INSULT AND PREJUDICE

There was a shockingly intemperate attack in The Guardian a few days ago on Boris Johnson by the well-known journalist and war historian Max Hastings. Max’s piece saw no merit whatsoever in Boris and branded him as ”only interested in his own fame and gratification” and called him “a scoundrel or a mere rogue”. Max was Boris’ boss as editor of The Telegraph when Boris was a much-read Brussels correspondent. Max’s piece was quickly contradicted by Conrad Black, a controversial figure himself, who was the erstwhile proprietor of The Telegraph and of The Spectator which Boris had also edited. Conrad spoke well of Boris’ talents and his determination; he detailed Max’s disloyalty as an editor, but did not ignore his talents, although he characterized him as “a short-tempered snob” and concluded Max was “a coward and a flake.” It seemed obvious that Max’s original piece was infused by some deep personal bile, as it went way beyond the limits of normal controversial argument. All in all, an unsavoury and shameful spat.

Max Hastings

Conrad Black

  

       

Of course. controversial debates, be they political, literary or broadly cultural will easily generate exaggerated language and wild assertions. The temptation to “personalize” arguments should however be resisted. Attributing evil motives to those who express an opinion opposed to your own is not an argument – it is simply low name-calling – the proper course is to muster arguments to refute your antagonist. A recent example of this kind of name-calling was a violent Commons rant by the SNP leader there, pompous Ian Blackford, attacking all his opponents, which was so outrageous the Speaker had to intervene to shut him up. Blackford’s performance was an acute embarrassment to all fair-minded people, especially Scots.

Far more insidious is the desire of many in the “liberal elite” to outlaw speeches or participation by any person challenging their beliefs. It is almost incredible that purported “liberals” take this stance but the evidence is not to be denied. Typically a student society will invite an opponent of one of the cherished causes of the day to join a debate. A noisy synthetic furore will be stirred up and the “liberal bloc” will, parading its self-bestowed virtue, petition the vice-chancellor to cancel the visit. The vice-chancellor, inevitably a so-called “liberal” himself will unquestioningly sign the required fatwah. Free speech is the victim and such shenanigans undermine the meaning of a “university” at so many levels, that one despairs.

The fashionable causes that are routinely defended in this way include Immigrant rights, gender equality, Palestinian nationhood, nuclear disarmament and global warming. All of them involve the surrender or seizure of someone else’s interests and are open to quite legitimate criticism. American libertarians, often from the Right, are regularly silenced and figures on the UK Right suffer too. This includes curiously two very civilized debaters who choose their words carefully and are extremely polite in the face of the mob, namely Jordan Peterson and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Jordan Peterson

Jacob Rees-Mogg

No doubt we will continue to be assailed by “liberal” fanatics of all kinds. Many in the media have swallowed this mindset hook, line and sinker, notably The Guardian and the BBC, once, but alas no more, a beacon of the unvarnished truth.

 It is reasonable to have nightmares about a dystopian future, where Groupthink and Big Brother flourish and abject proles dutifully obey in the North Korean manner. Forewarned is forearmed however: get to know when facts and arguments are distorted and fake news disseminated. Above all, let us maintain the long-established standards of our civilized democracy.

SMD

26.06.19

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

USE YOUR HEAD

In Scotland there is a familiar expression, “Use your Heid!”, to command others to think before acting, to have an intelligent debate on the merits of a course of action rather than adopting a rashly gung-ho policy. It is good advice and those who take it are acting rationally and can progress further with a clear conscience. The Western world is led by US President Donald Trump, aged 73, who has just launched his campaign for re-election in 2020 and Britain is almost certain to see Boris Johnson, aged 55, appointed as Prime Minister next month. How much can we trust these two gentlemen to use their heads?

