I expect most of us will be holding our breath as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska tomorrow. Heavens above, Trump doesn’t even know his own territory, saying on Monday that he was “going to Russia”, so the thought that he could carve up anyone else’s is really scary.
Ed Davey has described the summit as a “perilous moment.”
This is a perilous moment for Europe as two of the most unreliable Presidents imaginable seem to think they can carve up Ukraine amongst themselves without any word from the Ukrainian people.
Even at this late hour I hope Trump reverses his position and invites Zelensky to Alaska.
Whatever happens the UK must stand with our European allies and continue to make sure that democratic Ukraine is in charge of its own destiny.
He also remembers the 20,000 children abducted by Russia during the war on Ukraine:
Putin has ripped 20,000 Ukrainian children from their families and abducted them to Russia.
On behalf of all their parents, Trump should look Putin in the eye and demand he returns those children home.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Reform makes first gain from Conservatives in this by-election cycle
How Chancellor Reeves torpedoed the economy
The Disneyfication of Hayley Mills
Michael Meadowcroft: A Liberal of Intellectual Rigour and Uncommon Integrity
Daniel Walker
Peter Martin
Chris Cory
Ruth Bright
6 Comments
I am delighted to see Sir Ed toughen his position after his weak first day response of a knighthood. Trump I suspect will also push American access to strategic minerals and oil exploration in Russia and the Arctic despite sanctions. If this results in a second summit European leaders should also be invited so as to avoid a ganging up on Zelensky. Peace yes but not peace at any price.
This ‘summit’, I’d suggest, is yet another of Trump’s fairly successful diversions from Epstein; the longer Trump can keep in the news on other matters the more Epstein fades into history..
At the beginning of this month Trump promised to force Putin to end the war, within 10 days, by “Massive Sanctions and Tariffs”.. That deadline came and went with the announcement of another ‘off-the-cuff strategy’, i.e. a ‘SUMMIT’.. However, ever since the announcement, Trump has been downplaying its chance of success and talking about second/third meetings (attendees to be decided later)..
Putin’s long term plan to annex the whole of Ukraine into ‘greater Russia’ has not changed.. Putin will play to Trump’s ego and flatter and cajole him into thinking Ukraine will be the seventh war he’s ended in just a few months in office.. Meanwhile, in the real world………..?
TACO!
Might this article be relevant?
https://www.moonofalabama.org/
TACO, I’m afraid, is wishful thinking on the part of Trump’s critics. Sure, Trump ramps up and ramps down his tariff threats in a deliberately unpredictable way. But very often, a ramp-down gets followed later by a new threat.
It’s standard hardball tactics, and you don’t need to be a “stable genius” to make it work. First, threaten to pour a bucket of urine over your opponent. Next, persuade them to agree in great relief when you actually offer to replace the urine with water.
That’s commercial shenanigans, at which Trump is moderately (not more than that ) competent. However, foreign affairs is a totally different ball game. There, Trump knows nothing and his tactics are hopeless. Kim-Jong-Un rolled all over Trump. Putin will find it all too easy to do the same.
Talk of war and suffering, reminds us that today is V.J. Day. In particular I would like to pay a small tribute to my old friend Arthur Holt.
Arthur (1914-1995) was Liberal M.P. for Bolton West between 1951 and 1964. I knew him from my time working at Party HQ in 1964/65 and in later years in his retirement to South Lakeland.
He was a company commander when captured in 1942 and taken prisoner at the fall of Singapore. He had been twice mentioned in dispatches. He suffered terribly as a POW (with attacks of malaria for the rest of his life) but always tried to defend and protect his men from the worst treatments inflicted by their captors.
Later, when he was a Liberal M.P., I remember some of his caustic and earthy comments directed at the Tory benches. They are in Hansard but probably wouldn’t make it onto LDV.
Arthur Holt, a great and good man and I remember him today.
Moon of Alabama is a well-known pro-Russia site.