Sunday 2 March: Europe has to adapt to the brutal realities of Trump’s new world order

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

610 thoughts on “Sunday 2 March: Europe has to adapt to the brutal realities of Trump’s new world order”

        1. Thanks, Ndovu, I didn't realise that Geoff's surname began with the letter G.

  5. You are very welcome to No 10, Starmer tells Zelensky. 2 march 2025.

    The two leaders warmly embraced outside the black door of Number 10 on Saturday, with the Prime Minister telling Mr Zelensky: “As you heard from the cheers on the street outside, you have full backing across the United Kingdom, and we stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take.

    The “cheerers” weren’t from Central Office by any chance?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/01/starmer-tells-zelensky-you-are-welcome-to-10-downing-street/

    2. You are very welcome to No 10, Starmer tells Zelensky
      "In fact, help yourself to anything you want"

    3. Last evening I watched Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman as Churchill.
      Surrounded with the usual self opinionated political classes.
      He actually went out and met the people of Britain on an underground train and asked their opinions.
      Thank goodness for that.
      Perhaps our current mob of self opinionated barely elected trash in Wastemonster, could try a similar tactic.

      1. If they did they risk being spat on by the taxpayer or, more likely, robbed and raped by the gimmigrant enrichers.

      2. Well, they certainly would meet a lot of people of colour. The one whom Churchill met in the film was certainly a figment of the scriptwriter's imagination.

      3. They wouldn’t do it without an armed escort and Kevlar body armour. Then they would ensure anyone using the transport at the same time would have been vetted for correct views.

    1. 402438+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Know thine enemy enemas, the
      lab/lib/con / greens coalition ,
      the illegal invaders, in that order.

        1. 403438+ up ticks,

          Morning EB,

          Sorry, tis so, you leave these type politico’s in place and in a short space of time they WILL construct an 8 lane bridge direct Calais to Dover, quicker than the Chinese could.

    2. Au contraire we do know what their aims are; to establish the caliphate and subjugate everyone to islam.

      1. 403438+ up ticks,

        Afternoon C,
        Then for decades why has the supporter / voters of the lab / lib / con coalition not been heeding the obvious build up taking place.
        Mosque, lord mayors, council members, crime numbers.

        1. I think they've known all along what was happening but nobody had the guts to do anything about it

          1. 402438+ up ticks,

            Evening FA,
            I do believe you are right,I also
            think that many traded in their guts for garters, which in the long run has made things a great deal worse.

  7. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,352 4/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      I felt a bit slow today – my last two wrong guesses were far less likely than the correct answer!
      Wordle 1,352 5/6

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    3. Why didn't she just kick him hard in the nuts? No man can keep hold of a sleeve with that sort of pain.
      Yes, I know that birth pains are much worse, [somebody said it's like sh!tting a block of flats] but loads of women DO go back for more, don't they.

  10. There's a spat on our local Fb page now – people writing to our local MP (Labour) to get Trump banned from the UK. One stirrer telling the truth about Ukraine.

      1. With interest – but we may have to wait a while until the radiation dies down to manageable levels.

      2. It's like a student loan.

        Charge an usurious rate of interest knowing that the loan will not be serviced and will never be repaid and will be forgiven when Zelensky steps down as president of Ukraine.

    1. Give that invading mob of 'diversity' weapons and we are finished.
      They've done enough damage to our country as it is.
      Thanks to our useless politicians.

  15. Morning all 🙂😊
    Frost sparkling in the bright sunshine how lovely.
    Have a good day all. 😉

  16. Morning, all Y'all.
    Looks like it might be going to be spring outside – only light cloud, nearly sunny, dry, and SWMBOs home-made marmalade on toast for breakfast. Bitter, lovely!

    1. I looked out an hour ago and there were four grey squirrels racing around in our neighbours oak tree.
      I daren't put any bird food out yet. They've already destroyed the bird feeder by schewing the tray to fragments.
      Everything I grow in our garden they steal.

  17. Good Morning!

    Following on from the White House wobbler between Trump, Vance and Zelensky we look at why Vance told the Ukrainian his fortune and what was the real cause of the war in Ukraine. Please do read Zelensky V Trump and Vance and let us know what you think.

    Duke Maskell’s look at BBC bias, using an exceptionally bad example of the interview with the former leader of the Muslim Council of Great Britain by a leftist interviewer about the aftermath of Hamas’s barbarous attack on Israel sheds light on the mentality of that far left extremist organisation, whose main concern is Islamophobia. Read BBC Impartiality? and tell us what you think.

    Energy watch 07.30: Demand: 28.22 GW. Total UK Production: 220.99 GW from: Hydrocarbons 21.5%; Wind 22.6%; Imports 26%; Biomass 10.5; Nuclear 14.6. Solar: 0.7%.

    We are importing over a quarter of our electricity, mostly from France despite demand being very low and UK having the capacity to produce all of current demand from our own gas powered stations.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    2. That's the one sensible thing Starmer has said. Z should swallow his pride and apologise to T & V. They all should calm down. They should never have let all that happen in front of the world's press. Vance in particular came over as a bully.

      2. 402438+ up ticks,

        Morning N,

        The boldly spoken truth spoken with transparency in mind, NOT behind closed doors hurts more so.

        1. That the truth should be silent I had almost forget.

          [Enobarbus: Antony and Cleopatra]

    3. Well, Starmer senior certainly produced at least one huge tool! TTK welcoming the poisonous coke-head and promising him even more of our money. Still, on the plus side, at least the pensioners who lost WFA can console themselves that the money is being well spent – Ukraine, Chagos, climate change in Africa etc /sarc.

    5. To be fair. The king is not allowed to say no. I was complaining about this a little while ago. It is making me, a staunch royalist, question the point of a monarchy when it has been hobbled so much that it can't perform its function even under the posture of this country being a Constitutional Monarchy. He could pretend to be taken ill, I suppose! But as I said above. What does this do to a state visit from Trump? We really have to remove Starmer. But how do you do such a thing? At this rate we are not going to survive until the next general election.

        1. What I’m worried about is Trump cancelling and saying forget the trade deal.

          1. I think the trade deal would be pretty limited anyway. I wouldn't be buying American food.

          2. I doubt that it would be food. But some of it is very good. It isn’t all processed crap. Never ate that stuff in the USA when I lived there and neither do millions of other Americans. Weekend organic markets are a common place in thousands of towns so are supermarkets of unprocessed food. Look up Berkeley Bowl. It’s where I used to shop. There and Andronico’s, on a par with Waitrose.

    6. Charles I lost his head, Charles II sold us out to the French. Charles III is following the same path.

  21. Good morning, all. Bright blue sky. Heavy frost.

    I expect the TWK will give the Uke Clown a knighthood.

    1. He would probably prefer a night-hood and a sexy dressing gown – and an intimate rendezvous. I am beginning to believe that Starmer is a gay-boy and is cultivating a close alliance with Macron and Zelenskyy. . . very close.

  22. One would hope that people in those positions would have known better.
    Then I woke up.

  24. 'Morning All
    A nicked comment sums it all up very well
    "I'd like to say different , but the fact is that the drones out there – the Great British public – the ones who swallowed Convid and Lockdowns and stretched Compliance to its limit , get their information from the MSM and BBC and all the rest of the Globalist strumpets , and likewise swallow the fact that they should hate Trump and Putin , that poor little Zelensky is the good guy , and if British Troops are sent to fight against Russia , they'll be rooting for them .

    Political hobbyists like we on blogs like this , who might know a thing or two about what's really going on , are very much in the minority in this dumbed down Nation "
    Add the Greenscam .onto that and you have the trifecta of dimness………….

    1. 402438+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik
      ,
      I have tried for many moons to point this out but it is difficult, a self destruct virus ( carriers being the lab/lib/con/greens supporter / voters) is deeply embedded in the polling stations

    1. That's a good one – he's right about the misunderstanding and the fact that Zelensky was not wearing a suit seems trivial but that was the clincher that made Trump and Vance feel disrespected. Z is the supplicant here – he has to brownnose and do as he's told to get what he wants.

    2. Good guy. A professor who actually runs a business. A farm in the central valley of California.

        1. No, but Jill sent me Birthday and Christmas cards and gifts. Just not speaking. No idea why.

          3. But Ruth does still communicate by email and replies. I can understand her withdrawing from commenting here.

  28. Cold morning 2 °. Clear sky.
    Today's toughy!
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  29. Yo and a Good Moaning to you all, from a warm(ish) SUNNY C d S

    Solar Panels are working, whilst I Nottle, they are well trained

  30. You are very welcome to No 10, Starmer tells Zelensky

    You, me and Gladys Macron are three of a kind. We are a threesome! Who cares what the public think, we have our love to keep us warm – and the nuclear bomb shelter has an enormous bed.

    1. From The Telegraph

      The Maga reporter whose humiliation of Zelensky sparked a geopolitical crisis
      ‘Why don’t you wear a suit?’ jibe aimed at Ukrainian president came from the boyfriend of Right-wing firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene
      Nick Squires01 March 2025 5:51pm GMT

      It was a low blow designed to humiliate the president of Ukraine in front of a global television audience and provide a viral clip for social media.
      To the delight of a laughing crowd inside the Oval Office, Brian Glenn, a leading member of a new cadre of Maga-enthusiast reporters reshaping White House coverage, ridiculed Volodymyr Zelensky over his dress sense.
      “Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Do you own a suit?” sneered Mr Glenn.
      It was a mafioso-style hit that would not have been out of place on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice.
      Mr Glenn, 56, is one of the faces of new Conservative television outlet Real America Voice, and is fast becoming one of Mr Trump’s favourite reporters.
      He is also the boyfriend of Right-wing firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, representative for Georgia’s 14th congressional district and darling of the Republican Party’s furthest-Right faction.
      His loaded intervention turned the mood in the Oval Office sour, riled Mr Zelensky and set him on a collision course first with JD Vance, the US vice-president, and then the president himself.
      Mr Glenn is part of a new wave of Conservative activists being given access to the Oval Office under Trump’s administration while traditional outlets like the Associated Press are kicked out.
      The White House will now “determine” which news outlets can regularly cover Mr Trump up close – a sharp break from a century of tradition of allowing access from a pool of independently chosen news organisations.
      Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the move would be more inclusive and restore “access back to the American people” who elected Mr Trump.
      Mr Zelensky, dressed in his trademark combat-casual attire, tried to respond with humour.
      “I will wear a suit after this war is over. Maybe something like yours. Maybe better, maybe cheaper.”
      He said he was more interested in talking about the serious issues at hand.
      But the newly empowered independent Conservative media outlets did not let it go. Many commentators doubled down on the criticism of Mr Zelensky, and the footage of the incident went viral.
      Ms Greene, a fervent supporter of Mr Trump and a leading Maga member of Congress, applauded the question posed by her boyfriend.
      “I’m so proud of @‌brianglenntv for pointing out that Zelensky has so much disrespect for America that he can’t even wear a suit in the Oval Office when he comes to beg for money from our President!!” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
      In another post, she called Mr Zelensky “a bad actor from the start” in the context of the conflict with Russia, accusing him of having “an arrogant small man’s ego”.
      Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, shared a meme in which Zelensky was labelled a “little s— ” and a “midget”.
      Mr Zelensky was advised to ditch his military-style clothing for his visit to the White House but he refused, instead opting to wear all black, according to Axios.
      Signs that the meeting was to get off to a bad start were clear earlier in the day, when Mr Trump also made sarcastic remarks about Mr Zelensky’s appearance.
      “Oh, you’re all dressed up,” he said to his Ukrainian counterpart as he arrived at the White House. “He’s all dressed up today.”
      The apparent discourtesy irritated Mr Trump ahead of what quickly became a car crash of a meeting, insiders told Axios.
      Mr Zelensky is often seen wearing olive green jumpers, emblazoned with the Ukrainian trident, when conducting his state visits.
      In December, he wore a similar outfit for the reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, where he met then president-elect Trump and Emmanuel Macron, the French president.
      It is his signal to the world that his country is still at war, something that Winston Churchill also adopted during the Second World War.

