So here we're being told of an increasingly erratic and volatile leader of a country with the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet and an effective battle hardened army being threatened by the UK with the thought, presumably, that he'll actually act rationally and not bother about the red line he's so clearly stated.

It shouldn't need pointing out that the only other red line he's ever stated was the one about Ukraine not joining NATO., and look what's happened there.

And here's the statement from Starmer with words to the effect "well, he started it so he can stop it", the infantile excuses you might expect to hear following a minor fracas in a primary school playground.

So the thought from our side is that we don't have to listen to what Mr Putin says, even as this whole war is nothing but the effect of not listening to what Putin says. "Sabre rattling" we're told. I'm presently reading "Never" by Ken Follet about the world's trajectory to a nuclear war, but even he'd not have the literary neck to write this insanity on our side into any of his novels.