Anybody who has read bits of the Old Testament will be aware that warfare, battling, power grabs, murder, despots, jealousy, fratricide, adultery, genocide, general debauchery and spectacular violence and evil are nothing new.

But for those of us who were born in Britain after 1945, conventional war, armed conflict, torture and prison camps are things that take place ‘somewhere else’ than our currently ‘United Kingdom’.

From armchairs, we watch news items covering the most awful examples of what war and famine can do to people but it’s not, mercifully, happening in our street.

We have faced and continue to face acts of murderous terrorism.

We have lost lives to fanaticism. But since the close of the Second World War and the establishment of the European Union, we have not faced an attack on our own soil from another country. Nobody has had to defend their family or their allotment from invasion. (And No, I’m not counting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s attempt in 1982 to secure the Islas Malvinas!)

Those I know in military families say they are alarmed not just by President Putin of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, but also by the war-mongering comments that are spilling out from people here who have never seen war, will not be sent to war and base their enthusiasm for military engagement on episodes of Dad’s Army and a misplaced sense of importance.

Even my 85-year-old mother was a young child when the Second World War ended.

So why is it, that there is so much febrile excitement, so much Union Jack flag-waving ‘Blitz spirit’ from politicians?

Can it really be for party advantage and the securing of votes?

The ‘my flag’s bigger than your flag’ behaviour of MPs interviewed on zoom would be funny if it were not a sign of something more frightening. It’s human nature to band together against an external threat and our red, blue and yellow politicians seem to be in a competition to sound and look the most muscular and patriotic.

But we know where such patriotism can lead. History shows us. It can lead to those who feel virtuous committing the most terrible acts on those they define as ‘other’. Are you for us or against us?

My stepsons are 19 and 23 respectively. While I’m confident that the UK is not about to be declaring any kind of conventional war on Russia, while I have no fears of their being ‘drafted’, it strikes a chill to think there are people in this country who believe we’re an Empire, are so keen to think Britain is exceptional that they actually think that national triumph is a possible outcome from this extremely unstable situation.

The best result would be a withdrawal by Putin from the rebel areas of the Ukraine which have declared independence.

Who knows if that will happen? It seems unlikely.

What is not unlikely though is a tidal wave of ‘dig for victory, Britain is best’ speechifying from our senior politicians. We must press for financial sanctions and peace.