I would suggest you never venture anywhere near the equator David. Been in the Arabian desert in late June at 44C, it was hot but it had nothing on the Malaysian Jungle at 32C for discomfort. Everything clings to you, I had a bit of prickly heat but a ginger lad from N.Ireland who was there had it so bad he looked like a walking blister.
With regards to Boris I think that the “kingdom of the blind” proverb is worth remembering. He is following on from the worst PM in my lifetime and probably since Anthony Eden. Opposite him sits the worst leader of the opposition in my lifetime and probably in anyones memory for that matter. I could quite easily see him winning an election if he puts forward the right program.
You both mentioned much needed spending being promised but the question as always is who is going to pay for it. We already pay 8% of our tax income in debt interest, there is only so much you can borrow before the cost rises prohibitively and lets be realistic, taxing the top 1% isn’t an option. I do think his promises are quite clever though, he has in effect stolen a march on Jeremy Corbyn, if Corbyn pledges to match the spending, so what. If Corbyn pledges to outspend Johnson then he will (rightly) be accused of being fiscally irresponsible and making promises he can’t keep. Either way it’s a win for Johnson.
I don’t think Iran is picking on Britain. We seized their tanker for dubious reasons, supposedly they were breaking an EU embargo but I notice not a peep out of the commission on the issue. Iran quite reasonably have taken steps to get their tanker returned with a proportional response. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the Iranian foreign ministry when they learned their lads had seized not one but two tankers. “WE SAID ONE TANKER!, LET IT GO YOU F*CKING MUPPETS!”
What is does show is the folly of putting all our naval resource into the carriers, we don’t have enough manpower to crew vessels that ought to be available for patrol and indeed some ships have even been stripped of men to crew the carriers themselves. There are very few countries that the UK could go to war with by itself and defeat today. We would struggle to muster more than a division of troops without mobilising both the TA and the reserve and even then. We certainly couldn’t defeat Iran. No different to any other EU country in that respect.
I think this is all about an election. And I can see him doing well (relatively speaking) if he keeps promising to throw money at all these big schemes he has. And then, of course, he won’t have the money to do all that but he might have enough of a mandate to execute Brexit. That, I think, is his plan.
Yes, I know we can’t take on Iran. I meant it more in the abstract sense that we can but it would be a very silly thing to do.
But that’s all too depressing to think about and I have Yakuza Kiwami to get back to (and, yes, I did finish Zero). 😉
Hopefully I won’t get TW&TW into trouble posting this but all of us who grew up in the UK watching the guinness adverts will appreciate this link (which is of course safe for work)
I would suggest you never venture anywhere near the equator David. Been in the Arabian desert in late June at 44C, it was hot but it had nothing on the Malaysian Jungle at 32C for discomfort. Everything clings to you, I had a bit of prickly heat but a ginger lad from N.Ireland who was there had it so bad he looked like a walking blister.
With regards to Boris I think that the “kingdom of the blind” proverb is worth remembering. He is following on from the worst PM in my lifetime and probably since Anthony Eden. Opposite him sits the worst leader of the opposition in my lifetime and probably in anyones memory for that matter. I could quite easily see him winning an election if he puts forward the right program.
You both mentioned much needed spending being promised but the question as always is who is going to pay for it. We already pay 8% of our tax income in debt interest, there is only so much you can borrow before the cost rises prohibitively and lets be realistic, taxing the top 1% isn’t an option. I do think his promises are quite clever though, he has in effect stolen a march on Jeremy Corbyn, if Corbyn pledges to match the spending, so what. If Corbyn pledges to outspend Johnson then he will (rightly) be accused of being fiscally irresponsible and making promises he can’t keep. Either way it’s a win for Johnson.
I don’t think Iran is picking on Britain. We seized their tanker for dubious reasons, supposedly they were breaking an EU embargo but I notice not a peep out of the commission on the issue. Iran quite reasonably have taken steps to get their tanker returned with a proportional response. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the Iranian foreign ministry when they learned their lads had seized not one but two tankers. “WE SAID ONE TANKER!, LET IT GO YOU F*CKING MUPPETS!”
What is does show is the folly of putting all our naval resource into the carriers, we don’t have enough manpower to crew vessels that ought to be available for patrol and indeed some ships have even been stripped of men to crew the carriers themselves. There are very few countries that the UK could go to war with by itself and defeat today. We would struggle to muster more than a division of troops without mobilising both the TA and the reserve and even then. We certainly couldn’t defeat Iran. No different to any other EU country in that respect.
Love Blade Runner
I think this is all about an election. And I can see him doing well (relatively speaking) if he keeps promising to throw money at all these big schemes he has. And then, of course, he won’t have the money to do all that but he might have enough of a mandate to execute Brexit. That, I think, is his plan.
Yes, I know we can’t take on Iran. I meant it more in the abstract sense that we can but it would be a very silly thing to do.
But that’s all too depressing to think about and I have Yakuza Kiwami to get back to (and, yes, I did finish Zero). 😉
Hopefully I won’t get TW&TW into trouble posting this but all of us who grew up in the UK watching the guinness adverts will appreciate this link (which is of course safe for work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIXmHMLPmiM
RIP Rutger
Ha! I prefer the Horrace ad we included in the podcast. 😉