Marlow - in a pub 1,835 miles from Kharkiv

The Times 28th February 2022

The front-page feature picture is chilling. A burning Russian military vehicle, an immobilized one in the background and in the foreground the bodies of soldiers lying face down on the unforgiving and cold surface of a road in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. This front page image brought the war on to the table where I was having my lunch in an English pub in Marlow 1,835 miles from where it was taken over the weekend.

Quite rightly a lot of the paper is given over to the conflict. Not just about the damage to those in uniform and their hardware but more importantly the “innocent” who as always in these circumstances carry the biggest burden and cost of these situations.

Unusually all three of the editorials write about this crisis. but each one taking a different slant. The first editorial, “Confronting a Warmonger”, opines that the West has been laggardly in implementing collective sanctions against Russia and named individuals associated closely with the Kremlin. There will be an economic cost in those countries. The City of London losing the business it conducted with Russian individuals and companies. Germany with the threat to its energy security. And how the invasion of Ukraine has been a wake up call for members of NATO to start paying 2% of their GDP on their military.

The second editorial discusses refugees and again about how neighboring countries have been caught on the back-foot.

And finally, the third editorial discusses Russia being expelled from all international football competitions.

(NB Later on 28th February 2022 Russia was expelled from the Qatar 2022 World Cup competition.)

The Danger of flip comments

One of the mainstays of the BREXIT campaign was to stem the flow of immigrants into Britain. The immediate effect of this was to reduce the pool of labour from other EU countries willing to come here either seasonally or longer term to pick agricultural produce. And over the last few days there has been mixed messages about the pre-conditions for Ukrainian refugees being allowed in to the country.

Access to a safe country for refugees from a war zone must be unconditional. We may be out of the EU but this country still has a strong moral obligation to the people of Europe over and above economic and ideological reasons.

A Government Minister for Immigration, Kevin Foster, made a callous, insensitive, little England, narrow minded comment regarding Ukrainian refugees. He suggested that they could apply for “seasonal workers” visas so they could come here and pick fruit and vegetables. I hope his constituents remember this when the next General Election happens.

Insensitivity to the humanitarian crisis emanating from the Ukraine was expressed by another Conservative MP, Sir Edward Leigh, who said in the Commons "We have done our bit" on immigration from Eastern Europe. OK, we may have done a bit but there is a lot more we could be doing other than stopping refugees at Paris's Gare du Nord because they do not have the correct paperwork.

Forgive me if I sound a bit naive here but how would a mother, possibly with children, have been able to think about filling in the correct paperwork before leaving a home where shells are exploding traumatizing everyone especially the young? I don't think that thought would even make a shadow on that mother's Mazlow hierarchy of needs, the level that says "survival" and not "bureacracy".

Hence the cartoon above showing a caricature of Kevin Foster's boss, the Home Secretary Priti Patel, pleading with a Ukrainian fighter.

A headline brings back childhood memories

Under the main picture on the front page is the banner headline “Putin puts nuclear force on alert” was, like the title to the main picture, chilling and frightening. Those words also evoked distant childhood memories.

Nearly 60 years ago in October 1962 the world faced an existential threat of nuclear war over a period of thirteen days. For those of you who cannot remember those events or were not taught about them in history at school it was the “Cuban Missile Crisis”.

I was an eight-year old living in western Canada in 1962 when this happened. A general memory of that period is that as a family, that is my two elder brothers and my parents, we would sit and watch the black and white TV in our living room. Each night we would see the news and President Kennedy addressing the world trying to keep everyone up to date and what his plans were. A lot of that went well over my head as I played with one of my favourite Matchbox cars on the carpet. I can remember my Mother sobbing a couple of times and being aware that something serious was happening.

A specific memory is of a letter my brothers and I brought home from school. It said that in the event of a nuclear war starting those pupils living more than a certain distance from the school would not be allowed home. Luckily the three of us lived within the distance.

This situation in 2022 is so different from 1962. Then there were two heads of state who took the world to the brink of nuclear war. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situation war was averted by diplomacy, brinkmanship and shows of force. There was also another factor that I believe had a strong influence on the peaceful outcome. That is the concept of mutually assured destruction” or “MAD”.

Both leaders knew what would happen if missiles started flying.

What scares me to the core is that Vladimir Putin is so driven by ego, pride and attachment to some sort of ideology that normal people cannot associate themselves with the concept of “MAD” is not included in his psyche; MAD apart from his psychiatric assessment.

Lunch in the same pub as Jerome K Jerome wrote part of "Three Men in a Boat"

Now to wax lyrical for the second time in two weeks in Marlow. Last week it was The Strawberry Grove in the High Street for an English breakfast. Today it was the Two Brewers in Mill Street for lunch.

Tucked away behind the church that Albert J Foster despised is The Two Brewers, the oldest pub in town with a provenance dating back to 1727. Hidden away in a backwater and my words were chosen deliberately as it is less than fifty yards from the Thames.

Inside it has not been gastro decorated with light grey or green walls and LED lights. No, the interior is of dark wood and dark furniture. The bare wood floors polished with the passing of countless feet and the spilling of gallons of beer. If Jerome K Jerome were to come back today after he last visited here possibly a hundred years ago he would recognize it immediately. It has that ambiance of permanence even to the continuum that the very table where I am enjoying my lunch is the same table that he wrote part of his book on.

Lunch was Chicken Schnitzel with triple fried chips and a token green salad. When it arrived it was sizzling hot and a joy to eat on a cold February day.

So for anyone who is a fan of the traditional English pub or wants to experience one for the first time come to Marlow and come to the Two Brewers. A place where you can step back in time listening to local gossip, here the busy clatter of service uninterrupted by background music or the flashing of fruit machines. Even try the local beers of which there is a good selection served the British way, warm.