WE are at war. Again. Let us be clear. There are no winners. There is only death, destruction, pain, grief and sorrow for all. We are living in a world of uncertainty, fear and anxiety. We are also living with lies, half truths and fake news created by a combination of governments, the press and social media.

The might of the Russian Army under Vladimir Putin is annexing its neighbouring country Ukraine by land sea and air. We are impotent bystanders and could so easily become “collateral damage” in this apocalyptic scenario.

Today it takes me 20 minutes to walk from my house just off the Staplegrove Road in Taunton to Bath Place in the town centre just off the High Street too. That is approximately the same time it would take a cruise missile launched from the UK to attack a predestined site near Kiev in Ukraine.

We are living in a fantasy world of make belief and horror. At best, we standby whilst recognising we have failed to halt the tyrant who has exploited Western Europe’s weaknesses to its own advantages. At worst, a new world war could erupt with a nuclear holocaust a real possibility.

The most immediate problems are those of refugees in ever increasing numbers, and the flow of goods from and to neighbouring countries. Ukraine is the bread bowl of Europe supplying 20% of our wheat and barley needs. Russia itself provides energy needs such as gas and oil.

Germany has bravely already turned off its pipeline from the Russians at a considerable cost to itself. We in the UK are likely to experience a 90% increase in the price of fuel at the pumps by May this year at the latest.

The Taunton town centre is already feeling the pinch with evermore empty stores and an increase in charity shops. I’m pleased to say that both Somerset County Council and the West Somerset and Taunton Councils have put out strong condemnatory statements on the tyrannical behaviour of Vladimir Putin and the underlying threats contained within.

The World War 1 poets Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Richard Brooke plus the recent poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy from 2009 to 2019 have all emphasized the futility of war.

Carol Ann Duffy epitomises so succinctly this futility with the following end of her poem on the subject.

“....... What happened next? War. And after that? War. And now? War. War. War. History might as well be water, chastising this shore, for we learn nothing from your endless sacrifice, your faces drawing in the pages of the sea.”

Of course there is hope. It is eternal and the necessity of life. But at the moment all I see is a tunnel of darkness from which the light at the end of it seems very, very far away.

JEFFERSON HORSLEY.

Taunton.