So we are in history again. For a while after 1990 we thought we had got beyond war and the threat of war. 9/11 shook that assumption but the battles were far away, and we continued evolving into a post-historical state where the management of the world was the responsibility of supra-national global agencies. Putin has restored the normal way of things. History is made by nations, and by armies.
The scenes from Ukraine are so harrowing, so appalling, that words fail; the prospect of what is to come in the form of Putin’s reaction to the heroic resistance of Ukraine’s army, her civilian population, and her leader, numb the mind altogether. This weekend I took my children to a theatre club, to football, to a sleepover. Our settled life never felt more precious and more fragile.
Of course many Wiltshire men and women are not settled after this weekend, but on the move - the troops of the Royal Welsh Regiment on their way to Estonia to bolster NATO’s presence there, and to the countries that border Ukraine and will take her refugees. We are doubling our commitment to Estonia and sending 1000 soldiers to help with the humanitarian crisis. This week in the Commons I paid tribute to the Wiltshire troops, prompting a fulsome response from the Armed Forces Minister (see here).
I am proud that the UK was the first to supply Ukraine with military aid, and has led the calls for Russia’s expulsion from the Swift banking system (I also spoke about financial sanctions in the Commons - see here). The alliance against Putin’s invasion is as global, united and resolute as one could reasonably wish.
For now at least, our job is to choke Putin’s regime by the financial windpipe, to get the Ukrainians everything they need to repel the invaders, and to make sure we are ready to take as many refugees as need a place of safety in the UK.
In other news - I remain very concerned about the insistence on vaccinating children, which seems to me an unnecessary and indeed sinister measure. I made a speech in the Commons (see here) suggesting the whole COVID strategy has been driven by a refusal to trust people to make the right decisions for themselves and their families. I also spoke this week in support of a Bill that raises the legal age of marriage to 18 (see here).
I promised when I was elected to hold town hall meetings from time to time so that I can hear directly from voters. I only managed to get one of these in before lockdown struck. So this Friday (4 March) I resume my promise at last, with a meeting at Devizes Town Hall at 6.30pm. If you want to come, book fast before we sell out (it’s free though, you just have to book). See here.
