 utc | 32
Posted by: bevin | Sep 5 2022 13:38 utc | 13
Sorry Bevin, much as I agree with many of your points, nationalisation is a red-herring. Firstly you would need to buy them out at market-value which currently is very high since they are super profitable.
After that you get what ? The gas comes from Norway, the oil from Saudi and Nigeria, electricity from France.......how does nationalising the retailer get you the product ?
The real deal is to break up the energy Cartel created by Western Governments to impose Green Policy. The Electricity and Gas Auctions which rigged prices on the most costly marginal input. You know generating electricity from gas is cheap capital cost but very expensive operating cost which was why normally coal sets were Base Load, or Nuclear then working up to gas as a peak demand source.
To subsidise Renewables they made Gas the key pricing component which created windfall profits for the cheaper producers........and the British Government had a guaranteed price deal with nuclear with all the supernormal profit going to H M Treasury.
The rigged Electricity Auctions have been a great source of revenue for the Government.
It needs to dismantle the system put in place after Thatcher and exported around world by British advisers.
What I find amazing is how Russia has for decades sold key resources so cheaply on long-term contracts and transferred Value-Added from Russians to Germans and others to make high-value exports which Russians then buy. If nothing else Vladimir Putin has shown Russians they could be top dog and MANUFACTURE to prosperity.
Those compressors - CTA65 or Rolls Royce Trent were sold to Nordstream 1 in 2008 by Rolls-Royce. After sanctions started in 2014 Rolls-Royce sold its Energy Division to Siemens for $1 billion to get out of that business sector. The whole mess has been caused by sanctions for the past 8 years.........
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:24 utc | 33
"Talk about a downfall. A carrier without (a propeller) in drydock is worth fuck all..." by RiNS 31
It's worse than that...as mentioned it is a Carrier without planes. The F35 is so bad that the UK reduced the number of the jets they intend to purchase to a point where they won't even be able to fill their broken carrier with planes. 5 Billion dollars for a broken Carrier that won't even have planes. Even the F35 they do get will be down for extensive and expensive maintenance 70% of the time.
Posted by: JustAMaverick | Sep 5 2022 14:25 utc | 34
A couple of years ago I would not have believed the UK could elect an imbecile like Liz Truss as Prime Minister, but since a few months ago I have been convinced of the opposite.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 14:25 utc | 35
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:13 utc | 28
I was wrong. Rosyth is big enough. They looked at Netherlands because of proximity.
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:27 utc | 36
I'm in the UK and reacted with a shrug. It makes no difference given the policy of collective suicide (to "Build Back Better) in common with most other European countries will continue regardless.
Do people actually think the likes of Johnson and Truss make important decisions themselves? They are puppets.
Posted by: evilsooty999 | Sep 5 2022 14:30 utc | 37
A couple of years ago I would not have believed the UK could elect an imbecile like Liz Truss as Prime Minister
The UK did NOT elect Liz Truss at all - you are totally wrong !
Understand the Constitution. Before William Hague messed around as Party Leader the UK operated on the basis the Prime Minister had to command a majority in the House of Commons. If his party was the biggest he needed the support of his party to get that majority - Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain in May 1940 on that basis but Not as Party Leader until Chamberlain died in Nov 1940
Johnson resigned as Party Leader - Prime Minister tomorrow.
Until William Hague involved the membership in deciding who was Leader it was MPs in Parliament who chose the Party Leader and that made things fast and constitutional.
Because of William Cretin Hague it is now like USSR with The Party fusing itself with The State and usurping The Crown. It should be forbidden for Party Members to have any role in the governing party in government.......and only Parliament itself.
So 160,000 members of the Conservative party chose Theresa May in 2016, Boris Johnson in 2019, Liz Truss in 2022 - and it is ridiculous. Truss will have civil disorder by December
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:34 utc | 38
The damage of the Brexit disaster is still getting worse.
No it isn't. Brexit was a macroeconomic non-event and all the predictions of doom turned out to be nonsense. Britain's bountiful supply of bumhurt journalists and other establishment types ensures they blame all their many foolish failures on leaving the EU though. Just as they still regularly blame Margaret Thatcher for lots of things (she left office over 30 years ago and has been dead for a decade).
The energy crunch, caused by the economic war waged against Russia, is tearing the country apart.
Yes, and the same is happening in the EU.
Turns out it doesn't really matter very much - from an outcomes pov - which set of useless bureaucrats we have nominally running the country, but it does matter if those useless bureaucrats create a physical shortage of energy supply.
Exciting times.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 5 2022 14:35 utc | 39
Rolls-Royce sold its Energy Division to Siemens for $1 billion ...
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:24 utc | 34
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A better deal than China's Skyrizon got from Motor Sich.
The Motor Sich factories in Zaporizhzhia are at risk of being to close to the front line, just as their asset value is to close to being realized by China.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 5 2022 14:40 utc | 41
If one looks at the West - Joe Biden in the United States, Justin Trudeau in Canada, Olaf Scholz in Germany and now Liz Truss in Great Britain - one wonders how this can be happening.
