THE YEAR COMES TO AN END....

2023 will soon be coming to an end, full of momentous events in the big wide world, not many of them very inspiring, and much chat from cherished friends and family as we inexorably grow older and we become even more confused by the modern world and the weird attitudes of the 21^st century. It is a period to count one’s blessings, seek forgiveness, sturdily philosophise and wax lyrical about any high-points.

                                Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

To set the mood, I suggest a bucketful of Elgar – with his incomparable Cello Concerto, evoking a tranquil England, with its timeless beauty. Xavier Phillips and The Seattle Symphony do the business.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=youtube+elgar+cello+concerto#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c8517917,vid:d44DbNQ81cM,st:0

Of course, much of England and the wider UK is far from tranquil. In its schools, its universities and in its work-places there is a culture war waging of great intensity and bitterness. Fundamentally, talented immigrants are supplanting duller native whites, not just for the top jobs but for any job. Some quotes from triumphant “inclusive” recruitment executives have been positively blood-curdling, divisive and ominous – a recipe for future conflict. May wiser heads prevail!

Thinking of happier things, I have always loved the 18^th century and within that, the style of Rococo. In search of balance and beauty, I will, even as an unbeliever, cherish devotional music of the period like the Stabat Mater by G B Pergolesi, composed as a commission from a pious Neapolitan confraternity (1735). The passage Sancta Mater, istud agas, is particularly fine and I attach a video of the performance in the iconic Rococo Frauenkirche in Dresden, sung beautifully by the Russian diva, Anna Netrebko, soprano, and the Italian mezzo, Marianne Pizzolato.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOug5Z5aZk&ab_channel=ThePrestigiosoGaston

At the year-end one takes stock. As one gets decidedly old, we realise that the years take their solemn toll. Old friends pass on and we are inevitably diminished. We are rueful about failing to say all we ought to have said before dear friends and relatives are gone forever. Such regrets are natural but not productive; always look forward, seldom look back is an achievable motto. The world moves on quickly – my beliefs and attitudes, however much I defend them, belong to a past generation. Do not allow the modern world to slip away from your grip!

In conclusion, I evoke the memory of some old soldiers and I pay tribute to their courage and devotion to duty. Some were quite modest – a chauffeur who never forgot comrades burnt grievously in the assault on Anzio in 1944 – a cinema manager who was a sergeant in the Scots Guards and always walked in a military way. The pride of Willie Whitelaw, Maggie Thatcher’s great supporter, when his Scots Guards drove off the Argentines from Mount Tumbledown in the Falklands in 1982. Gallant old Harold MacMillan, who insisted that the slow march of his Grenadier Guards – Scipio by Handel – be played at his funeral. I say “Hurray for Colonel Blimp!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFMM9rjL8XA&ab_channel=Somefolk

 

SMD

22.12.23

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

SIX SOLID CITIZENS

     Politicians are deeply unpopular these days throughout the democratic world, as our economies struggle and the pace of change demands rapid action - not easy for most systems. Britain is much affected by this malaise and admittedly the political talent-pool is not deep; but I here pay tribute to 6 politicians who are by no means universally cherished, but who are “consequential” in that they have got things done and have influenced the lives of many of their fellow-citizens in a positive fashion. My selection is fairly wide and I have tried to suppress my personal prejudices!

1.     Michael Gove

 

 

I do not cite Michael Gove, now 56, just because he is Scottish or that, like me, he was born into the purple of the Aberdeen commercial classes. He is the adopted son of an ultimately struggling Aberdeen fish processor, but he has the Protestant work-ethic to a marked degree and has marked out a varied and fruitful political career. He won a scholarship at Robert Gordon’s College and then read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Moving from Labour to the Conservatives, he developed his eloquence at the Oxford Union and succeeded Boris Johnson as President of the Union in 1988, a pinnacle of undergraduate achievement.

Rejected when applying for a job at Conservative Central Office, he worked in Fleet Street rather obscurely before joining the Aberdeen Press and Journal (275 years old now) honing his skills before finding his niche as a leader writer and later columnist at The Times. He married the well-known journalist Sarah Vine in 2001, divorcing in 2022.

Entering Parliament in 2005, he quickly climbed the greasy pole, becoming a friend of David Cameron and his set, shadowing Ed Balls. He has had a succession of Cabinet offices, Education Secretary, Chief Whip, Justice Secretary, Environment Secretary, Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office, and finally Levelling-Up Secretary. The portfolios hardly matter as Gove developed into a kind of Pooh-Bah without the arrogance, the Tory fixer who would get things done. In education he broke the dead hand of local authorities over state schools, by introducing independent Academies and other free schools and he drastically revised syllabuses, concentrating on traditional basics, much to the ire of the educational establishment. At the tricky Levelling-Up ministry he has subsidised local businesses and infrastructure projects, created several free-ports and even pushed the ENO to move to Manchester.

