Mediterranean cruise P&O 4- 18 Sept 2022

Well, that’s me on my travels again and this time I am taking a P&O cruise around a section of the Mediterranean, taking in La Coruna, Valencia, Toulon, Barcelona and Seville (Cadiz).

My trip started on Saturday with a 2 AM rise to get into the centre of Dundee to catch the Xplore airport bus to Edinburgh airport. Great service which drops you at the departure door of the airport. We now have two services to Edinburgh Airport, the other being Ember A relatively new company started by a couple of young guys who had this innovative idea a few years back of operating fully electric busses initially on a route from Dundee to Edinburgh and have now added a Glasgow route to with others to follow.

We as a company work very closely with Ember and our connection started a few years ago just before Covid hit. We at the time ran a coach company and a vehicle repair company and were approached by these guys who had, at that time, just an idea, to start and operate these electric buses. They were looking for a company to service and repair these electric buses and we agreed to assist them. Unfortunately, Covid came on the scene and this prevented the start of their venture. However as soon as covid started to recede they were back with a plan and we gave them a section of our yard space, along with office accommodation, and off they went. They now have 8 vehicles and have two routes up and going, Edinburgh and Glasgow and operate a very strict maintenance regime. Best of luck to them.

 I digress, so an early trip through to the airport followed by a two-hour delay in my Loganair flight to Southampton, the explanation of which was strange, to say the least. An announcement informed passengers that adverse weather conditions causing a wet runway in Southampton was the cause of the delay, which was complete nonsense as a quick reference to Google showed that, there was a chance of light showers and a wind speed of 10 miles per hour. I feel that this was expectation management and building in a weather excuse in case the delay exceeded the 3-hour mark which would have kicked in the compensation trigger. When the flight arrived in Southampton the runway was bone dry.

Airports are so unreliable at the moment that I decided to go to Southampton a day early. However, Southampton not being exactly the Las Vegas of the south can be quite a boring place to spend an overnight. What I did notice however is that prices were very high. No doubt a combination of expected increases in fuel and power occasioned by sanctions imposed on Russia together with the effects of Brexit on supply chains.

Sunday, and some time to kill before boarding and a chance to wander around the quite extensive parkland in the centre of Southampton, watching the squirrels and rats frolic in the Sun. Yes, rats, I saw more rats than Squirrels.  

Then on to the ship which is the P&O Britania. P&O is not my favourite line, but I think I have been with them three times when they were either offering a very good deal or when a particular cruise worked in with my travel plans and this was one of these occasions as the cruise I had planned had been cancelled at the last moment because of mechanical problems. The cruise I was to have taken was a Fred Olson one from Rosyth which is only 50 miles from Dundee and the reason for that one was that I have recently had a wee operation and was convalescing ( no lifting). Rosyth meant I could be taken there, and my case deposited at the drop, with no airports to navigate with luggage. However, as Robert Burns would say, “ the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley” so in order to sort the luggage problem I arranged for a courier to collect it from the house and deliver it to the ship.

So onboard the ship and no luggage at the door of the cabin and as time went on, I began to have concerns that it had not reached the ship. Anyway, to cut a long story short it did arrive eventually at 11 PM that night. Thank goodness as I was not looking forward to 14 days without luggage.

So, Britania, and a very British ship, which means the food is awful and the general organization quickly turns into disorganisation. I have also found in the past that some passengers seem to think they are in a bubble where everyone has the same prejudices as them. Now they aren’t, and the vast majority of English people you meet on one of these cruises are perfectly amenable people, there are a few who spoil it though and the last time I was on a P&O ship, some of the comments concerning asylum seekers in the English Channel, and people from the EU who have settled here, were just awful. However, up to now ( and this is day 5) I have not seen much of that kind of behaviour. Mind you, the reason for that could be because most of this prejudice seems to come out at dinner tables. Because of the chaotic booking system, I have not been able to get a table in one of the restaurants yet and have ended up eating at the buffet which is of a level commensurate with a works canteen.

There are a lot of days at sea on this trip, and up to now, we have docked at only one port La Coruna which was on Tuesday. A lovely town with lots of narrow streets, a good many of them pedestrianized. There are a couple of nice beaches on the far side of the town. A 40-minute walk will take you to the Torre de Hercules which is the oldest still-functioning lighthouse in Europe.  La Coruna is also where the Spanish Armada left Spain to sail to England. The true story of the Spanish armada is a tale worth telling as it is an example of even back then in the sixteenth century that propaganda was rife. However, that is a story for a day when I am utterly bored and have nothing to do.

