Whaaattt?

I shall bow to Oscar lowering my hands to my knees, and from hereafter, will re-define my childish concept of West and East. I stand corrected Thanks @shiney for the uplifting cat story in a murky day.

Speaking of boudaries, my colleague was facinated about the Arctic circle and how it is commercialised with painted lines here and there around the touristic spots in Finnish Lapland.

I confirmed to him that you can actually hop across the Arctic Circle as demonstrated in the various photos in Google:


Then he asked if there is a time difference. I told him that yes, there is, provided you hop very slowly.

Upppp............................... and................ down.

 

A very long read, but well written. And a wake up call to anyone who is still living under the impression that everything is fine.

As we return to a pre-WW2 order, the middle powers face a challenge

And its not only other countries that should worry. Nobody in the USA is safe.

Alex Pretti is the latest example.

 

Whilst Trump may have crumbled over his denigration of UK troops in Afghanistan, haven't heard mention of other country's troops . I wonder if Starmer took the opportunity to threaten closure of T's golf course in Scotland if he didn't back down ???

 

Or the Orange King would not get to meet the British king?

 

Yes, the US is now doing openly what it has done since the second world war. The difference with Trump is they see no need to hide or dress up their actions, because they can just insist on their narrative as the truth, and in the age of social media, it will take root as that. AI developments will make this even worse as the boundaries between fact and fiction blur and disappear.

 

Although their actual numbers may have been small, the losses per capita for Denmark were only marginally lower than the USA.

 

And ... it was America's war. They wanted it. They dragged everyone else into it. And then they got bored and left an absolute mess behind. It cost billions of non-US dollars and many non-US lives and achieved very little, if any, positive legacy for either the ordinary people of Afganistan, especially the women and girls, or the world.

The US should be apologising for that war, not whinging about the sacrifices others made on their behalf.

 

Given that Reform has yet another Tory MP defecting to it; isn't Nigel Farage now obliged to make the Chairman and Leader of the Tory Party a cash offer for the remaining rump of Tory MPs.
Certainly if they were publicly quoted companies then once one holds over a certain % of the shares of the other the Stock Exchange rules would force them to make an offer for the rest of the shares (MPs) or reduce their holding.

 

They could end up the official opposition the way its going and without any elections, it really shouldn't be allowed under the rules.

 

Rats and sinking ships come to mind.

Maybe if you leave the party you were voted in to represent, you should have to become an Independent. That would discourage most of 'em.

 

If you were voted in by your constituents as an MP representing a named party and you then decide to join a different party, you should be legally obliged to stand down as MP for that constituency until such time as you are re elected ( or not ) under your new banner.
Doing otherwise makes a complete mockery of the system.
It may be costly and time consuming but that is what it takes and the sooner MP's accept that the better.
If Andy Burnam wants to become an MP, he could easily resign as Mayor which would then leave him free to go ahead and try for it. Again more expense and time but up to him to decide whether it's worth it.
TBH, by the time counties and regions are being continuously joined/separated, half of us probably have no idea which "area" we actually live in

 

I agree completely with that. Leaving a party and sitting as an Independent would be a different matter.