We need to do something about Donald Trump. Maybe ignore him completely.

 We live in strange times. There is hardly a day when I have not looked at the latest news and found myself getting annoyed, frustrated, dismayed or just a little bit sad. I really cannot remember when I read some good news about what is happening in the world and in this country and Ukraine particularly.

There is the problem that is Donald Trump, of course. I did have some passing respect at various times since his last election as there was some sense that he wanted to get things done. The problem was that I didn't always like what he wanted to get done nor am I sure that the majority of Americans did either and the fact that he appears to be operating effectively solo I find surprising and extremely worrying. I had read before he was elected that this was a possibility, that he would simply require people to do what he wanted without consultation with anyone and this could be enacted by some sort of presidential power that, mercifully, our top guy doesn't have. If parliament doesn't agree then it doesn't happen. Well, more or less - I'll come back to that later. Despite there being a whole raft of senators and the like elected at the same time, I have not seen any evidence that there has been any attempt by anyone to vote on any of Trump's actions or proposals. He just rambles on some weird Social Media outlet which no-one else seems to be a member of, so it's just Trump sharing a Trump online document, as far as I can tell, and does so in a way that would embarrass me if I were an American. whether I had voted for him or not. It is invariably quite childishly worded content. I accept that he often does get to the point pleasantly quickly in comparison to the dithering of so many other people supposedly in charge, but the phrases and grammar and general presentation leave a lot to be desired and are not what one would expect from the most senior team managing the world's most powerful nation. Except there isn't really a team. Trump appears to do much by himself or, at best, gets someone to do stuff on his behalf but they're instructed to do it exactly as he says and don't have either the nerve nor the ability to tidy things up or query the sense of some posts.

We currently have the crazy nonsense that Trump wants to 'have' Greenland. He wants Greenland to be a part of the USA. As far as I can tell from a great deal of intelligent people who know what they're talking about, the USA already has all the permissions it could possibly need to do whatever it is that Trump wants to do by way or increasing security, creating business or whatever in the country. There are agreements in place between all the appropriate parties to this effect. Disregarding for a moment the fact that Greenland is an autonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark, and its citizens are citizens of Denmark, everything that Trump would appear to want can be achieved now. Announcing that the USA wants to 'buy' Greenland or, worse, that they might consider just taking control of the place was something I just smiled at when I first heard about it some months ago. Now it seems that Trump has got himself into a position where he has to get it as part of USA and all hell is breaking loose. It is sheer madness, totally unnecessary and surely someone needs to bring a halt to this ridiculous charade called the Trump presidency.

We have had enough. We have forgiven or put up with enough nonsense, enough announcements of this or that, or threats of this or that which never quite develop as they were going to. We shouldn't be part of this game. I wonder if the best plan for all the world leaders is simply to ignore Trump. Actually not pay any attention to him whatsoever. Sure, he'll rant and rave but he will not actually attack anyone and eventually people in the States will wake up and start finding ways in their Constitution to bring him back down to some form of democracy instead of what is perilously close to dictatorship in many ways.

I am amazed that so many otherwise smart and powerful men and women just sit and watch and do as they're told by this idiot. Maybe he is not an idiot but he is certainly a bully and an inconsiderate arsehole. He has lost the right to tun America and we need to stop paying attention to him.

USA is not about to invade Greenland. They may make an offer that residents find difficult to refuse but I don't see Greenland ever becoming a state within USA.

In the meantime people in USA will have to pay some extra duty on imports from a selection of European countries, including the UK. So be it. We may lose some sales or make less profit but I don't see it lasting long. If it does become permanent then we will retaliate and it will all get evened out after a while, to be rescinded completely by a new president in due course.

The other problem with Trump is his ridiculous treatment of the situation in Ukraine. USA is proving now to be hopelessly unreliable and that sense of untrustworthiness is not going to go down well with anyone over time and will be remembered. Ukraine is and will continue to get by without US support. It will be far more difficult for everyone there, whether trying to keep warm or defending towns and villages from Russian attack, but they will survive. Trump will be responsible for the huge number of additional casualties by virtue of his lack of real support and his stupidity in believing a lot of what Putin has told him. Putin should also have been ignored and, instead of rolling out a red carpet, Trump and, for that matter, every other country appalled by the Russian invasion, should have rolled out vast numbers of troops and equipment and shown that Putin stood no chance right at the very start. That would have ended the war there and then. It could be ended now too, four years later, if Trump and other leaders actually had the courage.

Here in Britain, I have been saddened at the continuation of the gender nonsense and the fact that staff are still being sacked for something they may have said or written in the past. We have Palestinian rights people marching in many towns and Palestinian flags flying left right and centre but display the English flag or support Israel in hammering Hamas, Hezbollah or whoever and you'll be in trouble. What I find really strange is why all the students are not out on the streets declaring how bad Putin and Russia have been and still are, demanding action not words from governments here and abroad. Why are they not supporting the uprising in Iran, not apparently upset that the Islam leaders are killing innocent people in the streets just for disagreeing with their government's policies and wanting change? Where are the Green Party on all this? The main parties may talk about how bad this or that action is but they really are not doing much at all, not have they done since it all began.

There was a Supreme Court ruling to the effect that you are either a man or a woman. Period. But this seems to have been ignored and organisations are still asking people for their preferred prefix and people are being dismissed if they even dare to smile at how nonsensical all this has become. I have no problem with men dressing as women or women dressing as men but I do object when these transvestites start asking for the facilities and rights of the gender they look like rather than what they are. There are also still schools that appear to be helping children get treatment to change the way they grow. I find this unbelievable. There maybe one or two children who genuinely do wish, and would benefit from being able, to have a physical body that more closely resembles their preferred gender but these are surely exceptions, in very low numbers and for whom special treatment is arranged only with the permission of their parents. It is nothing to do with teachers, headmasters or whatever, unless they discern that a child is being badly treated at home, in which case they should report the matter to Social Services and the Police as appropriate, step back and let experts deal with it.

