The West has been too slow to confront tyrants

These past few weeks we have seen a Western alliance that has been slow to get its act together, with some of its members failing to realise the principles at stake in the Ukrainian crisis. A threatened assault on a democratic state – justified by bunk history and manufactured complaints about Nato expansion, which is not currently on the table – is by itself a moral outrage, made shabbier by the deployment of false-flag pretexts. Ukraine has looked to the West as a model for its development, as it should be free to do, and whether or not Moscow tolerates this should be irrelevant. Nations must be able to choose their own future.

Moreover, the strategic consequences of Vladimir Putin’s gamble are enormous. Other rogue statues are watching. China, which has ambitions to seize Taiwan, is taking notes on how the West reacts to aggression – as is Iran.

The idea that the Kremlin is only interested in guarding a historic and regional sphere of influence is nonsense. The Russian president has not hidden his desire to see the postCold War international order dismantled.

As the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, reminds us in these pages, the former KGB agent has permitted cyber attacks on the West and even the use of a nerve agent in Britain. We have known for many years the true nature of Mr Putin’s regime.

But one of the key reasons why the West has been so hesitant in confronting him is that too many countries have allowed themselves to become dependent upon Russian energy, deployed by Moscow as a political weapon. It is not just Germany. Last week Italy insisted that energy be excluded from a list of sanctions. The West’s failure to ensure the security of its supplies, worsened by its dash to net-zero and the German shutdown of its nuclear power stations, has left it dangerously exposed.

At a time when leadership is needed, the UK Government deserves full credit for offering it – articulating the threat, bolstering Nato, diplomatically going on the offensive and drawing up a compelling package of economic measures that now includes a ban on so-called golden visas and, if necessary, a prohibition on companies with a strategic relationship with Moscow from raising money on UK stock exchanges.

This shows that Brexit was not the end of Britain’s influence but, with the right government in charge, an opportunity to plug the country back into global affairs.

There is a desperate need to revitalise the democratic alliance, thinking beyond the old boundaries of the Cold War, to offer a global front against dictatorship.

In that sense, Ukraine is not just about Ukraine, but the balance of political and moral authority across the world.

University refunds

A rare winner from the pandemic was higher education, in a manner of speaking. The axing of exams and use of teachers’ predictions to set grades, which were more generous than examinations would ever have been, saw the largest increase in student numbers in over a decade, while the 24 members of the Russell Group of universities collectively pocketed £115 million in furlough money. Institutions in the group are now sitting on a combined surplus of over £2.2 billion. This is despite some of them teaching over Zoom for longer than necessary and even locking their students down in their halls of residence. Meanwhile, lecturers from 68 universities have gone on strike, threatening further disruption to studies.

Students are furious, and rightly so. Many feel that there is no way that spending large parts of the academic year at home, watching lectures on a laptop, was worth an annual tuition fee of £9,250. Over the past two years, younger people have been denied many of the experiences that other generations enjoyed. Do universities really think it right that they appear to have profited so handsomely, while their customers have received what they consider to be poor service? Some of that money could be returned in the form of a tuition fee rebate. Alternatively, furlough money could be returned to the taxpayer.

In the next few days, the Government is expected to announce its “living safely with Covid” strategy for England, a plan to lift the remaining restrictions. This is very welcome indeed. But ministers should also ensure that institutions – including universities – do not cling to their own arbitrary rules and ignore the official direction of travel. Self-interested organisations should not stand in the way of the country returning to normal.

Watching the wobbles

A surprise hit of Storm Eunice was Big Jet TV, a live-stream of planes trying to land at Heathrow, with commentary by aviation enthusiast Jerry Dyer. Mr Dyer’s style is Match of the Day: “Easy, easy, easy,” as the flight swerves towards the runway. “Yeah! Big swing man!” as she bounces up and down.

It could catch on. The public might pay more attention to a Parliament narrated by Mr Dyer – “Come on my son, stick it to him!” – and others might imagine their lives elevated by excited punditry. “She pours, she pours, there goes the milk in the cup!” All good fun, except for the people aboard the planes, who no doubt disembarked in a heavier mood, a voice in their head commenting that they need a post-match drink.