the times | Monday May 23 2022 31
Leading articles
two countries. And although Russia is still able to
ship out its grain harvest, which is not subject to
western sanctions, the shortfall of Ukrainian
wheat has already caused a huge rise in prices and
threatens to stir up food riots not only in Egypt but
in Iran, Lebanon, and most of north Africa. For the
moment, much of the developing world can rely
on imports from the West, where the grain stores
are still full. In six months’ time, those reserves will
be depleted. Soaring prices and the little grain
available for export will distort the market further,
pushing some prices up by 300 per cent, many
countries into debt and triggering violence. The
riots seen in Sri Lanka are a prelude to others.
The looming food crisis has been exacerbated
by climate change. Unseasonable spring heat has
scorched much of India, shrivelling the growing
wheat. Ten days ago India imposed an export
ban on wheat, anticipating a shortage at home.
Some 26 other countries also now have severe
restrictions on food exports. The World Food
Programme says that the number of people whose
livelihoods are now at risk has risen from
108 million to 193 million over the past five years.
The pandemic, drought in America and floods and
swine flu in China have only made things worse.
Blame for the immediate crisis lies at Moscow’sdoor. Russian troops have deliberately targeted
Ukrainian grain silos, burning millions of tonnes
of exports. They have sown mines in the fields and
poisoned and cluttered the land with wrecked
ordnance. The aim is to ruin farms and force a
bigger exodus of refugees westwards. Russia itself
has done well out of the turmoil: its grain exports
have increased hugely in price, and earnings from
fertiliser, especially potash, and fuel, also needed
for agriculture (but denied to Kyiv), have risen. Its
stranglehold on Ukraine’s ports may soon prevent
any grain leaving Odessa, despite proposals for
United Nations escorts for export vessels.
The West is now looking at urgent plans to
move out Ukraine’s wheat, maize and sunflower
seeds by train. It is not easy — the broader
Ukrainian rail gauge means that it could take up to
30 days to transfer the grain into standard-gauge
wagons at the frontier. Europe is looking at how to
expand links to Baltic ports, reopen a broad-gauge
line through Romania and move out the grain that
earns Ukraine a third of its export income.
The West must also prepare to help the millions
who are now facing acute hunger because of
Russia’s aggression. This will be expensive. So too
is the help needed to get Ukraine’s farms working.
But it is as vital as defeating Russia’s invasion.At issue is a dispute over pay and conditions.
The unions have, as usual, rejected a proposed 2.2
per cent pay rise as “derisory” and are promising a
summer of discontent. But the real cause for their
determination to hold a strike is the proposed
reorganisation of the railways, which will abolish
train franchises and bring all operations under the
control of Great British Railways. This will make it
more difficult for the unions to pick off individual
operating companies, as they have done for the
past seven or eight years in the long-running dis-
pute over driver-operated trains that do not need
guards. The unions also know that, in the wake of
reduced passenger numbers during and after the
pandemic, rail operations will have to be cut back
and savings made. This will mean redundancies.
Militancy has paid off for the RMT, as it has for
Aslef, the other rail union. The railways are
especially vulnerable to industrial action, as they
can never recoup their losses, and the RMT has,
time and again, used brinkmanship and blackmail
to force the London Underground to capitulate to
its demands for ever more pay and generous leave.
As a result, its members are well paid and ready tostrike whenever union leaders threaten a walkout.
Mr Lynch, like his notorious predecessor, Bob
Crowe, has also made no secret of his far-left
politics, seeing industrial relations through the old-
fashioned lens of class struggle. He has cultivated
the support of Angela Rayner, Labour deputy
leader, and will clearly now attempt to swing the
whole party against the government proposals.
Treating the railways as a vital national service,
such as the police, power generation and prisons,
is sensible and in the national interest. But it can
easily be portrayed as an attack on the age-old,
and much abused, right to withdraw labour. It has
predictably been denounced by the TUC, which
linked it to the cost of living rise; the government
was trying to distract from its failure by picking a
fight with the unions, its general secretary said.
This is nonsense. The rail unions are itching for
a confrontation now, rather than later when they
will be weaker. The government should react with
studied calmness and insist on negotiations. Mr
Lynch wants no such compromise. But public
opinion should have no time for his disruptive
tactics and selfish militancy.are as ingenious as they are colourful: a floral
sculptural portrait in shades of purple surrounded
by native British-grown tree branches and a
canopy of flowers emulating the colours and
planting of the landscape near Balmoral. Portraits
of the Queen’s many visits to Chelsea will be on
display in the Great Pavilion.
The emphasis on wildlife is welcome: more and
more gardeners are planting to attract bees and
insects, offer biodiversity in a small back garden
and let lawns run riot with wild flowers throughout
the summer. Sustainable practice is also important
and Chelsea will, as usual, offer tips.For some years the show has highlighted garden
designs to promote calm, peace and mental health.
Gardening is especially therapeutic to those in
need of natural rhythms, as doctors have often
found. This year the need is greater after two years
of lockdown and the long aftermath of the
pandemic. The gardens will focus as well on new
mothers and cancer patients.
Chelsea is the world’s best known flower show,
drawing entries from across the globe. There are
many others around Britain now, some larger and
just as spectacular. If you can stand the crowds and
the competitive horticulture, all are worth a visit.Getting out the Grain
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused acute global food shortages.
The West must defy Putin’s blockade and export Kyiv’s grain to a hungry world
When one of the world’s largest grain exporters is
engulfed in war, other nations go hungry. The
Russian blockade of Ukraine has severely
restricted its export of grain, especially wheat, and
is creating the worst global food security crisis in
50 years. Some 50 million people could soon be
plunged into starvation, according to the World
Food Programme, part of the United Nations.
