The Tribune

THE media in Britain is justly renowned for its comprehensive coverage of domestic and international news alike. As a source of reliable information, it plays a significant role in shaping public attitudes, perceptions and opinions, since what people think about events outside their own personal experience tends to be influenced by how news is reported in newspapers and on radio and television.

It is interesting to reflect on this in relation to the Conservative Party’s current leadership contest which, because of Britain’s standing in the world, is of interest internationally. The protracted two-month process is now in its final stages. The original field of ten candidates was whittled down to the last two – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, both of whom were cabinet ministers under Boris Johnson’s premiership. The latter has now emerged as the likely overwhelming winner after Sunak had started off as favourite. The result is due to be announced on September 5.

While it is, of course, hard to determine exactly how this turnaround happened, it is safe to say that the assessment of the two by some 160,000 Tory party members, who will select the winner in a postal ballot, will have been influenced by what they have been hearing and reading in the media – in addition to what they have seen of the two candidates in action debating the issues up and down the country.

As each sets out their political stall publicly in press articles and during the interminable TV debates, as well as slugging it out at the hustings, these party members seem to have determined already that Liz Truss possesses the right qualities to become not only the leader of the Conservative Party but also Prime Minister. According to the latest polls, three-quarters of them have revealed they will vote for her so it looks as though she is going to win handsomely.

This is not the time to examine in detail the qualities of the two candidates. But observers now wonder whether Rishi Sunak, who is seen as responsible for the downfall of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is paying the price for his perceived disloyalty.

By contrast, after a slow start his opponent is growing in stature. It seems she is now being rewarded for her constancy, trustworthiness and allegiance to the PM at a time when everyone else around Johnson seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon and resigning. Moreover, people close to Liz Truss speak of a combination of toughness, experience, determination and pragmatism – with one aide describing her as ‘focused, outcome-orientated and visionary’. These are seen as important when, in today’s troubled times, the UK needs a cool head and strong hand in Downing Street -- a self-assured and tough leader like its famous former incumbent, Margaret Thatcher, who is capable of standing up for Britain on the world stage.

The incoming Prime Minister will be faced with a formidable array of problems at home as well as dangers abroad like the Ukraine war, an increasingly hostile China and continuing disputes with Brussels - for example, over the Northern Ireland Protocol – among many others.

Britain’s main current domestic challenges include soaring inflation at a 40-year high, a deepening energy crisis, serious immigration problems and public services that are performing poorly. The heavy cost-of-living increase is causing serious anxiety in UK households and it will be interesting to see how Liz Truss – if, as the frontrunner, she does indeed win -- will handle this as a believer in the Conservative principles of higher growth and lower taxes. As for energy, it has been reported that the new PM will be presented almost immediately with options to deal with this crisis which should be partially alleviated by the country’s North Sea gas reserves since the UK is not dependent on Russia as the world’s largest producer of natural gas.

Questions are now being asked about the wisdom of the Tory party inflicting on its members the exhausting drawn-out process of an extended leadership election contest while the country is in crisis. What is more, critics say the government has not been functioning effectively since the Prime Minister announced in July that he was stepping down. At the beginning of the contest many people welcomed what appeared to be an exercise in democracy with adequate time for proper scrutiny of the contenders. But the credentials of both the final candidates have been exhaustively examined and some commentators believe the process should now be stopped because it is becoming tiresome and the result is hardly in doubt. This will presumably not happen, but a Tory cabinet minister, James Cleverly, said recently that it should be completed more quickly and has called for a review.

However all this is regarded – and there are still Tory members who want to bring back Boris Johnson – these are interesting times politically in Britain. With a new face at the helm by early September, it seems that radical change is in the air, and many look forward to new beginnings with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

Nuclear fears growing

Having written last week about the continuing support of Western countries for Ukraine and the danger of a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, I hesitate to return to the subject today for fear of repetition. But there have been significant new developments which I hope are worth examining and justify further comment.

