Don't panic!

+The ‘resource curse’ is that which stems from a developing country’s mineral wealth being exploited by corrupt local oligarchs and usually multinational corporations, to the exclusion of the local populace who have to suffer the absence of any reward and indeed whose lives can be further impoverished. I wonder if the resource curse will now afflict Ukraine, as Trump bullies Zelensky into what will almost certainly be a poor deal for Ukrainians at large. The corrupt deals that have enriched oligarchs around the globe are not I understand anathema to the Ukrainian subset of that ilk. Now that his father has pardoned him, perhaps the expertise of Hunter Biden could be called upon to help smooth the path of American corporates into this new resource nirvana? Let’s make Ukrainian oligarchs great again! (Protected by British troops if Col. Sir Keir Starmer has his way.)
 
+Talking of Col. Starmer, whose poll ratings have shot up apparently because he has projected his Alpha male self is now it seems about to launch a new round of austerity, with welfare recipients in his sights. Why doesn’t he crack two nuts with one stone and bring back conscription? Turn all those workshy people feigning illness into highly trained killing machines. Perhaps extend it to prison inmates too and solve prison overcrowding at the same time. If Starmer doesn’t do it, I’m sure our next PM, Nigel Farage may be up for such a radical approach. You read it first here. . . . 

​CORRECTION: At the moment Farage doesn't support conscription (Co-Pilot tells me) but wants 30,000 extra full-time troops recruited. But that could change at any time, of course.