A NINE-YEAR LANDMARK

In July 2011, almost 9 years ago, I launched this blog and I have just passed an important landmark in my eyes by attaining 100,000 “pageviews”, that is, hits by readers. May I express my heart-felt thanks to my diverse readers from all over the world - they range from Japan to Peru with my largest readership being in the United States, and naturally in the UK or places like Canada and Australasia. Outside the anglophone world, my keenest followers are in Russia, Greece and France. These figures exclude members of my Readers Group who get individual copies hot off the press by email.

I must thank primarily my extended family members, notably my three sons, Eddy, Rob and Alan, for their often critical but kindly support but I also want to mention particular individuals: Andrew D who  spurred me into action, Peter S and Rod R who added their encouraging comments to almost every post, Margaret D, Jonathan M, Dick G, Paul G and Chris McC who contributed their angles on many subjects and even David N whose Remainer muse burnt with a fiery, if intelligent, intensity. In fact, politics have not been my most popular subject – my pieces on Rococo architecture lead the field by many lengths followed by pieces on English cathedrals and their connections. In any event, a big Thank You to you all!

A Rococo room in the Nymphenburg Palace, Munich

How much has changed since 2011 or is it plus ça change, plus, c’est la même chose? There were awful earthquakes and a tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 killing 23,000, but recently we have seen volcanic eruptions in New Zealand, hurricanes in the USA and biblical floods in little old Britain. The US bumped off Osama bin Laden in 2011 and another mortal enemy General Suleimani in 2020. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in the Arab Spring of 2011 only to die, disgraced but free, in his bed last week. Libya’s Gaddafi was not so lucky in 2011. The Moslem world, with its appalling civil war in Syria and anarchy elsewhere, remains in constant turmoil 9 years later.

In the UK much has changed in 9 years. The Royal Family soap-opera grinds on remorselessly. For 5 years a fragile coalition of Conservatives and LibDems pottered about amiably, not achieving much, but recovering joylessly from the 2008 Financial crises. It was led by David Cameron and Nick Clegg – remember them? – both have now retired (hurt) from the Westminster game. A general election in 2015 gave Cameron a working majority and buried the LibDems.

          The forgotten duo, Clegg and Cameron

Cameron, whom it was hard actively to dislike, kept the extreme SNP at bay by defending the status quo in Scotland with a rather slim 55/45 referendum majority in 2014. The Nationalist bubble remains inflated and is yet to be comprehensively pricked.

An over-confident Cameron, a tad too fond of referenda, allowed one on EU membership to proceed and was horrified when the electorate voted 52% to 48% to leave in June 2016. Not just Cameron, but a tidy majority of MPs, peers and the bien-pensant Establishment of civil servants, professionals and academics, with a venal media, were of like mind. Together they fought a furious campaign to overturn and frustrate the democratic verdict. They had however misread the determination of the Leavers, represented strongly in provincial England and by those jealous of the UK’s hard-won historic sovereignty. While the luckless Theresa May was paralysed by the multi-faceted opposition, Boris Johnson succeeded her, then called and won a resounding election victory in December 2019. A Withdrawal Agreement taking the UK out of the EU was signed by all parties by 31 January 2020. A nightmare was over and the divisions will slowly heal. Let’s hope for vigorous government resolving the trade pact with the EU, airport expansion, infrastructure priorities, education and health improvements. Boris and his team can do it!

Theresa May fails

Boris Johnson on course for triumph

                                               

I am less confident of events across the Pond. The thoughtful, smooth but indecisive Barack Obama ended his 8-year presidency in 2017, to be succeeded by the wildly unpredictable Donald Trump. Trump is a phenomenon, sadly a dangerous, reckless and ignorant phenomenon. A stranger to US Congressional politics, to the ways of government and to the traditions of his great office, Trump makes his policy announcements on Twitter and believes any political figure he cannot bully he can bribe or blackmail, as if they were property spivs like himself. He has thrown US institutions and his foreign alliances into disarray, but his populist oratory keeps his retrogressive supporters happy, making a second term, God help us, quite likely. The Democrats have a motley selection of contenders, headed by aged socialist Bernie Sanders, none of whom has the remotest chance of beating Trump.

Trump sounds off

Tyson Fury on top of the world

                                                     

But we Brits, battered today by Storm Jorge, threatened with major disruption by the dreaded coronavirus – why does it take much-vaunted medical science one whole year to produce a vaccine? - have the consolation of having produced a rival to Trump. Our blowhard bruiser is heroic Tyson Fury, otherwise known as The Gypsy King, a very rough diamond indeed, who boxed like an angel to stop slugger Deonte Wilder a week ago to win the WBC world heavyweight crown. He is 6ft 9in, of Irish traveller origin, but brought up in Manchester. He thankfully does not have his finger on the nuclear trigger but is as flamboyant as they come, often wrapped up in a Union Jack. Well played. Tyson!

Happy Leap Day to you all!

SMD

29.02.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020