James Meek

In a wiser and more competent – to say nothing of a better – world, the initial approach to Putin would have been followed by a consultation between the US, Ukraine and other European countries on their counter-proposals, and the pressure they could put on Putin if he refused to budge. Perhaps this will still happen. For the time being, Ukraine and the rest of Europe will be consulted in the way the residents of a village are consulted before it gets demolished to make way for a new airport.

While there are Ukrainians at all levels of power who cling to the hope of total victory, the engine of the war’s perpetuation at present is Russia. It is for the peace-seeking side to stop advancing, yet it is Ukraine that is on the defensive, being forced to retreat by a Russia that goes on taking more territory, has declared it must have more territory, and continues to insist on a crushing level of control over the whole of Ukraine as a condition for peace.

In Manchester, Andy Burnham presides over a scale model of a future Starmer Britain, one where a social democratic leader full of genuine desire to mend the broken, over-marketised public realm is hamstrung by lack of resources and constrained by fear of frightening away the wealth-holders.

As across the whole of Britain’s broken universal networks, the problem is framed not as ‘What must we do, and how can we use our resources to do it?’ but ‘Here’s how little money we have, what shall we spend it on?’