I have just heard that there seems to be an issue with the Queen’s health. Now I am in no way a royalist and believe that in this day and age, when no one except for the severely mentally challenged, believes that monarchs are chosen by God. I would not take any satisfaction over an old woman arriving at the end of her life. However, monarchs are way out of date and belong back in the dark ages. It is therefore time for the countries of the British Isles to grow up and put the monarchy where it belongs and that is in museums. Or perhaps another way which I suggested many years ago would be to privatize them whereby the public could buy into them.

However, if the queen has come to the end of her life I am not looking forward to the atmosphere on this ship, the quintessence of Britishness, as it will be like sailing in a morgue, but good luck to the old lady.

So, we head up the coast of Spain with the next port being  Valencia which I am looking forward to visiting.

Have a good day folks

Wednesday 24 August 2022

Instruction to Nicola Sturgeon on how to start a power supply company

In 2017 Nicola Sturgeon promised the people of Scotland, a public, not-for-profit. power supply company.

She did not fulfil that promise and today people are facing destitution and having the choice of either eating or heating, or worse still, neither.

Nicola Sturgeon, in an interview the other day stated that the reason she did not fulfil that promise was, because her time was taken up with the covid epidemic, Something that relatives of the elderly who died because her government seeded care homes with infected patients, might very well take issue with, regarding the care she showed in connection with this terrible misjudgement.

However, like many things that Nicola Sturgeon has said, I found this excuse very suspect, and decided to find out exactly what is involved in setting up a company to re-sell energy on the open market.

Firstly, you set up a company. This would take around 10 minutes as a ready-made company could be bought for around £150.

Next, an application has to be made to Ofgem and for Nicola’s benefit, I attach a link to the application forms.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2019/06/gas_licence_application_form_2019.docx

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2019/06/electricity_licence_application_form_2019.docx

These are the forms for both Gas and electricity and filling both of them in would take a reasonably competent person about a couple of hours. For argument’s sake, let’s say a mornings work to form the company and fill in the application forms

So Nicola, what do you think you are playing at? There is absolutely no reason why you could not have had this not-for-profit energy company up and going with less than a day’s work from one of the legions of civil servants at your disposal, let’s say, perhaps, Leslie Evens, if she could be spared from the Alex Salmond case for a few hours.

Now, this is bad enough but had you fulfilled your promise you could have bought future allocations of both gas and electricity at the prices they were in 2017.

Only one fly in the ointment, and that is that the applicant has to be of good and honest standing and solvent, but I am sure that situation could be addressed by not mentioning the SNP accounts or the Alex Salmond conspiracy.

To call herself a leader is probably an offence under the trades description act.

As far as independence goes, I really despair, and, unless that woman and her close cabal goes’, we have no chance.

                         

Well, another week in and a chance to relax with a nice pint in Mennies and look at the week gone by, and by all accounts a pretty notable week.

                                        Russia and Ukraine

The war in Ukraine continues and the propaganda coming from the west becomes shriller and more unreliable by the day.

Remember all the gains Ukraine were making, according to organizations like the BBC? Any idea what happened to them, as Russia, is now further into Ukraine than ever and as far as I can ascertain there have been no notable victories by the Ukraine forces. You are being fed absolute nonsense by western media and that is an indisputable fact.

So here is a prediction. There are constant reports of a Ukrainian counter-offensive to re-take Kherson, in fact, the Ukrainian government have been offering the Russian defenders’ terms for surrender. I predict that this will be yet another disaster for Ukraine and the US/UK commanders who are running this proxy war against Russia. I will give it about a couple of weeks to unravel.

All through this awful war, it has been the US and their NATO poodles who have been both the instigators and cause of this unnecessary conflict. If you have any doubts about this then just google “US bases surrounding Russia” and your eyes will be opened. While you are at it you can also try “ Russian basses surrounding the US”. Guess what? You won’t find any. Just as you won’t find any Chinese bases either, but that is a different subject, although on the same theme.

Russia was backed into a corner with NATO about to admit Ukraine ( a fascist-run state) whereby there could have been US nuclear weapons based on Russia’s borders with a flight time of 7.5 minutes from Moscow.

Let’s put forward an analogy here. Supposing Scotland became an independent country again, and felt threatened by England, Now suppose we were friendly and traded with that other country with vast resources, Russia. Now just suppose we decided to join a mutual defence pact, with Russia and allowed them to base nuclear weapons from just north of Berwick to Gretna Green. What do you think England’s reaction would be? Well, that is precisely why Puttin decided to sort out Ukraine. Well, that and the fact that the two Russian-speaking regions in the Donbas region had declared independence.

