Is Liz Truss intending to take the UK to war?

I am swaying between being terrified Grandmama and thinking that the allies, led by Biden, are upping the ante because they will have to negotiate. Also, we have to remember the KGB man in Putin. He will not even recognise wimps ... which really brings me back to being terrified.

Have only just logged on, haven't time to read all posts so sorry if this has already been said - Liz Truss and now Ben Wallace have been mentioned as next PM if the job comes up. They seem to be in a power contest for the strongest talk. Liz Truss's rhetoric frightens me.

Ironic - on one hand nations have come together to reduce emissions etc to save the planet and on the other hand nations are coming together to take on Russia and possibly destroy the planet in the process.

The policies of the government are not necessarily all formulated by its leader. Did I say I disapproved of any of the current government’s policies? My vote is for the party, not the person, and always has been.

Germanshepherdsmum

Not so Maizie. I am a Conservative voter and will continue to be but that doesn’t mean I wanted Johnson to become PM, nor that I approve of his personal conduct.

But you're supporting his policies...

Germanshepherdsmum

Not so Maizie. I am a Conservative voter and will continue to be but that doesn’t mean I wanted Johnson to become PM, nor that I approve of his personal conduct.

So how do you show your disapproval? I can't see that putting Johnson back into power will do that. He is much more likely to behave how he chooses once he has your renewed backing. You will also not be able to make another choice until another election. That means you are supporting him, whatever saddened words you use.

The only MPs I have had contact with have been Conservatives, who have variously tried to patronise me, intimidate me, or dismiss me with a, metaphorical, wave of the arm.

effalump when you are dealing with a crazed megalomaniac, anything can happen. As with the little tin god in North Korea.

Nuclear weapons technology has come on a long way since Hiroshima or Nagasaki and can now be more targetted and spread their load over small areas - tactical nuclear weapons. Not that that is any consolation.

I can honestly say, that I am more scared by this current situation with Putin than I have ever been in my life - and I lived through the whole of the Cold War.

As my DH said yesterday, we are now in a situation far more dangerous than The Bay of Pigs, with the outcome much more uncertain.

The only ray of hope, and it is a very small ray, is that Kruschev was ousted after the Bay of Pigs incident. He was considered to be pushing events too far. We can only hope that the faceless underlings will respond the same way if Putin tries to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine or outside that country.

Since the 1990's Putin has be working to achieve a Russian emppire. Each time we let him take another state he thought we would not stop him. So he grew bolder and upped his sights. Now we are paying the price. He has states within the boundaries of Europe in his sites. Better we stand firm.

Not so Maizie. I am a Conservative voter and will continue to be but that doesn’t mean I wanted Johnson to become PM, nor that I approve of his personal conduct.

There would be no winners in a nuclear war, so what is the point. I think it's saber rattling as said by another poster. Nuclear war would render the world unusable for decades, or even centuries. Although, having said that, I would be a bit worried about the guy running North Korea. He keeps their entire population on the edge of starvation in order to have more money for nuclear weapons.

Germanshepherdsmum

I find some of the lefties can be very nasty Casdon. And of course anyone who votes Conservative is routinely called a Johnson supporter. It seems people cannot or will not understand that you can support the party without supporting the leader.

Maybe people don't understand, GSM because a party cannot be detached from its leader. If you support a party you support what its leader is directing it to do (or, as in the case of Johnson, what its leader is letting it do).

I can't say I mind anyone being right, left or in the middle especially if I can learn from them. What I do think is unhelpful is fake news. The difference between being "right" and being "wrong" is more important than being "right" or being "left". Sadly, this government has made it their politics to lie and spread fake news. That doesn't mean democratic conservatives do but the extremists have certainly learned from them.

There are always those who care little about democracy at either of the extremes. The 'Political Horseshoe' has always had a space at the bottom. This area is where extremists and would-be dictators join in trying to hide the truth. It would be wrong to say there are none of those supporting this area posting on this forum.

Germanshepherdsmum

I find some of the lefties can be very nasty Casdon. And of course anyone who votes Conservative is routinely called a Johnson supporter. It seems people cannot or will not understand that you can support the party without supporting the leader.

It’s down to the many shades of left and right I think, I do understand where you’re coming from in that I think some do jump harshly in response to those who say something they deem to be ‘right’ being extreme right, or those ‘left’ being extreme left. When you get to know people on here you know who to expect that from and can counter it more effectively to get your own view heard. Everybody has different opinions, and I think we can all learn a lot through a healthy debate - it’s not that if it is dominated by the people with the loudest voices all the time, whatever they support.

I have avoided answering your post M0nica because there is a general thought on GN that I support a particular political party, so definitely some "wrong deciding" going on...

M0nica

The sentence was not personal, but a more general one about many of those on GN who wear their party on their sleeve. Of which you are not one.

But you and others have often wrongly decide which party that is. What does that make you?

Germanshepherdsmum

I find some of the lefties can be very nasty Casdon. And of course anyone who votes Conservative is routinely called a Johnson supporter. It seems people cannot or will not understand that you can support the party without supporting the leader.

Nope. If by "supporting" you simply mean voting for it, there is no way you can support the party and keep it in power without supporting the leader.

If you mean by discussing and supporting right-wing politics while not supporting a particular leader, then yes, that is possible. I just don't see it done often on here. Those who support the politics, with one exception I can think of, support the party and therefore keep the leader in power. I would call that supporting the leader.

QED.

I'm a Lemin, apparently

GSM, I’m with you. The dialogue with people supporting something their party has definitely got wrong is mind boggling. Like a lot of Lemins. Can’t they see when something is unacceptable. Talk about blind faith. Everyone is working hard to avoid war, it would take the wisdom of Solomon to sort Putins head out or tell anyone how to negotiate with him.

But people on the right go on about Corbyn, and communism, and how people don't really know what's good for them. They think people on benefits don't work hard enough. They don't know the difference between asylum seekers and migrants. They think its OK to send young men to Rwanda.

There's worse things in life than being called a Johnson supporter.

I find some of the lefties can be very nasty Casdon. And of course anyone who votes Conservative is routinely called a Johnson supporter. It seems people cannot or will not understand that you can support the party without supporting the leader.

Snowflakes

Several years ago I met Oliver Mundell campaigning on the streets of a border town, just before a GE. He mistook my attempts to be polite to him for a hidden support for Scottish Conservatives and urged me not to be intimidated by those lefties on the other side who didn’t think like me.

I think it must be a deep-seated thing in the right to think that everybody is like them really and just doesn’t pipe up because they are frightened of the scary lefties.

Germanshepherdsmum

I suspect that those who support the left are so vociferous that people who are of a different political hue stay away rather than have their heads bitten off.

Surely those on the right are just as capable of arguing their corner though Germanshepherdsmum? I’ve never understood why on Gransnet people feel unable to do so. There are strongly held views, but it’s rare for there to be any real unpleasantness, and when you get to know posters views it’s very clear that there are actually many shades of opinion within groups that may appear homogenous. Maybe it happens like it does because those from professional backgrounds are more confident in expressing what they think and finding evidence to back up their arguments as they have been used to doing that in their working lives, or maybe one just needs to be robust enough to take the brickbats, I don’t know?

I suspect that those who support the left are so vociferous that people who are of a different political hue stay away rather than have their heads bitten off.

I suspect you’re way off the mark in saying that political views are strongly to the left on Gransnet Monica. It’s quite the opposite - but those on the left are good at articulating their concerns clearly.