BEGONE, DULL CARE

I am hugely relieved to read that the gloomy weather recently – 12 miserable minutes of sunshine so far in all November in part of Sussex, but dismal in most places - is nothing to do with fraught international politics but can be confidently ascribed to a “static anticyclone” hovering over Northern Europe – don’t worry it will move East soon, and we will see more light even though it will get colder. It would have been natural to suppose that the gloom was some kind of prelude to a cosmic catastrophe – listening to the sensationalist media would reinforce that prognosis – but it’s a false alarm and everything will be hunky-dory in a week or two.

    `                                                            
Emmanuel Macron

Certainly, elections have not cheered me up, to say the least. I suppose the rot set in with the French, when Macron took fright at right-wing Marine Le Pen’s party success in European elections and called snap legislative polls to thwart her. But this backfired by handing a probable majority to all the most extreme Leftist parties headed by the appalling Jean-Luc Mélenchon and decimating Macron’s own clique, though Macron still heads his government with no majority. Macron may well end up as a lame-duck President (far from his Napoleonic ambitions) but then the French are ungovernable, as de Gaulle remarked, - how can you govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese?

                                                Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer

Then in July the UK election unsurprisingly booted out Sunak’s increasingly shambolic Tories, when outwardly dignified Starmer won by an unexpectedly large landslide. Starmer sadly has not impressed, being evasive and economical with the truth. There have also been signs of corruption and cronyism, much at odds with the squeaky-clean image in which Labour had presented itself. The cabinet is largely untested, but Rachel Reeves has presented a budget with swingeing tax increases, wildly biased towards Labour supporting groups in unions, public sector entities and, of course, the sacred NHS, an unreformed bottomless pit. Fiscal policy is unstructured, and the UK government is already foundering.

Kemi and Hamish Badenoch

 

William Hague

I was pleased by the election of Kemi Badenoch as leader of the depleted Conservative Party. She is a thinker, with firm Tory instincts and should start to lead a revival of her party’s fortunes, though she will have to fight some racial prejudice from diehards and reactionaries. I also voted in the arcane election for Chancellor of Oxford University. The original 38 candidates, swollen by no-hopers and over-zealous academics has been whittled down to 5 – I have gone for moderate Tory William Hague, biographer of iconic William Pitt the Younger, fundraiser and reliable bulwark against the rising tide of academic wokery.

                                                                              Donald Trump

Of course, the big story has been the enormous triumph of Republican Donald Trump in the US Presidential election. He walked it, condemning Kamala Harris and Joe Biden to outer darkness. The hand-wringing despair of the Democrats and Leftie Americans has been a joy to behold and many of them say they are fleeing to Europe – not sure how welcome they will be. Their horror and fear of an unrestrained Trump is understandable.

The Donald is an unpredictable oik, a convicted felon with the morals of an alley-cat, with no intellectual interests nor oratorical skills. He has made alarming comments about NATO and Europe and holds equivocal views on Ukraine, Israel, Russia and China. Yet he will back American businesses and the aspirational middle classes and will deregulate oil and energy companies, all of whom will prosper. We Brits are hoping the UK is exempted from some of his tariffs, even clutching at straws that his Scottish mother’s memory will soften his MAGA impositions, or that his pal Nigel Farage will somehow help us out! But it is early days yet – we have not seen his cabinet nor the quality of his team and entourage.

There may well be a rocky road ahead, but the worst does not often happen. Be of good cheer!

 

SMD

10.11.24

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2024

ANYTHING GOES!

 

Cole Porter summed it up beautifully:

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that you're bound to answer
When I propose,
Anything goes!

My generation, a slowly disappearing but vocal band of brothers and sisters hailing from the 1930s-1950s, value tradition, order, logic, consistency, patriotism, scientific progress, kindness and fairness, however imperfectly. The world of 2024, and no doubt in 2025 too, will turn all that upside down and somehow, we must resist or meekly accept the resultant anarchy. No prizes for guessing my point of view – Aux barricades, mes braves!

 

                            Liberty leading the People by Delacroix (The Louvre, Paris)

But we are uncomfortable in revolutionary mode and much prefer some gentle, if quizzical observations on ordinary life. I have the good fortune to be in North Carolina this Christmas – a chilly but bracing minus 2C today – and I have already consumed some traditional American delicacies, Blueberry muffins, clam chowder, Chesapeake oysters, moist brisket, Chick-Fil-A and blackened trout, washed down with a draught beer called Good Morning, Vietnam! All this is quite normal to Americans, but many Brits would find these names unfamiliar. Americans are different, to be sure. Some small confusion is only to be expected when Americans think trousers are pants, a jacket is a coat, and a waistcoat is a vest!

Naturally Americans cherish their history, their Constitution and are proud of their achievements. And yet, they have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a second term for Donald Trump, a convicted felon, a stranger to the truth and an ignoramus outside his passions for property development, flashy women and the game of golf. His policies of large-scale migrant deportation, weaponising tariffs, withdrawing from non-American obligations are popular but simplistic and likely to have nasty unintended consequences. I only hope he listens to experienced advice after 20 January 2025, (some hope!).

