Some thoughts on the clamour for war

Since I wrote and published this post – A message to those beating the drums of war 24.2.25 – a lot has happened, so reluctantly, I’m obliged to yet again address the rising tensions between Russia on the one hand, and Europe and the United Kingdom on the other. The event that has triggered what to all intents and purposes can be described as a United Kingdom and European led call to arms was the publicly broadcast argument between Trump, his Vice President Vance, and Zelensky at the White House on Friday 28 February: European leaders back Zelensky after Trump clash – David Mercer | BBC News | 1.3.25. When Zelensky visited Starmer at Downing Street on Saturday 1 March, he was given the full backing of the UK government: Starmer gives Zelensky 'full backing' in warm No 10 welcome – Tom McArthur | 1.3.25. It needs to be born in mind that as I’ve previously noted, ‘full backing’ from the government does not equate to anything like full backing from the population of the United Kingdom. On Sunday 2 March, there was a summit of European leaders, hosted by Starmer and attended by Zelensky, convened with the aim of sending out a signal of ‘strength’ to Russia: UK’s Starmer says Europe is at ‘crossroads in history’ as leaders agree to steps to Ukraine peace – Brian Melley and Emma Burrows | AP News | 3.3.25

That’s a lot to happen in the space of three days. It’s also a lot to take in, particularly as the situation is constantly developing. There has been plenty of comment and speculation about the clash between Trump, Vance and Zelensky. This covers how much of it was possibly orchestrated, the signals it was intended to send out and what that means for Europe and the United Kingdom. How this affects the global geo-political balance is the subject of some considerable debate and discussion. I don’t particularly want to get into a detailed discussion about the impact of what’s happened since Friday 28 February on the geo-political situation. There are commentators far better qualified than I am to analyse this. What I want to focus upon is how this is playing out across the (dis)United Kingdom.

The easiest path for the United Kingdom and Europe to take would be to take a deep breath, calm the f**k down and do their level best to reach an accommodation with Russia. One that would of necessity involve compromises as most peace deals and international agreements tend to do. Instead, Starmer and his European counterparts have flown off into the realms of fantasy where they think a united effort will end up with them being able to display enough strength to ‘deter’ Russia. Given that the defence forces of the United Kingdom have been run down by successive governments, any thoughts that this could be quickly turned around so that they have the equipment and the number of personnel to achieve this are on the face of it, laughable. The United Kingdom is starting so far behind, it would take a government of national unity willing to push through some deeply draconian and unpopular measures to get to anything like the point where they could face up to the Russians.

Does a government of national unity willing to use draconian methods to achieve a rapid build up of military strength sound far fetched and unachievable? I and many others would love to think this is far fetched but, after what has happened in the last five years starting with the Covid ‘crisis’ lockdowns, I’m not so sure it is. Apart from a few fringe outfits such as George Galloways’s Workers Party of Britain, pretty much all of the political parties have in one way or another, declared their support for Zelensky. Declaring support for Zelensky is pretty much the same as supporting whatever it takes to re-arm the United Kingdom and boost the number of military personnel available – even if that means conscription and a considerable loss of freedom.

I’m assuming that all of the political parties supporting Zelensky and by definition, a massive re-armament programme must have at least one ear to the ground to try and gauge what the populace of the United Kingdom actually think about being dragged ever closer to the outbreak of World War Three. I’m also assuming that they must be aware that outside of the cohort of middle class liberals screaming for the United Kingdom and Europe to do more to confront Russia, a lot of people across the country are currently not buying into the rhetoric. This particularly applies to the working class who would have to bear the brunt of the brutal austerity required to fund re-armament and also, to provide the cannon fodder to be sent into what to all intents and purposes, would be a meat grinder. Unless it all goes nuclear, then all bets are off – but that’s a piece for another day.

If we assume that the powers that be know that many, quite possibly a majority of people, across the United Kingdom think being dragged ever closer to World War Three is actually a f**king stupid idea, then what are they going to do to persuade us otherwise? Please note that I used the word ‘persuade’ rather than ‘convince’. From my understanding of semantics, to convince someone means being able to offer a rational argument as to why a particular course of action is necessary. I don’t know about you but trying to rationally argue that World War Three is actually a good idea is a bit of a tough call. To ‘persuade’ on the other hand means that tactics other than rational argument will be brought into play, up to and including psychological manipulation and possibly, a lot worse than that.

Folks, we’re going to see psy-ops going off the scale! They’re already underway as anyone who can stand back and take a measured look at things can already see. A number of the more perceptive people I follow on X/Twitter are saying that the atmosphere feels oddly like that in the build up to and the start of the Covid ‘crisis’ lockdowns when it comes to the level of psy-ops, manipulation and crude propaganda we’re being subjected to. The question they’re asking is this, how many will fall for it this time around? There are the usual doom mongers who think that the majority of the country will fall into the war psychosis that’s building up. I’m actually a fair bit more optimistic in that after what started to be done to us five years ago, a lot more people are aware of the mind games and manipulation the powers that be resort to and that this time around, given that it’s potentially World War Three and the stakes are a lot higher, there will be a significant kick back.

A few people have half jokingly suggested that they wouldn’t be surprised if a ‘clap for Ukraine’ every week along the lines of the ‘clap for the NHS’ back in 2020 was mooted. As cringe-worthy as that would be, it would be fascinating to monitor the levels of participation across different areas with different demographics. In Bristol, I could see the middle class liberal element doing this with gusto in places such as Redland while way over on the southern fringes of the city in Hartcliffe, there would be a stony silence. That would go a long way to busting the myth that the United Kingdom fully stands behind Ukraine. Which is why I doubt that a weekly ‘clap for Ukraine’ would happen because it would shatter the illusions of the middle class liberals calling for what to all intents and purposes, would be World War Three. Then again, I could be spectacularly wrong on all of this, with the truth being that those of us of an anti-war, dissident persuasion will end up being absolutely f**ked over.

The point is that at this stage, for those of us of an anti-war, dissident persuasion, there’s everything to play for. If we lose, we’re totally and utterly screwed. Bearing this in mind, we might just as well go all out for victory and stop this insane drive towards World War Three dead in its tracks. As I’ve previously argued, people have learned lessons from what was done to us five years ago – that includes a fair number of those who initially went along with it. On that basis, those of us who think that being dragged into an all out war with Russia is insane must be the majority, possibly quite a significant one. Given that there are very likely more of us than the war-mongers, uing whatever means are necessary, we should be able to do this, shouldn’t we?

Stickers with this ‘We Do Not Consent to WW3!’ wording are starting to go up in and around Bristol. This is a high resolution image so, if you want to download it and get your own stickers printed off, please feel free to do so. We currently have a limited number of stickers available to give to people we think we can trust:) If demand is sufficient, we can get more printed.