Already Labour MPs are up in arms over Jacob Rees-Mogg’s claim just now that some of the opposition to fracking has been funded by the Kremlin. According to Ed Miliband, it’s an “absolutely outrageous slur” that’s “shameful and disgraceful“. Opposition backbenchers could barely believe their ears either. If it’s so shameful and disgraceful, perhaps they should direct their outrage at Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the respected former chief of NATO…

Here’s what Rasmussen said as far back as 2014 when the former Prime Minister of Denmark was NATO secretary-general:

“I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations – environmental organisations working against shale gas – to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.”

Inevitably Rees-Mogg’s comments will fill plenty of column inches in the very same newspaper over the next few days. Presumably they’ll be just as furious with Rasmussen…

Boris at the NATO conference in Madrid today confirming the UK will raise its defence spending from 2% to 2.5% of GDP, although only by the end of the decade…

Following unconfirmed reports overnight that Russian forces have deployed chemical weapons in Ukraine, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey appeared on the media round this morning to warn that, if confirmed, the attack “crosses a line” and refused to rule out direct NATO involvement for the first time. Ominous, although still unlikely…

Speaking on the Today programme, Heappey said:

“…I think it’s important that everybody is clear that the reports overnight haven’t been verified […] but if they were used, [world leaders] have all been clear that that crosses a line and all options are on the table for how we would respond…”

Pushed for specifics, Heappey added:

“I think some ambiguity is useful, but all options means all options… it’s also not for any government minister from an individual country to pledge NATO involvement, it’s perfectly possible that a response to chemical weapons use could happen outwith NATO involvement. But ‘all options on the table’ is meant as a deterrent to President Putin…”

Truss used a similar line last night, although Heappey’s refusal to rule out a direct NATO response goes even further. All we can do is wait and see…

It turns out Nicola Sturgeon isn’t the only devolved leader who doesn’t understand foreign policy. Not to be outdone, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has waded in to offer the usual Corbynite lunacy on nuclear deterrence, insisting that now is somehow the perfect time to discuss disarmament. If there’s one person Putin will no doubt listen to, it’s Mark Drakeford…

Speaking at a Welsh Labour Grassroots event at the weekend, Drakeford said:

“If ever there was a moment when the world should again become serious about nuclear disarmament, it is now…”

He then doubled down in a BBC interview:

“I think anybody sensible looking at the world we are in, knowing that President Putin has nuclear weapons in his hands, would want to see a world in which the reduction in nuclear weapons across the world ought to be an effort that any sensible government would wish to pursue.”

Yet during questioning by Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies MS, who asked Mark Drakeford to confirm the Labour Government’s support for NATO, Drakeford said: “the Welsh Government is entirely signed up to the protections that NATO membership provides to us”. So which is it, Mark?

After a continent-wide bungling of vaccine procurement, the Brussels elite are adding insult to injury as it emerged those working for the Commission and Parliament will be vaccinated in separate centres, rather than the ones used for the rest of the city. Always trust the EU to ensure they never have to mingle with the people they ‘represent’…

According to The Brussels Times, while 31,000 staff of the European Commission, European Parliament, as well as NATO will not be formally jumping the vaccination queue, they will be vaccinated in “special areas“:

“They will not receive their jabs in the Parlamentarium or the visitor’s centre, which at first was considered as a vaccination centre for the region.

Instead, all three institutions will vaccinate their staff in special areas within their respective buildings, but these have not yet been set up, as they are still awaiting accreditations.”

Travelling on the European Gravy train requires a bespoke vaccine passport it turns out…