The one time I got to travel on a Prime Ministerial plane, the thing that sticks in my mind is that it turns out to be entirely OK to stand around chatting over a glass of champagne *while taxying to the runway*, so long as you sit down for the actual take-off. Any safety announcement? Forget it.

Of course, from another perspective the "root" of the crisis is the imperialistic ambitions of the President of Russia.

Estonia?

They usually claim it’s to make way for “seasonal goods”, but since Easter eggs now start to appear about three weeks after Christmas, which itself has merged with Halloween, there’s a pretty well continuous churn. (The commercial merging of holidays is another thing I’ll be boring about for ever).

Seconded! My local Sainsbury’s seems to do this about once a fortnight, I assume to lure customers into seeing products they wouldn’t normally go anywhere near.

A security arrangement that gives allied sovereign states zero decision-making power over military action but commits them to joining that action (or even perhaps assuming sole responsibility for it - the wording is, again, very vague) if another state's leader says so, is not viable.

Pretty sure that removing immigrants is not going to reduce the price of groceries. Rather the opposite where fruit and vegetables are concerned.

Thanks. A pretty odd kind of nationalism - supporting your previous oppressor while trashing the entity (the EU) that is mainly responsible for what prosperity you have.

I realise that there are historical Ukraine-specific factors in play (also with Romania). But still…

Something I find consistently puzzling is why, with all their historical experience of Russia from 1945-1990 (and notably in 1956), Hungarians can accept a leader who aligns them with ex-KGB officer Putin. Is it generational change, or collective amnesia?

Hope this is an - all too rare - positive straw in the wind.

Sounds like EU custons are taking a tougher line than UK.

The other thing is that shipping charges from the EU have now become astronomical even for small items like books.

Well said. Matches my experience exactly. In almost 50 years I've lived in south-west, south-east and east London. All have been different, and all have been great in their own ways.

So ... everything Russia has been demanding. What is Russia conceding?

I don't. And if I did, I'd be cautious about publicising it.