History, Maps, Politics, Economics, Military Affairs, Geostrategy/IR etc. Follow me on Substack! Views are my own.
Scotland, Great Britain
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Why are British Trade Unions, who’s existence is predicated on protecting the interests of the British worker, actively undermining the bargaining power for improved pay and working conditions of the British worker by advocating for the importation of a foreign underclass?
💥exc: Major row over Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms
Talks between Home Sec and key union break down after Mahmood blocks Unison boss from bringing migrant care worker to meeting
Deepens Labour rift over indefinite leave to remain
inews.co.uk/news/politics/ma…
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Schrodinger’s Jackdaw
Simultaneously significant enough that it will apparently cause 8,000 deaths due to overheating while somehow doing nothing to provide Britain with energy security, jobs or increased exports.
Remarkable!
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“If capitalism is so great, why do <insert lots of expressly non-capitalist government interventions that distort prices and prevent the market from working properly>”
What you are describing is not capitalism, buddy
If capitalism is so great, why do corporations need tax breaks, subsidies, exemptions, grants, bailouts, legal protections, and trade barriers to survive? And when ordinary people ask for help, why is it suddenly called socialism?
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Rather counterintuitively, women are extremely conservative and superstitious in many respects, especially when sufficiently propagandised to be so.
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The police *still* do this in the UK.
They just pick and choose who and what they target, rather than applying the same operating principle equally.
The UK had the same issue with hooligans back when it was a real state. What they did was that after every "riot" they would identify and arrest tens if not hundreds of them. Directly from their houses in front of their friends and families. Then they would swiftly send them to jail for 20 years. The UK now has no fences on its football pitches.
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Combined Pro-Indy vote sitting at…33%
Combined right wing vote now consistently sitting at about the same level or higher.
Scotland nowhere near the country it is often presented as.
Westminster Voting Intention:
SNP: 30% (-1)
LAB: 24% (+7)
RFM: 16% (-5)
CON: 13% (+2)
LDM: 8% (-3)
RES: 5% (New)
GRN: 3% (-3)
Via @Moreincommon_, 9-13 Oct.
Changes w/ 21 Aug - 1 Sep 2025.
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Putting aside the fact that if sufficient market conditions exist (ie better conditions and wages) then of course British people will do these jobs:-
Why are so many pro-migration people in favour of importing an underclass to do horrible jobs for shit pay? Disgusting.
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I went into Waterstones yesterday, looked at the Economics section and it was about 30% non economics slop, 60% general centre-left to left slop, 9% Marx and 1% Adam Smith.
There was no Austrian school, no Friedman, not even Keynes. You know, stuff that we broadly know works.
Marx is basically the closest real life equivalent to "forbidden knowledge they don't want you to be reading about"
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This is *insane*
I feel like I post this every few months but the Russians really are literally just feeding two entire generations of their men into a neverending, ever worsening meat grinder
The figures for October are grim. Extrapolating from the first twelve days, Unmanned Systems alone could verify more than 7,500 Russian personnel killed this month, or 16,000 WIA.
Let there be no mistake about the scale of the slaughter.
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The “agent orchestration tool” I built for my job has automated 3-4 hours of daily administrative bullshit from my job allowing me to focus on more interesting, more complex problems.
That sure as shite is more worthwhile than an almond.
AI-Luddites are so boring.
to be fair, a single almond is worth more than 38000 ChatGPT queries from the average "vibe coder"
for one, you can do something with it, that is, eat it, and you can't do shit with an "agent orchestration tool"
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1.3% growth forecast despite all the massive problems - imagine how high it could be if we actually did something about all the price distorting regulations, the planning laws, our lack of energy development, restructured our tax regime and trimmed back public spending?
NEW:
From Bangkok, IMF World Economic Outlook released…
- Upgrades UK growth this year by 0.3% to 1.3%, joint second highest in G7, defying the idea the UK would be hardest hit by Iran war… but inflation higher and growth trimmed next year
- UK “stands out” on deficit reduction, IMF Chief economist tells me, as its figures show a 3.9% point fall in deficit from 2025-2031, significantly more than other G7 nations, with 3 of them actually increasing their deficits over this time.
- IMF says UK should “stay course” on fiscal plans, Chancellor arrives tomorrow
- overall story of resilience in world economy, despite the clouds from the Gulf, as AI boosts US, Asia and UK to some degree… energy and trade proving flexible in dealing with shocks
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The History Novice retweeted
For most of human history, people worked until they were physically unable to, then depended on family or charity to survive. Capitalism generated the wealth, productivity, and savings that made retirement financially possible for ordinary workers. Imagine condemning the very system that made it possible to spend the final decades of your life without working.
