FORGIVE AND BUILD ANEW

The United Kingdom has been far from united over the last 3 years. The Referendum and the Brexit debates in Parliament have created deep divisions in our society; families have been split, generations have been estranged and friendships endangered. The substantial Conservative victory in the December 2019 general election has cleared the way politically and the new Parliament will vote for withdrawal from the EU by 31 January 2020. This will end the Brexit controversy and set the stage for a new Britain - an important element in this is rebuilding damaged relationships at home.

The Palace of Westminster

As an avid Leaver and Brexiteer, I acknowledge that it is easier for me and my kind to extend the hand of reconciliation as we have ultimately prevailed and are now tasting victory. Our quest for sovereignty, for institutional and economic freedom, and for delivering the expressed will of the people has been met, although important bargaining on the precise form of continued trade with the EU lies before us. A contrary bitter taste remains in the mouths of the Remainers which will take many months to erase. I have heard eloquent regrets of the damage done to the City in capital terms by the flight to the EU of important parts of overseas banks previously based in London; similarly, many friends have been upset by the weakening of links with a Europe they cherish. For sure Britain will not be unscathed by Brexit but I am sure the positives will outweigh the negatives and a worthy cause for all Britons is to work together to deliver those benefits and minimize those costs.

Our mutual forgiveness should embrace all statements made or arguments deployed which ignored or overstated the factual evidence. Such delinquencies are common-place in the heat of controversy. Insults were traded, which will be regretted on reflection, and Project Fear saw both sides distort statistics – we will soon see who was the greater sinner – but that chapter is closed and we can move on. Candidly, the milk of human kindness flows only so far and we are well rid of Jeremy Corbyn and his coterie, soon enough to be consigned to the dustbin of history. Few regret the disappearance of Speaker Bercow, whose bias debased his office and who, thank heaven, receives no honour at the New Year. Privileged undemocratic figures like MP Dominic Grieve and Lady Hale of the obstructionist Supreme Court are off the stage while blessed retirement has embraced over-rated Ken Clarke. I would welcome a substantial official honour for Nigel Farage, a doughty champion of Brexit, whose decisions have much helped Boris, but he may have to wait.

To protect our well-established two-party system, Labour needs much more moderate leadership to attract voters. These moderates exist and will have to climb out of their silent bunker; a re-alignment on the Left to include the LibDems and Greens is always possible. The Fixed Term Parliament Act needs to be reconsidered as it can, we know, immobilise government. The simple machinery of government has to be oiled – at least we now have a sensible Speaker in Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and the 2013 boundary changes, shamefully shelved by the Coalition in deference to the LibDems, should be enacted, reducing seats from 650 to 600 and evening out constituency sizes.

The Conservative government will have to deliver on its promises to fully fund the NHS, the social care system and to break the circle of deprivation which clouds the lives and prospects of the disadvantaged. It is a huge, but urgent challenge. A focus on the neglected parts of our country is sure to discover real local talent; revive their spirit and large areas can benefit. Longer term educational standards at schools and universities can be made more relevant and more useful to the demands of our modern world.

The future of the Union itself is being put to the test. Northern Ireland’s devolved constitution is not working with no Assembly at Stormont. The Orange and Green sects cannot agree on cooperation, with the UK’s many enemies in the Republic trying to wreak havoc while the UK is preoccupied with the EU. Brussels itself has fomented disunity in Ireland to bolster its cause. Post-Brexit the UK will want to ease border trade tensions, try to reconcile the factions and get government working again, not budging on the Unionist principle. The DUP will have to do more than proclaim a flat “No surrender” but also reach out to Catholic Ireland.

A more deadly threat to the Union comes from the SNP. Well established in Scottish government for 10 years, the SNP is obsessed with the goal of seceding from the Union. The SNP has failed to explain how its huge fiscal deficit can be bridged in an independence scenario, what its currency plans are and what it has to do to re-enter the EU. Tactfully Boris will have to steer Scottish opinion back to reality. I do not believe a majority exists for Scottish independence but nationalism is a powerful ideology and the UK government will need all its wit and determination to mobilise unionism and win this vital battle.

