An excellent speech, whose brevity merely adds to its force.
The nonsense about Russia is unfathomably foolish, and makes me deeply ashamed of being British. Having to learn Russian, for example. Even if Germany had conquered Britain (see, for example, Len Deighton's novel "SS-GB") there would have been no attempt to make British people speak German. There are advantages to an occupying power in speaking a language that the locals do not understand.
Whereas Russia has never attacked either Britain or the USA - on the contrary, fighting alongside them in several major wars - Britain and the USA have attacked Russia several times, invaded it, and killed hundreds of thousands of Russians in the Crimean War and after WW1. In the 1950s the US government had detailed plans for a preemptive nuclear attack on the USSR and China, which - mercifully - President Eisenhower vetoed. And since 2014 at the latest, both the UK and the USA have conducted active military operations against Russia in and around Ukraine, including drone strikes against civilian and military targets deep inside Russia. By all usual criteria, the UK and the USA have been at war against Russia since 2022, if not before.
The main reason for dismissing all talk of a Russian threat is that neither ordinary Russians nor their government believe that the UK matters. It is like an annoying buzzing insect that is best avoided. The only conceivable reason that Russia might have for attacking the UK is the latter's possession of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. (Unlike Russia, neither the UK nor the USA has disposed of its chemical weapons, and both are actively working on biological weapons. In Ukraine, for instance). If nuclear weapons are launched against Russia by the UK, Russia would have to retaliate. And half a dozen Sarmats (for instance) would suffice to render the UK largely unihabitable. It would take less than an hour.
I am Scots, with a little Irish from a grandfather who was born in Tipperaray (on April 1st!) However his parents came from Northern Ireland, an area previously colonised by Scots. So I'm not sure about the Irishness.
The Scots are famous for stubbornness and sticking up for what we think is right, regardless of what others say or do. It may have something to do with the tradition of Calvinism, but I think it has always been there.
And the Irish are famous for being insubordinate, contrary, self-willed, and generally disruptive. One of my favourite jokes is that every time an Irish person moves to England, the average IQs of both countries rise. We like to say that it's fine to tell it in the presence of English people, as they wouldn't understand.
Scots-Irish people had a lot to do with the American Revolution, and many of them fought for the Confederacy.
"Scots steel tempered wi' Irish fire,
Is the weapon that I desire".
- Hugh MacDiarmid
Both the Irish and the Scots are irritated by stupidity, especially when flaunted in public.
Hence, although I have absolutely no personal connection with Russia, I sympathise with the Russians whom I see as unfairly attacked and slandered. And I have absolutely no sympathy with Western "leaders" (ringleaders) whose disgusting dishonesty and stupidity are shoved in our faces every day.
Simply put, I am in favour of honesty, decency, and truth as against their opposites. Do you disagree?
'...our communications networks are being hacked; our social media is flooded with disinformation; our free elections are targeted; our undersea cables are cut; our military bases are buzzed by drones; our infrastructure has been sabotaged; assassinations have been carried out on British soil; financial and media companies are regularly blacked out; and bombs have been placed on cargo flights’.
And that's just what the Americans have been doing.
I think that there is nothing in today's violent situation in Ukraine to require a full scale mobilization for war. In fact that suggestion is foolish beyond words. First let's us remember which nation planned and financed the 2014 illegal coup in Ukraine. It certainly wasn't Russia! Then let's remember the solemn declarations of NATO members to Russia in 1989-90 that NATO would not move one inch Eastwards from its then boundary line. Now also consider that the illegal coup put Banderites in Ukraine into a position of power that they haven't has since WWII. What was the first thing the illegal Kiev coup government did when they met in the Rada, well they shut out Russian as a language to be used in government corresondence. Sure they cancelled that afterwards but the writing was on the wall for all to see. The coup also endangered the Russian Black Sea base in Crimea. Russia itself had lost all trust in Ukraine and NATO's association. It breached Russia's redlines. The Minz Accords and the falsity of NATO's dealings therewith absolutely clenched it. No more trust in the West, none! So how did Russia handle the betrayal? Well the only way that would catch the World's attention, which it did. This Ukraine situation is an American and NATO proxy war which will continue with full NATO deep state approval until the last poor Ukrainian soldier is dead!
Thank you. Very good speech and very interesting view of a process (House of Lords) that I’m unfamiliar with. It’s fascinating how the fear and loathing of Russia persists through the Tsars, communism, and now capitalism. As far back as the Crimean war, when the ungrounded fear was that Russia was plotting to invade India. In a large part, it seems like an irrational psychological fear of the “hordes from the East”.
