Whilst just a few hundred miles away a dictator's army is trying to destroy an entire nation of 44 million people, we are preparing to celebrate seventy years of our Queen on the throne.  Many of the various organisations in Tittensor met in St Luke's Church Hall and agreed an outline programme for Tittensor.

It's a strange thing that several dictators, going back all the way to Napoleon, have made the same mistake when looking at the people of the United Kingdom.  They see a people obsessed with the weather, who watch or play strange games such as cricket or rugby, who have strange authors who write books like Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and who don't seem to want to be bothered by Europe.  They see people who are uncomfortable with protesting and would rather put up with something rather than fight over it.

Napoleon sneered at the UK and called its people 'a nation of shopkeepers'.  Then came Trafalgar and Waterloo: some shopkeepers!

Hitler thought that the UK would let him do as he wished and would agree a peace so that he could occupy mainland Europe whilst promising to let Britain stay unoccupied.  Then along came D-Day.

Now we have another dictator in Putin.  He looks at us and sees a weak, dishonest political class and a people that have turned their backs on Europe.  He sees a country that has retreated from Afghanistan and allowed him to occupy another country's territory in Europe.  He sees a country that did nothing when he sent assassins into the UK to murder people, including British people, using internationally banned nerve poisons.  He sees a country that does not like 'foreigners' and that tries very hard to avoid human rights laws and obligations.

Is it any wonder that Putin has attacked Ukraine?  Is it a surprise that he threatens to cut off fuel supplies to us, to think the unthinkable of unleashing nuclear missiles at us and to attack any help we might send to Ukraine?

The question, as it always is, is what to do about it.  Let's leave aside all the various measures already taken, those put to one side and those still being mulled over.  The issue is whether to give in or oppose.  It always comes to this with dictators.

So let's look at a threat issued this week.  Putin told us (it was a 'spokesman' but with dictators, it always means from them) that the UK should give up its opposition because Russia ' had deeper pockets' and 'had greater will to see this through for longer'.  So here we are again with a dictator who has looked at the superficial and knows nothing of the character of the British.  Putin, born after the Second World War, has not bothered to remember that the UK was then at war with Germany a lot longer than Russia was.  In fact, the UK stood alone against Hitler whilst Putin's predecessor, another dictator, signed a peace pact with him.  It was much later that Russia entered and only then because it was attacked.  The UK fought because of the attack on Poland.

As we raise money for the Ukrainians now and over the coming weeks, as we welcome them into our country and our homes and as we pray for peace to return to a country that has seen so much occupation and deprivation, let's also pray that Putin remembers a little more of this little nation of shopkeepers.  Let's pray that he remembers some of the words of Churchill that were echoed by the Ukrainian president in speaking to the House of Commons last week.  Let's also remember that, just like a previous generation, we may yet be called to our 'finest hour'.  May God make us able and willing to face and oppose evil, and make everyone wise enough to turn away from violence and towards peace.  Amen.

PS The picture is of a sunset over Kyiv.