So, the nation faces many challenges, yet the proud spirit in this land is optimistic. We have entered times of great opportunity and we commend this great moment by selectively borrowing the positive inspirations of Ecclesiastes 3;

To everything there is a season:

A Time to be born, A Time to plant

A Time to heal, A Time to build up

A Time to laugh, A Time to dance

A Time to embrace, A Time to gain

A Time to keep, A Time to speak

A Time to love, and A Time of Peace.

SMD

29.12.19

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

BORIS HITS THE JACKPOT

Glory, Glory Hallelujah! The Conservatives have won the UK general election with a majority of 80 and the government should be able easily to pass the required legislation and withdraw from the European Union by 31 January 2020. This is an astonishing victory for Boris Johnson who attracted massive support from working-class voters in the Midlands, Wales and the North of England to add to the traditional Tory heartlands in Southern England. The political landscape has amazingly been transformed beyond all recognition.

Boris celebrates a famous victory at No 10

The election campaign itself was curiously uninspiring – the issues were “discussed” in the context of mindless slogans – “Get Brexit done” or “For the Many not the Few”. Boris seems to have been advised to keep a low and cautious profile, checking his natural ebullience and his TV appearances were few and far between. Jeremy Corbyn, Islington’s representative from Agitprop, spouted Leftie nonsense, usually unchallenged by the overwhelmingly anti-Tory media. Jo Swinson of the LibDems tried to make us believe she was in close contention for the office of Prime Minister. Noisy groups snapped at Boris’ heels disparaging Brexit. North of the border, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland kept up a steady Anglophobic bile, specifically directed at Boris.

The campaign was thus thoroughly depressing and I confess that in the dark watches of the night I sometimes could not dispel demonic visions of a future Corbynista “re-education camp” or of being trapped in a lift with arch-Remainers John Bercow, Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry, to awake mercifully in a cold sweat.

But my nocturnal panic was wholly unnecessary. Jeremy (and Jo) turned off the electorate big-time. Labour seats which had stayed loyal to that cause since the days of Clem Attlee and even Ramsay Macdonald dropped to the Tories in droves – the likes of Bassetlaw, Stoke, Redcar, Wrexham and Bolsover. The voters were indignant that their referendum choice of Leave had been ignored for 3 years by the London Establishment and by arrogant Labour, led by a repellent Trotskyite clique. A revolution was taking place – Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive – and it was coming from ordinary patriotic Britons, not from the radical Left.

Of course, Boris’ government faces formidable challenges. After the formal mechanics of Brexit, the UK needs to agree a comprehensive trade deal with the EU – but both sides accept they have a mutual interest in a sensible outcome. We will want to attract inward investment on a large scale, paralysed during the Brexit wrangles, so we need always to be friendly to lawful business. Reunifying our country will involve high public spending on deprived areas – already promised. We will want to strengthen links with friendly allies outside the EU. The position of Scotland, currently run by Independence-obsessed yet well-entrenched Nicola Sturgeon, needs tact and statecraft to return my native country to the Unionist fold. I have every confidence that liberally-minded Boris can grasp all these nettles.

The enemies of promise have been vanquished. Corbyn will soon be dumped but Labour may never recover from this debacle. Jo Swinson has already lost her seat and resigned her leadership, entirely self-inflicted wounds after the LibDems sought to cancel Brexit. The Tory Remainers all failed to be re-elected. Truly we have been delivered from Evil.

Rejoice, Rejoice!

SMD

14.12.19

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

GOOD SPORTS

My excellent 1950s public school in Edinburgh was rather too enthusiastic about rugby in my time (I suppose it now teaches the French horn, interracial studies and plays a gender-inclusive version of lacrosse) and one of the joys of then going up to Oxford was the revelation that playing games was no longer mandatory nor even expected. No more wearisome scrums, no more communal showers and no more mud-bespattered hair – ah bliss! I was not some shrinking nerd but I soon enough concentrated on darts and shove-ha’penny, agreeable indoor recreations well sheltered from the North Wind and usually accompanied by a convivial pint or three of ale.

