Retired academic (theoretical linguist). University of Essex/Bangor University. Lives on Ynys Môn. Has lived in Essex, Poland, Edinburgh, Warwickshire, etc.
Whatever Party Chuka Umunna is in today, I have more respect for him than for all the 'moderate' Labour MPs who have more in common with him than Corbyn but continue to work to put Corbyn and his stalinist advisors into Downing Street.
@NoKnownFuture
My wife lived for her first 27 years under Polish communism. So she knows quite a bit about it. I had 3 years. What does your experience amount to?
@RussianEmbassy
You grabbed Polish territory in the 18th century, tried again in 1920, grabbed Eastern Poland in 1939, and made the country a Russian colony from 1945 to 1989. And you wonder why you’re not popular in Poland.
Meanwhile in Russia: top state TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov claims that God had chosen Russia to be the weapon of his judgment. Solovyov advocates for the continued use of thermobaric weapons, demanding more blood and destruction.
@irgarner
The only reason Russia's neighbours are anti-Russian is that Russia has been bullying and invading them for a couple of centuries. Abandon that behaviour and they will cease to be anti-Russian. But it may take some time.
@jeremycorbyn
Tolkien had a better understanding:
‘It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two, Master Warden,’ answered Éowyn. ‘And those who have not swords can still die upon them. Would you have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, when the Dark Lord gathers armies?'
@Gerashchenko_en
In 1942, they were supplied by the US: eventually 427,000 motor vehicles, 13 million pairs of winter boots, 5 million tons of food, 2000 locomotives, 11,000 freight wagons, 540,000 tons of rails. (John Keegan, The Second World War, p. 177)
@davidfrum
Reagan has statues in Eastern Europe commemorating his opposition to Russian imperialism. These guys seem to be hoping for a statue in Moscow commemorating their support for Russian imperialism.
@RealRedAquarium
@DouglasKMurray
When you say “there was a horrible sense of foreboding”, you mean you had a horrible sense of foreboding. That’s a fact about you (whoever you are).
@mjluxmoore
@EliotHiggins
The threat to Putin is democracy in neighbouring countries, which creates a serious danger that Russians will say: why can't we be like that?
@RobbieGarthland
@sumlenny
If Russia had cordial relations with her neighbours, Russians would be welcome as immigrants. But Russia has bullied and invaded her neighbours for a couple of centuries, and inevitably they’re not so keen on Russians.
@andreajenkyns
@BorisJohnson
He delivered Brexit, which has made us all poorer. And he delivered it because he saw it as a way to power for himself. So he made the country poorer in order to put himself in power. Apart from that (and a few other things), a great guy.
“... if a western country were to display one-tenth, one-hundredth or one-thousandth of the brutality that China is inflicting on Muslims, the global left would be burning with outrage.”
@NickCohen4
@MedvedevRussiaE
@trussliz
According to internet the population of Russia is 146,078,038, but apparently there is only one guy who can be in charge, for decade after decade. What is wrong with the other 146,078,037?
Sometimes Russian pundits make it hard for those in the West pushing their line that the way forward for Ukraine and the West is negotiations with Putin. They forget that it is not just their own people who can hear their bloodthirsty racist rants:
Meanwhile in Russia: Vitaly Tretyakov, Dean of the Higher School of Television, argued that negotiations with Ukraine are pointless, until Zelensky and "everyone who stands behind him" get annihilated.
@maxseddon
@irgarner
Russia can be an anti-religious tyranny as under the Communists or a religious tyranny as under the Tsars and Putin. But it’s never learned to be anything other than a tyranny.
"As was increasingly obvious after 2008, the only way Putin was going to leave the Kremlin was feet first, either in a box or dragged out by a mob." (Garry Kasparov, Winter Is Coming, p181):
@davidallengreen
@SpiritofHo
Apparently, there were no empires prior to capitalism. Not sure what it was that the Romans, and the Arabs, and Mongols had. Maybe a co-prosperity sphere.
@mission_russian
@amnesty
Always good to hear what the people who lied for nearly 50 years about Katyn are saying about anything. I bet you wish that the truth hadn’t come out in the brief glasnost period so that you could still be lying about it.
