A former president whom I dislike – I forget which of them it was, because I dislike them all – used to refer to presidents that he disliked as “mad dogs”. Now the difference between a human and a canine mad dog is that you can put the latter on a leash or out of its misery, but you definitely cannot do so with presidents, though I wish you could. Actually, I do not generally approve of the death penalty, but when it comes to certain top dogs … I say no more.

Because as mad dogs go, those who drag their country into a needless war are just about as despicable as the lowliest creatures on earth although, of course, those who commit a genocide – one of which we are currently witnessing – really take the cake.

Leaving aside the genocide (about which I have no words, just tears), we have now all been apprised that the Ukraine war could have been avoided. Or rather… have we? Have you read about the Schulenburg report in your daily paper? Have you heard of the Schulenburg report on the news? I bet you haven’t because the Schulenburg report is terribly embarrassing for the US and for that country’s abject satellites in NATO. And no, I did not hear about it or read about it in my own country’s news outlets, of course, but in the alternative media.

One example of “alternative media” is Conter which claims it “provides anti-establishment news and analysis in Scotland”. Among the questions raised by Conter is precisely: why has the general population so little a say about the wars engaged in or supported by their nation, to their – the general population’s – detriment. The British government firmly supports Israel’s ongoing genocide, while the huge demonstration that the home secretary wanted to see banned included placards that cried “NOT IN OUR NAME!” She called it an example of “hate marches … [in] the rising tide of racism, intimidation and terrorist glorification threatening community cohesion”.

I put to you, that the tide that is rising, particularly in the UK – apart from suppression of information and free speech – is poverty. I’m sure you know about that, too.

One of the most tragic aspects of British politics is the unbelievable hijacking of the Labour Party, cf. Al Jazeera’s The Labour Files. Protesters on the streets and the growing ranks of increasingly poor Britons have nobody to speak for them, only a bunch of mad dogs at the top.

So when Boris Johnson effectively put a final stop to the peace deal reached between Russia and Ukraine in March 2022, the British population had no idea. They still don’t. They had no idea that the USA and NATO with Boris Johnson as a temporary figurehead were going to cost so many lives and the destruction of an entire country. Will Boris Johnson ever be held accountable by Ukraine, by the Britons? Will Biden and all the other presidents I don’t like be held accountable for the innumerable wars they have authorised? (not Trump, I admit.)

Will anybody ever be held accountable for the de-industrialisation of Germany as a result of the destruction of the Nordstream pipeline? (You may think the rising tide of poverty was due to Brexit. Alas, see the fate of the rest of EU in the Arte documentary Working but Poor.)

At the top of the EU pyramid is the slender figure of blond Ursula, always humbly dressed and coiffed, a Saint Ursula as it were, a symbol of western rule of law and transparency.

“Transparency” is a byword for what “we” stand for, and as such, it is a stroke of marketing genius. Transparency is something we associate with gleaming crystal, gems and – yes – “us” and what “we” stand for: truth, and honest endeavour. What a wonderful piece of work “we” are, almost reminiscent of Fabergé, we, the beautiful, pure egalitarian Democracies.

However, most of us now know that nothing is less transparent than the machinations of the EU bureaucracy except, of course other bureaucracies, most of which are designed to keep the top-dogs-that-be at the top. Unfortunately, as things stand, that is all we know.

We don’t know how to change this state of affairs.