War declared?

I’m off out to Smoky-Drinky but wanted to get this one out so I can get opinions.

On the radio today they were discussing whether the Cleggeron Coagulation should impose sanctions on rich Russians living in the UK, like the ones who own football clubs.

I know that UK nationals of German origin were at least closely watched, if not rounded up in WWII. In the USA they rounded up all the Japanese living there and sent them off to camps.

That seems harsh now, but when you’re in a Really Big War you can’t afford to have a subset of the population in which an enemy spy or saboteur could easily hide.

But… we are not at war with Russia. Yet. This seems like the sort of idea that would push such a war a step closer.

My opinion is no, we should not impose any such sanctions. Those Russian nationals living here are not invading Crimea. They have a hell of a lot of money – do we really want all that money and the tax it generates disappearing into Russia, the country we might well soon have to fund a war against?

It’s bad enough as it is – the EU is pushing Putin into a corner where he will have no option but to turn off the gas and oil taps. He’ll just sell more at a slightly lower price to China. Oh, he’ll still get income from gas and oil – while we shiver and eat raw food and go back to the horse and cart.

The government and the EU have cut our military to the bone. We didn’t have enough equipment for them in Afghanistan – what the Hell are they going to use in Russia? Send a gunboat? These days, that’s a skiff with an air pistol aboard. Nuclear submarine loaded with Trident? Oh yes, that’s going to end well. We’d all end up looking like the old ReadyBrek adverts.

It’s all very well the USA shouting at Russia. They aren’t dependent on that oil and gas supply. For us to join in is silly. We have no money and precious little in the way of military hardware. Russia does not have to fire a single shot to take down the EU. Our energy prices are already insane and our generating ability all but wiped out by the Cult of Green. Imagine what will happen when the Russian supply stops.

Picking on rich guys in this country who happen to have come from Russia will make those rich guys leave and take their money with them. It will also serve only to enrage Putin and he’s already shown he doesn’t give a damn what the West thinks. He knows we’re all skint. He knows the EU is a lame duck that talks and talks and makes up stupid laws and has pissed off its own citizens to the point where many now think that being Soviet won’t actually make any difference at all. In some areas, it might even be an improvement.

He doesn’t have to fire anything nuclear either. He can give some to Iran or worse, North Korea and let them pretend they built it themselves, which they will be only too delighted to do. Especially Kim Jong Jingjong or whatever the current mad leader is called over there. You know, the one with the pudding-bowl hair. Who thinks he won’t fire a working nuclear missile if he ever gets one with enough range to hit one of the countries he hates (pretty much all of them, including his own, as far as I can gather)?

It seems to me that we are poking a big and grumpy bear with a pointy stick. When the bear gets up and shows its teeth and claws… all we have is a pointy stick.

Anyway, I’m off to drink whisky before we all end up drinking vodka instead.

All opinions welcome.