I wonder how our beloved leaders exercise when they are not haranguing the luckless electorate. We know that Boris rides a bike, a quasi-suicidal activity in central London, but I have to say his generous embonpoint probably prevents him from enjoying many streamlining benefits; the comfort of his ministerial Jag more becomes him. Michael Gove is a jogger and is often caught gasping like a gaffed salmon as he finally returns to the haven of his front door. What Jacob Rees-Mogg gets up to I can only speculate – I see him practising a spidery entrechat at the barre – whatever, his equable temper is its own reward.

Boris on his bike

Gove running for office

Jeremy Corbyn is not a team player and is, or certainly was, a keen cyclist too. In the 1960s he was to be encountered, all knobbly-knee’d and bicycle-clipped, touring the empty roads of East Germany admiring Ulbricht’s workers’ paradise. Unaccountably those workers were continually trying to escape to the West – not a journey contemplated in Jeremy’s Marxist handbook. Jo Swinson is a sociable type probably into synchronized swimming – her entire party can join her - while Nicola Sturgeon perhaps favours haggis-hurling, as long as she can blame England for any of her shortcomings.

Jeremy mounts his (red) bike

Widening the net, I suppose golf is a typical exercise for the laid-back leaders of men. Its image as a sport is besieged at present as its most ardent protagonist is none other than President Donald Trump. Is The Donald entirely to be trusted, will his conduct of foreign policy by tweet become the new norm and will impeachment proceedings enliven 2020? He will need the best shots in his locker to dodge these difficulties and achieve re-election next November, but we have seen this peculiar phoenix rise from the ashes several times already.

Trump drives on regardless

    

Closer to home, another golfer with a precarious grip on reality is our Prince Andrew, clouded and eclipsed by sordid scandal and perhaps to be exiled forever from the splendours of Windsor and Buck House. He has made a complete Horlicks of his position and deeply embarrassed our revered Queen.

Andrew stuck in the rough for good

The man in the news as I write is Emmanuel Macron quarrelling with Trump, Brussels and now beset by so-called ouvriers complaining about their amazingly generous, but clearly unaffordable, state- underwritten pension schemes. Mind you, if I were an ouvrier I would certainly defend these valuable “rights” – I am probably just sick with envy as I contemplate the UK’s feeble state pension. I do not believe Macron participates in any sport but I see this proud stony-faced figure drawn in a lavish carriage with liveried outriders, waving a gloved and bejewelled hand at a despised mob of Jacobins and gilets jaunes. Apparently even his cherished wife Brigitte finds Macron “arrogant” – quite an accolade from a people noted for their arrogance from Louis XIV through Napoleon to Charles de Gaulle.

Brigitte and "arrogant" Emmanuel Macron

                                 

My final sad sportsman is Sir John Major, successor to Thatcher and hitherto well-regarded retired Premier. The convention is that ex-Prime Ministers avoid partisan politics but yesterday Major advised the electors to support Tory Remain rebels, most of whom have been expelled from the Party he once led. This disloyalty sticks in the craw and while Major loved cricket in his idyllic (and disappeared) Huntingdonshire, I hope he is tied in further knots by an unplayable googly or that the ghost of splendid Bob Willis shatters his wicket with a jet-powered Yorker.

SMD

07.12.19

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

ROLE MODELS

With the great and the good strutting their stuff, with partisan passions aflame and with the venal media reporting and exaggerating every little incident, you would have thought an election would stimulate the oratorical talents of every aspiring soap-box Gladstone and attract inspiring world-views from every village tin-pot Napoleon. Yet certainly my pulses are resolutely un-quickened and my heart beats at its usual torpid pace. The UK elections have yet to catch light; ordinary people have had a bucketful of politics, the faces are too familiar and the arguments cannot bear endless repetition. The electorate wants the poll to happen as soon as possible, for the urgent key decisions to be made and then to be left in peace for at least 5 years.

