Anchorage, USSR.

 I never expected anything from Anchorage but was astonished by the warm welcome, handshakes, hugs and red carpet given to Putin by the Americans. This is the bloke who has stolen territory from another nation in 2014, then again in 2022 and who has been directly responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine and, indeed, in his own country. Whilst I appreciate the need to talk to Putin and try to find some way out of this awful business, the US soldiers on their knees rolling out that red carpet was beyond belief. It merely confirms the opinion that I came to a long time ago - there are many Very Stupid people running the current presidency.

Putting all that to one side and trying hard not to get angry as the pictures keep appearing of the smiles and that damned carpet, Putin has benefited considerably from this one day in Anchorage, Alaska. He can see that there is no immediate threat of any real concern to him from the world's greatest power at this time and, indeed, that, were it not for this annoying Ukraine issue, he could actually be making some huge deals with the United States and deliver what his country would be delighted to read about and, should those deals lead to improved economic circumstances more widely, the population of Russia would largely cease to worry so much about all that military stuff, which he hadn't intended to tell them about in the first place - another than as some Special Military Operation that was a matter of tidying up some past errors in borders that needed to be fixed.

Now he must feel free to continue as he pleases as, with support from the US, who is going to stop him?

And that is what really worries me now. I fear a massive escalation as Russian troops make a renewed effort to capture those key places that would give them almost permanent control over the East and permit a further build-up of resources and men so that a successful attack could be formulated against Kharkiv from the East and North and I would not be at all surprised to see a stream of forces coming South from the Belarus border quite soon. That would enable all the currently relatively peaceful parts of Ukraine to be taken over and with Ukraine troops then spread so thinly in all directions I cannot see how they could stop any advance.

Last time they did because they had fresh troops and plenty of them and, particularly relevant, Russian troops and equipment were dreadfully poor both in operation and planning. I think they thought they could just walk in and get little resistance so no-one bothered to plan seriously for anything other than moving in and taking over. They probably spent more on making new forms to be filled in and passports for the Ukraine population than they did on checking that equipment worked and troops knew where they where supposed to go.

This time Russian military leaders appear to have learned from their mistakes in 2022 and, whilst not doing brilliantly well, they have developed systems for minimising the impact of the Ukraine drones and they have built up considerably greater and fresher forces than Ukraine will ever be able to manage. North Korea has, of course, also topped up the numbers which has allowed commanders to send masses into battle along the old-fashioned lines of whoever has the most people in a battle will win as long as they can keep replenishing those killed. North Koreans have been easy cannon-fodder that no-one has really been worried about losing. No awkward explanations to mothers needed for them.

So I cannot imagine why Putin should not now surge forward in all directions, maybe assisted by some heavy bombing to minimise defence and resistance in a few towns along the way and also to show anyone in the West thinking about leaping to Ukraine's defence that there's not a great deal of point any more as it is all effectively going to be over soon.

A modest nuclear explosion or two would serve to test just what the rest of us would actually do. I am afraid to say that I don't think we would do anything other than moan loudly and have a lot of meetings. With that confirmation that we won't even defend Ukraine when they're being bombed or chemically weaponed out of existence but merely allow as many as can escape with their lives to come and live in Europe or the British Commonwealth, Putin can simply get what he wants and then consider what to do about Georgia and maybe some other errant states as he gradually pulls the USSR back together.

I suspect he'll leave those countries lucky enough to have been able to join NATO and accept that they're not coming back just yet so the European Union and Britain can take a break and gradually issue new maps for the atlas books.

There will still be demonstrations about Gaza or Palestine and how bad we all are in our attitude to what is happening there. None of those people with time to wave placards and cause trouble in Britain, however, will be bothered about all the children that have already disappeared into Russia, forcefully taken from parents in Ukraine towns that Russian troops control. None of those people will be bothered about a vast country that was peaceful on February 23, 2022 now under threat of being subjugated to communist party control, with children taught that their country should never really have existed and their parents obliged to fight to attack resistance in Ukraine instead of defending Ukraine. 

I said at the start how stupid many powerful Americans seem to be. Add the Hamas-loving Palestine liberation supporters wandering around our towns and cities at a time when other causes are far more deserving of attention and action to that list. And the idiotic politicians who also support them and the judges who don't punish them.

I was going to add the politicians who, since 2014 have just looked away or done little but hold meetings and make speeches at best in defence of Ukraine, to the Really Stupid list but that's not right. They all belong in the Really Scared list. Because that's why we have done nothing. Not because it would cost money, Not because Ukraine isn't in NATO. Not because Ukraine is a long way away. Not because we're a bit short of troops and equipment. Not because we haven't been directly threatened ourselves. Not because it wouldn't be right. No, because we're scared.

Nearly Everything Is Wrong

There are so many things that I feel are either wrong or going wrong now in this country. I shall try and summarise them in the hope that as I do so some sort of fix may come to mind.

The free speech thing

I genuinely feel that I have to think carefully now before I speak on a whole range of issues, many of which may well appear in this list. The ability to talk about them, express a view on them or just despair at them by throwing your hands in the air and walking away in what someone would probably describe as a macro micro- aggression, is a keystone of what I’ve always considered a British way of life.

What someone may say or write may not be true, accurate or supported by any evidence but that should not prevent them from saying it. Some people believe the world is flat, that there are aliens amongst us or that God made the World in seven days, or maybe six and had a rest on the seventh, I’m never too sure about that. I don’t happen to go along with any of these and suspect that the vast majority of the population would look upon anyone proclaiming at least a couple of these statements as being a little odd if not deluded. But that doesn’t mean the person can’t say those things. Nor for that matter, should there be any restraint upon someone saying the opposite or arguing with them.

Another person may be offended by words but, other than in rare instances of something like prolonged abuse by having someone shouting at you or playing some speech through loudspeakers a few feet from your window. It should not be illegal to offend someone. There are perfectly adequate laws already which cater for the abusive person or noisy neighbour where there is some clear and present danger to the other person’s health or right to some peace.

So many of the best jokes make fun of religion, colour, body shape, sex, native country, lack of intelligence and maybe a hundred other characteristics of being human to the extent that there are precious few that I can think of which have not been the subject of some joke I;’ve heard at some time in my life. None of these have made me conclude that the Irish are all stupid, Scots all mean, Welsh all doing something they shouldn’t with sheep or that all taxi drivers are Pakistani and all amusing waiters Italian. I am pretty sure that not all blondes are dumb nor do all black men have enormous willies. Not all gay men stand with one arm upon their waist and speak like women, nor do all lesbian women have shorn heads and a butch attitude. There may well be Jewish men who haven’t been circumcised and people who think that genital mutilation of girls in places like Zimbabwe is a good thing to do. There are people with big lips and wide nostrils and black curly hair who have no relatives in Africa and people with very white skin with freckles, blue eyes and orange hair who have no connection whatsoever with Scotland. There may even be one or two Australians who don’t have a Barbie and not all Barbies have a Ken.

So if someone tells me a good joke about any of these people or characteristics I will laugh if it’s a good one and think nothing worse of anyone who might comprise any of the elements. If the joke is just crude or almost deliberately racist or designed to put down someone with a disability then I may well respond not with a laugh but make the point that I didn’t think it was funny or suggest the teller is being a bit extreme. I might even thump him if I do take offence or feel he’s poking fun at a friend but I don’t believe he should be banned by the state from saying what he thinks.

Indeed, as things stand, had I taken a swing at the fellow then there’s every chance that I would be the one with a criminal record (for the ancient law about causing actual bodily harm) although he would find himself being recorded for a ‘hate incident’.

