After a very pleasant weekend during which I discovered that London with a "je ne sais quoi", a sort of "dolce vita", sauntering down Earls Court Road into Fulham Road up to Stamford Bridge for a taste of the match day atmosphere, watching a first half demonstration of Chelsea performing the beautiful game in a nearby cafe cum bar before taking myself down the Kings Road to Sloane Square and on home with the tube, it was into Uxbridge this evening at half past six in the evening only to discover that the bookshop in the High Street closes at six p.m., that the cafes all close at seven p.m. and that for the want of something to do you are forced into a pub or a supermarket and it was raining this evening and the sun had its hat on all day yesterday. England is so fickle, it flatters to deceive and Uxbridge this evening was light years away from Stamford Bridge yesterday.
'The Guardian' informs us, "Russia warned: withdraw from Georgia,or else"1 and the West we are told is united and Putin must be shaking in his boots. United my arse and, at least, Angela Merkel will be thinking along the lines of her more illustrious predecessor, Otto von Bismark, who once declared that the whole of the Balkans are not worth the bones of one single Pomeranian grenadier. When in chewing the cud Angie will come to the conclusion that the Cacausus are not worth the bones of one single German soldier, despite her backing Georgia's aspirations to join NATO and her calling for the Russians to withdraw competely. The Russians have bitten and their bite and not the West's bark is what counts. Putin has demonstrated his own penchant for Bismarkian "Realpolitik" and all the resolutions passed by NATO will not determine the great issues of the day but rather blood and iron. South Ossetia and Abkazia have been lost, NATO is not united and there is very little action the United States can take.
1 'The Guardian', Monday 18th August 2008
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