Will the migration to fully electric put an end to camper van ownership as we know it? Will they be out of most people’s reach, lacking the range/freedom they do now.

No

Glad in Ireland we never accepted our fate of living next to a Big Bear.

Which side of your analogy do the nutters still setting bombs off and shooting people sit on?

I would suggest that Ireland and it’s history is very different to Ukraine’s

Notice NATO did not even bother about Syria? They actually “give” Syria to Russia because it is of no strategic importance to NATO.

The NATO intervention unraveled when labour voted against intervention and thus the lead partner for the US said no

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/03/10/ed-miliband-should-hang-head-shame-should/

something about Raynor just puts me right off. I have pondered it and cannot identify what it is. she just sets my teeth on edge I do not loathe her like the Tories of course but I find her highly unlikable.

dunno why.

Why?

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/scots-to-look-down-on-northern-britain-as-effete-snobbish-south-2015051598299

The problem is that being gobby doesn’t win new votes in the main, it just keeps you popular with those who will vote for you any way, she can’t really break away from the momentum / trade union background,

Stops you getting deselected by the CLP though

I feel even more sorry for them now, they were shocking. When we moved into the mechanised role at Tidworth we were told that they were originally designed for export, but were so crap no one wanted them, they even had to be up armoured to do public order duties in Northern Ireland

My understanding is that the Ukrainians quite like them, they work as a light armoured taxi and can do 70mph, cheap and cheerful, fit for the role they were employed in

https://defence24.com/armed-forces/useless-saxon-vehicles-surprisingly-useful-in-ukraine-kiev-benefits-from-the-cost-effect-ratio

Does it matter what happens in other countries, in this respect?

Statement was a comparison of the UK with any sane country.

A lot of people will also have a negative gut reaction to her being in power because she’s a woman, as evidenced by some of the posts on here.

Surprisingly a labour problem,

In any sane country we’d have more like her but unfortunately we’re a nation of cap-doffers who mistake accents and affectations for intelligence and have a horrible ingrained snobbery which means that anyone outside a certain privileged, elite caste is simply dismissed in Westminster.

Name the country where regional accents aren’t associated with intelligence and an ingrained snobbery

almost as much as they would if she sounded Welsh, or Scottish…

Gordon Brown sounded Scottish, so did Alistair Darling, didn’t hold them back much

A woman powering over you in a dungeon, you would be better suited as a tory voter I would think.

Keith Vaz, “hold my beer”

https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/not-out-woods-yet-assessing-operational-situation-ukraine

Meaning you’re quite likely to hear Irish being spoken in amongst fluent speakers in Brussels as they now have a language in which they can converse without being “overheard”.

It just means that the idiots who think they can discuss sensitive stuff in the open end up overplaying their hand

It feels like the EU is about to become a more unified superstate that is the equal of China and the US.

I fear you have rose tinted spectacles

Hungary and Poland on the naughty step, there will be a push back from the small states that don’t want to spend on defence, Germany getting more muscular in its foreign policy will be unwelcome (who appointed them Billy Big Bawes to paraphrase), etc etc

Basics like what will be the EU “army” language with be a bun fight between the French and the Germans etc etc

with some structure to allow coordinated deployment

Just more bloated senior command and not enough bayonets, airlift, drones and trucks

Watching the Fins on Newsnight discussing NATO membership, how quick things change in the lifetime of this thread

Also, it makes much more sense to use the oldest ones in stock first.

This, same for anything that is perishable. I imagine it’s how the system is set up to work.

Sure, but there is good reason to think this war is about Nato expansionism, not Russian expansionism.

I hope you are getting some of the grift that Farage and co get for this tripe. I’d hate to think you were doing it for free

My perception of the gov’s approach is, wokes and lefties want refugees, our core voters don’t, so if they want refugees let them have them personally in their own homes with full responsibility indefinitely

It’s likely to be a practical thing, they haven’t housed the 25k Afghans in country, they will be bringing in more soon, for whatever reason the civil service/LA thing isn’t working and the system is bunged up

It’s crap but it’s the reality

. I don’t believe that NATO has any plans to escalate.