Here’s the definition in the UK today:

A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone's prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender. Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement.

So you can see that anyone, all of us, can be in trouble. All it takes is some other person to think that we are prejudiced. Note that evidence of the hate element is not required. Just that someone thinks I have a prejudice against a certain characteristic of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender. Strangely, I don’t see ‘gender’ itself referred to so I may still be OK offending a man or a woman but they could still get me if they thought I was offending them because of their beliefs or disability, for example. And I needn’t know anyway. I’m still in trouble.

I think it is even worse in Scotland now where a hate crime, rather than an incident, can be committed by being ‘abusive’.

While the English hate crime rules specify that conduct must be “threatening and intended to stir up hatred”, Scotland's definition is broader, proscribing conduct that is “threatening or abusive and intended to stir up hatred”

The net result of all this is very depressing and frustrating. I wonder how on Earth it has all happened, and so quickly? Just a few years ago I would not have dreamt that my country would be a place where I would need to be so careful about speaking out on some of these issues or making jokes, of being misinterpreted as someone who wants to cause offence or trouble when all I intend is to amuse a like-minded friend or maybe debate a contentious issue.

I will state for the record this: I have no personal dislike of anyone on the grounds of what they look like, whether they’re straight or gay, both or neither or any other characteristic of their human self. I may have an issue with religion, though. If someone’s religion is such that they believe in a God or gods who affirm that I should not exist because I am a Christian or who would be obliged to end my life on this planet if I were to criticise their leader or supreme being then, yes, I will not be particularly at ease in that person’s company. That would be someone who appears to be protected by new legislation in this land. And yet I feel that I am in no way protected should I ever say something that does incur the wrath of some god or brings some jihad into being against me. From what I have read the whole Christian community would seem to be vulnerable to attack from some people of a particular religious fervour and yet there seems to be little we can do or say about it.

We just have to sit back and stay quiet.

There is no free speech and such speech that there is is policed in a way that is patently obviously biased. Demonstrations against Israel are seemingly permitted and people can fly Palestinian flags from government buildings. The NHS and Police can paint Pride rainbows everywhere and spend huge amounts of our money on events celebrating diversity but as soon as anyone wants to object they’re objects to be shot down in flames but mercifully merely arrested on most occasions.

I would not survive five minutes at most rallies I see reported on News programmes or events happening in towns around to celebrate ‘diversity’ whatever that really means. I’d only have to say that I'm not a great fan of all this transgender stuff, or that I would rather my money were spent by the NHS on people to answer telephones than on new paint jobs on cars and vans and I’d be in trouble as someone could regard me as being prejudiced. (See above).

So I sit back and stay quiet. Then I write this article.

The Pride thing

As I mentioned above I am not bothered about people’s sexual orientation but I don’t think it is something that should be ‘celebrated’ or promoted in events or by government-funded departments and organisations. Can you imagine anyone arranging a Heterosexual Celebration? That would seem most weird. That’s because the vast majority of people in this country are not any of the letters in the latest LBGQ… alphabet. You would think that a ‘normal’ Mr and Mrs were the minority these days. Yet describing them as ‘normal’ infers that any other combination is ‘abnormal’ when the truth is that they’re simply ‘not normal’. There is a difference but it will no doubt get lost in Court. Abnormal implies it is wrong whereas ‘not normal’ simply means it is not usual, not the norm, not the average.

I think that Pride events originated from the expression ‘Proud to be gay’ that started to appear in the 60s. That seems quite reasonable and to which I have no objection. What has evolved though is almost some kind of commercialisation of the whole thing and the takeover of that lovely rainbow motif so that now it has less to do with what happens when the sun shines in a shower than what two men do in a shower. And that’s a great pity as the former is delightful in anyone’s book of things to wonder at and offends no-one whilst the latter is of somewhat limited appeal and seems decidedly grubby to many.

By all means let the gay and lesbian people have their events but I don’t think they should be promoted at schools or involve children. Books do not need to be revised to feature Janet and Gillian or John and Jack or every new TV series commissioned have to have some gay or lesbian main characters as if they are underrepresented on our screens when it is clear that they’re massively over-represented in fact.

The Gender thing

Very fortunately, there has been a recent ruling by the English Courts that there are just two genders - male and female. You are either a man or a woman and that is a biological fact. Why on Earth it was necessary to have this decided in a Court of Law is beyond me and just shows how weak the nation’s government has become when middle managers and minority supporters have managed to take over the scene so effectively that, for a while, we were in danger of allowing anyone to declare that they were one or the other at any particular time, regardless of what chromosomes they possessed.

Unfortunately, the law in Scotland appears still to allow such nonsense. Surely the UK needs to have one overriding rule on this?

Needless to say, there have been several organisations who have sought to ignore this ruling on the basis that they believe they can work to reverse it and have a ‘gender spectrum’ again. There are plenty of people still determined to continue to educate their workforce on the incorrect assumption that a man can be a woman or variations along that theme and that to offend them will be in breach of some clause in the dreadful Equality legislation which was drafted so badly that Stonewall et al have made millions from courses and placements within organisations ever since.

As far as I am aware we have all managed to get along fine with just being men and women. We have had separate toilets and changing rooms in public spaces that preserve what I regard as the right of the majority of either sex to have privacy from being gazed at or closely observed by the opposite sex. There have been ‘unisex’ toilets and rooms and no doubt there will continue to be developments but as the laws were heading it was a gift to some blokes who could pretend to be women and show off their dangly bits to girls and ladies whenever they so pleased without anyone stopping them. Indeed, it has been the ladies who have complained about such things happening who have been the ones most badly affected. Companies, universities and institutions have simply sacked the women on the grounds that they were being prejudiced against the bloke!

This has been the most extraordinarily ridiculous nonsense and, whilst there are signs that it is getting back to some semblance of normality, what the vast majority of the British public believe to be right, there are still battles to be won and many, many HR Managers and influential staff to be got rid of.

The Immigration thing

In April 1968, Enoch Powell MP foreshadowed what he believed would be a violent and tragic future for Britain if current immigration policies continued. He argued that the influx of immigrants was leading to a situation with "American proportions" in terms of racial conflict. Powell's speech was a direct response to the Race Relations Act of 1968, which he strongly opposed.

I cannot support his objection to the Race Relations Act 1968, which all seems entirely reasonable. Basically saying everyone should be treated equally, with it being illegal for someone to refuse to give accommodation or a service to another purely because of their race. No-one can argue with that. What he was really trying to bring to our attention was not so much how we should deal with those already here but the dangers for society in continuing to permit so many more immigrants to set up home in Britain.

Now we can see far more clearly the results of our comparatively open doors to those seeking to make a home here. There are now towns or areas within cities where the population has a vast majority from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka or African states. In school classrooms there may be only a single white face, certainly many where English is just a second language at home. These figures have happened due to decisions in the past and no-one can do much about them now. Indeed, as the immigrant parents have several more children on average than those with a long line of descent here, those areas where the division is just, 50-50 are predicted to be 80% immigrant race to 20% all-British race within the next decade.

Whilst we might conceivably have coped with those numbers and seen communities develop in cities like Leicester, towns like Bradford, areas like Southall and Harlesden, now the numbers coming in to this country are growing at such a rate that it will not be long before more than half the population of Britain comprises immigrants. These are people with no special ties to Britain, no belief in our traditions, no particular interest in our history or what we call our way of life. They are not intrinsically bad people but many are very different and have a different attitude to life. For some, it may be quite reasonable to fight for something they desire or to use weapons to defend themselves. For others, initial frustration at how they may be regarded or treated upon arrival can cause resentment and, almost from the start, they see themselves as a separate group who have to look after their own interests and preserve their own ways against what they must see as quite a lot of negativity towards their being allowed to be here.

