I’ve been asked to fight in Ukraine
My call up papers came through this week. Not to report to Maryhill Barracks 53 years late, in the service of ERII. The dread fate of every Glasgow post-war infant.
It was either that or the “Broonie” underneath the wardrobe your mum said would get you if you didn’t slurp your NHS glass-bottled ersatz orange juice, or “grew” on state-provided cod liver oil.
I was being asked to join the International Legion for the Territorial Defence of Ukraine.
This is hardly news. The call up has been reported widely. But, for Reaction readers here is the plea as I received it. Read it carefully:
It came from my friend, X, “one of the leaders in the Ukrainian Intelligence Service”. I’ve reported on his activities before.
This evening my phone rang. X again. After a minute of surreal pleasantries, he passed me on to Adam Holloway, MP for Gravesham and a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee. I don’t know him from, well… Adam.
What on earth was he doing with X?
He greeted me warmly as a “former colleague”. MP insider conventional camaraderie. I am presently in Tel Aviv – on business and, of course, checking out Israeli opera. My call up papers remain firmly lodged in my WhatsApp inbox.
Unlike me, Adam Holloway, a former soldier, acted. He has placed himself in harm’s way to find out on the ground how plucky Ukrainians are thwarting Putin’s planned walkover.
My point is that if Reaction’s opera critic is receiving personal, high-level updates on the state of war from senior Ukraine intelligence sources and a 21st century Sir Percy Blakeney politico, the PR score in this conflict is currently: Ukraine 10 – The Puffy Man at the end of the big table being squinted at through the Webb Telescope by cowed officials wondering what life in a post Putin world holds for them, 0.
Trust our dear old Grauniad, at this pivotal moment of history, to grab its customary wrong end of the stick, dissing the Holloway expedition as a breach of FO guidance.
“Mr Churchill mustn’t be nasty to that Mr Hitler. It’s against advice,” they probably opined in 1938. Must check.
As casualty figures ratchet up, reaching more deeply into the lives of families, indiscriminately killing and maiming children; as ever larger missiles flash more brightly and throw up ominous mushroom clouds; as the early surprise successes of Ukraine’s outnumbered military grind towards a likely Stalingrad stalemate, gestures – seemingly pointless – take on significance.
I feel a warm glow that a reckless member of Britain’s House of Commons has taken it upon himself to ignore Mr Pooterish advice and do what he can to show solidarity with allies in dire straits.
Was it foolish? Of course it was. Was it pointless? Certainly not. Adam Holloway’s gesture gave courage to Ukrainian friends.
At the opening night of Verdi’s Don Carlos at New York’s Met on Monday chorus and cast stood front stage and sang their hearts out as Yanick Nézy-Séguin whipped his orchestra into a monumental rendition of the Ukrainian National Anthem. The audience rose as one.
Ukrainian members of the chorus sang straight out, without scores, from the heart.
Another gesture. But as direct interdiction of Putin’s forces is a no-no, gestures are all we have. That and “God Save the Queen” anti-tank missiles. Let’s deliver as many of both as we can.