Page 8 - John Downing News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Suddenly the world looks like an increasingly dangerous place: the war in Ukraine approaches a third year this day next week; the unspeakable suffering of people in Gaza makes the Middle East look like a tinder box on the point of mass explosion. And these are only the wars among dozens of global conflicts inflicted upon innocent people which make it to our television screens.

We are facing into “a year of voting” after four pent-up years of no call to the polling booths.

My favourite story about the politics of Ash Wednesday concerns a roguish former TD who found himself rushing at the last minute to a cemetery, chasing the last chance to register presence with the bereaved family of an important constituent and party activist.

In Brussels, a Flemish colleague once told me of the French-speaking Catholic bishop who publicly insisted that “Jesus cannot speak Dutch”.

The acrid smell of burning tractor tyres and the scary sight of Belgian riot police, water cannon at the ready, took many veteran EU summit watchers on a trip down memory lane this week.