Tag Archives: transit fees

Diary Blog, 8 October 2026

Afternoon music

[All Souls College, Oxford]

On the blog 3 years ago

https://ianrobertmillard.org/2023/10/08/diary-blog-8-october-2023-including-a-look-at-the-upcoming-tamworth-and-mid-bedfordshire-by-elections

On the blog 2 years ago

On the blog 1 year ago

Tweets seen

[“Netherlands Admits Military Reserves Have Been Depleted Due to Aid to Ukraine

According to Military Watch Magazine, the Dutch Ministry of Defense has concluded that military assistance to Kyiv is undermining the combat readiness of the Dutch armed forces and making it more difficult for the country to fulfill its NATO obligations.

The ministry has declined to publicly disclose which NATO targets have been postponed or affected, or to provide details on the current combat readiness of individual Dutch military units. The admission highlights the growing tension between supplying Ukraine with military equipment and maintaining national reserves at levels considered necessary for a major conflict.

According to the ministry, by February 2026, the Netherlands will have provided Ukraine with approximately €11.7 billion in military assistance. The publication also claims that weapons stockpiles across NATO’s European members have been severely depleted, with shortages particularly affecting artillery ammunition, air-defense missiles, anti-tank weapons, and armored vehicles.

Europe is discovering the hard way that weapons sent abroad don’t magically regenerate back home. The bill for rebuilding those stockpiles could be just as serious as the bill for the aid itself.“]

[“Researchers at Stanford University say that, contrary to claims and expectations from the U.S. government and major business leaders, their independent analysis indicates that China could soon catch up with—and potentially surpass—the United States in the development of advanced artificial intelligence models.

The researchers argue that the gap between the two countries is narrowing rapidly, challenging the assumption that the United States will maintain a lasting lead in the global AI race.

The AI race is starting to look less like a marathon and more like a photo finish—with China closing the gap fast.“]

That is, I think, a signal that, should the European states get into a direct war situation with Russia, those European states will not be able to rely on American back-up.

She herself is neither English (that’s unarguable) nor, in any real sense, British. Her parents deliberately came to London for a few weeks so that she could be born in the UK and, as the law was in 1981, then be entitled later on to a British passport (that bad law was changed in 1982, so she only just scraped in before the portcullis was lowered). She then lived in Nigeria and the USA until she was 16 or 17. She is no more British than I am Nigerian.

Her children (who are of mixed-race) likewise.

That is a small taste of what the British people have coming down the tracks at them unless a social-national government, or one very similar, does not seize power pretty soon.

As already blogged…

Having said that, and incidentally, that AI-produced (?) picture of Kemi Badenoch in her supposed ancestral type of dress makes her look a lot better than usual. I have noticed in the past that black women usually look much better in that kind of colourful get-up.

Seems an underestimate anyway. Of course, the “small boat” arrivals are only ~5% of the whole migration invasion. Multiply those figures by about 20, and you get a better idea. Half a million to a million. Every single year.

Our society is already showing stress; by 2030, it may be showing clear signs of terminal stress.

Interesting. Had never seen, nor heard of, that.

Must add up to a massive amount. When I was a barrister, I drafted, at times, contracts for the transhipment of oil from the Middle East to black Africa. Each shipment was worth over USD $80M, and that was over 20 years ago. So maybe USD $150M today. If Iran is getting 20% of the value of every shipload, each one is worth perhaps USD $30M in “transit fees” to Iran. There might be several in a day even under present conditions.

[“Leonkov: Great Britain is gradually getting drawn into a direct conflict with Russia.

IF THERE IS A MAJOR ESCALATION, THE FIRST TARGETS WILL BE BRITISH FACTORIES THAT PRODUCE DRONES AND ROCKETS FOR KYIV.

Boris Johnson, who just the other day claimed he hadn’t started a war, has returned to his old tune: “We must continue bombing Russian oil refineries and power plants. Ukraine is on the verge of victory. Don’t slow down the sale of weapons (to Kyiv).“

Only three countries still believe that Ukraine is capable of confronting Russia: Great Britain, France, and Germany. However, even within those countries, voices are being heard that the conflict, in which Zelensky must remain in power until 2028, is costing them too much.

According to Western estimates, Ukrainian armed forces’ air strikes on Russia in July alone cost them $11 billion. Zelensky is spending a lot of money on these attacks, but his Western sponsors are not satisfied with the results. Everyone understands that Ukraine is losing.”]

There is no way of either proving or disproving my belief that “Boris” Johnson is getting paid large amounts offshore by the Kiev regime and (ipso facto) its backers (to promote the regime by promoting the Western support for it). It stacks up quite well logically, though, knowing what we know of the Kiev regime, its leading members, and the character of Johnson himself.

Late music

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Gipps]
painting by Emma Whitelock]