      Dressed in a wartime “siren suit”, Churchill wore the one-piece air raid outfit during a visit to Franklin D Roosevelt, who he hoped to persuade to join the war.
      Ironically, Friday’s heated furore, which ended in the Ukrainian leader leaving without signing the minerals deal, played out in front of a Churchill bust.
      Elon Musk, one of Mr Trump’s closest advisers, is often seen in the Oval Office wearing a T-shirt, Maga cap and long coat.

      Elon Musk has not worn formal attire in the Oval Office Credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty
      But that didn’t matter to Mr Glenn, who was wearing a gold tie and bright blue suit.
      It is not just the reporting pool that is being overhauled. The briefing room itself now has a dedicated seat for new media outlets to ask questions during press briefings.
      Breitbart, Steve Bannon’s War Room and Jack Posobiec’s Human Events have also been invited to the White House.
      Real American Voice, the Right-wing television channel, was founded in 2020. It has become a favorite among the Maga faithful as an alternative to the mainstream media with its pro-Trump coverage and messaging.
      In exchange for access, Mr Trump often calls upon the channel and Mr Glenn for positive-slanted questions after receiving a series of hardballs from other reporters.
      Justifying his question on Friday, Mr Glenn said the Ukrainian president’s choice of outfit for the Oval Office “reflects his inner disrespect for not only our country, the president and the US citizens”.
      “President Zelensky has worn the green jumpsuit (or something similar) on every occasion when meeting other world leaders, dressed respectfully for the occasion,” he wrote on X.
      “For him, once again, to enter the highest office in the most powerful nation in the world, dressed as he did, reflects his inner disrespect for not only our country, the president and the US citizens that have made it possible for Ukraine to survive as long as they have to this point. (Financially speaking)
      “Moments after my exchange with President Zelensky, we began to hear a slightly different tone/mood from him when engaging with President Trump and VP JD Vance as his attire in-fact did begin to reflect his overall attitude towards the negotiations.
      “So yes, you can judge a book by its cover.”

      1. Trump and his party should have behaved like grown-ups and seen past the apparent "disrespect" of the casual clothing. The meeting was too important to allow such a minor item to get folk riled.
        If, as is reported, Zelensky tried to go for mission creep in the scope of the agreement, that's different. But should have been discussed behind closed doors, and thinks kept that way. Now, everybody is all riled up, and the Chinese and Russians must be pissing their pants with laughter about the own goal…

        1. My opinion is that they were out to get Zelenskyy. It was an ambush and the failure of negotiations was intentional. They’re after regime change in Ukrania. They want Zelenskyy out. This has probably already been negotiated with Putin indeed it might have been one of his conditions.

    1. A creature of the UN. Sustainable development. Globalist. Blamed the US for Covid. Another American lefty from an Ivy league privileged educational background. A socialist as long as it doesn't effect his wealth, $10 million or more.

      1. That was my take on him. He was once on a flight with Bono, I think he referred to him a a great thinker, someone to save the world as we know it. Or something.

  32. Good morning, all. Frosty.

    George Galloway is all over Starmer's involvement with Trump/Vance/Zelensky and GG is picking up quite a bit of support for his stance on this issue from people who admit that they have not been fans in the past.

    I have grave doubts about Starmer's claim that the whole of the UK is behind the Ukraine and by inference the people are content to see £Billions being poured away when at the same time OAPs are denied WFA; veterans are sleeping rough; service costs are rising sharply and there is the constant threat of tax rises as Reeves tanks the economy further.

    Starmer attempting to become a leading voice in the EU and the UK a bulwark against Russian expansion is beyond parody. I detect mischief is afoot and I will not be at all surprised if military deployment crops up in discussion along with conscription.

    My reply to one of George Galloway's X comments:

    https://x.com/bangerbloyce/status/1895942846269833594

  33. A BTL

    It is a real pity, that we, the fee paying readers' are not allowed to 'Like or Dislike' the letters printed above.

    Our comments are open to voting scrutiny, but the Letters themselves are not

  34. Weekend Medley
    Oof
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    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/270dcb4cc872eca7407597aaa649ec0c3057c34ee687ad107aa9e87b6b77c23f.png

    1. Sorry Rik, I loved the first 2 and have pinched them both.
      But although I've spent a lot of time in the USA and even have a Social Security Number, I don't recognise the two-arrows logo in the third frame of the final Stonetoss cartoon. It isn't the new DOGE logo 'cos they don't have one (yet). Please help.

      1. It's a Uno card which means its the IRS's victim turn to go, in this case to Audit the IRS…

        Morning rough and all…

  35. 402438+ up ticks,

    May one ask, will charles as his namesake did, ask for another undershirt when the time comes, as it surely must.

    X·
    52m
    I would have defended the monarchy once upon a time, but Charlie is becoming to involved in political matters!

  36. The UK and Europe are stronger than Russia. We have to stand together with Ukraine
    The West must live on. If Keir Starmer can carry Continental leaders with him, this could be their finest hour
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/01/uk-europe-stronger-than-russia-have-to-stand-with-ukraine/

    If the Japanese had not brought the USA into WW2 by attacking Pearl Harbour then what would the outcome of the war have been?

    And then if China allies with Russia militarily?

    Without the USA Europe cannot win and millions more will die.

      1. Hubris in a helmet! Bravado with a bayonet!

        C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre.

    3. Wondered that myself, if Hitler had not declared war on the USA, would they have bothered?

      2. The dialogue between Trump and Zelensky went wrong soon after Poland was mentioned.
        I think that had something to do with UK's ultimatum to Germany in 1939.

    4. Here's a novel thought; we'd be far stronger if we had close trade links with Russia (and their gas and oil). Who on earth would want to prevent that happy situation, I wonder?

    3. Not a coincidence, they all think the same. They are sharing one brain and that only has two cells – Net Zero and Money. Must have both.

  38. Breaking News
    An insider at Westmonster says she's been recruited into a Committee that is defining what hurty words our soldiers can shout at the Russians when the British boots hit the ground in Ukraine. No shooting of course – we've run out of ammunition.

  39. A belated good morning all. Meant to post this 2½ hours ago but got distracted!
    A light frost this morning, otherwise a bright & clear morning. -½°C on the thermometer, slightly up from the minimum of -1½°C. Maximum for yesterday was a tad over 15°C.

    1. Quite warm here in West Sussex. Have left the front door open for fresh air.

      1. I was chopsawing some sticks when the DT came up the "garden" with two mugs of tea, so we sat on the wall drinking it for half an hour!

  40. ‘Give ethnic minorities cycling lessons to make net zero more inclusive’
    The Climate Change Committee cited Germany and the Netherlands as countries for guidance on achieving this target

    Genevieve Holl-Allen
    Political Reporter
    Genevieve Holl-Allen
    Related Topics
    Road cycling, Women's cycling, Net Zero, Climate change
    01 March 2025 2:30pm GMT

    Women and people from ethnic minority groups should be given free cycling lessons to make the drive to net zero more inclusive, climate chiefs have said.

    The Government’s independent climate advisers said in a report last week that seven per cent of car journeys needed to be made instead by public transport, walking or cycling by 2035.

    The Climate Change Committee (CCC) cited Germany and the Netherlands, where 27 per cent of all journeys are made by bicycle, as a guide to achieve this target.

    A supplementary report by the CCC warned that decarbonising transport will “affect transport inequality” by pushing up prices of public transport, and made recommendations on how to mitigate the impacts on minority groups.

    Advisers recommended that ministers take inspiration from the German city of Fribourg, where ethnic minorities are given free cycling lessons.

    “People from minority ethnic backgrounds disproportionately travel by public transport, including by bus,” they said.

    “If additional costs from electrifying buses are passed on to users through increased fares, this could reduce uptake and increase transport inequality.”

    They cited as “good practice” Freiburg and Utrecht in the Netherlands, which “have developed inclusive cycle schemes including community cycling groups, free introductory cycling courses for women and minority ethnic groups, and distribution of free e-bikes in low-income areas.”

    ‘Limited knowledge’
    The CCC referred to a separate report by Cities Changing Diabetes and the European Cyclists Federation, which explained the work of the “Bike Bridge” in Freiburg.

    The report said: “Bike Bridge noticed that the schemes are mostly used by certain groups of people: young, white people, students, often men – but hardly any by groups such as women immigrants and refugees.

    “They often have no or very limited knowledge of such urban mobility options and the way they can use them.

    “Additionally, there are also often language barriers, because bike-sharing apps and information provided on bike-sharing websites is often only in English or German.”

    ‘Cycling skills and traffic rules’
    The non-governmental organisation, which partners with municipalities and regional and national foundations, gives free cycling courses to “women with migration or refugee backgrounds”.

    The eight-week course allows ten women to practice “cycling skills and traffic rules” twice a week, before offering cheap second-hand bikes and helmets to participants at the end of the scheme.

    In Utrecht, the Dutch Government sponsors cycling groups, workshops with bike mechanics and sessions with physiotherapists for elderly cyclists.

    The Dutch government has encouraged cycling by heavily investing in cycle paths and via a scheme for employers to pay workers for every mile cycled.

    ‘Telling people how to ruin their lives’
    According to the CCC, reaching net zero would cost a net £4 billion a year on average, with the worst financial hit coming in the early years of the transition.

    The committee imagined that in 2035 up to £23 billion of that spending would be met by public funding, with private investment also picking up much of the bill.

    It comes after Sir Keir Starmer said the nation can keep eating kebabs despite the CCC advising that Britons would need to eat around 260g less meat each week to help hit the Government’s net zero target – the equivalent of two doner kebabs a week.

    When the Prime Minister was asked about a two-kebab limit during his trip to Washington, he said: “I’m not in the business of telling people how they should run their lives. I am absolutely clear that we are going to get to clean power and absolutely keep our commitment to net zero because it is so important for the next generation and generations to come.

    “That does not mean telling people how to run their lives. That is not the right way to go about it.”

    Bikes and Burkahs , yep , that will be the day !

    1. “That does not mean telling people how to run their lives. That is not the right way to go about it.” I can't bear to watch or listen to the hypocrite but I'm curious – does his nose grow when he says carp like that?? Meanwhile the CCC continue to try and make ever more idiotic statements very day.

