Malcolm Bruce

The utter irony of Putin and Trump meeting soon in Budapest to jointly seal Ukraine’s fate should not be lost on anybody. This is the very same city where the US, the UK, and Russia came together 31 years ago to give Ukraine ironclad assurances that its territorial integrity would be respected and protected within existing borders in exchange for giving up a third of the world’s nuclear weapons (to Russia!). Ukraine trusted the US, trusted the UK, transferred all its nuclear weapons to Russia, and joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Within 20 years, Putin effectively ripped up the Budapest Memorandum, ignored Russia’s pledge, and invaded and annexed Crimea. In 2022, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine finally removed all remaining doubts about Putin’s imperial greed. If treaties and agreements between countries are to be trusted, the US and the UK must stand by the original Budapest Memorandum and give the Ukrainians everything they need to push Russia out of Ukraine, as President Trump said he would do before taking Putin’s latest call. It is the only way for Ukraine to get its territory back and put an end to this brutal invasion. If the US and Russia continue to ignore the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, how on Earth can Ukraine be expected to have any faith in yet another Budapest memorandum signed in the same city between Russia and the United States? They can’t.

Ed Davey feeling empathy towards a fellow parent of a disabled child does not call for Labour deputy leader's immediate resignation. Big respect to the Liberal Democrat leader. "Responding to Angela Rayner’s statement on her tax affairs, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: 'I understand it is normally the role of opposition leaders to jump up and down and call for resignations – as we’ve seen plenty of that from the Conservatives already. 'Obviously if the ethics advisor says Angela Rayner has broken the rules, her position may well become untenable. 'But as a parent of a disabled child, I know the thing my wife and I worry most about is our son’s care after we have gone, so I can completely understand and trust that the Deputy Prime Minister was thinking about the same thing here. 'Perhaps now is a good time to talk about how we look after disabled people and how we can build a more caring country.'”

Ed Davey feeling empathy towards a fellow parent of a disabled child does not call for Labour deputy leader's immediate resignation. Big respect to the Liberal Democrat leader. "Responding to Angela Rayner’s statement on her tax affairs, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: 'I understand it is normally the role of opposition leaders to jump up and down and call for resignations – as we’ve seen plenty of that from the Conservatives already. 'Obviously if the ethics advisor says Angela Rayner has broken the rules, her position may well become untenable. 'But as a parent of a disabled child, I know the thing my wife and I worry most about is our son’s care after we have gone, so I can completely understand and trust that the Deputy Prime Minister was thinking about the same thing here. 'Perhaps now is a good time to talk about how we look after disabled people and how we can build a more caring country.'”