Is the West simply in such terminal decline that clowns like this are ruling countries or is it something else?
Is there a group behind the scenes deliberately trying to bring down the West?
I go round and round with these issues. But I can't seem to get a grip on what is happening. It is all so incredible that it is mind numbing.
Posted by: Mike from Jersey | Sep 5 2022 14:42 utc | 42
You have no education nor clue and sadly no initiative either. A cursory reading of the internet would have told you the Russians are a European people and all of the motherland of Russia is West of the Urals ie border of Europe.
Russians are certainly Europeans ; they are just not Catholic or Western Europeans. They are Eastern Europeans which until the 1200s (Sack of Greek and/or Orthodox Byzantium) were the centre of all “European action “ culturally , militarily and economically. Even during its sack ,at it weakest , Byzantium was still the most beautiful, richest and largest Euro city with the largest Christian cathedral in the world . It was not beaten by St Peter in the Vatican till hundreds of years later. Venice was only built into an empire after it raped Byzantium. Etc
In Russia, a Caucasian in every day speech means a person from the Caucasus Region or East of the Black Sea and including countries like Georgia, Azerbaijan and Chechnya. Most of the region is of jihadi Moslems and failed deluded Christian Russophobic states ie Georgia. So it does not mean a “European” or “White “ Man as it does in the rest of Europe. Only when speaking in a scientific sense would a Russian read “Caucasian” as referring to common ,White Man ie European.
All Russians see themselves as European, but maybe not as Atlanticist -controlled Europeans like the EU /Nato is these days. Ie a Russian nowadays sees himself as what Gaullist Frenchmen did in the Sixties ie before they lost their stones and became German vassals.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Sep 5 2022 14:44 utc | 43
Norwegian no. 36
It's worse than you think:
"Conservative leadership frontrunner Liz Truss said she is “ready” to launch nuclear war if she becomes prime minister next month."
The foreign secretary told a Tory hustings event in Birmingham that she was willing to hit Britain’s nuclear button if necessary – even if meant “global annihilation”.
Hustings host John Pienaar asked the strong favourite to win the contest about facing a decision which would make him feel “physically sick”.
“Your orders to our Trident boat captain on whether you, prime minister, is giving the order to unleash nuclear weapons. It would mean global annihilation … How does that thought make you feel?” he asked.
Truss appeared without emotion as she replied: “I think it’s an important duty of the prime minister and I’m ready to do that.” She added: “I’m ready to do that.”
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Sep 5 2022 14:45 utc | 44
I visited the capital (we have 2!) of the Netherlands after 5 years this weekend. Everybody happy, very warm summer weather. OK everything is double the price, and most scooters are electric now. People are worried about the winter and the upcoming crisis, but after the covid years it seems still very abstract for most people here. I saw still some Ukrainian flags (now a rarity in my provincial town). Nobody knows anything about the counteroffensive. People seem very unwilling to talk about the conflict, and think the blame is for our government and Putin.
Posted by: Rootman | Sep 5 2022 14:47 utc | 45
Posted by: Orchard1 | Sep 5 2022 13:33 utc | 10
Bad luck?
Nope, they forgot to lubricate the drive shaft
Posted by: JustAMaverick | Sep 5 2022 14:25 utc | 35
Worse than that. I read the Royal Navy already has to have US jets with the associated US pilots on loan already, as it hasn’t enough planes or pilots of its own. How many Brits knew that ?
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 14:25 utc | 36
No surprise, I knew it would be Truss from Day One and I have not wavered once ! I thought to myself ,who is the dumbest candidate? Truss! So that is the one the Americans will have elected and I was proven right. Just like Starmer, just like Olaf and Bareback and Trudeau in Canada. No way the Americans want an independent thinker amongst their Allies .
Posted by: Brother Ma | Sep 5 2022 14:55 utc | 48
Posted by: JustAMaverick | Sep 5 2022 14:25 utc | 35
The F35 is so bad that the UK reduced the number of the jets they intend to purchase to a point where they won't even be able to fill their broken carrier with planes.
Incorrect. The reason Britain won't buy as many F-35's (which is, by most accounts, a good plane albeit a jack of all trades) as first expected has nothing to do with the quality of the aircraft.
It's because we can't really afford them (sustainment costs are massive and we're already broke) and anyway, the strategic purpose of Britain's aircraft carriers is to provide a taxi service for the US Marine Corps. Britain, as an island in Northwest Europe, doesn't need aircraft carriers. Britain *is* an aircraft carrier. But our political masters 'need' to keep the special relationship sweet.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 5 2022 14:55 utc | 49
ThusspakeZar[email protected]
Control over the employment of Trident rests with the Pentagon. In any case Liz-Strictly Protect- Truss is almost certainly a US agent so she would ask permission anyway.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 5 2022 14:56 utc | 50
@Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:34 utc | 39
A couple of years ago I would not have believed the UK could elect an imbecile like Liz Truss as Prime MinisterThe people didn't, but the people has no say. Those who really decide (s)elected her.The UK did NOT elect Liz Truss at all - you are totally wrong !
