Why the arrival of British-made tanks in Russian towns could be beneficial for Putin

If it weren’t for the English Channel and the Royal Navy, this country would be a heavily armed police state or a province under someone else’s rule.

The United States is similarly situated, with the Atlantic on one side and the Pacific on the other, and two weak neighbours to the north and south. Other countries do not have it so easy. Russia, for example, has no natural defences of this kind.

I am fed up with hardline commentators in London and Washington who talk non-stop about the war between Russia and Ukraine with a mixture of ultra-masculine bravado and moral purity. Now the macho supermen are gloating over Ukraine’s invasion of Russia, with British-made tanks slowly advancing through Russian villages.

Don’t they understand that this attack gives a gigantic long-term propaganda victory to the Moscow tyrant Putin? For years he has maintained that NATO’s expansion to the east would place a hostile alliance, armed by the Western powers, on Russia’s border, 800 kilometres from Moscow.

For years, Western statesmen and commentators laughed condescendingly at the very idea that NATO expansion was risky. There was nothing to worry about, they insisted.

British-made tanks slowly advance through Russian villages during the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Now, as Putin said they would, British and American armoured vehicles are stirring up the landscape on the road to Kursk, a city that has enormous emotional and historical significance in the Russian mind, not least thanks to the cruel and incredibly bloody fighting that took place in and around it in the 1940s, fighting that ensured Hitler’s final defeat.

In Russia, power has little to do with laws or rules. The man who can prove that he can and will protect the nation becomes Tsar. Power of this kind is based on brute force and utter cruelty, and that is why Russia has almost always been an army with a country, rather than a country with an army.

The Russian word for “security” is very different from its English equivalent, which is “bezopasnost.” It is entirely negative. It means “without danger.” Because in Russia danger is the normal default position. Western statesmen and media, who for the most part know nothing about Russia, don’t understand this.

So instead of having a viable, if cynical, relationship with that huge country, we are always at Russia’s beck and call or at its feet. In 1853, for example, we invaded Crimea. During the First World War, we secretly offered Moscow possession of Istanbul in return for help against the Kaiser.

In World War II, we gave the Kremlin Eastern Europe in exchange for it doing most of the fighting against Hitler. Now we feel strong again.

But I promise you it won’t last. God help and comfort all the poor people who are fighting, dying, disabled, disfigured, homeless, ruined and destitute in this stupid and unnecessary war, so that a few silly people can imagine they are Churchill’s heirs. Oh, and a reminder to Al ‘Boris’ Johnson. I still look forward to discussing this issue with you as soon as possible.

This soft policing of cannabis will only bring more tragedy

What is the connection between drug driver Alex Rankin, who ran a red light in her Ford Fiesta while under the influence of marijuana, and the horrific murders perpetrated by Valdo Calocane in Nottingham last year? What is the connection between Calocane’s horrific crime and Ann Widdecombe, the latest British politician to suggest serious prosecution of marijuana users?

I’ll tell you something: the establishment of this country, political, media, law enforcement and legal, is united in its desire to be lenient on marijuana. We have a written law against it, but we don’t enforce it and we stifle any attempt to enforce it.

When Ms Widdecombe tried in 2000 to persuade the Conservative Party to strengthen the law, she was torpedoed by several members of the Shadow Cabinet, who systematically criticised her and scuttled her plan.

In the 24 years since then, the use of this drug has become frighteningly widespread. The police and the courts have stopped even taking note of it. However, I have no doubt that the reason Calocane suffered from serious mental illness was his marijuana use. His neighbour in Nottingham reported that his house stank of marijuana. I am not surprised.

Every time a crime like this is committed, I expect someone to say of the culprit: “He was a nice, quiet boy until his teens, then he started smoking cannabis and changed…” But because the law is so weak, millions of people no longer see this dangerous poison as a drug.

Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane was mentally ill and a marijuana user

Alex Rankin, 27, ran a red light in his Ford Fiesta under the influence of marijuana

So here we find Alex Rankin, a 27-year-old blonde mother living in the suburbs, who may not be what you imagine when you hear the words “pot smoker.” But among the ridiculous excuses she offered to justify her action, it turned out that the levels of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) in her blood had exceeded the legal maximum of two micrograms per liter.

The legal maximum? Possession of marijuana is officially a felony, theoretically punishable by up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine. How then can there be a legal maximum limiting the amount of marijuana present in the blood? It is painful for me to see the relatives of the Calocane victims anguish over aspects of the crime that no one can or will do anything about.

The question is, “Why are there so many dangerously mentally ill people on our streets?” The answer is, “Marijuana.” And nothing is done about it because influential idiots still think it’s harmless and trendy.

More people will die. I’m fed up with being warned and ignored. Will no one act?

Why do I buy from a museum?

I am often accused of living in the past, but that is not the case at all. But now I have to do my shopping in a museum. In particular, I have had a hard time finding a shop (yes, I have heard of the Internet) that sells Frank Cooper’s Oxford Vintage jam, which is almost black in colour and can stand on its own without the need for a jar.

But it turns out it’s for sale at the Oxford Museum, which is where I’ll be buying it in the future. I wonder what other essential items will soon be available only in museums.

Frank Cooper’s Aged Oxford Jam

From a Metropolitan Police recruitment advert: ‘They’ve arrested someone carrying a large quantity of drugs. He’s just a teenager. He’s exhausted. He’s scared. He hasn’t given them his name. Where he’s from or where he’s going. He’s broken the law.

But maybe he really does need your help. And then he says, “Change needs empathy. Change needs you.” As I have long pointed out, our police are now paramilitary social workers, not police at all. What more proof do you need?