Will Expelling Two Syrian Diplomats Make Any Difference?
Of Course it won’t! Assad’s vile regime will expel or worse two of our diplomats. And two from all the other countries that have sent a couple of Syrian diplomats home.
I can’t see a solution to this, whilst the Russians and China back the Syrians. After all, kicking Assad out of power, would set a terrible precedent for their own human rights abuses.
Putin Is The New Tsar
In the iconic film, Dr. Zhivago, set around the time of the Russian Revolution, the question is asked if Lenin is the new Tsar.
But this story on the BBC’s web site really says that Putin might be behaving like a Tsar and is having a palace built on the Black Sea coast.There will be a full report on Newsnight tonight.
The Falklands Legacy
I have the view that the Falklands War had a much greater effect on the thirty years since Argentina invaded, than we generally think.
I travelled in Europe both before and after the war and it brought a great change to the way Europe thought about the Russian menace. Not about the threat of nuclear war, but a lot of our forces atb the time were lined up with the Germans, the French, the Americans and others to fight the Russian tanks, when they were ordered to attack. But after the Falklands War, it was now apparent that a well-trained volunteer army, could always outfight a conscript one, who wanted to be elsewhere and I think this gave Europe a much stronger backbone against a Soviet invasion.
It wasn’t the sole reason obviously, but it helped to break-up the Soviet Union and release their stranglehold on the satellites. Remember most Soviet commanders at the time had very deep knowledge of the very brutal Second World War they had fought and from what I have read and heard, wouldn’t have really wanted to do it again. After all, when there was the coup later againt Boris Yeltzin, the Army stayed loyal.
I also wonder what would have happened, if we hadn’t regained the Islands by force.
I suspect that Guatemala would have done what they have wanted to do for years and absorbed Belize.
And would we have gone to regain Kuwait from Saddam in the First Gulf War? The Americans might have gone, because they needed the oil.
The Falklands War sent a powerful message in terms of democracy. But it was a tragic, that a bunch of geriatric dictators, decided to invade, in a vain effort to cling to power.
Russia And China Give Their View On Freedom
Russia and China have vetoed a resolution from the West and the Arab League to try to end the carnage in Syria.
But then what is going to happen, when their own dissidents protest? After all to Putin it would appear democracy is something to be manipulated for your own ends and the Chinese just feel it is not the right system for China.
On The Only Way To Essex
Gants Hill station on the Central line on the London Underground is not only the furthest east of any totally below level station, but it is built to a unique design.
Note the seats and the barrel roofs. The station was designed by Charles Holden before the Second World War although it didn’t open until some years after the war finished. Holden did some work for the Moscow Metro and this station is reminiscent of some of those there.
Note that I’ve contrived the title of this post as the old way to Essex by car, went past the station.
Krushchev Would Feel At Home
Turnpike Lane station is one of the few stations on the northern part of the Piccadilly line with some of the original 1930s details still intact.
Here’s some rather superb uplighters, that would not look out of place in a hotel of the period like the Savoy.
Uplighters at Turnpike Lane Station
And here’s the escalators.
Escalators at Turnpike Lane Station
The escalators are virtually identical to those on the Moscow Metro, as London Underground had a lot to do with installing them. When I was in Moscow in 2000, the escalators there still had their wooden treads. Because of the Kings Cross Fire, most, if not all, of those in London have now been replaced.
As Nikita Kruschev was one of those incharge of building the Moscow system, he would be pleased that London Underground still has some of the details from the 1930s similarly to those installed in Moscow.
Building The Revolution
I went to the Royal Academy to see the exhibition on Soviet Art and Architecture entitled Building the Revolution – Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935.
It was fascinating and sad in equal measure.
The former because some of the buildings were spectacular and ground-breaking. It was all rather sad to see the state of decay that some of them are now reduced to.
But then some of our best buildings from the era have suffered a similar fate. Although, it is from just after World War II, I once went over Cliff Key Power Station in Ipswich. That was a real pleasure and it was a pity that it couldn’t have been transformed for a modern purpose. But then those power stations, were built to last thirty years and often the foundations weren’t of the best. Just look at the state of the iconic Battersea Power Station today.
