sadoldgit

But it isn’t austerity is it? As I have said before the money has to be found from elsewhere. Perhaps if Labour spelt out the options and asked the country if we would be prepared to pay another 1p on our taxes they might, on this occasion, support higher taxes? Again as I have said before, we all want better roads, transport systems, defence capabilities etc but nobody wants to see their taxes go up, but who pays for these things if we don’t? The tax thresholds are well overdue a review. It could be done without effecting the least well off and putting more of the burden on those who can afford it. I know we hear that any party talking about raising taxes is signing its own death warrant, but until we as a country learn to hear and accept hard truths, we are always going to be held at the behest of the populists, like Farage and the current Tory leader. Starmer doesn’t want to go near taxes or the shambles that is Brexit because he fears the rise of Reform. Reform think that Trump will do a favourable deal with Farage and that is all they have, that and whipping up hate for foreigners. Trump will have Farage for breakfast. There are many areas of foreign aid that will come back to bite us in the arse if cut funding. We don’t have grown up discussions about them. All we get is the gullible parroting of shit people read on Musk’s propaganda machine.

Will your next user name be ElonMusk69?

It isn’t ducking the question. The simple fact is that those are not the only choices. I did say earlier that the money has to be found from somewhere. It is entirely possible to reduce every departmental budget and not just put the whole weight on one department for example.

It isn’t two choices though egg. There are other places where cuts could be made. The trouble is there are good cases not to make cuts anywhere else too. That is why I said earlier we need to rethink taxes. As for this. People don’t want migrants in small boats coming here but also don’t want to spend money making their countries better so they don’t need to leave.

Read this and tell me you are ok with more children suffering. It’s ok if they aren’t our children, is that it? https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/britains-foreign-aid-where-does-the-money-go

What about Ebola prevention in Africa? Perhaps you are ok with Musk stopping that too? You are another one who buys into Farage’s rhetoric but fails to look into the whole picture. Talking of Farage, what does he do now? He has spent years excusing Trump’s behaviour. How is he going to pass this latest episode off? Just a bit of locker room banter? Don’t take what he says literally? What does he do? Stay loyal to Trump or stand by Ukraine?

Yes, you said that before and it was just as unlikely then given it is Trump. War is not business, it is war. He wouldn’t know that because he bottled out of the Vietnam war. As for foreign aid, if you bothered to listen, Russia and China constantly fill the vacuums that we leave and their economic influence spreads. You are probably ok with that. If the West provides support to war torn countries people are more likely to stay rather than make their way her in small boats. You won’t get that from listening to Farage so you probably haven’t given that any thought.

As I said, it is better to listen to those who know what they are talking about.

I couldn’t agree more, but any mention of rejoining is cryptonite politically here at the moment thanks to Farage and the far right Tories who still preach that Brexit was a good idea.

Fox News for the Faragist fan boys.

I am old enough to remember when teams hated coming to The Dell and I always expected a good result. For too long now we seem to be an easy 3 points at home, let alone away.

Musk looks more like a nerd than Zelensky but Trump seems to find that look ok. Forget the dress code, Zelensky has more integrity in his little finger nail than Trump, Vance and Musk have put together.

It’s in incredible. Trump has only been back in power for a few weeks but already he has been more of a useless asshole than he was in his first term. What is freaky is that while we are waiting for the final series of The Handmaid’s Tale, it is beginning to look like the start of the story is about to begin.

It has been intimated that Trump will not comply with the US commitments to supply Ukraine with what has already been agreed to help them continue to fight over the next few months. If that is the case I hope that Europe tells Trump to GFH.

Having seen it again, yes. I think we are seeing the break up of NATO. Trump is more interested in doing deals with Putin than working with the UK and the EU. Putin will be loving this and as you say, it was probably orchestrated to suck up to him. Not looking good.

I have just seen the bit where he was asked about not wearing a suit. What planet are these people on. He had made it clear for years that he will wear a suit when the war is over.

Zelensky had already been softened up by Trump’s earlier rhetoric about him being a dictator and having an approval rating of 4%. You could tell from his expression that he felt he was being used to show what big tough guys Trump and Vance are. Trouble is they would never dare treat Putin that way.

Got to feel gutted for the Ukrainians watching that on TV. Putin one side and Trump on the other. A perfect definition of being between a rock and a hard place.

Do we know if he left without signing the deal yet?

It can’t be easy when your first language is not English and you are on your own being harangued by two idiots whilst your people are being bombed and shot at. I thought he was very restrained under the circumstances. And any more financial problems for us are nothing compared to what the Ukrainians are going through.

Vance knows more about what is going on in Ukraine than Zelensky apparently. He hasn’t been there. He has seen it on TV.

The only person I saw being disrespected was Zelensky. His country has been invaded and his so called allies treated him like a naughty child who needs to be put in his place. The MAGA crowd will lap it up. Normal people will be horrified.

Extraordinary pile on Zelensky by Trump and Vance on national TV. Putin will be loving this.

Fair play to Anneliese Dodds. Cabinet Ministers don’t often resign on points of principle nowadays. The extra money for defence has to come from somewhere but foreign aid is the wrong place in my opinion. It is seen as a soft, easy option but when you listen to those who understand how it is used, how important it is and how it can effect us down the road, they should have made cuts elsewhere. As much as they don’t want to increase taxes, given the financial mess we are in at some point they are going to have to consider it.

No doubt you will be popping the champagne corks down at the Farage Arms this evening.