The very welcome news from the day before was that it now appears that the collision between the cargo vessel and the oil tanker in the midst of the North Sea might not be as calamitous as first feared. The owners of the cargo vessel are saying that their containers did not contain cyanide which given its toxicity to all forms of marine life was good to hear. Meanwhile the captain of the cargo vessel has been arrested and charged with gross negligence and homicide by neglect, presumably because of the one missing crew member. This story will run and run but the UK maritime authorities appear to have acted swiftly and professionally which is all to the good. The other big piece of breaking news is that the Ukrainians have accepted the terms of an American ceasefire and have praised the efforts of President Trump in bringing this about. No doubt they are learning how to play the diplomatic game and another invitation to the White House may be in the offing. The Americans have restored the sharing of intelligence and some. military assistance to the Ukraine and, one suspects, this is all part of a strategy to bring pressure to bear upon Russia and the 'ball is now in their court' Nobody quite knows how the Russians are going to react to this ceasefire proposal and certainly, as they say, 'the boot is on the other foot' I would expect a certain amount of prevarication and foot-dragging by the Russians and they may have to be dragged by the Americans to the negotiating table. Now this will certainly be a test of Trump's much vaunted abilities to broker a deal. I have thought of a negotiating tactic that the Ukrainians might deploy so that they lose too much face when it appears they will have to cede some (already Russian-speaking and Russian occupied) territory. The Ukrainians should press for a plebiscite in the occupied territories and were the Russians to refuse, which appears likely, the Ukrainians could occupy the moral high ground and argue that Russians can only hold onto territory by force and against the will of the people which radically undermines the Russian claim that they are 'really' Russian. If, on the other hand, the Russians were forced to concede a plebiscite and were to win it (one way or another) then the Ukrainians could argue to their own people that Ukraine is a democratic society and if a section of the population wishes to 'join' another country, then let them do it. If the Ukrainians were to win a plebiscite. but the territories are still ceded to Russia, then the Ukrainians could use this as a lever to enhance the degree of autonomy in the occupied lands within the newly expanded Russian state. In other words, whatever the outcome of a call for a plebiscite, the Ukrainians could appear to have made much political capital out of a situation where they are probably forced to concede some territory in any case.
Yesterday morning was characterised by our domestic help calling around to work her magic whilst Meg and I thought we would have a quiet and restful day and Meg was dozing most of the morning. I devoted some time whilst having a leisurely morning to looking at some of the webspace I rent to ascertain whether I had enough, and I have a spare 32Gb so that is enough for foreseeable needs. I also did a count-up of the folders within my webspace and discovered that I had 50 folders in it, one being huge (this blog) and many being trivial such as a one-page websites. But there are also folders of holiday 'snaps' that are well worth a browse. Some time ago, I registered a couple of .eu domain names before we had actually left the EU. I subsequently discovered to my disgust that these had been expropriated, and I can no longer access them. The content of these websites was small and relatively trivial but at the time, and now some years, later it still rankles somewhat. The body that allocates top level domains had evidently taken it upon themselves to remove the right to an .eu address but I thought when I acquired these names that I would acquire them whilst I could.
Around lunchtime, one of the District nurses called around. She is monitoring a pressure sore which has turned into a 'deep tissue injury' on one of Meg's heels and, at the same time, took a photograph of the bruise that is now developing on Meg's other foot since she hit the pavement when she fell out of her wheelchair last Saturday. She also took Meg's blood pressure and oxygen levels which were both reassuringly high but in a week's time they are probably going to perform a Doppler test to assess the extent of the deep tissue injury. The nurse said she would also check up on the progress of the referral I made to the OT service the other day to see if any additional supports might be available so that we do not have a repeat of the wheelchair episode.
Whether the Russians will actually come to the negotiating table is the talking point of today. One of the foremost defence analysts in the UK. Michael Clarke, is of the view that Donald Trump is running the risk of looking like 'an absolute fool in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin'. He says Trump has the business style of a property magnate but it is not the way Russians like to negotiate 'It is not the way diplomacy tends to work in reality. It does on TV series, but not in reality. Putin is very, very clever and he is cunning. He is not a terribly bright man, but he is cunning.' he states. Clarke adds that the danger for Trump is that he will push for a quick deal which 'looks good for the first couple of weeks and then falls apart' He says that for that to happen to Trump so early in his second term would not go down well with a man who cares so much about he is viewed by history.
© Mike Hart [2025]