    3. OK – I'll give up the two kebabs a week that I never eat and I will have extra pork and crackling for dinner tonight. We live on a steep hill three miles from town so I'm not giving up my car without a fight. I last rode a bike over 40 years ago and that was on holiday in France so I'm not going to start again now.

    5. That'll go down like a plate of cold sick with ethnic minority women. They didn't come to Britain to ride bicycles, they came here so that their family would have a CAR! Or two!

  41. Daniel Johnson D Torygaff mouthpiece:

    As European leaders gather in London on Sunday, the mood is sombre. All of them know that, whether it was an accident or an ambush, Zelensky’s last stand on Friday in the Oval Office could have existential consequences not only for Ukraine but also for Europe.

    Having publicly humiliated a man whom most Europeans still regard as a hero, Donald Trump yesterday added injury to insult. His press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the US may now cut off all support for Ukraine forthwith.

    "a man whom most Europeans still regard as a hero," What planet are you on, Johnson? The man's a muppet. A puppet of the previous US autocrats, the ones that ran the state from controlling positions in the secret services and powerful industries.

  42. Morning all. Sunny day!
    First of all. This was not aired on TV over here apparently. But it is what was said in the Oval Office the day after Starmer had left. In short The President, Vance and Rubio knew very well that Starmer was lying the day before about free speech and say so.
    Remarks start about 2:30 minutes in. Starmer's actions the next day, greeting Zelenskyy and giving him 2 billion pounds demonstrates what a treacherous bastard he is. Now what does this do about a state visit and our relationship with the USA?

    By the way, I just read that in the last 6 week period, 125,000 people were killed in the Russia Ukraine war.

    In the second video starting at 6:45 you will see Ukrainians being kidnapped by the military to be dragged into the army. They are press ganging children, boys as young as 14 have been taken. In a situation this desperate who is the war monger Putin or Zelenskyy? The latter knows the game is up but is forcing children into the meat grinder in his irrational hatred of Putin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XAwYQ2FvbE&list=TLPQMDIwMzIwMjWS82vlBrtZyQ&index=3
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC3Ko0CGgiU&list=TLPQMDIwMzIwMjWS82vlBrtZyQ&index=11

    1. The good thing about free speech in the USA is that you can tell lies and not be criminalised.

    1. White English people and darker Pakistani people are, in fact, of exactly the same race: caucasian. Time to stop the vacuous accusations of 'racism' (an utterly puerile and idiotic word) especially when used against people of the very same race.

      Pakistanis may have a different skin colour and practice a different religion but they are of exactly the same racial stereotype. Making 'racist' comments about a Pakistani is as cretinously stupid as making a 'racist' comment about your own twin brother!

      1. 'morning Grizzly. It's just another word people use when they feel disenfranchised but think others aren't. I don't know anyone I'd call 'racist', but I know plenty who are worried about jobs, housing, cost of living, losing their employment and unable to pay bills, raising their children…list goes on. 'Immigrants' (often mistakenly related to skin shade) are a very easy target because it's reported they are taking away others' rights. I know Asians who are equally concerned/worried, not just us 'white folks'. Otherwise, everything else is fine and dandy :-))

        1. Good afternoon, Katy. In my working life have known and worked alongside people (men and women) who have a plethora of backgrounds including: Indian, Pakistani, Jamaican, Chinese and even American. I have met and got along with as many people of various racial stereotypes (and country of origin) as I have not got along with. I take people — individually and collectively — on their merits as people.

        2. I confess to harbouring racist thoughts that would never have crossed my mind years ago. When I see my streets looking like Mogadishu and advertisements that claim blacks are “locals “.

      2. There are blond haired blue eyed Kashmiri’s. Rare now a days due to greater mobility in this day and age . So I agree with you to a point. After all she is not talking about race per-se but the deliberate effort to displace the English by pretending that Pakistanis are English too. They aren’t and never will be. People, due to DNA are readily identifiable and a Pakistanis does not have the DNA or culture of an Englishman.

        1. She may not be talking about race per se, but she did introduce the fact about Pakistanis being attacked in a 'racist' manner by English people; which is clearly preposterous.

          1. Agree. I’m not aware of that but I am certainly aware of the reverse.

        2. Descendants of Alexander the Great or his army ? Iskander as he was known in those parts.

  44. Britain stands with Zelensky and Ukraine. 2 March 2025.

    The British love an underdog, especially if he also happens to be a hero. Volodymyr Zelensky was undeservedly and disgracefully bullied by Donald Trump and JD Vance on Friday, but here he is more than welcome.

    Yesterday the Ukrainian President arrived at Downing Street, seemingly unscathed. He is, after all, a war leader – the only one at today’s European defence summit at Lancaster House. Keir Starmer was right to make him welcome and to reiterate Britain’s support for Ukraine.

    You can see these morons getting us into a direct confrontation with Russia and without US support.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2025/03/01/britain-stands-with-zelensky-and-ukraine-trump-putin-uk/

    1. Hallo Araminta. See the video I just posted below about Starmer. The sniveling slugs behaviour did not deceive the Americans. What annoys me too is that he has put the king in a very awkward position re a state visit, does the king now snub Trump. Does the special trade bill get cancelled by Trump? A part way out of our financial difficulties. Does the man even think? He really isn't fit to run a welk stall let alone a country.

  47. 402438+ up ticks,

    A moment of truth,

    Dt
    James Graham: ‘No leader since Thatcher has been able to reshape society in their own vision’
    From Brexit to Gareth Southgate, the writer has made it his business to tackle the highs and lows of British history.

    This is due to the fact that ALL are /were complicit in following the WEF / NWO / RESET treacherous, anti Brit, agenda.

    NEXT.

      1. Rainer is cooking up a hornets nest with some stupid new law whereby you can’t use the M word in their opinion disrespectfully.
        Once again thanks for all their glaring hate filled political ‘mistakes’ during the wrecking of OUR country.

      1. They have stolen Hendon town hall NW4 and now it’s Barnet Town Hall.
        Barnet is Herts and around ten miles further north.

    1. If Reform were to include the following in the next general election Manifesto I believe they would walk into power:

      Scrapping the BBC licence fee
      Scapping Inheritence Tax below £10,000,000
      Reinstating The OAP Winter Fuel Allowance….

      (This can easily be afforded by doing a DOGE on other areas of government expenditure)

    1. Perhaps there is an opening here for the violent thug MP chap. Minister of Defence?

    2. I have just suffered from that Welsh Condition Dai Slexia.

      I read your post as being about Billinmad

  53. What joy awaits the 6th Formers & Islamists.

    A golden opportunity for the progressive Leftie warmongers to vent their hate, and ishooo a list of demands and disrespect The Office of the POTUS.

    Mr Trump to be invited to address both Houses of Parliament.
    Labour & Islamic Alliance MP predict a ‘sea of empty seats’ in protest. GROAN.

    It should be put off until the UK and US saw eye-to-eye on Ukraine. LOL.

    Former Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood.. ‘It would be inappropriate to place the King in the position of hosting the President if US foreign policy shifts away from its long-standing support for Ukraine and toward alignment with Russia’s security objectives.’

    ‘It’s difficult to rescind an invitation to an alleged ally of Britain.

    Don't push your luck.. he aint messin around this time.

    2. Of course King Charles will be happy about the thaw in relations between the U.S and Russia. Him being related to the Romanovs…

      1. Considering how King George V abandoned his closest cousin and his family to die, then perhaps it's not something they would like to be reminded of.

  54. Tucker Carlson yesterday
    One of the most striking things about yesterday’s Zelensky press conference was Lindsey Graham’s reaction to it. The two are old friends, but Graham disavowed him within the hour. This was more than just transactional disloyalty. It was scapegoating. Lindsey Graham knows what’s coming. Over the past three years, with the tacit support of its western patrons, the Ukrainian government has committed a remarkable number of serious crimes. The Ukrainians sold huge quantities of American weapons on the international black market at twenty cents on the dollar. These weapons are now in the hands of armed groups around the world, including Hamas, the Mexican drug cartels and the forces now controlling Syria. God knows what the Ukrainians have done with the pathogens in American biolabs in their country. Even US intel agencies aren’t sure. The Ukrainians have also murdered a number of people in various countries in political assassinations, and tried to murder others, including American journalists and a European head of state. This is all true, and it’s all going to come out at some point. Better to start blaming it on Zelensky now.

    1. The hallmark of a good conspiracy theory is its plausibility.

      I would like to see some evidence, some piece of investigative journalism, some Inquiry by a neutral or by the UN, or even corroboration by some ally of Russia such as Iran. Instead everything here could have been written by a half-competent storyteller.

      It was reported here that the patriot missiles were squandered shooting down cheap drones. The Russians are well dug in, and it would take an enormous allied expeditionary force to shift them.

      1. You don't need a conspiracy theory. The allegations concerning Zelenskyy come from all directions. I would suggest you start using X.
        There is much I do not put here because of peoples sensibilities and a desire not to upset people. For example, there are plenty of videos of young men being press ganged by the Ukrainian army but I refrain from putting them here. Young men to the age of 14, by the way.
        You could also read Toms article on free speech backlash for a good assessment of what is really going on. Although I do not agree 100% with it.
        And frankly Jeremy, you do not 'want to see the evidence'. If you did you would look, use a VPN to find what is censored from you. It's really not that difficult.

        1. X is controlled by a member of Trump’s Administration and cannot be relied on to be independent. I have never felt inclined to use X and it doesn’t work on my system.

          Trump himself tells us how easy it is to find Fake News, and plenty of videos covering all sorts of topics, factual and fictitious, abound on the internet.

          It is no secret that Zelenskyy drafts young men of fighting age, and such is normal procedure during a war, especially an existential one. I would like to know what procedures exist there for conscientious objectors. In WW1, we shot deserters.

          1. Interesting. When we lived in rural Essex back in the '60's-'70's, one of our neighbours had been a conscientious objector in WWII. Other long time locals still referred to him as "the conchie".

            By the way, not just deserters in WWI – "cowardice in the face of the enemy" got the same punishment. In other words, if some poor bugger refused to basically commit suicide by running headlong into German machine gun fire, his own side would shoot him anyway. Dead either way.

        2. X contributors cannot even correctly tell us where the Muslim mayors are. I take much of it with a pinch of salt. Better still, ignore all supposed news sources. The time we have left is shrinking. I don't intend to waste what's left of it by second guessing dodgy sources about stuff I have no influence over and cannot change one iota. I might just as well shout at the wind to change direction.

          1. That is just an excuse to not do proper research and sift the wheat from the chaff.

      2. And from someone other than Tucker Carlson, who even Fox News could not abide due to the fiction he was pushing on air.

      1. What I found interesting after watching the U&yesterday TV episodes on WWII was that after hostilities ceased between the main combatants the Ukrainians kept on fIghting amongst themselves.

        1. As I have noted previously the Ukrainians comprise several warring factions all fighting amongst themselves. Disputes were domestic in nature.

          The fact was exploited by Obama in order to divide Ukraine by arming the Maidan faction to wage war on Russian speakers, to ban the Orthodox Church and generally make Russian speakers second class citizens.