What about all the atrocities you might ask? Well yes in war there are always atrocities, ask the US as they have been responsible for over six million deaths in the countries, they have attempted regime change, from Vietnam to Syria. In situations of war, men do strange things but, in this case, the Russian atrocities you have been hearing about on the BBC have in the main just not happened. However, on the Ukrainian side, they most certainly have. Just ask Amnesty international. That is the organization, by the way, that Zelensky wants to be declared, a terrorist organization for exposing a small amount of the very large amount of atrocities committed by his army and in particular the Nazi Azov battalion. A good proportion of that battalion was captured in the battle of Mariupol and because they were seen to be cooperating with the Russian authorities and writing home that they were, in fact, being treated well, Zelensky decided to bomb their prison camp, killing 53 of them and injuring another 70.

So, the moral of the story is don’t believe everything you are hearing in western media.

In a nutshell, Putin is no doubt any Angel ( I don’t think they employ many angels in the KGB, CIA, or MI6) but he is a leader and a better one than Johnston, who is basically a childish idiot, or Biden who is on the point of not being able to remember his name.

This conflict has shown us the importance of Russia ( and Ukraine) in both the food and energy supply for Europe and most of the planet. Thereby is the reason why the West has tried to force regime change.

Britain did this during the days of the British Empire. They had the East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company. These were supposedly private companies but were set up to extract resources from conquered countries backed up by the British military. Another good example of this was Jardine and Matheson ( two Scots) who set up a company dealing on opium in China ( just like the US in Afghanistan) The Chinese Government were not happy about this so Britain sent gunboats up the river Yangtze ( and other rivers. Did you ever wonder where the phrase “ gunboat diplomacy” came from? Long story but this culminated in Britain extracting a 99-year lease of Hong Kong from China ( which expired a few years ago.

So, the US is doing no different in their economic empire building but I feel that for once they have met their match in Putin.

Right, I had intended to write about the disaster to the independence movement in Scotland that Nicola Sturgeon is, and the clown show that is the leadership contest for the tory party is but I kind of got carried away with the disaster that the west has visited upon Ukraine and time for a pint.

So, to all my friends the world over, I wish you a great weekend and raise my glass to you.

Slainte    

Saturday 23 July 2022

Another week in and a busy one at that. Found my way down to Mennies for a refreshment.

Looking at the week past and the news waves have been dominated by the struggle to choose a leader of the Tory party and indeed a new prim minister of the UK.
We now have two contenders Sunak and Truss. Oh dear oh dear , it is the equivalent of choosing between Laurel and Hardy, but mind you, the membership of the Tory party have plenty experience in this as the last time they chose the clown Johnston and look what a mess he left.

I have a feeling they will choose Truss as it would appear she seems to be getting most of the press, which tells me that the powers behind the scene are behind her.

Now Truss is as thick as two short planks of wood and therein lies the reason for her support. She will be easily manipulated.

Sunak is coloured and therefore has a major handicap in conservative circles.

One of Truss’s masterpieces as foreign secretary was to encourage young men to illegally go and fight in Ukraine against Russia. Some did and were killed. One young man was captured and us now on death row, no apology from Truss.

I read a wonderfully accurate blog today by Peter Young, titled Patriots and Traitors and I post it below with a strong recommendation to read it. I basicly implies what I have been saying from 2015. The SNP have been seriously compromised by the UK intelegence services and that is why we are where we are on the road to independence, absolutely no where. Have read it will open your eyes in a more eloquent manner than I ever could

Elsewhere the war in Ukraine goes on . Russia is winning and freeing more of the independent Donbas area by the day. America is once again loosing in their proxy war. Another attempt at regime change gone wrong. When will they learn.

The other day there was an agreement to allow grain shipments from Ukraine in order to alleviate some of the world wide food shortages brought about by idiotic sanctions on Russia. Today there was a report of a missile attack on a target very close to the port in Odessa which forms part of the agreed corridor for wheat exports. Of course there was the usual condemnation of Russia attacking agreed safe areas. Now I have not heard but I would bet my bottom dollar ( or rubble for that matter) that the target hit was military hardware deliberately hidden in the safe area by the Ukrainian army. That is what they have been doing throughout the war , using civilian infrastructure , sometimes with the civilians still in it, as emplacements and firing points.

Ok so enough of politics for one night and back to the buisness at hand, which is a couple of relaxing pints.

Please have a read of the blog below by a Peter young

https://t.co/HixABoxY4T

                         Sturgeons road map to oblivion. 

