Will boycott of vodka help to stop Putin?

So, they’ve decided that Russian Paralympic athletes may not compete in the current lot of games in China.

I think that’s unfair. Firstly (and apart from the fact that such things should not be dictated by politics), it had been previously agreed that they could compete as neutrals. As a result of their exclusion, the value of all medals now earned are devalued.

By taking away possible (and in some cases, likely) medal winners, those who do win medals can never be sure that they wouldn’t have been bested by the excluded Russians, particularly given the fact that Russian competitors have won a great many medals in the past. These have been clean wins, unsullied by accusations of doping.

But this is a time when irrational decisions are going to be taken. I hear that some purveyors of alcohol will stop serving Russian vodka.

This’ll make Putin tremble, won’t it.

After the briefest of consultations, Mrs. B sent a few quid off to the Oxfam group who are sending a whole range of necessities to the beleaguered

Ukrainians.

I sincerely hope that anyone reading this will do the same

- provided, of course that they can afford to, given the financial troubles that many of us are having to put up with.

‘This is a time when irrational decisions are going to be taken’

I was delighted to read that a bicycle manufacturer is going to set up shop in Ashford. Given the possible future effects of climate change, it could be that the stilted factory will stand in a desert, or that the flood plain will indeed flood and require workers to be ferried across and back each day.

As a consequence of my recent hip operation, I haven’t been venturing far afield from home base. Mrs B, however makes daily forays into town for fresh veg and wonderful bread from Farthingloe’s shop in the High Street.

She tells me that our regular beggars seem to have been supplanted by a whole new crop.