Often not being able to find a normal job can force people into working in the Black Economy or joining drug organisations and other criminal organisations making the most of their newfound cheap labour.

However nice and decent many of the people arriving on our shores may be, there are also a lot who are neither, who are happy to take the many benefits we provide but show no respect to our traditions or ways of life.

Those from other religions seek to continue to worship their gods in the way they are always done. So mosques and temples and other special sites are created or old buildings transformed for their purpose. When that religion, though, is one that has at its heart a hatred of the religion of the nation they are living in, there is going to be conflict. So far this has just bubbled along under the surface and those who have not liked the new neighbours have simply moved away. There is likely to come a time, though, when towns and parts of cities will become almost entirely populated by immigrants and their growing families and they will elect representatives locally and nationally to make and amend the laws of this country.

Local rules and regulations may not adversely affect those living outside the areas concerned and more and more ‘natural, British people will move to villages and towns in areas which remain less populated by the immigrants.

It is when the number of immigrant MPs and judges start to grow that the country itself will really change and we will find that we have lost control of our nation. I have no idea what this might entail but I am also of the view that I will not be the only one thinking about this and that, before the numbers do grow much larger, someone will try to do something about that. And that’s where the trouble starts.

The vast majority of both the immigrants and natural population want to live in peace, preserve things pretty much as they are. A few more mosques here and there, a few more Asian food stores, another street of Turkish barbers maybe and Syrian restaurants are pretty much certain to come but it is when we see people starting to behave in bad ways that we will start to object. More violence on the streets, more mistreatment of young girls, more powerful drug and criminal organisations buoyed by the extra staff available, more changes in the libraries and public offices to represent better the new majorities, less respect for our historical monuments or wartime sacrifices which mean nothing, at best, or actually offend, at worst, the new people living nearby. Slowly that vast majority is an insufficiently influential majority, either in homes or offices or in government, to have any impact and the minority starts to win, just like the middle managers won the woke battle without our noticing anything until it was too late.

Britain will simply have no choice but to change and become a multi-racial society with its past largely forgotten and unnoticed. Our old-fashioned manners and polite customs will gradually disappear and become the stuff of myth and legend - what the old folk used to do.

Different rules may well apply in different parts. Whilst I think a passport will still remain valid across the United Kingdom, one does wonder to what extent a large number of those objecting to the way things are changing might seek to protect some areas? Will Scotland get its independence and close its immigration doors. Not that they were ever particularly open anyway. Will Wales seek to stay rather more traditionally Welsh and make life difficult for the non-Welsh as they could do if they put their minds and language to the task? How about those comparatively safe from immigration in Northern Ireland? One might think they’d think about joining up with Eire after all but the EU country has its own problems already with a lot of immigrants landing there hoping to get across the border into the UK by that route. No, better to raise the barricades and stop the boats from Liverpool.

For a good many years, I am sure that life in many towns and certainly villages will continue very much as it always has been and inhabitants will seldom see an immigrant or think a great deal about what is happening in some cities or areas I have mentioned as likely growth areas for immigrant homes. Those living there may see some news from time to time of strife or race relation problems, maybe even between immigrant communities as you can see far more hatred between some black and brown people than is evident in black and white clashes. Then we have the yellow and the cream and shades of pale brown, all of whom are vastly increasing in numbers and have their own newly grown areas to defend. Some seem to manage this better than others. Many do manage to fit in with us natives and become welcome neighbours and we enjoy the difference, just as the HR managers encourage us to do in their diversity and equity training. It’s the ones who don’t that worry me. And there’s going to be a lot of them, and they are not going on any training course or likely to pay much attention even if they do.

The Empire thing

For some reason huge chunks of British history have almost overnight become something we don’t talk about. We certainly are encouraged not to mention the British Empire or to celebrate any success we may have had in developing another country. It’s a bit like Basil Fawlty’s ‘Don’t mention the war!’ (Incidentally you can’t view that episode of the wonderfully funny Fawlty Towers on BBC TV anymore - it has been banned. Happily any search will find a copy you can play or download! So much for that effort to shutter free speech.)

If I were to believe all that I hear now from museums and library announcements or read on information sheets from the National Trust, this country has the most dreadful history. Apparently most of our famous and erstwhile respected industrial leaders were slave traders and every owner of a country pile is descended from someone who bought and sold people or had them working on plantations for next to nothing and generally we behaved terribly in every country we invaded and mercilessly plundered.

We are asked to pay massive amounts of money to despotic nations in Africa or a group of islands in the middle of nowhere for whatever we are supposed to have done in some previous centuries.

If anything, the truth seems to be that we were very much responsible for ending slavery and that prior to it finally being accepted that it’s a bad thing virtually every country was doing it in some form or another. I have a feeling that there are many small nations in Africa that still are - or where some self-imposed dictator can tell everyone around what to do or they’re in trouble, which isn’t much different. Actually, there would have been many slave owners who were a damn sight more caring about the people they owned than many leaders of such nations are today.

It seems only Britain, though, that has to grovel and apologise and write out 150 lines on how we should have behaved better in the old days and here’s a billion or two in reparations.

Now it’s not immigrants doing all this stuff I have to say. It’s white people and lots of educated people at universities and in government departments. Quite where they got an education so divorced from reality or with such obviously biased reading material I cannot imagine. However, we only have ourselves to blame for this, just as the woke stuff has come from a group of 30-40 year olds who all seem to have come from the same class at some University or College and now populate the vast majority of HR roles and key decision-making roles in that respect across industry and the public services as well as finding their way into the civil service who now seem to be the people actually running the country.

We might be able to reverse all this nonsense but it will require a government that is prepared to make massive cuts in the Civil Service and force business and institutions to revisit their policies on training especially regarding British history and matters of equality.

The war thing

One thing that might deter some of the people thinking of catching the next boat to Dover might be if they were obliged to serve in the Forces for a few years as a minimum. We are dreadfully under-resourced in all matters military and I can easily understand how this has come about. It genuinely never occurs to us that Britain will ever be invaded. No-one is going to come and try and take over this country. We won the war, the last two, in fact. I genuinely don’t know when we were last invaded or defeated here but it was probably by the French and we’re chummy with them now. No-one else is near enough to be bothered. OK, Eire wants a bit of the United Kingdom up there in the north of the island on the left but they’re no threat to me or any of us over here and not a big threat, to be honest, even to people in Northern Ireland.

I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of National Service. Indeed, at St Albans School in 1966 my friend Ian Gold and I persuaded the Headmaster to allow us to set up a Community Support section instead of what had previously been a requirement that we enrol in one of the school’s Army, Navy or Air Force cadet training groups. That would have necessitated us wearing uniform, going on parade and being shouted at by a Sergeant Major and no doubt told off for not having shiny enough boots or buttons. Not only were there marching parades every week but we would have had to go on mock battles and learn how to look after and fire guns and various bits of equipment the forces had access to via the adult sections.

In those days the Masters at School were often men who had genuine ranks from active service in World War II and their enthusiasm for putting young teenagers through the sort of training they’d had to undergo was evident.

Most boys just went along with it and many actually seemed to enjoy it, the physical opportunities to get fitter appealed to some and the chance to shout at other pupils appealed to others in a less pleasant way. One or two did show some genuine leadership skills and prowess in matters military and may well have gone on to excel in their chosen field but for most of us and, most definitely in my case, I could see no point whatsoever in all that.

Now, whilst I would really not wish a military spell of National service on any of my children, I do see that we are terribly unprepared and I don’t mean war in which we’re invaded but in providing deterrence to others who are threatening either us or friendly nations. The case of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a classic example of our failure.

