Waylander

I would not be surprised if this goes nuclear, in game of thrones, 'Winter is coming' in real life perhaps 'Nukes are coming'. Russia thinks it is under attack, it has survived the economic hit so far yet are probably shocked to see the Ukrainian army still having some success and then there are those odd assassinations and explosion in their own territory. Biden has joked or dared Russia suggesting their might be a nuclear event. I'm just wondering like they did initially with the large invasion perhaps they might consider a large first strike and I don't think it will be Ukraine either. A very dangerous time. since the cold war serious discussion is kept away from the mainstream as people stop buying things.

Just looked back on national debt, The year before COV-ID in 2018 the debt ratio was 85% of GDP now it is 94% of GDP, this is why the markets are concerned about Trust's borrowing for things like fuel subsidies. To give a comparison Greek debt is about 188% over GDP and Italy about 134% over. Greece has been kept afloat by the ECB buying its bonds to keep the economy afloat, no investors will buy Greek debt. It remains to be seen whether Italy will be able to avoid a similar fate.

Colonialism was complicated. Although it could be a way of getting resources back to the colonising nation cheaply it could also be about having a strategic position to stop other hostile forces. Another consideration on colonisation was getting the colonised country to buy the colonisers manufactured products as their own producers go out of business. Here is another I gleaned from Newsnight tv program about a decade ago. the EU were giving loans to African nations to produce metal ores. The Africans wanted help to changes the ores into manufactured products. The EU refused to give loans to do that. It will be interesting to see if China give the means of production to African nations. I suspect not.

I don't think the Green Party are credible though seem to have good intentions. With an official population of 65m and unofficially probably 75m we can't feed ourselves and do not have enough fuel. So we cosy up to the US and provide canon fodder once in a while to support their adventures while they provide muscle in historic sites of interest we probably could not if it came to an emergency. Recently a senior Chinese general made a comment aimed at the Australians, remember you are just colonial settlers from a time when European power was strong.

It seems the Tory party are in danger of imploding. the 150,000 Tory members have delivered to the nation Truss who is an ideologue though she has backtracked a little due to market reaction to her mini-budget on the 45% tax banding yet all is not well at the Tory Party Conference. Now the markets have calmed a little yet by lowering income tax costing £13bn in lost tax revenue and £8bn expenditure to soften the fuel bill without means the markets might attack again at any time. She is in danger of losing her party, it almost seems like post Thatcher.

I would say it prevents northern Europe being able to quickly get oil or gas from Russia when there is a political solution, northern Europe would still be dependent on dearer US energy they couldn't just turn on the taps. Plenty of time before a new pipe could be put into production for political intrigues to deter northern Europe getting cheaper fuel.

And across parties send their kids to elite schools.

Interesting post on the point about Canada can't handle as much immigration as the USA and want to understand a bit more. Is that because the infrastructure is not there? Or is that due to Northerly latitude making a lot of land uninhabitable for large parts of the year?

What are you currently studying?

Good points, I will add a bit more...... Some company pensions are non-contributory although as you say if you do add more they will match it up to a limit. Annuities are vulnerable to inflation, also pension companies invest in things like Bonds and if rates go up they would be losing money on fixed returns as interest rates rise. State pension is typically ring-fenced against inflation via the triple lock.

I watched Rambo 2008, which I guess is Rambo IV. Now I watched First Blood and thought mainly decent yet not so much the others. This was surprising as Rambo now is a boatman in Thailand living off fish and selling dead snakes. He gets asked by missionaries to take them up river to Burma to meet the Karens. He is not interested and warns them of the risk as Burma is a war zone yet the devotion of the only woman makes him change his mind. He gets them into Burma after a nasty encounter with Burmese militia who were looking to kill and rob them. He goes back home and a month later a senior manager of the religious group says they have not heard anything for a month and need help. Rambo says he won't go and the other chap says no, we only want you to take us to where you dropped them off we have the men to get them out. Graham Mctavish is great as the cocky and mouthy merc and Matthew Marsden plays a neat role too. Rambo takes the mercs to to the drop-off point. McTavish gets mightily upset when Rambo decides to come with them as Rambo doubts they have the bottle to go through with it. Then they encounter an army patrol killing villagers across a rice paddy using guns and mines. Just as the mercs discuss going back. Rambo starts killing the soldiers with his bow. A rescue attempt from an army camp and then a cross country trip with hostages back to the boat. Never going to be easy and loads of bloodshed. 7/10.