Yet to me, Gove’s finest hour was as one of the 3 Brexit leaders with Johnson and Farage. Gove and Dominic Cummings led a brilliant campaign in 2016 outwitting Cameron and the hopelessly Eurofanatic Establishment – who can forget Sunderland declaring for Brexit and the die being cast? Moreover, he snookered Boris’ candidature for Tory Leader – had he penetrated Boris’ bluster and realised he did not have the requisite prime ministerial qualities?   

Uneasy political allies, but winners all. Gove, Johnson and Farage.

I rate Gove very highly and pay tribute to his talent and integrity in the rough old game of politics.

2.     Sir Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer is not really my cup of tea, but he is likely to be our next Prime Minister and he has some real merits. He is 61 years old and was born into a Labour-supporting family (father a toolmaker, mother a nurse) in Surrey; indeed, he was named Keir after Labour Party founder Keir Hardie – what a suffocating legacy for a child!

                            Keir Starmer

After education at one-time state school Reigate Grammar, now independent and fee-paying, he read law at Leeds and took a postgraduate DCL at St Edmund Hall, Oxford (my college 60 years ago, so he must be a good egg!). Admitted to the Bar, he specialised in criminal and human rights cases and rose in the legal profession being appointed Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008-13, for which he was awarded his knighthood. In 2013 he was wooed inevitably by the Labour Party, then under the leadership of uninspiring Ed Miliband and soon to be defeated in the polls by a resurgent David Cameron. Starmer became the MP for the safe Labour seat Holborn St Pancras in the general election of 2015.

The advent of the Jeremy Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party in 2016 ushered in a violent move to the hard Left (Corbyn a lifetime admirer of the former East Germany!), Wokery unbounded, shameful obeisance to the BLM agitation and all the insanity of utopian crypto-communism. Corbyn even got a boost from Theresa May’s misjudged snap general election in 2017. Starmer dutifully fulfilled Shadow roles, whatever he privately thought of Corbyn.

Corbyn’s Labour Party was duly thrashed by Boris Johnson’s Tories in December 2019 and Corbyn resigned as Leader. Starmer comfortably won the ensuing leadership election 2020. There was a purge of Corbynites and their dogmas, who had so damaged the Party and Starmer began to rebuild Labour into an electable entity. Starmer is a sensible barrister, without much political guile, who is successfully re-aligning Labour policy and rhetoric in a centrist direction. The inept weakness of the Tories under Johnson, Truss and Sunak has eased his path.

But Starmer has spoken out strongly against Labour’s bouts of anti-Semitism (his 2 children are being brought up in the Jewish religion by his wife Victoria), against tax and spend fantasies, against uncontrolled immigration, against Russia’s war in Ukraine and against the barbarity of Hamas. He even broke a Party hoodoo with some kind words for the blessed Margaret Thatcher’s attitudes. A promising omen for the future! He has done the country a service by bringing Labour back into the mainstream.

I will be much briefer with the remain 4 solid citizens!

3.     Suella Braverman

 

Suella has had a meteoric career, serving as Home Secretary 2022-23, after being Boris’ Attorney-General. She has an exotic background with a Hindu Indian father and a Mauritian Christian mother, who was a Tory councillor. She is married to an Israeli-born Jew and is herself a Buddhist, brought up in Wembley. Her rise to high office underlines the “inclusiveness” of our nation.

Suella is no respecter of convention and expresses her views with refreshing clarity and candour. She has challenged the pro-immigration lobby, favours deportation of boat people to Rwanda, supports pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights (“all that Woke nonsense”), believes legal immigration is far too high and, no doubt like her erstwhile colleague Robert Jenrick, considers the Sunak government weak and indecisive on this vital issue.

She is a doughty and admirable right-wing Tory.

4.     Rachel Reeves

                                                                       Rachel Reeves

Starmer had the good sense to promote clever Rachel Reeves to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Now resident in Leeds (Bramley), Rachel is the daughter of two teachers and her sister Ellie is also an MP. Born in Lewisham, Rachel read PPE at New College, Oxford and after a spell at HBOS, became an economist at the Bank of England.