I wrote this back in November last year, making the case that it is wrong to campaign for independence as we have never, not been independent but merely a partner in a union. A partnership freely entered on the basis that when the arrangement ceased to be of advantage to us, it could be ended using the same method as was employed when the union was formed.

https://bobsblog.scot/2021/11/27/the-world-this-week-from-mennies-48/

Earlier this week, Nicola sturgeon made a long-awaited announcement regarding the oft-promised referendum.  She set a date of 19th October 2023. Great, this got many people jumping up and down with glee at the “new campaign” Only problem there is that there is no new campaign and one of the reasons for this is that there has been no preparation for a campaign, even though we have had almost 8 years to prepare for one.

There has been no definitive arrangement for what currency we will use even though an SNP conference decided that the proposal of a joint currency for at least 10 years set by the growth commission led by Andrew Wilson, was not to be implemented as SNP policy and in fact that an independent Scotland was to have its own currency at the soonest possible time after normalization of Scotland’s place among independent nations. Quite simply Nicola sturgeon ignored the instruction of the conference.

There are of course numerous other unanswered questions, such as borders and pensions, left after the last referendum, which again seem to have been deliberately ignored by the leadership.

So here we are, totally unprepared, after almost 8 years of doing absolutely nothing and Nicola Sturgeon has now decided that there will be a referendum next year. The big problem with that is the way she has decided to do this because built into her road map is the most onerous set of obstacles one can ever imagine.

First, she persists with this idiotic section 30 route, which briefly is a construct included in the devolution settlement and Scotland act which allows Westminster to block any attempt to hold a referendum or choose to allow a temporary derogation of the act in order to facilitate the holding of a referendum.

Now in order to attempt to implement that derogation you first have to accept the fact that it is necessary in the first place and to do that you have to accept that the devolution settlement was necessary in the first place. Which basically removes the right to withdraw from the union when it is decided that the union no longer benefits Scotland.

When the union was formed, it was basically a trading arrangement between two nations very much like the EU. The difference was that instead of having two parliaments ( one national and one union) both Scotland and England decided to have only one at that time. There was never any intention for Scotland to be subsumed into England.

The way the union was formed was for the representatives of both the English parliament and the Scottish parliament to vote on whether to form the union.  Most of England’s representatives voted to join and a Majority of Scotland’s representatives voted to join. Had either of the parliaments failed to get a majority then there would not have been a union.  It falls, therefore, that this should be the method used to leave the union.

There was never any suggestion that there had to be a majority of the people in the country or a majority of the people who had voted these people into power for the decision to be taken. Not only that but as far as I know, there was not even a specific plebiscitary election held, no, it was taken that the people elected were there to make decisions on behalf of the electorate.

The situation today is different, in as much as, not only is there a vast majority of SNP MPs in Westminster but there are there on the basis of regaining Scotland’s independence, both through election mandates and the constitution of the SNP. Therefore, at any time these MP’s could come back to Scotland and declare that the Union has ceased to be of benefit to Scotland and therefore we are now acting as the independent country we always have been and are withdrawing from the union.

For reasons known only to herself and possibly a few others, perhaps the ones who are really pulling the strings, Nicola Sturgeon has decided not to do this and instead devised a method of allowing every possible obstacle to thwart the objective of attaining an independent status.

She has decided to pursue what she calls the gold standard of section 30. A rout which has attained this mystical gold standard, which only exists in her head, by being used once in the history of the planet and failed horribly in its objective.

It failed because it allowed the host country to actively campaign against it. Something banned under the UN charter of self-determination.

It failed because we allowed non-Scottish peoples to vote in it.

It failed because we did not answer questions related to people’s financial situation and linked our economy to the union we intended to leave.

Now not only is Nicola Sturgeon deliberately pursuing the least likely route to independence, but she is inviting a foreign judiciary to adjudicate its legality. That is the equivalent of the Scottish parliament going to the crown court in England in 1707 to decide whether Scotland had the right to make a decision to join the union in the first place.

Ok, so now let’s look at her backup plan, which is a plebiscitary election. Now firstly this depends on there being a Westminster election at the right time and as I have suggested, arriving at the situation we already have with a majority of Scottish Westminster MPs. or does it? Well, John Swinney seemed to think so shortly after Sturgeon’s announcement last week, that was until she must have had a word in his ear because he very shortly withdrew the suggestion that a simple majority of MP’S was what was required and changed it to a majority of people who had voted.

Sturgeon must have realised that it will be more difficult to attain an outright majority of voters than simply MPs. This goes against the accepted democratic process of first past the post for UK elections and also differs from the way the union came into being in the first place. Obviously, it would be better if we could attain an outright majority of voters but because of various impediments that could be difficult.

