SURELY I cannot be alone in noticing what seems to be an orchestrated campaign in the media to denigrate Vladimir Putin and to blame Russia for everything bad that is happening in this crazy world today.

I am half-expecting to see reports that Putin was to blame for Oxford United’s recently unsuccessful bid to win the Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley.

As a keen follower of current affairs, I am unable to see what Bashar al Assad had to gain by allegedly carrying out the gas-attack on Khan Sheikhun and to me, it has the feel of the USS Maddox about it where someone thought perhaps that Trump and Putin were getting a little too cosy with each other and that some provocation was needed to create a gulf between them.

What does stick in my gullet is that amongst all the clamour about a “barbaric action”, the “killing of little babies”, war-crimes and the need for International Law, nothing is said about the use of White Phosphorus on civilians in Gaza by Israeli Forces nor the 20-million gallons of “Agent Orange”, the dioxin-defoliant sprayed onto the jungles of Vietnam by US Forces and which apparently is still causing deformed babies to be born.

In his book Journalists for Hire, the former journalist and editor of the prestigious German daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, blew the whistle on how some journalists are “encouraged” by well-known Intelligence Services to slant their stories in order to suit certain themes, or run the risk of an end to their career.

Ulfkotte died in January of this year of a heart-attack, aged 56.

George Orwell hit this topical nail on its head when he said: “At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

GORDON CLACK

Witney Road, Ducklington