The Joy of Six 1055

"It is already clear (I fear) that the next round of the contest between imperial Russia and its reluctant Western adversaries will take place in the Baltics. The rule book for that tussle is being written now. Bold letters, in thick black ink, please." Ed Lucas argues that Ukraine is buying the West time and we must use it wisely.

"The government’s steadfast adherence to a policy that fails to achieve its objectives while devastating the population of a beloved native mammal with potential knock-on effects for the broader ecology indicates the stranglehold that 'simple' lethal controls have on public authorities." Mark Jones says the badger cull is not affecting the rate of tuberculosis in cattle.

Kelli María Korducki looks at the rise in the number of adults looking to be diagnosed with ADHD.

"What good is it making someone safer if it merely makes them miserable?" Celia Kitzinger attends a contested hearing in the Court of Protection.

Imogen West-Knights watches the slow-motion humiliation of Piers Morgan: "By trying to aim at a global audience, the show ends up being directionless: Morgan can’t get into detail about contemporary British political talking points, so he’s restricted to a tired deck of cards from the culture war starter pack."

Pamela Thom-Rowe on the history of morris dancing in the Shropshire hills: "According to the court records ... Nicholas Millichap and Thomas Chelmicke had gone to the village of Abdon to fetch the communion cloth from the church to use as a flag for the morris dance."

Ed Lucas says Putin’s apologists and enablers must face a moral reckoning

Good stuff from Ed Lucas in the Daily Mail today:

Ignorant, arrogant, complacent, timid and most of all greedy. The charge sheet against countries and people that for 30 years ignored abundant warnings about Russia’s dangerous designs on its neighbours is damning.

And history will surely judge harshly those who ignored the monstrous threat that Putin poses to our democracy

The guilty men - coined to describe those who indulged Nazi Germany in the 1930s - range from hard-Left activists such as George Galloway to patriotic types like Nigel Farage with a nostalgic fondness for no-nonsense strongmen. Lenin would have called both lots ‘useful idiots’.

A swathe of our professional elite is in the dock too: for years they enjoyed lucrative life on the ‘caviar express’, a gravy train run by thugs and gangsters. And many others are guilty for apathy and naivety.

Ed is the Liberal Democrat PPC for the Cities of London and Westminster.

And, before you say anything, I am delighted to see him writing for the Mail. You win elections by talking to people who didn't vote for you last time, not by avoiding them