You only have to read the reports each month from the Free Speech Union to see how many people are being dismissed, arrested or generally badly treated by their employers in ways that have to be regarded as grossly unfair and in contradiction to our basic laws. Unfortunately, in many cases there have been all kinds of new rules and regulations brought in, not so much by government as by ministers using Statutory Instruments to enact something that appears not to need parliamentary scrutiny. So stuff can happen that affects us all but which we may only hear about after it has been introduced.

I do accept that most of the woke nonsense actually arrived in Britain under the auspices of a Conservative government, one that I had voted for. I am amazed that they let all this happen and can only assume that most of the people at the top genuinely did not appreciate what was going on in HR departments across the country until it was too late. But when it did become clear and we started to see things like 'hate speech' incidents and worse, as well as a host of restrictions on what anyone felt safe saying at almost any meeting, that government did nothing. It deserved to lose the election but we did not deserve to get the awful apology for a government that replaced them. This lot are downright useless and don't seem to know how bad they are. Most are terribly inexperienced which means the Civil Service get to rule the roost and essentially do what they think best. Sadly, the civil servants are no better these days and many are more inclined to socialism than capitalism and to support Palestine than Israel and many Russia rather than Ukraine.

The whole place has gone to pot. I am so relieved that I have no reason to deal with schools any more or get involved in any of the disputes that I read about. I can hide away and put my head in the sand here in Bozeat in nowhereland, Northamptonshire. I am embarrassed by my country's government. Starmer may not take to social media with silly statements in capitals but he is still pathetic and, despite all the talk, seems unable to convince people to do what is necessary.

We should forget Trump and leave America to do what the hell it wants. By all means tell them what we think but let's not try and do battle with them. Soon enough the intelligent people there will work out how to rebalance the madness and Trump will be a joke in history.

We should act on our own in helping to defend Ukraine and I am sure our actions will be supported by many other nations worried about making the first move. We don't negotiate with Putin. We find a way to stop his advances and also get him arrested along with a bunch of other bad people in what passes for a government there. We deal with the opposition there and help it to gain real momentum.

We should maintain accurate records of who is actually in the country at any time. Those who arrive illegally get sent straight back to where they were last in a safe country. That will usually be France and France should be entitled to do the same, and every other country too, so that every single person planning to make an illegal trip here sees that we are serious about this and they will finish up back where they started. Now, I appreciate that the burden will then fall greatly upon Greece and Italy, being the first landing for many people wanting to move away from Africa or the Middle East. So a concerted EU venture needs to find a mutually funded place that these people can be help while their claims to be at risk in their own country can be decided.

Where someone is allowed to enter Britain then they should not be entitled to benefits or housing. If they choose to come here then they must be supported by someone or have means to support themselves. Why, otherwise, should they come? They come to contribute to British life not take from it. Once they start paying taxes then they begin to get their entitlements as the rest of the nation, health and education first and then other benefits can be earned later. No tax, no free healthcare or education. So think before coming to Britain. They may find other nations more attractive.

I cannot ask anyone to commit to any religion as I could find that hard to do myself. What I would seek, though, is an acceptance that they do not engage in action or activity that threatens anyone resident here. So those whose religion regards Christians as bad people or that regards Jews as people who shouldn't exist or, for that matter, wants to bump off anyone supporting Islam. just to keep things fair, they all get kicked out on the first offence. We don't want anyone here who will stir up hatred. We have enough here already that we can't get rid of. Obviously we have to respect rights of free speech and I am aware of my previous comments about 'hate speech' so I need to be careful. I am thinking, in the main, of supporters of extreme religious sects who preach or support the preaching of taking violent action against others because of their religious belief. Clearly I am happy to have people here who talk about wanting to get rid of Putin and various other evil people so the wording needs to be carefully selected. What we don't want are huge numbers of some religious sect who have as their basic premise the belief that some other group of our residents need to be killed or who come and live here but actually hate what we stand for. Defining what we stand for, though, is not as easy as it sounds. I may try one day. I will probably then get arrested.

Read All About It!

I have recently completed a couple of books. For The Love of Cooper, Friar Minor is a collection of letters that Harold Cooper wrote to my old friend Ugo Vincent in the 1920s and 1930s. Although it is mostly a one-sided conversation, it is possible to follow a lot of what was happening and it was the descriptions of the prairie lands of the northern territories that fascinated me and made the book worth preparing.

I also had another reason. I had inherited the papers from Mr Vincent when he died in the 1980s but had not done a great deal with them. I had been a little concerned at the many references to 'boys' in both the Church and Scouting environments in which both men spent a lot of time. I had always thought highly of my friend Mr Vincent and believed him to be of good character. His preference for male company was understood and, of course, quite acceptable in present times but I could see that this was most definitely not always the case. I was worried that I may find stories of deeds that I would be annoyed to read. Mr Vincent had had a tremendous influence on me in my later teens and over the years from the late 60s but it was his intelligence, lively conversation, challenges to authority that I liked. There was never the slightest hint of anything untoward through the time I knew him. Clearly, though, this may not always have been so.

I shall not say any more here but there are some surprises in this book.

The other is a revision of my own story up to Spring 1985. At this time I had been on a rollercoaster of life, fortune and emotions and really the whole of who and what I was to become in future was in the balance. It is difficult to write about how stupid one can be and it can be a tough read for me these days. Some of my behaviour was not good and I did feel that I needed to cut out some unnecessarily explicit detail and some rambling and repetition. 

I do mean to write the sequel and tie up a number of loose ends but I fear I simply cannot yet do that. I do think that someone could make a great film out of all that happened and one of the reasons for the revision was  so that I felt a little less nervous allowing others to read it, one colleague having good connections with a producer specialising in this sort of tale. Now that would make a good ending!

Both books are available on Amazon at the links available via the images.

My previous publications are also available and are shown below.

Finally, I have a series of Little Chick stories for children and I will summarise these soon in a separate post.

 

So much for Rupert

 I lost a brother yesterday. He didn't die or anything but any semblance of brotherly love did. I guess it had been pretty insignificant for many years. Despite all my efforts I had been unable to visit him or take him to family events since around 2016. He refused to leave Uttoxeter or allow me to drop in during the COVID years and, quite rudely, in my opinion, made no effort to help or even communicate with my son Kyran when he moved to Derbyshire and made no effort to attend, or apologise for not attending, Kyran's wedding  a few years ago.