          Zelensky has devoted all of his efforts into continuing the war and trying to make a domestic dispute into a full blown international one. Fools such as Macron and Starmer and a motley assortment of unelected EU bureaucrats have encouraged this effort.

          Zelensky is an evil and despicable individual fronting a corrupt gangster regime. He is a dead man walking.

          1. Given that Ukrainian is a dialect of Russian (it takes longer than 100 years for a unique language to evolve), the onslaught on “Russian speakers” is bizarre. Imagine being driven out of Scotland, Wales or Ireland for having an English accent.

          2. From what I read, elements in Wales would like to get rid of both English the language, and the English. Autonomy for the regions has not been a success.

          3. I graduated from a Welsh university. It was clear that the nation they spoke of was NOT Britain.

          4. Strange to say but even with a West Country accent I have experienced hostility from Glaswegians when working on the Hunterian, both on the building site and in the pubs.

            I escaped a dispute with a drunken Welshman in Wrexham by saying I was on my way to visit my father’s sisters in Newport.

            The point I was making is that those practising the Russian Orthodox faith were discriminated against and their churches and monasteries confiscated. Opposition leaders were arrested and imprisoned.

          6. Language is just one factor which unites or divides people. The Swiss manage to hold together with German, French, Italian and Romansch as official languages. On the other hand, despite the similarities of Norwegian to Swedish and Czech to Slovak, Norway and Sweden separated in 1905 as, rather more recently, Czechoslovakia divided in two in the Velvet Revolution.

  59. Exactly, Grizz. Similar here, but not to the same extent as yourself. Even in a small village of say 40 odd dwellings, there are disagreements (out of which best to keep, unless directly affected). I’ve followed by grandmother’s advice ‘stay out of it dear, let them get on with it’………

  61. It was a huge mistake to have the room full of press and cameras. If it had been private they could have sorted it out.

  62. Some time ago, possibly pre-NOTTL, someone wrote this:
    "Abusing the Irish can't be racism, not scientifically at least."

    I replied:
    It could be racism under the law. A case was won under the 1976 Race Relations Act (BBC v. Souster, 2001) on "…the basis that the English, Scots and Welsh constitute separate groups defined by reference to national origins but not on the basis that they are of different ethnic origins."

    The complainant was an English television presenter who claimed that BBC Scotland's rejection of his employment application was racially discriminatory.

    The judgement surprised a few at the time. It may have been correct by the wording of the Act but commentators questioned the idea that nationality be covered by it.

    1. "If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass — a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”

      Conflating race with nationality, ethnicity, place (or country) of birth or residence, is an abomination. Being part of a separate group does not mean they are of a different race, therefore any legislation professing so is deeply and irrevocably flawed.

      Race is nothing more than a sub-division of species within the taxonomical (biological) classification system of living things. To hijack the term for nefarious uses is as deplorable as it is risible.

      1. It simply shows what we're up against, and, of course, it's not 'human rights' law but statute, which ought to provide greater protection against novel juducial interpretation.

    1. Black Belt barrister says it all went wrong after 40 minutes when Zelensky mentioned that he''d tried negotiating with Putin about resolving the Russian incursion into Ukraine in 2014 but this had come to no avail. Zelensky commented that American governments had not bothered about it since then and inferred that there was no point trying to achieve peace with Putin through the diplomatic approach advocated by Vance.

      1. "Zelensky commented that American governments had not bothered about it since then…"

        They wouldn't, for they would have to own up to having started it.

    2. Black Belt barrister says it all went wrong after 40 minutes when Zelensky mentioned that he''d tried negotiating with Putin about resolving the Russian incursion into Ukraine in 2014 but this had come to no avail. Zelensky commented that American governments had not bothered about it since then and inferred that there was no point trying to achieve peace with Putin through the diplomatic approach advocated by Vance.

    3. I did not know that they were both into Cricket, or has the Mirror branched out overseas.

      MSM Rules OK

    4. Zelensky just wants to continue the war so he can make even more money.How he has taken everyone in because the EU wants to empire build. Russia was assured many years ago ( Reagan) by the west that Ukraine woud remain neutral and would be a buffer state between east and west. The EU broke that agreement that then led to the war.

  64. Afternoon All
    Some musings from the pit
    Russia lost 27Million dead in WW2 The Great Patriotic War Something that unlike here has not been forgotten or forgiven Great grandparents will have passed it all on
    What morons thought they wouldn't react to the artillery slaughter of ethnic Russians in the Dombass??
    Now we hear talk of troops on the ground from NATO tanks rolling eastwards towards Russia??
    WE wont face 1.5 million Russian troops we will face 10 million plus and they will be volunteers not conscripts
    The racial memory of the Great Patriotic War runs deep

    2. The Great Patriotic War in which millions were fed into Stalin's war machine. Do modern Russians want that?

      1. 27Million dead..

        Plenty of YT vids that tot up Russian losses with a counter. Most of those 27 mill getting killed were in the last months of the war getting cut to pieces by MG42s.. not that Uncle Joe really cared.

      2. No, of course not. But it is a bad mistake to think that they would just sit back and take it. They would certainly use atomic weapons if they had to. No way would they allow themselves to be overran.

        1. Rik-Redux suggested 10 milliion Russians would volunteer. I think both he and you are getting carried away.

          1. The danger is that if Putin felt he was backed into a corner, he might well use tactical nukes against Ukraine. He has (had?) grand ambitions to re-unite Russia to the composition of the old USSR. So, who knows?

          2. "He has…grand ambitions to re-unite Russia to the composition of the old USSR…"

            Does he? I suspect he's just winding up the West when he talks about that.

          3. I am not getting carried away. The Russian have an absolute horror of being invaded. They will not tolerate it and would press the button rather than allow it. It doesn’t start with the Germans but goes back a long way in Russian history. You would understand that if you knew Russian history. That is why Putin went through a long account of Russian history when he spoke to Tucker Carlson. Westerners don’t get it because it hasn’t happened to them on anything like the scale it has to Russia. Because of the interminable fighting they have had to undergo they don’t even have a word for peace!

          4. You assume modern Russians have the same attitude.

            And even if the West were mad enough to try and 'liberate' Ukraine, it would presumably be to restore the 2013 borders, not enter Russian territory.

          5. I have Russian and Ukrainian relatives and due to my step father I’m an Orthodox Christian. I assume nothing

    1. Beautiful landscape , I don't think I have ever seen a thick carpet of snow drops like the ones in your lovely photos before .

      1. They’ve been there for years! I was asking other Gran yesterday, and they were there when she moved to the farmhouse nearly 50 years ago! She also thought that they’ve multiplied!
        I’ve got to say they’re not the best ‘photos I’ve ever taken!

        1. That is one of the great things about snowdrops – they spread and spread – all by themselves.

    3. That is so beautiful. I wish I could be there to sit among the snowdrops and just listen to the sounds of the countryside, wonderful!

      1. Thank you! Fortunately you can’t feel the chilly wind whipping up the valley! But it is glorious, and spring is just round the corner, I hope! There were already 2 lambs for us to delight over yesterday! Little blue Texels!

      1. Thank you, GQ! Our daughter, her husband and their family are indeed blessed. I wish them many years of happiness and prosperity.

  67. What do you remember of this ?

    Nasty Ukrainian behaviour in the Donbass region because the population was mostly Russian

    The Donetsk Clan (Ukrainian: Донецький клан, romanized: Donetskyi klan; Russian: Донецкий клан, romanized: Donetsky klan), also called the Donetsk Mafia,[2] the Donetsk Family,[3] or simply "The Family",[3] was a group of Ukrainian oligarchs and members of the Ukrainian mafia active between the late Soviet period and the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, when the clan collapsed. Emerging from the nomenklatura of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, the Donetsk Clan formed one of the three main groupings of oligarchs during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, alongside Viktor Medvedchuk's Kyiv Seven and Kuchma's own Dnipropetrovsk Mafia. In Kuchma's second term, the clan outplayed the other two groups, leading to the political rise of Viktor Yanukovych. Following Yanukovych's fall from power, the Donetsk Clan dissolved, though its members remained prominent in Ukraine.

    Background
    Following World War II, the Donbas region, and in particular the city of Donetsk, faced wide-reaching urbanisation and immigration from throughout the Soviet Union. From 1945 to 1955, roughly 3.5 million people settled in Donetsk to work in the city's coal mines and factories. Further increasing the city's population was the Gulag camps located nearby, and these individuals entered organised crime after the completion of their prison sentences. Sergey Pryjmachuk, Sloviansk chief of police from 1994 to 1998, said in 2006, "Criminals took advantage of the fact that recently released prisoners were not in a hurry to leave the Donetsk region as long as people had money. Thus, illegal night clubs and casinos were created, while that was prohibited in the rest of the USSR. Those casinos and night clubs belonged to criminal gangs that cultivated their own territory."[4]

    With the large population of prisoners, Soviet prison culture was exported to the Donbas. By the time of Perestroika, this had grown to a general distrust of the law and the cultural dominance of criminal groups in the Donbas.[4] Combined with a lack of established laws and taxes on businesses, along with a general economic slump, and the closure of unprofitable mines by the Ukrainian government,[5] a "Ukrainian rust belt"[4] came into being in the Donbas, and crime rose sharply.[5]

    History
    The Donetsk Clan formed shortly following the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, as members of the former nomenklatura united with newly wealthy businessmen and members of the Ukrainian mafia in an effort to secure their own control over the Donbas region. In its early years, the Donetsk Clan was dominated by violent competition; the clan's leader, Akhat Bragin, was killed in a 1995 bombing at Shakhtar Stadium,[6] and various other members either were killed off by other criminal groups or left to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv after taking political office.[7]

    Following Bragin's death, fellow Donetsk businessman Rinat Akhmetov took over his businesses and further expanded on them.[6] He joined forces with Viktor Yanukovych, Governor of Donetsk Oblast and himself a former violent criminal who was willing to forge an alliance with Akhmetov's FC Shakhtar Donetsk.[8] Between 1994 and 2004, the Donetsk Clan consumed its opponents, assuming economic control over the Donbas. However, the clan was also focused on politics, and mobilised local residents against the Communist Party of Ukraine beginning in the late 1990s. Using government resources controlled as a result of state capture, the clan organised the Party of Regions as an alternative to the Communist Party, resulting in the party entering the Ukrainian government in 2002.[7] The clan also expanded eastwards into Luhansk, effectively taking over the city's underworld after the murder of Luhansk mobster Valerii Dobroslavskyi [uk] in 1997.[6]

    In 2002, Yanukovych was appointed as Prime Minister of Ukraine by President Leonid Kuchma. The move was widely seen as a victory for Akhmetov, and in Yanukovych's campaign in the 2004 presidential election, Akhmetov lent his support. However, after Yanukovych turned to Russian president Vladimir Putin and electoral fraud in an effort to defeat opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, the Orange Revolution successfully contested the election's legitimacy, and helped ensure Yushchenko's election. After Yushchenko took office, he began targeting the Donetsk Clan. Akhmetov in particular was a victim of anti-oligarch measures, and he fled to Monaco to avoid prosecution for illegally obtaining his assets.[8] He would later return to campaign on Yanukovych's behalf.

