Sunday Footy

A lovely morning for it. A couple of extras too.

Warning: Political comment

As the terrible situation in the Ukraine unfolds and the western propaganda machine reaches full steam maybe it might also be pertinent to look a little closer to home and acknowledge our, personal role in all the killing and suffering in the world.

Like Putin, the UK also invaded a country under false pretences, less than 20 years ago, participating in the killing of hundreds of thousands in doing so. We didn’t need a “madman” in charge to do this (although, arguably, we have one now anyway) because our “democratically” elected government decided it was fine to do even though we knew the war was illegal by most accepted definitions (including the UN). As yet, no-one has been held accountable and, surprisingly considering the outrage over Ukraine, not many in the UK really seem to care. I wonder what kind of message this gives to other countries, such as Russia maybe, wanting to mimic our actions?

I’ve mentioned this before but let’s also consider the UK’s arms trade that continues to get tremendous support from our successive governments, red or blue. In 2019 we sold £1.3 billion of arms to 35 of the “top” 48 countries with the worst human rights records in the world. I find it baffling how we, collectively as a country, can spout outrage at Putin while we help promote the very thing we’re supposedly outraged at.

Add to this the many other, less obvious ways in which the UK facilitates pain and suffering around the world to promote our way of life and it’s really shockingly sobering. There’s a saying about people in glass houses...