Peter Hill

AMID the justified indignation over the Salisbury poisoning does anyone know where it’s all going? How far is the Government prepared to push things with Putin, now firmly established as the Tsar of Russia and a man not noted for compromise?

There’s no doubt the nerve agent was administered on Putin’s orders because no one in his regime dares lift a finger without his say-so. It’s an outrage. But what can we actually do about it? Engage in a tit-fortat diplomatic expulsion game, kick out a few oligarchs and in doing so bankrupt one or two Premier League football clubs.

What else? Send 007 to kill one of theirs, sink a Russian spy trawler, knock out a couple of their satellites, disrupt their internet? Whoa there! That degree of escalation could lead to you know where… yes, ultimately to a war we could only lose. I don’t know about you but I don’t fancy being vaporized.

Fear of the consequences compelled us to shut up about Russia’s takeover of Ukraine and to back off over Russia’s blitzing of Syria in support of Assad. We are blustering about nerve gas but in the end we will shut up. Because in the end might is right. q MULTIPLE authorities knew about Parsons Green bomber Ahmed Hassan’s links to Islamic State but he was left free to pursue his murderous plan. Hassan even told Home Office officials he had been trained to kill by IS and later social and mental health workers realised he was unstable. They did nothing and his foster parents were also left in the dark.

The case shows a refusal to think that an immigrant might intend to do harm. While it is nice to look for the good in everyone it’s sensible to investigate backgrounds. With Hassan the warnings were written in letters 10 feet high.

Will official attitudes change? Not a chance. q WE are confused about recycling and mostly get it wrong, according to a new study. Although eight out of 10 try to help the planet virtually no one knows what can and can’t be recycled and too much ends up in landfill. But it’s not our fault.

Waste disposal instructions from the council are complicated and threatening. Stuff we thought could be recycled turns out to be no good. Many food packs are half black plastic (bad) and half transparent (good but not always). Some cardboard works but some doesn’t, same with paper.

Manufacturers should be compelled to use only packs that can be recycled and local authorities must get sorting equipment that picks out the good from the bad. The wrong people – the consumers – are being blamed for the mix-up. q WE are a nation of wine drinkers but how many of us can tell the difference between vintage and plonk? Investigators have found that 66 million bottles of vin ordinaire were passed off as expensive Châteauneuf-duPape or Côtes-du-Rhône, much of it sold in Britain.

Counterfeit wine is nothing new. In 2010 millions of bottles of fake pinot noir were sold to America. In their defence the perpetrators noted that not one customer had complained. Even experts often get it wrong in a blind tasting.

I have my own test: if I don’t get a hangover that means the wine I drank last night was quality stuff. Yes, you will have spotted the flaw – by then it’s too late because I’ve drunk it. q THE Labour mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, has been kicked out in favour of a Momentum-backed candidate, the latest in a swathe of deselections that has seen extreme Left-wingers take over local Labour groups. I doubt if voters are aware how thoroughly Momentum has grabbed control of the party or what that might mean for our country.

Behind the bumbling, wacky Jeremy Corbyn there is a ruthlessly efficient political machine ravenous for power. A vote for Corbyn will be a vote for the most authoritarian regime outside North Korea.

Extreme socialism has turned into tyranny and poverty wherever imposed but that’s what we are in for unless people wake up. q SHOCK, horror, the BBC pays John McEnroe 10 times as much as Martina Navratilova. And quite rightly. McEnroe is by far the best tennis commentator around, not just knowledgeable but witty and full of great anecdotes. It’s a joy when he comes on. Martina knows her tennis but she has a wooden sense of humour and a flat, whining voice. Mac is worth 20 times as much. q KING’S College London has banned one of its own lecturers from giving a talk because it was “high risk”. His subject: the importance of free speech. Dr Adam Perkins, a specialist in the neurobiology of personality, has expressed controversial views in the past and the university feared there might be a violent protest.

What hope is there when the authorities are too cowardly to defend the most important principle of universities: that they should be places where ideas and opinions have free rein? A stand must be taken against censorship. q THANK goodness the BBC has had the sense not to switch off FM radio in favour of DAB. Director Bob Shennan admits: “We all thought it [digital] was the future but audiences want choice.” If only the innovators who decide the products and services we have to choose from realised that not all change is good. Or even five per cent of it.