L00b

If they voted Remain and Conservative, it’s still their own fault. The point is: ‘sympathy’ is neither here nor there, this is merely another unavoidable consequence of the form of Brexit pursued by recent British governments. With a side helping of irony: the U.K. contributed to and approved this EU visa waiver scheme for third country nationals whilst still an EU member state at the time (2016 lol!) Devil likely to be in the details, as always. [edit: here goes, https://etias.com/articles/applying-for-etias-with-a-criminal-record. 10 years for crim conviction; 20 years for terrorist conviction; ‘variable geometry’ application (some EU countries still entitled to refuse entry notwithstanding ETIAS)] Like this detail (unrelated to criminal conviction, but most bothersome for -no doubt- many British residents): Starting in 2024, it will be a requirement to be a full British citizen before applying for an ETIAS, so travellers holding a passport or travel document with a different status such as a British subject, British overseas citizen or British protected person will be required to apply for a full Schengen visitor visa, and not an ETIAS.

This consequence, rather than the fee, is likely to provide the biggest upset for many UK travellers, with a criminal conviction long in their past but still on their record and motivating a refusal. No more travelling to the EU for them.

Who the **** are you again?🥱

Farage made it ‘just about Farage’ with his usual victimhood snake oil, to gain a little traction in the MSM as his popularity continues to ebb away. Look, it’s the evergreen ‘**** around, find out’ truism in action: if you don’t want to be ‘victimised’ for your bandwagon-hopping, schlock opinions, then keep them to yourself, or at any rate in a private circle, instead of shouting them to the world for grifting. As a bank, how much extra business do you think you’d be getting, by becoming known as Putin’s or Pol Pot’s service provider? Extreme examples to illustrate the point: same difference, toxicity in public perception has a PR -and then business- cost, and banking services are a commercial commodity, not a human right. This is really not hard.

Everyone makes their own luck, tbh. All rights and wrongs put aside for a moment…it’s not exactly a smart move, to be setting off and bumping a person -police officer or villain matters not- who happens to be pointing a gun at you about a foot or two away. Poor judgement in the fist place, followed by poor judgment in the heat of the moment, and there you have it. The anger from Police is understandable (note to the hard of understanding : ‘understandable’ does not mean ‘condonable’), they are likely placed in such situations daily.

Has posted the actual video of the incident yet? Not graphic, and adds context. The car is stopped, one officer is holding the car driver at gunpoint over the windshield ahead of the A pillar, another officer is by the driver’s door, it is unclear whether he is asking the driver for the keys, or to come out, or trying to open the door. Then the car begins to speed off. Then the officer by the A pillar shoots through the windscreen.

Farage’s problem is his long, close and very public association with Aaron Banks, Donald Trump and many other very prominent PEPs, each with a non-trivial baggage of alleged links to Russian money. In banker’s talk, the habitual expression is ‘our bank has no appetite for this service’ (edit: meaning, no appetite for risks -real or estimated- associated with providing the service). Have experienced it many times myself, beyond the example of paying legitimate costs of Russian legal service providers that I gave earlier in the thread. E.g. as simple (and, you’d think, very straightforward) as arranging bank transfers for paying official fees (‘a tax’) to a legitimate government office in French Polynesia. And that’s Luxembourgish bank branches, you’d believe more flexible than most, after over 3 decades’ worth of happy/profitable/etc. daily banking for a double digit £m turnover local business. Aside of any dodgy funds, it’s a free market, end of, and simple as. Deal with it, Nigel: you’re not so special.

I’m offended that you’re offended 🤪 I understood the meaning of your post -as it was written- perfectly well. Sadly, I am not a mind reader, and so could not even begin to guess at all this additional meaning hidden behind your prose. I also understand pacifists’ perspective on this conflict, as on all others. It doesn’t mean that I have to agree with it, however: I was against ‘Iraq 2.0’ from the start and kept to that position, the same as I was against intervention in Afghanistan based on ‘war on terror’ motives (there were much less benign, and just as effective, ways of getting at Fundies and ISIS without boots on the ground), but I am for supporting Ukraine and have been since the start because, unlike these 2 earlier examples, this is a war of aggression started by a “democratic” country for nakedly imperialist (not to say outright mafious) aims, not a political crutch for western political systems and influence.

😆

It’s quite funny to see banks becoming the next ‘woke’ thing in political debates. Banks. ’Woke’. 🤣🤣🤣

‘not accepted by the DUP’, is what you must mean. Which, nowadays, is a minority -borderline fringe (at the scale of the whole U.K.)- party, that regrettably still maintains some leverage due to its statutory prerogatives with/at Stormont. The Northern Irish public is both very happy with the Protocol (and Windsor FW), catch any local poll since the 2016 referendum result there… ….and not blind to the DUP’s crass stupidity borne from its sectarianism, as the last elections there attest.

