Using the Withdrawal Method
I rarely take an interest in world afairs.
It’s of little consequence to me who does what in which country unless it has a remote chance of interfering with life at the Manor. Selfish, maybe, but I just don’t care.
The latest spat between Putin and the west caused me minor concern. If the shit hit the fan then the first and obvious casualty would be gas supplies. This in turn would reflect down into everyday prices for everything else, as it is doing anyway. I don’t use gas [I hate the stuff] but I do use other things.
The chance of all out war doesn’t bother me too much. I lived through the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis so it’s really just old hat. It’s two bullies in the playground threatening each other with each afraid to throw the first punch as they know they will pulverise each other into a bloody pulp and both will end up in A&E.
My micky is bigger than your micky so nya nya nya!.
So having seen each other mickies they have possibly decided it wasn’t worth fighting over. Is the Ukraine really worth the hassle?
Or maybe Putin is pulling his army back so they don’t get caught in the first salvo of missiles he’s about to launch?
There’s rarely a dull moment.
I’m convinced it’s theatre. All about keeping the price of gas and oil up. The Russians like it, because as a supplier they get more for every barrel the energy hungry west will buy. They’re also getting a bit of payback for when the Ukrainian political class were skimming oil and gas revenues. Western politicians like the drama because a high fuel price, driven by war panic and the ‘Green’ initiatives keep some of their chief donors and sponsors happy and donating.
Besides, what would the Russians want with Ukraine? They already have their pipelines and I’m sure they’re using western disarray to further their own economic interests.
I pay no attention to any of them because not a one of them would pay me any mind anyway.
I especially pay no mind to “Sleepy” Joe Biden as I’m convinced, he is simply a doddering old fool. I’m surprised he hasn’t already tripped at the top a staircase (with a little help from VP Camilla of course).
Give Putin his due, he’s played a long game over the last 20 years very well. Firstly, as an ex-USSR KGB officer, he engaged his ex-Stasi comrade Angela Merkel to ensure that she closed down the German nuclear plants. In parallel, he set his ‘useful idiots’ off campaigning against local alternative gas supplies, such as fracking, to stop that development, whilst also ramping up his other ‘useful idiots’ in the Green camp to close down coal-mining.
Knowing only too well that renewables can never cover base-load electricity, by that stealth he thus caused Western Europe to become dependent on his gas supplies – thus enabling him to start rebuilding the USSR by accumulated threats to the recently-liberated states. Crimea was only a pilot to test for lack of reaction – there was none.
As Richard Nixon once observed, “When you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow”.
QED.
It’s a great boost for the French. Their nuclear power industry will thrive, including their massive new plant being built at Hinkley Point in Somerset which is owned by EDF which is in turn 85% owned by the French government.
GD – Quite right of you not to take an interest. Leave it to the experts, that’s wot I say. They protected us from Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (which he could have deployed within minutes) – God knows what would have happened if we hadn’t of invaded Iraq after he started it…