The humanitarian and economic genocide in Ukraine is a war with no obvious solution.

The Russian aggressors and Putin have forgotten that in any war you must have a strategy as to how it will end. Not only has that not been defined, but the longer it goes on the more remote is the prospect of any return to normality – either for Ukraine or for Russia, which up until a few weeks ago was one of the world's great global trading nations.

Inevitably we are increasingly seeing this through our own prism.

Inflation has hit rates not seen in decades, with no factors in play to ease the pressure from higher energy and food costs. For any economy these are the biggest drivers of inflation and they have now created a perfect storm. Despite rhetoric from the government in London and the Chancellor's spring budget statement, there is no real sense it has a grip on these problems. It understands the broad brush of what is happening, but it has no real plans to tackle the issues that have combined to create that perfect storm.

Top of its priorities should be food security and how to ensure what is happening does not tip into food shortages, empty supermarket shelves and panic buying. It is two years this week since the first lockdown and the scenes then of people fighting over supermarket shelves are not easily forgotten.

Either Brussels or London is right in their approach to food security. For London it is still taken for granted. It remains committed to its green farm policies for England, seemingly with no thought that food availability and cost have become long term issues that must be tackled. In contrast the EU has fully mobilised its food crisis task force and is taking concrete decisions to tackle potentially permanent food shortages.

Unlike London, Brussels is analysing events on both a short and long term basis. Why this is not happening in London is beyond comprehension. The government has failed to get to grips with the energy crisis, despite Boris Johnson heading off on an oil begging mission to the Middle East.

Food is not even on its agenda. The best we can do is rely on the analysis of the European Commission experts, as to how this might play out. It accepts that price increases are inevitable and will continue, with no short term answers in play to ease these cost push pressures. It says that in Europe the issue will remain affordability rather than availability, but warns that elsewhere availability will be an issue. In this lies the real potential for market disruption and hyper-inflation in commodity prices. It cites countries in North Africa and the Middle East that relied on Russian and Ukrainian grain, now seeking alternatives with deep pockets to do so.

The Commission is also warning that current events may be the start of greater problems. Ukraine, which was responsible for a third of world trade in grain and half of trade in sunflower oil, cannot physically secure seed to plant crops. An even greater issue will be who controls Ukrainian supplies and whether trade as it was a few months ago can ever be re-established, given events in the key Black Sea ports.

This is why the European Commission has altered its thinking towards greater production in Europe, particularly of protein crops. To that end set aside and similar policies will be suspended. Brussels remains committed to its Green Deal thinking, but food security concerns have triggered a seismic shift in priorities.

That is not the case in the urban bubble that is Westminster. It would serve the government well to remember that policies leaving you more dependent on imports can only work if others are more interested in exporting than their own food security. Post-Brexit the UK is just another third country to the bloc that is our biggest food supplier.

On a different note, the EU has confirmed again that Brexit is for real, rejecting suggestions from the potato lobby in Europe that its supply chain is suffering from the loss of high health seed potatoes from Scotland. Despite this the Commission sees no case for change, stressing it was the UK's choice to reject suggestions that food and agriculture standards should be aligned post-Brexit.

And with that comment another part of the famous oven-ready trade deal with Europe bit the dust, to the disadvantage of farmers in Scotland and the EU.