HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

As masterly Alexander Pope proclaimed in An Essay on Man:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blessed:

I have received some flak for my Panglossian optimism, believing It'll be Alright on the Night and generally seeing The Sunny Side of the Street, but I am unrepentant and, especially as the New Year dawns, I wish to dispense good cheer to all my readers. In 2017 many of our fondest hopes will be realised, no doubt a few will be disappointed, yet our world will be even better than in 2016.

Voltaire, rationalist creator of optimistic Dr Pangloss

I know that our fate probably depends in part on the antics of the terrible trio of Theresa May, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and some familiar landmarks are probably fading away – Angela Merkel, David Cameron and (at last) Bill and Hillary Clinton. One or two iconic but flawed figures like Fidel Castro, not to mention David Bowie and George Michael, are now history, while lauding the relevance of Jeremy Corbyn and Francois Hollande will strain to breaking point the ingenuity of spin doctors.

Catholic, Muslim and Copt in harmony

  Lifting our eyes from the banalities of politicians and celebrities, what can we dare to hope from 2017?  The top prizes are Toleration, Peace and Progress. Toleration is the blessing conferred on religious, sexual and political minorities throughout the world. Western nations broadly observe this but Chinese and Islamic persecution of Christians appals us. Egypt can be expected to protect her Coptic minority and even Assad gave room to Syria’s scattered and historic Christian communities, now displaced: Buddhist persecution of Royhingya Hindus in Burma or Islamic pogroms of Christians in Aceh, Indonesia or in Northern Nigeria are abhorrent. Strong and enlightened central governments have a vital role to play and Europe and America are good but not perfect. Discrimination of all kinds should be pushed back everywhere in 2017.   

Recent years have seen an upsurge in nationalism, that notorious curse of the 1930s, but often too a strong unifying force. In part this is due to the remoteness and policy errors of supra-national bodies like the EU, the IMF and the UN who tend to ride rough-shod over opposition. There was undoubtedly a nationalistic element in the Brexit decision made sharper by the influx of alien immigrants. The dangers of this element are exaggerated: the British will always be scrupulously fair to those who observe the law.

The pronouncements of Donald Trump on international politics and on trade matters can sound alarming yet the US has a civilised bedrock and an established history of alliance and generosity, which will not be discarded – her self-interest requires no less. The 2016 election delivered a strong Republican government and Congress – let them work together fruitfully and rationally for the benefit of all Americans.

The various groups participating in the dreadful Syrian civil war have fought themselves to a standstill; it is time the Security Council and local players like Turkey and Iran imposed a settlement. This would end this conflict which has sickened the world. The only maniac left to threaten us is Kim-Jong-un of North Korea and a 2017 palace coup there to depose him cannot come too soon. Africa and the Middle East are inherently unstable and we can but hope they will not threaten world peace.

At least we do not live under this charmer!

 The March of Progress is often invisible but remember that every day a clinic opens where none was before, a sickness is overcome or a condition treated where help was once absent. New schools bring literacy and hope to the poorest, new roads open up new horizons, clean water can be a great boon. All these things are apolitical, simply a demonstration that people can live together in harmony, indeed at last in equality too, as women are increasingly given precisely the same opportunities as men.

Closer to home our prosperity will also be shared. A growing British economy, boosted by the Living Wage, slowly closes the earnings gap. Brexit will give us new perspectives and rich opportunities. I hope in 2017 the Remainers cast off their sulks, their gloating at any national misfortune and their sour-pusses – it is unnatural and ugly, as basically they are talented high achievers who simply backed the wrong horse. Their positive contribution could be game-changing. I expect we will know the main features of a deal with the EU or any counter-option during 2017. Let’s get on with it!

Progress is a quicksilver concept upon which few people are in total agreement. To my mind progress consists of better educational attainment at all levels, better nutrition for everyone, 24/7 access to competent medical assistance, a government responsive to its electorate and public money carefully spent to benefit all the people. I expect all those to deliver in 2017 and if in addition the SNP foul up and lose support and Arsenal wins the Premiership, so much the better!

A lot less of this lady, please, in 2017

 

We will face the challenges of 2017 with valiant hearts, clear heads and blithe spirits.

