The end of the year is bringing to us a blast of cold air with temperatures only just above freezing and with a fair bit of cloud to boot. The weather forecasters predict that the cold snap will continue until well into the New Year. Here in Bromsgrove, the temperature is currently 4° but the breeze is predicted to make it feel colder than this. I think it is one of those days when a scarf is mandatory and I may well invest in an extra pair of socks as my heels are inclined to crack in spells of cold weather like this. I have just bought via Amazon some special heel plasters because I am in need of one at the moment and I will probably need a good supply for the days and weeks ahead. If anyone was holding their breath expecting to see a break through in the Mar-a-Lago talks concerning the future of Ukraine, then there is nothing much to report. Zelenskyy is saying that a peace plan is 90% agreed but this is only between the Ukrainians and the Americans who, in the last analysis, will always side with Russia. Part of the peace plan is suggesting that the contest areas of Ukraine, the Donbas area much of which is occupied by Russia shall be de-militarised and perhaps made into a special economic zone (it is rich in coal and minerals), But such a plan would have to be monitored by ‘boots on the ground’ and who is going to supply such forces? America always prefers to drop bombs on the ground rather than commit troops to a ground war with the risk that body bags will be shown live on American TV which is a real ‘no-no’ for the Americans after their experience in Vietnam. So it it going to be other Europeans whom Putin will argue are just Nato in another guise and intent on seizing what Putin regards as Russian territory. So what is decided between the Ukraine and Trump will subsequently have to secure the agreement of the Russians. For their part, they have gained some territory at an enormous cost in lives but had to concede nothing and will never agree to any monitoring forces from what country that might impede their own territorial ambitions. So perhaps the Ukrainians have to fight on wishing for an end to the Trump presidency or at least its emasculation following the Congressional elections later in 2026 and a desire that a similar administration (such as one headed by the current Vice President J P Vance) does not follow for the next eight years. So there is no prospect of a real and lasting peace and all of the Russians have to do is to say ‘Nyet’ and consolidate the gains they have made since the start of the war. This is all rather depressing but perhaps the future lies in ignoring the Americans altogether and the European nations increasing their defence expenditures and doing what they contain to contain the Russian threat (which is all rather reminiscent of 1930’s Germany, but do our collective memories stretch back for practically a century?)
The day turned out to be quite a ‘domestic’ day what with one thing or another. There were several texts that I needed to send so that I could keep in touch with families and friends over this festive period before work pressures start to intrude upon us one again the minute we have New Year out of the way. It would be nice to see my Yorkshire family a little bit more than I do as I tend to confine my visits to things such as birthdays and the Christmas season itself and, of course, bad weather makes travel by road a little more problematic than in the summer. But I noticed that in Leeds there is going to be a production of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ which is one of my favourite operas so I need to think whether I can combine an opera visit and a family visit into one trip. My Irish friends are due to come round to share some Christmas festivities with me and then the following day, the car is booked into the Mazda garage because I got an ominous message on the console saying ‘Engine fault- arrange for a technical examination’ or something similar. I have the car booked into the Mazda garage at 8.30am and no doubt they will plug the engine into their own diagnostic computer and then we can find whether the fault is a very trivial one, a very serious one or something in between. But whereas a normal service can take a predictable amount of time, I have no way of knowing how long the car is to be out of action. I know that there is a local supermarket with a breakfast where I can go and have some breakfast whilst I while away the time but evidently I am hoping that whatever is wrong can easily be fixed. On Thursday, which is New Year’s Day I am due to meet up with a friend I have not seen for some time at the Webbs superstore down the road and I checked that they are actually open on New Year’s Day, which they are. I suspect that a lot of the population are going to regard the whole of this week as a ‘holiday’ week as there is only on working day i.e. Friday, January 2nd and many will have taken this is annual leave. Then the whole country will try to properly return to work next Monday morning which is January 5th.
The Epstein release of files is proceeding slowly and the Department of Justice has already broken the law passed by Congress to release all of the files before Christmas. It is said that a million other files have just been found but how you lose a million files in the first place defies imagination. The American liberal media are already crying ‘foul’ because in the most recently found material including a letter associating Trump with underage girls, it is claimed that a handwritten letter is a ‘forgery’ But if the letter has only just come to light, then it takes a fair amount of time of detailed investigation (of the paper, ink, signatures, provenance) so it does appear that the Department of Justice have just called it as a ‘forgery’ (to not implicate Trump) without a full investigation.