This Week – 10-17 March 2025 – holds the potential to be a most significant week for our people, for our country, for Europe and the Middle East, and for the world. Hence the week came under detailed examination by the members of our Current Affairs Group on 10 March 2025.

The meeting started with the death on 01 March 2025 of the Scottish painter Jack Vettriano in Nice, France at the age of 73. Jack Vettriano was a much appreciated painter who is possibly best known for his painting of a butler on a beach holding an umbrella whilst a man and a woman in evening dress dance to his whistled melodies. There were recollections and memories in abundance at the meeting.

Other topics then followed including the health of children in England (as opposed to the United Kingdom), the continuing war in Ukraine and the possibility of an agreement being reached with limited involvement of the Ukrainian government and the talks planned for finding a sustainable peace in the Middle East in Gaza, in Israel and now in Syria as well.

There was also time for a discussion on the strategy of international trade tariffs, and the effect that a new Canadian Prime Minister might have on them.

Our Current Affairs Group will meet again on Monday 17 March 2025 at 10:00am.