I am in agreement with you that a permanent preparedness for war is impossible in a free society. What is needed is sufficient personnel and advanced systems to combat the threats that we know we face on a daily basis. The threat from Russia is unlikely to include any of the NATO membership as the response would overwhelm Russia. However they seem to be able to sabotage our communications cables, infiltrate our computer systems, poison people who annoy them, all while we look on in amazement at how slow we are at reacting to these threats. In the meantime the flow of arms to Ukraine is insufficient to cause Russia to even consider a 60 day ceasefire. Why should it when they totally disregard their casualties and can call upon North Korea and Iran for assistance when they need it. A more direct intervention is needed, like the supply of Patriot defence systems being supplied by Germany. Britain and France just need to get their act together and provide similar weapons.
It is what the noble Lord is contesting. I agree with him that Britain does not need to be on a war footing to defeat the machinations of Putin’s Russia.
Freedom of speech has become Americanized. As Alexis de Tocqueville noted in 1835:
"I know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America...
...In America the majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty of opinion: within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases, but he will repent it if he ever steps beyond them. Not that he is exposed to the terrors of an auto-da-fe [1], but he is tormented by the slights and persecutions of daily obloquy. His political career is closed forever, since he has offended the only authority which is able to promote his success. Every sort of compensation, even that of celebrity, is refused to him. Before he published his opinions he imagined that he held them in common with many others; but no sooner has he declared them openly than he is loudly censured by his overbearing opponents, whilst those who think without having the courage to speak, like him, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, oppressed by the daily efforts he has been making, and he subsides into silence, as if he was tormented by remorse for having spoken the truth.
...Under the absolute sway of an individual despot the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul, and the soul escaped the blows which were directed against it and rose superior to the attempt; but such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved."
[1] note: "auto-da-fe" is de Tocqueville's contemporary but now-anachronistic term for being burned at the stake for the crime of heresy. The modern anachronism, of course, is “cancel culture”, which dates back at least as far as Athenian ostracism law and prosecutions of deviants such as Socrates.
Mark Twain expressed similar sentiments in his usual witty manner.
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them".
- Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XX
An excellent speech, whose brevity merely adds to its force.
The nonsense about Russia is unfathomably foolish, and makes me deeply ashamed of being British. Having to learn Russian, for example. Even if Germany had conquered Britain (see, for example, Len Deighton's novel "SS-GB") there would have been no attempt to make British people speak German. There are advantages to an occupying power in speaking a language that the locals do not understand.
Whereas Russia has never attacked either Britain or the USA - on the contrary, fighting alongside them in several major wars - Britain and the USA have attacked Russia several times, invaded it, and killed hundreds of thousands of Russians in the Crimean War and after WW1. In the 1950s the US government had detailed plans for a preemptive nuclear attack on the USSR and China, which - mercifully - President Eisenhower vetoed. And since 2014 at the latest, both the UK and the USA have conducted active military operations against Russia in and around Ukraine, including drone strikes against civilian and military targets deep inside Russia. By all usual criteria, the UK and the USA have been at war against Russia since 2022, if not before.
The main reason for dismissing all talk of a Russian threat is that neither ordinary Russians nor their government believe that the UK matters. It is like an annoying buzzing insect that is best avoided. The only conceivable reason that Russia might have for attacking the UK is the latter's possession of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. (Unlike Russia, neither the UK nor the USA has disposed of its chemical weapons, and both are actively working on biological weapons. In Ukraine, for instance). If nuclear weapons are launched against Russia by the UK, Russia would have to retaliate. And half a dozen Sarmats (for instance) would suffice to render the UK largely unihabitable. It would take less than an hour.
Tom, why do you always defending Russia? Just curious.
I will add, Russia been angry with the UK for a long time. The UK gave refuge to some famous wanted Chechen criminals.
I am Scots, with a little Irish from a grandfather who was born in Tipperaray (on April 1st!) However his parents came from Northern Ireland, an area previously colonised by Scots. So I'm not sure about the Irishness.
The Scots are famous for stubbornness and sticking up for what we think is right, regardless of what others say or do. It may have something to do with the tradition of Calvinism, but I think it has always been there.
And the Irish are famous for being insubordinate, contrary, self-willed, and generally disruptive. One of my favourite jokes is that every time an Irish person moves to England, the average IQs of both countries rise. We like to say that it's fine to tell it in the presence of English people, as they wouldn't understand.
Scots-Irish people had a lot to do with the American Revolution, and many of them fought for the Confederacy.
"Scots steel tempered wi' Irish fire,
Is the weapon that I desire".
- Hugh MacDiarmid
Both the Irish and the Scots are irritated by stupidity, especially when flaunted in public.
Hence, although I have absolutely no personal connection with Russia, I sympathise with the Russians whom I see as unfairly attacked and slandered. And I have absolutely no sympathy with Western "leaders" (ringleaders) whose disgusting dishonesty and stupidity are shoved in our faces every day.
