is called realpolitik. Practitioners of this art—called realists—emphasize real assessments of other nation’s capabilities and intentions, and what can be done in practical terms to improve the balance of power, and maintain stable international relations.

One of the fantastic applications of this was during the 1960s when the United States actually held back developing its nuclear capability, such as furthering the accuracy of its ICBMs, to let the Soviets catch up. Then, the idea was, we would have a balance of power (of terror), and better stability in Soviet-American relations. This was realism at work.

Now, the bete noir of the realist is the idealist. The idealist is a nice fellow, but unrealistic about the real world. The idealist has all these marvelous ideas and plans, these solutions to war,St Helens OAP, 81, held captive and beaten by savage intruder

Andy Moffatt

An 81-year-old pensioner was attacked by a man who broke into his bedroom in the middle of the night and woke him up to demand he hand over cash.

In nightmarish scenes, the victim awoke to discover the fiend in his bedroom some time before 5am.

He then made a series of threats to the elderly man, demanding he hand over cash before going on to attack him.

Police believe the OAP was held captive for around an hour and a half while the intruder was in the house.

But despite subjecting his victim to a terrifying ordeal, the offender left empty-handed.

He fled after concerned neighbours, who heard a disturbance, called police.

The victim was left with bruises to his face and