RELIGION: Peace in Ukraine – the courage to negotiate

Pope Francis was right, of course, in his “white flag” plea for a negotiated peace between Russia and Ukraine. In the present military situation neither the total defeat of the Ukrainian armed forces by Russia, nor of the Russians by Ukraine, is conceivable.

Many Western leaders know this. Yet while they can think it, they cannot say it. The Pope can and he did. He was wrong, however, to imply that Ukraine had already been beaten – if that is what he meant.

The troublesome part of his recent remarks to a Swiss TV channel were these (translated into English): “When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, it is necessary to have the courage to negotiate.” He did also say, “Negotiation is never a surrender”, and, “The stronger one is the one who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate.”

Public spending and the cult of tax cutting

The Conservative Party has allowed itself to be bewitched by a Melanesian “cargo cult”, whose primary doctrine is that deliverance from imminent annihilation at the ballot box can only be achieved by a magic spell called “tax cutting” and the ritual sacrifice of public services, mainly to the detriment of the elderly, poor and sick.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, high priest of this cult, announced in his spring budget last week that the two per cent cut in a form of income tax called National Insurance that he offered the gods of market economics last autumn would now be repeated. As a consequence, any growth in public expenditure such as those services administered by local councils would be held at one per cent – in effect, with inflation at four per cent, a substantial reduction.