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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | The problem facing both sides is that neither knows who would prevail if it came to an all-out war between Syrian armed forces and Kurdish ones. The Syrian government has the added worry that even a successful war might spell their own doom because it will invite intervention from a number of outside actors--Turkey, USA, Israel, Iran, Russia--they don't control. |
Hey, don't forget us Brits want a slice of the action.
Inter-Mediate, a shadowy firm founded by Jonathan Powell (now the National Security advisor to Keir Starmer) brokered the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Damascus and London.
This included a heavily publicized meeting between UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Syria’s self-appointed President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad Julani when he was an ISIS chief.
Thereby transforming the players from “terrorists” into politicians. Starmer immediately declared that this heralded “a more active role” for Britain in the Middle East. Our top diplomats were dispatched to meet with HTS officials. Even though Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was still a proscribed terror group under British law.
It's just like old times!
Next, getting BP back into Iran and installing a new Shah.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Hey, don't forget us Brits want a slice of the action. |
We mustn't get trapped in old tropes. We have done quite well so far in letting others take the strain. Though, yes, if we play our cards right, we might emerge as spokespersons in high places, standing up for the new Middle East against its new cast of neo-colonialists.
No, you're right, belay that thought.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Though, yes, if we play our cards right, we might emerge as spokespersons in high places, standing up for the new Middle East against its new cast of neo-colonialists. |
Tony Blair is still available. He says he is trustworthy.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Aren't you forgetting AE's Mayor Daley Syndrome? Just because some despicable character has mooched his way in doesn't mean they are not perfect for the job. After all, numberless people of the utmost decency and rectitude have only made the situation worse. Norwegians mainly.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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The Norwegians currently get Nil Points. As they are deeply embroiled and distracted by their own Norwegian versions of the saga of the Andrew formerly known as Prince.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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As our Norwegian court reporter (not to say, 'caught' reporter) perhaps you could first clear up something. I assume 'crown princess' means she is next in line of succession, or married to someone who is, and her son would be next in line, or near enough to worry about. Unlike Andrew at Number Eight. Shades of the Nepalese crown prince who killed ten members of the Royal Family including himself.
But this is not, as they say, existential. News that an ex-Prime Minister was caught up in the Epstein business maybe is. It's one thing Jeffrey getting his hooks into influential individuals, it's something else being given the keys to the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world. (That happened with a Malaysian prime minister, a smaller wealth fund and a different crook.)
Poor Jeffrey. He could have been the world's first trillionaire.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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This surprised me.
| King Harald resumes his duties, step-grandson remains in police custody |
Is it 1066 again? Oh, no, wrong King Harold.
| King Harald is gearing up to again carry out royal duties this week, after he and Queen Sonja returned from a winter holiday in the Canary Islands. It was interrupted by more health problems for the Norwegian monarch. |
What's he done this time?
| Norwegian media was on high alert after the 89-year-old king once again was admitted to hospital on Tenerife, suffering from a skin infection and dehydration. His personal physician also flew down from Oslo to assist, much like he did when the elderly monarch also became ill while on holiday in Malaysia two years ago. |
Made me smile, as "skin infection" in some medical reports is a polite alias for a venereal disease acquired by unprotected contact.
https://www.newsinenglish.no/2026/03/10/king-harald-resumes-his-duties-step-grandson-ordered-held-in-police-custody/
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | As our Norwegian court reporter (not to say, 'caught' reporter) perhaps you could first clear up something. |
They haven't caught me yet.
Don't let me catch you Boreades.
I won't...
You won't what?
I won't let you catch me ... sir. |
It will clear up. Just keep applying the ointment.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | I assume 'crown princess' means she is next in line of succession, or married to someone who is, and her son would be next in line, or near enough to worry about. |
That's right, married to the next in line.
| Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway (born Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby[a] 19 August 1973) is a member by marriage of the Norwegian royal family. She has been married to Crown Prince Haakon, the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne, since 2001. |
But she's a bit .. naughty.
| Mette-Marit's engagement to Haakon in 2000 was highly controversial. She was raised in a middle-class family, and had had relationships with several men convicted of drug-related crimes, one of whom, Morten Borg, fathered her son Marius Borg Høiby before going to prison. |
Dad was naughty as well.
| Her father was also a felon who had twice been convicted of violence. |
I don't know whether her step-mum counts as naughty.
| Her parents divorced, and her father later married professional stripper Renate Barsgård. |
Her engagement to Crown Prince Haakon has echoes of Our Charlie and Mrs Parker Bowles.
| The couple's eight-month engagement included a period of cohabitation in an Oslo apartment, of which the conservative Church of Norway disapproved. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mette-Marit,_Crown_Princess_of_Norway
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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He's a stepson? I feel cheated. And this Sonja character is clearly just a 'trophy wife'. After being married to someone royal for all those years, you want to branch out a bit. It's only natural. You can hardly complain if their moral standards are a bit lower than the national average, it's why you sent off for them in the first place.
Of course our royals don't have holidays. They make state visits to Cancun or wherever. Nor do they have skin infections because they can cure one another without going to the NHS. The so called King's Touch works particularly well for scrofula but 'laying on of hands' is generally applicable in those circles. (Not in either of the Prince Andrew senses though.)
Anyway keep at it, Borry. We need someone with connections to the rich and (in)famous. True, I've got more access to high-ups across the board than you have but I'm constrained by a sense of duty.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | True, I've got more access to high-ups across the board than you have but I'm constrained by a sense of duty. |
I will commend you to Mrs Parker Bowles. Next time I meet her at one of our village events.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You, minor royal, Wiltshire village. Look out for Big Ears and Noddy.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I am though slightly impressed. My own closest encounter is still that of a small boy (or a grown holidaymaker) waving a little flag as one/two of them passes in stately cavalcade.
"Did you see Mick back there?"
"Yes, still with his little flag. Bless."
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Who would build a railway from nowhere to nowhere that requires thirty-six tunnels and nine hundred and forty-three bridges (one of them the hardest railway bridge in the world to construct)? Is it
A. India who wants to join Hindi Jammu to Muslim Kashmir because they'll spend any amount, fight any foe, to keep Kashmiri Muslims inside India despite trying to get rid of Muslims everywhere else in India.
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