Westminstenders: From Russia with Love

[RedToothBrush]

Things just got scary.

The colony of US puppet state or a vassel state of the EU?

Why not just let market forces take their course and let Russia buy the UK?

How did we get to stories of spies and mafia who buy politicians?

Just who are our enemies and allies?

Won't someone think of the effect on house prices in Salisbury?

Try not to don your foil hat, brace yourself and resist shouting 'money laundering too loud'.

More turbulence ahead.

Brexit still seems like such a cracking idea doesn't it?

I meant Mays early election Peregrina and she did get help from DUP which we had no control over which is correct, but no real opposition and not enough voted labour so here we are and agree with you not what the whole country wanted

But is any election or referendum what the whole country wants?

Dobby1sAFreeElf
That's the same Leaver Johnson who encouraged Russian oligarchs to come to London?
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/london-mayor-boris-johnson-warns-uk-should-not-slam-the-door-on-super-rich-foreigners-9067107.html

The police and security forces seem to be completely blind sided by these Russian attacks on our soil; with polonium contamination across London(in that DT article you posted), and contaminated cars left in supermarket car parks for days in Salisbury.

With 20 000 fewer police, and a country in 'brexit' chaos and government paralysis, it's not surprising the police and state can't cope.

Good time to strike though.

When bureaucracy is never wrong:

amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/16/romanian-court-tells-man-he-is-not-alive?__twitter_impression=true
Romanian court tells man he is not alive
Constantin Reliu loses claim against being registered as dead, because he appealed too late

The ruling is final.

How long before this type of thing starts to happen here?

woman Indeed.

rtb You beat me to posting that. Its pretty scary.

The UK is considering opening its borders and abandoning all customs checks after Brexit

The UK government is reportedly considering keeping its borders completely open to the EU if there is no deal

Theresa May and co are prepared to employ the "Throw Open the Borders option" to protect Britain from costly tariff and non-tariff barriers

The EU would have to break its own law in order to comply with the proposal

uk.businessinsider.com/theresa-may-government-planning-open-borders-in-no-deal-brexit-2018-3

If brexit was an animal, it would have been 'put down' by now.

www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/93672/leading-corbyn-ally-says-labour-mps-who-back-may
Leading Corbyn ally says Labour MPs who back May over Russia are his 'political enemies'

Comments were made by Chris Williamson MP at a Momentum meeting.

Mr Williamson - who was sacked as shadow fire minister last year after calling for council tax to be doubled on the most expensive homes - said it was "far from certain" that the Kremlin was to blame for the attack.

Praising Mr Corbyn, he said: "It’s exactly the sort of response you want from a leader, rather than the knee-jerk response you are getting from the Tories and one or two on our own benches.

"It would definitely be helpful, I think, for our own people on the green benches to actually fall in behind the leader’s very statesmanlike and measured response.

"It only helps our political enemies. But frankly I see them as political enemies as well."

He added: "To be honest with you I’d be quite happy if some of them buggered off. The likes of John Woodcock and Ian Austin and people like that, God, it’s so depressing.

"Let them stand as independents and see how far they get. The only reason why they are in parliament is because they're standing under the Labour flag, the Labour brand and the hard work of ordinary party members going out and knocking on doors."

Erm, he does realise what Labour members think then? And when he calls Labour MPs political enemies for having a particular view he disagrees with, he's also calling all those Labour members political enemies.

The concept of democracy within the party is somewhat lacking here...

Important consideration here:

John Rain @ MrKenShabby
All I’m saying is, if we stop Brexit and unite against Russia, we’ll definitely win Eurovision.

Twitteraccount which I won't liste here
guys Cheltenham was an absolute flop!! on the train home now. thinking to move out of Southampton. hmmmmm

Retweeted by
Lucy Bannerman @ TimesLucy
#Cheltenham is traditionally one of biggest events in UK lapdancing calendar.
This year, I found bored promoters who couldn't even give their flyers away. Girls expecting to make 5x as much, have packed up+left early.
What's going on? Who's winning? Bookies or #metoo? #chelfie

I'm beginning to enjoy the cognitive dissonance descending on the Brexiteers (delayed by having to find someone to read it out to them).

They love the idea of the UK "getting tough" with Russia (it slots perfectly into their James Bond wet dream of UK power).

But now there's intimations that the best way to be tough would be to ... stop Brexit.

