3 March 2022
Diary of a Corbynista
Sleepwalking to Disaster
by Don Urquhart
We are dealing with an irrational fantasist who does not care who suffers as long as he clings to power!
It is Tuesday and Prime Minister Johnson is inflicting himself on Poles and Estonians.
Meanwhile the Bulletin Board reflects differing opinions on Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 313
Smoothie:
Hmmm, I am guessing that this went to press before 5.00am this morning. But to talk about the threat of NATO’s eastern expansion as a reason for the massively deranged Putin to enter Ukraine is bonkers. Yes Ukraine (a democracy until this morning) wanted to join NATO but the response has always been that this is not on the cards. Autocracies have the benefit of long term planning and ability to execute accordingly; elected governments have to focus on short term and what they have to do to get re-elected. So we have China ensnaring large parts of the world with its Belt and Road initiative (which is hoovering up the world’s supply of rare earth and other minerals and which will screw us as we implement our climate change targets) and Vlad the Salisbury poisoner using more traditional brute force to annex adjoining countries at will, not to mention happily deploying chemical weapons on civilians as per Syria. As for Jezza and the tree huggers being on the right side of history I find that very hard to swallow. Should we be piling troops in, no, but we should be standing up to Putin, even if his war council did look terrified of him the other evening.
Sunlounger:
The Corbynista was published a few hours too early and has been overtaken by events.
Russia has invaded a democracy and I doubt that the exact reason why will ever be known. Perhaps there is no reason other than it’s what Putin wants.
Will Russia retaliate with more violence when the sanctions bite, or even before their effect can be felt?
Putin has already issued the “don’t interfere or else” warning.
The EU has no army and NATO is there to keep the peace so sanctions aside, Putin’s only adversary is the vastly inferior Ukrainian army. No European country is mad enough to take on Russia on its own. The UK certainly won’t, not with the amount of Russian money that the Tories rely on.
The Russians have their useful idiots in the UK, Poland and Hungary. Le Pen and co. may be pro-Putin as well, along with Trump and his legions of Trumpsters in the USA.
Putin has converted the Trumpist, Brexit narrow-minded nationalism and mania for destroying the EU from a verbal war into a real war.
This morning, the world gave birth to bellicose extreme nationalism.
If left unchecked, Putin will not stop at the Ukraine.
I have a bad feeling about how this plays out and I pray to God it is unfounded.
Flyboy:
Yet again we (UK/Europe/The “West”) have sleepwalked into a dire situation. Russia has been flogging subsidised energy to Europe since it was first discovered; it was not economical at market prices but they took the long term view knowing the western world is addicted to low prices and we have become avid consumers since the war. And so our dependency on fossil fuels is what has given Putin the nerve to exert his bullying tactics. Sure he needs income but he is betting we need energy to a much greater degree, and he’s right.
My guess is that Ukraine will be occupied by Russia for the foreseeable future, the only way I can see the West getting a good outcome is to promote a civil uprising in Russia while Putin’s army is kept busy defending any territories he has invaded.
In the meantime we had better plan for 1970’s style power cuts…. now I’m off to the bookshop so I have a ready supply of hardcopy reading material.
Northerner:
For me, the people who need to sort out Putin are called Russians. Americans are the last we need involved. They are the ones who are being dragged through this (as well as Ukrainians of course). I was very slightly encouraged by BBC & Channel 4 News coverage of individual Russians; but who will, can, stand up to him? Recent recordings of him demonstrate a growing paranoia and megalomania, and I suspect some physical illness. None of which is good for someone with a button to push. Is it too much to expect there are healthier, wiser fingers involved?
Meanwhile Abramovich has slipped away…? Might the Oligarchs have a say?
Greek Chic
Jezza talking sense on DoubleDown News.
Peace talks will happen at the end of a war but could start now instead.
Hear him yourself instead of through the Daily Mail/Telegraph Babel fish.
And meanwhile for our own government’s contribution to all this see Nick Cohen’s article in the Guardian in 2020.
Corbynista