I had so admired him as a child and we laughed a lot, especially at the dinner table and just catching each other's eyes when one or our parents made a remark that we found funny would make us burst out in laughter. Nine years older than me, though, the difference in our day-to-day lives became greater and greater and he moved to Uttoxeter at the age of 15 in 1958 to begin an apprenticeship with Bamfords, a farm machinery company.

Whereas he had to live during the war rationing years and only gradual improvement in living conditions and family income during the 50s and early 60s, my teenage years saw the immense improvement of life in the mid to later 60s. As well as having a lot more opportunities and possessions, I was lucky to gain a scholarship to attend a very respectable public school whereas he had been at the grammar school and left with just O levels. I moved as an effective only child to a lovely home on a farm in Hertfordshire whereas he had been brought up in a grotty semi in Frogmore, followed by a series of temporary flats in Uttoxeter.

He would comment on the much better luck that I had had from time to time when we met on the few occasions we visited Uttoxeter or attended a family event somewhere else. I always felt some resentment but as he started to earn money and drive a nice Hillman Hunter while I was overdrawn at St. Andrews University he did seem to be achieving more with his life than I was for a while and, although, contact was minimal, about three or four times a year at most, the age difference was becoming a little less relevant and we got on fine.

The first big problem came when he got married - well, probably when he got engaged, I supposed - to Delia Morris, a co-worker at Bamfords and Uttoxeter resident. She was a devout Catholic and the wedding had to be in a Catholic church. I had no idea what the difference was between the Christian Church of England places that I was familiar with and a Catholic one but that was what had to be. My father wasn't particularly happy with this marriage. I have never been totally sure why and I don't think it was because she was Catholic as much as what she insisted that Rupert do, like attend Church with her on Sundays and do slightly different things at Christmas. I suspect that he voiced his lack of enthusiasm for all that on the one occasion Delia actually visited us on the farm in Kings Langley. It would have been around 1968 and the pair never visited my mother and father again as a couple. We all went to the wedding in 1970 in Uttoxeter and, as an 18-year-old student, I enjoyed the wine and the food and the party and failed to notice the clear division at the reception on the day. As many of my uncles and aunts mentioned, and, particularly my dad has never forgotten, the Hills were treated very rudely with many from the Morris side whispering "here come the Prozzies" as we entered and no effort was made by any of the parental generations to chat or share conversation or a drink.

I only learned of this later but how my father, in particular, was treated seems to have been appalling and even my mum, who has to be one of the most forbearing and forgiving ladies in the world, anxious to please anyone and everyone, was upset. The result was that we never visited Rupert and Delia in Uttoxeter again. Rupert would call in at Kings Langley should his work bring him down south and he was my best man at my own wedding in 1971 in St. Andrews, with Delia notably absent.

The expression 'Who's Rupert?' became quite a common one whenever the conversation with my parents turned to him. As the years progressed, mum and dad moved to Doddington in the Fens in the early 1980s but Rupert and Delia never visited, not attended as a couple any of the family weddings and funerals. With many uncles and an aunt and a string of cousins, there were many but only Rupert would attend.

In 1983 my own business had grown quite spectacularly and, promised a large investment by an American broker, I had set up a company to help new businesses get started or for small businesses to grow. I needed good advice on how to select companies and people to support and had taken on as directors two men who had been directors of a client company with which I had got on well for several years before. On a car phone in a park near the Serpentine in the middle of London one day in 1983 I remember a call with Rupert. I had heard that he had been badly let down and a job he had taken in the East of England had been made redundant almost as soon as he had started. It occurred to me that his good experience of dealing with businesses and commerce generally over his career with Bamfords would be very useful for my new company and I suggested he join the team as a fourth director.

Rupert came and met my other two colleagues and we had a great time. He would fit in really well and we began to enjoy each other's company once again, with laughter once more and little talk about the years before. My mum and dad were delighted that we were working together, although Rupert still didn't see much of them. We had a year of wonderful times - many, many nice meals together in Newbury, a memorable 60th birthday party for one of our colleagues on a boat on the Thames, a trip for Rupert and I to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura in August and another to Kos one wild and windy December. I provided him with a brand new Volvo, in silver and a blue interior, as he specified and a decent salary.

All was looking so good and it was so nice to be proud of my brother again. All the staff liked him and he was good at what he did. And then, in 1985, everything came crashing down. The American broker proved to be a massive fraud and I was in serious trouble, as a trustee of a pension scheme having lost about a million pounds in loans and investments through the American that were not being returned or acknowledged.

Rupert did work hard for several months to try and help colleagues raise some money, through loans secured on some land we could acquire in the Canaries or through other schemes, and it did look as though he might succeed at times but, in the end, every single attempt failed and the whole business collapsed, some elements being forced to close by government and Court interventions. He was briefly thought to be in collusion with me in some sort of fraud that we had conspired together on but I took the hit for everything and deliberately made sure that none of my staff or other directors were accused of anything and their names cleared. It cost me dearly but it was the right thing to do.

He, as well as others of course, lost jobs and income but his expenses and salary were fully paid up to the end. He managed to keep the car too, with my Finance Director finding a way for that to be arranged. Quite soon afterwards I understand that he got a good position with the Department of Trade and was able to continue his life as before reasonably easily. Indeed, when we met at later dates, he would tell me many tales of his trips with Prince Andrew who often led the Department of Trade forays abroad to fly the flag and generate interest. I do think the events surrounding my demise were a big shock for him and his inability to get me out of trouble, or maybe, see the trouble and possible fraud beforehand, weighed heavily on his conscience in the background. It was a subject never spoken about afterwards. 

I was charged with conspiracy to defraud and several counts of theft in summer 1985 and we were not in contact until sometime after I emerged from a year at HMP Leyhill in February 1990. Indeed, it was in February 1992 when we next met when he attended my second wedding in St. Albans. I remember being so pleased he had made it and that some move might be being made towards forgiving me for giving him problems before.