Russia could plainly see, evidenced by how we had reacted to every move they’d made before, especially in Crimea, as well as from the knowledge that their spies have been ridiculously easily able to obtain, that Britain was unable to make any real threats nor able to carry much weight in influencing other countries who were similarly grossly underfunded in terms of military equipment and trained personnel. So all we could do was shout ‘Foul!’ and talk a lot about how terrible it all was but it wasn’t even possible to send Ukraine much by way of weapons for a long time. That is despite our commitment, when Ukraine agreed to return the nuclear weapons they had held on behalf of the USSR to be relocated in the Russian Federation, that we and NATO generally would ensure their security. We have very sadly broken our promise there and, whilst we have been the main nation to try and support Ukraine over the last three and a half years, we have really not done a great deal. That’s not because we don’t want to but it’s because we haven’t got the resources to make much difference.

Ignoring the fact that there would probably be some international problem with our actually going to help fight there, we simply haven’t got the troops to do so. I am not even sure we have enough to operate as a sort of defence across the border in Poland or wherever. Most other countries in Western Europe are the same and those in Eastern Europe are a bit too small and have their own borders to worry about.

So now I can see, rather late in the day admittedly, that there is a case for having a much bigger set of Army, Navy and Air Force capabilities, modern, functioning equipment and a massive intelligence force that knows exactly who is doing what and where. War is not just won by chucking missiles at each other but by defeating the enemy from within. That we ought to be pretty good at but so far we’ve just been playing around and shouting over the fence and sending some money. Welcome though our support has been, and it has helped persuade other nations to keep supporting Ukraine, so much more needs to be done and done now. Russia can most definitely be persuaded that it either goes big and risks genuine retaliation from those nations with enough resources like America and maybe some others or settles out of court with a piece of two of land but will still have a massive reparations bill and obligations to meet over decades to come.

I can still see Putin hitting the nuclear button, destroying a small town perhaps, if he feels that there is no hope of him getting further otherwise. The question is whether we, NATO, or whoever would even respond then other than to wail and wring our hands in despair. It’s a risk I reckon he could take as it would effectively give him much of Ukraine which would have no choice but to call it a day for now. They’d keep Ukraine and independence but would lose a huge amount of land and there would still be no peace, just a sad acceptance that no-one is strong enough or brave enough to put Putin down. Over time it will all flare up again and, I suspect, it will be when some of us have woken up and realised that it only takes a minor incursion into a NATO country and we’re obliged to respond. By then we might have built up some forces a bit and started to believe in our abilities to be the force we once were in the world.

Now that force is, of course, unlikely to include any immigrants as it stands but maybe if we can say that a condition of living in this country is that you’ll have to fight for it then some might stop off in Sweden or Turkey instead.

All I wanted to do was arrange a blood sample somewhere convenient

 You would think that it would be quite a simple task to arrange to get a blood test. When I lived in Astcote I could drop in to the Medical Centre in Greens Norton, a couple of miles away, and arrange one. In fact, because this was always something that a doctor had asked me to do, they would originally get staff there to tell me when I could have the test. That changed, maybe because not everyone might have been available on the dates advised, and instead I would get a text message to ask that I make the booking. That always worked simply and I never needed to wait more than a few days which, bearing in mind the doctor needed to know what was going on in and around my body, the sooner he got some results the better.

When I moved to Bozeat, I had to register with a new surgery and that was in Woollaston, again just a few miles away and quite convenient. During my initial meeting with a Practice Nurse there she took some blood as a matter of routine and I was thinking that the system would be much the same as before for future tests. Being just above the acceptable numbers for diabetes, I get asked to do a blood test a couple of times a year and, now in my 70s too, there may be other checks they wish to do from time to time so this business of getting a blood test needs to be efficient and timely.

That test, back in January 2024 or thereabouts was the last one I had. I have had all sorts of messages from some NHS organisation or another telling me I should arrange another one but I have singularly failed to do so with any success. The whole NHS process seems in complete disarray around here. I first enquired whether my local surgery could do one like before but I was told they can't do that any more. I am not sure why and didn't bother to ask. I have to call a number to arrange this. There is an alternative of visiting a website but the website advised me that there were no available appointments at either of the two centres that are vaguely convenient, one in Wellingborough and the other in Irthlingborough. Neither are particularly close but they were the best of the bunch. There's another in Kettering but I remember the one occasion I had to go there for another purpose was a nightmare; parking being something that required a great deal of skill in the tiny spaces allocated in a most extraordinary two-story affair that was more like a big car transporter than a car park. It was also a long walk from any facilities at the hospital. All in all, a place I was not at all interested in returning to.

I enquired at the local Medical Centre in the village where I can collect my prescriptions. The lady there was helpful and, because I actually wanted to make two consecutive appointments as my wife now also needed to have a blood test, I hoped she might be able to do something. She failed too, however. My concern was that even if I did manage to find one appointment for me at some point in the future, that might be the sole one available and so the idea of making two at about the same time would be a potential non-starter. As it was, the 'no appointments are available at this time' message saved me from having to worry about that as I couldn't even make the one!

I returned to look online and wondered whether I might call the place in Wellingborough direct and make a couple of appointments that way. There are websites galore out there but even using a search facility with what looks like the official one for this area I get no result for 'blood test'. One has a small block of letters A-Z to help people find services but absolutely nothing happened when I clicked on B. I am usually pretty good at finding my way around on the web but failed miserably to find any useful information on the Isebrook Outpatient Centre in Wellingborough. I did find a number but when I rang that it said the number wasn't recognised! That is the sort of thing that should get a web administrator sacked.

I found an 0300 number for Isebrook Hospital rather than the Outpatients place and rang that. It was nice to get an answer quite quickly but the lady told me I would have to call another number. This was 01536 494411. I called that and get a recorded message from a gentleman to tell me that there would be a considerable delay in answering my call and that I should, in any event, just go online to make an appointment for a blood test at Kettering. I did hang on for a while but there wasn't even the usual canned music coming down the line but a succession of odd noises which, if they had been intended to ensure I didn't hang on, were very successful in their purpose. I had called the previous lady at 3pm. She did warn me that the line was only open from 8am to 4pm which I had thought a bit strange. I said to her at the time that I didn't think there should be a problem as there was about an hour to go. She didn't respond to that comment and now I see why. I rather suspect that no-one answers that number anyway, whether between 8am and 4pm or not.

So I go back online and now I am getting desperate. Whilst my preferred choices are still not available there is somewhere called Northants County Council in Kettering. I wonder that this is more likely to be for people arranging to talk about Council matters rather than appointments for a blood test - or is this just an alternative title for the dreadful place in Kettering that I really do not want to return to?  I mean, going there to have one's blood tested is likely to give some weird readings due to all the stress involved in attempting to park one's car without it getting scratched in that ridiculous car park and searching for the right place to go afterwards.

I selected this Northants Council option, though, to see what is was all about and completed enough to get me to a point where I get an address. Bowling Green Road, Kettering. I look this up on Google Maps and it is some distance from the dreaded hospital. That's encouraging but I still can't be sure it's somewhere that actually does blood tests. I use StreetView to drive around and there's this massive Council building. I mean, it has to be a Council building as no normal business would have enough spare resources to afford such a pile. Our endless supplies of rates and taxes, though, can be funnelled by faceless bureaucrats into nice properties and glorious offices for the leaders. I'm not saying that Councils should all do business in grotty terraced houses in some dilapidated area but I do object to all the fancy, expensive stuff which most companies can't afford or whose shareholders would have good reason to object to. Companies that do make substantial profits and provide good returns for shareholders can spend those profits as they please and lord it over the area but Councils do not make profits, they collect our money and are obliged to spend it as efficiently as possible on providing services. Part of that service is, of course, to provide good working conditions for staff so offices are necessary but not ruddy great piles of expensive city centre estate. But all that is another story. Suffice it to say, the main driveway up to the front of the building did not look like either a place I should be able to park or the door an entrance for people needing blood tests.

