herfiehandbag

There are 258.3 million adults in the USA. Every one of them, if convicted of 34 felonies, could be expected to be sent to jail. Why not Trump?

Farage is to the right of " mainstream Tories" who might be termed right of centre. He is, whilst disliked by many, far from "far right". He advocates limiting immigration, and deporting illegal immigrants. He criticises the utter Horlicks which is the Tory parties record on immigration. His views find considerable support amongst the populace. As I said he is disliked by many on the left, but he is not a fascist or a Nazi, and does not show the attribute of being part of such " far right" groups. He is, in many ways, the classic example of demonizing conservative figures ( note the small C - he is not a member of the Conservative Party) as " far right". Incidentally, I neither like nor trust him particularly. I agree with some of what he says, disagree with other bits. I personally find the "hail fellow well met" approach off-putting. But despite some of the more hysterical commentaries, he is not a (slimmer) reincarnation of Herman Goering!

Harry Enfield is back!

The key " take away" from the OP is "Despite the challenges, proper planning and professional advice will be crucial in navigating this new landscape." I sense a bandwagon getting ready to roll...

The habit these days of labelling conservative politicians, polemicists and even journalists and their journals or various medias as "far right" is a complete exaggeration, but one which serves to demonize those you wish to argue against, in much the same way that howling genocide at Israel does Past regimes of the far right were marked by extreme nationalism, institutionalised racism, the widespread use of extra judicial arrests, indeterminate imprisonment, torture and killings. The Nazis in mid 20th Century Germany, many of the South American military dictatorships of the late 20th Century, and the post colonial tribe dictatorships found in Africa. Perhaps the most egregious example of a far right regime today is the military regime in Myanmar/Burma. Many of the hallmarks of these regimes of course are replicated in those of the "far left", just as it was difficult to find a real difference to life in NAZI Germany or Stalin's Russia, so it is difficult to separate for example the lot of the people's of present day Venezuela and Myanmar. The generation of Conservative politicians around today in Europe are light years away from that - Wilders and Marine La Pen (whilst I do not like much of their politics) are light years away from that) and are not coming to power through street fighting or violent revolution, but by winning votes from an electorate disenchanted by the course taken by the established parties. Ironically , whilst nationalist in terms of wishing to preserve the traditions culture and way of life in their own countries, they are rapidly becoming something of a pan-national grouping within Europe. Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees Mogg, Douglas Murray, Nigel Farage and others on the conservative tendency in British politics are readily labelled "far right" as if they were fellow travellers of Heinrich Himmler or Julius Stretcher. It is ridiculous; they quite simply are not. To label the Spectator or Daily Telegraph as far right publications is as silly as labelling the New Statesman and the Guardian as far left, - I leave the Economist out of these comments because I can rarely understand it! Robust disagreement and debate is healthy, and essential to proper democratic politics. This sort of perjorative labelling is not. It weakens debate and falsely labels opponents.

Well your particular "trump card" ( oh the irony of that phrase!) which you are never loth to play, is to label anyone who does not espouse your views on these matters as "far right" and Islamophobic. Murray's writings on Islam and Muslim immigration feature articulate and well constructed arguments.

It is certainly a mess. One which the Tories have allowed to develop, despite a significant parliamentary majority. Based on the mess they have brought the country to they do not deserve re-election. I am sceptical that Labour will put right or even improve upon many of the Tory failures. Certainly as far as business, policing and immigration are concerned I expect them to make things worse. I don't expect that I will vote this time round. I have applied for a proxy vote, cast by my brother, but I don't expect to use it.

"British Cities: A Growing Hostility Towards the Law-Abiding and Decent Citizens" And that is just amongst the Police Forces!

Oh I don't think that was ever in any doubt, now was It? They will not stop until the FNT ( fat knacker Trump) is in the Whitehouse, no matter what the courts may decide or the how the people may vote. If heaven forbid, he does get in, then the Judicial branch will be emasculated, the legislative branch sidelined, and a dynasty rapidly established that will last for the foreseeable future - maybe a "thousand year Reich".

