My apologies, especially to my American friends. I vowed not to stray into politics on my Substack. However I have to say something about what happened in the White House Oval Office on Friday. How can the so- called leader of the free world behave in such a way and demean the leader of another country, one that is fighting for its very survival? What possible justification can he and his slavish cohorts have? President Zelensky dared to respond to the arrogant and patronising comments that were thrown at him by a crowd of sycophants. Why don’t you wear a suit? You haven’t thanked us once? How dare these ‘suits’ judge him! My blood is boiling as, with my Polish heritage, I am very sensitive to this posturing by a self-defined elite who appear to be trying to settle a geographical dispute with the aggressor not being called out at all in public. Appeasement has been proven time and time again to not work. Poland and many of the Eastern European and Baltic states, having been handed to the Russians after the 2nd World War only managed to escape that totalitarian rule 40 years later. And now the threat is with them and us again.

This morning I’m wondering how the great dealmaker feels as his boast that he will do a quick deal has all but evaporated. His use of facts remind me of the saying ‘ statistics damn lies and statistics’. We had someone in the UK who did the same and it’s funny that the same figure of fiction was used of 350, but millions not billions, in that case. Whatever the real figure, it’s a lot of money and commendable that the US and European countries have stumped up so much money and support to Ukraine. This fiction was corrected by President Macron and PM Starmer, but in much more polished and gentle way, unlike President Zelensky who understandably, fighting for his country’s very existence, wasn’t able or prepared to follow the diplomatic code. I salute him for this brave stance and hope that he, with the continued essential external support, sues for a peace that prevents his country being subsumed by Russia and offers it future protection form anything like this happening again.

I cannot promise to avoid this subject again and hope that I won’t feel the need as I hope with diminishing certainty that peace will reign soon and it will be a fair one for Ukraine.

Finally in answer to my provocation, no in my opinion, the end doesn’t justify the means in this case. So Mr Trump ponder this as you play golf and luxuriate in Florida, as the brave men and women fight for their lives and their leader tries to get the best possible deal for them. And please remember Ukraine didn’t start this and its about time you called out the man that did!