Dying for the glory of the motherland is deeply engrained in the Russian cultural DNA.
The only way, ultimately, to reduce support for the “far right” is to show their voters that there is a better option. But the political establishment across Europe has absolutely no intention of doing so.
The whole point of forming the party was to build an organisation that could add more TDs and Senators in order to work towards entering Government. To do that, the party had to acquire a committed activist base. That is where Elaine Mullally came in.
“What can you do?” he responded. “In war, you still need to live your life”.
All of this, needless to say, will be a gravy train for a range of campaigning groups who will be able to bill the state for this work.
At a stroke, and for no good reason, the party has just made itself untrustworthy to many of those who voted for it. It is a calamitous error of political judgement.
The very existence of Biden hollows out the argument against Trump.
Whatever her qualifications might be in academic terms, her record in practical terms does not point to a person who approaches these issues with a particularly open mind.
This is the problem when, to coin a phrase, an entire country – or at least the dominant class within it – starts believing its own bullshit.
The shift in political tone from those in power is remarkable.
In essence, we have already made the decision to transfer sovereignty over migration to the European Union – it’s just that up until now, the EU has never chosen to exercise that sovereignty
Good politicians share the same instincts, regardless of their views.