    Yanukovych presidency and aftermath
    After Yanukovych was successfully elected as president in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, he began placing members of the Donetsk Clan in high-ranking positions. Serhiy Arbuzov, Oleksandr Klymenko, and Vitaliy Zakharchenko, all members of the Donetsk Clan, were appointed to offices within the government,[3] and Mykola Azarov, a member of the clan,[9] was appointed as Prime Minister. Yanukovych's son, Oleksandr, also became a millionaire under his father's rule.[3]

    The corruption of the Donetsk clan was a prime target of the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests,[3] and the clan's other two leaders, Firtash and Akhmetov, ultimately played a pivotal role in ousting Yanukovych from office.[8] Following the Revolution of Dignity, the clan entered into an agreement with pro-Russian gas executives, forming the Opposition Bloc.[10] However, the clan's political influence was severely weakened after the city of Donetsk was captured by the separatist Donetsk People's Republic during the War in Donbas,[11] and the clan, along with the Kyiv Seven, proved unable to survive.[12]

    1. I confess I have never heard of The Donetsk Clan, but in the main I am familiar with the history of the region. Particularly from 2002 and Yanukovych. Perhaps some clan was being targeted by Yevtushenko but I don't think the ordinary people of Donetsk saw it that way. They were being targeted because they were Russian speaking and preferred it that way. The persecution boiled down to forcing people to relinquish their Russian culture and when that didn't work out, shelling them until some 1700 or so, mostly women and children, were dead. The young adults left for saner pastures. I really think the above is some sort of white wash, a false justification. It omits, for example, the role of the Azov battalion who really were the NAZIS that Putin was always on about and the West refused to believe existed.

      1. Spot on and I do believe one of the TV progs a few years ago did sone undercover work investigating the barbarity of the Azov battalion .. Seems that the Western media have forgotten what Ukraine is really like .

      2. Johnathan – where did the woman with plaits fit in? What was her name? Yulia Tymoshenko?

        1. She was the PM of Ukraine for a while. Pro EU. Not sure what has happened to her. Never hear anything from her now a days. She was very dangerous because she advocated full integration into the EU which would have started a disastrous full scale war between the EU and Russia. If she had succeeded Europe would probably be a nuclear waste land by now.

        1. I’m aware of that. I have been pointing that out for years as proof that Putin was very restrained. He had an excuse to invade for a long time but didn’t. I doubt that any leader in the West would have tolerated that behaviour for 7 years before finally attacking.

  68. VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: 10 bad takeaways from the Zelenskyy blow-up
    Ukrainian leader boxed himself – and his country – in with petulent White House display
    Victor Davis Hanson By Victor Davis Hanson
    Published March 2, 2025 6:26am EST

    Friday's extraordinary Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off the rails, leaving hopes for a U.S.-brokered peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in question. Here are some reasons why things went wrong, and where it leaves efforts to end the war.

    1. Zelenskyy does not grasp—or deliberately ignores—the bitter truth: Those with whom he feels most affinity (Western globalists, the American Left, the Europeans) have little power in 2025 to help him. And those whom he obviously does not like or seeks to embarrass (as with his Scranton, Penn. campaign-like visit in September 2024) alone have the power to save him. For his own sake, I hope he is not being "briefed" by the Obama-Clinton-Biden gang to confront Trump, given their interests are not really Ukraine’s as they feign.

    2. Zelenskyy acts as if his agenda and ours are identical. So, he keeps insisting that he is fighting for us despite our two-ocean-distance that he mocks. We do have many shared interests with Ukraine, but not all by any means: Trump wants to "reset" with Russia and triangulate it against China. He seeks to avoid a 1962 DEFCON 2-like crisis over a proxy showdown in proximity to a nuclear rival. And he sincerely wants to end the deadlocked Stalingrad slaughterhouse for everyone’s sake.
    3. The Europeans (and Canada) are now talking loudly of a new muscular antithesis, independent of the U.S. Promises, promises—given that would require Europeans to prune back their social welfare state, frack, use nuclear, stop the green obsession, and spend 3-5% of their GDP on defense. The U.S. does not just pay 16% of NATO’s budget, but also puts up with asymmetrical tariffs that result in a European Union trade surplus of $160 billion, plays the world cop, patrolling sea-lanes and deterring terrorists and rogue states that otherwise might interrupt Europe’s commercial networks abroad, as well as de facto including Europe under a nuclear umbrella of 6,500 nukes.

    4. Zelenskyy must know that all of the once-deal-breaking impediments to peace have been settled. Ukraine is now better armed than most NATO nations, but will not be in NATO, and no president has or will ever supply Ukraine with the armed wherewithal to take back the Donbass and Crimea. So, the only two issues are a) how far will Putin be willing to withdraw to his 2022 borders and b) how will he be deterred? The first is answered by a commercial sector/tripwire, joint Ukrainian-US-Europe resource development corridor in Eastern Ukraine, coupled with a Korea-like DMZ; the second by the fact that Putin, unlike his 2008 and 2014 invasions, has now incurred a million dead and wounded to a Ukraine that will remain thusly armed.

    5. What are Zelenskyy’s alternatives without much U.S. help—wait for a return of the Democrats to the White House in four years? Hope for a rearmed Europe? Pray for a Democratic House and a third Vindman-like engineered Trump impeachment? Or swallow his pride, return to the White House, sign the rare-earth minerals deal, invite in the Euros (are they seriously willing to patrol a DMZ?), and hope Trump can warn Putin, as he did successfully between 2017-21, not to dare try it again?

    6. If there is a cease-fire, a commercial deal, a Euro ground presence, and influx of Western companies into Ukraine, would there be elections? And if so, would Zelenskyy and his party win? And if not, would there be a successor transparent government that would reveal exactly where all the Western financial aid money went?

    7. Zelenskyy might see a model in Netanyahu. The Biden Administration was far harder on him than Trump is on Ukraine, suspending arms shipments, demanding cease-fires, prodding for a wartime, bipartisan cabinet, hammering Israel on collateral damage—none of which Westerners have demanded of Zelenskyy. Yet Netanyahu managed a hostile President Biden, kept Israel close to its patron, and, when visiting, was gracious to his host. Netanyahu certainly would never before the global media have interrupted and berated a host and patron president in the White House.

    8. If Ukraine has alienated the U.S., what then is its strategic victory plan? Wait around for more Euros? Hold off an increasingly invigorated Russian military? Cede more territory? What, then, exactly are Zelenskyy’s cards he seems to think form a winning hand?

    9. If one views carefully all the 50-minute tape, most of it was going quite well—until Zelenskyy started correcting Vance firstly, and Trump secondly. By Ukraine-splaining to his hosts, and by his gestures, tone, and interruptions, he made it clear that he assumed that Trump was just more of the same compliant, clueless moneybags Biden waxen effigy. And that was naïve for such a supposedly worldly leader.

    10. March 2025 is not March 2022, after the heroic saving of Kyiv—but three years and 1.5 million dead and wounded later. Zelenskyy is no longer the international heartthrob with the glamorous entourage. He has postponed elections, outlawed opposition media and parties, suspended habeas corpus and walked out of negotiations when he had an even hand in spring 2022 and apparently even now when he does not in spring 2025.

    Quo vadis, Volodymyr?

    1. Watched the video by the barrister – posted somewhere here. Even I could see the body language was bad, and as per item 9 above, it was somewhat disrespectful. I would have hoped that POTUS would have been big enough to decouple his ego from the discussions, and put Zelensky right, without this most almighty fcuk-up in fromnt of the press.
      Vladimir must have pissed himself with laughter when he saw that.

        1. These are top politicians, people who can start wars and have other assassinated. I'm not sure bullying is the same for them as the rest of us. In any case, I have no sympathy for any of them. They are not human.

      2. Haven’t watched that. I think I will do so now because I watched the barrister last night and he urged people to watch that.

    2. For his own sake, I hope he is not being "briefed" by the Obama-Clinton-Biden gang to confront Trump, given their interests are not really Ukraine’s as they feign.

      He is being briefed by them.
      He met with them before meeting with Trump, Rubio, and Vance.

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/bipartisan-group-rinos-democrat-senators-met-zelensky-blew /
      Bipartisan Group of RINOs and Democrat Senators Met with Zelensky and Blew Smoke Up His A$$ Before He Met with Trump – Zelensky Releases Video where You Can See Clearly Who Participated

      Plus:
      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/globalist-lovefest-western-leaders-line-up-zelensky-uk/
      Globalist Lovefest: Western Leaders Line Up with Zelensky in UK for Group Shot After Rude and Repulsive Stunt at White House – Maybe They’ll Pay for the Unending War Now?

      I don't recall any prior announcement about such a meeting of European leaders. They don't just turn up at the drop of a hat. This was planned.
      Zelenskyy deliberately blew up that meeting with Trump.
      Starmer was part of it.

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/was-zelenskys-big-lie-exposed-did-ukraine-already/
      Did Ukraine Already Sign a Precious Metals Deal with the UK Back in January? Does President Trump Know About This?I

      If this is what I think it is, then Starmer is a duplicitous snake.

      1. Well, he’s definitely a duplicitous snake! The rest of that post is very scary!

    1. I once did something similar when a group kept hitting balls into our group, when a ball landed near my bag I just crumpled down onto the grass as if I had been hit – they were not pleased when they realised that I had not actually been hit.

      Nowadays I just pocket their ball and quote rule 9.6.

  70. One final aspect explored in the paper is transnational crime. It finds that this has risen
    since the annexation of Crimea and conflict in Donbas, including a rise in smuggling of
    illicit goods into Europe, and a rise in organised crime in Ukraine. Sevastopol could
    potentially take over as a smuggling hub from Odesa, while Crimea and Ukraine could
    become a global money laundering centre. Criminality in Russia has also increased, seen
    in rises in drug and arms trafficking and criminal cases. The drop in cross-border
    cooperation to combat crime has contributed to greater criminality.
    The paper concludes that corruption, crime and conflict are heavily intermeshed in
    eastern Ukraine, with each reinforcing the other in what appears to be a downward
    spiral of escalation.

    Since gaining independence, Ukraine has been marked by deep internal divisions
    between the largely Ukrainian-speaking population in the western part of the country,
    who favour closer ties with Europe, and the Russian-speaking population in the eastern
    part, who favour closer ties with Russia. Ukraine’s east-west split has deep historic
    roots: the south and east of the country were part of the former Russian empire, while
    the western provinces were part of the Austrian Hapsburg empire (Darden, 2014).

    In April 2014, just a month after the Russian annexation of Crimea, fighting broke out in
    the Donbas (short for Donets Basin), a region in eastern Ukraine bordering Russia.
    There were significant structural factors driving the insurgency:
    For decades this corner of south-eastern Ukraine has struggled with a
    decaying industrial economy, out-migration and a growing sense of
    frustration among the population….Donbas was responsible for roughly one
    quarter of Ukraine’s industrial production in the decades before the war. But
    its people had precious little to show for it. Wage arrears were the worst in
    the country, life expectancies were low, carbon emissions were through the
    roof and – thanks in part to lagging birth rates and high infant mortality – the
    population was ageing (ICG, 2020: i).

    https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/college-social-sciences/government-society/publications/corruption-crime-and-conflict-in-eastern-ukraine.pdf

    If you read further on , my understanding is that Russia gave aid.

