Lilliputin
Had to laugh upon reading at the weekend that Mikheil Saakashvili is credited with inventing the nickname "Lilliputin" for the Russian Prime Minister. It's "an allusion to Mr Putin's diminutive stature, in contrast to his own towering presence." That sent us to Jonathan Swift and Gulliver's Travels, "Part I: A Voyage To Lilliput" (4 May1699 — 13 April 1702). Summary:
Lemuel Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, who inhabit the neighbouring countries of Lilliput and Blefuscu. He assists the Lilliputians to subdue the Blefuscudians (by stealing their fleet) but when he refuses to reduce the country to a province of Lilliput, he is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded. Gulliver escapes, spots an abandoned boat and sails away to be rescued by a passing ship.
Meanwhile, two for the price of one: "Ukraine offers satellite defence co-operation with Europe and US" and "Ukraine to join in US-led missile shield in Europe". The enraged Lilliputin cannot blind all his neighbours. He should heed what an admirer of Swift's prose once said of a mid 18th-century war: "They now ring the bells, but they will soon wring their hands." Sir Robert Walpole
