News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


Or in fact it does a great deal. Perhaps Bhutan have it right.


Perhaps people who work in crap jobs and struggle end up fixating on it,


Far from a coincidence that cameras were rolling.

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


Materialism is of course bad, however yes, salaries should be enough to make it attractive and also have a golden goodbye if they're voted out. And yes, corruption among politicians and others in public life should never be normalised and should always be prosecuted.

Parliamentary immunity (and that of judges and prosecutors) should also go immediately. There is no good reason for it; they are not diplomats.

News / The Iran war and Poland [745]


Up to no good in Albania apparently.

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


He'd not be chasing money like that.


That's long gone.

Being money-minded is however considered unworthy. It's not considered a good topic for conversation.

It must be one of the few places in the world where the head of government is not allowed to know exactly how much money they have or what it's invested in.

In Poland however, the culture is more materialistic which has bad effects on political life.

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


Why compare?

It seems much better to have a generalist in office than a mathematician.


She had degrees in both Chemistry and Law from Oxford. Nevertheless, she was a bad person. Our current Deputy PM has a part time qualification that she got while working in an old people's home. It is the equivalent to the certificate that kids do at 16. Yet she is a highly skilled politician, and also comes across as much more genuine and much brighter than most elsewhere in Europe.

About people further up the social scale, one thing that distinguishes there from most other places is that the brightest people often don't go into corporate life. They go into public administration, security services, the arts,, farming and the military. Some have money already however most aren't obsessively chasing it.

About Poland, a back bench politician doesn't earn much and few like to declare their assets, There is also corruption in public life which leads to cynicism.

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


Nor is it a church, mosque or temple, yet it's not unusual for communities' holidays to be celebrated.

If he didn't like that, make a formal complaint. Instead of making a díck of himself by destroying something.


Not exactly easy universities to get into. Better a degree (ideally an arts degree) from there than the way they do it in France. And of course there's no real reason for a politician to have a degree at all. Some of the best of them didn't.


The civil service aren't politicians. The people at the top of it are, by the way, very often "educated generalists" something that works well.

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


That so often just gives mediocre people some polish and connections.


There's talent there, however rarely in politics.

Some U.K. politicians are disappointing when you meet them. In Poland that is squared; there are some truly appalling people in the Sejm, some of them known to me.

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


You'd think they'd have known the difference.


That one hit headlines everywhere.

News / Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Hanukkah candles in Polish Parliament [459]


The place where one party leader held a press conference and waved a dildo on camera and a former president ran a party political broadcast dressed as a court jester under a banner saying "everything is black and white".

History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


Welcome to Bedlam!


Most such things are identical however in PL they like high sugar content.

Same with Jogobella. Some Polish shops in the UK sell it. It's just ordinary yoghurt, albeit heavily sweetened. Masmix too; identical to any similar product.

I even know a shop there that sells Apap. Basically pound shop paracetamol at premium prices.

This is all a bit off topic though.

News / The Iran war and Poland [745]


Something as serious as that really does need acting on if true or partially true. Even as things stand, it needs independently investigating.

We've all seen the numerous pics of him and Epstein. I wonder what the truth is.


Caesar could hold a military parade without thousands of empty seats.

It's interesting to guess what will come next in Iran.

History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


That's the key. He was a tyrant.


It's more that he tried to invade the U.K. and of course he had the Vatican under his thumb and "interesting" relations with Spain. Both of those parties also wanted to invade. Fortunately the Spanish hated him however it was a close call.

Fortunately he was defeated at Waterloo.

History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


An utterly evil character. No redeeming features whatsoever.

News / The Iran war and Poland [745]


Very wise.


It's not going to be easy, unfortunately.

History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


All foreign combatants including The Netherlands and France were there.

Your appraisal is a good one and very very close. There were also issues with the Polish government-in-exile (in fact both of them, since there was a split) which played a role.

News / The Iran war and Poland [745]



Nothing honourable about Trup...

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History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


There is.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]


I'd not call that hipster. More wealthy boomer.

There's parts of Stara Praga which feel better. Classic hipster; mediocre bars opened with family money.

History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


In some ways it ended in 1989.


Remember, pogroms are easy to whip up and take on a life of their own. I'm far less critical of those caught up in the Kielce pogrom after seeing how easily people were whipped up into pogroms (and they were pogroms) after the misinformation about the Southport killings.


Better still, beat up the (Polish) organisers who advertise such tours in the worst places with vodka and títties in the ads.

Anyway, Krakow is old hat now.

History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


They like to argue that black is white and white is black. You should see what some of them say about Jedwabne; they don't believe it themselves but desperately want to.


Nobody was "denied". This has been covered here many times before.


Someone once posted a screenshot of the relevant papers from the national archive here. Perhaps you missed it. It's probably findable. The Ambassador also made a statement about it to dispel the myth.

History / Why didn't Britain declare war on USSR for invading Poland in 1939? [103]


This is true.

It suited the PRL though to pretend that the western powers were against Poland.

That is also partly the origin of the myth about them not being invited to the victory parade.


Someone (who had spent a month in Preston) once said to me that the U.K. wasn't bombed at all. In fact Lancashire was heavily bombed and members of my family died in the blitz there. He probably didn't appreciate that the level of infrastructure and built environment was high and if, say, 25 or 50% were lost, there would still be a lot left.

Life / What do Poles really think about cats? [470]

@WarSore
Yep. And one of them may well be mine. It's a nice borough. Stare Mlociny (theoretically in Bielany) is cat central.


My late downstairs neighbour had 6 collies in a flat that can't be more than about 100sqm. He was a surgeon and was out all day leaving them to bark. Nice doggies, but they deserved a bit more freedom.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]

In the sense that one fetishises and eventually colonises the other, maybe.

A bit of ironic graffiti, glassware that looks like jam jars and tatty old furniture does not an 'alternative' venue make.

History / Greatest Polish and Slavic scientists, their discoveries, inventions and achievements [63]


I've not, however my patience for foreign people who've lived there for years and can't order a taxi or have a simple discussion is very finite.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]


Hipster and touristy in some parts. Run down and suburban in others.

Not "taken over" by anyone though.

Warsaw suffers because of the number of students there. That and "sloiki" who just want shiny and modern.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]

There's still the old(ish) Warsaw if you know where to look. It's been an eclectic city since it was rebuilt though. So many were killed that relatively few Warsovians have their roots there.

I have my favourite places to eat and drink, most of them old fashioned however they're not to be mentioned here since I persona prefer them to stay as they are.

Kraków is a tourist hell, at least in the centre. Disneyland with schabowy.

News / The Iran war and Poland [745]


That was never going to happen. They would all die on day 1.


A lot.

Travel / Traveling! What to do in Warsaw and Krakow? [39]


Used to.

Tachele's an upmarket shopping and office, Kopi is a few old age pensioners. They were always a bit too organised and German, at least by 2000.


They probably do.


As many as there's zlotych to be laundered. Some of those places barely get a customer a day.

History / Greatest Polish and Slavic scientists, their discoveries, inventions and achievements [63]


i.e. perfect.


Exactly. We say many other things. I've only heard that term used by military.

Incidentall, I've heard Zzzs (pron: Zeds) used as slang for Zlotych.

History / Greatest Polish and Slavic scientists, their discoveries, inventions and achievements [63]


Always important to take care of sleep hygene.


I am.