That was it, though, and it was not until dad died in 2005 that we met again. On this occasion he took care of most of the arrangements and there was little interaction between us and no Delia present. It was when mum became unwell and quite difficult to deal with that we started to work together again. Mum was still living in the Fens, a long drive from both Milton Keynes, where I lived, and Uttoxeter where Rupert had never really moved from. We took it in turns to visit every couple of weeks for a while but then, as she became particularly difficult, and talk of finding a nursing home for her began, we started going on the same day, usually a Saturday, every week or two. She would call each of us almost every day and we would have to decide whether whatever she was reporting as an issue was actually serious or not, and whether we needed to drive out there immediately or later. When we did meet, however, we would often go somewhere as just the two of us for lunch and I felt some of the good times return as we laughed once more and talked about our current activities.

I was a lecturer and coming up to retirement. He had been forced to retire from his Department of Trade position but was very much involved in various charitable organisations in Uttoxeter and also with being in charge of looking after the proceeds of a  £1 million grant for some part of Uttoxeter's regeneration. Mum would get annoyed with him and he would shout at her on many occasions which surprised me. I seldom saw him in such a bad mood. Mum could be frustrating but I never needed to get angry with her. Rupert would stand up and stamp his feet and go outside for a cigarette. He was controlling her money and mum would say that she hadn't got any and he would say he had given her so much on this date and so on. To maintain her entitlement to various care support in the home her bank balance needed to remain below a certain amount and so, from time to time, as pension credits came in he would send me an amount which he said was half of the surplus he needed to pull down.

The visits started in the mid 1990s and carried on through to 2014 when the house was eventually sold after he death in 2013. They were much less frequent after she went into hospital in 2013 but we needed to maintain the garden and tidy up her house which we did together. I did most the arrangements for mum's funeral and that was a lovely event, noticeably more memorable than dad's, which several people appreciated, with nice displays of photos and little items on the tables and speeches from several of us at the funeral. No Delia, of course. In fact, on many occasions Rupert would bring either a girlfriend from Essex or an old schoolfriend from Hertfordshire to mum's house during the care and tidying up period. After the funeral, we set about dividing up the things in the house. I found a draft of a will that specifically requested that Rupert not have any personal possessions, only half the property proceeds. It mentioned how offended dad had been at the treatment from Delia and her family over the years and how they wanted nothing of their own to be moved to Uttoxeter. I talked to my first wife, Anne, about this and we decided that no good would come from telling him about this so I put the draft away - it was not a legally binding will, nor did mum and dad's solicitor have any will or instructions. I have never mentioned it.

I have also never told Rupert that he has a sister. Karen was born in 1945 as a result of a relationship mum had with an American officer stationed locally and who was accommodated at her house in the war. Rupert would have been just 1 or 2 and mum was taken by her mum to Portsmouth at some point, presumably when the bulge began to be difficult to hide, where the baby girl was born and immediately taken for adoption. I understand the family was a chemist in the area and the date 6 May 1945 but that is all I have ever been able to discover. Mum told me in the early 2000s and had asked me to try and find some information about the girl. I did try but was not able to get very far with the Salvation Army, who one used to approach in these matters. Quite what was done with Rupert at that time I don't know but I guess he was too young to remember anything anyway. I don't know why I never told him. Dad never knew either, incidentally. The fact that mum had told me and not Rupert had always made me feel that she trusted me with the information but not Rupert, dad being alive still at the time. I may have been wrong and thought about telling him recently but events have left me inclined not to bother as I suspect he wouldn't be interested anyway.

The division of the house things and money went well and Rupert seemed efficient and dealt with the various utilities and sale costs. One thing has always troubled me, though, whilst I received what appeared to be half of the net house sale proceeds, I never did receive anything else. I remembered that Rupert had to keep the bank balance down below £16000 or thereabouts and so there should have been a good amount of around £10000 remaining even after all the utilities and funeral costs. In addition, dad had always kept a few thousand in cash in a wallet in a drawer in the bedroom. I had looked for this in 2005 when he had died but Rupert had been to the house earlier than me to obtain some certificates or something. I assumed it had been moved to a safe place by mum at the time and thought nothing more of it until I thought more about the calculations when mum died. I don't like to entertain thoughts that Rupert succumbed to temptation or maybe considered the funds fairly to be due to him as the older brother doing most of the administrative work. I don't like to but the doubt remains and was reinforced a bit by his remark that I was lucky to get 50% of the house money. This came when I was wondering whether we might develop the house, which stood on a good-sized plot in a pleasant village. The bungalow was in poor condition so would not sell for much. Replacing it with a new building and garage and outbuildings, or even selling the plot with planning permission for the development, could be profitable. I had no funds, though, and Rupert was not interested in using any of the money for this purpose. So it didn't happen. Nor did he agree that I might move there. In 2013 I was living alone in a rented house and would very much have liked to have some more permanent accommodation. It wasn't that nice but I could slowly have made it better. I would have paid a modest rent but he wanted the house sold and I got the impression that he wanted the whole memory of mum and dad there to go. He had hardly ever spoken to dad since the wedding in Uttoxeter, over 40 years ago, and had been increasingly rude with mum in her later years. I don't think he had ever visited the there now I think about it, other than maybe an occasional passing call in on a business trip when he would appear with a girl from his office. Whereas Doddington had become my parents' 'home' to me and, indeed, I had actually lived there myself for a while in the late 80s, and, of course, I had fond memories of the farm in Kings Langley, Rupert had none of this fondness for a place or home and I began to wonder too of his real affection for mum. He certainly had none for dad.

The 'Where's Rupert?' remark that had been a sarcastic one back in the 70s and 80s became a 'Who's Rupert?' from my own children from around the 2000s to this day. He has never had any real conversation or shown any interest in them in all the years. Of particular sadness for me was his lack of any attempt to help my son in Derby as I have referred to before. If I talk about him with them, notably Katie will come out with the 'Who's Rupert?' comment and they all find it strange that, as quite close brothers and sisters themselves, Rupert and I seem distant.

At Christmas 2024 I called to wish Rupert a merry Christmas, as I almost always have done every year, even if that's all we have said. Delia answered. 

"Can I speak to Rupert, please?"

"No."

"Er . . . OK. Where is here?" (thinking he was in the garden or out for a walk or something)

"He's in a Home."

