Originally posted by french frank
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Ukraine
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Originally posted by Frances_iom View PostNapoleon + Hitler for 2 but whether Russia was peaceful is questionable - certainly in latter case it was complicit is taking over Poland and was still fighting Finland to gain territory (hence many Finns supporting Hitler on the enemy's enemy = friend).It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by Frances_iom View PostAt the time Napoleon was in charge of most of Europe!It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostJust on that single point, I was speaking of the situation before the crisis began when polls were taken.
"A survey in September last year showed that 68% of Odesa residents agreed with Vladimir Putin’s statement that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people”, while only 20% of people thought the future of Ukraine was in integration with Europe. Thirty-eight per cent wanted closer ties with Russia, and 27% neutrality.
However, the events of the past two weeks may have dramatically altered such figures."
I don't know what "the survey" was - but assuming that it was fair, that still shows a kind of balance of 47% to 38% who did not express a preference for Russia. At the time Odesa would have benefited considerably from European tourism.
Feelings in much of the rest of the country were definitely against Russia and separatists when we visited - but that was when fighting was less intense than it is now.
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Originally posted by french frank View Post...I was seriously trying to get at the real grounds for Putin thinking that Russian security would be jeopardised by, say, Ukraine being in NATO.Last edited by Frances_iom; 08-03-22, 21:35.
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What is it with these people?
A government spokesperson said: “We are working to process applications as quickly as possible and submitting an application in English reduces delays, which means we can get people here more efficiently. However, if someone is unable to provide translated documents they should still submit their application with untranslated documents.
Well yes of course everyone fleeing war with the clothes they stand up in will have translated documents to hand...
If it's this difficult for someone with British citizenship and accommodation to go to, what hope for those with no such "advantages"?
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Originally posted by oddoneout View PostIf it's this difficult for someone with British citizenship and accommodation to go to, what hope for those with no such "advantages"?
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Originally posted by RichardB View PostIf they start letting in every Tom, Dick and Vladimir people are going to start asking what the point of Brexit was.
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Originally posted by Maclintick View PostI signed the parliamentary petition to waive visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees & wrote to my MP expressing the hope that he'd support moves to enable this in the Commons. His reply depressingly echoed the Brexity xenophobia to which you're alluding -- "Let 'em in ? You must be jokin', mate ! There's all sort of Putin's Black Ops saboteurs who'll flood the UK posing as refugees who'll be up to no end of mischief" etc. Pure scaremongering.
I really don't see why it should be impossible to let in most of the refugees who fairly obviously post no threat to the UK. I'm sad that the wording of the petition didn't allow for any comments. Waiving visa requirements seems very sensible to me as long as basic security checks can be met, and the UK should be taking in many of these people.
Government attempts to stall this by bureaucratic means seem completely out of order to me.
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Originally posted by Maclintick View PostI signed the parliamentary petition to waive visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees & wrote to my MP expressing the hope that he'd support moves to enable this in the Commons. His reply depressingly echoed the Brexity xenophobia to which you're alluding -- "Let 'em in ? You must be jokin', mate ! There's all sort of Putin's Black Ops saboteurs who'll flood the UK posing as refugees who'll be up to no end of mischief" etc. Pure scaremongering.
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