For all the self-styled "anti-imperialists" in the West there is now a real imperialist state that they can train their sights on. But they won't because what they oppose is not imperialism but the power and influence of Western democracies:
"Many Europeans are still reluctant to acknowledge Russia’s descent into full-blown fascism under Vladimir Putin, despite similarities with Nazi Germany that are now too obvious to ignore."
@samah_fadil
Prigozhin had oeace talks with Putin. Peace talks with Putin are like peace talks with Hitler. It was Putin that "interfered" in Ukraine. Talk to some Ukrainians some time.
OTD in 2014, Russian-controlled forces shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight
#MH17
over E. Ukraine, using a Russian-supplied Buk missile. This was one of my first videos for the Russian Media Monitor. State TV boasted about downing the aircraft, but minutes later blamed Ukraine.
@medeabenjamin
Putin thanks you for your help. He needs all the help he can get at this difficult time. You're not quite as useful as the Iranian regime, but it's still appreciated.
@AmbRusFrance
You'd be a lot more popular if you hadn't spent a couple of centuries bullying and invading you neighbours. Perhaps, if you stopped doing that, people would gradually develop a more positive view of you.
@anneapplebaum
Reagan has statues in Poland commemorating his opposition to Russian imperialism. Trump appears to be hoping for a statue in Russia commemorating his support for Russian imperialism.
@corbyn_project
@jeremycorbyn
@STWuk
@CNDuk
Tolkien understood things better:
‘It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two, Master Warden,’ answered Éowyn. ‘And those who have not swords can still die upon them. Would you have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, when the Dark Lord gathers armies?’
@Otto_English
"Do you like Winston Churchill" is an excellent example of a question to which a sensible answer is "yes and no", followed by a hopefully not too long explanation. It's not like "Do you like broccoli?"
@LawDavF
@JohnKLocal
It's baffling. We lose our trading links with 27 countries. They each lose their links with 1 country. Maybe some people are not very good at arithmetic.
@v_j_freeman
Do these people think they are completely different from the antisemites of all the past centuries? Or do they see the continuity but think all the earlier antisemites were basically on the right side of history?
@irgarner
Tolkien understood things better:
‘It needs but one foe to breed a war, not two, Master Warden,’ answered Éowyn. ‘And those who have not swords can still die upon them. Would you have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, when the Dark Lord gathers armies?
@AuschwitzMuseum
@BluegrassRabbi
You do a very good job. Anyone who knows anything knows what “did not survive” means. The important thing is to give a face and more to so many who did not survive (and a few who did).
@JuliaDavisNews
They maybe thought the US president has the same power as the Russian president. In fact the consitution & a free press impose constraints.
@Prune602
@JuliaDavisNews
Weird also that people from this "ruined economic space” are not clamouring to get into Russia to enjoy Putin's oh so benevolent rule.
Piers Corbyn on the 7 October atrocities.
"The whole thing was a set-up from start to finish." "It was planned all along." "It was a fake operation."
Israel is after oil, you see.
Now now. Calm down. Be respectful. His mother was at Cable Street, you know.
@yanisvaroufakis
Have you got any detailed advice on how exactly your “sisters” should “hang in there”? I’m sure they would appreciate your words of wisdom.
@donaldtuskEPP
@Paul1Singh
I worked in Poland in the late 70s. If you had told me then that Poland would be in the EU in 2020 and the UK out, I wouldn’t have believed you. A sad day for the UK.
@MarieAnnUK
As Garry Kasparov said in 2015:
"Telling Ukrainians they provoked Putin by rejecting him and moving toward Europe is like telling a harassed woman she should wear longer skirts."
(Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, p.68)
@timmyvoe
@DanielJHannan
The people voted to leave once, and leaving was never defined. And most people think it's going badly. But Putin is quite pleased. Whatever he spent supporting Brexit was a great investment.
@marcbennetts1
The people who lied for nearly 50 years about the Katyn murders should be assumed to be lying unless there is clear evidence to the contrary.