That hit me like a thunderbolt and, after recovery I managed to get the name of the Nursing Home but absolutely no other information at all, no number, no cause, no timescale, no nothing. No apology for not telling me or sympathy either for that matter. It was almost like it was none of my business.

I immediately called the Nursing home and managed to get through to Rupert as he was about to have his lunch. He was a bit croaky and rough but I got the merry Christmas message across and said I'd come up and see him in the New Year.

I went up in January and found him in bed in a small room where he said he had been since some time in September 2024. I said that I had only just found out and asked what had happened but got little response. He said that that was his life now and he would be there for the rest of his life. He had arranged for a friend and Delia's relatives to take care of everything and given a power of attourney to one of them. He almost seemed to say that there was no need for me to know anything anyway and dismissed any offer of help as everything was taken care of. He didn't remember the call or much about what had happened to him before. Delia was at the house, as I knew, and being looked after by people there and all was well, as far as he was concerned. Basically, he didn't seem too bothered about my seeing him and, after about 30 minutes, I was none the wiser about his condition, prognosis nor affairs, and he said he had had enough talking and needed to rest.

I left feeling a bit rejected as well as dejected as it was a big change to see a once lively life-and-soul-of-the-party fellow in such a dead-end street place. 

Two cousins visited in the summer but I was not inclined to make the long trip in a hurry. I had swapped my BMW for a Jaguar but that was very expensive to run and I was looking to change it, putting off the trip to Uttoxeter until I did get something else. The cousins reported similarly to me; a grumpy Rupert who hardly knew them and who shared nothing of much interest.

I did discover from the main nurse at the Home, a very pleasant and helpful lady, that Rupert had become unable to walk around and had been hospitalised for some months in the summer of 2024. I think Delia was unable to look after him and so they had chosen the Home at that time. He had some diabetic problem and needed to wear a urine bag and, initially, was unable to move about much, with painful bones. After coming to the Home, however, the nurse had noticed that there seemed little wrong with him apart from the urine bag necessity. It was her view that he needn't lie around in bed all day and they might make an effort to encourage him to move more. She said he asked why he needed to move and, in a similar remark to what he'd said to me, he had said that he would stay there for the rest of his life and what would he need to have movement therapy or whatever for?

I was planning to visit this Christmas when I got a call on my mobile in the car. It was Rupert, thanking me for the card I'd sent. He then told me that Delia had died but they'd had a private family funeral and, basically, there was nothing more I needed to know anyway. I wished him well and said I would visit soon. He said there was no rush.

I drove up yesterday. I had told the staff I was on my way and they said lunch was at 12:30 so I reckoned I would get there for 11:30 and have plenty of time and, of course, he might only manage 30 minutes anyway. I arrived at 11:40 and his first remark was to say that I shouldn't have come at that time as he would be going to lunch in 15 minutes. He pointed at the clock behind me. I said his lunch was at 12:30 but he insisted it would be 12 and he had already ordered his preferences from the menu. I said I needed to help make arrangements for him now that Delia was gone and presumably there'd be much to sort out. 

"Well, get on with it, we've only got quarter of an hour." he replied.

I said that if he sold the house then the Home would gradually take all but a small amount of the proceeds. £80,000 a year would soon take whatever he received. If a relative was living there then the house would not be regarded as an asset and the government would continue to pay the fees. So it might be worthwhile looking into the options . . .

"Ah, you want to live in my house rent free?" he said quite angrily. 

I said that it might just be me in name or could be someone else. I hadn't really wanted to move to Uttoxeter. I was just trying to protect his money from disappearing. I admit that I was thinking initially about what would happen when he died but I did actually get the impression that he would be around for quite a long time yet as he seemed a lot stronger and more able to move about than before. So I could see that there was no imminent chance of any resources for me anyway.

I had clearly got off on the wrong foot but he soon made his views very clear.

"I will sell the house and it's my money." he started bluntly. "You can't live there. It will be sold and the money pays for my care here. They look after me well and I will spend the rest of my life here. It's not much to look at but I will be here for as long as I live. That's it. There's nothing for you in any of this. We were never very close, were we? I'm not going to do anything for you. You can talk to the people who have been helping me and arrange to collect anything you want from the house."

It was abundantly clear that he was not bothered in the slightest about the house money gradually disappearing and that was simply because he needed nothing now by way of money. Everything around him was paid for. Any phone bills were paid by whoever was dealing with his affairs and it would be they who dealt with the house. I learned that his solicitor, who will manage everything on the legal and tax side, is a member of the Home's management team and Rupert mentioned that he had been advised by him already on 'something to do with assets'. I got the feeling that the Home may well do better from the house proceeds for a few years than government funding. I may be wrong but decided not to pursue that line.

I told Rupert that I felt a duty to help him as much as I could and he only had to ask if there was anything he needed. I was now his next of kin and I said that I was sure he would want to do the same if the roles were reversed. He replied that there was nothing he needed and he didn't want me to do anything. There was nothing for me, he repeated, to do. He didn't want any help from me. It was like the other friends that were local had done so much for him, taking him to Delia's funeral, arranging his bills and finances etc., and I had done nothing in all the time he had been there. I did remind hm that I had tried hard to visit him and take him places in the years before and, indeed, had not even know about his being in hospital or put in the home. I even learned that Delia had died in October but he only told me two months later. All in all, he should appreciate that it was all a bit of a shock and now I am trying to help.

"Don't need you. Don't need anything. This is my money and I'll do what I like with it." That was it. Then he pointed to the clock again. It was a couple of minutes from 12 o'clock. "Get off the bed!" he shouted, and swung his legs over the side, stood up and pulled on a pullover. "I have to go to lunch. You have to go. I go to lunch at 12 every day. It's the only time I get up. So thanks for coming but you have to go now."

I shook his hand but didn't look at him and walked out the door, pulling it behind me quite hard. I was a bit upset at the way he had effectively returned to the days when we knew nothing about each other and didn't care much either. There was no humour, no understanding. He immediately thought I was looking to get his house or something but more than that, I detected that he wanted nothing to do with me at all, as if he had promised Delia that the Hill family would have nothing of theirs, just as mum and dad had not wanted Rupert to have anything of theirs. All the bad feeling had come full circle.