In the Courtyard of te Royal Academy, there was this tower.
It is a modern reconstruction of Tatlin’s Tower; a giant tower that was never built.
Bonkers FIFA
I can understand giving the World Cup to Russia for 2018, but to give it to Qatar for 2022, is probably one of the stupidest decisions they have made in recent years, amongst a whole basketfull.
I’ve been to Russia to support Ipswich and although it was a day trip, it was a pleasureable experience. Especially as Ipswich won in the Olympic Stadium, where Seb Coe and Steve Ovett won their gold medals.
My only worry about Russia is that the Russian police are not noted for being friendly. Even a few thousand Ipswich supporters, who are not noted for trouble, were treated with strong suspicion. When I went to Belarus to support England, other England fans, I said that Minsk was a really pleasureable experience compared to an earlier visit to Moscow, where the police were overly aggressive.
But that is a problem, they will have to overcome, just as they’ll have to come to terms with black players, who often don’t get the best of reception from the crowds in Russia.
When I heard Qatar had won, I thought it was a joke.
The games will be played in very high temperatures, drinking by fans will be a problem and the population of Qatar is only 1.6 million, so it must be the smallest country ever to stage a World Cup. So if they fulfil their promise of building 12 stadia, they would just about be big enough to hold the whole population of the country.
I suspect that it will be the first World Cup that will be played in an alternative venue or it might well be the least successful in terms of visitor numbers. After all, some of the cheaper options for travel and accommodation, will just not be available.
I suspect too, that we’ve not heard the last of these two World Cup bids, when a few investigative journalists get their noses into the story.
I also can’t get it out of my mind, that for 2022, the United States was one of the bidders and I suspect that their bid was strong. So did the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan mean that no-one would vote for England or the United States.
This article from the Brisbane Times is a good summary of the farce. Like England, Australia got just one vote.
This paragraph from the article quotes Henry Winter of the Daily Telegraph.
But prominent English football analyst Henry Winter, while lamenting his country’s loss, wrote in London’s Daily Telegraph that Qatar’s win was “the real scandal” and that FIFA credibility was battered by its decisions.
“Yet the real scandal in FIFA-ville was the decision to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar, a soulless, featureless, air-conditioned, cramped place with so little connection to football it required hired hands like Pep Guardiola. It was as if FIFA were saying ‘to hell with the fans’. Qatar 2022 will be a joyless experience for supporters,” Winter said.
“FIFA’s credibility was battered yesterday, not by any allegations of corruption but by the cynical game of collusion and vote-trading that patently went on in Fifa House. All the fish are soiled.”
We’ve not heard the last of this scandal.
The FBI Wades In
I posted the question, Are We Winning the Spam Wars, a few days ago.
Today there is this fascinating article on how the FBI is targetting a Russian spammer, on a web site called The Smoking Gun. The web site was started independently, but is now part of media giant, Time Warner, and gets a lot of its information through the Freedom of Information Act.
The numbers in the article are huge. The Russian is alledged to have controlled 500,000 computers and sent billions of spam e-mails every day, selling fake Rolexes and all the other rubbish. For one six-month period, he was paid, $459,000 by his clients.
I hope Mr. Putin is taking note and sends a few men round with heavy boots and large machine guns!
James Blunt and His Part in Stopping World War 3
The story isn’t quite as dramatic as that, but it shows the different in attitude between US and UK forces, when it comes to dealing with a little local difficulty over Pristina airfield in Kosovo with the Russians.
In the end the view of General Mike Jackson prevailed over that of his commander, the US general, Wesley Clark. So Blunt and his troops, encircled the Russians and when the Russians food and water ran out, the Russians felt it prudent to co-operate and share the airfield.
But even so, Blunt admitted that he wouldn’t have fought the Russians, as he didn’t want to be the man who started World War 3, even if he had been court-martialed later.
The Anonymous Widower 