In the comments you get on Google Maps, however, someone had complimented the staff on doing an efficient blood test so I guessed it might be worth finding out more. On StreetView I spotted a sign for where Council staff and visitors should park and followed the road around a corner and a reasonably big and open space car park where I reckoned it might be feasible to park and not gather umpteen scratches. Quite where the entrance for blood test visitors was I was not able to establish and the website was vacant on all this anyway. However, I thought that I'd try an appointment or two here. It's a long stretch from Bozeat but I'd book a couple of slots if I could and I could always cancel if something better turns up or someone reads this and decides that it's time to sort out appointment life properly for us here.

I started the booking session again and selected this Council place. At last, I did get some options. Lots of times available but the first were on 14 August. That's six weeks away and I'm not sure we'll both be here but I had to book something so I booked 1:10pm for me. Then I restarted and kept my fingers firmly crossed that there would still be a 1:20pm appointment for my wife. There was, although there was also a 1:10pm one which made me wonder whether my first effort had actually worked! I decided not to worry too much about that and confirmed the second and made a note of the long reference numbers as requested. 

So, I have managed to make two appointments but at a place miles away and not without some difficulty along the way. I find it quite extraordinary that staff can't be employed to answer phones promptly and help people with things like this. Or by all means have an online booking system but have one that doesn't just say 'nothing available'. There must surely always be some slots available but the software used doesn't handle that properly. Anyone managing this element of the service does not deserve the massive salary that I am quite sure they receive. It's a failure and cannot be blamed on excessive demand or COVID. It should be fairly easy to estimate the number of people who will need to make an appointment and assign sufficient staff who can do other tasks while not answering calls too. The websites are all pretty dreadful and seem like islands in a stream of data presentation with no common theme other than a lot of NHS logos and blue.

I don't know what one is supposed to do to get an appointment to talk to a doctor or someone qualified to advise. 

Let's try:

First I'll search for the surgery on Google.

That's not a great deal of help as nowhere does it tell me how to make an appointment. I'll try the Contact details.

OK, that gives me a number but is there not something more, like whether I can book online or when I have to call about something? I'll visit the surgery website. Thought that's what I had already done but obviously not! See what I mean about disconnected sites?

Here goes:

Eh? What's Albany House? Who are Anima Health? is that a misprint for Animal Health and I've arrived at a Vets by mistake? Weird. I tried the link again. Same result. More web errors and more sackings I'd suggest.

Now I'm stuck. I'll try a new search.

This looks more hopeful. Maybe because it appears to be outwith the NHS web environs!

There's even a 'Book appointments' button. (Bet it doesn't do blood tests though.)

Let's see what it does do.

So far so good but nowhere is there any advice about making an appointment for a blood test. There's a number to call to see a doctor the same day which sounds impressive but I can't see that actually working unless you call at 8am on the dot and beat everyone else or just happen to strike lucky later on. I have heard of people having to hang on for ages as the early birds always keep the lines full for an hour or so at least by which time one would expect the slots all to have been filled. The better bet, and one that might lead me to a blood test appointment too, is to use the SystemOnline link perhaps.

Here goes,

Oh dear. That was going well too. Although the page didn't mention blood tests you could specify why you wanted an appointment. Well, you could if you could actually make one but at 20 August there were no further future options. Much like how it all started with the system for blood tests at the places I wanted to go to at the outset.

I really do not believe that every slot at my local surgery is booked between now, 7 July and 20 August. I mean, if they were then how could anyone call - even at 8:00am - and get one?

I spotted this in small print on the SystemOnline page after logging in. Easy to miss. 

Maybe I can ask a question there and get someone to arrange that appointment. I do also have another query about some trial medicine anyway so I may try this.

No red button. So that's a load of nonsense too!

I finally managed to ask a question using a Contact facility within the site. I had to say that this was not a question for a clinician or it wouldn't let me start but my query was about a trial of a new drug I have been invited to join so I am not sure whether it needed a 'clinician' or not. When submitting it, however, I noticed that there as a facility to approve my details being used to triage my query in a clinical fashion so maybe somebody will deal with it. We'll just have to wait and see. Most users will, however, definitely have stopped at that point.

I downloaded an app on my phone in the hope that that might have some facility to ask questions or send messages. None were apparent and the appointment system tried to book me in at some unknown clinic! When I went to ask for one nearer to me in the hope it might find the one I am supposed to use all that happened was that I was directed to Google Maps and shown Woolaston and Bozeat surgery once again. I guess I was expected to call the number or something so the app was totally basically useless.

At this point, apart from including a reference to not knowing how my drugs are doing as I can't get a blood test until mid-August in my query above, which might just make someone think this is all a bit of a bad scene, I have given up attempting to do any more.

It appears that all blood tests in this area are controlled by one online system which thinks that every single one is booked up until 14 August and there is nothing anyone seems able to do about that.

Update 8 July:

Strangely, I received a text message from Aspiro, who must be the private organisation doing the communications for the local surgery. It asked me to book am appointment for a blood test!

The link to a new place for appointment booking offered two places: Woollaston, a local village, and  the very local medical centre here in Bozeat but I didn't think they could possibly take blood there so I opted for the Woollaston Surgery where I had had it done before. I could have had an appointment tomorrow! I chose a day when I am free next week and have that confirmed. Now, will I actually be able to get a blood sample taken or will they say sorry I'll have to go to another place?

I am also intrigued as to whether I could even have had this - which is an annual review - done at the very local place just a short walk away. I will ask but I'm happy with Woollaston for now and will await next week with interest. I do remember that the nurse had a bit of trouble extracting my blood last time and nearly gave up and said I'd have to go to Kettering but she did eventually succeed and I'll make sure to drink plenty or whatever one is suppose to do to help matters beforehand.

It could all be entirely coincidental, of course. Nice to see something sensible, though. Why couldn't that system work for my initial attempt?

The problem with Britain

 Every day a thousand or more people, mostly young men of Muslim faith, arrive by boat or some other illegal means in England. They immediately seek asylum, claiming to be refugees escaping some risk of harm in the country they left some considerable time ago.

One thing is for certain: they were not at any risk in France, Belgium or The Netherlands where they set off from on their journeys across the Channel. Yet we seem obliged not only to rescue them when the boats inevitably collapse somewhere in the Channel but provide a sort of automatic Welcome Pack in the form of clothing, a phone, hotel accommodation and some money for food and essentials and, crucially, free legal assistance so that they can formally lodge their claims and start legal cases that will take years, if not decades, to resolve, by which time they may well have found a wife and started a family and the European Court of Human Rights will declare that any attempt by the UK to deport them will be contrary to their ‘human rights’. To my knowledge no-one has yet to be deported other than a few who raised no objection , possibly because they were housed in a particularly grotty part of a northern town and couldn’t cope with the accent or greasy food.

