You've got to admire ol' Vlad's chutzpah, haven't you?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

He manages perfectly well with one stock statement. 'Nothing to do with me, the CIA dunnit innit.'

This tactic seems to be serving him remarkably well. One day he'll be standing on top of a T72 at Calais ferry terminal telling us all it's a false flag operation to make im look bad.

[Classic Jorge]

Being, as Russia is, the source of around a third of our energy requirements.

If only we were more forward thinking and considered it a bad idea to sell off our entire utilities infrastructure we may have had a choice.

[Berni]

b/ actually quite like having dictators who brazenly lie to their faces, murder dissidents and destabilise world peace and c/ are barking f**king mad.

Say what you like about him, but he knows his demographic.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Entirely predictably, the option you have chosen is to use the issue as a stick to beat us with.

The problem is Putin. Your ire is better pointed in his direction.

[Classic Jorge]

It only takes one election anyway.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/20fdd0cf285da76d00423336fbce9ac2/tumblr_mxhmetV29n1s9x4auo1_500.jpg

[Classic Jorge]

I'm genuinely not sure what our options are, given that much aggression past what's happening already will inevitably lead to a massive upswing in gas, oil and coal prices.

Surely that's a valid point.

What would you do?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

An initial thrust eastwards by the Baltic States and poland would be complemented by our landing in Saudi, pushing up through Iran, Iraq and Syria, (thus securing energy supplies and dealing with the Islamist issue), whilst our Ukrainian allies push west into Romania to secure the Ploesti oil fields.

The Chinese might, of course, take the opportunity amist the confusion to knock the crap out of the Japanesers, but, you know, hey ho.

[Berni]

Russia is far more dependent on Europe as a market than vice versa. And, in fact, it cannot risk being seen as an unreliable energy supplier, since then its economy disappears even further down the toilet.

Oh, and the UK is actually much less exposed to the Russians cutting off the gas than most of our European neighbours.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/02/26/uk-ukraine-crisis-g as-threat-idUKKBN0LU1VE20150226 (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/02/26/uk-ukraine-crisis-gas-threat-idUKKBN0LU1VE20150226)

[Snin]

who gives a f**k to be honest ..the bloke was cnut anyway,..good riddance to the fecker

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

own bat?

Because, if I'm honest, I'm not really sure which would be more worrying.

[Classic Jorge]

And I know the UK is less dependent but don't we get much of our energy from Europe anyway? Also, most of our energy sector is now carved up between french and german companies.

[Classic Jorge]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

hopefully. (You'd think we'd have learnt before that from the US experience in the 'Nam, but apparently not...)

If you're going to go, go hard or go home.

That's what we ought to do, but given that we don't seem to have a single politician in the western world with a pair of nuts in his sac, I expect we'll just wring our hands and wait for the next airliner to be downed or ex-Warsaw pact nation to be subsumed once more into the USSR.

[redgunamo]

[Berni]

Which, if you think about it, is a good thing.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

What nonsense is this now?

[redgunamo]

[Classic Jorge]

And they're the most important thing.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Clean 'em out. Finish it for once and for all; once it's done, it's done.

Imagine, all that free oil from the Arabian peninsular, and vast swathes of steppe to grow food, tended by an unlimited, free labour force.

I can't imagine why we've pissed about this long, to be honest.

[Brentwood]

meaning that nobody can buy things from them apart from with physical bank notes

We also couldn't sell to them, of course, but it'd be interesting to watch

[Berni]

keeping it in line than all the empty scabbard-rattling anyone else could do.

Global capitalism makes the world a safer place, j.

[redgunamo]

[Classic Jorge]

Does f**k all for Bangladeshis, for instance

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

We must be hard. Hard like Krupp Stahl! Let us sing, sing zusammen Kamerade! Die Fahne hoch, die Reihe fest geschlossen!

Sorry. I've come over a bit Lebensraum again.

[Classic Jorge]

Assuming, of course, that there's any capital left over there

[Brentwood]

http://www.theguardian.com/big-energy-debate/where-does-our- energy-come-from (http://www.theguardian.com/big-energy-debate/where-does-our-energy-come-from)

The majority of our electric power carries a "made in Britain" sticker, bar a fraction that we import from France and The Netherlands (4%). But the story of the fuel stocks burned (or "fissioned", in the case of nuclear) in our power stations is a very different matter.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/17/aid-trade-red uce-acute-poverty (http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/17/aid-trade-reduce-acute-poverty)

Capitalism ftw.

[Berni]

If they choose to stay in Bangladesh, I'm afraid they'll just have to deal with the consequences of that unfortunate strategic error.

[redgunamo]

we are better able to help them out. You know, with Royal Marines and stuff.

[Berni]

What confuses me is why no-one has managed to bump off Putin yet. Surely it can't be that difficult, can it?

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

In any other context, you'd have to call that racism, surely?

[Brentwood]

at News International :cloud9:

[Classic Jorge]

[PSRB]

a staunch Putin fan and won't hear a word against him


Mind you, he is a Chelsea fan :rubchin:

[Snin]

apart from the chelsea thing but you cant change that