Ukraine, the former breadbasket of the Soviet
Union, normally grows enough food to feed some
400 million people a year, and 30 per cent of the
world’s supply of wheat comes from Russia and
Ukraine. Ninety per cent of Ukraine’s grain
exports are shipped from Odessa. But all the
country’s Black Sea ports are now blockaded by
the Russian navy, and the winter harvest is piling
up in silos and storage depots across Ukraine.
Unless it can be shipped out soon, millions of
tonnes will rot, and there will be nowhere to store
even this year’s much reduced autumn harvest.
For most of the world, this will be a disaster. The
Middle East and north Africa, especially, depend
hugely on Russia and Ukraine for vital wheat
supplies. Bread for these countries is so basic to the
diet that the poor rely on this staple for a high
proportion of their daily calorie intake. Egypt
imports almost four fifths of its wheat from theseOff Track
The rail unions’ strike threat is as self-serving as it is disruptive for all the country
Britain’s most disruptive and militant union is to
celebrate the opening tomorrow of the spectacular
Elizabeth Line through London by calling for a
national rail strike, which, it boasts, will be the
biggest since the General Strike of 1926. Mick
Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, claims
that a nationwide strike could bring the country to
a standstill, and is now actively campaigning to
persuade the union’s 40,000 members to back a
strike on all 15 of the train operating companies.
He is also promising fierce resistance to pro-
posals floated by the government to force the
union to allow a minimum number of trains to
run, especially freight services, during a dispute.
These are increasingly vital to the nation’s food
and other supplies at a time when road transport
is still suffering from driver shortages. Using the
class-warfare terminology of his Marxist leanings,
Mr Lynch accused the government of trying to
undermine the right to strike and promised “fierce
resistance”. Manuel Cortes, general secretary of
the TSSA union, which is also threatening to
strike, spoke of the “desperate nonsense from the
Tories”, who had chosen to attack working people.A Riot of Colour
The Chelsea Flower Show is back and as spectacular as ever
Glorious, fragrant and joyous, the Chelsea Flower
Show has returned to celebrate spring, display new
varieties, innovative horticulture and flowers close
to perfection, and bring together anyone with a
love of gardening to set themselves ever new and
challenging targets of natural beauty in the soil.
Back in its usual place at the usual date, this year
the show aims not only to bolster the enthusiasm
of those who took to gardening with zeal during
lockdown, but also to promote wellbeing and
wildlife and to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.
The tributes to the Queen, a hardy annual who
has been seen among the beds almost every year,Ukraine: Verdict is announced in the first
war crimes trial since the Russian invasion;
Vadim Shishimarin, a tank commander, is
accused of killing an unarmed civilian.
Chaffinches are
known for their
insistent “rain call”,
and plovers were
once thought
to portend
precipitation, but
can birds’ behaviour really predict the
weather? Given that it can affect everything
from food availability to the viability of
migration, it would make sense for birds’
awareness of impending atmospheric
conditions to be fine-tuned. “Low flies the
swallow; rain will follow; swallow flies high,
the weather will be dry” goes one old saw,
and there is truth in it: swallows and other
aerial insectivores are often seen swooping
low just before the heavens open as the
advent of a storm front forces their insect
prey down to lower strata.
melissa harrison
In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany
(West Germany) was created. The German
Democratic Republic (East Germany) was
established on October 7 of the same year.
Dame Joan Collins,
pictured, actress, Dynasty
(1981-89), The Stud
(1978), 89; Richard
Ayoade, comedian and
actor, The IT Crowd
(2006-13), 45; Johnny
Ball, actor and TV
presenter, Play School (1967-87), 84; William
Barr, US attorney-general (1991-93,
2019-20), 72; Rubens Barrichello, racing
driver, Formula One (1993-2011), 50; Craig
Brown, satirist, 65; Henry Mountcharles,
Marquess Conyngham, chairman, Slane
Castle, 71; Ryan Coogler, screenwriter and
film director, Black Panther (2018), 36; the
Very Rev John Drury, chaplain and fellow,
All Souls College, University of Oxford, 86;
Dan Evans, tennis player, British No 2, 32;
Christopher Finney GC, former Blues and
Royals soldier, awarded the George Cross in
2003, 38; Graeme Hick, England cricketer
(1991-2001), 56; Richard Hill, rugby union
player, England player (1997-2008), and
England senior team manager, 49;
Lady Olga Maitland, Conservative MP
(1992-97), chief executive, Money Transfer
International (2008-14), 78; Robert Warren
Miller, entrepreneur, co-founder of DFS
(Duty Free Shops), 89; Bob Mortimer,
comedian, Shooting Stars (1993-2011), 63;
John Newcombe, tennis player, winner of
seven Grand Slam singles titles and 17
doubles titles, 78; George Osborne,
chairman, British Museum, and investment
banker with Robey Warshaw, editor, Evening
Standard (2017-20), Conservative MP
(2001-17), chancellor of the exchequer
(2010-16), 51; Xander Parish, ballet dancer,
the first British dancer to become a principal
at the Mariinsky Ballet, St Petersburg, 36;
Heidi Range, singer-songwriter, Sugababes,
Push the Button (2005), 39; Michel Roux Jr,
chef patron, Le Gavroche, 62; Pascal Soriot,
chief executive, AstraZeneca, 63; Dame
Janet Thornton, molecular biologist,
director, European Bioinformatics Institute
(2001-15), 73; Matt Wrack, general secretary,
Fire Brigades Union, 60.
“The beauty of the world which is so soon to
perish has two edges, one of laughter, one of
anguish, cutting the heart asunder.” Virginia
Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1929)
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