The war in Europe which is Russia seeking to annihilate Ukraine is the immediate existential threat of today. Is there perhaps a serious risk that the transformational disaster on all the people of Europe that a Putin victory would inflict is being lost on current generations?
Should we not reflect every day on the evil being perpetrated every day by Putin and his amoral cronies against Ukraine and its extraordinarily courageous people? Millions displaced; hundreds of thousands kidnapped and transported like animals from their homes into who knows where in deepest Russia; rape, torture, separation of children from parents, and their indoctrination by Putin with his fictional propaganda; and constant bombardment of civilians, apartment blocks and Ukrainian industry and infrastructure being pounded into dust as Putin and his military criminals attempt the annihilation of Ukraine as a meaningful nation. The turmoil in the Middle East, largely instigated perhaps by Iran, is also abhorrent for its suffering, but is a different sort of war compared to the attritional merciless barbarism of the Russian invasion.
RAW TRUTHS
Of course, Putin and Iran are allies sworn to destroy the Western democracy for different reasons. That is a raw truth. Another raw truth is that neither can be defeated or controlled by appeasement. If the lessons of the dangers of appeasement have not been learnt from two world wars in the twentieth century, or the Putin invasion and annexation of Crimea, then terrible pain for Western peoples is coming in the not far off future. As things stand, despite supportive words, European and U.S. leaders seem prepared to allow Putin to be successful and defeat Ukraine, as they dither on the supply of weapons and other help. The clock is ticking and there is no way Ukraine has the ability to hold back a ruthless Putin to whom the cost in Russian lives is irrelevant. The, albeit late, 61 billion US dollar commitment should help Ukraine defend itself, but it will not win the war. It has to be proved to Putin through raw power that he needs to back off or he will lose completely.
MORE RAW TRUTHS
Of course, European nations are dependent on NATO and so interdependent on each other, and especially the USA, for their security in the face of extreme aggression. The hubris this generated, in that so much of Europe has been a leech on the U.S. security blanket, the UK and France perhaps aside, is now coming home to roost. Trump’s one truth was that Europe should pay its way to protect itself, yet the likes of Germany, Spain and Italy have merely pocketed the unspent proceeds which should have been defence expenses. And even now, Spain and Italy do little to help Ukraine. This truth means that most European countries, Poland apart which has woken up to the risk of war, may finally be realising they lack the forces in kit and personnel to resist a rampant Russia but are slow to act to repair that weakness: bad or non-existent leadership could be Europe’s downfall. A lack of honesty in laying out to the voters the cost of freedom puts that very freedom at risk.
It is clear from the speed with which war resources have been depleted in helping Ukraine that the UK too is woefully short of competence to defend itself. But in the face of warships that are crewless, a pitifully small air force, an army whittled to the bone, and countless informed experts publishing concerns that the UK has too little of the right kit, the MOD still says the UK is able to ensure its security. Madness, especially when to shoot down £100 drones it requires our forces to use missiles costing thousands or millions of pounds and this is plain to see. Raw truths must be faced, and immediate action taken now, as recruitment and procurement to sufficient levels will take several years, unless some serious prioritisation is adopted, which is currently nowhere to be seen. The raw truth is that ensuring the UK’s security from enemies who would destroy it will take billions of pounds, and that means it must be paid for by taking money from big budgets, like the benefits system and the NHS. Some smart and honest and tough thinking and decisiveness is needed. Given the procurement record of the UK Ministry of Defence, it is unlikely that the recent uplift in UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 is anywhere near enough.
TRIVIA AND MADNESS ABSORB ATTENTION WHILE EXISTENTIAL THREATS GROW
How has the UK come to the point we have? In the face of existential threats, when basic strengths and resiliencies and national unities are needed, our little world obsesses with absurdities.
In Scotland, the SNP legislates on so called hate crimes urging people to report other people to the police if a person is offended by another person. The police are bound to record and investigate. In week one, over 7000 complaints of offending behaviour were reported, of which some 200 had any substance to investigate further. The police there will be overwhelmed by relative trivia. Madness. When it comes to gender debates, the Scottish again see fit to ask children of 4 their wish list for their gender. Madness. The demonisation of J.K. Rowling for expressing a perfectly reasonable view, perhaps of the vast majority, is more madness.
The Cass report in England demonstrates the incompetence of NHS care on the trans gender issue, and how so-called medical experts have been treating children to alter gender without any sound science behind them. At least perhaps the abhorrent abusive medical practices may now cease. But it seems previous offenders at the discredited and now closed Tavistock Clinic merely ply their sick black magic privately. Only children and young adults suffer. And even now those employees of the NHS who wrongly refused to cooperate and to provide data to Cass are not compelled to do so. The useless, it seems, management of the NHS in England are responsible for its failures here, but they are silent, and it seems no reporters are hounding them. They gave us the maternity recklessness of the NHS, HIV blood scandals, allow a culture of silence, whistleblowers terrified, and nobody holds them accountable. The treatment by the media of NHS management is akin to the treatment of the executives of the Post Office whose arrogance and incompetence and immorality ruined the lives of thousands of sub-postmasters. We should remember, they were ignored while journalists salivated over Downing Street gatherings during Covid. It took a TV programme in 2023 to wake the media up. Is the same required for the NHS?
