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.
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
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