As I looked at Rupert on the bed when trying to tell him I felt it was my duty to be involved in what arrangements he makes henceforth, from his lack of understanding or appreciation, indeed his quite aggressive statement that it has nothing to do with me, I began to realise that this was not my brother any more. There's no love, no desire to help or be kind, to share or enquire. Quite simply, as I drove the long way home after the 20 minutes that seemed like a hour or two, I decided that I had no reason to see him again. 

Farewell, Rupert. You live the life that you make for yourself.

Send in the clowns

The border can only change if the Ukrainian people agree. There might be a majority to accept some interim group of nations controlling a thin slice to the East and Crimea. Otherwise, without support from some other countries on the ground and in the air, Russia will gradually take a little more here, be pushed back a little more there and this will go on for years. 

At some point there have to be elections and there is much worry that they will be falsified to bring in some innocent-looking MPs who turn out to be Russian plants and Russia effectively takes control, with the population then fighting its own 'elected' government and curbed by umpteen new orders. Very messy with major riots and revolution (again) which we'll all just watch. 

If only that 'coalition of the 'willing' countries' were actually willing and took action - but I just see a lot of remote leaders knocking at the border door, scrawling a rude message maybe, and then scampering away.

The 'big' boys seem very weak to me and the 'little' folk like Estonia and Lithuania who are genuinely prepared to go in are too small and also have their hands tied by NATO in a strange twist of things. 

Much of Russia's threat is bluff, with weapons that often misfire and much nuclear stuff already sold by those who were supposed to be looking after it and there's a good reason why they have struggled against the supposedly far less-well equipped Ukraine - they haven't got as much as we think they have. We should call their bluff but no-one's got the balls.  In a strange way, the best hope is actually for NATO to be forced to get involved by a big mistake and a major missile strike on a Polish or Czech city.

A month has gone by since we watched a bunch of leaders bend the knee to Trump in the White House. Perhaps behind closed doors one or two were a little firmer, such as Macron, who has little to lose at home, and one or two others wishing to make a more aggressive move than wagging at finger at easier targets like companies still trading with Russia.

This week we shall see Trump being wafted around England, probably missing Wales, Scotland and definitely missing Northern Ireland and looking interested as King Charles tells him about plants and architecture. This would be a great week to announce that we're joining a group of nations who are planting troops and weapons of all sorts on the Ukraine border with air support, all ready to counter any further incursion into NATO territory and with an unwritten agreement to knock out a few particularly annoying Russian missile operations depots and missile sites, probably by "some errant drone that just happened to go in the wrong direction."

Now where have I heard that before?

All hell really needs to be let loose very soon. It may feel uncomfortable but nothing like as bad as a Russian penis up our collective arse.

Pity the poor kids.

Yesterday's meetings at the White House went a lot better for Zelensky than many of us had expected. Once everyone had stopped thanking Donald Trump in the session for the cameras I presume they all went off and actually talked seriously about the situation. What they decided we don't yet know but Trump did make it clear that America would support Ukraine in the event of an attack after some peace had been agreed. Now 'support' could mean almost anything but the references made quite often to a NATO-style clause which would require the nations signed up to defend Ukraine do seem to indicate that all those nations, including America, would provide equipment, men and intelligence.

That does appear to put America back firmly on the Ukraine side in this war, having been apparently straddling the gap between the two. It sounds good news but I find it hard to square this with Trump's meeting just a few days earlier with Putin, in which all was friendly, smiles and hopes of big deals and mutual benefits. To me it just shows how Trump can bend with the wind and one should really not trust anything he says. He is known to like to put people off guard, to make some theatrical attack or comment to get attention, maybe shock value, only to deny ever saying that sometime later or pretending it was not as it sounded. So I find it hard to believe that America would actually do anything other than sell weapons and some services to Ukraine or nations that genuinely are prepared to help directly.

The commitment to defend Ukraine, therefore, was welcome but needs to be more specific. After all, we have made commitments before but, so far, have not honoured them as we should have done, which is largely the reason we are where we are today.

Another main feature of the meetings was the insistence by the French and German leaders that Russia has to cease fighting before anyone can start negotiating with them. Trump's assertion that he has ended 6 wars already and in no cases have there been a ceasefire is demonstrably wrong. He himself, in his own announcements, has referred to a ceasefire in at least four of those instances! BBC Verify staff, obviously attempting to repair their damaged image, correctly identified these discrepancies last night on one of their summary news programmes.

For all that, I am not so sure it matters that much. If Russia is going to stop fighting then it will be for just one of two reasons:

(i) when they believe that they have achieved all that they can reasonably expect to achieve in the short term, or

(ii) when they believe that continuing will have a serious impact upon their own nation, either economically or, possibly, attack.

Until then they may talk about this or that, maybe even agree to this or that but I doubt there will be anything of consequence and they'll just carry on in the meantime. So this business of 'they need to cease fire before anyone can sit down and talk about the future' is somewhat irrelevant.

The most significant development, in my view, has come from the wives of the two leaders. Melania Trump's letter to Putin and Zelensky's wife's letter to her, both regarding the plight of thousands of children taken away by Russian troops to live in distant parts of Russia, not seen since. Ursula von de Leyen spoke very passionately on the same subject during the 'Thank you' session, cleverly attracting a lot of press attention in the process. This abduction of so many innocent children - those who were too young to have any allegiance or political motivation and who could not possibly represent any threat to Russia - is something that is quite unforgiveable and will stay in people's minds for a long time. Whilst it may not rank as highly as the devastation of Mariupol, the destruction of the Kherson dam or the unholy rape and torture by Russian troops retreating in Bucha and some other towns shortly after the invasion, it is the one crime that no-one can justify in any way as something that 'just happens' in a war.

So where are we now? What is going to happen next?

The meetings talked of a Putin-Zelensky summit and Zelensky himself was thankful for Trump's offer to be there, maybe to chair it. Whilst there will have to be a meeting, and documentation signed, should there ever be peace agreed, I don't see that coming any time soon.

