Actions Speak Louder Than Words...

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The Prime Minister and most of the Opposition gave appropriate, if ultimately empty, rhetorical responses to President Zelensky's impassioned speech via video link to Parliament this afternoon, which were brought quietly into stark contrast by the most telling response in the House this afternoon. The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party simply stated the obvious: that the UK will be judged not just by what it says or intends, but what it actually does for Ukraine.

Johnson's government will need to step up their efforts by an order of magnitude or several if they are ever to be viewed even vaguely favourably by history. The problem is, this is not simply a question of image, either in the present or for posterity; there are real, pressing and urgent humanitarian issues that need to be dealt with now, not next week, next month or in the next financial quarter: Ukraine needs real physical, practical and military assistance, not cleverly-constructed oration. Rip up the Brexit play book and ditch the spurious bureaucracy and biometric nonsense now. The Home Office has shown its true colours over this, and it's just plain disgusting.

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