Oh the weather outside
still sunny,
Not a cloud in the sky again.
It blows and blows but nothing happens.
It's the old bloody drought again.
Xmas in Valencia.
So the #EU gives in to #Orbán, releases €10 BILLION to Hungary the day before the vote, and Orbán still vetoes aid to #Ukraine.
What the hell is the EU doing?!?
What is stopping it from applying #Art7 of the TEU and suspending #Hungary's membership rights??
🚨🚨Stellar analysis by Tom Pavone on how the EU sold its soul in a Faustian Bargain by releasing funds to autocrat Orban thus both betraying Ukraine and the #ruleoflaw. Appeasement and political corruption is always a bad idea. @verfassungsblog.de verfassungsblog.de/the-eus-faus...
Twelve years into the EU’s rule of law crisis, this week has demonstrated that EU leaders are still unwilling to confront their own complicity in Orbán’s rise and to do something about it. Is thi...
verfassungsblog.de
Either he doesn't give a damn about the image he projects or he's as thick as two short planks.
#CostOfLivingCrisis #ClimateEmergency
Rishi Sunak intervened to ensure VIP helicopter contract was not cancelled
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Prime minister – often criticised over fondness for air travel – asked Grant Shapps to act
www.theguardian.com
Either he doesn't give a damn about the image he projects or he's as thick as two short planks.
#CostOfLivingCrisis #ClimateEmergency
Rishi Sunak intervened to ensure VIP helicopter contract was not cancelled
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Prime minister – often criticised over fondness for air travel – asked Grant Shapps to act
www.theguardian.com
"de nada"? 🤣🤣
Andrew Green KC should not use languages he doesn't know.
“Zilch, zero, nil, de nada, niente, nothing,” Andrew Green KC, the Mirror Group’s barrister, insisted in summing up.
The Observer view on Prince Harry’s court victory over MG Newspapers
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
In his continuing campaign to bring the press to account for phone hacking, the Duke of Sussex may succeed where Leveson’s inquiry failed
www.theguardian.com
#Putin is hateful. So is #Orbán.
The #EU must apply Art 7 to #Hungary. Suspend its membership rights. And save #Ukraine.
www.theguardian.com/world/2023/d...
After almost a decade on the frontline, the city is a wreck, with just 1,200 people left, but it remains of huge symbolic value
www.theguardian.comNever from outside, of course. I rather think the decision should rest... with Cyprus.
Also known as "chunks of another country", either spoils of war or simply stolen. Time to give up empires, dont you think?
Tx.
I didn't know you could abstain in unanimous voting. Thought it implied everybody voting the same thing and nobody allowed to skip it. Like a jury.
My desire for Art7 stands reinforced.
Ok, by consensus. We forgot to specify that everything was to be approved by consensus, and that #Orbán should be taken out of the room before every vote.
What type of decisions require unanimous voting, without abstentions? Just budgets?
Fresh fruit is in early winter is indeed wonderful. Have plenty of mandarins this year. 😋
I don't like military bases in other people's countries... Why don't they close the UK ones in Cyprus and give us all something to celebrate about Brexit? Because they are legacy of empire, nothing to do with NATO, aren't they?
Because we need nearly everything to be approved by unanimity, and forgot to add an EXPULSION clause in the Treaty. 😡
Bring on Art. 7 and remove membership rights from #Hungary.
Stop #Orbán screwing the EU. Enough is enough.
Hungary blocks EU budget proposal, including extra cash for Ukraine www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...
Following the first day of the European Council meeting, President Michel made the following statement on the MFF revision:
www.consilium.europa.euI do know it. I never joined FB and hated it/him when he bought Whatsapp. He's as disgusting as the Twitter killer.
I do know it. I never joined FB and hated it/him when he bought Whatsapp. Same disgusting as the Twitter killer.
Yuk, Sophie, yuk.
Tea is herby water you give to sick people (and usually makes them iller). 🧐
I used to love open air cinemas in summer when I was a young, but can't suffer the tiger mozzies now.
Didn't know we had to take our own seats now. 😁
Shall we ask Russia to invade Alaska, for instance? It was theirs once after all.
Let them bomb it for a year, and then gladly ask Alaska to negotiate to be Russian again.
#Austria
I read that #Vienna was one of the happiest places to live.
To be happy under their horrid govt, you need to be a Stepford-wife type of human, don't you?
How can #Austria and #Czechia vote AGAINST a ceasefire in #Gaza??
More than 18,000 murdered, 70% women & children. Unknown number buried under the rubble. No water, electricity, food, shelter. No hospitals.
Same as #USA, incapable of recognizing a #GENOCIDE?
www.theguardian.com/world/2023/d...
Vote highlights a stiffening consensus for a ceasefire in the war, which has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians
www.theguardian.comAt this rate the Tories'll lose their majority without even an election...
Communism is nothing compared to the horror of clothes, any clothes, without pockets. 🧐
“We hoped this wouldn’t happen but we knew there was always the possibility it would. For me it’s confirmation of the scale of the inhumanity that this govt is inflicting on vulnerable people. It’s intolerable.”
Portland responds to #BibbyStockholm death
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023...
Steady trickle of Dorset residents stop to leave a card or flowers and pay their respects
www.theguardian.com
#Cop28, a cop-out.
As expected from a petrostate host, like the #UAE. The unmitigated disaster we all feared. To call that deal "significant progress" is an insult.
"Transitioning" doesn't forbid the continuous extraction of #fossilfuels.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
It may seem incredible, but it has taken 30 years of summits to come up with an agreement on the future of fossil fuels
www.theguardian.com
#Poland's rescued itself.
If #Hungary doesn't do the same and eject Orbán, the #EU must suspend Hungary's membership rights by applying Art.7 of the Treaty.
War or peace? Dictatorship or democracy? Europe’s future is on the line
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
At the European Council, liberalism and populism will lock horns. Whichever side prevails could decide the course for years to come, says Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash
www.theguardian.comThat's exactly what happens after watching it. It haunts you. Superb, superb film.
Valencia (Spain, not Venezuela). Left London in 2016.
Austria I know quite well. Beautiful country with yuk politics.
I'm going to look that German trip up. Tx
Norway I love! We stayed three days in Bergen before taking the Hurtigruten and it didn't rain! Must have been their longest ever!
I think Germany is my least well known country in the EU and I've been to all. Just Berlin and Freiburg. I look forward to your report, and to Jon suggesting a beautiful itinerary. By train, of course.
Slovenia is VERY lovely. The mountains, the lakes, the forests and the coast (just 40kms of coast!). Definitely worth it. Go in Autumn. Beautiful colour and mushroom soup in bread!
Bit of comfort, yes. 😅
Probably probably have Spanish roots! A big Sephardic community from the 16thC expulsion still live in Thessaloniki.
That was quite a trip! Yugoslavia... wanted so much to go there. At the end, I did go and even lived in Slovenia for a few years but after the awful war. I wasn't the only one missing Yugoslavia, believe me.
It's not the travelling. It's the means of transport that are more or less "agreeable" the older you are. Buses, particularly, for me. You don't go by bus to Australia. 😄