CAST ADRIFT

I and many others in the UK live a relatively privileged life (and long may it continue!) but another world increasingly encroaches, inhabited by the angry and the envious, the violent and the irrational, the moronic and the unscrupulous. Sadly, our leaders are failing to defend us against such elements and many of us must feel almost abandoned, as we bob about on today’s storm-tossed seas.

Expansionist Xi Jinping

KGB Hero Vladimir Putin

                                                               

The most sinister of our international enemies are Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi Jinping. Putin’s men poisoned an opposition leader a day or two ago, drop barrel bombs on Syrian civilians and encourage the rash adventures of Erdogan’s Turkey:  how is it possible to negotiate with leaders who stoop so low?  Xi wishes to snuff out the precarious freedoms of once-British Hong Kong, ruthlessly persecutes the minority Uighurs, seeks to control the South China Sea, threatens Taiwan, and plans to infiltrate Western economies through its areas of technological expertise. Both China and Russia are vast, important nations with whom a modus vivendi is essential, but seldom has common ground been so elusive. At present, the best policy for the West seems to be to re-erect some cordon sanitaire to contain their influence – shades of the Cold War (1945-65)!

The West itself is in poor fettle. Its unity has been put to the test by the erratic policies of Donald Trump’s America, disparaging NATO and the EU in pursuit of his America First priorities. A Joe Biden presidency might be less abrasive, but American eyes are closely watching the Pacific rather than the Atlantic arena. The EU’s economic performance has been disappointing and the Brexit negotiations have engendered bitter internecine tensions which may not readily be resolved. United Europe is maybe a laudable aim but all European nations have cherished institutions and attitudes which they are not ready to abandon for some supposed common good.

No longer close friends

Europe’s leaders have not shone. Hitherto reliably engaged Angela Merkel has idled on the sidelines while her Germany has become increasingly estranged from America and dependent on Russian energy. Macron’s attempts at domestic reform have failed, making his much-vaunted radicalism irrelevant. The UK correctly, in my view, convinced itself that Brexit was the best course to take but failed to convince a majority of the 10% living in Scotland and have a debilitating internal struggle with the SNP to save the Union on its hands. More worryingly Boris Johnson seems to be losing his political touch in respect of the EU and his notionally strong government is losing the confidence of voters, so necessary for national cohesion.

All politicians globally are trying to cope with the unwelcome appearance of the Covid pandemic. Few have displayed deft handling or fancy footwork. Stop-start, contradictions, panic regulations have been the order of the day – nowhere more so than in the UK whose reactions to the pandemic have been more economically damaging than most and whose presentation has been particularly cack-handed, incompetent and inept. I sympathise, given this wholly unexpected situation, but fine words of sympathy do not butter any parsnips. Boris needs to find his old formidable energy, barn-storm round the country and give us confidence in the present and a vision of much better times coming.

Boris Johnson, where the buck stops

Issues like immigration, improving educational standards, free speech in our universities, crass corporate salaries, bloated bureaucracy, unnecessary tax complexities, the underperformance of white working class boys, discrimination of many kinds, low productivity, parliamentary reform – a multitude of controversial problems will crowd the in-tray of a UK government when, if ever, normality returns and the ship of state sails with a firm pilot at the helm, reassuring to all her citizens.

SMD

21.08.20

Text Copyright Sidney Donald 2020