Of all the Christmas presents anyone’s given anyone this year, the standout has to be the great dollop of dosh the European Union’s just lobbed Ukraine’s way. And what’s unusual about it is that it’s a gift that repays itself pretty much straight away. As our Political Correspondent Peter Spencer reports, if it hadn’t been forthcoming every one of us would have been exposed to Russian barbarism.
Consider the alternative. Within weeks, months at the outside, the Kiev government would have been skint. At that stage there’d have been nothing left to run the place. Or, crucially, pay the soldiers.
So the door would have been wide open for Putin’s mobsters to just walk in and help themselves. Finally achieving the objective of what he still laughingly describes as his ‘special military operation’.
Little wonder that in a speech last week the new head of MI6 bigged up the threat we face, not just from any old Tom Dick and Harry, but specifically from Moscow.
And her words came absolutely in tandem with repeated bloodcurdling warnings from military top brass. That it’s about time we Brits woke up and smelt the coffee, as the Russian bear licks its lips.
The point here being that once the Kremlin got its ugly paws on Ukraine there’s no telling where it’d lash out next. At the outset, remember, Hitler was only going to to nibble away at a bit of Czechoslovakia. Yerright.
Not to say the European agreement to pass on ninety billion euros is exactly what our Prime Minister had hoped for. Instead of scooping it out of frozen Russian assets, the bloc’s going to put its hand in its own pocket.
That’s because of fears from Belgium, where most of the money is held, that there could be legal repercussions from Moscow. An irony, that, given that the Kremlin had no inhibition about mounting a flagrantly illegal invasion in the first place.
It does however leave Keir Starmer in the slightly awkward position of having to work out whether he dares grab the ten billion quidsworth of Ruskie stuff squirrelled away here in Britain.
But it is worth noting the key role he’s played over the months in getting other EU leaders on board on Ukraine’s behalf.
All very well the likes of the Daily Telegraph, AKA Torygraph, sneering that he’s in his comfort zone working on overseas projects, when he should be getting on with matters closer to home.
Certainly, given Starmer’s lamentable communication skills and serial ineptitude in day-to-day political management, he’d very likely be better suited to the job of Foreign Secretary than PM.
And, who knows? If May’s local elections go as badly for Labour as everyone thinks they will, then there’s something approaching a racing certainty that he will be pushed into looking for another job.
Of course, a crucial weapon in any leader’s armoury is luck. Pure and simple, there’s no getting round it. But faced as we’ve all been with an overseas-driven existential crisis, Starmer has had one helluva lot on his plate.
Not that his problems only stem from the east. Across The Pond he’s been stuck with not so much a loose cannon as, many would say, something closer to a baby in a pram with mummy’s gun in his hand.
There’s mounting evidence that Donald Trump’s hitherto cult-like following is starting to fragment. And, come the US mid-term elections next year, he may well get something of a comeuppance.
But that won’t be in time to save Starmer’s skin. And in the meantime, his carefully crafted Operation-Suck-Up-To-The-Donald is showing fewer and fewer signs of actually working.
Look no further than the promised multi-billion-nicker investment in British tech, that he hailed as: ‘A generational step change in our relationship with the US.’
Not any more, as it’s been paused. Likewise, very likely, the so-called ‘milestone’ deal on pharmaceuticals, as it turns out there’s little more to it than a couple of government press releases. No legal footing at all.
All of which brings us back to where we started.
Not only has The Donald gone a long way towards binning the post World War Two transatlantic alliance, he’s also more or less copied and pasted the Russian dictator’s war aims and told the Ukrainians it’s that or nothing.
Little wonder Starmer’s looking ever more closely at rebuilding relations with our European neighbours. United we stand, divided we fall and all that.
He set the ball rolling a week or so back by highlighting the damage done to our economy by Brexit, clearly indicating he’d like to mitigate its effects wherever possible.
He’s still ruling out joining the main trading structures, though some close to him are urging him to do just that, regardless of previous promises not to.
And here for once he’s on reasonably safe ground, as polls consistently show buckets of buyers’ remorse about the decision to butt out of the union.
This helps explain the thumbs-up he got regarding his big announcement last week. That we’re rejoining the scheme to help youngsters do part of their university courses in Europe.
As the much more all-embracing youth mobility scheme is a key European ask, this move will likely do much to lubricate negotiations in other areas.
It’ll also probably bring loads of lolly our way as far more students have in the past come to Britain to study than the other way round.
Naturally, it doesn’t come for free, and right-wing rags have been grumbling furiously about how ridiculously costly it’ll be.
However, when the more even-handed Times Newspaper gently asked its readers what they made of the idea, nearly ninety per cent of them thought it was brilliant, and only thirteen per cent didn’t.
A straw in Starmer’s cap then. And a nice little stocking filler for Chrimbo. Not that he’s got all that many of them to open, the poor love.
When the pollster YouGov asked punters who Santa would vote for this year, a clear fifth of Labour supporters reckoned he was more likely to back the Greens than Labour under Sir Keir.
Still, it was just as bad for the Tory leader, as barely over a quarter of her party’s voters thought he’d back her, while loads more thought he’d just stay put in Lapland.
Mind you, it wasn’t all that brilliant for Nigel Farage either, given that a third of those asked were convinced that he’d be Ebeneezer Scrooge’s go-to. And that figure included nearly a quarter of his own backers.
Not that he’s the only on the naughty step though. Large numbers of folk trying to make it to work in Westminster one day last week were sorely inconvenienced when they found the whole area taped off by the feds.
The reason for the alarm being a ‘suspicious package’ left lying around in the little park right next to parliament. Which couldn’t just be opened and checked without the aid of a bomb disposal robot.
When it finally did its work, the cardboard box was found to contain nothing more sinister than a stash of, er, unsent Christmas cards.
Fair to say that morning the minister whose name was on the label was the butt of buckets of bah humbugs.
Watch Peter’s report at peterspencer.org
Peter Spencer has 40 years experience as a Political Correspondent in Westminster, working with London Broadcasting and Sky News. For more of his fascinating musings on the turbulent political landscape, follow him on Facebook & Twitter.