Understand the Constitution. Before William Hague messed around as Party Leader the UK operated on the basis the Prime Minister had to command a majority in the House of Commons. If his party was the biggest he needed the support of his party to get that majority - Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain in May 1940 on that basis but Not as Party Leader until Chamberlain died in Nov 1940The law in a lawless country makes no difference.
Truss will have civil disorder by DecemberLet us hope so. I think it is likely.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 15:00 utc | 51
@ThusspakeZarathustra | Sep 5 2022 14:45 utc | 45
It's worse than you think:Not really, because I did take into account what you explained. My respect for the UK politicians is maybe worse than you think...
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 15:05 utc | 52
@Brother Ma | Sep 5 2022 14:55 utc | 49
No surprise, I knew it would be Truss from Day One and I have not wavered once ! I thought to myself ,who is the dumbest candidate? Truss! So that is the one the Americans will have elected and I was proven right. Just like Starmer, just like Olaf and Bareback and Trudeau in Canada. No way the Americans want an independent thinker amongst their Allies .I agree this is a clear pattern. The solution is to end the US occupation.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 15:09 utc | 53
Paul [email protected]
Nationalisation of the railways, for example, is an option which comes up regularly. It has taken considerable ingenuity on the part of successive UK governments not to bring several operating franchises back into public ownership.
As to the general question of nationalisation, there are many alternatives, including no compensation, to buying the stock at market valuations. One of them would be to enforce already existing regulations on, again for example, the companies which cut water costs by dumping sewage into the waterways and selling the polluted water to the public.
One of the advantages of leaving the EU was that the UK regained its legal sovereignty on just these matters. It is Europe's problem that the draconian neo-liberal regulations began with Thatcher's malign influence on the European economy.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 5 2022 15:10 utc | 54
Let us hope so. I think it is likely.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 15:00 utc | 52
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The Unionists have almost certainly lost Northern Ireland.
Posted by: too scents | Sep 5 2022 15:11 utc | 55
Right now I feel pity for my family and friends back in Scotland. The Scots haven't voted for a Tory majority since the 1950's, yet they still get a clownshow of Blue or Red to rule over them. After Boris, you would not have bet money on someone worse than him taking over - who would have thought that such a person even existed in the Tory party.
I'm no fan of Thatcher by any means after the de-industrialization of my home country, but she at least had more than a single brain cell.
But the way of the UK is the Atlanticist way. Too many of their political class have already been indoctrinated with the various US based think tanks and NGO's.
Posted by: Al Dossary | Sep 5 2022 15:19 utc | 56
Mike from Jersey @ 43
I go round and round with these issues. But I can't seem to get a grip on what is happening. It is all so incredible that it is mind numbing.
Its a deep dark hole. Physical, historical, religious, spiritual. I have settled on the Anglo American NATO death cult theory after decades of struggle. I would say these people are very dangerous and another 911 type event is not beyond their grasp to pull it together but without solid stable energy inputs they have nothing.
Now, their policy mix is a complete disaster all round the globe. As may here state, the rise of the East and the fall of the West is baked into the cake. They had their 500 years of power and control and it is over. Stuff like this does not turn off like a light bulb. It falls apart in ever increasing waves. Sort of like a spinning top loosing momentum.
Posted by: circumspect | Sep 5 2022 15:23 utc | 57
Posted by: Al Dossary | Sep 5 2022 15:19 utc | 58
The Scots haven't voted for a Tory majority since the 1950's, yet they still get a clownshow of Blue or Red to rule over them.
Don't worry. They have their own, indigenous clownshow in Edinburgh that's every bit as corrupt, stupid and useless as the best of what England has to offer.
Wee Nicola Sturgeon was recently gloating about "40,000 dead Russian soldiers".
Posted by: ZX | Sep 5 2022 15:26 utc | 58
Article in the Sun comparing UK and Russian prices. Make for grim,or amusing reading depending where you plant your flag.
Posted by: Bob | Sep 5 2022 15:26 utc | 59
'RIP Great Britain' implies regret or grief for England's passing from rump of empire to a pauper state. Seeing the Brexit supporters suffer from their ignorance and loyalty to accumulated wealth deserves no regret.
Posted by: Wilikins | Sep 5 2022 15:29 utc | 60
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Sep 5 2022 14:13 utc | 28
"It is probably that there is no dry dock for a 65,000 tonne ship in UK - this is the largest ship ever built"
Are you serious?? Look up the sizes of oil tankers or cruise liners. Look at the size of the US aircraft carriers.
Posted by: Ross | Sep 5 2022 15:30 utc | 61
Clownfall?
Truss holds first Cabinet meeting
https://t.me/antinatocoalition/880
The speed of the collapse is astonishing
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 15:30 utc | 62
@ trs | Sep 5 2022 15:19 utc | 59
Jonas Gahr Støre is the prime minister of Norway. He served under Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as Minister of Foreign Affairs.Did I say it is any better here? FYI it is not, but this thread is about the UK. You may have seen my comments about Stoltenberg...
