ALB
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One of the candidates for the next Leader of the opposition, the ineffable Liz Truss, has a chequered past. The latest issue of Private Eye (15 July) has dug up that when she in the Young Liberals in 1994 she spoke in favour of abolishing the monarchy and adds:
“But there is more, the Eye learns. Delegates who attended the 1993 conference of Liberal Democrat Youth & Students recall then-firebrand Truss arguing for, er, the abolition of money.”
This is credible. Truss was then a student at Oxford at the same time as some Socialist Party members who had formed an “Abolition of Money” society. So it is entirely possible that she picked up the idea from this student society. Maybe she even have gone to one of their meetings.
But what an opportunist. One moment a Liberal, the next a Tory. One moment a Remainer, the next a Brexiteer. And just to climb higher up the greasy pole.
I don’t think that too much should be read into the Ukrainian regime’s declarations that it won’t “cede” any territory to Russia, ie legally and formally transfer territory to Russia under international law. Nobody expects them to do that, not even Russia.
So this is a bit of a red herring. The fighting can stop without this with the Ukraine regime accepting that, as a matter of fact if not of law, that some of its territory remains occupied by Russia. This has been the case with regard to Crimea since 2014. Ukraine hasn’t ceded this to Russia and probably never will but in practice has accepted the situation.
Other examples can be found in other parts of the world. Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem for instance.
In other words, the war could come to an end without Ukraine having to “cede” any territory. And probably will, when the USA feels that it has weakened Russia enough, which is its declared primary aim.
Meanwhile of course the death and destruction continues.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62083196.amp
Looks as if the Russian army has been copying the British army’s tactics in Afghanistan — carrying out so-called “field executions” of people suspected of killing their troops. At least the Russian Army tied their victims hands behind their backs before they executed them.
In any event both are “war crimes” under the Geneva Conventions. But where are the ICC investigators? Where are the calls to put the leaders of the UK government at the time (Cameron and Clegg, I think) on trial for “ordering” these executions?
No wonder most states and people outside “the West” are not supporting NATO against Russia in Ukraine since they see the West as hypocrites with double standards.
Meanwhile in Scotland, after taking industrial action, the train drivers there have won a 5% increase. More than the 2% offered by other employers and presumably what other railway workers and others will expect to settle for.
Here’s the exposure of another product of the Ukrainian lie factory which was so over the top that the person responsible got the boot, but not before the lie wasn’t uncritically accepted and spread by the biassed Western media.
Ukrainian official behind Western media reports of Russian atrocities fired by Ukrainian parliament
You don’t want to believe a word the Ukrainian authorities come out with any more than what the Russian authorities produce.
Yes he was a revanchist who wanted to revive Japanese militarism. Which of course is why US and other Western politicians are heaping praise on him. They see a re-militarised Japan as an counterweight to China. Also they don’t like the idea of politicians being assassinated for their views as they could be next. We don’t either of course.
The Liberals will need to be more astute than last time when they extracted a promise from their Tory coalition partners to hold a referendum on electoral reform, only to be stabbed in the back as the Tories did nothing to discourage their supporters from campaigning and voting against it.
What was proposed in the referendum was not proportional representation but the alternative vote under which people vote 1,2,3 and votes are redistributed until one candidate crosses the 50% mark (similar to the system under which executive mayors are now elected). This allows those who finished 2nd and 3rd to gang up against the one who finished 1st.
Actually, this has what has been happening – or rather the same effect had been produced — in recent by-elections were the Labour has run a token campaign in the Tory shires so their supporters vote liberal and the Liberals doing the same in the big cities so their supporters vote Labour.
Of course you can devise and introduce the most democratic electoral system but it won’t make much difference as long as the voters support one capitalist party or another, as they currently do. Even with such a system, the need for socialist activity to win over a majority for socialism remains.
With the economy in the state it is and likely to still be in two years, I can’t see how the Tories can win the next election. So, what we are seeing is the scramble to become the next Leader of the Opposition after a brief spell as a lame duck prime minister. I’m surprised that there are so many applicants.
This article, originally from Bloomberg, is quite insightful. It makes the point that Western politicians and journalists won’t be able to sustain popular tolerance of the war in the face of the economic pain they assumed people would put up with. People will eventually get fed up with governments spending money to prop up some government abroad while they suffer from the rising cost of living.
https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/ukraine-shouldnt-overplay-its-hand-with-allies-1.89130375
I use Kiev, Kharkov, Lvov, Odessa, etc because that’s what they have long been in English. On the other hand I am prepared to spell Boris the Ukrainian way as Borys. But I am not going to spell Trotsky as Trotskyy. Using Ukrainian transliteration is an affectation.
There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the streets of Kiev at Johnson’s demise:
Like the last one, the new Chancellor if the Exchequer is a multi-millionaire. Today’s Times says of Nadhim Zahawi:
“Most of his wealth is tied up in property assets, said to be worth £100 million.”
Another example of a capitalist taking direct charge of their class’s general interest rather than entrusting this to a career politician.
Yes I don’t think that was the case. The question is who said it (or made it up). The Ukrainian nationalist journalist attributed it to Johnson and is the sort of exaggeration that Johnson might make but it might just be a journalist speculating.
In any event, the fact is that after Johnson visited Kiev the Ukrainian regime changed its position and broke off negotiations with the Putin regime.
Here’s the source of the claims:
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/5/7344206/index.amp
Ukraine will be a basket case for years and a lot of the money contributed to rebuild it will be syphoned off by corrupt officials and politicians (which would be par for the course there).
These protesting self-employed are the victims of XR’s main achievement — increased repressive legislation:
Not sure blocking the Severn Bridge was a good idea, though.