These illegal immigrants join many of their legal friends and commit all kinds of crimes, with violent and brutal attacks being hugely increased in the cases police have to deal with. It seems these immigrants have a far lower boiling point than most Brits and also a tendency to use a knife in any fight rather than a good old-fashioned punch. As for how they treat young white girls, let’s not go into detail other than to report that, after many many years of their activities being covered up by local Council officials and police departments in the areas affected, a National Enquiry has been launched into how so many thousand young white girls were groomed and sexually abused for years by gangs comprising predominantly Pakistani men. Towns across the north of England where Pakistani communities had become established - and thus their representation in the law and management of the areas became a majority - all have now been discovered to have an appalling secret which has been simply covered up. Or, where someone has been brave enough to talk about it they’re told by the Government to keep quiet for fear of upsetting race relations. Indeed, not long ago I would have been accused of racist expression merely by commenting on this here.

The new illegals seem to mix with the established Muslim communities and find jobs or just continue to receive funds in the form of unemployment benefits or assistance with rent and living costs. I would not be surprised to see them with cars and a driving licence. Indeed, once the community starts to manage all the relevant services then security breaks down and previously precious British documents like a passport or driving licence become something that can be purchased not applied for. No checks, just cheques. Get a few while you’re at it, guys, and change Mohammed to Muhammad and Mohamed and claim support benefits for three people.

The legal services are often provided by solicitors and legal staff from the same community and they know every trick in the book. We have seen people who came here illegally and who then raped women or were involved in serious violence found guilty by Courts but judges have been unable to deport them even them. The defendants’ barristers have argued that their clients would face serious emotional hardship if they were returned to this or that country - or several defendants turn out to be gay and thus likely to be subject to harm and great risk in their previous nation if returned. Often the gay defendant becomes remarkably butch when he arrives at prison and has an affair with one or more of the young women prison officers there.

I don’t know what bible they swear on when in Court to declare that everything they say will be the truth and nothing but the truth but in my book it’s mostly a load of lies.

Even where the new people now swarming around village greens or some local cheap hotel in town are reasonably well-behaved and even friendly, the families of Old England have so little in common with them. They can’t communicate easily, they don’t share the same views on many things anyway but can’t even argue if they wanted to. Schools become cluttered with paperwork in several different languages. Teachers try to be inclusive but only succeed in alienating the white kids. They get resentful but any parent showing some sign of concern is rapidly told to be quiet, if not charged with some sort of hate thought crime.

You look around some towns now and the shops have changed almost out of all recognition, run by people from the immigrant community and providing services and especially food for that community. The old English grocer, baker and butcher have long gone.

Naturally, when life around you changes for the worst in your view, you move to some other place where it seems better. Your place is rapidly taken by an immigrant who does like it there and so, before long, school photos show rows of black and brown faces and just a couple of white kids here and there. In some towns the takeover is complete. They’re simply places where I have no desire to go. It’s not that I specifically dislike the people there, it’s just that there is nothing there for me and I would feel quite ‘obvious’ walking down the street and even a little scared that there might be some of the new arrivals who have no sense of restraint built in to their upbringing and who might believe that I am offending them or invent the idea to justify having a fight if there’s nothing more interesting to do. So I don’t go there. Nor do many others like me.

These immigrants invariably marry someone from the same ethnicity. They may be happy banging some young white girl but they’ll only marry and have children with the good Muslim girl their uncles or aunts recommend. That may well be a cousin so God help the development of humanity over time in that respect but that’s another story entirely. It also seems to be the case that our immigrant couples have far larger families than the old white people do. So gradually the world becomes theirs as we become a minority not only in our towns and cities but in our nation. The implications for Government are clear. Britain will change. It has already but we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Lack of reason

 I think it is fair to say that the number of people who think Russia should carry on bombing or attempting to invade whatever they can hit or reach with troops in Ukraine is minimal - maybe just a few thousand outside of the Russian Federation. No-one can be quite sure about the numbers within the country, of course, but they’re not being terribly well-informed so we’ll excuse those millions who do think it’s a good idea and not count them in the total.

Whichever way one reads this then, isn’t it quite extraordinary that more than 3½ years later men, women and children, old folk, babies and pets are being killed by either Russian troops or some Russians firing missiles or directing drones from the safety of a room with a computer screen. It is almost beyond comprehension and I am sure we will look back in years to come and wonder just how it was allowed to continue.

It isn’t solely Russian troops as they have been assisted by North Korea’s troops but their involvement is almost more crazy and will be another matter for comment when we can see what actually does happen in time to come.

At the time of writing, Kyiv and several other cities and towns are being attacked every night, usually by a combination of a mass of drones and various missiles. Some get shot down and fall harmlessly to the ground but many slam into apartment blocks, hospitals, restaurants or wherever often faulty navigation devices have sent them. Any claim that the target may have been purely military is unlikely to be true but even if it were, the quality of most of the weapons now being fired or used is rather poor. It’s not that Russia is running out of weapons but whoever is making replacements is not doing a good job.

Ukraine doesn’t have much by way of weapons to fire back these days and is having to seek an alternative method of war to the traditional ones. Recently they have been particularly successful in two areas: local intelligence inside Russia and use of drones to incapacitate aircraft or facilities on the ground in Russia. This has kept them in the game but one still gets the impression that all that Ukraine’s brave and intelligent efforts have is little more than the annoyance of a fly buzzing around the face of the Russian bear. I worry so much that before long the patience of Grizzly will break and the people who make decisions over there simply say enough is enough and throw the big stuff across the border. Either a mass invasion of hundreds of thousands of troops coming north from Belarus and/or use of some massive missiles that cause Hiroshima-style damage that ends it all once and for all. 

Why hasn’t Russia done more, done far better over all this time? This country with its supposedly massive supply of nuclear weapons, that is sufficient to make Trump wet his pants at thoughts of the threat and want to be friends with whoever has his finger on the Big Red Button, is struggling to make any headway in Ukraine? Indeed, their first invasion was almost embarrassing were it not so awful with the behaviour of Russian troops in retreat and the mistreatment of women and children in the villages. Whilst Russia did take some control over parts of four regions in the East, no-one lives and there is no economic activity in the towns they devastated in the process. So even that small advance seems of questionable value. 

To a large extent life goes on as it always has in much of the north and west of Ukraine. The difference is that there are no planes in the sky and no young men on the streets, or at home, for that matter. The only tourists come by van laden with materials and donations from abroad. Prices match those in England for food that is grown locally and far exceed them for anything else. You need to be quite well-off to live in Ukraine now.

In Kyiv and Odessa you take your chances because that’s where the majority of attacks are focussed so you can have a sort of 50-50 existence. Enjoy a cup of coffee at the café one day and be blown up there the next. Choose your days well and all will be well. Or not, as the case may be. That seems to be the attitude of those who continue to try and live ‘normally’ there. In most towns the constant whine of the sirens will keep newcomers awake but locals sleep soundly through now. Seeing young teenage girls with their eyes fixed on mobiles in a bunker underground somewhere at 2am is an odd sight, though, that still haunts me. You think they’re playing a game or texting a friend but they’re watching the missiles fly on an app which everyone uses to determine how much at risk they may be at any point of time.

In Kharkiv you get the feeling that everyone has joined a Resistance Movement. Even grandmothers can be seen wearing military clothes out shopping and carrying a gun. They expect Russians to appear around every corner and God help a blue-eyed white guy who just happens to be running along nearby. I wouldn’t feel safe there today and neither my Russian nor Ukrainian is sufficient to explain to anyone challenging me rapidly enough that I am on their side.

Here in Britain we welcomed those escaping the initial horrors with welcome arms and a bit of support, although not as much as we give to illegal immigrants now I think about it. Now everyone is beginning to get tired and the blue and yellow flags flying in many streets in towns and villages are looking a little drab and worn. We wonder when the people will be able to go back. We like the Ukrainians that we meet here, although we do wonder quite what the men are doing here. No-one likes to say out loud but there is an unspoken regard of the men as being a little too fortunate, perhaps, to have been able to drive an expensive car filled with their families and many of their valuables. Having said that, I am pretty sure my inclination would have been to run too and take whatever I could out of the place.

