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