Gratitude for a peaceful 2018; hopes for a peaceful 2019

Another year has gone by without a full-scale war on the North-West European Plain. That makes it 73 full consecutive years now. How rare is that? With every passing year since the end of WW2, the odds on this state remaining thus must be shortening. I give thanks that the planet has completed another orbit of the sun without the bloodshed and horror of war to blight our lives. But across Poland's borders, a war - albeit a limited one - has been going on for over four and half years.

Putin's hybrid warfare involves 'frozen conflicts' with parts of the former Soviet Union as well as an all-out propaganda onslaught on the West supported by social media, data analytics, espionage, buying venal politicians, blackmail and 'useful idiots'. At present, Putin does not go beyond these measures, but part of his strategy is threatening risky behaviour that might pull off if he's not deterred by unambiguous shows of force - the only thing he understands.

Because of Putin we live in the most uncertain times since the height of the Cold War when nuclear annihilation was but a misunderstanding or misjudgment away. If war would to break out in the next year or five - or ten - it would be a slow-motion descent into conflict similar to that which occurred between the Great Powers in the first decades of the 20th century. We'd see it coming, but be unable to stop it happening.

Below: a reminder of war - the Great Eastern Railway war memorial at Liverpool Street Station, London. Over 1,100 lives brutally cut short, most of them in the trenches of the Western Front.

Let us stay focused on this risk, let us be aware of it, on guard against the malevolent forces that seek to splinter society, to break apart the Western Alliance, the European Union, the United Kingdom. Let's hope we make it through in peace to 1 January 2019.

This time last year:
Fighting laziness - a perennial resolution

This time two years ago:
A Year of Round Anniversaries

This time three years ago:
Walking on frozen water

This time four years ago:
Fireworks herald 2015 in Jeziorki

This time five years ago
Jeziorki welcomes 2014

This time six years ago:
LOT's second Dreamliner over Jeziorki

This time seven years ago:
New Year's coal train 

This time ten years ago:
Welcome to 2009!

This time 11 years ago:
Happy 2008!