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 5 2022 15:33 utc | 63
Circumspect, you wrote:
"They had their 500 years of power and control and it is over. Stuff like this does not turn off like a light bulb. It falls apart in ever increasing waves. Sort of like a spinning top loosing momentum."
Very apt way of putting it.
Posted by: Mike from Jersey | Sep 5 2022 15:33 utc | 64
Not so much the "Age of Aquarius" but rather the age of the mentally challenged. The UK has moved from a pound shop Churchill to a pound shop Thatcher; The USA has moved from a Black Lies Machine to a Demented Hitler Clone and the Ukraine has an actual Clown.
Thanks entirely to these people the West is truly finished.
Posted by: Steve Says | Sep 5 2022 15:38 utc | 65
Posted by: Wilikins | Sep 5 2022 15:29 utc | 63
I don't see what real difference it makes, whether the UK stayed in a corrupted US controlled EU or embarked on its own course as a poodle of independence. kinda like the endless agonies over whether the Democrats or Republicans win the next US election.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 5 2022 15:44 utc | 66
There are no politics in the UK, that's why there's no political opposition from the (former) Labour Party, or indeed any other organisation that claims to be on the left.
This is what 100 years of Reformism get you: Nowhere!
The "incompetent officials or governments" in the west, inflation, war mongering' or defense for the Russian survival is the narrative of 2022. 2020-2021 it was the goof. Peak oil happened prior to these.
The energy resources to sustain the fiat currency economic (or any other model) worldwide growth are gone.
Russia owns the best hand when it comes to energy resources. The US still has something of its own, but not for long. China grabbed some of Africa and exploits others like the US. Still, that would not be enough before chaos that comes when energy runs out.
Someone has to give up, loose and suffer to buy time for global elite to continue like there was no tomorrow - that should be the EU - it is conveniently controlled by the US via Commission, Russia by the energy, and by China via WEF narrative and manufacturing capacity, not to forget logistics, and belt and road dealings.
"MSO" in Ukraine is a nice narrative to put Europe and its population on its knees so the global elite can continue another decade of power without having to control all the global people the same time. This will buy another decade, and then its time for someone else to become captive state.
Posted by: Tigger | Sep 5 2022 15:47 utc | 68
Posted by: Steve Says | Sep 5 2022 15:38 utc | 68
bootlickers love cops. blue lives matter they shout. case in point Uvalde, where the corrupt brutal occupying force, having no black citizens to murder, dithered around while a maniac executed schoolchildren.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 5 2022 15:50 utc | 70
"...Is there a group behind the scenes deliberately trying to bring down the West?..."
Posted by: Mike from Jersey | Sep 5 2022 14:42 utc | 43
Mike, if you as I do watch Masterpiece Theater on PBS, it is the lady with the blue hair. Think of her as the figurehead for everything that is wrong with the west today, and for which, Britain (no great about it) is the figurehead, like fractals. Of course, she is not personally to blame and no doubt is as noble as she obviously feels, with a family and friends who are virtuous upstanding citizens. I simply choose her to illustrate what a fractal is -- it bears all the contours in miniature of the larger pattern of nations grouped together. So, to understand the huge mess we are in, we need to study the miniature element, down as far as we can go.
Start there. PBS used to be what its initials say -- 'Public'. I can remember when it was that. Supported by our tax dollars. Now there is a great list of donors to whom we need be grateful if we are to view anything beyond the mediocre (and that anything has diminished greatly to reruns of shows we didn't really like the first time we saw them.) And the only thing public is the interminable pleas for donations, which only the wealthy can significantly supply.
There. That's one teensy pertuberence of the teensy fractal. Fractals is where it's at and now that teensy pertuberence writ large is named Liz, and what is public about that is the image from the screamer.
Thank you, b. How do you uncreate a fractal?
Posted by: juliania | Sep 5 2022 15:51 utc | 71
The Brits chose that direction. Not by a single choice in a heated moment. They constantly, consciously, insistently labored to make it happen. They yelled at, reviled, despised and smeared everyone who warned them about it. They built a hill of sh*t by carrying the pieces of turd in their own hands. And they want to die on that hill, even despite its a giant pile of sh*t. There is no reasoning for such people and there is no pitying them for what end result they so laboriously made happen.
Posted by: Dodrey Dougherton | Sep 5 2022 15:51 utc | 72
I've been staying in GER( 2.1/2 year break) for personal reasons, but this will come to an end at the end of September. Then I' ll return to my formal occupation in working for an organisation setting up projects, worldwide, for SO CALLED handicapped people (regardless how it does appear).
So normally I'm working 6 months in the US, CAN & South Amerika, than 4 months in China & Asia, to return to Europe & Russia for 2 months....
So I may claim I see the influences & politics & stage play dealings with my very own eyes since more than 20 years.
Unfortunately the amounts of utter mendacity, hypocricy & double standards are everywhere to find BUT the USA only IS that huge ICEBERG, where you see just the "TIP" of it, but a very bloody, cruel-greedy, murderous & massive REST lays below the viewable.
