Monday 6 September 2021

Here it comes...

 https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-reports-largest-incursion-yet-by-chinese-air-force-2021-06-15/

Made a prediction last week, turns out I was a bit on the cautious side, China look to be getting ready for this imminently whilst Old Man Joe gets sipping his horlix. 

26 comments:

Bill Quango MP said...

Washington is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it has long followed a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack

The Guardian.
Last month.

Bill Quango MP said...

He has that whiff of out of depth and out of courage, Theresa May.

Like the EU, The Chinese will sense all kind of opportunities for all kinds of things. Maybe even war.
But more probably, further humiliations and agreements.

dearieme said...

"out of depth and out of courage, Theresa May."

And out of mind, Konstantin Chernenko.

dearieme said...

Ha! WKPD:

"an enfeebled geriatric so zombie-like as to be beyond assessing intelligence reports, alarming or not"

You may enjoy guessing whom that refers to.

Thud said...

If anything a befuddled and embarrassed America is more unpredictable from a Chinese point of view, not a good time to flex.

E-K said...

I expect China to become #1 global power in accelerated fashion. This because of Covid.

Expect more long incubation/fast infecting viruses to come our way.

They have found our Achilles' ... democratic accountability !

PS, Another friend has died young during this 'pandemic'. Sepsis. That now makes 5. I know of none who have died of CV-19.

Arguably any (or all) of them have died because we did not save the NHS.

Anonymous said...

@EK
Correlation does not imply causation.

Matt said...

@ E-K

Who are all these people that worship at the NHS altar? I know it's probably a echo chamber, but all the blogs, forums, etc I read are very much against the total clusterfuck that consume 10% of GDP for the square root of sod all.

jim said...

I sometimes wonder if seriously top military brass all belong to a secret brotherhood. Their motto 'keep our budgets flying high'. One for all and all for one. A select band of three.

So, when some fool of a politician looks like getting the 'cut the military budget' idea then the brotherhood does a bit of cage rattling. Messrs Biden and Johnson now find themselves having a bit of mil surplus on their hands but the brotherhood will save them from any damnfool notions of budget cuts. Except Johnson who doesn't matter.

The China/Taiwan story gets rehashed every few months. Most wiseacres reckon not yet - but sometime.

Anonymous said...

Military budget cuts Jim, have a gander at how much we spend, less than 1/6th of what we put into the NHS and less than 1/10th of social support. Need to find cuts elsewhere.

The big issue in our government today is healthcare and social support, it is over 1/3rd of the budget and growing (it includes pensions in an aging population after all). Zero votes in cutting it, meanwhile, real things like The Law, Police, Armed Forces and Education all suffer.

In reality, the Brexit induce labour shortage could be manna from heaven for this situation....whether the Government can see that is another thing.

E-K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
E-K said...

Anon at 9.19

Please tell that to SAGE who insist on calling death within 28 days a covid death in support of their power grab, even when we had a low enough body count for a detailed autopsy on each to break the link between correlation and causation that was in their favour.

If they are able to be so vague then I am perfectly entitled to call every non Covid death a Lockdown Death. Let's review what has happened thus far:

- Shut down and destroy much of the economy to "save the NHS"

- Destroy civil liberties to "save the NHS"

- Stay away from doctors and die at home to "save the NHS"

- Shut down education (effectively cause a national strike with enforced secondary picketing) to "save the NHS"

- wear a gag to "save the NHS"

- Visibly worship at the altar of the NHS (Thursday clap) to support and "save the NHS" or be damned by your neighbours. Establishing the NHS as the new national religion and don't dare any politician commit heresy against it !

- Let the government track you to "save the NHS"

and finally

- Punitive taxation to "save the NHS"



Well the one thing the NHS didn't do was save five people whom I would consider friends (albeit not very close ones) and when I predicted that this would happen - because we'd effectively closed down the NHS and not saved it at all - then causation and correlation do take on a different complexion.

What is definitely whiffy is how the NHS has been used by Boris, SAGE and The Blob to deliver socialism to a degree that I never thought I'd see so soon in Britain - indeed the facemasks take it beyond a level that even Orwell didn't predict.

That my dog could get better treatment than I could on his £300 insurance to my £5000 pa NHS tax contributions says a lot about the true, evolved, purpose of the NHS.

It is the industrial wing of the Labour party and it ensures they remain in power even when they lose all the votes.

The NHS is the beneficent face of Big Brother State to shepherd the population into a vile, communist shit pen.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man... they couldn't tell Boris from the other.

E-K said...

Matt - I bet most forumites criticise the NHS anonymously. I certainly wouldn't bother doing it at a party and definitely not at work.

Don't talk politics, religion nor the NHS.

Elby the Beserk said...

"Matt said...
@ E-K

Who are all these people that worship at the NHS altar? I know it's probably a echo chamber, but all the blogs, forums, etc I read are very much against the total clusterfuck that consume 10% of GDP for the square root of sod all.

9:52 pm"

Who? The media, led by the cheerleader, the BBC another bloated state bureaucracy. That's who.

Jan said...

"Save the NHS" by a bit of a cull of the old and unhealthy. This also lowers the budget required to support social care, pensions and disability benefits.

At the same time look as if you do care by developing a vaccine which wears off after a few months and requires constant boosters. This helps your big pharma friends at the same time.

What's not to like?

andrew said...

That report is from June.

It was in the Economist back then.

jim said...

