Election Year or Fear!

[ramAnag]

Oh God that means there would be at least 27 rA's in the school to cover all options.

But seriously it's time for someone to say **** this. English is the language of the country you choose to raise your kids in. So that's what they will be taught in. If you don't like it, you know what to do.

And while we are at it, abolish all faith schools (in the state school sector) of whatever provenance, which will also be bastions of teaching in non domestic languages as well as Catholic priests.

When Urdu becomes the master language and Islam the master faith (ie in about 20 years at present growth rates if the toolmakers son gets his way) this can be reviewed

Oh dear. He’s off on one, and yes…the plot’s been lost…again!

[Andy_Faber]

My main objection, Andy, was to your support for the suggestion that an NHS worker you know was made to feel like ?an outsider in a business where immigrants tend to immigrants?.
It isn?t logically possible to support that statement and agree with GP?s anecdotal 10% figure.
The internet is a powerful instrument and it is never helpful when seemingly reasonably intelligent folk give tacit approval to, and by implication contribute to, the spreading of such utter nonsense.

I?m not asking or expecting you to support my statement, it doesn?t support your POV to do so, nor it would appear have you reflected on GPs other unslanted observation about a and e or my point that headcount doesn?t apply in my friends frustrations

Your last paragraph demonstrates a surprising arrogance in deciding unilaterally what?s nonsense (anything you disagree with) and what?s not.

[Andy_Faber]

When Urdu becomes the master language and Islam the master faith (ie in about 20 years at present growth rates if the toolmakers son gets his way) this can be reviewed

More TTR?s area than mine but the issue regarding Islam rages on in internet land, the argument ?for? being fairly straightforward, the argument ?against? less so but maybe it?s just me not understanding some of the seemingly esoteric variables at play

[Trickytreesreds]

In that TTR is in effect mirroring the argument that the causes of WW2 were grounded in the settlement of WW1, he has a point. Russian "lebensraum" policy underpins the invasion, to liberate what it sees as it's people in Ukraine territory. This too is not unlike the sudetenland

The Russo-Ukrainian conflict is rooted in the dissolution of the Eastern bloc and Europe / USA were complicit in enabling that dissolution.

This doesn't justify the invasion but the parallels are interesting. Especially in the way Trump is reprising the Chamberlain role of appeasement of the aggressor. Let's hope Poland isn't the next tarfet

Poland won;'t be , its in NATO.

The west needs to look in the mirror. If the roles had been reversed and Russia/USSR, had been creeping slowly west, then west would have done something similar.
Imagine East Germany invading west Germany, or vice versa Would the reactions have been the same? Germans would claim to have had the right to the same thing, re unification, but under which banner?

No matter what maddy says, the west has lied and welched as much as Russia on promises not to arm/ expand/ occupy territory that doesn't belong to them.

[ramAnag]

I?m not asking or expecting you to support my statement, it doesn?t support your POV to do so, nor it would appear have you reflected on GPs other unslanted observation about a and e or my point that headcount doesn?t apply in my friends frustrations

Your last paragraph demonstrates a surprising arrogance in deciding unilaterally what?s nonsense (anything you disagree with) and what?s not.

Genuinely sorry you find my reply to be arrogant. To me, supporting the notion that the NHS is an example of a service provided by immigrants to tend for immigrants is demonstrably untrue and nonsensical. You have absolutely no evidence to fall back on, but if it makes you feel better to believe it…so be it. I’m sorry it’s apparently ‘arrogant’ of me to identify what is, at best, a mistake and, at worst, an unfounded prejudicial attack.

[MadAmster]

Poland won;'t be , its in NATO.

The west needs to look in the mirror. If the roles had been reversed and Russia/USSR, had been creeping slowly west, then west would have done something similar.
Imagine East Germany invading west Germany, or vice versa Would the reactions have been the same? Germans would claim to have had the right to the same thing, re unification, but under which banner?

No matter what maddy says, the west has lied and welched as much as Russia on promises not to arm/ expand/ occupy territory that doesn't belong to them.

What Maddy said was facts.

The West, as you put it, reacted to requests from Georgia and Ukraine in much the same way they reacted to requests from all the other former soviet satellites such as Romania, Hungary, Poland. Remember, it was the USSR/CCCP or whichever acronym you wish to give it, that dismantled its own area of influence, realising that many of the inhabitants of those satellites didn't want Russian dictatorship.

Are you suggesting that "the West" should have ignored their requests to join the freedom train?

[Geoff Parkstone]

West should not have ignored the freedom train for the former satellite states but I tend to agree that the unseemly scramble by the EU in particular, in search of a USE, and NATO to bring those countries onto their side will have concerned the Russians leaving no buffer zone.

With Ukraine looking for NATO membership too that would bring "the enemy into the heartland" of what was the old USSR and would seem to have been a bridge too far.

Now it's up to those countries who had a new found freedom to opt to ,"join the west" but I can see how it might irk the more hard line Russians that not only had they lost their empire but also that they had joined the other side.

[MadAmster]

How's this for an idea. The West remains with its freedoms, Russia keeps on being a dictatorship and we all agree to leave each other in peace.

[MadAmster]

Moving on, into another sphere, I think you'll all have seen at least photos of, and probably videos of, fireworkless firework shows. Basically thousands of drones moving about showing different coloured lights and making the most brilliant shows. It should come as no surprise that the Chinese are the best at this and they use AI to control these shows.

The next step is to arm 10s of 100s of drones and have them do the fighting. You pay billions getting a new submarine. Less than a million quids worth of drones sink it. Same goes for tanks and artillery. Made obsolete really. Planes? Fly a drone into a jet engine, bye bye F35.

War it is a changing.

Von Leijen announced this week 800 billion Euro for European defence. I hope a lot gets spent on Pan European AI, Pan European drones as well as some on more conventional weaponry or we are done for.

[Geoff Parkstone]

A great notion MA, but Russia is so paranoid about everyone being out to get them. In part it's the imprinted memories of the 10's of millions of citizens killed in WW2 that makes them understandably wary and untrusting.

One might have hoped that the cold war attitudes would have abated with Gorbachev and glasnost but people like Putin have reversed that process - largely as a means to retain power internally. There is no better way to keep power than to create a fear amongst the people.