Americans are the most brainwashed people on this earth!!
I'd talks in the filthiest Indian slums, humans who never went to any school or in so called most indoctrinated places like NK, where citizens came up with a rather balanced & acurate reflection of our world than the vast majoriety of so called well educated Americans.
If I stay in the USA, I'll prefer home-stay thats the only way to get a authentic picture of what is going on, REALLY... and I can tell you it isn't pretty.
WHAT YOU SEE OR HEAR... mostly !!!
Since 1O years it's almost disintegrating.
How come, those rotten inner cities in general ?!... in one of the richest countries!?... all those mentally impaired people on the streets (also there're working poor, people/families living in their cars, kicked out youth, other homeless, drug adicts etc.) or in prison, not in places (there are some, ofc, yet too little drops on a very hot plate!) to help, cure or support. All in all that's MILLIONs , and it's just one factor.
Even when the packaging seems to be affluent or even rich. So much hate (well hidden under phoney blah, blah, blah) for each orther, so much envy and excuses for taking advantages, regardless how cruel or inhuman.
And so called racism has a nice pillow everywhere, among all ethnics backgrounds. Sometimes I was quite surprised what blacks, latinos and asians had to say about each others... and also what they did to each other.
If you look at the bigger picture, you start to understand... all of this gives you the right impressions about the true face of the USA... and to me its seems impossible to come up with any movement big enough to generate a more social & humane society, without destroying the foundations of the actual one!!!
The only way to bring change, an better alternative, of course not perfect but nonetheless more just and balanced, is the falling down & defeat or how the Germans say: Die Niederlage of the USA. Even physically... if neccessary.
Unfortunately, this might be the case, then Americans will learn themselves how it does feel & hurt to be eradicated for purely political reasons.
And the moment the USA-Cancer is erased, all those puppets will be silient, including bloody scheming UK.
That's the lesson in history you read over and over in those writings of mankind.
I remember that fake prediction, lol,
that the USA where that country best prepared to overcome a mega pandemic.
After one MILLION deads: a rather braindead & imcompetent govermental USA - REALLY - is that emperor without clothes, enriching corporations & owners, the ONE %, but leaves the commons - more than ever - helpless and eventual dead.
And believe me you have no idea what will hit you, the moment hot war between US - CHN will break loose, especially concerning RUS also involved, somehow.
And sorry to tell you, in the aftermath the USA won't be relevant anymore. In stark contrast to CHN & RUS.
Like your outdated airports, when I arrive from China in the USA, let allone from its first tier cities, you REALLY look, feel and behave quite outdated and rather banana-republic-like.
It's painful to read that 51% of all Americans believe Dinos & Humans walked the same earth together according to some publications. Over 35% still think Iraq had WMD, at least 42% do believe Iraq did attack the USA via 9.11., even so the VAST majority of planning and executing terrorists were Saudi-Arabians. And so on, on and on...
The USA reminds me of our former cousin the Homo Erectus, almost 2 million years on earth, who conquered quasi the entire landmass, only to go down surprisingly fast.
That's you, America: Created on ethnic cleansing & genocide of the natives !!
(You broke or "adjusted" every single CONTRACT, more than 500 !!, during the first 200 years, there're about 500 nations, far more than just 8 million people, latest studies estimated 24-35 million people lived before the Europeans came along. Where are they!? What happened? 8 years ago the UN wrote: native proverty of appaling & extreme levels, a genocide of culture almost complete, the native's elite as corrupt as greedy as the 'white' ones, the financial damage scince settlers' arriving counts on double diggit trillons of dollars... got it any better... ?! )
And concerning the empire, compared to the Roman one, you haven't even gotten the 300 years touchstone, and definitely you won't reach its almost 950 years.
You'll stuck with the as greedy as sad bloody end of the Roman Republic - it's such a mirror to the USA, historically.
And it won't take the next 50 years to lay your "IMPERIUM" to rest.
If so... a bright new day may arise for the homo sapiens sapiens.
Ciao
AW
i
Posted by: AW | Sep 5 2022 15:58 utc | 73
I am an Italian (now double citizenship) living in the UK.
The educational standards are appalling. Logic and critical thinking are fairly rare below age thirty. Virtue signalling is, basically, a faith. Even the love of freedom, still very present in parts of the population, is waning.
In short, Brits have become very easy to manipulate, and their little flag on the Twitter handle is more important to many of them than fundamental freedoms, or common sense. When an entire Country accepts to be locked home under the slogan “protect the NHS” (national health service) you know your democratic institutions and the very understanding of freedom have been gravely damaged.
In a Democracy, even an antiquated one like the Brits have, you get, more or less, what you deserve.
Today, Britain gets Liz Truss, because it does not deserve any better.
This winter will be interesting, to say the least.
