Russia's influence

[BillyStubbsTears]

There are very important questions to be asked on how we've allowed powerful Russians to crawl into the centre of the UK establishment. But since some people will claim this is playing politics[1] it's probably best to keep this out of the Ukraine thread.

The Sunday Times has finally woken up to what some of us have been banging on about for years.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1500240474782806016

[1] It really isn't "playing politics". It's about THE most serious implications for the health of our democracy.

[BillyStubbsTears]

PS.
None of this is news. Here's the brilliant John Sweeney picking it apart in real time.

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/08/20/sweeney-investigates-what-changed-to-make-evgeny-lebedev-no-longer-a-security-risk/

Reading that piece again, this bit jumped out.

The new lord (Lebedev) socked it to his critics in the Mail on Sunday. He wrote: “So, to all those who sneer at my Russian background, I say this: Is it not remarkable that the son of a KGB agent and a first-generation immigrant to this country has become such an assimilated and contributing member of British society? What a success for our system. Don’t you think?”

That's my emphasis. There's an ambiguity here of course because he's a Russian who has taken UK citizenship. But reading that now it actually jumps out that Lebedev is taunting us. It's a success for HIS country's system, not ours.

[BillyStubbsTears]

And while we are talking about Russian agents, let's get them all lined up.

https://mobile.twitter.com/James_BG/status/1500368665912528896

[SydneyRover]

I'm surprised you haven't had criticism for living in Sheffield, oh but of course, you have.

[tyke1962]

The question is what are we going to do about it ?

The past can't be changed but the future can .

Where do we go from here ?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Tyke.

It starts with folk acknowledging what is happening.

If people ignore it, or insist that all politicians are as bad as each other, there's no way of holding to account genuine traitors. And I do think it's time to start calling this out for what it is.

[roversdude]

Who’d have believed the leader of the miners union all those years ago, regarding reliance on other countries for energy

[SydneyRover]

Who’d have believed the leader of the miners union all those years ago, regarding reliance on other countries for energy

Maybe if thatcher hadn't pissed the oil money up against the wall something could have been sorted by now.

1887: The first known wind turbine used to produce electricity is built in Scotland. The wind turbine is created by Prof James Blyth of Anderson’s College, Glasgow (now known as Strathclyde University). “Blyth’s 10 m high, cloth-sailed wind turbine was installed in the garden of his holiday cottage at Marykirk in Kincardineshire and was used to charge accumulators developed by the Frenchman Camille Alphonse Faure, to power the lighting in the cottage, thus making it the first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power. Blyth offered the surplus electricity to the people of Marykirk for lighting the main street, however, they turned down the offer as they thought electricity was ‘the work of the devil.’ “

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/storage/history-of-wind-turbines/#gref

[tyke1962]

Tyke.

It starts with folk acknowledging what is happening.

If people ignore it, or insist that all politicians are as bad as each other, there's no way of holding to account genuine traitors. And I do think it's time to start calling this out for what it is.

Well personally this conflict has changed a few things with me , I always admired Galloway , I'm not as left wing as he is by any means but none the less I admired his principles and his ability to stand up and call out inequality and what's right and wrong with this world .

Currently I wouldn't pyss on him if he was on fire given his comments on this conflict .

His anti NATO stance is a fecking disgrace and stinks of keeping his well paid job with RT on a Sunday night .

In other words he's as bad as the rest of em in my opinion .

So to answer your question it's difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff with such a broken political system not only in this country but worldwide .

I'm sure there are good people in politics but to be at the top and have massive influence seems to only be achieved by attaining a very undesirable route .

Good people finish last in politics it would seem .

[BillyStubbsTears]

As the saying goes, it's only when the tide goes out that some folk see who has been swimming naked.

Galloway had always been a Kitson, promoting dictators over democracy. Now, no-one can dispute it.

[albie]

John Sweeney did an interesting story on Bozo as a security risk;
https://twitter.com/i/status/1497016658027859969

When it comes to Russian influence, they seem to have covered all bases with their influence.
Our old buddy "Lord" Mandelson is well placed to advise;
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-investment-bank-lazard-s-cosy-relationship-with-government-questioned-by-mps-9239335.html

From 2014 that...Putin was on Crimean duty about that time!
Blair was intensely relaxed about Vlad during his time as PM too.

