Walking with friends

I belong to a loose-knit women's walking group, and for this month's date, we've had a truly beautiful day. It was a woodland walk on the edge of Sheffield; there were buds swelling on trees and bushes, and snowdrops catching the sunlight on steep leafy banks.  We spent quite a bit of time dissecting the finale of Happy Valley together, with much shared pleasure.

Did Zelenskiy meet trustworthy friends, on his surprise visit to London today? The image of our expensively-tailored PM hugging the khaki-clad, careworn Ukrainian president has a jarring quality for me.  I think that if the UK (and others?) agree to  send fighter jets, as Zelenskiy asks, it will raise the risks of Russian escalation; broadening the war, and/or inching closer to using nuclear weapons.  At the same time, I think that there is almost certainly no other choice to make.  I'm sure that comparisons with 1939 can be overdone. But those echoes are there.