Ukraine

Andy Burnham says in a couple of interviews that he wants an ‘honest discussion’ about free movement, and then Downing Street indicates that perhaps he doesn’t. Many interpret this as poor ‘message discipline’. I don’t think so. The key to Mr Burnham’s behaviour is to remember two things. The first is that, even after 100 days in office, he still wants to be as different as possible from Sir Keir Starmer. That means he must be seen at all times to welcome open discussion, talking like a human being not a robot. The second is that he wants to keep open the possibility of calling a general election next year. The ‘breathing space’ he says the country needs is really what his party needs.

Home Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, said on a podcast: ‘I asked the question coming to Downing Street, “Well, was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia?” I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.’ Sir Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, said during questions after an annual speech: ‘I’m a little bit worried that [if] we all stay in this debate for another few days, the Russian trolls who didn’t appear to do all that much at various points over the years, they’ll be delighted they are front-page news once again.’ The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that whatever happened at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, on 27 September was ‘almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard’.

Reporting of the war in Ukraine suffers from the tendency of journalism to exaggerate a trend. The most recent one has been Ukraine’s success in drone attacks on key energy and strategic sites deep inside Russia. These are indeed innovative and prodigious. The Russian summer offensive has also failed to break through. This leaves too little room, however, to cover fully the dramatically worsening plight of Ukrainian civilians. Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent, said this week: “Even if you think you’re used to everything, you are not.” Russia has switched tactics from big, one-off aerial bombardments to almost continuous drones. In Kyiv one day last week, the air-raid sirens signaled 13 different attacks.

Reporting of the war in Ukraine suffers from the tendency of journalism to exaggerate a trend. The most recent one has been Ukraine’s success in drone attacks on key energy and strategic sites deep inside Russia. These are indeed innovative and prodigious. The Russian summer offensive has also failed to break through. This leaves too little room, however, to cover fully the dramatically worsening plight of Ukrainian civilians. Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent, said this week: ‘Even if you think you’re used to everything, you are not.’ Russia has switched tactics from big, one-off aerial bombardments to almost continuous drones. In Kyiv one day last week, the air-raid sirens signalled 13 different attacks.

Home Andy Burnham made his first foreign trip as Prime Minister, to Kyiv. ‘Despite Russia’s outrageous threats to my country,’ he said, ‘we will continue our support for Ukraine.’ He said he would supply information about British-made components of the Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles to help Ukraine build its own version. Ukraine gave Britain a trove of secret battlefield intelligence. Andrey Kelin, the Russian ambassador to Britain, had, it was found, left in July and not been replaced. Iranian hackers shut down a British power station for four days. New 10p coins went into circulation, with the King’s head and a capercaillie as tails.