The Richard Spooner Column: When will they ever learn..?

I 'm sure, like me, most people heard the news of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine with utter dismay yesterday morning.

In this enlightened age, surely the days of country 's borders being breached by a neighbour 's tanks had been consigned to history. But the images were there on our screens and in our newspapers - Russian tanks rolling into a European democracy.

As my reader will know, I have lived through many wars since I was born in 1783. In fact, the American war of independence ended in the year I was born, eight years after the conflict began.

There was rarely a time during my life when a war was not raging somewhere in the world and the major conflicts were: French Revolution (1793-1802), Anglo-Spanish War (1796-1808), Boer War (1899-1902). World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945), Malaya (1948-1960), Korean War (1950-1953), Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya (1952-1960), Falklands (1982), Gulf War (1990-1991), Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2009).

There were several other, relatively minor skirmishes, like Suez and not all, of course, were won by Britain.

But the events of this week filled me with remorse and reminded me of the words “when will they ever learn? ”

There are in the song Where Have All The Flowers Gone, written by Peet Seeger and released in1964.

The lyrics are largely accepted as showing how war and suffering can be cyclical in nature - girls pick flowers, men pick girls, men go to war and fill graves with their dead which get covered with flowers.

And the haunting line at the end of every verse is: “Oh, when will they ever learn, oh when will they ever learn? ”

Never, it seems. We stand on the midst of a major world conflict and it feels like the clock has been turned back to 1939 when Nazi tanks rolled into Poland. And, like that war, this Russian invasion is everything to do with territory.

Russian President Putin is reported as having ambitions to restore the old Soviet Union, drawing them into rule under the grip of the Kremlin bear. At its zenith it included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. A frightening prospect.

What will it mean to the UK? There will be an immediate impact from Putin 's actions with crude oil prices already rising.

Tensions in Eastern Europe have caused the price of wheat to soar by 20 per cent and this will translate into higher prices for basic foodstuffs, including bread and pasta.

Add increasing prices for several vital mineral will result in pain for UK citizens.

Tragically, blood will be spilled as a result of Russia 's needless and wanton aggression designed to stop people shaping their own lives though democratic processes.

And as we prepare to count the human cost of this onslaught against a free and peaceful country, we might well ask:

When will they ever learn..?

JL