I am sick to death of us cow-towing to the orange man in the White House - Christa Ackroyd

It is a nightmare not just those who need it to fuel their cars but those like me who have just installed a smart metre at my little house and am becoming dangerously obsessed every time I put the kettle on watching it all add up to a lot more than it would have done a year ago.

Petrol for our cars isn’t a right, not in real terms, but it is pretty important to all of us including those who do not even have a car.

Mine isn’t particularly thirsty, but it is absolutely essential if I want to continue living my life as I wish to, simply but with purpose, seeing my grandchildren, picking them up from school, and giving them the odd treat they deserve, helping the charities I love and seeing friends who need me for a variety of reasons. Nothing more.

So what do I want. I want what everyone else wants. Calm. A home they can afford and more importantly can afford to heat.

I want peace of mind that I can put food on the table not just for me but for the people whom I invite to make that house a home. I want to be able to care for those I loved. I have enough clothes in my wardrobe to last a lifetime.

But I do want to be able to dress up to travel to my niece and goddaughter’s wedding down south later in the year knowing I can still buy her a present that means something, because that is what presents are about. Not how much they cost.

But what do I want most for myself, for you and for others a lot worse off than we are ? Stability, that’s all.

For someone seemingly carefree I am exactly the opposite.

I might seem on the face of it not to plan, to be totally spontaneous, but already my bottom drawer has Christmas cards and birthday presents within as it always does, some bought in the sale others because they just fit perfectly the person I thought of when I spotted them. I like to plan.

Not because to fail to plan is to plan to fail but because I don’t do change well. Not major change any way.

And having just got over the major disruption to all our lives both emotionally and financially after Covid I am sure you feel the same too.

And yet I know I am lucky to even be able to consider doing all those things, to have friends and family to even care about, to have a roof over my head and more than a can of beans in my store cupboard.

But still I worry for those who will suffer the most as this war, and that is what it is, continues or worse still escalates. And that is those for whom every day is already a struggle.

I am sickened to read newsflashes on my phone about spiralling costs not just at the pumps and heating, but the food in the supermarket already hiked up post Brexit.

I don’t know how people with young families and a mortgage set to rise and rise again are coping. The answer is probably not well. And this was not of our making.

It was not even of our politicians making, or not all of it. So this is where we say stop.

I am sick to death of us cow-towing to the orange man in the White House building his ballroom and his empire, counting his money and protecting his inflated opinion of himself, telling us what is wrong with us while directly destabilising what is right and that is empathy for others, from most of us at least.

Pussy footing around has done us no good. It has cost us both financially and emotionally. It has put our country in danger and more importantly it has put us all in harm’s way. And to what effect?

We are whether we like it or not being dragged into more conflict at an ever increasing cost in terms of military spending over caring for those who cannot care for themselves.

Little old ladies have once again turned off their heating. Families, even dual working families are being forced to spend more hours than they should working for less and less reward just to keep a home together.

And what is worse having to either struggle in silence or lose their dignity by asking for help. Yes there are scroungers. Yes there are people who know how to play the system who will always play the victim.

Yes there are those who will take every penny they can get rather than doing an honest day’s work. But they are not the majority.

The vast majority of people are good and honest and kind and fair.

But they are the ones who will suffer the most because they ask for nothing more than to be able to sleep easy in their beds, not beds they have gone to for their warmth or to try and shut out the noise.

And so this week I am telling those nominally in charge of all political persuasions to stand up for us, and stand up for our own country and tell Donald Trump we will accept no more chaos and we will get back to him when his term of office is completed.

Of course our troops are now targets because of where they are stationed so bring them home, lock up the doors and meet like with like if that is all he will listen to.

Protect us not America until the storm blows over. Cancel the Royal visit to bolster this man’s ego ensuring only the 250th anniversary of American independence is celebrated.

These last two weeks I have been accepting of Keir Starmer’s difficult path to tread, on this at least. But we can see with our own eyes and feel in our own pockets and in our bones it has done absolutely no good, quite to the contrary, it has emboldened him. But remember this Trump will not be here forever.

We will weather the storm. But only if we stand firm now about not being part of it and remember the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan. We have enough to sort out in the meantime. Let us concentrate on that.

Let him name call. Let him try to demonise us and all we stand for as well as everyone else he comes into contact with. Because I know one thing.

We stand for a lot more than he ever will. The special relationship is broken, the romance is well and truly over. Time to move along until something better comes our way.

We know what to do with bullies. We stand firm. We stand tall. And we don’t stoop to their level. Because then the bully wins and you are left feeling small, hurt and cowed, exactly as they desired in the first place.

But never forget. This too shall pass. Not without pain. Not without consequences but safe in the knowledge you at least did the right thing.

Those who seek to destroy with confusion and chaos usually have the most to lose and if we stop playing their games as the mist clears it shows them to be exactly who they are.

Enough is enough. Either play fair or don’t play at all. Over to you Mr President.