Putin has nothing to lose by carrying on, indeed by increasing the destruction and making further advances. I still don't know why he hasn't used some of the serious weapons at his disposal to force Ukraine's surrender by mass destruction of more areas. He has already become one of the most evil and hated leaders amongst people in the free world, other than Trump, that is. Whatever more he does, especially if it brings about a rapid conclusion, will not make his reputation any worse. In fact, he may even gain more respect from those who have supported him to date. The prospect scares me and I really do hope he doesn't take such action but it would have a terrible logic about it that cannot be denied.

Assuming he doesn't hit any red buttons or cause much by way of further destruction in Ukraine and merely moves the line of control by Russia further and further West and South, what do we do? Without having had a ceasefire or any peace agreement, there is no NATO-style defence agreement either and it's down to Ukraine to battle on as best they can. I guess we support them as best we can and America will continue to sell equipment (hopefully not limiting its use) but Ukraine gradually shrinks and troops get tired and this all drags on so sadly into fourth, fifth or more anniversaries.

I mentioned before what would cause Putin to stop. I don't see anyone threatening to attack so the only action that could conceivably work would be heavier sanctions and behind the scenes work to destabilise his control. Those countries who are still supplying weapons and significant trade cannot all be stopped. No-one is going to have a chance to get Kim Jong Un to change his allegiance but China, Brazil and India might recognise some benefit from being less helpful to Russia and could be worked on diplomatically.

This threat to the Russian economy, coupled with some smart activist propaganda and hacking work inside the nation, could make Putin pause for thought. Whether he then does call it a day and settle for what he's gained or simply go for broke and smash the rest of Ukraine - on the ground that he might as well ensure no-one else has anything if he can't - is something no-one can know. 

So even that action gets us nowhere because Putin would still have to give up land that he has taken control of. In Alaska he appears to have intimated that he would only settle for all of Donetsk and Luhantsk regions. He doesn't have all of them now. But let's say that he does manage to keep going and defeat Ukraine's resistance there and finally agrees to stop. Zelensky has no authority to donate those regions and their people to another country. Only his parliament, after approving this by a sizeable majority, can then recommend this and put it to a referendum. Only if that is passed could this actually happen in any legal or permanent way. Otherwise, it will be like the taking of Crimea, something that Ukraine will continue to want returned and will, at some point when they feel strong enough again, or Russian leadership and government changes, start to fight for once again.

Unless I have missed something in all this, I see no way that any agreement can be made with Putin that has any hope of lasting. Any land deal proposal will be defeated by the referendum, even if Zelensky feels he has no choice but to recommend it against all his own beliefs regarding the preservation of a nation's border. No new defence deal with America or Europe will come into being in the absence of any peace agreement. So it all carries on.

It ends only with a new government and attitude in Russia or a major war between Europe and Russia resulting from some move by Russia, either deliberate or in error, that a NATO country is unable to avoid responding to and which Russia loses.

We could have ended this almost as soon as it began in February 2022. I doubt anyone can do anything now. Other than wait. And hope. And pity the poor kids.

The right side

 With all the activity going on at the moment you would think that there could be an end to the war in Ukraine any time soon. I'm not so sure.

Trump says that Zelensky "could end the war today if he wanted to". Well, yes, in theory, he could. He could put up the white flag and say OK we give in. Take this land and that land. End of war. End of story. But then so could Putin. He could tell his forces to stop, go home. Also end of war. Also end of story. And why not ask Trump how he might end the war? Instead of offering Putin nice deals he could be threatening him and anyone who supports Russia's actions with some nice weaponry and formidable sanctions. Instead of threatening to stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and supplies it would have been a great deal more helpful to have offered to supply even more, making it plain that Ukraine would have the resources to resist any Russian advances henceforth and, indeed, they might even be able to force Russia back. If not to the start line, at least far enough to force Putin to reconsider whether it would be worthwhile trying to get more than a few towns in Eastern Ukraine. So Trump could end it if he wished too.

So it seems clear to me that Trump is full of shit and is neither particularly bright nor being particularly well-advised by those he listens too. That being the case, I expect nothing of significance from today's meeting between Zelensky and Trump.

What is a little more interesting is the announcement, seemingly accepted as fact by America, that Ukraine be granted the same rights of entitlement to defence support as if they were a full member of NATO. That's the bit where all other NATO countries are obliged to spring to the defence of a member that is attacked. This, however, appears conditional upon Ukraine agreeing to donate huge chunks of territory to Russia. Those chunks would include areas that are not under Russian control at all and would also appear to leave Ukraine with a rather minimal degree of access to the coast. As there is no way that such a commitment would make any sense, Zelensky is not about to make such an agreement and will, therefore, see that offer of NATO-style defence rescinded.

It has all been presented so far in a way that looks as if Zelensky is the bad guy or, at least, if not bad, the one who is intransigent and prolonging any chance of peace. That is clever PR work by Russia and, of course, idiot Trump and his people seem to have helped in that presentation.

A group of European leaders have, however, accompanied Zelensky to the White House and hope to straighten out the idiot Trump before he causes yet more grief. Without them there then we can be pretty sure that Trump will simply repeat the "Zelensky could end the war today if he wanted to" mantra. Slowly that will become embedded and, in true Megan-style, will become his truth and justify another kick in the teeth for Zelensky and the Ukrainian people generally. My hope is that the other leaders around might come out with some better soundbites and, at least, provide some balance against the weight of Putin's propaganda machine.

What can they say or do that will bring about any change, though? In the absence of a quick deal, I can see Trump losing interest. That may not be a bad thing provided he does not withdraw crucial weapons and supply support. Merely throwing his hands in the air in frustration and leaving Putin and Zelensky to fight it out is OK by me. In fact, it might be better. The Europeans seem to have got something of an act together and, whilst a bit short on actual weapons, troops and just about every other thing one needs when defending a country against a nation like Russia, they do seem to be talking sense.

They have repeated a lot, and probably deliberately so as it can take some time for the Trump and Vance brains to process data, that it is absolutely wrong under any kind of legal or moral determination, for one nation to steal land from another by force, let alone killing people in order to achieve it and let alone taking thousands of children from an area and giving them a completely different education based on communist ideology rather than the reality they'd had until carted off. Putin has been wrong, wrong, wrong and has encouraged troops to do wrong. Why should he now be granted some sort of prize? Quite the opposite should be the case, he should be arrested and tried by the International Courts that we have assumed might have jurisdiction over all this.