I think all empires are bad, currently the US has about 800 military bases abroad. In the last 60 years they have used napalm and agent orange in Vietnam. They used depleted uranium shells in Iraq and Kosovo. They used white phosphorous in Iraq specifically Fallujah. Add on to this virtual genocide of the American Indians. They will never accept being called an Empire yet they have the trappings of one. I agree all empires are evil including our own.

I agree on spending money by the poorer side of society so thought it was bad that Truss binned Boris scheme for National insurance. I watched the Andrew Neil show on Sunday evening and he agreed Truss was taking a big risk with taxes and gambling that entrepreneurs would come here to take advantage of the low corporate tax. He acknowledged this was a big risk. On Labour who are pushing expansion of the Green Economy to boost jobs he thought that was disingenuous as that would create a few thousand jobs at most not hundreds of thousands of jobs. He said even if they brought back the top 45% rate that would only bring in £2bn in taxes and the fuel subsidies were expected to cost £8bn. Labour traditionally struggle to win without Scottish votes. The devolution pushed by the last Labour government seems in fact to have damaged Labour.

I forgot about Germany thinking more about France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Turkey. Amazing that pressure still exists after 75 years and to such a degree.

I'm in my mid 50's, O- levels- Romans and WWII A - level - English Civil War and European history covering the Enlightenment. I don't think any country teaches young children about bad things their nation might have done historically. I guess, not good for self esteem or national harmony.

You can bet the newer US citizens from poorer countries are in a better health state and get incentives to join up. Whether this can offset the longer trend is questionable.

Interestingly that was under Thatcher and Truss models herself on Thatcher. Both seem to be ideologues in believing in low taxes and free market enterprise. She has increased public spending to reduce impact of fuel rises and dropped taxes which has spooked the markets, the Euro is falling too though we are also falling against the Euro. Think she will allow BOE to tinker with interest rates before changing policy though that does depend on how the markets react. If they react too strongly she may be forced to change or face a vote of no confidence.

I thought it would be done more by eletrolysis rather than osmotic pressure which as you say leaves residue like brine which to date is seen as waste. Yes electrolysis would also use some type of fuel.

I hope Havertz and Mount bring their international scoring form back into the club. We desperately need someone to start hitting the net.

Pound taking a beating is because Truss is lowering taxes with high national debt yet also with fuel subsidies raising public expenditure. The markets don't think she has a sound plan. Truss is an ideologue so don't think she will change quickly which will put pressure on interest rates which might hurt some in the near future. Fracking does have problems with toxicity and earth tremors in the wrong places yet nearly all manufacturing poisons rivers and the waste gets washed there due to cost of disposing of waste. South East Asia is pretty bad as the main rivers become the rubbish disposal with huge amounts of plastic bottles going out to sea. Personally would like us to get hydrogen from sea water which would be dearer yet not as expensive as at the pump now. Hydrogen can also be used to burn cleanly. We would still need some oil though.

He looked lively when he came on and seemed to be building play yet then faded and was stretching for balls and losing possession. Think he should have come on earlier.

According to a scientist who later run into legal trouble and had to move abroad many people in the West have digestive infections yet we only deal with the symptoms, IBS, Collitis and Chrohn's. Undercooked meat, dairy, sugar and even some vegetables and fruits can all harbour nasties. It may be why many of the old monotheistic religions had some form of periodic fasting.

I don't expect much either except progressing past the group stage. One thing that will be interesting to consider is we always hear England fail because of a long and intense season well with Qatar falling midway it will be interest to see energy wise do we still flag for energy compared to our opponents.

Agree on Rice and Mount not so sure on Bellingham. I have only seen Bellingham in glimpses play for England, good energy and good moving the ball forward though did not stand out defensively as are say a McTomminay or Fernandinho. Looks to me more like a box to box midfielder too.

Had not heard that and do you know the reason for him going to Turkey?