Some exploding heads, methinks

Do you think Brexiteers understand that Russia would want Brexit to stop? I'm not sure if there's an understanding of that out there (but would be thrilled if I'm mistaken)

Do you think Brexiteers understand that Russia would want Brexit to stop?

i think "understand" is probably bestowing a level of intelligence I've not seen. But when their sacred cows start to look wobbly, and there's enough froth - even in the BBC - about sanctions and needing unity (which coincidentally is reinforced by Dr. Fox having to prostrate himself in Washington with the EU at his back) it's enough to cause a sense on unease.

As suggested by many on this thread, asymmetric warfare, fear uncertainty and doubt are great ways to ensure countries are never quite as cohesive as you need to be to conduct a protracted game of international one-upmanship.

Now last weeks speech by Putin, hinting at some sort of doomsday weapon fits ...

I'm also finding it beyond hilarious that it's now suggested that a no-deal results in open borders, rather than sealed borders ... bearing in mind how mad for a no deal some brexiteers were last week. I wonder where they are now ?

If I hadn't given up smoking, and didn't make my own booze, I'd be all over open borders ... a standard UK license allows vans upto 7.5 tonnes ...

Apparently Oak Ridge National Laboratory did some detailed work on nerve agents a while back.

"very statesmanlike" This tickled me for some reason.

Police launch murder inquiry over death of Nikolai Glushkov

Met announces move after pathologist’s report on death of Russian exile in London earlier this week

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/16/police-launch-inquiry-over-death-of-nikolai-glushkov

The Russians have 3 weapons available to them,

Fear,
Uncertainty
Doubt
Panic

Four ! The Russians have 4 weapons available to them

Fear,
Uncertainty
Doubt
Panic

and a ruthless devotion to the cause of international socialism ..

Among the weapons available to the Russians ...

I'm old enough to recall the Georgy Markov incident ...

DGR Not the Putinquisition*
*
One of the only good things about this nostalgia for the past would be the old Monty P team.

No one expects the putinquisition 😂

Moscow investigating murder attempt on Skripal’s daughter & ex-Aeroflot official’s death in UK
www.rt.com/news/421517-russia-investigates-skripal-murder-attempt/

The UK’s refusal to share information with Russia is a “blatant violation” of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which states that the country suspected of being the place of origin of a toxic agent is to be contacted first, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. According to the FM, Britain also failed to inform Russia of Glushkov’s death in London earlier this week, despite being obliged to do so

Is Aeroflot official code for something?

@Dobby1sAFreeElf

One of the only good things about this nostalgia for the past would be the old Monty P team

This Russian is dead. He has ceased to be. He is bereft of life. He's shuffled off this mortal coil. He's joined the choir invisible. He's pushing up daisies. He's gawn to meet 'is maker. 'E's snuffed it.

Too soon ?

Factcheck: Less than 1% of UK gas supplies come from Russia
www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-less-than-1-per-cent-uk-gas-supplies-come-from-russia

RT says it's 6%
www.rt.com/business/421391-russia-gas-supplies-uk/

After expelling diplomats, one way for the UK to retaliate is to target Russian's huge UK property holdings. The Criminal Finance Act could be used to look more deeply into how the money used to buy premium London property was acquired
.
It is unlikely there will be widespread sympathy for the estate agents who make their money flogging penthouses to oligarchs, but Russian business has become an important fact of UK public life and the government may find it hard to target any new sanctions precisely enough not to deter valuable, legal business .

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43384726

Difficult to tell the difference between BBC and RT these days.

The UK’s refusal to share information with Russia is a “blatant violation” of the Chemical Weapons Convention

To my shame (not really, chemical weapons are not my area of expertise) I wondered if that was a madey-uppy thing.

Appears not ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Weapons_Convention

Maybe the UK is planning on "going large" when it comes to pissing all over international treaties ? In for a penny, in for a Euro sort of approach ?

Given recent news, I wonder if the 1961 UN convention on narcotics will be next.

Hat trick !

It is unlikely there will be widespread sympathy for the estate agents who make their money flogging penthouses to oligarchs

Funny, if you can't show where a £100 cheque comes from to an estate agent, you can't but a house. But turn up with a sports bag full of €500 notes, and it's "take your pick".

"Money laundering rules" apparently ? Presumably to make sure you are laundering money the right way, rather than stopping you doing it ?

(Apropos of that, anyone watching S2 of Sneaky Pete on Amazon ?)

Is Aeroflot official code for something?

Yes plane crashes and spies.
(Google it)