    The war in Ukraine’s Donbas plunged an economically troubled region into
    ruin. A 427 km front line cuts through what used to be the most densely
    populated and industrially productive part of the country. Supply and market
    links have been shattered. Giant enterprises have shed jobs or collapsed.
    Entire communities have fallen into poverty, now exacerbated by the COVID19 crisis.
    Corruption, crime and conflict in eastern Ukraine
    13
    Given the dire economic situation, Moscow has had to step in with significant subsidies
    and other support. Towards the end of 2014, Russia began to provide money for
    pensions (approximately USD 40 million alone for DPR), other social programmes,
    government and military salaries (Jensen, 2017: 3).
    Excluding military expenditures, Russia spends roughly USD1.5-2 billion a
    year, or about 0.1 percent of its GDP, on the de facto republics, according to
    Ukrainian government sources and non-government experts. As of 2017,
    Ukrainian officials estimated that Moscow was covering about 50 percent of
    the DPR’s budget and about 80 percent of the LPR’s. Russia also has covered
    all the LPR’s energy needs since 2017….. Both statelets get their gas from
    Russia’s Gazprom, which keeps household energy costs low relative to those
    in government-controlled Ukraine (ICG, 2020: 20).
    Fischer (2019: 29) notes that Russia’s role as a provider of humanitarian aid for the
    NGCAs has grown: dozens of convoys with over 77,000 tons of humanitarian aid have
    been sent by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. The Russian public also give
    donations, and between 2014 and 2015 Russia took in almost one million war refugees
    from Ukraine (Fischer, 2019: 29). Thousands of older residents subsist by maintaining
    an address in government-controlled territory, which allows them to continue receiving
    their government pensions so long as they travel over the front line – through a war
    zone – to collect them (ICG, 2020: ii).

    Further down the article , read about the organised crime in Ukraine .

    Corruption has been a growing problem in Ukraine since the country gained
    independence. The Corruption Perception Index 2020 ranked Ukraine 117 out of 180
    countries for corruption with a score of 33/100, with 0 being highly corrupt and 100
    meaning very clean.1 A study (EUACI, 2020) found that, for the population, corruption
    was the second most important social problem after the hostilities in Donbas: 69% of
    citizens indicated corruption among the very serious problems of Ukraine, while 72.7%
    held this view of military action in eastern Ukraine. The World Justice Project’s Rule of
    Law Index ranked Ukraine 72nd out of 128 countries overall in 2020, but 110th in the
    category ‘absence of corruption’ and 90th in ‘criminal justice’ (Lough, 2021: 5).
    Corruption is pervasive in Ukraine. A Ukrainian government diagnostic study of highlevel corruption, prepared with the assistance of the IMF in 2014, noted the ‘pyramidal’
    nature of state capture permeating the government system, featuring ‘powerful wellknown elites at the top, heads of agencies in the middle and agency staff at the base’
    (Ash et al, 2017: 76). Government corruption has led to knock-on effects in society. The
    ICG (2017) estimated that between one quarter and half of the population operated in
    the shadow economy. The ICG (2017) found that corruption had resulted in ‘a dramatic
    weakening of the state: millions of dollars bypassing the official budget, chronic lowlevel violence in centres of illegal trade, and swathes of rural territory with no legal
    workforce or tax base to speak of’. Ash et al (2017: 76) note that, ‘Corruption on a grand
    scale has not only cost the country’s citizens dearly over more than 20 years, but has
    cemented in place a system that is impossible to dislodge without deep changes to the
    operating environment’.

    No wonder Trump was angry , and here stupid idiotic Starmer is now giving £billions to Ukraine .. which will vanish!

    Although Ukraine is not a major drug source country, its location astride
    several important drug trafficking routes into Western Europe leaves it
    vulnerable as an important transit country. Ukraine’s numerous ports on the
    Black and Azov seas, its extensive river routes, and its porous northern and
    eastern borders make Ukraine an attractive route for drug traffickers into the
    European Union’s (EU) illicit drug market. Heroin from Afghanistan is
    trafficked through Russia, the Caucasus, and Turkey, before passing through
    Ukraine. Latin American cocaine is moved through Ukrainian seaports and
    airports for both domestic use and further transit to EU countries. Ukrainian
    law enforcement occasionally interdicts large shipments of drugs in
    commercial shipments transiting southern ports.
    The same report describes money laundering in Ukraine as follows (USSD BINLEA,
    2019, cited in Home Office, 2019: 14):
    Money is laundered through real estate, insurance, financial and nonfinancial institutions, shell companies, and bulk cash smuggling schemes.
    Criminals use aliases to register as [ultimate beneficial owners] UBOs of
    companies to comingle licit and illicit funds. Transnational organized crime
    syndicates use Ukraine as a transit country for money and drugs.
    Transactions are routed through offshore tax havens to obscure ownership,
    evade taxes, or mask illicit profits.

    Please if you have time read the link to the article ..

    We are on a hiding to nothing .. Reeves and co are absolute nutters aiding and abetting such stupidity !

  71. Nice and sunny but, unfortunately, not warm enough to sit outside – as I had planned.

    2. Needed a thin fleece whilst gardening/weeding today. Ok in the sun. Very cold out of it.

  72. Im sure the DT is trying to get rid of its faarrr right readers by presenting a judgement a day to raise the blood pressure. Is there no way judges can be called to account, or is it left to the appeals system. Psychotic Nigerian robber can stay in UK because he believes he is ‘possessed’ Strewth….

  73. We drove to the car park at recently established (2008) Hertwood Forest and went for walk along some of the wide man-made footpaths, no mud. As did many hundreds of other people today with their dogs and children. But worn out now.
    I use to be able to walk all the way there and back with doggo. Brought back happy memories.

  74. Phew! Knackered now after two hours tidying up dead stuff and a bit of pruning of the not dead stuff and sweeping up and bagging it all for the tip. Still lovely and sunny out there.

  76. Pleasant stroll along the Canal to Sidney Gardens for a pot of tea and a slice of cake and then back along the canal…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a61795c4ceb9a1f98d0e0083fbea19ff4604f8ab3d90d5492ef0576e3e724ff8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f1d7a12f47e58cb13ecf0382f2e1df96a0ac1ebe02c45b31e434f29fcd5e468.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ddc806a003aa9901aae55737a492ae7dd26e63cf9da0c9e2fa8b33f209ec092.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/551340620250193f4087aed7eaebf8506625245404dac2242ffd028d2488c634.jpg

        1. It's just so English winter: Broadleaf, knarled trees, ivy, one can almost see the stone church tower, hear a peal of bells being rung. Been a while (28 years) since I've been part of that, didn't know I missed it.
          Sigh

          1. I have trees with ivy and I heard the bells before church this morning. I went camping a few years ago and one Sunday I walked the dog. There was a cricket match on, a steam train went over the bridge as I walked towards it and the footpath led down to the church. Nearly reduced me to tears it was so nostalgic.

  77. Elon Musk's Latest Children

    From an article in today's online Telegraph:

    Elon Musk’s ever-growing brood of children has expanded once again after he confirmed the arrival of a new son named Seldon Lycurgus. The baby is believed to be his 14th child and and his fourth with Shivon Zilis, a Canadian executive at Neuralink, his neurotechnology firm. His latest offspring is called Seldon Lycurgus.

    I had heard of both those names: Hari Seldon is the hero of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Born on the planet Helicon, Seldon showed a prodigious talent for mathematics at an early age (like Daddy?).

    Lycurgus was an evil king of Arabia who killed innocent strangers coming to his country by cutting off their heads and adorning his palace with these trophies (like DOGE?) No Comment.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fae0031fe8ea018c13f80533738716259698944df2817222824906385e5e83cb.png

      1. I doubt that, he's one of the world's wealthiest individuals. Doubtless legally avoids tax if he can, but will still have to pay some – which will likely go to the mothers of children of feckless fathers, in the form of benefits or similar.

        1. I think some of the older ones have had IQ tested, and come out quite well. Perhaps future versions of their father.

      3. Who knows. At least he spends time with them, pays his way financially too. Plenty of wayward parents, all countries, who don't.

          2. Possibly quite well, he does try to spend time with his various offspring. Can be sure various mothers be in the press slamming him, if not.

          3. If he were a slammer having more than one concubine would not have elicited comment, would it?

      5. He knows that the population of the world is already falling and this is the greatest challenge to be faced by humanity.

  78. I notice that attending the European "Leaders!!!" meeting in London is Toy Boy Trudope. Canada become European?

    Just asking.

    2. Don't remind me, boy wonder is probably going to give away more of my money.

      Two months ago the village idiot announced that he would be resigning as PM, parliament was basically prorogued to avoid a non confidence vote, his liberal caucus have said that they want him to resign but still he carries on spreading largess wherever he goes. He may technically be PM but he has no moral right to speak on behalf of Canadians.

      I don't know what kind of frequent flyer program he joined but he is surely taking a lot of trips to earn that free flight.

  79. I can’t help wondering whether the Donald is waiting for his people uncover exactly what the Biden family interests were in Ukraine and whether his behaviour has been influenced by what he knows already.

  80. Afternoon, all. Another sunny day, but after serving in church, shopping because I have run out of just about everything, then cooking lunch (chicken parsnips roast spuds with chicken and white wine gravy) washed down with a Pinot Grigio, I am now good for nothing as usual.
    I suppose reality is brutal to those in lala land.

    3. Similar here, but to a pâtisserie. Dogs not allowed. Great humiliation in the papers.

  82. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b21893fcd44d5d6c5afbd68d151a08a5aacd70f424b62a3a6f5bbb7ee518635.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ae6ce0d00e0140cc902b7d7fd3e2255bdedf51abd04212f2a2c88418ded5516.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa190d49fa71709645703910028b85a4ee1a60f6710a0f43ec49249168959ec9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c36f905fb782411c14807cc1a432e21689239db32476f412356dcc5e982505c5.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/927dee54418834bfd0960865e66e76df9a61edd176e73a9ddfb8728aa605e494.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81e177fc61653200327e276817a6dd95b445061b88eb71f7945b0a3b00213b89.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53ce22450403a6cf4eae07c9e11e6d0555398f6f1d726af9e7522a5bd1be08f8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b30660eab278957dffed650f1fd55535be3f3df0c0575171396ef496f8aa4461.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/619491e44b34225d25b072e38ce2be5dbfa85fecd45c05d6c200ed3157cf4369.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68b237be0735ca1d2820fdc2dc2bd0e99434ad78deeb20bd83b36a8c7ff58ef0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a47619bf65df6c0d9799178da1990a6917a69dd4e3581c6e51356c2fde407e04.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9aec3fe7a7a1be533401ae13fec22fd0a272bbd34756e192a456dbc5469977af.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/442f0290da659918d3280e456333a6c8eb1fb52f4510b145c607701c3be8ca27.jpg

  84. Once again , Peter Hitchens comes in not from the left, nor from the right, but straight down the middle.

    Trump's White House tirade can be GOOD for the world – if we're prepared to heed it

    PETER HITCHENS, 1 March 2025, 07:42 EST

    Well, at least the silly myth that America is the world's kindly sugar daddy has been killed off forever. I do not like Donald Trump and I feel quite sorry for Ukraine's President Zelensky. But Friday night's White House melodrama will be good for the world, if only we heed it. And if you think nothing like it has ever happened before, you are gravely wrong.