Capitalism really convinced people to spend 40 years making someone else rich, then called retirement a reward.
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If find it bordering on impossible to imagine that many people on my feed won’t have watched this series, but if you haven’t, you need to.
The greatest documentary series ever made, full stop. Not just about WW2, just overall. Will never be mastered.
It seems that @Channel4 currently has the complete series of the outstanding #WW2 documentary "The World at War" available to watch through its on demand service.
*Highly* recommended (in case anyone was vaguely unaware). channel4.com/programmes/the-…
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Again, this debate is continuing to show how little people appreciate the scale of WW2.
The best estimate reckons that 15-25 million artillery shells were fired every month in WW2.
Even at the lower estimate, that’s more shells *per month* than are currently produced *per year* in the entire world combined.
European Production in WW2:
Aircraft: ~480,000 (+31,000 lend lease)
Tanks and SPGs: ~265,000 (+27,000 lend lease)
Artillery: 825,000+
Trucks: 3,000,000+ (incl. 600k lend lease)
Naval Vessels: ~40,000 (about 50/50 naval and merchant marine)
Total Mobilised Personnel: ~80 million men
There are not enough smart munitions or factories on earth in 2026 to produce enough that could defeat a combined and united force like that which manages to drag you into a long war, much less in Africa alone.
This is genuinely an interesting question, and it’s much closer than people on either side of the debate think, but Africa simply does not have the ability to self sustain in conflict beyond the early engagements (which they would easily win - it’s undeniable their comms, cutting edge tech and battle space knowledge would be levels beyond Europe of 1939) in the first weeks of such a war.
It doesn’t have the production capacity to sustain its modern armaments, it doesn’t have the organisational ability nor the logistics to bring it all together. It won’t be able to sustain its communications and technological edge for long once it runs out of spare parts and munitions and the Europeans learn and adapt (which they were incredible at). It also doesn’t have the capacity to feed or fuel itself. Those navies would absolutely choke Africa - you are forgetting that 1939 Europe includes the Soviet Union, the British Empire AND the French and Dutch Empires, between those four they can cutoff pretty much all trade globally.
Once the technological gap is reduced, infact, even when it’s not (look at conflicts in Africa *right now*) European formations will be able to do incredible damage to African formations in the field, even with large parts of their militaries consisting of bolt action rifles and horse drawn logistics.
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As the bold Josef once said, quantity has a quality of its own.
It’s all well and good having GPS, PGMs, and 4th/5th gen fighters, but you’ve only got a handful of them, how are you defending all your positions that enable that, keeping trade lanes open and holding down a front when you are defending around the clock against hundreds of thousands of tanks and aircraft, tens of thousands of ships, millions of shells, millions of trucks and tens of millions of men?
What are the victory conditions required here? Make the other side surrender? The three main European powers were at separate points all essentially facing complete defeat and never surrendered (well Germany did, only after the Russians literally planted their flag on their Parliament building and the Allies poured into Saxony and Austria from the West).
Europe would take horrific losses in the first months, but anything lasting any longer is only going in one direction, especially if we assume the Europeans are unified and can learn from technology they come across.
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This British (not 40+) middle manager currently has 13 agents running at once buddy!
The best Software Engineers in the US right now are telling you they don’t review code and have 10, 20, 30 agents running at once
Meanwhile your British 40+ middle manager drops in to standup a couple times a month “yeah I’ve tried AI, not that great would never pay for it”
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The entire welfare regime needs to be wiped out. This is embarrassing and a disgrace, an insult to all of us who work hard and play by the rules.
Excellent article in the Wall Street Journal on Britain's unsustainable welfare spending:
— 7 million people (over 10% of the UK population) now claim at least one or more sickness or disability benefit. This is up 60% in the past 6 years.
— The UK will spend over £100 billion pound this year on sickness and disability benefits. This is projected to increase to £130 billion a year by 2030.
— No other Western country has seen such a rise in disability claims. In the US, 10.6 million people claim some form of federal disability payment, despite the population being 5x larger.
— 1 in 7 new cars sold in the UK are under the Motability scheme; however, only 10% of cars are modified for a disability. In one dealership, 25 out of 26 cars they sold in August were all under the Motability scheme.
