And yes the Ukrainians could have used A10s though I doubt they would have been their first choice. Primarily they could have used them as rocket trucks firing from the line of contact the same way they use their helicopters.

Alas the Biden admin had totally deluded views about what should be supplied to Ukraine, and was followed up by the Trump admin that ended all weapons-aid to Ukraine.

The US at no point supplied Ukraine with their own jets. The F-16s Ukraine received came from other countries.

Polling is already settling at 60%+ rejoin not including DKs, and more than 50% even including them.

The decision to appoint Mandelson predates Trump's electoral win.

As for Schengen, joining it doesn't particularly bother me, but I also suspect it may not be a strict requirement due to the Republic of Ireland being in the CTA. If the UK joined Schengen then the Irish would effectively have to join also.

We don't have to join the Euro under the present rules anyway.

We have to commit notionally to joining at some point in the future, date TBD. There's countries that have been in the EU 20+ years, joining under the present rules without an opt-out, that still haven't joined the Euro or even ERM II.

Mate, now you're just engaging in plain whataboutism.

The question is should Starmer have appointed Mandelson, and you know the answer is just straight up "no". Starmer admits he shouldn't have appointed him - but blames others for not telling him about Mandelson which is simply not credible.

I had - in semi-rural Sussex - a neighbour with an Infowars URL sticker on the back of their van.

It is just so great that this is what it now links to.

Yeah, I mean it's going to be really easy to tell which software is generated by flesh-and-blood programmers downloading stuff from Github and which is generated by LLMs trained on Github content...

🇭🇺🗳️⚖️ Ngl, watching the various phases of denial/bargaining/acceptance by Orban's niu-conservative think tank base that he built on the Danube is fascinating. It's every possible reaction, from just going dark, through "A Maiden has Fallen" op-eds, to the last HU taxpayer-funded oysters and champagne.

"What was Mandelson accused of?"

Misconduct in public office, leaking market-sensitive documents.

Knowingly associating with a convicted paedophile is reason enough not to appoint him to a sensitive position.

This ratio has reached the consistent 60+% in favour tipping-point.

Referendum now please.

COVID didn't badly impact me. Getting to spend much more of my time with my family was just great. Yes, that faded after the first month or two and it felt wearisome - like being in prison.

Exiting lockdown when we did turned out to have been exactly the correct choice.

There were a few dynamics at play:
- The impression that the UK was doing especially badly. Actually we probably weren't. Ultimately the deaths-per-capita in the UK were e.g., between Belgium and France.
- Distrust of the govt due to other issues as you say.

BoJo appointed Pincher a deputy-chief whip and was forced to resign. How on earth is this in any way very different?

For decades this was the kind of status EU leaders rejected as being "two-speed Europe". They did not even demand it of Cyprus, a country ~36% occupied by Turkey.

But now they want to invent it especially for Ukraine.

Amy Winehouse's Rehab might be a little bit dark as a choice but...

♫ There were daaays when I could have caaaaancelled sooolar/
but you know I would hate anything to happen to wind-power/
No I don't want to build it ♫

12 December 2019 + 655 days = 27 September 2021.

So a couple of months before Partygate broke and polling turned irreversibly negative for the Tories.

And I say this as someone who doesn't even like the Labour party or the present government that much.

The alternatives are all so clearly worse.

Even in a work context, you don't need to have too many days wasted with someone who was supposed to be in the meetings instead in the wind because of flight problems to see that the cost of them missing the flight is not just their own time.

*Looks Up The Number Of Dignitas*

Does this mean I'm going to be sat in the old folks home listening to Agadoo?

These guys have to be absolute idiots. I mean, let's count them down:
1) Anyone who approaches you online asking you to commit a crime is very likely to be non-legit.
2) Even if they aren't, well, why would you even expect to be paid?
3) And yeah, terrorism is going to be taken very seriously.

Unless an early election is called - but Labour would have to be absolute idiots to do that. All the way to 2029 please Labour.

Sources differ as to whether Moscow's tap water is safe to drink, but outside of Moscow there's plenty of Russian villages without even a central water supply.

Specifically Europe west of the Carpathians, and North American north of the Rio Grande.

Mexico City also has a population in the tens of millions, but the tap water is not potable.

“Der angriff Steiners ist nichts erfolgt”

Briefly:
1) Russia in 2021-22 *DID* give a year-long ramping-up period before launching their attacks. The USSR under, say, Andropov (who was similar to Putin) would likely have done the same.
2) Russia *HAS* been measured in its attacks. Even in a use of nuclear weapons, this would also be likely.

There was a lot of criticism of Ukraine’s Kursk operation. Some of it justified.

But one thing it made very obvious is that the Russians were unlikely to use nuclear weapons short of a war of national survival (which this war is not).

I don’t know if this was Kyiv’s intent, but it had that effect.