It would have to mobilise first, the troops, kit and supplies. I imagine all the munitions factories are at full chat replacing the stuff going to Ukraine

I wonder why the UK government refused to ask?

The Spanish told them not to?

What question would they ask? What alignment scenario would they put to the EU? Would you accept the UK government negotiating of behalf of a future iS and without the consent of the yet to be elected iS government?

Unfortunately for Ukraine the old “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake” strategy is in play

The reality on the ground is terrible

Whether it’s the right call in the long term is another question

Personally I think we are doing what we can, there are rough edges (refugees) and the toll on Ukraine but at the moment we need to be sorting our capabilities out as we will be no where near ready to engage if that becomes necessary

Still crap for Ukraine

I see you’re still avoiding answering questions

What, this question?

If you think the parallels are there then explain why?

The obvious parallel as stated on the previous page is that it’s a ‘not this” vote. The future implementation and implications are all to be decided later. If that’s not Brexit in a nutshell I don’t know what is

A yes vote changes the relationship with your biggest trade market but you can’t define how yet, if that’s not Brexit…. Etc

A yes vote puts an international border at Gretna, but you don’t know how it will work etc

You can then add in, you don’t know what currency, whether you will rejoin the EU (half on here say yes, half say no), whether you will join NATO (some say yes, some say no)

If you can’t define it beyond ” not this” it’s Brexit again, on steroids

It would help if that fit faced fat arsed evil POS could actually let some in.

I think there a number of factors they aren’t talking about in play

They still haven’t sorted out the Afghans and more need to come here from there

There are a lot of Hong Kong immigrants coming in quietly, this may accelerate at any time

They probably are getting some scarey briefings from MI5/6

The civil service culture doesn’t rise to the occasion like the armed forces can, this was seen in Afghanistan. I can imagine the panic trying to get sign off for spend on the visa centres.

These aren’t excuses, it’s crap, everyone knows it’s crap.

The other decided it wanted to rule the world again and get rid of the foreigners while it was at it.

You do know how much more diverse parts of the UK are compared to Scotland? Let’s ignore London let’s look to the north

Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton, Blackburn voted leave. Blackburn is 30% Asian. Then look at the deprivation indexes for these areas.

Then in a superior tone say

but that is not a major driver

Then look at the levels of public spending per head and overlay with the Brexit leave voter map

Independence for Scotland is aspirational, inclusive and outward looking. Brexit is none of these

You forgot to mention “civic”

And remind us, how’s that working out for them?

I don’t know ask some of the people who are getting the rather thin offerings from Boris’s pork barrel politics

20k civil service jobs moving to Yorkshire from London in the next couple of years

Giga factory in Blythe

How it plays out in the long term is anyone’s guess

A bit like something else……

Reports of a Belarus false flag bombing of a village

Brexit was fueled by England’s desire to become more insular and reclaim past glories.

Really, is that what you tell yourself. Nothing to do with a kickback against the status quo by areas essentially abandoned…. And all the other reasons that have lots to do with poverty and feeling forgotten and nothing to do with being insular and some view of a golden age?

Indy has a degree of the unknown, yes. Not nearly as much as Brexit fueled Britain has though.

Currency?
EU membership?
RUK border?
NATO membership?
Etc etc

Lots more uncertainty by the looks of it

Yes, but the complete opposite.

Nope, exactly the same “not this” leap into the unknown, on steroids

Cragg Vale doesn’t tend to have much traffic on it.

The traffic it does have is dodgy higher up, lots of close passes as they try and get past before the oncoming car takes them out. They don’t like slowing down.

the white paper presents a clear vision.

But there will need to be a post independence election, the white paper might be one party’s manifesto (but not necessarily) but they need to win the election to implement.

So it’s still a leap into the unknown, promises before can’t be cashed after

Just like Brexit

MANPADS

The UK system relies on a high level of operator training, it’s nigh on impossible to fire off the shoulder and hit anything

Defending key locations is what it’s good at but the ground defended area is small but that assumes guided munitions, it may do better against what is currently being used from the air

However it can hit out to 5km IIRC and will give the helicopter pilots a lot to worry about. FGA will also hate it but it’s designed to hit them head on not to chase

It was traditionally deployed with ADAS which is a great passive early warning system which I would have thought would be quite helpful as well

Good luck to your family and friends, hope they remain safe.

