st albans fox

Perhaps this reveals that the US administration has already accepted that nato troops won’t be allowed there and it would have to be some UN force.

I wonder what happens to Vance if trump sees a better option to take on his crown - I could see Vance being chucked under the bus at some point. I’m thinking he’s raising his profile as much as he can (where it matters) to try and make that too tricky for trump to do.

Observation on what is happening shouldn’t be confused with personal views

India perhaps China - nope usa is still a democracy and that counts for a lot. The trump approach to diplomacy is a big problem here - it’s just not how things are done. all at a hundred miles an hour and in public. if this was all being said behind closed doors as used to be the case then how different would things seem ? that doesn’t affect the apparent scenario where it seems Moscow is not being asked to make any concessions of note - but again, we wouldn’t know about that until after the event and after the bar had moved back from where it currently sits. (The polish border!) I reckon trump is wanting everything on the table before negs start. Pretty much nothing is off the table (apart from russian territorial integrity and Ukraine not in nato) cos that affects his ability to move things around to get putin to say yes. Washington wants to do business in Russia to try and move them away from Beijing - ukraine is in the way of that and the 4 oblasts + crimea will be sacrificed to that end. about a year ago I posted that zelensky should think about some realpolitik and perhaps make a peace settlement on the basis of losing some of the eastern areas and a small land bridge to crimea (also lost) because no one knew what might happen if trump was to win. did he basically bet on the democrats winning ? If so that could be one of the biggest losing bets in history.

I assume that goes without saying but discussions on here from a strategic perspective shouldn’t need to add these caveats. geo politics is a generally a pretty ethically grim place. If you speak to an educated Chinese person then they’ll likely tell you that nato is an aggressive entity. We see it as defensive. Evidence isn't totally clear is it? it’s time for a grown up discussion across Europe about raising taxation to spend on defence.

Are the Americans (trump) just making a call that they’ve decided to move their attention (and resources) to the indo pacific region because they think europe is wealthy enough to protect itself. They’ll dump ukraine as collateral damage - trump only cares about the deal - not the fairness of the deal. He’s moving the bar so far pre negs that a deal now that leaves the battle lines pretty much as they are will seem acceptable to many. Suspect he’ll get Russia to agree to pull back in some areas that don’t matter strategically or financially to make it seem like they’re giving something. I think the Europeans (and previous administration) have always told zelensky that he shouldn’t agree to any negs that gives an inch of ground to Russia from the starting point. That was probably his demeanour last Friday pre the press sit down which led to bill and Ben engineering that scene in the Oval Office.

Is it a myth that we used to see more players coming into pro football in their late teens/early twenties from non league ? We know the famous ones but I wonder if the numbers are similar to what they’ve always been or if the academies scouting networks are so well organised nowadays that it’s pretty much impossible for someone to slip through the grass roots net (unless they’ve suffered a chronic injury issue up 15/16 y o which has stunted their development)

Who would be seriously concerned about an attack from Finland or Sweden ?

Surprised that he wasn’t picked up by Watford, Luton, Stevenage/ MK academies. Assume arsenal and spurs passed on him. The scouting around south Herts is very extensive given the number of pl/chamlionship academies within twenty miles.

We don’t want to lose American tourism - we need every penny we can get. We’d be better taxing people who want to go there on holiday (more than we already do)

I’m guessing we deleted his contact details in a fit of pique !

Big Sam would take one look at our defenders and stay retired

Walnuts! Could have started somewhere easy like my iPhone ……

Firstly I don’t believe he would if there was a European peace keeping force on the ground but given your theoretical question why would we then send conscripted troops to a potential war zone rather than additional professional soldiers ? If they were to fly over Ukrainian soil then after a stern warning, I would expect the western air defences to be utilised to either intercept with fighter jets or hardware from the ground (latter more likely). I doubt putin is keen to have European fighting troops on Ukrainian soil in any case - I’m sure they would only accept a UN force as part of an agreement and we’ve seen how effective that is in many parts of the world. I guess your question is more are we prepared to enter a full on war with Russia and that would involve conscription at some point. If the Russians are actually prepared to engage in that with European forces then I suppose we have no option because what’s the alternative? Baltic states? Poland? Moldova? Hungary? Czech Republic? Etc etc (China would never allow this to develop either. A slaughtered global economy is not in their interest). If the basic question is how would I feel about one of my kids being conscripted to fight Russian expansionism and aggression then the answer is that I don’t think there is a choice because what world would their kids end up living in . Just as we did in 1939, you have to take a stand. Is Ukraine alone worth that commitment? I don’t think we end up with conscription just over ukraine but only if that expands further. sorry for the rambling reply !

Which is why you generally see a 15 y o in a meaningless game or when a game is done. Rooney was released into the game at 16 but he really was a physical specimen and mentally very tough. I have no idea re monga’s mental approach and how he would react to being cleared out in a 50/50 with someone way stronger than him. Given how he looks, he wouldn’t have come across many players who are. the 30 y o tanks that lumber around the league would be something different.

Surely we would only send troops to ukraine to act as a ‘ceasefire observation force’ - to ensure putin doesn’t do it again. We wouldn’t be alone and no reason that we’d need to conscript to carry out this task.

Unbelievable pens ….. who thought lindelof was a good choice ?

Apparently they’re joining by zoom! very odd

Plenty of land close to the current battle lines that can be ceded without losing the land bridge. My point being that you probably won’t see any areas with deposits being negotiated.

If trump gets a deal through that leaves Russia in the four oblasts then you can be sure that putin has agreed for them to split the minerals there (which are plentiful). Would be interesting to see if putin does agree to cede any land he currently holds in a peace deal and what the mineral content of that land is.

Yes as are we and France

Hell fit right in at arsenal

Unless his previous sanction for the incident in the fa cup has a hang over game that this sending off triggers (I don’t it that would), that’s a straight 3 game ban for violent conduct. There’s no reason for any more than that for this specific offence.

I think it’s generally about this as much as it’s about money for the Americans if the Europeans step up to support Ukraine fully with more money and more arms and allow them to attack Russian territory without any restrictions then I think we get closer to Russia launching at attack on a NATO country and then we see if article 5 is invoked - I doubt that US forces would become involved. Then we see NATO as pretty much impotent. I doubt trump wants to get to that point - he wants a share of the minerals rather than the Europeans getting in on that or the Russians. I guess some will say that this was inevitable given realpolitik - not so much how it’s played out, especially the public nature of yesterday. what intrigues me is how Zelenskyy got to the Oval Office unless he had accepted everything and was prepared to sign the deal. Someone has mislead here - did the administration drag him in with lies about guarantees in order to publicly humiliate him or did Z tell Rubio that he accepted the deal as it stood and hoped to do some manoeuvring once out of the public gaze with the hope that trump would give a little and sign because he just wanted the minerals?