    After the US had saved Britain from near-certain defeat by Germany in World War One, the British Ambassador to Washington DC, Auckland Geddes, paid a call on the US Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, expecting a friendly conversation. Instead, he was met with a yelling tirade.

    Hughes raged and shouted at Geddes that America had just saved Britain's bacon, and we had better be grateful from now on. In a voice rising to a scream, Mr Hughes (a normally staid, liberal-minded type), yelled at His Majesty's envoy: 'You would not be here to speak for Britain – you would not be speaking anywhere, England would not be able to speak at all. It is the German Kaiser who would be heard if America – seeking nothing for herself but to save England – had not plunged into the war and won it.'

    Around this time, Mr Hughes's boss, President Woodrow Wilson, was telling aides of his plans to build a huge new US Navy bigger than Britain's then was. And if we would not limit the size of our fleet, 'there will come another more terrible and bloody war and England would be wiped off the face of the map'.

    In fact, within a few short years, after negotiations during which fist-fights almost broke out between British and American admirals, we were indeed forced by US blackmail into limiting the size of the Royal Navy, spelling the end of our days as a world power.

    To the Americans, Britain was about as important as Serbia, and they didn't hide it. Wilson, very unlike Donald Trump, was a generally mild-mannered college professor, not a foul-mouthed rabble rouser. But the message is the same. The US, since it realised its almost boundless power, can do what it likes.

    As I've pointed out before, during the 1956 Suez Crisis, the chief of the US Navy, Admiral Arleigh Burke, seriously discussed opening fire on British warships, in a conversation with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. And when, for cheap electoral reasons, Bill Clinton decided in 1993 to support and befriend Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, the British Embassy in Washington was brutally cut out of the loop of knowledge.

    Our then Premier, John Major, felt so humiliated that relations between him and President Clinton (never good) almost entirely broke down. There is no 'special relationship', and the US has no permanent friends.

    What happened to Zelensky was this. Donald Trump comes from an older tradition of American foreign policy, called 'America First'. This was an actual movement, begun by students and then sweeping the country, which in 1939 and 1940 campaigned hard against the US aiding Britain against Hitler.

    This wasn't, as some now believe, a pro-Nazi outfit. Many of its early members were liberals, even socialists. It was just an expression of a very old American desire to stay out of foreign quarrels, first proclaimed by George Washington himself at the foundation of the nation.

    With Donald Trump in the White House, this policy has come back with a bang. It has pushed aside the neo-conservative idealists, who sought to impose what they saw as democracy on the whole world. And it has ended a matching policy of trying to keep Russia from rising again, at any cost.

    Quite why British and European leaders were so keen on the neo-cons and their wild, invariably disastrous adventures, I have no idea. I suspect they just wanted to suck up to America whatever it did, and now look foolish because Washington is under new management, and they will – in the end – have to be just as servile to the opposite policy.

    If they had only kept their cool, and continued to express doubts about expanding NATO up to the gates of Moscow (always likely to cause trouble) they might be in a better position now.

    And Ukraine would still be at peace with its ill-tempered neighbour, its cities unravaged and its young men alive, rather than mouldering in war graves.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14450115/PETER-HITCHENS-Trumps-White-House-tirade-GOOD-world-prepared-heed-it.html

    1. Trump should have done the humiliation in private, not made it a headline act for every media outlet in the world.

      As it is, the message that Ukraine has lost, make the best deal that you can has been lost in a sea of Orange Man bad hysteria.

      once again his style fails him.

      1. I think doing it in front of the cameras showed us more about Zelensky than Trump. That he is quick to anger and will walk away when it isn't going his way. That he is a cokehead.

      2. Zelenskyy reportedly called Vance/Trump a "bitch whore" or similar, in Ukrainian.

        He deserved the humiliation.
        Unfortunately, but as per usual, it's Trump who gets criticised because he's trying to stop a war that could turn into WW3, and everyone else wants it to continue, including Zelenskyy.

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jLTvIEIPhiY
        FULL Body Language Analysis of Trump and Zelenskyy's MELTDOWN

        Goes through the entire meeting, and includes a short segment of the meeting prior to the one with Trump and Vance, where Zelenskyy met with Democrats and RINOs.

        https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/zelenskys-studio-posts-vulgar-trump-dick-reference-following/
        Volodymyr Zelensky’s studio in Ukraine posted a disgusting and vulgar reference to President Trump after the Ukrainian leader was walked out of the White House on Friday.

        The Kvartal 95 Facebook page posted a photo of a piano with Trump’s name on it.

        The photo is in reference to the famous skit where Zelensky played the piano with his penis and no pants on.

        The photo, featuring a black grand piano with ‘Trump’ written on it, was published by the studio on Facebook and Instagram on Friday after Zelensky was asked to leave the White House.

        1. Exactly, Trump gets the criticism instead of any praise.

          Can you imagine if Trump had played all nice and diplomatically, charmed Zelensky into a deal that was acceptable all round, that would have been nobel prize worthy.

          Just think of the exploding lefty heads if Trump did get awarded the peace prize. Unfortunately he will not be getting any Nobel prize nominations for Fridays performance.

          1. Don't be silly, if that had happened Zelensky would have been awarded it on his own.

      3. Disagree strongly. If you haven't watched the entire press meeting I recommend it, as with a general notion of go to the source. Regarding Trump's style, it doesn't translate across the pond. Within the US there's a type of cultural dismissal we see in the UK towards common regional accents in such situations. In the exchange what got Trump's goat was Zelenskyy telling the Americans what they were about to feel. That cannot stand. There's a bigger military politics at play here that Zelenskyy doesn’t realise off hand.

    2. After Vance had called Zelenskyy out on his dismissal of the US efforts at diplomacy rather than a continuation of the war, Trump should have ended the meeting before it all blew up.
      I don't know if Trump knows any Ukrainian, but Zelenskyy muttered something that Ukrainian speakers have said was "bitch whore" or similar. He called Vance a "bitch whore." He'd rejected their peace deal, tried to renegotiate the terms in front of the cameras, and everyone is surprised that Trump and Vance called him out on it.
      He's not a hero. He's an ungrateful grifter who's always complained that whatever he's been given isn't enough. Apparently, even Biden lost his temper and swore at him on a phonecall.

      1. Zelensky actually called Vance an effing bitch in Russian. Apparently the expression he used is a common Russian insult. Russian is his first language of course. He had to learn the Ukrainian dialect. He seems to’ve forgotten to keep up the pretence and maybe thought he wouldn’t be understood.

  85. No need to confess, Conway. All of us been there, doing that. They all have closed faces, speak only to each other. A country within a country.

    1. I saw a family when I was shopping. All jabbering away. I thought, do you live here? Speak English.

      1. That’s right. Shopping not the experience it was, vapes, other litter, that’s before dealing with an assistant.

  86. Wordle No. 1,352 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 2 Apr 2025

    An angelic Birdie Three?

    2. Well done – I was about to jump in like mola above!

      Unremarkable par here, but given the word I would be surprised if there were'nt some low scores – a very popular starter word is ADIEU which would set up eagle/birdie territory!

      Wordle 1,352 4/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          3. Casual games, today’s event.
            There are 5 tri peaks and 5 pyramid; the expert tri peaks is challenge number 10

          4. Nah, worked out the way to clear the first board, but not the second… then got fed up and quit!

    3. I win the most divots accolade again

      Wordle 1,352 5/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟨⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,352 4/6

      ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
      🟨🟨🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  87. Lacoste is a bit overdue, I've got pzzas to prepare and, more importantly, it's almost wine o'clock.

    Par here today.

    Wordle 1,352 4/6

    🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟨⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Well done vw!

        Wordle 1,352 4/6

        ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
        🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
        ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  88. The Ministry of Defence. An observation:

    In about 1981, as a savings measure it was decided to stop issuing ships with round wooden plugs used for damage control purposes. These plugs would be used, obviously, for plugging round holes such as are made by bullets or cannon rounds, the favourite being the 20mm type, the larger ones being full sized shell holes (providing the shell hadn't 'functioned' in the idiom). In size they went from about 10mm up to 150mm and could be rapidly hammered into the hole creating a virtually watertight seal, thus stopping the oggin coming in, a much desirous thing on something reliant on its buoyancy for its functionality.

    Along comes 1982 and the unpleasantness in the South Atlantic where the baddies were prone to let fly with their 20mm cannon and assorted other rapid fire weapons, and the goodies were left to split timber wedges to fill the suddenly very common extra ventilation holes.
    It was at this point I decided, along with several, if not all of my shipmates that I wasn't keen on civil servants, and that I would far sooner shove them into the fucking hole rather than the splinters from a flat timber fucking wedge.

  89. UK to give Ukraine £1.6 billion loan to fund 5,000 air-defence missiles
    Sir Keir Starmer said: “I’m announcing a new deal which allows Ukraine to use £1.6 billion of UK export finance to buy more than 5000 air defence missiles, which will be made in Belfast, creating jobs in our brilliant defence sector.

    Just in case it's slipped Mr P's mind Belfast is in N Ireland…..

    1. Erm… The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the UK for short, Mine King. Not quite sure what you are saying. In any case, one thing I am sure of is that, for some reason, our WEF masters want perpetual war, and I don't – I want perpetual peace (the non-submissive version). Nor do I want to fund it (the Amazingly Lucrative War Machine)- and I don't suppose I am alone in this.

    1. Trump has been demanding that other countries step up and pay their way , it's finally happening.

  91. I've suddenly found two 'comment unavailable' on my screen it's never happened before ???

  92. They've just stopped the Fulham MUFC FA Cup game, because it's Ramadan and Muslims get special treatment.

    Sorry pal, if you can't hack it, don't play.

        1. Prayers, no doubt. We ought to try that when a 6 Nations match is going badly…

  93. That's me for today. Sunny but chilly. Just lovely to have the house full of sunlight.

    Have a jolly evening imagining how much will be spent on entertaining the European "Leaders" tonight.

    A emain.

  94. To be fair not one foreign army has come to grief when invading Russia….Oh, wait…

  97. I’ve had enough of all this talk of defence spending. They’re not spending anything on defending theses islands. Funding foreign wars is not defence. Can someone remind me how Orwell explained the perpetual war in 1984? Turdy is on my tv screen wittering on about Keev and telling lies about Kiev. He’s now repeating it in Franglais.

  99. Well, Spartie has just had his first visit to Frinton; indeed his first visit to the seaside.
    He was a bit thoughtful to begin with, partly because it a beautiful day so lots of other dogs including his chums were bounding around. Gradually he relaxed and enjoyed himself.
    I have never known the East Coast to be so wind free in winter; it was an incredibly still and warm day.
    We had a panoramic view of wind turbines doing the square root of bu88er-all.

