FOR good people these are times to weep, rage and, above all, to fight back! But sometimes we may allow ourselves a laugh. Such a time arrived this past weekend in Brussels and at the Security Conference in Munich. Though the big shots present were in no laughing mood – but in shock!

The reason for an all too rare happy moment for some like me was strangely due to the words of two men I have absolutely no love for, JD Vance and his colleague, for whom probably nobody has any love, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Nor do I have a grain of affection for their fearsome boss back home – or should I say two bosses?

How could one stop grinding teeth – and laugh? Despite many complexities, one thing has been clear in recent years; the main ruling powers in Europe, most menacingly its strongest, Germany, have shown a greed, indeed a craving, for military adventurism, for spending ever more euro-billions on armaments, frightful air power, naval manoeuvres in all surrounding waters, Baltic outposts.