So, let’s look at the possible impediments and I fully believe some of these have deliberately been put in place to obstruct the cause of independence.

Well, most people will look beyond any campaign which might eventually be put in place, and it would seem reasonable to expect the first government in an independent Scotland to be an SNP one. So, what will people have to look forward to?

Gender recognition, basically denying that Men are men and allowing them into woman’s safe places thereby installing a huge potential safety issue.

Allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the basic principle of competition to be destroyed.

A dystopian hate crime bill was deliberately put in place to stop concerns regarding Gender recognition law.

A severely incompetent Scottish government regarding their connections with the commercial world IE, Shipbuilding, ferries debacle, rail debacle, Prestwick airport debacle.

Involvement in a conspiracy to jail an innocent man which involved people close to the first minister.

The vindictiveness with which she treated an innocent man and her disregard for a not guilty verdict and the Scottish legal system.

Attempts to dispense with the jury system because it did not accord with the verdict in mind.

The actual jailing of a journalist for accurately reporting a court case relating to the conspiracy to jail an innocent man.

Covered up Sex scandals involving favoured politicians

Deliberate changing of rules to exclude Joana Cherry from standing in an Edinburgh constituency, thereby allowing favourite, Angus Robertson to stand

Scottish education is a mess.

Scottish NHS is underfunded while giving millions to Ukraine ( one of the most corrupt countries on the planet) for war weapons.

Giving very large amounts of taxpayer’s money to organizations like Stonewall.

Sexualizing children’s teaching in schools with virtual grooming and normalising unnatural and dangerous sexual practices.

The mishandling of the covid crisis and moving infected elderly patients into care homes without testing thereby seeding care homes with deadly covid causing thousands of needless deaths.

Missing £600K in supposedly ring-fenced funds donated to a campaign which never happened.

Abject failure in grasping God-sent persistent opportunities to go for independence, as in. Brexit, Scotland act debate, early proroguing of parliament etc.

A leader who deliberately mislead parliament and then when investigated couldn’t remember details over 50 times.

I could go on, but the point I wish to make is that whether through deliberate actions or simply unbridled incompetence Sturgeon has formulated a cesspit of horror for people to consider during the voting process, and this is going to make it extremely difficult for people to vote for her and thereby achieve our objective through the chosen avenues with Sturgeon still in charge.

There are other much safer avenues such as the re-convening of the estates and a Scottish convention, but sturgeon has chosen this as it is the riskiest and most dangerous method and the one most likely to end in failure.  

I hope I am wrong with this, but my instincts and my gut feeling is that instead of a road map to independence, this is Sturgeon’s road map to oblivion for the independence movement.           

Friday 10 June 2022

Eventually, Russia Will Be A Member Of The EU

Now you could be forgiven for thinking that the title for this blog is somewhat strange, so let me explain.

Firstly, and as I have mentioned in my last blog on this subject, I am firmly of the opinion that Russia is not the aggressor in this war in Ukraine but in fact, NATO, led by the US. As I see it, Russia has been backed into a corner with the only way to protect its integrity and borders was to preempt any further moves by NATO/US to place nuclear weapons on its border.

Now briefly, what led up to this was concerted efforts by the US/NATO to foment unrest within Ukraine and this goes back to the NATO summit in Bucharest held in 2008 when the Bush administration pushed NATO to announce that both Ukraine and Georgia would become members.

This of course did not go down at all well with Russia, as it was basically the same as when Cuba decided to house Soviet nuclear weapons on America’s doorstep, and we all know what happened then. Yes, the US threatened nuclear war.

To make matters worse, the US involved themselves in their usual regime change tactic by fomenting unrest in Ukraine, resulting in the massacres in Odesa and Maidan Square in Kyiv in 2014, leading to the ousting of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.

This led to the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine declaring independence, and after a referendum, Russia annexing Crimea.

From 2014 until now, a war has raged in Donbas with heavy civilian losses with the Nazi Azov battalion very prominent in the commission of various war crimes and atrocities.  During this time two agreements were made in Minsk which concerned the end of hostilities and autonomy for the two regions within the Donbas area. Ukraine constantly broke these agreements before scrapping the Minsk agreements altogether.

After restraint lasting 8 years, Russia eventually officially recognized both republics within the Donbas and crossed the border into Ukraine to carry out a de-nazifying operation within the country and stabilize the border between Ukraine and the Donbas republics.

This incursion by Russia, although widely predicted by the US and various other countries came as a surprise, or at least the speed of it did and was followed by blind panic and a raft of badly thought-out sanctions imposed without much thought. Now we have Europe in the throes of massive inflation, food shortages and fuel poverty. Yes, the sanctions have actually hurt the west more than Russia, in fact, the Rubble is at present standing at its highest against the dollar than it has for many years.