The central role in the election is held by the party leaders – they must give heart to their foot-soldiers and confound their enemies in front of admiring audiences. Such politicians are thin on the ground. Tory Boris is instantly recognizable and is generally quite liked, but I await a rousing speech from him – he has been ultra-cautious, if not quite as boring as the unlamented Theresa. Harrumphing about the merits of Brexit is fine for the faithful but he has to move minds hitherto closed or indifferent. We have only seen plonk ordinaire Boris so far – we crave for vintage bubbling Boris to pop our corks! A decisive win is within his grasp – go get it Boris!

Boris Johnson on the cusp of victory

At least he is a world better than Jeremy Corbyn, who embarrasses even his own Labour members. Posterity may well wonder what possessed Labour to vote him in as Leader in the first place and then to keep him when his inadequacies were laid bare. Never more than a street-corner agitator, he holds beliefs of such extreme idiocy that even Tony Benn would spin in his grave. Champion of everything anti-British, this rabid admirer of Ulbricht’s old East Germany is anti-American, anti-NATO, anti-EU (but keep that quiet!) anti-business, anti-Semitic and pro-CND, pro-Arab terrorist, pro-IRA, pro-nationalisation, pro-absurdly high government spending. He and his cronies, John McDonnell, Seumas Milne and Diane Abbott dream about the Marxist/Stalinist policy of destroying the gainfully employed majority by confiscating their wealth and distributing it to the poorest in our society. Sane Labour would never endorse such policies, but do not even wait to see: Corbyn is an Orwellian nightmare, unfit for high office and is beyond the pale of democratic politics.

Red Ideologue, Jeremy Corbyn

The Liberal Democrats made Jo Swinson their Leader in 2019. She is a Scot and leads a party of 21 members, swollen from an original 12 by oddball defections from both major parties. Jo was not well-known before becoming leader but she has been in Parliament since 2005. She talks endlessly about many transient LibDem causes not least the imbalance between men and women in top jobs in all spheres. She is articulate and enthusiastic but it is all to no avail. Her party’s USP is that it is the only main party backing Remain, viewed as a dismal, negative and antiquated prospect by most of the electorate. She will have to fight hard to retain any of her seats and I predict a LibDem disaster. Jo, I know it is ungallant to say this, but you must also do something to sort out those un-telegenic front teeth. No doubt in some constituencies she will poll quite well, but the voting system marginalizes third parties and the LibDems will be irrelevant in 2019.

Jo Swinson, LibDem cheerleader

Finally, we have the harridan from the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon. She has been First Minister of Scotland since 2014, succeeding Alex Salmond after the SNP-backed referendum on independence failed. She has administered Scotland reasonably sensibly although her country’s fiscal deficit continues to grow, its industries are sluggish and is kept solvent by generous Westminster subsidies. Brexit has given the SNP an opportunity to reopen the independence debate, a cause well-supported by about 25% of Scots these days but one which obsesses Sturgeon, who can talk of little else. The 2017 election showed a decline in SNP support and a Conservative revival. Despite the SNP’s trumpetings, I doubt if the SNP will make a clean sweep and I believe the Conservatives may hold on to its seats. There may be other surprises from Labour too as Scotland was its historic stronghold. The SNP fantasies about Scotland staying in Europe underline its feeble grip on reality. To voters outside Scotland, Sturgeon is a pain in the neck, spouting Anglophobia and personal hostility to Boris. Her glib chip-on-the-shoulder nationalism is deeply unattractive to many Scots too.