[River Don]

I have to say, from the moment I first saw Putin and understood his background in the KGB. I knew he was very bad news. Believe it or not, I knew it. He always looked bad news to me.

Apparently facial recognition software can tell wether someone is right wing or left wing already.

Perhaps we just can't hide our true selves?

[tyke1962]

I have to say, from the moment I first saw Putin and understood his background in the KGB. I knew he was very bad news. Believe it or not, I knew it. He always looked bad news to me.

Apparently facial recognition software can tell wether someone is right wing or left wing already.

Perhaps we just can't hide our true selves?

It's funny you should say that RD ,  the first time I clapped my eyes on Cameron as the new Tory leader I knew it was over for New Labour .

Obviously different times and from a completely different direction from Putin .

Just instinct I guess .

Funny thing is my instinct is telling me Starmer will win a landslide victory right now at the next election .

Events are conspiring against Johnson and his own lack of ability .

I'm not saying Starmer is the answer by any means because in my opinion he isn't .

He'll be in the right place at the right time with the way things are going and it will fall his way rather than anything pro active he's demonstrated so far .

Better than the Tories is a particular low bar when all is said and done currently .

[Ldr]

I have to say, from the moment I first saw Putin and understood his background in the KGB. I knew he was very bad news. Believe it or not, I knew it. He always looked bad news to me.

Apparently facial recognition software can tell wether someone is right wing or left wing already.

Perhaps we just can't hide our true selves?

It's funny you should say that RD ,  the first time I clapped my eyes on Cameron as the new Tory leader I knew it was over for New Labour .

Obviously different times and from a completely different direction from Putin .

Just instinct I guess .

Funny thing is my instinct is telling me Starmer will win a landslide victory right now at the next election .

Events are conspiring against Johnson and his own lack of ability .

I'm not saying Starmer is the answer by any means because in my opinion he isn't .

He'll be in the right place at the right time with the way things are going and it will fall his way rather than anything pro active he's demonstrated so far .

Better than the Tories is a particular low bar when all is said and done currently .

Ive visited this before Tyke, its perception on who looks more like a leader

Thatcher > Foot / Kinnock
Major > Kinnock
Blair > Major / Hague / Howard
Cameron > Brown
May / Johnson > Corbyn
Starmer > Johnson

Yes the media have a hand but the losers haven't exactly helped themselves. Policies are very much secondary

[wilts rover]

Not quite sure now which thread is best to post in but here goes:

Expect to hear a fair bit this week as to why Yandex a Russian tech company, and its service app subsidary, Yango Deli, have not yet been sanctioned in the UK despite warnings it should be:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/05/warnings-raised-over-russian-tech-giant-yandexs-uk-operation

And does the lack of sanction in any was relate at all to it being the largest single investment held by Jacob Rees Mogg's company, Somerset Capital Management:

https://in.wallmine.com/fund/3fy/somerset-capital-management-llp

[SydneyRover]

Is this the same Mogg?

''Jacob Rees-Mogg may have ‘serious conflict of interest’ in new ‘Brexit opportunities’ job, corruption experts say''

“Rees-Mogg’s vast investment portfolio in dozens of sectors across several continents could pose a serious conflict of interest with his reported intention of axing a thousand regulations when he could stand to benefit personally from the process," Susan Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, told the website openDemocracy.

“Worryingly, the government’s hurried announcement of his new ministerial role fails to even spell out his specific responsibilities, and so the public will be left in the dark as to what exactly Rees-Mogg will be doing on taxpayers’ time, and whether he will stand to benefit personally from any recommendations he makes.”

Meanwhile Steve Goodrich, of Transparency International, told the same outlet: “It’s risky business when ministers hold briefs relating to their personal financial affairs, and even more so when there’s a lot of money at stake''

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jacob-rees-mogg-conflict-of-interest-brexit-opportunities-job-b2011511.html

[drfchound]

Did Mogg vote in favour of Brexit.

[BobG]

I've mentioned before that I used to work at a Government place that was specifically charged with understanding potential opponents to this country. Going back as far as 2012 ish that organisation was adamant that Putin was, and is, the most dangerous man on the planet.

The fact that we appear to have ignored those warnings, for at least a decade, highlights two things:

1) we spend a lot of money, a lot, on gathering information that we then ignore, and

2) our political leaders, and I am NOT pointing in any specific direction, have chosen to follow a path that their own staggeringly qualified and equipped people told them for a decade was not clever at all.

BobG