Defence

2026-11-02

Events elsewhere seem to cast the UK as a haven of peace and tranquillity. As always, Ben provides a fascinating report covering many aspects of recent happenings, but it's clear that many of the usual flash-points are still flash-points, albeit the war of attrition is progressing.

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2026-11-02

What's going on in the world?

What to do?

Listen to the Chief...
... for once he's reasonably straightforward and understandable.

Make of him what you will.

(37 minutes)

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2026-10-31

If like me you have been wondering why Canada is cosying up to the EU, this explanation makes a lot of sense -  well, as much as anything in EU politics makes sense.

(11 minutes)

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(2026-10-31)

Have you bought your poppy yet?

As a charity the Royal British Legion is obviously considered to be completely above reproach, Just as for example the long-established (750 yrs!) City Bridge Foundation which is charged with looking after the City of London's bridges.

"... as London’s largest independent charity funder, we have awarded more than £900 million to charitable organisations tackling inequality and social injustice across London"

Meanwhile there are a few of Greater London's bridges that are closed due to lack of repair, and it could reasonably be argued that these are not within the charity's remit - but hey, since when was "tackling inequality and social injustice" within its remit? And if that qualifies, why not the decrepit Greater London bridges?

And to come back to the original question, are we right to assume that most of what we give to the RBL is spent on the intended

2026-10-31

It seems that we live in such extraordinary times now that we need new answers to some very old questions, whose answers were never previously in doubt, but due to substantial (and we must assume deliberate) political meddling quite at variance with prior election promises, some questions are now very much in the spotlight.

The Daily Sceptic highlights one of them, but I'm equally certain that there are others...

2026-10-29

The Fifth Plenum may be revealing more than we expect - but only if we can decipher the competing political signals...

(19 minutes)

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2026-10-28

Netanyahu gone.

Mohammed bin Salman gone.

Zelensky gone.

The chessboard is being cleared.

No paywall today! (5 minutes)

(NB - none of this is corroborated so far... )

2026-10-27

Kim Jong Un has been swirled by rumours, yet is reported to have visited China across a newly opened bridge.

He didn't seem to spend very long there before returning home. Nor did he meet President Xi.

Nor were there any official announcements, other than a visit to an automobile factory.

But apparently the swirling rumours are not abating...

(43 minutes)

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2026-10-26

With the mid-term elections upon us early next month, election fever in the US is high, with various reports indicating that efforts to fix the ballot continue, however diminished they may be.

Reports elsewhere indicate that global financial stresses are mounting just about everywhere.

And Ben's reading of the runes indicates that the wars in "West Asia" are still mutating, with plenty of unfinished business to be concluded...

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2026-10-25

Well, I've no idea, but there's a lot of water between there and here, even if our government is seemingly doing its best to import the French problems over it as fast as it can.

But certainly one needs an historical understanding far in excess of mine to even attempt an answer.

Fortunately we have just the man for the job.

David Starkey talks to Steven Edginton:

(67 minutes)

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2026-10-25

Latest update from ZeroHedge...  and it's not just France.

Ukraine Is Becoming Another Verdun

Except that it has been going for far longer than WW1...

2026-10-24

(20 minutes)

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2026-10-24

We have been assailed by various articles of late (and not so late) along the lines of the existential threat that AI may pose to humanity.

It's a fair question. At what point could AI pose such a threat? What are the prerequisites?

Well, as of now, most AI systems are configured to answer our enquiries. They seem to be pretty good at being "search engines with some intelligence" that can pick their way through (a) what datasets do I need to enquire upon in order to answer the question? (b) which items in those datasets are relevant to the question? (c) how should those items be logically linked together to derive an answer to the question? and (d) performing that linkage and presenting a comprehensible analysis as end result.

The better ones might realise that there's more than one route through that process, would traverse each in turn and cross-check the results to identify any inconsistencies. How it might pick the appropriate answer given

2026-10-23

It's been a while since we covered this topic, but this update does seem to indicate that Chairman Xi is no longer the preferred flavour of the Chinese leadership...   at least not within the PLA.

Make of this what you will.

(47 minutes)

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2026-10-23

Latest scuttlebutt on the Ukraine's prospects for peace.

A good brief review on how we got here as well.

"What's happening is the stabilisation of the entire world... "

(2 hrs 6 mins)

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2026-10-23

Probably nobody realises the significance of the Crown Estates.

Rich Does Politics reviews the state of play with EM Burlngame...

"If you took those assets and put them into a Sovereign Wealth Fund for the people... they would be of immense value to the people... "

So who actually controls these assets? And who wants to get control?

"The last thing the British people should want is the breaking up of the Crown Estates because that is their inheritance... the Royal Family as the executors need to be physically secure"

(32 minutes)

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2026-10-19

I guess this only ends when nobody can figure out who they are supposed to be fighting any more 🙃.With governments all around in serious trouble, how to read the tea leaves?

As always Ben makes a good fist of it, and he's probably better informed than most, but I wouldn't bet the house on his infallibility. Probably the only certainty is that things will get worse before they get better...

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