Let's Get Political!

[Bob's Orange]

This is in danger of getting messy quickly. One of the sanctions mooted is to ban Russian from using Swift, but some European countries are against it. The Latvian deputy PM was asked which countries were digging in and he said he wouldn't name them, after listing Germany, Italy and Cyprus as 3.

[Nemo]

This is in danger of getting messy quickly. One of the sanctions mooted is to ban Russian from using Swift, but some European countries are against it. The Latvian deputy PM was asked which countries were digging in and he said he wouldn't name them, after listing Germany, Italy and Cyprus as 3.

It's pure self-interest, every country wants to hit Russia as hard as possible without hurting their own country. Same reason oligarch-owned property is seemingly untouchable here. Pretty grim really.

[Bob's Orange]

It's pure self-interest, every country wants to hit Russia as hard as possible without hurting their own country. Same reason oligarch-owned property is seemingly untouchable here. Pretty grim really.

Yeah I totally understand the reasoning, it's a pure clusterfuck.

I see the Champions league final has been moved to Paris. In other vaguely related news I also saw that Kerry Katona on loose women sent a message to Putin, I am sure these little things are helpful in their own way!

[Wobbly Bob]

From a sporting point of view UEFA are in a tricky position if they persist with the Gazprom sponsorship.
Would love to be a fly on the wall for the upcoming executive committee meetings with the chief exec of Gazprom being on the board as well.

The Russian national team should probably be turfed out of the WC play offs.
I'm sure that Gianni Infantino, recipient of the Russian Order of Friendship from Putin himself is on the case.

[RobertT]

I know there would be some immediate financial hardship, but I really do not understand why it is not a simple equation.  Shut the fuckers out of everything, now.  If they won't adhere to International Law, then play hardball.  Don't just freeze assets, seize them.  Every sport should have Russian teams excluded with immediate effect and cancel any sponsorship deals - most will have paid for the current year period - let them try suing for loss of advertising, simply sanction ALL Russian companies so they can't.

It's that or a mess in Ukraine.

If we won't do the former, then we should probably just turn the TV off and accept the latter.

[Moss]

.

[horlock07]

I also saw that Kerry Katona on loose women sent a message to Putin

Her words carry considerably less weight since she removed her atomic capability.

[Bob's Orange]

Her words carry considerably less weight since she removed her atomic capability.

 

[normy]

I know there would be some immediate financial hardship, but I really do not understand why it is not a simple equation.  Shut the fuckers out of everything, now.  If they won't adhere to International Law, then play hardball.  Don't just freeze assets, seize them.  Every sport should have Russian teams excluded with immediate effect and cancel any sponsorship deals - most will have paid for the current year period - let them try suing for loss of advertising, simply sanction ALL Russian companies so they can't.

It's that or a mess in Ukraine.

If we won't do the former, then we should probably just turn the TV off and accept the latter.

Agree with all that, but Germany and Italy, at least, are dragging their feet even about SWIFT it seems.

[horlock07]

I know there would be some immediate financial hardship, but I really do not understand why it is not a simple equation.  Shut the fuckers out of everything, now.  If they won't adhere to International Law, then play hardball.  Don't just freeze assets, seize them.  Every sport should have Russian teams excluded with immediate effect and cancel any sponsorship deals - most will have paid for the current year period - let them try suing for loss of advertising, simply sanction ALL Russian companies so they can't.

It's that or a mess in Ukraine.

If we won't do the former, then we should probably just turn the TV off and accept the latter.

Agree with all that, albeit if we are going to play hardball re breaking international law its going to make our governments ideas moving forward rather tricky to implement.

[Bob's Orange]

Agree with all that, but Germany and Italy, at least, are dragging their feet even about SWIFT it seems.

There was a guy on the news earlier (Justin Urquhart Steward, some financial bod) that was saying that even if Russia is banned from using SWIFT, there are ways around it - TELEX trading I think he mentioned - He stated there was a better way of going about it but I can't remember exactly what it was, something to do with Dollar conversion or something that all countries use for trades apparently. He said by removing this option, Russia would not be able to Trade at all.

[Batch]

Nice to see Kevin Foster support the Ukrainians wishing to flee murder.

Not much fruit around in February mind

[horlock07]

 You quite honestly couldn't make this stuff up.... https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1498270373565157378.html

[Nemo]

Blessedly quiet in here for a while, thought I'd ruin that.

Spring statement today, headlines being 5p off fuel duty (what are the chances of that actually being reflected at the pump?) and raising the NI threshold to match the income tax one.

Seems to be good news for people earning low but liveable wages, but not much in the way of support for anyone who isn't working. Bearing in mind the NI rate is going up too, apparently this means less NI for anyone on under £35k or so. Presumably also helps anyone earning above the NI upper earnings limit, as I don't think he raised that at the same time.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

5p off fuel is a bit tight. The government here are giving everyone (with an income of less than €30,000) 60 free litres of fuel a month - equal to 22c off a litre.