The ironic thing is that this blind panic to sanction Russia has shown the world just how valuable Russia is, in food production and power in the form of gas and oil. In other words, it has shown what an asset Russia would be to friendly countries or indeed to the EU.

Now I am sure there will be people throwing up their hands in horror and saying things like “ but the Russians are committing horrendous war crimes and just look at the way they are indiscriminately shelling and bombing civilian areas “ The problem is that they are not actually doing that, and we are constantly being fed inaccurate and untruthful propaganda by western media.

It is difficult to find proper unbiased journalistic content in the plethora of misinformation being churned out daily by western media outlets such as the BBC. If you really are interested in the truth, I would direct you to the writings of Eva Karen Bartlett and Graham William Philips. Both are exemplary in the reportage they produce and a credit to the journalistic profession. Eva for her efforts to bring out the truth found herself on a death list of people who the Ukrainian government wished would disappear.

Yes, no doubt there have been civilians killed but not deliberately, at least not by the Russians. What possible good would that do them and the same for destroying infrastructure that they will no doubt have to re-build after the war? Eva Bartlet gives the example of talking to a Russian commander and asking him why it seems to be taking a long time to secure the towns in the Donbas. He tells her that the Ukrainian army is using civilian buildings as firing points and also keeping the civilians in them as human shields, making it very difficult to progress without causing large amounts of civilian deaths. This is the reality on the ground.    

Ukraine is on the list as one of the most corrupt countries on the planet just ask Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden the mentally challenged US president. Hunter was paid $50,000 per month from Ukrainian oil company Burisma whilst his father was serving as Obama’s number two.

Zelensky, the present Ukrainian president was noted in the pandora papers as owning over a billion dollars in London property and has dealings through close associates in numbered accounts in Swiss banks.

So, to get back to my original point. Once this is over and I have a feeling it will end with the Donbas area firmly in the hands of its own, mainly Russian-speaking people and a corridor along the black sea coast to Crimea. Once people realise that they have been fed unadulterated nonsense and propaganda and that Putin was perhaps after all doing what a leader should do and protecting his borders. Perhaps when they realise that Russia can make a good friend but a bad enemy. Perhaps when the countries of NATO see how they have been used once again and have paid the price of unfettered loyalty to the US, then common sense will prevail, and Russia will be taken into the family of nations and become part of the EU making by far the largest trading block on the planet.

I would ask you to look at the leaders we have, Johnston, Biden, Zelensky, Sturgeon and the rest. What a choice we have, it’s more like the lineup of circus acts.

If I was to make a choice of a leader who would stand up for my country, I know who I would choose, and it wouldn’t be any of that lot of incompetent poodles.

Thursday 12 May 2022
UKRAINE

Been some time since I wrote a “The World This Week From Mennies” blog and there are various reasons for this . Mainly because I have been very busy at work but also because I have been totally dismayed and disappointed in what is going on in Scottish politics, and indeed world politics.

As for world politics, the main issue at present is Ukraine and dipping one’s tow into that toxic pond is to say the least a risk. However, because of the flood of misinformation emanating from media outlets like the BBC, ITV, and Skye, I decided to look at the big picture and offer a few suggestions as to the roots and causes of this conflict , without making any pretense as to being an expert on the situation, but offering a reasonably informed and researched common sense point of view.

So, let’s start with basics . This war ( or as Russia calls it, “special operation”) was avoidable. On Russia’s side it could have been avoided by acquiescing to America’s will and simply allowing NATO led by the US to continually move east ( despite previous agreements ) by recruiting new members of NATO, and thereby positioning nuclear weapons ever nearer Russia’s border. If Ukraine had become a member there could have been nuclear weapons based there that would have been within 7.5 minutes delivery to Moscow. Russia could also have stopped supporting the two, mainly Russian speaking countries in the Donbas area who had declared independence in 2014, Donetsk and Luhansk.

As for NATO, or let’s not beat about the bush,the US, they could have prevented this conflict by making it plain that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO and they would support a special consideration in connection with the two breakaway regions in Donbas, again, as per previous agreements.

These agreements were made as far back as when the breakup of the Soviet Union was in progress and initially, they were made during discussions between Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton. These discussions were never transmitted into a formal treaty but were probably made at a time when world leaders could reach agreements that were expected to be upheld.

In 1993 there was an agreement termed the Budapest protocol in which Russia the US, Belarus ,Kazakhstan and Ukraine received assurances regarding security, but these assurances were tied to removal of nuclear weapons from each countries soil and also depended for implementation of an attack on each of these countries by nuclear weapons.