The problem is that no-one really can understand why on Earth Russia is still ploughing on and trying to kill more Ukrainians and take over this or that deserted village in the East. 

We have seen Trump come and go in relation to this war. His attention was taken by Israel and Iran but I have a feeling he was quite relieved to have fewer questions being asked about what he had failed to do. His awful appeasement of Putin has left a bad mark on his presidency which may well come to haunt him, however powerfully he may attempt to change the news on other matters he regards as being success. 

Without American assistance and approvals Ukraine will not have enough firepower or resources to continue to hold back Russia as things stand at the moment. But that doesn’t mean Russia can advance either. It is a sort of stalemate and could stay that way for months, as each side looks at alternative ways - in Russia’s case, to overcome Ukraine resistance; in Ukraine’s case to continue to resist and minimise Russian weapon threats. Trump will not feature, in my opinion, in any future scenario. Europe might, in some form, if leaders really can put on a convincing show that they have some sort of red line over which, should Russia cross, they will react in a way that will escalate matters. 

One almost wishes that we had Israel's IDF on our side. They’d get on with the job that we avoided at the beginning.

So nothing much new is happening in Ukraine at the moment; just people getting older and others dying too young.

Godforsaken places

 The temperature here in the village peaked at 32½°C today but I fear some places are experiencing a veritable firestorm. Who would wish to live in any of that conglomeration of nations based in that area surrounding Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan to the north and south? 

I certainly don't fancy a holiday anywhere in Turkey, Egypt or the UAE at this time. Well, to be honest I have never fancied going to any of them anyway but the chances of landing safely are getting slimmer by the hour, never mind being hit by a stray missile while you're there.

Actually I am beginning to wish that a missile does go astray and land somewhere where sufficient people in the country will finally wake up and politicians will be unable to resist calls to put an end to all this.

To date we've all been terribly sad or shocked or frustrated or whatever and have said that something must be done but never quite come up with the sort of solution needed. Now we have russia pummelling Kyiv (and various other towns that seldom get a mention) in Ukraine and Iran firing ever bigger missiles at Israel whilst Israel bombs the hell out of Iran and Ukraine does its best to minimise russia's visible armoury with drones and carefully exploited local action by agents and rebel assistants within the russian federation.

Lebanon are getting hit once again too and you wonder why they ever bothered to rebuild as having Hezbollah located there seems to mean the Lebanese will inevitably get blasted every few years whatever else may happen in the world.

Countries on the eastern fringe of the EU complain about russian missiles skimming across their skies on their way to knock out a apartment block or two in Ukraine but it seems to be no more than some kid moaning about some distraction in class.

In London and several other cities in Britain we see demonstrations against Israel and showing support for Palestinian organisations which seem pretty close to Hamas if not indeed actually Hamas. There seems to be little by way of demonstration in support of either Israel or Ukraine these days. That's odd when you think about what is actually going on and you do have to wonder whether those demonstrating or urging others to do so have ever sat down and thought it all through.

Russia invaded Ukraine and has caused immense destruction of that nation's town's, infrastructure and killed more innocent people than I want to specify here, never mind the huge number of troops lost in the battles that continue to rage. Ukraine fought back. What were the people there supposed to do? Let Russia take over? Of course not. Whatever anyone's views may be about who got what and why when the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine was an independent nation with international borders and we sat back and ignored Russia invading Crimea and haven't exactly done much since. Britain, the United States and others signed an agreement to protect Ukraine in return for their giving up the Soviet Union nuclear weapons which had been based in Ukraine before the collapse. By my reading we had a duty to honour that pledge but all I have seen since from the USA is criticism of Ukraine's response and rather too much by way of fear of antagonising Putin. One does have to wonder what it is that Putin has on Trump which has been so effective in the USA being so pathetic in their action since Trump's re-election. 

There always has and always will be only one response to the bullying and atrocious actions of russia's leaders and that is to demonstrate a massive joint defence capability to back up Ukraine's actions. At the start that might have been sufficient to make Putin think twice about continuing but now everything is in such a mess that it is difficult to know for sure what will happen. With the USA seemingly trying their best to withdraw from the scene like school children shouting insults while running in the opposite direction, there remain just a few countries in Europe and the British Commonwealth who are prepared to consider standing their ground and helping Ukraine retain what they can. Putin will have seen, however, that the power we can amass with any degree of immediacy or certainty is minimal and that he can rebuild his armoury more rapidly than we can, so it will suit him to see this thing carry on for years and gradually he could edge closer and closer to taking over a good half of Ukraine at which point he may well feel he has met his objectives. I am not in the camp of believers that he wishes to take back the Baltic states or even the whole of Ukraine. In a way, though, I wish he would have a go as that would force the hand of NATO and I don't think the USA would be able to get away without lending their support at that point. But that's not going to happen so . . back to what has happened and is expected to happen.

In the other case, a mass of supporters of a terrorist organisation called Hamas went into a festival and brutally shot, raped and took hostage a huge number of innocent young people in one of the worst incidents of its type in most of our memories. This group, supported, funded and equipped by Iran and religious zealots, basically says that Israel should not exist. Simple. It's like russia saying Ukraine should be part of russia but worse - Iran's weird rulers don't want Israel or Israelis to exist at all. It's not just the land but the extinction of the whole thing that is Israel, as far as I can see. So it seems pretty reasonable that, if someone is pointing a gun at you and you know he has no intention of letting you live you are going to do your best to ensure that he doesn't get to fire it. If that means killing him then so be it. There's really no choice in that sort of situation and that's what Israel's military forces have been trying to do. It seems that they have been extremely successful in removing many of the people who were giving the commands to kill Israeli people and have recently moved on to attempting to destroy Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon. I have to say that this seems absolutely necessary and I wonder why on Earth the world didn't act more firmly in the past when it must have been obvious that Iran would not just use nuclear development to make some electricity. We have all been stupid to allow them to have got so far that they have a processing plant hidden deep inside a ruddy mountain. It's not like this would have been built quietly behind the scenes over a few days while no-one was looking. The area known as Gaza is populated by people who we know voted by some majority for Hamas people to govern them. It's not like Hamas didn't make their views on Israel abundantly clear. So the folk who voted for them and support them must also be regarded as dangerous, if not necessarily all terrorists themselves. With Hamas burying offices and operational HQs inside or under hospitals and nurseries, it is not exactly easy for them to be taken out and, understandably, given the choice of letting those bad people carry on planning more atrocities in the world or preventing them doing so, Israel said we're coming for you loud and clear and gave innocent people in the areas as much notice as they could to get the hell away. Those that stayed will have been hurt but many will have had an option to move.

Of course, news script editors and social media writers have seen all this a great story and seem to have taken numbers and stories of events directly from Hamas supporters in many cases, or stories fed by russia into the system as well, and we get the headlines that make Israel out to be the baddies. In many ways, Israel's government and military seem strong enough to cope with all the criticism and are getting on with the job of destroying Hamas and hopefully Hezbollah and all their supporters and equipment in Iran too. Ideally, the whole religious shooting match that is Iran and goodness knows where else in that godforsaken part of the world will collapse as communism did in the Soviet Union. It would be a nice change to see some reasonable people, who didn't hate Christians or wish the destruction of whole nations and see all that as their prime objective, who might actually welcome doing business and working with us Brits and whoever is left in Israel, to show the rest of the area that all this hate gets people nowhere.