Nicola Sturgeon, hater of the Union

 So, our 4 political leaders are a rum lot and we cannot find a Cromwell, a Pitt a Churchill or a Thatcher between them. As a supporter of Brexit, I naturally gravitate towards Boris. I am now in Greece enjoying the autumnal pleasures of Athens and Salonika and only return on 10 December just on the eve of polling. Happily, I have already cast my postal vote in the Conservative cause and humbly suggest that my readers do the same.

SMD

28.11.19

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

BRITISHNESS

This weekend’s Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall and the Ceremony of Remembrance at the Cenotaph cannot fail to move millions of Britons, even this year - 101 years since the end of WW1 and 74 years since the end of WW2. The days of conscript armies have long gone but professional British forces have fought and died for us in, for example. the Falklands, Ulster, Iraq and Afghanistan much more recently. Many of the grievously wounded are with us still and all honour to them and to other sufferers and mourners.

The veterans at the Cenotaph 2019

       

These ceremonies are carried out with pride, aplomb and solemnity. The music at the Cenotaph hardly changes but is always deeply evocative – Rule Britannia, the Minstrel Boy, Dido’s Lament, The Flowers of the Forest et al touch deep emotions and all generations share them. It is not a moment for political point-scoring – how glad we were that Jeremy Corbyn conducted himself with dignity, so unlike the shaming distracted look and donkey-jacket scruffiness of Michael Foot a generation ago.

These occasions help define what is meant by “Britishness”, a quality enjoyed by both Leavers and Remainers – epithets which hopefully will lose meaning after the December 12 UK general election. There are extremes on both sides – the tub-thumping, flag-waving bigot on the Right and the over- populated Left of professional disparagers of their own country and admirers of the worst in others, be they IRA, Hamas, ISIL or Hezbollah. Somewhere on the margin are the various Nationalists, ever consumed with bile against an England they willfully fail to understand or cherish.

Away from those extremes is a broad middle Britain, united in love and respect for their country.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptre’d isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise…

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea …

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

I know this is hackneyed and the stuff of clichés but it idealises something almost all Britons feel, the uniqueness of their native land (including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

Firstly, we love the physical features of our country, the glorious countryside and endless coast – matchless Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, Grampian Mountains, Hebrides, South Downs, Cotswolds, Thames Valley, Devon and Cornwall, Snowdonia and Co. Down.

Wordsworth's Grasmere in the Lake District

Then we love our great cities like London, Leeds and Glasgow throbbing dynamically even if beset by the challenges of our society. The smaller towns delight too, Stamford, Burford, Durham and Perth, not to mention fun places like Brighton or Blackpool.

Yet what defines Britishness to a greater degree is a certain mode of life – an innate geniality, a desire to “get on” with neighbours, a protective attitude to private space, a belief in the merits of self-sufficiency and, if necessary, a powerful line in bloody-mindedness. These habits are supplemented by familiar symbols – double-decker buses, draught bitter at the pub, pillar boxes, Marmite, beloved pets and the ubiquitous football and cricket bat.

Pride in our country is immensely fortified by knowledge of our history and by the rich poetic and literary culture accompanying it, only rivalled by that of the French. That history encompasses the Roman invasion, Boudicca, the Anglo-Saxon influx, King Alfred, the Norman Conquest, the 100-years War, Magna Carta, Bannockburn, the Reformation, Civil War, Cromwell, The Union of the Crowns and Parliaments, the Glorious Revolution, the supremacy of Parliament, the foundation of Empire, the struggle with Napoleon, Industrial Revolution and Victorian prosperity. The agonies of two World Wars and eventual victory ushered in hard times, economic recovery, the welfare state and the seminal vote to leave the European Union.

Poets from Chaucer to Shakespeare have sung of this world. The poetic diction of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Burns, Shelley, Byron and Keats has resounded through all corners of the nation. The British independent spirit was most confidently proclaimed by Kipling and its apartness avowed by Philip Larkin who observed “Poetry and Sovereignty are very primitive things. I like to think of their being united in this way in England”.

