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Posted by Dave on

Kier Starmer’s at Lab22

Kier Starmer’s at Lab22

This is available on youtube and as text, it is to my mind one of the best he’s given; he’s clearly more comfortable with the role than previously. The last 11 months of a polling lead which was to leap the following day will have helped, but I hope they don’t believe their propaganda that the May 22 elections was an historic validation of Starmer’s Labour, there were victories but also losses. I have read the speech trying to identify policy promises as opposed to feel-good slogans and anti-tory rhetoric; here are my notes.

Posted by Dave on

About Ursula von der Leyen

About Ursula von der Leyen

Ursula von der Leyen, became the 1st woman President of the EU’s college of commissioners on 1st Dec 2019. Her appointment was controversial because she was not one of the spitzencanditaten. The record of her commission is documented on wikipedia. I became interested in this when trying to understand how and why the CoFoE was launched. Here are my notes on her appointment.

Posted by Dave on

Data Protection Act 2022

Data Protection Act 2022

The government issued a consultation on the Data Protection law; it was commonly felt that they were attempting to allow itself to monetise the personal data of citizens, especially through the NHS data files. Whether after their response, it is felt to be so threatening is another matter. Here are my notes …

Posted by Dave on

The EU and defence policy

The EU and defence policy

I have a couple of notes on defence policy on this wiki. All recent white papers have emphasised that the defence capability we build is onky capable of success if working with allies. The primary military alliance is of course NATO, which has over the last 30 years concerned itself with “out of theatre” operations. It has also been challenged by speeches of the pervious President, Trump and the actions of President Biden in the evacuation from Afghanistan. The USA may no longer be a reliable ally for European defence.

Posted by Dave on

Labour in for Britain

Labour in for Britain

While in Berlin, I saw a post bitching about Corbyn and Starmer’s contribution to Brexit, and remembered that Labour’s RemaIN campaign run by the then legacy leadership was also weak. I know that the doorstep operation was weakened by the lack of commitment of the party and the exhaustion from the local elections that had taken place the previous month. The timing is further evidence that Cameron was unsure of what he wanted; whether it was a strong Tory Party or to remain in the EU. It’s common belief that Corbyn didn’t work hard enough, and that his Office were pro-leave, but what did the Party do.

Posted by Dave on

Tanks

Tanks

I needed to extract what I said about Tanks from my piece on the 2021 Defence White Paper as it took a lot of space on a peripheral issue. What I captured was the leaks before publication which suggested that the Tanks were going to be chopped, and then comments on the white paper’s outcome. I have also found a youtube video that examines if infantry anti-tank weapons have led to an end of the age of the tank citing the Ukraine war as evidence.