In 2014 there were various protests in Kiev and various other Ukrainian cities including Odessa. There were  strong suspicions that the US, CIA had a hand in them, It is a well-known CIA  tactic when manipulating regime change. This was called the Maidan protests or Euromaidan after the square in which most of the protests took place.  In Odessa the protests turned to civil unrest and resulted in a counter Maidan group being trapped in the trade union building which was set on fire by protesters who had been infiltrated by ultra-nationalists.

As a result of these  CIA sponsored protests the government stood down and was replaced by a pro-western ultra nationalist government, as a result of this the two states, Donetsk and Lugansk declared their independence.

As a result of the two states declaration of independence, Ukraine attempted to subdue both states by force, using ,in the main the Azov battalion who were originally a territorial regiment but were subsumed into the regular Ukrainian Army.

 Azov follow ultra-Nazi ideology and were responsible for many war crimes, including the shelling of civilian areas  in their attempts to retake the two breakaway provinces. Russia supported the two breakaway states.

In late 2014 a series of talks took place in Minsk, the outcome of which agreed on border security for Ukraine and also complete autonomy for the Donbas area. Ukraine never really stood by these agreements and in 2018 formally withdrew from them and sought membership of NATO.

This put Russia in the position of having no other option but to move to remove the threat that Ukraine and the west, were in the process of bringing to their border.

Make no mistake about this, this is a proxy war between the US and Russia fought in Ukraine. It is a war that the US will fight to the last Ukrainian. It is yet another war of the US to facilitate regime change, just as they did in Vietnam, Libya, Syria, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, bay of pigs( Cuba) Grenada, Panama, Iraq, etc, etc, etc. In doing so they have killed over 6 million innocent civilians and used chemical weapons with gay abandon ,in for example Vietnam ( agent orange). They are the only country to have used nuclear weapons, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Russia is not the cause of this human tragedy, no it is NATO, backed and led by the US. Putin is no doubt no Angel, but he is in my estimation doing what a leader should do, he is protecting the borders of his country against an aggressor, NATO.
Make your own mind up who is the aggressor from this map showing American bases surrounding Russia

Wednesday 11 May 2022

Naples and Civitaveccia

Day 4 in my sojourn to southern sunny climes and yesterday I was in Naples. The name Naples means, New City. It is the third-largest city in Italy after Rome and Milan.
Naples is the centre for visiting places like Sorento, The isle of Capri and of course Pompei. I remember a few years back taking a private tour down the Amalfi coast to Sorento and then on to Pompei. Wonderful day and a bonus was, that the guy who was driving the car was a coach driver and had been to Scotland many times so we had something in common and it made for interesting discussions.

When in Naples, it is obligatory to eat pizza as that is one of the things Naples is famous for, and rightly so, as it is wonderful. I of course, as always, conformed to custom and stopped at a streetside restaurant to indulge, a streetside Restaurant that I have frequented in the past when visiting with a special friend on a previous cruise.

One thing Naples is also famous for is the traffic which is horrendous and traffic regulations are obviously optional. This is shown in drivers’ attitudes to pedestrian crossings. What we in the civilized world call Zebra crossings. Now, I have no idea how a Zebra would get on crossing one of these roads but as far as humans are concerned it is extremely dangerous and whereas in the UK a pedestrian has right of way, in Italy crossing a pedestrian crossing is the Italian version of hunger games and a means by which the Italian government control population. In short, a pedestrian crossing is a government-sanctioned kill zone, so beware!

After a pleasant although dangerous day in Naples, back to the ship, dinner then a short visit to the disco before bed.

Today we are in Civitavecchia another name for the ancient town, a much more serene and safer town than Naples and a pleasure to have a quiet time sitting with a cappuccino and watching the world go by.

Now you might be wondering as to the relevance of the photo above. Well, there is a story to this, and it goes back several years to one of my previous visits to Civitavecchia.

I was having a wander through the back streets as I am want to do on these trips and I came across this very place which is, or at least was at that time a garage. Now at that time, there was a rather large guy at work on a car and deeply engrossed in some problem under the bonnet. Now this fellow was of ample proportions and was obviously wearing a pair of ill-fitting trousers. This meant that as he was bending over the front of the car his trousers were somewhat revealing giving an opportunity for the photo of a lifetime.

Now it was rather difficult to discern whether what I was witnessing was a view of anatomy or a view of a contraption for parking a bicycle. Anyway, I decided to take a photo in the spirit of a bit of tongue in cheek humour.

