Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Irish MEP blames Nato for crisis

European Parliament TV

What price, solidarity? That’s the question Europe’s leaders have been asking since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The answer, it turns out is: not too high, a price, thanks. One German SDP politician, Florian Post, went viral last weekend after complaining that:

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m starting to find the Ukrainian ambassador’s impertinence unbearable. I condemn Russia’s war of aggression in the strongest possible terms, but I don’t feel like freezing, nor do I want a Third World War.

Such concerns were met with sarcastic offers to divert blankets and clothes from Ukrainian refugees to warm freezing Germans instead. Now, another of the continent’s less edifying politicians has made clear her thoughts on Europe’s current sanction regime towards Russia. 

In a bizarre speech to the European Parliament today, Irish MEP Clare Daly denounced the EU’s measures against Moscow, saying that Brussels’s response ‘makes me sick’ and decrying attempts to replace Russian gas with ‘filthy fracked US gas. The left-winger continued: ‘Russia bears responsibility for this conflict, of course they do, but we cannot ignore the role of NATO and the EU… has become a tool of NATO and the military-industrial complex.’



Still, Daly isn’t the only Celtic politician embarrassing themselves by going down the Russia rabbit hole. Pippa Bartolotti, the former leader of the Welsh Green Party, has promoting plenty of pro-Moscow guff on social media for weeks. Responding to widespread reports of Russian war crimes in Bucha, Bartolotti’s Facebook page claims that ‘without a shred of forensic evidence, blame has been duly apportioned… it was all about manufacturing our consent to send even more lethal aid to Ukraine.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Steerpike
Written by
Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

Topics in this article

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in