Posted by: Alexander P | Sep 5 2022 16:00 utc | 74
Remember the days when the 'left' stood for workers' rights, industry, free speech and the working class - now it cares more about pronouns, cow farts and intersectionality. My Scottish 'land of the brave' is now inhabited by cowards who long for another lockdown so they can put their masks back on (some are still wearing them); where using the wrong word could cost you a fine and where politicians know less about politics than my dog. Oh for the good old days. I would even welcome Maggie back - at least she had a brain (as someone said).
Posted by: Rob Campbell | Sep 5 2022 16:01 utc | 75
USS Gerald R Ford the most expensive warship ever built (issues loading and activating weapon systems) and now HMS Prince of Wales, Britain's largest (well they've a total of two sitting ducks) aircraft carrier basically reduced to floating barges. A combined cost of $20 Billion down the drain. Who's accountable for these financial, engineering clusterfucks?
Posted by: WTFUD | Sep 5 2022 16:04 utc | 76
@juliania | Sep 5 2022 15:51 utc | 74
So you're saying PM Truss is the Lorenz attractor of our comeuppance?
Posted by: too scents | Sep 5 2022 16:05 utc | 77
ZX - Brexit was a macroeconomic non-event and all the predictions of doom turned out to be nonsense. Agree. I still find it very odd that many Celts (aka the original Ancient Britons) hate the bureaucracy of the old empire in Llan Steffan (Westminster) and yet want to join - if they gain independence) - the monster corrupt bureaucracy in Brussels. I just don't get the logic. Why not work towards some sort of Celtic Federation (Ireland will become united in the near future) of the Irish, Scottish and Welsh nations, with a population of about 14 million? Great potential, prosperity etc and free from London based government. Why is no one looking deeper into the economy of such a model? Ireland could then free itself from its slavish relationship to another 'empire' in its history, the EU/NATO, and be truly sovereign again. A truly British renaissance - why not!
Posted by: Geraint ap Iorwerth | Sep 5 2022 16:11 utc | 78
@Trond
January 20, 2019
https://www.navylookout.com/dry-docking-the-royal-navys-aircraft-carriers-what-are-the-options/
“… In the next 50 years, the carriers will have to undergo complex major refits and upgrades which will need to be done in appropriate facilities. The final dimensions of the QEC carriers were agreed in December 2005 allowing nearly a decade and a half to plan the docking arrangements for the ships. Despite this considerable time, no ideal site has been prepared and choices are limited. Rosyth is the least unattractive solution in the short term but more work must be done to give the aircraft carriers a maintenance facility in keeping with their national importance.”
Posted by: Setebos777 | Sep 5 2022 16:12 utc | 79
January 20, 2019
https://www.navylookout.com/dry-docking-the-royal-navys-aircraft-carriers-what-are-the-options/
“… Having built the ships and won the first docking contract, Rosyth looks in pole position to be the choice for all future dry docking of the aircraft carriers. The site benefits from its heritage as a naval dockyard, modern facilities, good security, and an experienced workforce. However the access for large ships is poor and its long term future is uncertain. Entry and exit for the QEC into the basin at Rosyth is a very demanding operation. When HMS Queen Elizabeth left her birthplace in June 2017 there was a narrow window of just 6 days during that month when the tidal conditions were suitable. Eleven tugs were needed to make a carefully orchestrated move that could only be done in good visibility and light winds. Although the basin entrance was substantially rebuilt in 2010, there is less than a metre of clearance on either side and just 50cm between the keel and the seabed. All these factors restrict access the facilities in Rosyth to limited periods of opportunity, far from ideal, especially if dry docking is urgent. Every entry and exit at Rosyth will involve a much greater risk of delay or even damage to the ship than almost all the other alternative docks in the UK. Investment in dredging and modifying the basin entrance could be a sensible option if the MoD decides to make the site its permanent choice for carrier drydocking.”
Posted by: Setebos777 | Sep 5 2022 16:17 utc | 81
A good summary of where the UK is at from Tim Watkins particularly in regarding nationalisation:
"But nationalisation is not a free lunch. The downside of subsidising the cost of essentials like energy – one must also assume that food shortages will be met by similar approaches – is that the benefits of neoliberalism – primarily low-cost discretionary, and not-so-discretionary goods – will also be lost, simply because of the inevitable currency reset which will leave the Euro and the Pound with far lower purchasing power than we have become accustomed to.
In any case, bereft of genuine leadership, Europe – and especially the UK – is likely to produce the worst of all worlds because, instead of getting ahead of the crisis, the technocracy – largely out of perceived self-interest – will tinker around the edges even as their economies and societies disintegrate. In which case, nationalisation will arrive not as part of a new mixed economy which seeks to develop the best of both state and market, but in the arms of a revolutionary mob wearing jackboots and armbands."
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2022/09/01/a-basket-of-bad-ideas/
Posted by: Tel | Sep 5 2022 16:18 utc | 82
Posted by: Wilikins | Sep 5 2022 15:29 utc | 63
Seeing the Brexit supporters suffer from their ignorance and loyalty to accumulated wealth deserves no regret.
