Wannabe Winstons humbled to see the real thing
Ahistoric day: President Volodymyr Zelensky was not only the first foreign leader to address Parliament within the House of Commons but also the first person to do so in a T-shirt.
MPS and Lords packed the chamber, from corner to corner and up into the balcony; the Cabinet over-spilt its front bench and James Cleverly had to sit on the floor. Above us hung two television sets, almost perilously, adding to the mood of wartime improvisation, of something big and ominous playing out far afield yet, for the first time in decades, alarmingly close.
The Speaker gave the floor to Mr Zelensky. There he was, sitting in front of a Ukrainian flag, in a green T-shirt – the comedian turned politician who has become the most morally serious figure of our age. He knew his audience.
“We do not want to lose what we have,” he said, “the same way you once didn’t want to lose your country when Nazis attacked ... the question now for us is ‘to be or not to be’ ... we will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.”
Shakespeare and Churchill? MPS quote them all the time as poetry, a bit of colour. For Zelensky, they are a description of reality, and in a chamber full of wannabe Winstons, it was humbling to encounter the real thing.
Ukrainians are grateful for Britain’s aid, he said, but “please make sure that our Ukrainian skies are safe” – referring to the no-fly zone that Nato refuses to enforce. The West’s handsoff approach to nuclear Russia is entirely logical, but tragic. More than 50 children have been killed, said Mr Zelensky, which includes a six-yearold girl beneath the rubble of her home in Mariupol. The local mayor said she died “alone, weak, frightened and thirsty”.
The atmosphere in the Commons wasn’t emotional, it was sober. I only spotted one MP, Labour’s Emma Hardy, crying. Zelensky spoke without interruption, saluted his nation, and ours, and vanished from the screen.
The party leaders stood up to praise him. President Zelensky has “moved the hearts of everybody”, said the PM. We are touched by his “resolve and bravery”, said Sir Keir. “We salute you,” said Ian Blackford. Ed Davey suggested an honorary knighthood, and the DUP noted that the strength of Britain’s sympathy will be reflected not in its thoughts and prayers but “by our response”.
Earlier that day, the Home Office had been forced to explain why just 300 visas had been granted to Ukrainians out of 18,000 applications so far.
“Please return your headsets,” said the Speaker as MPS filed out, keen to escape the next debate.
Mr Zelensky’s speech was bookended by two standing ovations. This is not something the Commons normally does, and one might gripe that it wasn’t done for Syrians or Yemenis, or the victims of the Taliban or of the wars that the West tolerated or even prosecuted.
It would be inaccurate to call this time in our Parliament’s history “unprecedented” because war is perennial. Rather it might be the moment the West finally paid attention.