The Week So Far – Russia, Gaza, Syria and Back to the Future!

Bring curtain down on Whitehall farce

I am watching with growing despondency the farce that pretends to be diplomacy between Britain and Russia and frankly I don’t know who is worse.

Russia is playing the UK for a fool, no doubt thanks to the bumbling idiot that is Boris Johnson, our Foreign Secretary, who shows all the grace and linguistic skills of a circus bear riding a Penny Farthing. Seasoned diplomat he is not.

His bluff and bluster makes him a laughing stock overseas and meanwhile the Russians are taking us all for fools as it is blindingly obvious that if they didn’t plant the nerve poisoning agent then their intelligence damn well knows who did.

Britain, more than three weeks ago, asked Russia to answer a number of questions relating to the attempted assassinations of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In that time Moscow has been allowed to prevaricate and obfuscate.

The tit-for-tat expulsion of ‘diplomats’ was all rather predictable but now Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko has the cheek to ask for a meeting with Yulia now that she is recovering well from being poisoned by the nerve agent at her home in Salisbury last month.

This is ludicrous but reveals a diversionary tactic by Russia which is acting like a cat playing with a mouse.

Again the harmful legacy of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his WMD lies are coming back to haunt so if Theresa May is sitting on irrefutable evidence of Russia’s guilt in this affair she must now put up or shut up.

I’m not quite sure what the answer is – but nor am I paid a fabulous salary and pension by the government to deliver one. But as this drama continues to unravel it is blindingly clear that the Foreign Office is not what it was and the revered position of Foreign Secretary is being undermined by the man himself!

Britain needs to get a grip!

Parents must step up 

The astonishing rise in murders – 55 in London alone this year – is down to several factors and all are within our control, so as a nation we should be ashamed.

Firstly we need more police on the beat – it’s something which is called for regularly yet the party traditionally tough on crime and criminals – the Conservatives – has ruthlessly cut back on police budgets and manning with predictable results.

Secondly, as parents, we also need to step up to the plate because I don’t believe there are bad children but there are plenty of bad parents.

Thirdly – this and previous governments has imposed impossible cuts on public facilities such as libraries and local youth clubs. How can our children grow and develop into responsible human beings if they’ve got nothing to do other than hang around street corners and join gangs?

Now I hear the Metropolitan Police are going to make more controversial stop-and-searches under their Section 60 powers which allows an officer to stop someone without needing “reasonable suspicion” that they are involved in crime.

Well here’s something for parents to consider – why don’t you stop and search your own kids first before they go to school. Do you really know what they take in to the classroom? If the answer is “no” then make it your business to find out!

You are not your child’s best friend and never will be, but you are a parent so act like one now before you discover your little prince is really a thug and a danger to others and himself.

Linguistic u-turn by Liberman

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