These days, only if you’re savvy enough to ask for and receive your dodgy cash in some obscure cryptocurrency.

The WP and whoever else are free to call him a ‘strongman’… …but it’s still him who goes begging to Jinping and Modi, not the other way around… … and it’s his national economy that is on its @rse, not theirs, nor the West’s.

The masses and masses of Western aid (edit: military and humanitarian and economic and interventionist (as sanctions on Russia and named Russians)) to Ukraine since April 2022 must have passed you by. As for the ‘usual custom’…after the mess of Iraq and the much more recent ignominious end to Afghan intervention, maybe “the West” has finally learned something. Western politicians certainly have: no more body bags coming home.

Funny how this only seems to happen to populist politicians with overt -or more hidden- ties with sanctioned individuals and countries. Marine LePen had banking services similarly withdrawn years ago. Then she turned to a Russian bank for a loan. That went well. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/le-pen-insists-crimea-is-russian/ ”She also denied being aware that the Russian company had repurchased only the debt that concerned her party and not the total assets of the bank in bankruptcy”. Fancy that 😏😆 Banking problems or a gravity test through a faulty high-rise window? I know which I’d pick 😁

It’s been a while since Russia featured in the ‘super power’ class. The global anchor points nowadays are China, the US and the EU (in no particular order), and India is inching up.

Can’t see it. If there is/was a plan to relocate Wagner in Belarus for a fresh go at Kiev, why undermine Putin with a fake putsch and draw faction lines between Russian services? Might as well just do that relocating, quiet like. Russian services have since taken to infighting like rats in a sack (esp FSB vs Army (Shoigu faction) currently) and the only party which this state of affairs helps, is Ukraine.

I had Russian patent applications in my care last year and earlier this year, in my previous job. After days’ worth of form-filling and countless email to’s and fro’s with the bank (BNP Paribas Lux, one of the largest), proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the money would not benefit the Russian government or military or sanctioned Russian individuals, still couldn’t arrange payment of the Russian IP firm’s fees and disbursements, for love or money. Couldn’t arrange it with with a costly in-between IP firm in Jersey that specialises in these “hard to deal with” situations and places, either. The Russian patent applications eventually lapsed (cannot expectRU agent to work for free…though they must have gone bust by now, as all other referring IP firms would be in the same boat). Just started with the new job the other week, and one of the first tasks is to oversee the final stages of the RU office/subsidiary closure. Banks really don’t **** around when the merest whiff of sanctioned money appears. It’s solid platinum-grade corporate risk and they’ll turf out any client exhibiting it, quicker than quick.

The bank is allegedly Coutts. “Man of the people” and all that 😏 Irrespective, the simplest -and therefore likeliest- explanation for such a bank behaviour nowadays, is a severe AML and/or KYC due diligence issue. Typically, refusing to disclose to the bank where funds originate from. Banks don’t care one bit about their clients’ political leanings, but they are terrified of being found to handle funds originating from sanctioned sources/countries like Iran, North Korea…Russia… So, if no other bank will touch him, well… 😉

Doncaster Airport was a great opportunity, but badly marketed, and possibly badly run over time. It had a clear run at Leeds Bradford and Hull (…to say nothing of then-Sheffield airport) and could have rivalled East Midlands and Manchester for medium haul holiday charters. But low costs rejigged structure and slots in the late 10s, Flybe went away, and then Covid finished it off. Wait until you realise what happened with Eurostar at rail privatisation time (all those years ago) and now this year after Brexit 😏

The taps are only just beginning to open, and the damage-limiting BS peddled by the government, MPs and the opposition is just not cutting through with the public anymore. Vote in haste, repent at leisure.

Gammons will certainly not be surprised, indeed 👍🏻

Heh, it’s kinder than twunt 😘 The difference is, my forum handle is a family nickname going back decades, and I don’t recognise myself in that UD definition, so I don’t consider myself insulted by that in the least. Stay confused, Bloke lad 😆

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gammon

There's nothing new about fascism. That's exactly why it is so easily recognizable. Gammons is new enough, though, I'll give you that. It is very apt. Both because only those who would consider themselves as such, take offence over it ; and particularly since not all gammons are fascists, in fact I'd venture that most of them aren't : they just like the appeal of simple 'punch down and get unicorn jam tomorrow' non-solutions, to highly-complex socio-economic problems and their consequences that few of them understand, while the fascists (well, the vested interests pushing them at the @ss, really) tighten the noose for self-interest. You know...no differently to hard-up Germans in the early 1930s. The last few years on this forum have been quite the eye opener, in that respect. Political talk and opinions used to be less pervasive (it finds its way in most threads nowadays, very soon at that), the bias seemed to be much more 'left' oriented (more posters, more of them left-leaning), yet the debate was less polarized and people far less accepting (never mind supporting) of ideological extremes, like that 'Rwanda plan' of the Tories (to name just one example - there are countless others). I guess there's no escaping the Overton window shift.