Zelensky must ignore the implied insult that he only wishes to continue the war. He must reject completely any land being transferred to Russia. The only border should be the one that existed on 23 February 2022. What he could do, and I hope someone will help lead others along this path, is accept that some joint or third party control be set up in some areas. This is not giving land or people's homes away but recognising that the situation has changed in some places so considerably that making them part of Ukraine again could be fraught with difficulty. They can be peaceful areas again, though, with some joint management and, whilst it might seem to give Russia some reward for the killing and invasion, it is just a temporary measure that allows the academics and politicians to work out some long-term solution that is acceptable and, maybe even, right.

The same could apply to Crimea too. There is clearly much academic debate about who the land should belong to and that debate needs to be allowed to develop and conclude with logic and reason, not missiles and mines.

There's no quick fix in any of this. We are fully aware that Putin sees all of Ukraine as being part of 'Russia' and his view will not change. But if the world were to be presented with a solution along the lines I have described then I believe it would be supported widely and anyone seen to be against it would be the obvious one who wishes to maintain the fighting. And that would be Putin, not Zelensky.

Faced with such a move, Putin might well find it unacceptable and commence the escalated and broader attack I have previously suggested as likely. That will only serve to alienate him and his nation even more and even the idiot Trump and idiot Vance will have to recognise that they can no longer do business with the guy and they need to put themselves and all America on the right side of history. Whether NATO-style or not, if Ukraine then gets attacked we should all spring to their defence and end one war by starting another.

Anchorage, USSR.

 I never expected anything from Anchorage but was astonished by the warm welcome, handshakes, hugs and red carpet given to Putin by the Americans. This is the bloke who has stolen territory from another nation in 2014, then again in 2022 and who has been directly responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine and, indeed, in his own country. Whilst I appreciate the need to talk to Putin and try to find some way out of this awful business, the US soldiers on their knees rolling out that red carpet was beyond belief. It merely confirms the opinion that I came to a long time ago - there are many Very Stupid people running the current presidency.

Putting all that to one side and trying hard not to get angry as the pictures keep appearing of the smiles and that damned carpet, Putin has benefited considerably from this one day in Anchorage, Alaska. He can see that there is no immediate threat of any real concern to him from the world's greatest power at this time and, indeed, that, were it not for this annoying Ukraine issue, he could actually be making some huge deals with the United States and deliver what his country would be delighted to read about and, should those deals lead to improved economic circumstances more widely, the population of Russia would largely cease to worry so much about all that military stuff, which he hadn't intended to tell them about in the first place - another than as some Special Military Operation that was a matter of tidying up some past errors in borders that needed to be fixed.

Now he must feel free to continue as he pleases as, with support from the US, who is going to stop him?

And that is what really worries me now. I fear a massive escalation as Russian troops make a renewed effort to capture those key places that would give them almost permanent control over the East and permit a further build-up of resources and men so that a successful attack could be formulated against Kharkiv from the East and North and I would not be at all surprised to see a stream of forces coming South from the Belarus border quite soon. That would enable all the currently relatively peaceful parts of Ukraine to be taken over and with Ukraine troops then spread so thinly in all directions I cannot see how they could stop any advance.

Last time they did because they had fresh troops and plenty of them and, particularly relevant, Russian troops and equipment were dreadfully poor both in operation and planning. I think they thought they could just walk in and get little resistance so no-one bothered to plan seriously for anything other than moving in and taking over. They probably spent more on making new forms to be filled in and passports for the Ukraine population than they did on checking that equipment worked and troops knew where they where supposed to go.

This time Russian military leaders appear to have learned from their mistakes in 2022 and, whilst not doing brilliantly well, they have developed systems for minimising the impact of the Ukraine drones and they have built up considerably greater and fresher forces than Ukraine will ever be able to manage. North Korea has, of course, also topped up the numbers which has allowed commanders to send masses into battle along the old-fashioned lines of whoever has the most people in a battle will win as long as they can keep replenishing those killed. North Koreans have been easy cannon-fodder that no-one has really been worried about losing. No awkward explanations to mothers needed for them.

So I cannot imagine why Putin should not now surge forward in all directions, maybe assisted by some heavy bombing to minimise defence and resistance in a few towns along the way and also to show anyone in the West thinking about leaping to Ukraine's defence that there's not a great deal of point any more as it is all effectively going to be over soon.

A modest nuclear explosion or two would serve to test just what the rest of us would actually do. I am afraid to say that I don't think we would do anything other than moan loudly and have a lot of meetings. With that confirmation that we won't even defend Ukraine when they're being bombed or chemically weaponed out of existence but merely allow as many as can escape with their lives to come and live in Europe or the British Commonwealth, Putin can simply get what he wants and then consider what to do about Georgia and maybe some other errant states as he gradually pulls the USSR back together.

I suspect he'll leave those countries lucky enough to have been able to join NATO and accept that they're not coming back just yet so the European Union and Britain can take a break and gradually issue new maps for the atlas books.

There will still be demonstrations about Gaza or Palestine and how bad we all are in our attitude to what is happening there. None of those people with time to wave placards and cause trouble in Britain, however, will be bothered about all the children that have already disappeared into Russia, forcefully taken from parents in Ukraine towns that Russian troops control. None of those people will be bothered about a vast country that was peaceful on February 23, 2022 now under threat of being subjugated to communist party control, with children taught that their country should never really have existed and their parents obliged to fight to attack resistance in Ukraine instead of defending Ukraine. 

I said at the start how stupid many powerful Americans seem to be. Add the Hamas-loving Palestine liberation supporters wandering around our towns and cities at a time when other causes are far more deserving of attention and action to that list. And the idiotic politicians who also support them and the judges who don't punish them.

I was going to add the politicians who, since 2014 have just looked away or done little but hold meetings and make speeches at best in defence of Ukraine, to the Really Stupid list but that's not right. They all belong in the Really Scared list. Because that's why we have done nothing. Not because it would cost money, Not because Ukraine isn't in NATO. Not because Ukraine is a long way away. Not because we're a bit short of troops and equipment. Not because we haven't been directly threatened ourselves. Not because it wouldn't be right. No, because we're scared.