First, according to a BBC report, following a telephone call from the French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin has said that UN officials will be granted permission to visit and inspect the plant which is the largest in Europe and has been occupied by the Russians since March. However, it remains to be seen whether this will happen. As I mentioned last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had warned of the real risk of a nuclear disaster if any military firepower were directed at or from the facility, with the IAEA director calling it a “highly volatile and fragile situation”, with escalating fears of a nuclear catastrophe involving a major radiation leak which could affect other countries in Europe as far away as Germany. So, allowing inspectors in looks like a positive step forward. It also comes after the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, had earlier told the BBC in an interview that military activity around the nuclear plant must end and urged Moscow to grant access to UN inspectors. This was during his visit last week to Ukraine with Turkey’s President Erdogan for talks with President Zelensky in the western city of Lviv.

This meeting demonstrated the seriousness of the matter and all three leaders stressed the importance of IAEA experts assessing the situation on the ground while Zelensky warned of the “probability of a major act of terror” at the plant being “very high”.

As an example of “double-think” and propaganda, Putin himself has warned of a “large-scale catastrophe that could lead to radiation contamination of vast territories”. But it is his own forces that are responsible for this danger by occupying it and putting it at risk. He claims the plant is being shelled by Ukrainian forces while Kyiv says Russian forces are carrying out attacks as a “false flag” provocation in order to justify blaming Ukraine.

Secondly, there was news at the weekend of the killing of the daughter of one of Putin’s major allies, Alexander Dugin, in a car bomb attack in the outskirts of Moscow. He is said to be Putin’s closest aide who shapes his thinking and masterminded the invasion of Ukraine, and there is speculation that the bomb was meant for Dugin himself. It is too soon to assess the effects of this assassination but it must surely be another major blow for Putin, coming as it does after the poisoning – according to Russian media reports -- of the head of the Russian-installed administration in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region. There have also been further military reverses, including a series of devastating attacks in Crimea, which was previously considered to be beyond the reach of Ukrainian forces, and on Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

Six months after the invasion, which Russia expected to be over in 72 hours followed by the installation of a puppet government, stiff Ukrainian resistance has produced a wholly different situation. At this stage, international observers say that, with the aid of the West, Ukraine will continue to fight back and could ultimately succeed in pushing Putin’s forces out. However, an early end to the war is unlikely unless both sides accept that a stalemate has been reached and agree to negotiate a cessation of hostilities. Many consider that Putin will not use tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield for fear of provoking NATO, though the chairman of the British Parliament’s Defence Select Committee has warned that any deliberate damage to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant causing a radiation leak would also risk bringing NATO into the war.

It is surely clear by now that, after the horrors of war unleashed by Putin, his dream of taking back control over Ukraine and absorbing it into his vision of a greater Russia -- as it was in the days of the Soviet Union -- is not going to be fulfilled. But, given the patriotism and bravery of the Ukrainians and their capacity for fighting back in defence of their own land, even if a puppet government had been installed early on, effective Russian occupation and control of this vast country could anyway probably not have been maintained in the longer term.

Wildlife also gets thirsty

Amid all the gloom and doom of international affairs, what a pleasure it was to spot the other day an uplifting BBC report about help by human beings for wildlife.

Recently, a farmer in Suffolk in the east of England has been keeping some seventy containers filled with water and has distributed them around her land for the benefit of thirsty wildlife.

An unusually long heatwave and resultant drought in Britain has meant that ponds have dried up and rivers have run low. This is said to be the longest dry period in England since the heatwave of 1976 which is reported to have lasted for two months. So creatures living in the wild are said to be suffering from a shortage of water.

As a keen wildlife photographer, the farmer, who has also expressed concern about climate change, has taken pictures of many species - as well as filming them, apparently with hidden cameras - drinking water from the containers or bathing in it. These have included deer, rabbits, badgers, foxes and even a tawny owl. How fascinating it has been to watch short videos of such wildlife drinking freely, both during the day and at night, in this way in their own habitat thanks to assistance from humans. For anyone interested, a Google search will reveal all.