SMD

30.12.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

MAN OF THE YEAR - NIGEL FARAGE

                                

Sometimes an oddball figure dominates our politics for a period and then fades away. Historic examples would be Robert Lowe, who led the Liberal opposition to parliamentary reform (the so-called “Adullamites”) in 1866, brilliantly frustrating the plans of Russell and Gladstone, though opening the door to Disraeli’s 1867 Reform Act. Lowe was an albino in poor health yet a man of intellect and eloquence dominating politics in 1866. Similar dominance could be attributed to Tony Benn, the archetypical “Loony Leftist” who rallied Labour’s more extreme elements to espouse many a wild lost cause and was a loquacious thorn in the flesh of every Labour leader from 1980 – 1997. He was dubbed The Bertie Wooster of Marxism. Into this colourful company I introduce Nigel Farage, erstwhile leader of UKIP, whose barn-storming populism did so much to persuade the British electorate to embrace the Brexit cause, making 23 June 2016 his great day of triumph and apotheosis.

Robert Lowe

Tony Benn

  

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage, born in 1964, comes from a solidly prosperous middle-class background. His father was an allegedly alcoholic City stockbroker who left his family when Nigel was 5 but he entered the fine public (i.e. private) school Dulwich College which has many famous alumni. He may have been inspired in his argumentative talent by the lawyers Hartley Shawcross and the Silkins, Sam and John; his humour perhaps derives from matchless P G Wodehouse or more broadly from comedian Bob Monkhouse (expelled!). In politics he was influenced by school visits from soberly thoughtful Keith Joseph and above all by incisive and driven Enoch Powell.

Maverick Tory and inspirational intellectual Enoch Powell

Nigel chose not to go to university but entered the City in 1983 as a commodity trader with 4 employers up to 2004. Initially a Conservative, Nigel could not support the UK signing the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 which created the EU, planned the introduction of the Euro, pushing for “ever closer” European integration.  He became a founder member of UKIP, committed to the restoration of UK independence from the EU  and after many failed UK electoral campaigns he became leader of UKIP for almost all of 2006-16, being elected as a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to the present day. Steadily support for UKIP has grown with many local councillors but only 2 MPs, (via by-elections): the first-past-the-post electoral system in the UK heavily penalises small parties – UKIP still garnered 3m votes in the 2015 general election, even though the party is fractious and disorganised.

Farage has changed the tone of political debate in the UK, often in a manner offensive to the squeamish. He makes no secret of his contempt for senior Eurocrats greeting the luckless Herman van Rompuy in 2010 with “You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low grade bank clerk!” and enquired “Who are you, nobody in Europe has ever heard of you?” This was a little hard on erstwhile Belgian Prime Minister van Rompuy, then newly appointed and unelected President of the Council, a civilised, if unprepossessing, old cove fond of composing poetry in the Japanese Haiku fashion. Farage was fined 10 day’s expenses when he declined to apologise – he insisted his words were basically true. My neighbours and TV viewers in Greece were thrilled by Farage – at last someone was mocking European pretensions.

Farage’s views on immigrants are equally direct. He echoes many widely-held but seldom-expressed fears when he states that the refugee influx admitted “a fifth column of Islamic extremists” – recent terrible events in France, Belgium and Germany give credence to such opinions. Much stricter control of immigration seems simple common sense but the bien-pensant elite calls it Fascism, which is nonsense. Farage offends some others when he says the NHS should concentrate on tending to UK citizens, rather than “caring for recent immigrants with HIV”, an unnecessarily extreme example perhaps. Some in UKIP and in the Tory party are undoubtedly racist but the worst I heard from Farage himself is his would-be horror “if a group of Romanians moved next door.” Impoverished East Europeans are a growing migrant problem – Farage can hardly be called prejudiced as his (second) wife is a German from Hamburg.

Farage as Man of the People

Farage after the Referendum

He agitated for a referendum on EU membership which was conceded by an overconfident David Cameron – believing a Remain verdict was easily achievable. Farage had already shown his debating mettle when he demolished Europhile Nick Clegg in a debate during the 2015 election. The Tories split with Boris Johnson and Michael Gove leading the Leave faction but Farage was left on the sidelines, cold-shouldered from sharing a platform with them. But his passionate barn-storming struck a chord with the provincial, the under-privileged and the marginalised and the 52%-48% victory would never have been achieved without Farage. His blokeish beer-drinking image, practised oratory and patriotic appeal were irresistible.

Nigel with his pal Donald

Without a visible power base and no longer UKIP leader, Farage is looking for a new role. An earlier generation would have made him at least a Viscount for his services to the nation but our current Establishment is not generous to its antagonists and he is woefully undervalued. He has clearly much in common with Donald Trump – a fake tan and the adulation of the underprivileged to name two – and he wowed his audience at a Trump rally in Jackson, Miss.  His ambition at least to help along a trade deal between the US and UK should be warmly embraced. I say, Bravo Nigel – you are the Hero of 2016!

