Regardless of the impact on our economy, Putin must be stopped

Walking around London this lunchtime with my family, my stomach tightened as it struck me that we may conceivably now be sliding towards a war with Russia. A war with consequences that could end up destroying everything we value. Not physical assets – they can be replaced – but those we love and hold dear.

The poverty of the West’s response to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine is breathtaking. Sanctions are announced, then re-announced, in the hope that perhaps the crisis on our borders may just resolve itself, with Putin deciding he has tweaked our tail enough. Such an outcome, however desirable, is pie in the sky.

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Louise Perry

The Rotherham cover-up

Let’s be clear that Putin holds the West, its leaders and its values in contempt. We are weak; he is strong. We want to accommodate; he wants to dominate. He is surrounded by cronies and gangsters, a number of whom want to test NATO’s resolve by invading a Baltic state such as Latvia or Estonia.