The Red Rose for St George’s Day

 

While the war in the Ukraine has been going on for two months let’s not forget to celebrate St George’s Day today. After all, the Westminster cabal would we’d rather not!

Meanwhile, some mandarins in the corridors of Whitehall seem to have been voicing doubts about the progress of this war. Sadly, these seem to have fallen on deaf ears. According to the headlines in this morning’s paper editions the PM plans to send our tanks to the Ukraine – here’s the BBC’s customary compilation. One other headline in that compilation caught my eyes: a report in the FT about the Pound sinking and High Street Sales plunging. 

Firstly, a brief look at the report in the FT. Under the headline “Pound slides to weakest level since 2020 as British retail sales fall – Spending data point to inflation squeeze on households” we read that:

“Sterling initially plummeted on weak retail and consumer confidence figures. The volume of high street sales fell 1.4 per cent in March, the Office for National Statistics said, worse than the 0.3 per cent drop forecast in a Reuters poll and the second consecutive monthly decline. Separate data released on Friday by the research company GfK showed that, in April, UK consumer confidence plunged to a near all-time low since records began in 1974, reflecting the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.”(link, paywalled)

It looks as if we peasants out here in the sticks, outside the magic Westminster circle, are more realistic in our assessment of dire things to come. than ‘our betters’ would like to believe. How could this be? Perhaps we’re much better at assessing what is to come than the propaganda chiefs in government, Whitehall and Westminster! Will we now be exhorted to spend-spend-spend to ‘save’ the country from recession? Perhaps all those of us not living in Audi Avenue are very much aware of the pounds and pennies the government has left  in our wallets …

Next, let’s look at the latest utterance by the PM. Rest assured – ‘our’ nice tanks will be sent to Poland , not the Ukraine, enabling the Poles can hand over their tanks to Mr ‘e. The details in the following quote from The Times are both important and illuminating:

“The prime minister said the UK was considering “backfilling” Poland by sending Challenger 2 tanks so it could transfer its own Soviet-era T-72s to Ukraine. However, he stopped short of committing to a military intervention should Russia invade Ukraine again in future. Tanks are expected to play a decisive role in the battle for the eastern Donbas region, where the terrain is much flatter than in the north. The Pentagon believes that Ukraine now has more tanks than Russia. The donation of Challenger 2 tanks would be a significant step up in British lethal aid. As part of the deal, British troops are likely to be deployed to Poland to operate a squadron of about 14 tanks.” (link, paywalled)

Interesting, isn’t it, that Johnson is talking about a ‘future Russian invasion of the Ukraine’. What is that all about? And why does the Ukraine need ‘moar tanks’ when they already have more than Russia, allegedly, according to the ‘belief’ of the Pentagon? Keep the remark about that battle in the Donbas region in mind – I’ll come to this later. There’s one more remark – my emphasis:

“Speaking on a visit to India, Johnson accepted an assessment by western intelligence officials that President Putin could still “win” the war. He said: “The sad thing is that is a realistic possibility.” (link, paywalled)

So the ‘crocodile’ is successfully chewing the legs off the Ukraine, is it? Apparently there are some in MI6 and in the corridors of Whitehall who seem to have a more realistic understanding of the situation in the Ukraine but we plebs mustn’t be told because we might ask why we should send tanks and soldiers to Poland if not to the Ukraine when we don’t have many of either ourselves. Remember that hearing of the Defence select Committee of the HoC we linked to yesterday … 

Here’s one more quote showing that Johnson even now prefers bombastic expressions rather than acknowledging reality. This quote comes from the Speccie’s evening news email. Johnson said:

“The sad thing is that that [a long war in the Ukraine] is a realistic possibility. Of course Putin has a huge army. He has a very difficult political position because he’s made a catastrophic blunder, so that the only option he now has really is to try to use his appalling, grinding approach, led by artillery, trying to grind the Ukrainians down.”

Given the current situation in the Ukraine, it’s Johnson’s secret why Putin made ‘a huge blunder’ and has now to ‘grind the Ukrainians down’. I’m sure someone in Whitehall must at the very least look at the daily reports by the Russian Ministry of Defence. After all, they’re online and even I can access them. So can you – here’s the latest, in English. Over the past weeks we learned that Russian forces have taken out fuel depots and oil refineries. I seem to recall that tanks need fuel. If there isn’t any, how are the fabulous Ukrainian soldiers going to drive them? Are there actually that many tank drivers left? 

You might like to look at this blog entry – it’s written by an American who does know a bit or two about military intelligence. He’s also produced maps with the names in Latin letters so non-Russian speakers can grasp what’s really going on.

Meanwhile, in a clear case of fear porn, if not of projection hinting at something the desperate Mr ‘e might plan to do, Ms Nuland warns Mr Putin of the most dire consequences should his troops use tactical nuclear weapons (my emphasis)

“In an interview for the Ukrainian outlet European Pravda, Nuland was asked to assess the possibility of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons. She responded that she could not rule out such a “catastrophic scenario.” As Putin “has already ordered” what, she said, were “brutal war crimes,” the world must be prepared for the worst. At the same time, Nuland stressed, the consequences of such steps would be catastrophic for Russia and for Putin personally. She refused to provide any details about the potential response from the West, saying instead that use of nuclear weapons would take the situation to a “fundamentally new level” where the price will be “simply astronomical.” (link)

Why Russia should use such weapons when they’re winning is her secret. However, it’s entirely possible that Mr ‘e would do so, his army being decimated all round. It would make a lovely false flag ‘event’, wouldn’t it. 

There’s one other piece of news which demonstrates the inhumanity of the Ukrainian regime: “Kiev charges mayor of Balakleya with treason for accepting Russian “occupation” and humanitarian aid” (link) – this is Nazi ideology pure and simple, straight out of Hitler’s and Goebbels’ playbook. 

It seems ‘Teh West’ is following Mr ‘e, accepting his theatre production of re-enacting Hitler’s wars. There’s the desperate attempt of turning the Azovstal plant into a second Stalingrad, with the brave neonazis taking on the role of the then Soviet troops. Now that Putin isn’t playing that game, they’ve switched to re-make that plant into something like the Alamo.

Then there’s the Pentagon and the Johnson ’war brigade’, warbling about tank battles in the Donbas region. I’m not sure if they imagining themselves playing the role of the early, winning Nazi tank battles, or if they envisage themselves as latter-day Soviet tank commanders who drove out the Nazis. It seems ‘Teh West’ has still not grasped that Putin isn’t fighting WWII battles, nor is he fighting the US battles in Iraq.

I recommend reading this long but interesting assessment of the current situation and outlook, with lengthy, very illuminating quotes from an unnamed Canadian veteran ‘with NATO experience’ and with quotes from Donbas military. The author asks inconvenient questions about Ukrainian logistics and the use of ‘western’ help. 

I leave you with ‘news’ that Russian soldiers are trolling the West which has banned the use of the Latin letter ‘Z’. Now they’re putting the whole Latin alphabet on their tanks and vehicles – see here for yourselves. ‘Avin’ a larf is always good, especially when one has the last laugh. 

While Russia and the Eastern Orthodox churches are celebrating Easter tomorrow as France is going to the polls, let’s enjoy St George’s Day today.



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