The long game. Putin almost certainly has the ability and fire power to achieve at least a partial victory in military terms. Whether he can allocate enough troops to maintain any victories is doubtful. So annexation of Eastern Provinces is likely. The capture and murder of the Ukrainian President would probably be counterproductive in the long run.
AVOCADO RECIPES
Ok – toast is easy option. I am trying something different here
2 chopped avocado, chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumber, chopped red onion, dried tomatoes, crushed garlic, sweet corn, shellfish, all in a olive oil and basalmic vinegar dressing then maybe a flat bread. Then maybe a touch of chilli or smoked paprika?
PARLIAMENT
How much? £22 billion to stop it falling down? Scotland and Wales have new purpose built Parliaments – fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Our present building is not fit for purpose or technology. Is this a ploy to keep Sleaze-Dogg and his Whigs versus Tory cronies happy? Presumably no metric measures will be used?
How can any MP accept the proposed pay rise? Can we have a register of who has given their rise to charity (named charities rather than Public Schools).
UKRAINE
REFUGEES
The Daily Mail proudly announces raising £1.5 million in 2 days for Ukrainian refugees – is this to provide caravans for them when they work as fruit pickers? Will the money be shared with Syrians also fleeing Russian armaments, or Yemini’s fleeing from western armaments? the many others fleeing war. What was the Daily Mail’s response to people trying to access Briton in the summer?
NEWS
First the bad news – climate change is getting worse and many parts of the globe may become unliveable the IPCC has reported. For Priti (thick and nasty) Patel this will result in millions of refugees.
Second the bad news – Russia is advancing across Ukraine and shelling widely. But it is OK the UK government is preparing a list of names and sanctions which should be ready by the summer as long as all the Russians and their money have not fled by then.
PANCAKES
RACISM RAMPANT AT BORDERS
Reports of African’s being reused entry to Poland and other borders. We should not forget that many other countries are homophobic, racist and misogynist. Now we have regrettably left the EU we have lost influence in these countries but we should be exerting influence over this. Most of these people are students who presumably what to make their way home – we should aid this, or offer alternative educational courses.
UKRAINE MUSINGS
The invasion of Ukraine seems to be taking much longer than perhaps Putin expected. The number of deaths is growing. Would he have expected an easy passage like how surrogate fighters had in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea? Huge troop movements seem to be underway – but also it seems likely that street by street battles are likely to ensue. therefore it would seem that Putin has to be in for a long slog? Even killing Zelenskiy will not solve the problem.
Ukraine is not part of NATO so interventions cannot be made without being seen to be an invasion. However strengthening of the defences of Poland, Latvia, etc. is totally valid. Putin’s nuclear threat needs to be met with similar alertness from the west, but a steady hand.
Will Putin now go for a full scale onslaught with planes, missiles, and tanks? This will cause massive destruction and slaughter, probably mainly of civilians, and certainly on the Russian side – conscripts.
How many of the Russian donors to the Conservative Party are now giving similar or larger amounts to support Ukrainian Refugees and even the State of Ukraine? Presumably the Tories will be publicising the details?
Reports seem to show that there are supporters of Putin in Kyiv.
A humanitarian disaster – Kyiv is a city of 2.5 million (after refugees have left) where there will be starvation without aid.
If Putin follows past action will we see carpet bombing of residential areas as in Syria and Chechnya? How will the west react to slaughter on a huge scale in Ukraine. We ignore it in Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Iraq.
Interesting to see Turkey taking important action. With fuel shortages, does this create an opportunity for Iran? With oil prices going up will that help Venezuela (or has the USA got that country sussed)?
We need to be aware of the fluid nature of international relationships. And Trump might make a new bid for president despite evidence about just about anything. Are Americans really that stupid?
UK IS DOING MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE!
Stop lying, stop delaying the imposition of sanctions on the oligarchs in London and the UK. The EU has blocked air space to all Russian planes, Turkey has closed the Bosphorus to the Russian Navy which I suspect is a big deal. Sanctions against the Russian Central Bank could impact on their reserves of $630 billion. How this works in not known by me, but is said to be a very big deal.