The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Support for Ukraine can’t stop with the football, they are no less worthy of aid
“Honestly, Souness, just shut yer puss, eh?” That was basically the universal reaction to the former Scotland star and Hall of Famer Graeme Souness saying he’d be supporting Ukraine rather than his own side in this week’s big football play-off for the World Cup.
Scotland has shown solidarity for Ukraine. But solidarity is an ill-defined term, and it has its limits, as Souness discovered.
The wider public support and enthusiasm for Ukraine’s plight has waned significantly from the giddy heights of February and March.
I was as buzzed as anyone when Russia blundered into our nearest non-eu neighbours. Ukraine’s a place I’ve visited a few times.
Russia too is a nation I’ve a cultural interest in and a general soft spot for.
Seeing the latter batter into the former shook me, and I immediately plunged my hand into my pocket to fund all sorts of relief.
I even shook down friends and Twitter followers to support a big Dundee donation drive.
Then I went to Lidl and swept shelves clear of tampons, baby milk and toothbrushes and other essentials then swept through charity shops buying up every quality woollen overlayer that Reform Street had to offer.
Later some excellent people in Perth and Dundee collected them all up, sorted them into packages and had them trucked out to the frontline.
Renowned Perthshire poet Jim Mackintosh managed to assemble the very highest rank of Scottish musical and poetic talent to perform – entirely free of charge – at a fundraising event in Perth.
I’ll never forget the emotional power of the young woman who sang the Ukrainian national anthem to a stunned silent audience of hundreds.
A few Ukrainian voices lent their support to the chorus. It was a tremendous moment. But the moment passed.
When I said I wanted to write about Ukraine, my editor here at The Courier said that “tbh the heat has kind of gone out of Ukraine a bit”.
That means that you, readers, arnae as bothered anymore. You’ve wearied of the crisis, and are disinclined to read about it. And fair enough.
The sun is shining stutteringly through clouds and we’re springing into our first proper summer since 2019, free from the pandemic, well almost.
Joy is in the blossoming trees and we could have probably all quietly moved on with our summer plans, and forgotten all about the destruction of the Donbas region and the people who live there.
Sadly we, Scotland, had to play Ukraine at fitba first in a World Cup qualifier at our national stadium.
We’ve moved on – we’re the lucky ones. The train through to Hampden was buoyant.
There were a few tinnies about – nothing mental, but enough to loosen the mood – and a few hundred clashing kilts swinging in time to the Scotrail sway.
But the crisis was on folks’ minds.
“I see people saying solidarity to Ukraine and that, and fair enough,” a guy was saying to his pal.
“But not tonight. Like, we’ve got to win eh, simple as.”
His mate nodded vigorously.
This decline in passion for a foreign war isnae a Scottish issue alone.
Charities across the West are noticing a sharp decline in interest and donations. Basically, we want to be happy, not sad. We don’t want endless pictures of families trailing across land borders.
Mothers and bairns carrying dogs and belongings away from fathers removing suits and raising rifles.
Since Ukraine absolutely skelped us at the fitba this week, and as the cost-of-living crisis bites deeper, the motivations to donate will be even lower.
They are not less worthy of our aid than they were three months ago.
We’re just less emotionally charged. That’s human. It happens.
It is at this point that the state is supposed to assist. And it is specifically here that the state is failing.
The UK has altered our foreign aid policy. We won’t sustain our usual massive amounts in billions to pooled aid budgets through the United Nations, EU and other supranational organisations.
We’ve decided – or rather our Tory overlords in Westminster have found it politically expedient – to reduce our aid spending and also to make it more ad-hoc.
Proper aid budgets don’t just briefly help people fleeing bombs or navigating their way through flood and famine.
So we’ll spend on things that suit the immediate, short-term gains of the government, rather than investing longerterm in improving the lives of those most at risk.
The new approach will see it caught up in a populist furore, firing in money and aid during the crisis moment, then immediately losing interest and cutting spending once there’s no more political capital to be gained from it.
This should be a lesson banked for an independent Scotland.
We need to make sure that when we are able, as a member of the world’s rich, we provide aid in a meaningful, long-term and effective way.
Proper aid budgets don’t just briefly help people fleeing bombs or navigating floods.
They also help rebuild the homes destroyed, get the next generation into schools, deliver family planning services in the world’s poorest countries and make systemic change.
We can of course provide as individuals to help people in crisis that goes well above and beyond.
But as a democratic state, we have to meet expectations and needs beyond whatever issue is most in the news.
It is necessary and it is good.
But it doesn’t win votes. So no wonder the UK state has dispensed with it.
I plunged my hand into my pocket to fund all sorts of relief