It never ceases to amuse how virtually every single billionaire, FTSE100 company, and member of Britain's political, media, public sector and academic establishments was (and still is) openly campaigning for Remain, yet somehow the majority of the population was 'tricked' by an unnamed-but-totally-real cabal of EU-hating plutocrats. Such as... eh... that Wetherspoons pubs guy. And, uh, John Cleese? They probably have their secret Brexit meetings in Nigel Farage's conservatory.
Reminds me of the low-information people currently toting little Ukrainian flags on their social media presence. Bless!
Posted by: Tigger | Sep 5 2022 15:47 utc | 71
One day, Peak Oilers will be right.
But it is not this day.
I don't know if you've noticed, but the UK, EU and United States have been very hostile to developing new oil fields over the past several years. So exploration and production of new fields has considerably slowed down, because for some reason private companies tend to shy away from spending billions on new projects under governments that are promising to ban the products they sell.
There's plenty of oil in the North Sea, plenty of gas in mainland parts of the UK and Europe. They're just either discouraged or outright banned by law from exploiting it.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 5 2022 16:22 utc | 83
I like to remind my road cycling friends ⛰️ 🚴♂️🚴♀️ that everything in life cannot be downhill.
But evidently some things can.
Guy Walters 🇺🇦 on Twitter, August 31, 2022Extraordinary to think that the Queen's first prime minister was Winston Churchill, and her last may well be Liz Truss.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Sep 5 2022 16:24 utc | 84
ZX @ 40
"Exciting times"
Please as humans, we should tone down such excitement. We should demonstrate some humanity. There is nothing exciting for tens and hundreds of thousands of people dying in the SMO of Ukraine; Russian soldiers, Russian civilians, Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians. Being "friends'" or "enemy's" side wont change the fact that there is loads of totally unnecessary suffering taking place on both sides.
Seeing that so many commentators consider that "exciting" or "reason for popcorn" show the totality of cynical times and the mindset of people we have become.
We should seriously STOP this nonsense of party on others' misery.
Posted by: Tigger | Sep 5 2022 16:25 utc | 85
As an average stain on the streets of Britain, I'd argue it's a little different than presented.
1) We needed isolation from Europe, and Europe needed isolation from us.
2) The labour party under Starmer has denied the people a voice. Others are stepping up
Change is coming to the UK, one way or another.
Posted by: Some Random Passerby | Sep 5 2022 16:28 utc | 86
@ZX 50
Not for nothing that Orwell referred to the UK as "Airstrip One" in Nineteeneightyfour.
Posted by: FrankDrakman | Sep 5 2022 16:30 utc | 87
Tigger | Sep 5 2022 16:25 utc | 88
That's quite enlightened onsidering some of your previous posts. The fact is this website is and has always been a lens for the hatred of the regulars who post here. Other people's suffering is the fuel for the MoA "community." And when the war is over they'll find something else for their two minutes hate.
Posted by: Goeff | Sep 5 2022 16:31 utc | 88
Scotland Independence ?
On can predict Liz Truss will be a catalyst to accelerate
Posted by: Exile | Sep 5 2022 16:39 utc | 89
There is a wonderful meme of Truss trying buy a return from London Euston to Balmoral (where the Queen is), yet the web form says of Balmoral - no such station.
Posted by: Kaiama | Sep 5 2022 16:40 utc | 90
Posted by: Tel | Sep 5 2022 16:18 utc | 85
Yes, but we're only looking at bad ideas to 'solve' the energy crisis (soon to be an Everything Crisis).
From 'the Right': fart around with tax cuts and balloon the national debt even more
From 'the Left': any number of zany schemes from more windmills to full blown Communism
What they have in common is that nobody in power or influence is interested in addressing the actual cause of the crisis - the West's ongoing attempts to destroy the Russian economy, depose their government and kill their servicemen.
Nationalising stuff is the perfect displacement activity. It won't provide so much as a cubic foot of more gas and it won't reduce costs by so much as a penny. But it appeals to the same people who bitterly complain about the routine incompetence and waste in our other state-run services, because these people don't think in joined-up sentences and assume of life's problems are an opportunity to virtue signal about how 'caring' they are.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 5 2022 16:40 utc | 91
ZX @86
"One day, Peak Oilers will be right.
But it is not this day.
I don't know if you've noticed, but the UK, EU and United States have been very hostile to developing new oil fields over the past several years. So exploration and production of new fields has considerably slowed down, because for some reason private companies tend to shy away from spending billions on new projects under governments that are promising to ban the products they sell.
There's plenty of oil in the North Sea, plenty of gas in mainland parts of the UK and Europe. They're just either discouraged or outright banned by law from exploiting it."
What you say is factual, but not a the momentum of peak oil. Peak oil is not only about proven reserves or depletion of them but mostly about the ability to invest vs. demand. The demand is determined by the poorest of client. The very reason why "exploration and production has slowed down" is due to lack of demand when major part of the global market has declined below the required return to investment. The demand can no longer support the exploration and production, which cause the economy to collapse and reduce even more the demand. This can no longer be fixed in a system that relies of economic growth by fiat currency.