In the Houses of Parliament, William Wragge, a senior MP, sends lewd pictures of himself to an unknown who he is seduced by, and passes on personal information about fellow MPs. Eventually he is sorry and steps out of the Tory party. Unbelievably some politicians praised his honesty and courage for his transparent confession. But it seems as if nobody criticises the practice of photographing and publishing your own genitals, as if it is the norm! Is it any wonder such practices are adopted by children on social media when this is the example set, and without adverse comment? Madness.
The Church has decided in some show of piety to pay £100million of parishioners’ money in reparations to some people for the suffering caused by slavery and benefits the Church may have received from it. Madness, virtue signalling. Why don’t they help the poor or the modern slaves of today? The Anglican Church, virtually invisible during a pandemic when life and death were the nation’s preoccupations, shows no leadership spiritually with an Archbishop of Canterbury more interested it seems in political grandstanding than the job of the Church.
Ofsted caused the suicide of a headteacher it seems. It has decided to investigate its practices. Who is appointed as investigator? The former CEO of Ofsted. Madness but nobody seems to care.
The Covid inquiry is widely considered to be a waste of money and to have decided the outcomes already. Any lessons to be learnt are unlikely to be any more than are already known, especially as the inquiry assumes lockdown was the best solution all round, despite the fact many experts now doubt that. But nothing changes and the enquiry will drag on unchecked.
Angela Raynor, Deputy Leader of the Labour party, is now being investigated by 14 Greater Manchester police for tax avoidance and other allegations drummed up by political opponents. The police have again succumbed to politically motivated hatred and efforts to embarrass to score political points. Like investigating parties during Covid. Dominic Rabb was similarly hounded. More recently a rather odd Conservative MP, Natalie Elphicke, joined Labour: so what? But it absorbed hours and pages of journalistic space. Trivial legal, media and political nonsense.
And in England some teachers are letting children in school choose their gender, without informing parents, contrary to guidance. More parents than ever are keeping their children out of school, despite all the publicity following the pandemic about how damaging that is to children. More madness. And thousands of parents think it is not their job to toilet train their children. And grown-ups stay at home and stop working because they feel anxious, and this is not just tolerated, but they get paid for it by the state without contributing anything to society: possibly Government is waking up to address the issue, but words need to translate into action. The fact that the majority of working age people off-sick long term are professing mental health incapacity and are costing an unaffordable fortune in taxpayers’ money, means something mad is happening.
Meanwhile in Ukraine millions of people have lost everything, fighters with an average age of over 40 have been fighting with bombs and artillery pounding them daily for years now: swearing defiance against Putin and steeling themselves to prevail, showing a resilience in the face of maximum stress that perhaps puts us who give in to mere inconveniences and social anxieties to shame.
CONFRONTING AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE
Russia, China and Iran have declared their common alliance and interests including to degrade the West. Putin declares himself comparable to Jesus Christ battling to save the world from the evil West. Iran is sworn to the genocide of Israel: it cannot escalate its war on Israel except through its proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, at least until it has nuclear weapon capability which it works towards. Fear of Putin and timidity of Western leaders not to “annoy” him arises only from his control of Russian nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Iran is supplying Russia with military equipment, like drones, to defeat Ukraine. China supports Russia in its invasion of Ukraine and keeps it solvent buying its oil. While there are sanctions on both Russia and Iran, they are limited, and Europe in particular trades heavily with Russia. China is brainwashing, imprisoning in camps, neutering, and wiping out the Uighurs as a nation until they comply with Chinese doctrine not conflicting Islam (and no other Islam nations seem to care).
China, Russia and Iran are harvesting data about Western people, and are allegedly rampant in spreading internet and information disruption throughout the West, where it is hard to know what to believe is true, as the disruption game is about spreading untruth to cause division: this is how they are really waging war on the West perhaps. Chinese Tik Tok gains control over Western social media users, and only the U.S.A. seems open to halting them. China subsidises its industries, so diminishing competition from Europe, for example in EV production. Western countries depend considerably on China for vital supplies such as green energy producing materials, solar panels, and chips. China threatens Taiwan with invasion ultimately, maybe tomorrow, maybe in 5 years’ time. The West depends on Taiwan for microchips. China is seeking military dominance in the Oceans beyond, to the insecurity of smaller islands. The USA, UK, Australia, France and Japan seem to be opposed but little is done by the EU which on the world stage plays no part in security matters. Is that not irresponsible and in Trump speak unfair? China and Russia are making underdeveloped countries, with unstable and usually autocratic rulers, dependent on them. Russian mercenary and other military capabilities abound in Africa. The West seems unorganised to stop the march, Europe in particular lying supine.
Chinese students, doing the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party, populate UK universities which seem to welcome their money and the restrictions on freedom of speech that their money buys. Important research programmes are shared with them. UK Government does little to resist.
How did we get here? Do not the Western and other Democracies need a concerted and unified approach to stem this tide, instead of each nation ploughing its own interests? Dependence on those pledged to diminish you seems bizarre. To tolerate interferences of the kind being tolerated is just weak.
STAND UP AND BE COUNTED
The West must not fail Ukraine, but urgent action beyond the rhetoric is needed, and risks will have to be taken. Free world nations need to vastly increase their armouries in every way: to at least deter the bully boys and defeat them if required. Younger generations need to appreciate their freedoms and the dangers confronting them. Voices are crying that the war in Europe and the possible escalation of conflict in the Middle East threaten a world war conflagration. This is not panic mongering, and appeasement needs to be banished. Whatever it takes must be done to deter and defeat those who would destroy an already teetering world order. Leaders in every walk of life must stand up and be counted, no longer hiding in the comfort of the trivia of minor stage politics.