Now the appliance I had at that time was a tablet and it was not a straightforward process to take photos with, so whilst trying to get this tablet set to take a photo. One of the two guys who were with the large mechanic looked over and realized what I was about to do and seemed to mention it to the mechanic.

Well, it would appear that the mechanic had an acute case of humour deficit syndrome, as he exploded into a tirade in some foreign language, quite possibly Italian. Now I do not speak Italian but between his tone, blood vessels on his face and the gesticulations with his hands and arms I did manage to get the impression that he was upset in some way and got the distinct impression that remaining in that vicinity could possibly result in a terminal outcome. I of course responded in the Scottish vernacular and there was quite a standoff.

I had of course pre-assessed the situation and was quite confident that I could have, if I necessary, outran the three of them quite easily, with the mechanics trousers in all probability falling down in the first few yards of the chase, however in the interest of Italia-Scotia relations and my own continuing good health I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew a short distance and around a corner to check to see how the photos had come out, only to find that they had not been taken at all.  

So, today I again found the garage but unfortunately, it was closed up. Perhaps the mechanic has moved to greener pastures and is now a cult figure on some bicycle parking manufacturer website or perhaps he has retired. Whatever he is doing now I wish him well.

Now before anyone asks if I make a habit of going around the world taking photos of men’s rear ends, I can assure you this was in all innocence, and solely in the interest of a twisted sense of humour.

Slainte

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A Nautical Nomad

9 May 2022

I haven’t posted for a while, in fact since my last wee trip to Spain and Portugal, but here I am again on my travels. This time it is from Barcelona going deeper into the Mediterranean sea than the last time, hopefully, the weather will be better and warmer.

So my trip started on Saturday with an overnight in Edinburgh at a guest house called Murry Park “Hotel” for some strange reason. I think it must be the first time I have stayed anywhere without seeing a single member of staff. There was a notice on the door with a phone number to contact, which I did and received instructions on the code to open the door whereby I found the key to my room in a bowl on the dresser. Oh well, a sign of the times I suppose.
So once settled in I headed to a nearby hotel for a meal and a couple of pints to set off the trip.

Sunday started at 03.00 with a walk to a nearby bus stop to catch the airport bus. Bang on time and a short trip along Cortsorfin Rd to the Airport. now I had heard that there were serious problems at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam where I had to change flights, so I was somewhat apprehensive regarding getting to the ship on time. However, although there was indeed a very long line at the passport control in Schiphol I managed to get through that and get to the gate in plenty of time. To all Brexiteers reading this, the line waiting on clearing non-EU passports took 40 minutes. The line for those with EU passports took 5 to 10 minutes. I don’t think there has ever been such a blatant exercise in self-harm in the history of the planet.

in the event, I arrived at Barcelona Airport about half an hour later than I would have, so not too bad at all. It has been some time since I sailed on the Epic, a very large ship and at one time one of the largest in the world. It takes around 4.5 thousand passengers, but these days some of the royal Caribbean ships take 6.5 thousand passengers, virtual floating cities. So boarded the ship around 15.00 and settled into the cabin which is a studio cabin. Pretty compact( small)



in the event, I arrived at Barcelona Airport about half an hour later than I would have, so not too bad at all. It has been some time since I sailed on the Epic, a very large ship and at one time one of the largest in the world. It takes around 4.5 thousand passengers, but these days some of the royal Caribbean ships take 6.5 thousand passengers, virtual floating cities. So boarded the ship around 15.00 and settled into the cabin which is a studio cabin. Pretty compact( small) but sufficient. unpacking did not take long as before I came I have repacked into a carry on suitcase as I had heard that one of the problems at Schiphol was the luggage and I did not want to get to the ship without my luggage. The last time I lost luggage was a number of years ago whilst cruising on the Concordia, yes the one that sank, nothing to do with me, as I was on it exactly a year before it sank and incidentally it was the only cruise ship I have been to that I did not get an emergency drill. So A few photos of the ship.

I had dinner at the buffet as it was an easy option and the choice of food was not bad. Then the obligatory tour of the bars and entertainment venues, one of which is the Cavern, dedicated to the Beatles, having a very acceptable Beatles tribute band.

It had been a long day but it was not yet complete without a visit to the disco. Where I showed the youngsters how to dance. After a 23 hour day, I found my bed a very welcome place to be.

Today we landed on Corsica which is a French island. Beautiful place and the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. I had a very leisurely wander around the town with of course the obligatory stop for a cappuccino, bliss. mA few photos of the town.

So to tonight, the ship has just left the pier and heading to Italy. Dinner then perhaps some Beatles music. Then possibly the disco. It has been a pleasant day.