MAIL COMMENT: Is Miliband talking us into another war?

In Georgia, President Mikheil Saakashvili likens Moscow's invasion of South Ossetia to Hitler's occupation of the Czech Sudetenland in the run-up to World War II.

Meanwhile in Moscow, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev cites the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which came so close to igniting World War III.

Freedom-loving: People rally in Georgia to celebrate recognition of the independence of South Ossetia by Russia

Can it really be possible that world peace is threatened once again by ancient rivalries in a small, faraway place of which  - let's be frank - most of us had never heard until a few weeks ago?

To listen to our posturing young Foreign Secretary, cranking up the rhetoric on a trip to the Ukraine, anyone might think so.

Calling for a 'coalition against Russian aggression', David Miliband says Moscow's decision to recognise the independence from Georgia of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is 'unjustifiable and unacceptable', hinting darkly at a major confrontation between East and West.

For pity's sake, let's keep this crisis in perspective. Yes, Russia has behaved with shocking arrogance and brutality. But Georgia is hardly blameless either.

Meanwhile, the entire population of South Ossetia is only 70,000, of whom just a third are Georgians, while that of Abkhazia is a mere 250,000 - most of whom welcome Moscow's intervention.

By seeking to draw the entire world into a local conflict, won't Mr Miliband succeed only in increasing the dangers?

Crisis talks: David Miliband listens to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Ogryzko

What right has Britain, anyway, to preach to the Russians over their recognition of the two Georgian provinces?

Aren't they behaving just like our own Government, when it chose to recognise Kosovo's independence from Russia's ally, Serbia?

Mr Miliband would do well to reflect on that - and on our shameful invasion of Iraq - before he leaps on to his moral high horse and rattles his sabre at Moscow.

The bitter truth is that Labour has left Britain hugely dependent on Russia for our gas supplies.

We have much to lose  - and nothing to gain - by talking ourselves into another Cold War.

Mr Miliband should devote all his energies to defusing the crisis - instead of inflaming it.

Passing the buck

What a nerve! In a barbed apology to sufferers from eye disease, the head of the Government's drugs rationing body seems to suggest protesters were to blame for delays in approving new treatment.

How does he work that out? It was Andrew Dillon's NICE panel that made the cruel initial recommendation that patients should wait for treatment until they went blind in one eye - a decision that has cost hundreds their sight.

We have only the protesters to thank for this week's long-overdue U-turn.

Once it was possible to feel sympathy for NICE, set up to deflect blame from ministers for unpopular decisions. No longer.

Jobs on the line

Kowtowing to Labour's union paymasters, Business Secretary John Hutton has given employers less than eight months to prepare for a massive extension of workers' rights.

From next April, 4.5million parents with children as old as 16 will be entitled to apply for flexible working hours - heaping extra costs and bureaucracy on to businesses already struggling to survive.

In an ideal world, we'd all be able to choose our working hours. But in the real world of the credit crunch, Mr Hutton's surrender is utter lunacy.