AFAICS Boris's change makes little difference to all those middle class folk who will have to pay for most of their time in the carehome. Looks like most of the money goes to fund the NHS - not surprising, the NHS has been underfunded for decades. So, all that screaming about the oldies sponging off the young - b&*locks. A nice bit of sleight of hand though.

Which will eventually bring us back to the real problem facing the UK - and all mature Western economies - what to do with all those people you don't really have a use for. There are no Time Machine factories nor any Transgalactic Transporter companies - just the usual stuff. Not all of us can be a Diversity Manager's Assistant's Assistant, most of us are pretty ordinary and not worth much on the world stage - sorry Boris.

Back to the NHS tho. That organisation worked well with narrow capacity and fast throughput and was in reality cheap to run. But that model was completely b^&gered by Covid. Not enough beds etc etc. Can't really plan for a return to 'normal' so the old cheap model will no longer do. Something a bit more like the err German model, integrate world deaths/100k over time and look for a minimum.

Mr Ned said...

Underfunded for decades?

Really? On what metric is it underfunded? Against the state/private models of the Europeans ?
Against the private/public America’s models? Or vs the Cuban or Chinese state models?

25% of ALL Collected tax revenue goes to the NHS. And it is underfunded?
How much would be enough? 50%? 70%? 95%?

Tell us Sunny Jim. In the utopia, what’ would be the budget?

E-K said...

Jim

Having seen elderly-and-infirm and elderly-and-critically-ill and elderly-and-unhealthy and elderly-and-miserable-alone, up close in recent years I know that I want voluntary euthanasia as an option for myself.

That would cull a lot of 'problem' people (including - potentially - myself) and I can tell you that clinging on to a vibrating mattress for that last couple of months is not worth ruining your time on earth for (assuming our lives get played over and over, like an info commercial, as I believe they do.)

Actually getting old need not be a problem if you are fit enough to work and of means to be able to choose a job suitable to your abilities, indeed it can be good for you.

What has gone wrong is the NHS itself. It has become exceedingly good at perpetuating life long after it should have gone extinct.

The NHS IS the problem, with unhealthy and dependent ageing, in fact.

It is creating a vast body of people who would not have been here just two generations ago.

An 80-year-old can be useful and productive and in paid employment and happy and useful to society - in fact I know many who are running organisations that would be classed as demanding full-time jobs were they not charities.

E-K said...

The NHS is an inverse Jesus Christ. We all have to get crucified to "save" it.

Sobers said...

"I bet most forumites criticise the NHS anonymously. I certainly wouldn't bother doing it at a party and definitely not at work."

I don't hold back, and make my views on it very clear any time the subject comes up. I've seen the NHS up close and personal with my late father's 'care' over the last 5 years, and its utter sh*t, and I don't mind telling people the truth. If they don't like it, tough.

jim said...

Well E-K, you sound familiar with the sticky carpets, smell of urine and unanswered wails 'nurse, nurse'.

You don't get what you don't pay for. The system is lousy but the people do what they can with the tools available. The 'care quality' mob know there isn't enough money but dare not criticise the root cause - Parliament.

ASFAICS we are (were) spending about 10% of GDP on the NHS, the French and Germans spend about 11%. For the UK 1% of GDP is about £28Bn so Boris's rise is anywhere between 0.25% to 0.5% rise - with more to go. Ministers fight for days over 0.1% like bald men over a comb.

I can't see UK real GDP going up for years so upping the NHS to EU levels will mean money comes from somewhere else - us in this case. Meanwhile we p^ss money away on expensive lawyers making long pointless inquiries that are consigned to the long grass. A team of non partisan business types armed with sharp sabres need to cull the upper reaches of Parliament and Whitehall and the military and the secret services and academe. For the avoidance of doubt I am talking £60K and above, chop chop chop.

lilith said...

We will save a fortune once the GPs have finished putting themselves out of a job. They don't want to see us, so we can just jolly well self diagnose or go to A & E (where we might see a hugely expensive locum GP who is saving A & E from all the people who can't get a GP appointment).

The NHS is marvellous! You can get three newly qualified hospital doctors for the cost of one Assistant Fairness and Belonging Manager!

Obviously we need more Fairness and Belonging managers because people are unhappy with the NHS.

Elby the Beserk said...

I guess the media focus on the state pension is a good means of avoiding the real elephant in the pensions room, the eye-watering cost of public sector pensions, often awarded to the useless, and with early retirement. The idea that all taking the state pension have huge savings and vast investments is nonsense

Whilst we are paying the insane salaries and pensions that all the new woke diversity and fairness wankers receive (well, they don't earn them, going for state pensions is sick.

E-K said...

Jim

The NHS encourages the sick, ageing phenotype.

It offers a pill for just about every condition and normalises obesity.

Prevention would be better.

Good diet, moderate but slightly taxing exercise, a bit of luck. People would pay thousands for a pill that delivered the results that this does but it doesn't exist and they don't want to take the proven option.

A way to make people do it is to withdraw much NHS treatment.

Oh. And stop recruiting and training people who indicate that they want to go part-time.

lilith said...

" And stop recruiting and training people who indicate that they want to go part-time."
or who insist on going part time so that they can do extra bank shifts at locum rates. Why wouldn't you? Or move to a country where your skills are valued?

Nurse I spoke to had 4 layers of management above her when she started out and now has 11....but sure, the NHS is massively underfunded...