This British nation is not prepared to go down the road of domination by Europe. We will run our own nation in our own way, while maintaining good relations with Europe and many other nations. The general election will, I believe, result in a firm majority supporting Boris’ deal on Brexit and result in a sensible agreement with Brussels. The outside world beckons and we will seize all opportunities we can.

Advance, Britannia Fair!

Lord Byron's Dark Lochnagar in Highland Deeside

SMD

12.11.2019

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

ELECTION TIME

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, it is said, and Thursday 12 December is the make-or-break moment for Boris when he needs to win an overall Tory majority, deliver Brexit and lead the country to firm and effective government. He is almost there but a huge effort must be put into that One Last Heave!

The Hope of the Nation

              

Can you imagine the joy of life without head-swollen John Bercow, disloyal Dominic Grieve, venomous Amber Rudd or two-faced Philip Hammond? A majority would allow Boris to side-line the stiff-necked DUP, forget about the snarling Anglophobic SNP and best of all put the skids under Jeremy Corbyn’s fanatically Marxist Labour rabble. The Lib-Dems can be safely buried without trace.

Winning with an overall majority is a difficult prize to win. The feeble ministry of Theresa May did much damage to the Tory cause and Boris’ Brexit deal is far from perfect, but it is bearable. The less compromising Tory Leavers are unhappy and Farage’s Brexit Party can split the Tory vote. Boris has to soothe and flatter this group.

The British populace in general is fed up with politics and with voting. The Tories need a good turnout – yet many have postal votes. The Tories have to be media-friendly and media-smart. Any small slip will be magnified and distorted. Although the first political priority is Brexit, many in the electorate want to hear no more of it – just seeking a resolution.

The Tory Manifesto must be an inspiring and motivating document. In no particular order, I suggest promises and policies in these areas.

-          Invest substantially in the NHS. Waiting times are absurd (I was yesterday offered a routine appointment with my GP in 7 week’s time!). Staff shortages must be filled.

-          Reward excellence in the education sector and make sure equality of opportunity is provided for the next generation.

-          Review the effectiveness of universities and re-organise as necessary.

-          Stimulate industry and commerce with tax cuts and global trade deals.

-          Welcome warmly all immigrants passing the new points system.

-          Continue to develop a non-discriminatory society.

-          Complete a generous trade deal with the EU.

-          Build up our friendship with NATO and Australasian partners.

-          Increase the attractions of living outside London.

-          Stimulate housebuilding at high standards.

We are led by dreams and I can only hope Boris can pull off an election victory enabling him to fulfil many of the nation’s dreams. All strength to his elbow!

SMD

31.10.19

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

ENCROACHMENT

We all believe we have certain inalienable rights and, although no man is an island, we do try to live in our own independent “bubble”. Similarly, we believe that our nation lives by certain rules and values which it is our duty to uphold, even if that is inconvenient or even painful. Both our private and national rights are currently under siege in a process I call “encroachment” – intrusion upon our rights and a gradual but aggressive advance beyond usual or acceptable limits. This process seems to be accelerating and needs to be halted in its tracks.

As regards private rights, we most basically seek personal security from being assaulted or murdered in our beds. Mr. Putin’s lackeys, who attempted 2 murders and carelessly perpetrated another with their 2018 Novichok poison attack in Salisbury have not been called to account. They escaped the UK police and have no doubt returned as heroes to Unit 29155, the GRU assassination squad, let loose unrestrained in Europe. Diplomatic sanctions against Russia have been predictably ineffective.

 A less exotic threat is the knife, wielded by gangs of feral youths, especially in London, clocking up 110 violent deaths so far this year (132 in all of 2018). The Mayor and the Metropolitan Police do not seem to have an answer. Compare this with Sir Percy Sillitoe, who as Chief Constable of Glasgow in the 1930s, energetically eliminated the sectarian razor gangs which had been terrorizing that city. The solution to this alarming problem requires civic firmness and committed leadership, both qualities sadly absent from our protectors.