President Donald Trump

One hopes that Trump’s Scottish mother instilled some common sense into his son, but it has to be said this quality is not evident. He enjoyed a first-rate education yet he does not appear to be at all reflective. He has been brought up in high social circles but he is clumsily oafish in speech and manner. He has had much success in the property business, including some dire setbacks, and employs the tricks he learned there of bluff and bluster in his dealings with nations and seems to spurn the smoother, well established merits of diplomacy.

He has certainly shaken up American relations with allies and vowed fire and brimstone on her enemies but it is not clear how effective he has been. North Korea, Iran and Venezuela are unsubdued while Europe, China and Mexico are defensive and suspicious. At home the US prospers, whether because of, or despite, Trump policies, the roller-coaster of Trump’s boasts and tweeted exaggerations rolls on to our confusion and the personnel of his administration spin alarmingly through the revolving door.

Trump has a huge domestic following; to borrow a phrase from H L Mencken “He knows how to enchant the boobery”. An audience of toiling small-town yokels, hard-grafting farmers, the aspiring blue collared in rust-belt industries, those of an evangelical turn of mind, rise to Trump in a storm of ecstasy as he intones his mantra “Make America Great Again”. It is not our UK politics, but it plays well to a large US constituency. The Democrats are in feeble disarray; a Trump landslide beckons.

Trump has been described as a Narcissist after the beautiful Greek youth in myth who fell in love with his own image. Stephen Fry in his Mythos fills in the picture with this expert quote:

“Narcissistic personality disorder, much talked about these days, is marked by vanity, self-importance, a grandiose hunger for acclaim and applause, and above all with an obsession with self-image. The feelings of others are railroaded and stampeded, while such considerations as honesty, truthfulness or integrity are blithely disregarded. Bragging, boasting and delusional exaggeration are common signs. Criticism or belittlement is intolerable and can provoke aggressive and explosively strange behaviours”

This is Trump to a T. One can grasp at straws – his apparent moderation on attacks on Iran, maybe a willingness to compromise with Mexico. Surely the world will shudder but repeat in hope – “Donald, use your Heid!” and pray that, should Donald finally go berserk, his entourage has his strait-jacket close to hand.

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Britain has another psychologically interesting leader in waiting. Born in New York into the purple of the UK moneyed elite, Boris excelled at Eton and Balliol, Oxford. An MP since 2002, Boris Johnson was Mayor of London 2008-16 and later Foreign Secretary for 2 years under Theresa May. He led with Michael Gove the 2016 campaign supporting Brexit which narrowly won the referendum. He writes extensively as a journalist and has edited The Spectator. He is a witty and talented fellow.

Unpredictable Boris Johnson

But Boris is a difficult person to read. He seems to be surrounded by family and sibling rivalry. His paternal great-grandfather was Kemal Ali, an Ottoman Muslim liberal poet who married into the English upper class, his wife dying in childbirth, then he returned to the crumbling Porte to be briefly Minister of the Interior in 1919 before being kidnapped and then brutally lynched by a republican mob in the convulsions of 1922. His father Stanley is a writer, academic and former Europhile MEP while his sister Rachel is a busy journalist and Liberal Democrat. His brother Jo was a protégé of David Cameron and is a Tory MP of Remainer views.

The merits of Boris are that, on his day, he can be a highly persuasive speaker and he strikes a chord with the English electorate. He is a much more effective vote-catcher than any other Tory as his campaigns for the London mayoralty and for Brexit demonstrated. He brings Fire to his causes in a Promethean fashion and would be a priceless leader at a Tory general election at an appropriate time.

His eye for detail is questioned though as London Mayor he delegated effectively. He needs to build bridges with his Tory rivals Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove and use them in the inner counsels of his administration.

On the debit side, Boris is cordially loathed by the London glitterati, literati and cognoscenti. They are generally fanatical Remainers and many are Wreckers, determined to frustrate the government and people at every turn. Boris’ constituency is in a minority in London, but embraces all those outside the metropolis who feel under-valued or unheard – this is a multitude.