                                                Trump’s sinister police mugshot

We Brits cannot gloat – we have a much smaller economy, and we are already in a fiscal and culture-war mess as Starmer’s Left-wing fanatics begin to flex their muscles. We are seeing taxes confined to the private sector, exemptions granted to the public sector, occupational pensions attacked, farmers losing inheritance tax concessions. Much worse, the Left (including the Wet and the Woke) has infiltrated the civil service, demanding hefty rewards for failure, and has undermined the ethos of our cherished universities by supporting the practice of cancel culture e.g. trying to silence J.K. Rowling, Margaret Attwood and many others. I am not talking about some catchpenny, dim universities but leading Oxbridge colleges taking “decolonisation” to absurd lengths, under the bogus guise of “diversity”, and cringing shamefully to attract Chinese cash endowments in the case of the University of Cambridge. John Milton and Dr Johnson, robust believers in free speech, must be spinning in their graves.

Europe is in an even worse pickle. After Macron blunders, France is without a government and a coalition looks impossible. Government by decree seems inevitable, bringing who-knows-what instability. Everywhere but Britain is moving Right - Spain, Italy and the Netherlands – German elections in February will probably move in the same direction. Ireland, grandstanding as ever and dependant on American investment, has amazingly so upset Israel over anti-Semitic criticism of actions in Gaza that the Israeli embassy has closed. Trump is highly supportive of Israel and hates European parasites – expect an American exodus from tax-dodging Ireland. This Nemesis will be richly deserved. Tact and diplomacy matter! The EU has long not been a powerhouse, but rather a millstone round the neck of her undoubtedly capable business community.

With the erosion of many of her great domestic institutions, and the palpable enmity of Russia, China, Iran and N.Korea, what is the West to do to defend herself? Well, first principles first; it must arm itself to the teeth and create modern, highly professional armies. NATO will remain a bedrock, but bi-lateral alliances may play a part. The best of Western values, toleration, freedom of speech, civil order, the rule of law, genuine compassion for the disadvantaged, all must be rigorously defended. We do not need to be shy of our superiority over “third world” economies, it is beyond dispute and likely to stay that way. We have no obligation to open our borders or grant asylum to impoverished masses, who bring their native fanaticisms and hatreds to our shores. They have their ample space – do not intrude enviously upon ours!

 

The West will slay the looming dragons threatening her– do not doubt it – and preserve her eternal values. Hallelujah!

 

SMD

17.12.24

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2024

A Winter's Tale

 

Winter has arrived rather decisively, mellow Autumn is a vanished visitor, Summer a fading memory and Spring a distant hope. Meanwhile, we tackle cold, dark and wet British weather with as much spirit as we can muster. Some, alas, sink into debilitating Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise “SAD”, the bringer of a host of depressing afflictions caused, it is said, by lack of sunlight and deficiencies (or is it surpluses?) of melatonin and serotonin. They shiver “in their Stygian cave forlorn”.

Others adopt a more robust attitude, taking brisk walks, hunting, shooting, skiing, even indulging in those crazy ice-breaking swims but winter is surely best enjoyed indoors at home or in a friendly pub where you can play shove-ha’penny, darts, drink beer copiously from Toby Jugs and disparage the smart-ass political tribe. At home things are even cosier, as you can play whist, eat crumpets and whisper sweet seductive nothings into the tingling ear of your beloved as a preliminary gambit in the oldest indoor game known to Man.

   

      Venus, Mars and Cupid by Rubens                                A Doulton Toby Jug     

        (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 

Yet keeping warm and amused is only half the story this Winter. We must also keep sane in a world descending into madness. The election of Donald Trump to a second term is a hugely disruptive event, as he is a proven liar and felon, unfit for high office. His cabinet appointments are eye-popping as several are simply “disruptors” like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Such people can be useful in challenging the prevailing orthodoxy but can cause chaos if they have no experience of running a government department. The unconfirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is conventional in his economic views but, by UK standards, wildly unconventional in his private life as he is openly gay with a husband and 2 kids. Vice President J D Vance is a one-time Democrat and erstwhile arch critic of Trumpism who saw the light in 2020 and who has all the ardour of a convert. Many others in the Trump team are above all loyalists, swallowing all MAGA policies, like tariff wars with Europe and China, mass deportation of illegal Mexican migrants, and the imposition of a peace treaty on Ukraine. All these policies are difficult and controversial, and a bumpy political road is unavoidable.

 

    J D Vance                                                  Scott Bessent          and                Robert F Kennedy Jr

The UK’s new government has had a rocky first 100 days and it has largely lost the momentum its sweeping electoral victory initially provided. Sir Keir Starmer is a wooden performer, with a very unsure political touch, and he has allowed his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to introduce a class-war budget, taxing the private sector, sparing the public one and needlessly offending the farming community. Naturally he blames the previous Tory government for any financial stresses, but that alibi will not last long. The extreme Leftists seem to have plenty of influence and the front bench looks exceptionally weak, a rum crew of misfits and preening fanatics with the Monstrous Regiment over-represented. Much international hobnobbing and feasting also disillusions many electors who are beginning to revise their enthusiasm for Labour.

Angela Rayner, Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper

 Despite her huge wealth, I venture to guess that life next year will be more pleasant in the gloomy UK than in Trumpland, when native mania is finally allowed to run riot. Both countries are paying for the complacent neglect of many years of resource management, of public services, of basic budgeting and of confused international alliances. We are more used to such setbacks than our American cousins and our skins are thicker.

We will all emerge one Spring soon to a more rational and happier world.

 

SMD

29.11.24

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2024