2 Russian Agents, now safe in Moscow

Knives confiscated in London

The Police is normally a well-respected institution but what are we to make of Operation Midland, an enquiry into an alleged paedophile ring of VIP perverts? The Police believed the uncorroborated testimony of one Carl Beech, a far from impressive character and subsequently proved to be a fantasist. An independent report stated that the Police had made few enquiries about Beech, misled judges about evidence in support of warrants and generally behaved in a naïve and incompetent fashion. Scotland Yard duly made its ritual apology but Field-Marshal Bramall, erstwhile Home Secretary Leon Brittan and Tory MP Harvey Proctor had been dragged down into the mire by these false accusations. No disciplinary actions are to be taken: why not?

The sad suspicion is that the Police are so obsessed with being “politically correct” that they have lost their common sense and, in the process, lose sight of their first duty of protecting the public. A “politically correct” legal Establishment covers and protects them.

Fantasist Carl Beech (got 18 years jail)

Met Chief Cressida Dick (made a Dame)

i         

  

             

The Establishment routinely sucks the life-blood from the taxpaying people. The Royal family command much respect but the high life and low company of arrogant Prince Andrew damage the monarchy, not to mention his ghastly “Fergie” and their idle daughters. Once-popular Prince Harry seems to have a tin ear when it comes to building public trust. He and Meghan face the choice of joining café society, with all its perils and ephemeral pleasures, or of battening down to a life of public duty, with its longueurs but substantial privileges.

Tinsel Town Duo

Scandal and Embarrassment

 

Disappointment with elevated personalities seeps down to lesser beings. John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, is almost beyond parody. Once a bantam-cock Tory, he has entirely abandoned the neutrality required by his famous Office and instead has conducted an egotistical vendetta against government policy and interpreted procedures in a partisan fashion. He has substantially diminished the prestige of the Speaker, perhaps irreparably. A much-loved institution has been damaged by his encroachments.

Descending further, I hear echoes of the 2009 MPs expenses scandal with the SNP Lady Provost of Glasgow, Eva Bolander, claiming on expenses 23 pairs of shoes, 6 jackets, 5 coats and an expensive hat. The cost of £8k does not play well in deprived areas of Scotland – no illegality is alleged but yet again our representatives show a contempt for their constituents.

Partisan Mr Speaker Bercow

Carefree Glasgow Provost Eva Bolander

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guards themselves?) is the age-old question. One answer is the Supreme Court, who could be relied upon to protect the conventions and usages of our unwritten constitution. No longer, alas, as its partisan ruling against Boris’ proroguing of Parliament proved. I was much puzzled by this episode until a good friend pointed out to me the striking resemblance of Lady Hale, President of the Court to non-other-than Mrs Dutt-Pauker from the old Telegraph Peter Simple column. You will recall that Mrs Dutt-Pauker was the immensely rich Hampstead Socialist intellectual, admirer of Stalin, embracer of every “liberal” cause, rumoured lover of Walter Ulbricht of East Germany, retaining the services of the Maoist Albanian au pair Gjoq. Not at all ideologically like Lady Hale, of course, but I do imagine Lady Hale feels maternal empathy for strident Greta Thunberg, the fanatical carbon footprint campaigner who was unaccountably not awarded a Nobel Prize by that august Swedish/Norwegian body.

Lady Hale, with her spider brooch

Snarling Greta Thunberg

 Am I too easily shocked and alarmed by the failures of responsibility and by the idiocies of supposedly well-informed people? Why were the breaches in the rules evident from Neil Woodford’s fund management tolerated by the FCA? Millions of pounds of investors’ funds are at stake. Why did the management of Thomas Cook ignore advice, pocket huge salary packages and ruin thousands of hard-won holidays for their customers? Where were the auditors, ABTA or the CAA? Why are daily internet and telephone scams unpoliced by the staggeringly rich social media companies?

The days of deference towards and trust in the good intentions of many institutions have withered on the vine.

SMD

13.10.19.

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2019