Boris has toffish ways; he has not shaken off “That ineffable air of effortless superiority which so distinguishes a Balliol man” and this jars with many, especially chip-on-the-shoulder Scots! He has a roving eye for the ladies, is twice married and divorced and has had various liaisons. His present squeeze is Carrie Symonds, a Conservative PR lady and a noisy quarrel at their house 2 days ago ended up with the police being called, seized on by the Leftie Guardian newspaper and arch-Wrecker Tory Dominic Grieve MP sniffing about “character being a factor in the Leadership race”. These are negatives Boris must avoid.

The prize of the Tory Leadership is well within his grasp. Boris, zip up, behave and Use your Heid!

SMD

22.06.19

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019

A CHANGE OF SCENE

I have embarked on a 2-month holiday to glorious Greece, where the sun shines reliably and my UK obsession with Brexit can be at least tempered if not entirely eliminated. Greece has her own general election on 7 July likely to bring the curtain down on the 4-year leftie SYRIZA experiment and restore a conservative government under New Democracy leader Kyriakos (“Koulis” to his enemies) Mitsotakis. He is the relatively inexperienced champion of the Mitsotakis/Bakoyannis dynasty – a late father, Konstantinos, Prime Minister, a sister, Dora, ex-Foreign Minister, a nephew, Costas, newly Mayor of Athens. One can only hope the bad old days of serial corruption do not return to blight Greece’s slow recovery……….the long-suffering Greeks deserve much better.

The senior Mitsotakis clan, the late Konstantinos, Kyriakos and Dora

                                     

                               

We flew to Greece by Swiss via Zurich. Swiss is the successor to Swissair which stumbled at the financial crisis and is now a subsidiary of Lufthansa. This is the third time we have used them and our pampered business class journey was excellent and comfortable. It is always striking to me how democratically inclusive European travel is, Brits mixing easily with Germans, French, Swiss, Greeks plus many Americans, Australians and Arabs. We are part of this – but the Swiss, closer cousins than we are to the French and Germans, prosper happily outside the institutions of the EC, as we can too.

Monday was one of the many religious holidays (Pentecost) in Greece, this time celebrating The Holy Spirit. Oddly, only intellectually stretching businesses are closed, banks, lawyers, clinics and so on while supermarkets and “ordinary” shops were open. Anyway, the streets were deserted as most citizens, both spiritual and prosaic, made a bee-line for the beach. Sensible fellows!

One of the joys of holidaying is that you read more than usual. Lately I have been buying popular best sellers, thrillers and so on, to soften the austerity of my usual fare, histories and biographies. In anticipation of Greece, I have almost finished erudite Stephen Fry’s Mythos, a sprightly canter through Greek myth. I have taken to reading Georges Simenon’s Maigret stories, a vast oeuvre but individually mercifully short, perfect for my feeble attention-span. To edify and instruct, I will read 12 Rules for Life by the Canadian savant Jordan Petersen, who seems to have many admirers. I doubt if I will be an easy convert: I recall trying to read William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life about 55 years ago and my failure to answer the Call is evident to all my friends! After all this, I will read Max Hastings’ tome Vietnam, my sort of book, but inevitably a melancholy and cautionary tale – I hope Donald Trump reads it in case intervention in Iran or Syria tempts him.

The prolific Belgian Georges Simenon

        

As I write, we are having a violent thunder-storm, with intense rain and hail-stones This is not the stereo-typical June day in Athens and I feel sorry for the swim-suit clad tourists who will be bothered and bewildered and have to console themselves with ouzo and hastily-cooked kebabs by the chilly coast. I am sure it will improve soon. I have my favourite sea-side haunts too and I hope to get to matchless Delphi as well as a visit to our cherished island of Samos.

Tonight, my thoughts will be on the Tory leadership race and the elimination process. I do hope Rory Stewart falls by the wayside soon. He no doubt has many merits but he is a Remainer through and through and his political future, if he has one, is in a post-Brexit UK, probably led by Boris Johnson. Enough said.

SMD

18.06.19

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019