Simply put, I am in favour of honesty, decency, and truth as against their opposites. Do you disagree?
I am bloody AGREE!!!! 😊 Thank you! 🙏😊
'...our communications networks are being hacked; our social media is flooded with disinformation; our free elections are targeted; our undersea cables are cut; our military bases are buzzed by drones; our infrastructure has been sabotaged; assassinations have been carried out on British soil; financial and media companies are regularly blacked out; and bombs have been placed on cargo flights’.
And that's just what the Americans have been doing.
"and that's OUR job".
There. Fixed that for you! ;)
Perpetual war or preparations for the same will ensure the triumph of authoritarianism, whatever Russia does or doesn't do.
I think that there is nothing in today's violent situation in Ukraine to require a full scale mobilization for war. In fact that suggestion is foolish beyond words. First let's us remember which nation planned and financed the 2014 illegal coup in Ukraine. It certainly wasn't Russia! Then let's remember the solemn declarations of NATO members to Russia in 1989-90 that NATO would not move one inch Eastwards from its then boundary line. Now also consider that the illegal coup put Banderites in Ukraine into a position of power that they haven't has since WWII. What was the first thing the illegal Kiev coup government did when they met in the Rada, well they shut out Russian as a language to be used in government corresondence. Sure they cancelled that afterwards but the writing was on the wall for all to see. The coup also endangered the Russian Black Sea base in Crimea. Russia itself had lost all trust in Ukraine and NATO's association. It breached Russia's redlines. The Minz Accords and the falsity of NATO's dealings therewith absolutely clenched it. No more trust in the West, none! So how did Russia handle the betrayal? Well the only way that would catch the World's attention, which it did. This Ukraine situation is an American and NATO proxy war which will continue with full NATO deep state approval until the last poor Ukrainian soldier is dead!
Thank you. Very good speech and very interesting view of a process (House of Lords) that I’m unfamiliar with. It’s fascinating how the fear and loathing of Russia persists through the Tsars, communism, and now capitalism. As far back as the Crimean war, when the ungrounded fear was that Russia was plotting to invade India. In a large part, it seems like an irrational psychological fear of the “hordes from the East”.
I am in agreement with you that a permanent preparedness for war is impossible in a free society. What is needed is sufficient personnel and advanced systems to combat the threats that we know we face on a daily basis. The threat from Russia is unlikely to include any of the NATO membership as the response would overwhelm Russia. However they seem to be able to sabotage our communications cables, infiltrate our computer systems, poison people who annoy them, all while we look on in amazement at how slow we are at reacting to these threats. In the meantime the flow of arms to Ukraine is insufficient to cause Russia to even consider a 60 day ceasefire. Why should it when they totally disregard their casualties and can call upon North Korea and Iran for assistance when they need it. A more direct intervention is needed, like the supply of Patriot defence systems being supplied by Germany. Britain and France just need to get their act together and provide similar weapons.
"I am in agreement with you that a permanent preparedness for war is impossible in a free society".
What has that to do with today's Britain?
It is what the noble Lord is contesting. I agree with him that Britain does not need to be on a war footing to defeat the machinations of Putin’s Russia.
My point was that Britain today is by no stretch of the imagination a free society.
Freedom of speech has become Americanized. As Alexis de Tocqueville noted in 1835:
"I know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America...
...In America the majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty of opinion: within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases, but he will repent it if he ever steps beyond them. Not that he is exposed to the terrors of an auto-da-fe [1], but he is tormented by the slights and persecutions of daily obloquy. His political career is closed forever, since he has offended the only authority which is able to promote his success. Every sort of compensation, even that of celebrity, is refused to him. Before he published his opinions he imagined that he held them in common with many others; but no sooner has he declared them openly than he is loudly censured by his overbearing opponents, whilst those who think without having the courage to speak, like him, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, oppressed by the daily efforts he has been making, and he subsides into silence, as if he was tormented by remorse for having spoken the truth.
...Under the absolute sway of an individual despot the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul, and the soul escaped the blows which were directed against it and rose superior to the attempt; but such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved."
- Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835, pp292-3 original Henry Reeve translation, PSU, http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/LojkoMiklos/Alexis-de-Tocqueville-Democracy-in-America.pdf. With exquisite irony, all or most of this quoted material has been abridged or edited out of every print edition I’ve ever seen... :)
[1] note: "auto-da-fe" is de Tocqueville's contemporary but now-anachronistic term for being burned at the stake for the crime of heresy. The modern anachronism, of course, is “cancel culture”, which dates back at least as far as Athenian ostracism law and prosecutions of deviants such as Socrates.
(apologies for length!)
Mark Twain expressed similar sentiments in his usual witty manner.
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them".
- Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XX
Brilliant! Many thanks.