My money is still on the Russian army collapsing in the next three weeks. Hopefully without too much carnage on the civilian population

Do you think if NATO and the EU hadn’t encouraged Ukraine to move westwards that the Ukrainian people wouldn’t now be at the mercy of a deranged dictator with the worlds second largest war machine at his disposal?

No Ukraine would be like Belarus or even subsumed into a “Greater Russia”

You could try and increase the pipe size to reduce hydraulic losses on the hot.

Use an aerating shower head designed for low flow as well

Its nothing like brexit

It’s exactly like Brexit, you want to reclaim sovereignty, then decide how you are going to use it

It’s the same “not this” vote to leap into the unknown as Brexit was as everything gets sorted out later and it enables multiple narratives to run at once to play to different concerns regardless of the contradictions (currency, EU membership, taxes, rUK border etc)

The issue isn’t that it’s a referendum, it’s understanding that it isn’t a vote for a defined future. It’s dump this and deal with the consequences later.

Let me think, just like Brexit

This conflict somehow seems to have united the whole country, yet some people on here still find something to argue about.

There is plenty of pro Russia, pro Putin stuff out there, notably from a number of academics as well as the usual suspects

stating that the situation has been exacerbated by NATO expansionism.

The issue is that it’s a false narrative, NATO doesn’t force countries to join it. The sovereign state applies, usually waits a few years then gets in.

NATO membership requirements are tough for the former Soviet bloc countries

I am certain that Russia has a expansionist strategy, it regularly deploys it’s military and paramilitary forces to satellite states to maintain a sympathetic leader in situ. Examples Belarus and Kazakhstan etc

GERs includes loads of stuff that we have to pay for but do not want and receive no benefit from like nuclear weapons, like aircraft carriers with no aircraft, like dodgy adventurings over seas. Like all the corruption over PPE etc.

Dodgy UK adventures were often led by Scots in Westminster

Lots of Scots seem to enjoy a career in the forces and the supporting services

Etc etc

Big and daft – you really do live up to your name – balance of payments does not have owt to do with tax take. Its about exports v imports.

The tax man is subsidising the oil industry which makes them able to export

Stay “civic”

Plus you have all the exports especially oil improving the balance of payments so improving the UK economy

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/08/uk-tax-breaks-for-oil-and-gas-under-scrutiny-from-climate-activists

These “negative tax flows” totalled £2m in 2015-16 and £359m the following year – more than oil and gas firms paid the UK in tax.

9.1%of UK tax revenue came from Scotland

8.3% of the UK population live in Scotland

£10,000 tax per head in Scotland

£9,200 tax per head, rest of UK

Remind me, there are higher personal taxes in Scotland to pay for extra devolved spending

You also seem to be pointing out that Wales and NI are need investment to improve

What proportion of spending does Barnett allocate per head?

it’s a bit like arguing with a brexiteer

Stay “civic” please

Virgin veg oil is about 1.20 a litre looking at google on supermarket shelves…..

Google how much veg oil Ukraine produces for the world market

Buy now

Wewould no longer be subsidising the rest of the UK,

How much do you subsidise the rest of the UK? Citation please.

we could have immigrtion and financial piolices that suit scotland not london

Once people choose to settle in the UK they essentially have freedom of movement within the UK, they disproportionately choose London, and more choose areas like Oldham than Scotland. What policy is going to attract immigrants to an independent Scotland preferentially to rUK and London?

What financial policy differences would iS fundamentally have to current UK? MMT? Has the currency question been settled yet?

we could borrow to invest and so on

At the same or higher government bond rates than the UK has now?

Damage limitation means we have to be independent

Or does it compound the damage? Which market is the biggest for Scotland. RUK would need to treat iS as a “third country” in regard to the post Brexit trade deal, friction is implicit