SMD, 
19.12.16
Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2016

A TOPSY-TURVY WORLD

That the world was destined for a “topsy-turvy” period was, in retrospect, clearly augured by mysterious and unexpected events earlier in 2016 - America cosied up to a Cuba still dominated by the long-demonised Castro brothers, two entirely new species of tree-frog were discovered in the remote rainforests of Madagascar and normally humdrum Leicester City Football Club contrived convincingly to win the English Premiership. Strange spirits had obviously been loosened!

Notorious Fidel (RIP) and Raul Castro of old

New Tree-frog species

                                     

Triumphant Leicester City

The adjective “topsy-turvy” is often associated with the comic work of W S Gilbert whose plots of judges marrying plaintiffs, aristocratic lords becoming enamoured of fairies and pirates discovering their noble birth were carried forward to their deadpan conclusion to the delight of Victorian audiences. Gilbert’s witty lines were put to tuneful melody by the talented composer Sir Arthur Sullivan and the 14 G&S “Savoy” comic operas, presented by the acutely commercial impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte amused and heartened British and American theatre-goers for at least 100 years and still retain the affection of a horde of amateur singers and comic actors.

Arthur Sullivan and W S Gilbert

W S Gilbert would have had rich pickings in our world - as what could be more topsy-turvy

than the astounding triumph of the 3 Brexiteers, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove

(Three little maids from school are we… filled to the brim with girlish glee), or the shock-horror

election of Donald Trump (Stick close to your desk and never go to sea, And you become

the Ruler of the States’ Navy), not to mention today’s defeat on a referendum of Matteo Renzi,

Italian Premier:

He sent his resignation in,

The first of all his corps, O!

That very knowing,

Overflowing,

Easy-going

Paladin ,

The Duke of Plaza-Toro!

The British Brexit struggle has moved this week to the Supreme Court, (The law is the true embodiment of everything that's excellent. It has no kind of fault or flaw and I, my lords, embody the law, sang the Lord Chancellor). It will pronounce on the issue of whether the government can simply exercise prerogative powers to trigger Article 50 or whether it has to seek the approval of a vote in both houses of Parliament. While the government may be able to win in the Commons, the Lords would be a higher hurdle as it is stuffed full of establishment figures hostile to what they see as a Peasants’ Revolt:

Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses!

So quite a lot hinges on the verdict of the Supreme Court. As for the Lords, that only partially reformed body needs reminding:

And while the House of Peers withholds its legislative hand,

 And noble statesmen do not itch

To interfere with matters which

 They do not understand,

 As bright will shine Great Britain’s rays

 As in King George’s glorious days!

As a Brexiteer and a democrat, I see every merit in the final deal being subject to parliamentary approval, but it is a step too far to expect the government to expose its negotiating hand in advance – the certain way to a bad deal, especially with Anglophobic EU representatives Michel Barnier and Guy Verhofstadt lurking in the shadows itching to chastise the UK with their (EU regulated) rubber truncheons.

Mr Renzi’s fall is most inopportune if you are an Italian banker or defender of the euro. The European electorate is highly volatile but not at all ideological, as the rejection of Herr Hofer in Austria demonstrates: one Austrian-born fascist tyrant per century is quite sufficient, thank you very much!  I wish Europe well and hope it finds a sensible modus vivendi: I just know that the UK does not fit in and must stride steadily to the exit door.

Donald J. Trump in America is frankly beyond parody – astonishing reality overwhelming wild fantasy every day. This orange-coloured apparition, with the bizarre hair-do, living in ormolu palaces, plans to pass the running of his property empire to his go-go family thus avoiding the perils of nepotism. We will read all about them in tasteful OK! or Hello! magazine. His search for a credible administration has resulted in some highly partisan appointments and with Marine General James “Mad-Dog” Mattis (“It’s fun to shoot some people”) the new Defence Secretary, it is hard to be re-assured even by those who tell us that Mattis is that elusive exemplar “an intellectual general like Patton or Petraeus”. The blood will curdle when the Donald is handed the nuclear codes unless he has two beefy men in white coats beside him ready to cram him quickly into a strait-jacket at the moment critique.

Trump at full throttle

More than any Lord High Executioner, Donald Trump will have A Little List of those who offend him and his supporters. Included will be Washington-centred Republicans, celebrities who fawned over Hillary, anyone in the liberal media, atheists, Moslems, Mexicans, cheating Europeans and expansionary Chinese.

You can put them on the List, you can put them on the List

And they’ll none of them be missed, they’ll none of them be missed!

SMD

5.12.16

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2016