Mungler

Fair point. If the Chinese government (or indeed any committed government) says ‘we’re doing this and we’re going in this particular direction come what may and whatever the cost’ then it gets done pretty much regardless of any possible dissent or moral / economic objections to the contrary. Getting into the silicon supply chain at any cost and to the extent of destabilising the global silicon manufacturing market place? That’s a plan with some power behind it.

Agreed. China also doesn’t suffer from usual politicking - there’s no left then right swings in government, it’s the CCP all the way and they can make a 20 or 30 year plan and stick to it. If I were China I’d carry on with buying up favour and resource across the developing world and watch the West eat itself; laziness, fast food, net zero, wokeism, TikTok and of course all the synthetic drugs I’m quietly making and shipping over. I still don’t understand how the combustion based European car industry got so quickly torpedoed for EV and effectively handed over to the Chinese who had the 20 year head start on EV (and EV supply chains).

Where’s Oowee when we need an update on how fabulously Labour are doing and it’s all going under Labour? Man it is all coming apart at the seams.

The article suggests that they are big bridges only. Can’t see from the photos what the front looks like, but the article suggests that they are run aground and then hang out at sea so that other larger landing craft use it like a pontoon.

Interesting insight. Thank you. I couldn’t agree more about the critical under funding and under resourcing of our armed forces. The bigger issue however is that ‘love of country and history’ has been systematically erased from the young and getting people to join up in numbers in a conflict will be difficult. If I was under 30 and asked to fight for my country; well, I’m not too sure what my country is any more or what it stands for nor can I see a set of values or any cause promoted of any government of the last 50 years worth dying for. I suppose the next evolution will be tiers of Olympic armchair gamers running fleets of drones from their parents’ basements. .

The article suggests they run them a ground and use them as a platform / bridge to unload from other vessels. For the Chinese easy, cheap and quick to knock up in a couple of months. Indeed, I can’t see any other purpose for building these.

An attempt on a well defended island that is intent on not becoming part of China does appear to me to be ‘not worth it. But looking at Ukraine and the cost benefit to Russia, we are reminded that anything can happen. History has shown us that those in charge over us like a national common enemy in difficult times, and if things falter for the Chinese communist party, the economy or the man in charge then nothing holds it together like a war. Incidentally, Ukraine showed us that as long as no one reaches for the nukes then its traditional warfare and stocks of men and basic munitions is what you need more on than the other side, and China has way more of everything and the industrial capacity to build machines of war. .

Out of all the grim news today it was this article that made my blood run cold. So where on the planet to run and hide?

This is particularly prevalent with Eastern Europeans for house shares and accommodation - subletting rooms / floors of an existing rental property to help make ends meet and at the same time stay off any radar the local authority may have to see who is subletting or running an unauthorised HMO. We’ve just found this out in the process of selling a buy to let 😆

They will run out of money; it’s Labour, it’s what they do. Anyone rational knew with the last budget that the idea of growth through the public sector was just mental. The next budget will be interesting when they come back for more.

Exactly. The politicians will know better than us what’s going to be in the pot if the lid comes off…

That made me chuckle. The offender figures and data sets are all out there (as too prisoner offender data) and when considered pro-rata, having been taken from a small sub-set of total population, well .... and as growing data fiends we can then also get back into a discussion about targeted stop and search being the only real preventative measure in combating knife crime. The stats tell the story. I was going to grab them off the intraweb for Clangerman, but just assumed he was trolling for attention as per. I would add that whilst the stats are both telling and frightening, they are but a glimpse and are not a full account if you factor in an institutional lack of police interest / general detection and prosecution rates for certain protected groups, tipping off perpetrators and of course the affected group, who being white and poor and at the bottom of current societal hierarchy, just wouldn't have bothered to report a sex crime already knowing that they (and their families) would be put at further risk for a report to the police that would ultimately go nowhere. The instances and examples are now bubbling to the surface; the father and son who got arrested for trying to recover a minor from a rape gang is prominent but the other I heard yesterday was the 12 year old being sexually assaulted in a car outside police station.

And you are part of the problem. Factually and statistically so very incorrect, I don't even know where to start. I shan't bother because you have already exposed yourself as more than a little odd and a troll.

Some of the details, only coming out now 20+ years too late, are truly incredible and gut wrenchingly sickening with depravity beyond comprehension. These were the vulnerable children of the white lower classes, from broken homes and in the ‘care’ system - the most vulnerable in need of protection. We will need to build more prisons to make sure everyone involved gets sent away.

So, it appears that MSM have finally got hold of the subject of organised Pakistani rape gangs albeit 20 years after the event and despite the establishment’s best efforts to brush it all away and under the carpet. Just to make the point again and join the dots, the only reason the issue is now in MSM headlines is because of Musk. And so we ask how did Musk alight on the topic from 5,000 miles away? Again, pause and park sentiments about Musk or TR (don’t fall into the establishment promoted trap of playing the man and not the ball or looking to shoot the messenger and ignore the message) and consider whether we would have ever properly learnt about this? Indeed, the whole topic stayed successfully buried for over two decades.