Continued from above: mind you, never been able to take him (Blair) entirely seriously since those photos emerged of him, clad in vaguely biblical white robes, standing on the banks of the River Jordan at the baptism for Rupert ( fuelled by viagra) Murdochs daughter. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Wendi Deng, Murdochs then wife (a mere 37 years his junior) was setting Murdoch and Blair up for an almighty piss take! Allegedly she had reasons for wanting revenge!

He uses the figures produced by Hamas, which whilst obviously an impeccably reliable and unbiased source, is a little bit short on evidence... Even the UN has taken to revising their figures down. Not that this bothers some, it is enough that "Jews" are doing it!

Why would the Thai Navy need these vehicles, it is not as if they would float? Mind you... May come in handy for the dockies guiding warships to there parking places!

He is like a bloody vampire, keeps climbing out of his coffin to rampage around the planet. Going to need more than a mirror and a silver dagger for that one!

I really don't want to pee on your bonfire, but when I was at the idiot factory (RMA Sandhurst) out of my platoon of 24 three were binned, all were from Public Schools, one (rather a nice chap actually) was an Etonian. A further half dozen were back termed, sent back to repeat a term. About half the platoon were from public schools. That was in 1976, I very much doubt it has gone in the direction which you envisage over the last 50 years. Grammar school Oik was I.

Ah but, if they do it during the run up to the election, that will attract international attention - face will suffer, -along of course possibly offshore monies if sanctions result!

Excretia ventaxia impactum est?

You mean smoky, noisy, extremely obvious and unsubtle, 30 years out of date and with a 30% crash rate!

An excellent summation of the last couple of presidential campaigns.

Perhaps there was more to It then that. After all, plenty voted for candidate who was not in fact perfect, who was known, even then, to be deeply, one might even say "bigly" flawed!

The timing of the inevitable dissolution is critical. Not so close to an election as to be glaringly obvious election interference, not far enough from an election as to allow a successor party to emerge. It also needs to be accompanied by a thorough decapitation of existing and any potential leadership.

Those protesting in Israel aren't rioting, spraying graffiti on buildings and businesses, "outing" Jews on the internet in an attempt to destroy careers and businesses and damage private lives. Nor are they gathering at their countries most iconic building and chanting "gas the Jewish" - I know the Police claim that is not what they chanted, but they were somewhat selectively hard of hearing, a professional problem not entirely restricted to Australia!

Very clearly, you know nothing at all about the matter we are discussing. Rather like, perhaps, it's original political proposers. You seem to have painted yourself into a corner and are now, to coin a phrase " having a laugh"! It would be interesting to know the service chiefs views on these proposals. We never will, they cannot comment on political proposals, and I doubt if they were ever consulted. It does seem that a number of people are following our discussion. Many of them will understand if I declare "Endex"!

Which doesn't explain anything!

Very obviously I had no involvement with training National Servicemen, to have done so I would now be in my mid to late 80s, and that is 20 odd years short of the mark! Now I explained some of the nuts and bolts of training recruits, volunteer or conscripts on the scale envisaged. You say I am "wide of the mark", yet cannot suggest how - you just know I am. Presumably you must have some ideas, how else could you, realistically, claim I am wrong? I know what is involved in training recruit soldiers, the manpower, equipment and other resources are considerable. You would need, apart from manpower, accommodation, range space and time, weapons, training areas and transport - The UK does not have them, and it will cost an awful lot of money to find them. It's not just the one man shouty band imagined by Hollywood! And then, when they are trained, what will they do with them, where will you barrack them, how will you equip them, how will you move them, how will you even feed them? You are talking about needing to triple the infrastructure, before you even consider simply what to do with them? So come on, explain where, how, I am wide of the mark?

I would hazard a guess that I have a fairly good idea of how it would work. I did 32 years in the Army. Several of those years were spent in the training system, at several stages (ranks) in my career. I'd be really interested in your ideas as to how it would work, perhaps even in awe!