I can only conclude that the vast majority of those demonstrating in support of Palestine groups are reading solely from one religious book and, like some sort of zombies, are following each other with minds and eyes closed to any alternative view to their own. These people may look like innocent students or working people out to make a point but they're quite dangerous because they can influence others and make many more who don't really understand what has been happening support their cause. A huge number of younger people now seldom read any news or, if they do, it is a headline or repeated phrase which may have no credibility at all but sounds like something they can believe. Before long, they repeat that to a friend as if it is a gospel truth and next thing we know they'll be voting at an election for an MP who can have influence on the British government and before we know it we have a majority of MPs who come from a background sympathetic to the Hamas cause or, dare I say it, of decidedly anti-Christian flavour.

You would think that anyone in their right mind would be shouting at the world, government, whoever will listen, to put piles of troops and equipment up against Ukraine's borders and make it quite clear that we, as a group of nations, will fire missiles and stop any further advance by russia and encourage return to previously accepted international borders - by force if necessary. We have to call Putin's bluff but we need USA at least partially on board so that Putin doesn't feel there's any advantage in pressing that big red button. The same people should be shutting up about Israel and, if they're going to do religious stuff, pray to whatever god they have that someone with a bit of decency and calmer view of the world takes over the running not only of Iran but the whole area. We've had enough of the Islamic State and the bad things it has brought to the world at large. Maybe if there were to be a pleasant place where those with different religious views could live happily then we could persuade all the demonstrators and, for that matter, anyone else who doesn't like the way we do things here in Britain, to join them. And while we're at it, what better place to send illegal immigrants who, on the whole, seem to have no particular love for Britain anyway, just our benefits and the fact that we have some big communities of their relatives here already.

JD Vance probably thinks the Earth is flat too.

 Whilst Biden did seem pretty much past it in his later years, you did get the impression that most of his decisions were made behind the scenes by reasonably informed and intelligent people. I don't get that with this Trump presidency. Indeed, it does appear that a lot of policy is made on the hoof and I am not at all impressed with the intelligence displayed so far by many of those making these decisions. Trump himself is pretty thick and I am not so sure he's even that good a businessman, most of the Trump empire having been established by his father and it probably hasn't been that difficult for accountants and managers to maintain it regardless of whatever the boss may have done. Vance has occasional glimmers of good ideas but then lets himself down badly when asked questions he hasn't prepared for and I do wonder whether he might not have been one of the remarkably large number of Americans who believed that the Earth was flat in 2018 when, in a study reported on by Scientific American, only 82% of 18 to 24 year old American respondents agreed with the statement "I have always believed the world is round". That same research also found that 2% of Americans actually agreed with the specific statement that the Earth is flat.

Vance also has a touch of the Scientologist about him and if he is not yet completely bonkers I predict he will be in the next few years. The fact that he seems to think it is perfectly reasonably for his wife to be visiting Greenland at this time supports this view of his rapid descent into the world of Trump and Nonsense, the difference between him and Trump being that he probably believes everything he says. Trump certainly doesn't and, indeed, seldom remembers much for very long, if at all. And that's not just because he's in his late 70s, although that doesn't help, but mainly due to the fact that he doesn't really care too much what anyone else thinks about what he says but he does care about an image and so will be inclined to float with what he sees as good TV publicity. Not that he always gets that right, though, as the debacle with Zelenskyy showed a little while ago. The whole world apart from the White House idiots and a few people in Russia regarded Zelenskyy as seriously insulted for no constructive purpose by both Trump and Vance as well as another journalist fool who suggested Zelenskyy get a suit. He, incidentally is married to a White House spokesperson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who yesterday shouted at a British Sky reporter making some very polite and reasonable enquiries. She shouted rudely in response to say that 'we', as in some kind of royal White House, 'don't give a crap about your opinion' and suggested that she 'go back' to the UK.

These are seriously badly behaved and poorly educated people, whatever letters they may or may not have gathered after their names. The world is beginning to lose a lot of respect for America which is surprising after Trump's pretty impressive victory so recently. I admire the determination to get jobs done and there is certainly a lot to be said for Musk's approach to cutting through the deadwood in committees, quangos and across government generally. There is, however, also a lot wrong in half-boiled announcements, tariff threats and ridiculous announcements to buy Greenland and make Canada a State of the United States. I suspect we shall be hearing about toys and prams before too much longer.

In the meantime Ukraine fights on, clinging to what land it can against a renewed onslaught by North Korean troops and a few russians. It's tough, although weapon supplies are reinstated and they have huge moral support from most of Europe. Ukraine has made some very effective drone strikes on missile bases inside russia and I do hope they continue to reduce the numbers of major serviceable weapons that Putin will have at his disposal. Many commentators report that Putin needs to finish this quickly or the country will run into trouble and he will start to run out of attack facilities other than people. Maybe even people if North Korea decides enough dead is enough.

 A problem does lurk on the horizon and that is some banking or EU rule about the time that funds can be withheld from russia through sanctions or similar controls that were placed upon deposits. I think that there is a timescale that will soon expire and it requires an unanimous EC Committee vote to be extended. Countries like Hungary appear to support Putin or, at least, don't support Zelenskyy and so are unlikely to support the motion when it is next presented. In that instance, Putin gets several hundred billion back to use as he pleases and you can bet that he will grab the whole lot as soon as he gets a chance and before anyone seeks to place some new restriction upon the various accounts.

So something needs to happen pretty quickly now if all that money is not to be heading back into armaments and restrictions on the russian economy, quite effective so far, just fade away.

I do not see Ukraine even vaguely accepting the deal currently offered by the States, although they may nod in approval to avoid another debate and withdrawal of weapons support. There's no way a Ukraine parliament will approve such a deal anyway. It's quite preposterous for any country to demand repayment of military and economic assistance on such terms. Ukraine will, I think, decide to fight on regardless. Some say Zelenskyy will need to tread carefully to avoid upsetting Trump but I am of the view that the world at large now sees Trump as a bully and a bit of a fool. He has really got nowhere in his negotiations with Putin and I don't see many supporters for his view of a world in which he controls the West and Putin controls the East and bollocks to China, who may well spoil everyone's breakfast by taking over Taiwan any time soon. While America talks, China walks.

There is also the matter of Putin's health. He's no sprightly youngster either. One can never be completely sure of which Putin we're seeing in images and on TV although I do not subscribe to the view that many have that he is very ill and seldom seen in public. He may well not be around for that much longer, however, so Zelenskyy's comment that he will outlive Putin has some merit and is worth considering. It may well be the case that many of the present demands made by russia are actually made by Putin and, if he goes, then those who succeed him may be less inclined to continue the very costly and rather unproductive war. I can see a deal being made with other people in due course, even maybe reversing something that has to be given up in the meantime. But there is another problem with Zelenskyy's comment; that is the fact that it will really hit hard and make Putin desperate to prove it to be untrue by sending a whole bunch of nasty people here there and everywhere to bump off the Ukrainian one way or another.

So, we are at a point where America has made no useful progress in establishing any bridge between the warring parties. Putin wants lots of territory and seems to have outplayed Tump at every turn. He is, however, running out of time economy and maybe even in respect of several other nations' support. Even with some planned massive further attempts to get in to Kharkiv and other major centres, Ukraine will not be beaten and will resist and will continue to hit targets in russia too. With Europe talking about how to support some ceasefire or even a peace plan, although that seems unlikely to me, we now need less talk and more walk from whoever is willing to go and actually help on the ground, in the air, over the internet.

I believe that it is possible to end this and largely on Ukraine's terms if only nations would actually do something. Of course, it could end tomorrow if America had the guts to stand up to Putin and tell him it's over. But America is piloted by idiots at the moment and we'll have to hope we can get by without them.