— Charities, consultants, YouTubers and TikTokers have all sprung up, telling people how to maximise benefit access. Some of these videos receive hundreds of thousands of views. Over 1,000 people a day are signing on for PIP.
— According to a Government survey from 2024, 25% of the UK's working age population could theoretically be classed as disabled under the current criteria and access these benefits.
— A minimum wage worker who works 40 hours per week would take home around £1,880 per month after tax; however, if you are classed as too sick to work and claim PIP, you can take home £2,000 tax free per month.
wsj.com/world/uk/united-king…
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Again, hard to see any outcome other than a Le Pen blowout here.
The right polling at 53% in the first round and Melenchon the likely opponent in round two.
65-70% Le Pen vote share in round two on these numbers.
Poll for the first round of the presidential election :
M. Le Pen (RN) : 36%
J-L. Mélenchon (LFI) : 18%
G. Attal (RE) : 12%
R. Glucksmann (PP-PS) : 11%
B. Retailleau (LR) : 10%
É. Zemmour (REC) : 5%
M. Tondelier (ÉCO) : 3%
F. Roussel (PCF) : 2%
N. Dupont-Aignan (DLF) : 2%
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I genuinely think most people still have no idea just how *insane* WW2 was in every way, it remains the absolute apex of human society’s ability to intersect the industrial with the military to produce an absolute war machine.
Europe in WW2 was a completely militarised society.
European Production in WW2:
Aircraft: ~480,000 (+31,000 lend lease)
Tanks and SPGs: ~265,000 (+27,000 lend lease)
Artillery: 825,000+
Trucks: 3,000,000+ (incl. 600k lend lease)
Naval Vessels: ~40,000 (about 50/50 naval and merchant marine)
Total Mobilised Personnel: ~80 million men
There are not enough smart munitions or factories on earth in 2026 to produce enough that could defeat a combined and united force like that which manages to drag you into a long war, much less in Africa alone.
This is genuinely an interesting question, and it’s much closer than people on either side of the debate think, but Africa simply does not have the ability to self sustain in conflict beyond the early engagements (which they would easily win - it’s undeniable their comms, cutting edge tech and battle space knowledge would be levels beyond Europe of 1939) in the first weeks of such a war.
It doesn’t have the production capacity to sustain its modern armaments, it doesn’t have the organisational ability nor the logistics to bring it all together. It won’t be able to sustain its communications and technological edge for long once it runs out of spare parts and munitions and the Europeans learn and adapt (which they were incredible at). It also doesn’t have the capacity to feed or fuel itself. Those navies would absolutely choke Africa - you are forgetting that 1939 Europe includes the Soviet Union, the British Empire AND the French and Dutch Empires, between those four they can cutoff pretty much all trade globally.
Once the technological gap is reduced, infact, even when it’s not (look at conflicts in Africa *right now*) European formations will be able to do incredible damage to African formations in the field, even with large parts of their militaries consisting of bolt action rifles and horse drawn logistics.
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European Production in WW2:
Aircraft: ~480,000 (+31,000 lend lease)
Tanks and SPGs: ~265,000 (+27,000 lend lease)
Artillery: 825,000+
Trucks: 3,000,000+ (incl. 600k lend lease)
Naval Vessels: ~40,000 (about 50/50 naval and merchant marine)
Total Mobilised Personnel: ~80 million men
There are not enough smart munitions or factories on earth in 2026 to produce enough that could defeat a combined and united force like that which manages to drag you into a long war, much less in Africa alone.
This is genuinely an interesting question, and it’s much closer than people on either side of the debate think, but Africa simply does not have the ability to self sustain in conflict beyond the early engagements (which they would easily win - it’s undeniable their comms, cutting edge tech and battle space knowledge would be levels beyond Europe of 1939) in the first weeks of such a war.
It doesn’t have the production capacity to sustain its modern armaments, it doesn’t have the organisational ability nor the logistics to bring it all together. It won’t be able to sustain its communications and technological edge for long once it runs out of spare parts and munitions and the Europeans learn and adapt (which they were incredible at). It also doesn’t have the capacity to feed or fuel itself. Those navies would absolutely choke Africa - you are forgetting that 1939 Europe includes the Soviet Union, the British Empire AND the French and Dutch Empires, between those four they can cutoff pretty much all trade globally.
Once the technological gap is reduced, infact, even when it’s not (look at conflicts in Africa *right now*) European formations will be able to do incredible damage to African formations in the field, even with large parts of their militaries consisting of bolt action rifles and horse drawn logistics.
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