Tuesday 26 August 2008

End Of The World?

Right, I've put the plug back on the TV, dug the radio out of the trash, unsealed the letterbox and pulled out the ear plugs. Those damned Olympic Games are over, and I can get back to following the news without being inundated with unappealing pictures of runners, swimmer and, er, ping pong players.

Delighted though I am to see the back of the games, I couldn't resist reading the Sun's intriguingly headlined "Ping pong is coming home". As just about everybody else on the planet will know by now, it looks like Boris Johnson gave a cracking account of himself at the closing ceremony, and I almost wish I'd seen him do it. Buffoon he may be, or at least may appear to be, but I rather like Boris J.

Elsewhere in the world, things are not looking so good. While I've been hibernating, the Ruskies seem to have been upsetting people in Georgia and offering to nuke Poland. What's that all about, then? Just goes to show - take your eye off the ball for a minute, and before you know it there's some mad Russian trying to blow us all to hell. Nice.

Since I'm not in favour of being nuked without knowing the reason why, I found this summary in the Telegraph very useful. Can't say the French attitude of "We fear a war and we don't want one, if its hot, we don't want it'." all that surprising, though. When the Russian tanks start rolling over Europe, guess who'll be the first to lay down their arms.

The tanks might not roll at all, of course. But I wouldn't like to bet on that. I've been peripherally aware of a mounting threat from that neck of the woods for many months, though the Georgia thing came as something of a surprise, and I wouldn't put it past Russia to flex her muscles a bit. Trouble is coming, and it's wearing a furry hat.

But that's not such a bad thing if your name is Gordon Brown-Trousers. The economy and his reputation as PM are in tatters, but an international crisis would go some way towards fixing that. Many of us remember the Cold War, and mention of the old enemy is enough to make us to (metaphorically) adopt a defensive posture and squint narrowly to the East. If he can be seen to be keeping the Russian bear in its cave, he might pick up a point or two.

I can't see it being enough to keep him in his job past the next election, but, then again, that may not be a problem. If things keep escalating the way they have in the past couple of weeks, there may be nobody left alive to vote for him by 2010. Now there's a cheery thought!

Billy Seggars.

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