    1. I took Charlie to Caister beach a few years ago. He was not impressed. The sand got between his paws and these wet things kept rolling up the beach towards him. Mind you, my red setter was even less impressed at Bognor. He kept shouting at those wet things that rolled up the beach towards him and they totally ignored him. He got his feet wet!

      1. Small dogs get sand in mouths, noses, eyes, start rubbing with paws (already sandy)…..

        1. The sand at Frinton was really hard, (very good for building sandcastles) so Spartie wasn't even leaving footprints.
          It took big dogs or human beings to actually leave a mark.

          1. Ah, silt type sand, as you say best for sandcastles and footprints. Seem to recall some footprints being found, neolithic, I think East coast, a small family of humans, some years ago?

      2. Our dog when I was a child loved the sea and spent all day chasing seagulls fruitlessly.

    2. The direct sunlight was a true pleasure, all the more so after what has been a largely gloomy February. There's more to come, so I shall savour it while it lasts.

    3. II have many find memories of day trips to Frinton. Always so clean and civilised ….. apart from the lack of ice cream band of shops when I was a child.

  100. Peace deal, what about the peace deal, without that it's throwing money at an endless war. President Trump has offered Zelensky to accept his peace deal.

  102. It was bizarre, Zelensky swore at JD Vance not in Ukrainian but in Russian, his first language, it's all really crazy

    1. None of this makes any obvious sense. There is no reason for any of it in a modern world. It's not the middle east.

        1. 'Evening, Conway. I was reading a substack earlier, British Patriot (sorry couldn't paste the link), if you manage to find it and have time to read, be interested in your (and others) thoughts.

          2. Basic premise..Ukraine has lost, get over it. (And as far as I know, he has no other substacks, and he’s not the only one with this opinion/verdict – coming days and weeks will tell.) Apologies for any time you wasted.

          3. I didn't waste any time. Not knowing what I'm looking for is like looking for a needle in a haystack; with the theme I'd have a better chance. For what it's worth; I concur. Ukraine needs to face up to reality. There is no point in prolonging the war, it just means more losses. Make an honourable peace.

  104. But Sue, our Great Leeda tells us that Vlad will be on the lawns at the Palace of Westminster by a week next Friday if we don't send troops and loot now!

      1. Aaarrggghhh, did you get the nuclear warning (dont think it will make much difference to Wales).

        2. There was a scheduled siren warning for Portsmouth Dockyard this morning. I was waiting for it but they must have been working from home.

    3. Rather Vlad than the hordes of jihadis now arriving on southern beaches. At least he's a) European and b) Christian.

      1. I think his chief of staff has been released and has a nice house in Hounslow… or somewhere…

      2. Not sure whats he Bin Doin recently… Not too many bogey men left, Kim young one is almost an establishment figure these days so there’s only bad Vlad to persecute.

      1. Was the 'British boy?' on their drug turf?

        MetPlod are so circumspect in these cases.

        Understandably from our legal Nottlers one wouldn't want to prejudice a case but at the same time if the rapist or assailant or drug dealer is indigenous we get a full description.

  105. Well, all you NWO advocates, you're now well on the path of getting what you want, a new world order.

    But sure as Hell, it ain't gonna be the one you were aiming for!

  106. The pictures of King Charles when shaking hands with Zelensky were very revealing.
    King Charles wasn't relaxed, he had a fixed, polite but not genuine smile on his face .
    Very much, don't drag me into this look about him.

    2. Perhaps some of his father's teaching and personality filtered down after all.

      Don't shake hands with oiks.

    3. I haven't seen it. I have no intention of seeing it. It's just wishful thinking, conjecture and projection. A single frame of film, chosen partially, tells us nothing about the subject but everything about the person who has posted it online.

      1. Stay in the UN for the veto on the security council, just kick the UN and all its agencies out of the USA.

  108. Wanton-Spaff. Austerity. War.

    ..can it be any worse?
    Got to say.. Leftie trolls are putting on a brave face.

  110. 28 February 2025
    "It's beginning to feel like the Wild West up here when it comes to sheep crime – it's soul-destroying," says farmer Colin Abel, scanning his flock high up on west Dartmoor farmland.

    This winter – like most years – Mr Abel is missing more than 400 ewes.

    He says in the last decade he has lost nearly £500,000 worth of livestock to sheep rustling, which is pushing some farmers to the brink of quitting or bringing their flocks off the moors.

    Devon and Cornwall Police says livestock theft is challenging to police but its officers are "pursuing every line of inquiry" through "forensics, surveillance, tracking and more".

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly44r4pvd5o?fbclid=IwY2xjawIxkotleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHW5jey8IceW1YGlEqd7o3ByoZaXk0nAkGNH5RwMKT-JjLRKQ1wXW4BV02g_aem_6skKVSMr2dZgyuWnLAG8QA

    1. Rural crime is out of control. The usual suspects just help themselves to whatever they want and the police never seem to do anything about it.

    2. Keep pigs, shoot the rustlers, feed them to the pigs.
      Wins:
      If they're Muslims they've been eaten by pigs
      The pigs won't care but certainly get bigger and fatter
      The word will get out that rustling isn't risk free

      1. Have you seen 'Snatch'? – brilliant film, they feed the bad guys to the pigs, and as they say in the film – hence the expression 'as greedy as a pig!'.

    3. Given that there is a level of experience and competence required to successfully steal sheep, I suspect Pikies with a ready market in certain cities with a high rate of "diversity"

  111. Thought for the day.

    Imagine that the Epstein files have all been released and everyone in the NWO is screaming:

    "look look a Zelensky squirrel."

    1. It certainly has been a marvellous distraction from the events nearer to home as well. Weren't the Epstein files supposed to have been 'dropped' this weekend?

  113. In all bizarre fairness this makes sense. Hiring a cameraman to go about his business in Nazï Germany, well you would of expected him to be a bit of a Nazï.

    Where the BBC fall down is that they fail to recognise the moral equivalence.

    3. A prick caught between two fannies and he doesn't know what to do because he doesn't know what a woman is even though the ginger growler tried to show him.

    5. This is just going to be Europe's special military operation and Zelenskyy has just kindly offered to permit the use of Ukraine as a military testing zone. There is no problem about the odd stray missile or two because noone is quite sure where the Ukrainian border is supposed to be.

    1. Dear Rupert, 1500 a day as this Summer arrives.

      They could stop the boats on each side of the channel but don't want to. Ask yourself why? Then arm yourself and start shooting. You have a security pass after all.

      1. Presumably MPs are issued with anti-stab vests, plus a Get Out of Jail Free card for the Labour gang.

    2. Lefties are very fond of Ukraine being defended but start screaming if sensible people suggest we should be.

      1. Ukraine soon to be resolved, if what I see, read is on the money, wibbling. If so, should free up time, attention, funding for what many of us have been asking for, for some time – remigration.

    3. High pressure, low winds mean high volume of illegal landings into S E England. It also usually means good visibility, and these small boats are easy to spot and should be immediately picked up or towed back into the French waters from whence they came.

    5. That's the whole point, Maggie. They want to destroy the English and their culture.

    2. He’s not wrong. The farmers protesting about IHT missed the point, it’s their livelihoods that are on the line.

  118. Gosh ! For someone who likes racing around a lot he has only just caught up. Well done !

    Minutes from the meeting at Downing St with Bill Gates and Larry Fink unavailable…Then a Cabinet meeting held in private at a secret location….

    I am entirely sure all the things they were talking about was for our well being.

    1. I took about six customers out to Microsoft HQ in Seattle about 20 years ago, there was about 12 of us in total – Microsoft paid for everything including Club Class flights – and Bill dropped in to say hello whilst we were there.
      I'd love to say he was horrible and creepy, but he was perfectly fine and pleasant….
      It was only later that I grew to dislike him.

      1. These people never pay for anything out of their own pocket. Do you think he booked and payed for his trips on the 'Lolita Express' himself?

        1. God knows what went on, but it was enough for Melinda to divorce him, I’m sure the $3Bn softened the blow.

          One has to be careful here, Gates is very litigious, and he’s slightly richer than me, but maybe not you?

        2. Saw a tweet to say Epstein's list was being released soon. That should push the recent fracas into the shade. You will be glad to hear that Mrs Pea cooked chicken paws as part of the iftar meal, now if she can suck on those she should have no problem with anything else I have lined up for desert.

      2. I had lunch with Gates a few years before then, as you say quite pleasant but a bit hard to chat with socially.
        No he didn't pay for my lunch.

    2. Just a bit of advice on upgrading to W11, and enquiring whether we had any farm land for sale.

  119. Hello! A pleasant Sunday spent making charcoal, and getting ready for tapping the maple trees – the temperatures not being quite right for that yet.

          1. Life is easier to put up with when you don’t contribute to their coffers.

            I’ve taken a 10-day restaurant gig in San Diego for late April – and after my Cape Codd gig for new year, I’ll have to work hard to find the expenses on the farm to keep me from paying tax for the first year in ages.

      2. I think the word you are looking for is Tupping and it's us who have been well and truly fucked! (post 9:00 pm Watershed!)

      3. I think the word you are looking for is Tupping and it's us who have been well and truly fucked! (post 9:00 pm Watershed!)

      4. I think the word you are looking for is Tupping and it's us who have been well and truly fucked! (post 9:00 pm Watershed!)

    1. Given the state of our current Government I'd bloody well go and welcome them.

  122. A fairly busy day doing several jobs.
    Cleared part of the verge beside the road dragging the last of the brash and ivy from the diseased saplings I dropped t'other day up for burning and getting some stick trays filled being the main activities, though I did have an hour axe swinging splitting some of the logs I collected last week that were already short enough for chopping.
    And that is me off to bed.

    Some of Kipling's best words here:-
    https://youtu.be/pEwxguHUi_U?si=CfNTOISeU3YgX1ZJ

  124. That's me for the night, I'm afraid. I didn't sleep very well last night, so I'm going to turn in early. Goodnight, everyone.

      1. From Wiki:-

        B.II
        Bristol Hercules (Hercules VI or XVI engines) powered variant, of which 300 were produced by Armstrong Whitworth. One difference between the two engine versions was that the VI had manual mixture control,

        Other B series Lancasters appear to have had Merlins.

      2. They had a shortage of Merlins until Packard in the States started to build them under licence. I believe there was only one drop hammer in the country capable of forging the crankshafts.

    2. Gottabee world leaders donchaknow. We have lost the colonial empire but still feel the need to intrude on every crisis. Just let Johnny Foreigner sort out their own problems.

    1. Nah, he will be ostracized and demoted for telling it as it is.

      His chances of becoming pope are second to none.

    1. He is going to find a way to penalize the UK no matter what happens, cancelling Chez Chuck will just make the penalties bigger.

      At least you don't have the idiot Trudeau doing everything that he can to rile the ego.

      1. Blimey, and there was me thinking that Keir Starmer's Labour has found and exploited all the possible ways to "penalise the UK"

  131. Well, chums, it's my bedtime, so I'm off upstairs to bed. I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well and I'll see you all in the morning.

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