Was it Bill or was it Ben?

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In an age where there are hundreds of television channels, coupled with the ability to watch most of the programs at a time of our choosing, most of those alive today have no memory of the time when there was only one channel, broadcasting for limited hours, with viewing restricted to the actual time of broadcast. Like others who were around at the time that ITV started in 1955, I can remember our tiny television being sent away to have a tuner fitted so that we could watch both channels – although I never really understood why it had 13 numbers on the dial, only two of which actually did anything.

Anyway, in those halcyon single channel days, pre-school children’s television consisted largely of a 15 minute slot (weekdays only) under the generic label ‘Watch with Mother’. (Fathers were assumed to be out at work.) One of the slots (Wednesdays, as I recall) was given over to the Flowerpot Men, two talking assemblages of flower pots called Bill and Ben, who were always up to mischief. The denouement always consisted of a little ditty about which of them had committed this week’s mischief – “Was it Bill or was it Ben?”.

What brought it back into the mind this week was the deliberate action of someone in turning off the Starlink system used by Ukraine as a key part of its defence against Russian drones and missiles. Reports say that Bill Trump denied all knowledge and said it must be Ben Musk, who in turn said that the order can only have come from the White House, so it must have been Bill. Subsequent reporting has suggested that Ben pitched the proposal to Bill who, at the least, didn’t demur. Ben then took the nod and wink as an instruction and ordered the slowdown. Both the co-conspirators have enough leeway to have a degree of plausible deniability of ultimate responsibility.

This isn’t, though, about a childish prank which the gardener might not like. This was a real world decision which led directly to real world deaths in a country under relentless attack from Bill’s current bestie, who is considerably more malignant than Slowcoach the tortoise. It’s a world in which neither Bill nor Ben have, or are able to develop, any sense of morality or empathy with the lesser mortals whose lives their decisions impact or even end. Sucking up to Bill, and allowing Ben to continue to acquire ever more wealth and power are not a basis on which to build anything. European states can, of course, do little about what happens in the US, and reducing our dependency on both the US and the services provided by Musk and others like him is a medium to long term project rather than a short term one. But recognising it as an essential project, rather than a short term holding operation until a hoped-for change in 2029, would be a good start.