Yesterday we awoke to the news that as he had recently threatened, Donald Trump had put an immediate halt to all arm shipments to Ukraine. This is really handing victory to the Russians on a plate, and it looks as though Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader, has no alternative but to crawl back to the White House, make an abject apology to Trump (who has a personal vendetta against the Ukrainian leader in any case) and accept whatever deal the Americans seem fit to enforce. In the meanwhile, Keir Starmer received almost universal praise from all quarters of the House of Commons for the leadership he has displayed over the last few days and is one of those occasions, which only tends to happen when the UK is on a war footing and the House of Commons wishes to display a unified approach to any potential foes. Meanwhile, there are reports that Trump has ordered the suspension of all 'spy' activities directed against Russia which means that Russian agents will have a much more free hand in the threats that they can make against the West in general and the UK in particular. This is particularly unwelcome news for the UK and has been labelled as 'madness' by a military source in the UK. The fascination of Trump and the Republican party with the Russian regime is very difficult for us to comprehend and many have made the observation that Ronald Reagan, a well known adversary of the then Soviet Union, will be turning in his grave.
In the morning, I spent a certain amount of time spreadsheeting the future of my mortgage repayments. We have a small mortgage with only just over three years to run and the Barclays app that I have on my phone is very good giving me my exact balance, the updated interest rate and the time left to run. In the last few years of a mortgage, as the amount owed diminishes it is particularly satisfying to see that the 'interest' component of the repayment reducing and the corresponding capital repayment part correspondingly increasing and, although it is not necessary for me to spreadsheet this, it is very satisfying to check the progress month by month.
Being quite a clear day, Meg and I made our way down the hill and had our usual repast with one of our friends in Wetherspoons - both of us were slightly concerned about the other friend who we know occasionally struggles to get to us but she is, after all, in her mid 90's. Yesterday morning was not a particularly happy occasion as I had two relatively inexperienced carers on duty and were not at all sure how they were to handle Meg. Consequently, they asked that I be present so that they did the right thing and required a certain amount of supervision and instruction. Later on in the morning, we were due to have a visit from one of the specialist nurses who specialise in Meg's condition and the appointment with us had been organised about a month ago. I have always had excellent service from this band of nurses, employed by a charity who have provided both practical and emotional support in the past. But today, perhaps because I had been anticipating this visit a little too much, I was distinctly underwhelmed. The nurse stayed with us for an hour an listened to the six things that I had detailed in my mind to discuss with her, only to be told at the end of the hour long visit that I was doing the right things, was coping very well and should contact them if there was anything further that could be done.
Yesterday afternoon, two very carefully crafted speeches were delivered and both intended for the ears of Donald Trump. The first of these was a letter written by Zelenskyy the Ukrainian leader calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities if Russia would do the same. The second letter was written by Justin Trudeau, the premier of Canada immediately imposing tit-for-tat sanctions against American products in retaliation for the 25% tariffs imposed by Trump this morning. The Canadians are appealing directly to American workers and consumers saying that this trade war is going to harm everybody, and Canadians would lift their tariffs as soon as the Americans lifted theirs. I would imagine that Trump and his coterie would find it easy to reject both letters out of hand, for Trump can never be shown to back down. In any case, sensitive matters like this are best handled through 'back channels' and I doubt that a public negotiation of differences is at all likely to succeed.
© Mike Hart [2025]