HOW embarrassed can you be made to feel by your own government? No not our Scottish Government, I mean the government we never voted for, which controls our finances, our foreign policy and our defence.
What a stunning performance by Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre of Ukraine. What perfection to see “corruption”
in that title. What a perfect candidate to scon (flatten) the Prime Minster of the UK, Boris Johnson. You could just see the red filling his cheeks, as he stood on the “naughty step”, nodding his head, in the gesture which invites the speaker to continue. “Britain guaranteed our security under Budapest Memorandum,” Daria blurted. Britain did. They asked Ukraine to give up their nuclear weapons, in 1994, in exchange for “security guarantees”. 28 years later Ukraine blows the dust of the “guarantee” to find there are arguments about interpretation, and translations, even though they got rid of their “nuclear deterrent”, as agreed!
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What if the boot was on the other foot and the UK was suffering an invasion of Vladimir Putin? What if it were British women and children, separated from their husbands and sons, fleeing across the sea to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland? Would they be refused entry? Would only refugees with family connections be allowed? Look at the number of refugees from Ukraine that Poland, Slovakia, and Moldova have welcomed in already. How embarrassing can it be when Priti Patel says OK, if you come an pick some fruit you can stay a little while. “Of course”, she said, “we must control because Russian troops might infiltrate groups of refugees.”
Really? Ms Patel do you really think, under current circumstances, it is really necessary to make desperate people jump through hoops to find safety? Do you really think that these folk would wish to stay a moment longer in the UK than they have to?
The war is still on in Syria, nearly seven million people have left that country. More than three-and-a-half million are in Turkey, wee Jordan welcomed more than 666,000. The brave “dis-United Kingdom” squeezed in just 11,422. So let’s give a pat on the back to the “Johnson Team”, as 100,000 is a good step up. There must be some room on the Britannia because it was reported sometime ago that one million EU citizens left the UK because of Brexit.
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Sanctions will not stop Putin. This is a serious message and we have to grasp it. Better than the messages on climate change. Climate change is on us, and we have missed our chance to change. Will we grasp this Putin situation? I hope so, but if the climate situation is anything to go by, probably not. “Out of sight, out of mind.” The human predicament of waking up when it is all to late. It will not matter to Johnson’s government, for they have bought such a lot of shame on themselves since they took control, it seems nothing can embarrass them at all. The shame and embarrassment is not only on them but the people who vote for them and support them. The Westminster Tory party MPs who could not find it in themselves to write enough letters to Graham Brady, and force a vote of no confidence in Johnson.
It is a total embarrassment for Scots to listen to Johnson saying that the Ukrainians have a right to choose how they govern themselves, whilst at the same time dismissing the idea that Scots should have the right to choose how we govern ourselves.
How embarrassed will I feel when next I drive to see friends across Europe, post-pandemic, and if peace allows, when alongside my Saltire, Ecosse, Scot and EU flag I will have to deface the back-end of my car with the letters UK?
I really hope we will not have to witness the embarrassment of Johnson, and his team, if Putin orders his forces to continue on into the rest of Europe once/if Ukraine is subsumed into the Russian Federation.
Cher Bonfis
via email
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