The John Griff Column: How far does the hand of friendship extend in 2025?

To some degree, there will be a vacuum. With the festive season over (and I appreciate we’re only just approaching it now), there’ll be the reality of the ‘season of goodwill’ ending and the onset of a new year. 2026 will begin with the same harsh realities that have accompanied 2005. War in Ukraine, shortages of food, political conflict and a plethora of other challenges will have to be re-engaged with after – at best – any lull in hostilities. Political leaders will have to redouble efforts to secure lasting peace at a time when the commodity seems to be in short supply – these are some of the darkest days that the world has seen since World War 2. The spectre of World War 3 hangs over the planet and has become more apparent in recent years. Can plans from the current White House administration succeed – either in Eastern Europe or Gaza? If peace is to flourish – and last – there will need to be intent and action to back up words, however warm they might seem between politicians determining military activity.

Doom-laden though this might seem, I for one maintain a strong degree of hope that peace (and goodwill) will hold the day. I grew up in the Cold War era where the concept of MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction – governed activities over nuclear stockpiles and their use. Daily, I would see pairs of American F-111 aircraft on manoeuvres in the skies over my school or the occasional movements of B52 nuclear bombers making their way between USAF bases here in the UK, our greatest ally then being America. Presidents and Prime Ministers quoted the strength of our ‘Special Relationship’ and its foundation. But how special is it now? Earlier this year we had friends over from Philadelphia. They voiced concerns about how they might be treated over here as Americans because of what had been coming out of Pennsylvania Avenue in recent years. In the event of course, all was well. But those perceptions were alarming.

Lois and I recently went Bletchley Park for the premiere of ‘Breaking Enigma: A World War II Game Changer’ - a new, American documentary about allied co-operation during WW2. Surely one of the pivotal places in Britain for intelligence gathering and code breaking during the war, BP as it was known, seemed to be engaged in blissfully peaceful activities, when in reality its actual codebreaking work secret even between groups working on the same site and in neighbouring wooden huts. It’s triumphs through determination, round-the-clock effort and the exploitation of simple luck are now better known than they have ever been – as are the ramifications for what BP did for the length of the war and lives ultimately saved. In one of the most elegant lecture theatres I have ever visited, the documentary showed the degree by which code breaking collaboration and shared effort actually took place in lockstep on both sides of the Atlantic. Bletchley Park was where successive breakthroughs took place, including the onset of computerisation, the breaking of the various models of Enigma machines used by Nazi forces on land and sea (under it too, on U-Boats), and the speed with which decryption was able to accelerate, seemingly without the enemy ever knowing that their secrets had been broken. But it wasn’t ONLY Bletchley Park’s efforts. The effects of collaboration between friendly nations as common allies proved pivotal and as the documentary drew to a close, I felt a certain shame that what I had previously understood might not have been altogether accurate. Bletchley Park might have taken the lead – but credit for the outcome of all that labour is a shared one that perhaps few really understand to this day.

All of which begs the question – are we still that friendly with what is now the single, largest superpower on the planet? If history does ultimately repeat itself, would the same collaboration take place?

Maybe the adage should be re-written in advance – ‘Keep your friends closER, and your enemies closest’.