Luckily, there is good article about this on oilprice.com There is more to the matter but his should get you onto the track for further research:
Posted by: Tigger | Sep 5 2022 16:43 utc | 92
Goeff @91
"That's quite enlightened onsidering some of your previous posts."
Would you care to refer what do you mean by this? I certainly have not celebrated on anyone's misery? My tone might have been occasionally dark but only to reflect the reality of matters - cynicism at most.
If you feel otherwise - please post here "some of my previous posts" that make you feel such?
Thanks.
Posted by: Tigger | Sep 5 2022 16:55 utc | 93
The golden years were 1945 to 1979, and as a resident back then I became a Labour supporter and member, I guess I was a patriot and proud of the land of my birth. But I simply don’t recognise it any more as having any resemblance to that country.
It is clear that the UK like most of the EU countries is wrecked and I am glad to be out of it, but I watch the developments with a mixture of horror and, let’s be honest, a little touch of schadenfreude. Keep passing the popcorn, b.
Posted by: Walt | Sep 5 2022 13:36 utc | 11
I'm going back to London for family reunion in 3 weeks. Good to see family after too many years but dreading both the travel into and out of dysfunctional Heathrow and one week in London. So will enjoy the former and avoid the latter. Maybe berry-picking in Sussex better than argy - bargy elbowing through the tube or double-deckers.
Posted by: Exile | Sep 5 2022 16:39 utc | 92
Scotland Independence ?
On can predict Liz Truss will be a catalyst to accelerate
Nobody in Scottish politics is even slightly interested in independence. They're promoting 'independence', i.e. rule by exactly the same sclerotic woke (yet incompetent) managerialist class that's currently destroying the UK, but with a little EU flag in place of the Union Jack.
Scottish 'nationalists' are every bit as enthusiastic about rule by unaccountable global corporations and their pet politicians as Westminster is, every bit as contemptuous of their own indigenous working class and its annoyingly non-PC views, every bit as wedded to massively reducing the plebians' living standards thru Net Zero, and every bit as eager to start a major, cataclysmic war with Russia.
It's every bit as fake as the career of Alexei Navalny. Scottish 'nationalist' MP's reliably repeat MI6/Bellingcat talking points just like he does.
Posted by: Tigger | Sep 5 2022 16:43 utc | 95
The demand is determined by the poorest of client.
Oil prices have gone through the roof, so idk what you're talking about re: lack of demand. Falling demand would lead to lower prices.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 5 2022 16:58 utc | 95
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Sep 5 2022 16:24 utc | 87
Extraordinary to think that the Queen's first prime minister was Winston Churchill, and her last may well be Liz Truss.
It's actually quite fitting.
Sir Winston was a drunk and a war criminal, having invented the concentration camp concept in South Africa and fire bombing of cities (along with that other Limey whom I have forgotten).
Liz "I am clueless on geography but I can surly fire nuclear ICBMs at Russia!" Trotter, I mean Truss, will be the fitting bookend, as in back to the stone ages, for Great England.
Posted by: Sam Smith | Sep 5 2022 17:00 utc | 96
Tim @ 30
Politicians don't talk about shrinking the size of government to help those who are productive but strive to increase the size of government to benefit their cronies. Most often cronies du jour.
Cancer cells don't stop growing to let the host survive. They can't.
Posted by: Drapetomaniac | Sep 5 2022 17:03 utc | 97
@Setebos777
"The two Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carriers will require dry-docking periodically throughout their lives. The dry docks at Portsmouth and Devonport naval bases are not large enough to accommodate them so the RN must choose between a very limited selection of other UK facilities. Here we examine some of the options."
So they have options in the UK.
They have dry docks with room for the ships, but if they have to drag the shaft out from the ass end of the ship to put in a new?
Those shafts are usually very long...
Not enough room?
Posted by: Trond | Sep 5 2022 17:05 utc | 98
On the other hand these are very interesting times.
Posted by: bevin | Sep 5 2022 13:38 utc | 13
What happened to Jeremy is wrong. But leaders need support from lower and upper classes and he had none from the latter.
So has it always been, so shall it ever be. Ask Gorbie, Trump, Nicholas II, Julius Caesar etc...
Tigger | Sep 5 2022 16:43 utc | 95
The Oil Price article by Gail Tverberg is very interesting
Here is another on the thesis of Simon Michaux-
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/08/23/is-there-enough-metal-to-replace-oil/
Posted by: Gerrard White | Sep 5 2022 17:10 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Wow! What an eulogy!
Knowing the British mentality, I'm sure they'll find a way to imagine their demise's NOT their fault and entirely Uncle Sam's.
The "bloody Yanks" excuse always works.
British mentality pt. II : they'll certainly find a way to whore themselves to former enemies (Russia China) in exchange of a few (billion) quid. Arrogant then servile? Yes they can!
Of course I'm describing the mentality of the Brit upper-crust. The British man of the street has all my sympathy.
Posted by: Nanker | Sep 5 2022 13:14 utc | 1