Ukraine shows we stand united when it really matters
MIDDAY on Wednesday is normally when the House of Commons reaches its most rancorous state, as the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition stand up to insult each other, egged on by jeering backbenchers.
Yet this week something miraculous happened. Informed that the Ukrainian ambassador was watching proceedings from the gallery, the whole house rose to its feet in spontaneous applause. Even the speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, suspended his usual pedantry to allow it to happen – clapping is technically forbidden in the House.
Vladimir Putin has bombarded innocent civilians in an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and he is well on his way to destroying his own country’s economy. But he has also achieved the seemingly impossible: to unite a Britain which in recent years has been bitterly divided and partisan.
Well, almost. There’s always Jeremy Corbyn, of course, along with John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and their friends at the Stop the War Coalition, who seem to think the real problem is Nato’s “warmongering” rather than an unhinged Russian leader trying to recreate his country’s lost empire by force. Thank God Corbyn never became Prime Minister. It is chilling to think what situation we would be in now if he had, and Putin knew that he could flatten Ukraine and the British PM would do little to resist.
BUT leave Corbyn aside and there is a strong and admirable determination across the political spectrum to stand together with the people of Ukraine: to support their resistance with military as well as humanitarian assistance and to offer asylum to the many refugees who are hotfooting it out of the country.
The normal mud-slinging which begins whenever the words “migrants” and “refugees” are mentioned is largely absent. Everyone can see that there is a very good reason Ukrainians need to flee their country, and that we need to be generous to help them until, hopefully, they can return to their homes and lives.
For once, “cancel culture” has come into its own. Instead of being directed at people who have offended the latest strand of woke thinking, it is targeting someone who really deserves to be “cancelled”: Vladimir Putin. Russian businesses, sports teams, exports; all are being snubbed in the name of isolating the country’s economy and cultural life thus putting pressure on the president.
Oil companies – who any other week are treated like bogeymen – have won applause for snubbing Russian oil, and sourcing it from elsewhere in spite of the greater costs. Suddenly, “partygate” looks a bizarre and rather silly diversion from the things which really matter – although let’s be honest and say that if Russian politics revolved around fussing over Putin’s parties rather than expansionist dreams, the world would be a better pace.
Gone, too, are the bitter debates over Covid and lockdown. Would it be too much to hope, too, that the Ukraine crisis could finally help to snuff out the most divisive issue of the lot: Brexit? Having spent much of the past six years at loggerheads, suddenly Britain and the EU are working quite happily together in aiding the Ukrainian resistance and imposing sanctions on Russia.
The Ukrainian crisis has reminded us what a real war over national borders looks like. Hopefully, relations between Britain and the EU will now be normalised and we’ll have no more threats to cut off our electricity or close Channel ports.
There are still some fools around, such as SNP president Mike Russell, who tried on his blog to compare Ukraine’s plight with the failed Scottish independence campaign, writing that the past shouldn’t dictate the future “whether that be rule from Moscow or the result of an eight year old referendum”. No, Mr Russell, the gulf between Ukraine and Scotland could not be greater. When the SNP demanded independence, the Westminster government did not send tanks up the A1; it offered a referendum in which the Scottish people chose to stay in the UK.
FOR the most part British politics has acquired a new spirit of reasonableness.There are genuine issues to be debated, such as how we should tackle our dependence different views on this but hopefully these can be thrashed out in Parliament with reasoned arguments.
As for the pie-throwing that has come to characterise the House of Commons, I think we will all be pleased to see the back of that. There is nothing like a crisis to concentrate the mind – and Ukraine certainly seems to have achieved that.
‘Suddenly, Partygate looks a bizarre and rather silly diversion’