She has identified herself as a believer in “securonomics” an airy Bidenesque concept, involving an interventionist state, strict control of government spending and taxes, and stimulants to business. Coupled with Rachel’s promise not to raise any personal taxes, this sounds quite promising. But politicians easily renege on promises, so we will probably see in time what substance underlies her professions of fiscal virtue.

5.     Penny Mordaunt

                           Penny holds the Sword of State at the Coronation in May 2023

Penny Mordaunt, aged 50, entered Parliament in 2010 and is now Lord President of the (Privy) Council, a Tory pin-up, who handles herself with commendable dignity. She has had a succession of ministerial positions and was briefly Liz Truss’ Defence Secretary. She is a socially liberal Brexiteer and is much identified with support for the armed forces and their charities. She represents a Portsmouth constituency and was herself in the Royal Naval Reserve. She has stood twice for the Tory Party leadership, probably a bridge too far. She is a quintessential modern Tory, wholly resistant to wokery, despite being a constant target of hostile social media.

6.     Frank Field.

                                                 A younger Frank Field

I have to be quick to fit in a tribute to Frank Field as the poor man is suffering from terminal cancer and is in hospice care. Frank was MP for Birkenhead for 40 years from 1979 to 2019 and then became a life peer on the crossbenches after leaving the Labour Party in 2018. Born in London of Tory working-class parents, he was originally a conservative but moved to Labour in 1960 due to Tory equivocation about opposing apartheid in South Africa.

He long championed Birkenhead (where my parents were married oddly enough) and Merseyside. Most of his political life has been devoted to the alleviation of poverty fortified by his Anglican Christian faith. He remained socially conservative, even as a minister, deploring the payment of benefits without any contributions and advocating a small state. He was a long-time friend of Margaret Thatcher. He was respected in Labour circles for his expertise in the minutiae of social policy and his energetic advocacy but his support for Brexit and opposition to immigration made him many enemies. Field resigned the Labour whip in 2018 protesting about “intolerance, nastiness and intimidation.”

Our system should be able better to nurture independent, maverick characters like Frank Field who contribute much to public life.

 

SMD

10.12.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

THE BEST LACK ALL CONVICTION

One of the more attractive features of British political life historically, say since c.1828, has been its relative moderation compared to that of other Western countries. The instincts of the people and the direction of the political wind may often favour change, but seldom radical change, with gradual change coming after due debate, extensive preparation and at an easy-going pace so that the electorate is not shocked and surprised by the political agenda. In recent years this relaxed approach to change has eroded away, partly no doubt in response to the hectic timetables of modern life, but now extreme positions are easily adopted and our society loses that sense of unity and mutual cooperation which was seen in earlier, less polarized, times. An old friend reminds me of the prophetic words of W B Yeats in The Second Coming (1919):

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Corbyn, hero of the Left

Johnson, Hero of the Right

The cause of civilised cooperation has been affected by the rise to senior eminence of divisive figures, like Boris Johnson on the Right and Jeremy Corbyn on the Left all of whom had a coterie of eager followers. Another negative influence has been the use of referenda to decide quite complex questions, notably Scottish independence and British membership of the European Union. Referenda have no British precedent nor automatic acceptability and the two mentioned above sharply raised passions and split families in an alarming fashion. They are best avoided, in my view.

The principles of Conservatism were first set out by Sir Robert Peel in his Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 when he proposed ‘the moderate and judicious reform of proved abuses” and those of Labour by Ramsay Macdonald a century later; “The watchword of socialism is not class-consciousness, it is community-consciousness”. How things have changed! The modern Tamworth constituency has just seen a landslide by-election Labour victory, following the disgrace of Tory groper Chris Pincher while Labour’s reaction to Rishi Sunak’s and David Cameron’s elevation has often concentrated on their private education, personal wealth and earlier careers as some kind of proof they are remote toffs ignorant of the alleged hardships of “working people” – blatant class-war!

The recall of David Cameron, like the Raising of Lazarus, was certainly unexpected. Lord Cameron, as we must now call him, is an attractive person who held the premiership for 6 years. He was articulate, approachable and master of his brief. After losing his Brexit referendum he left office and vacated his seat rather too rapidly and seemed to play the part of a prosperous shiny-faced rustic, content to be away from the squalor of politics. I hope he is re-energised and full of vigour as the Tories face an uphill battle. Cameron’s problem is that it is by no means clear if his Toryism is more than skin-deep. He will however bring heft to the Tory regime and I wish him well.

Moderate Cameron

Right-wing Braverman

The Right of the Tory party, exemplified by combative Suella Braverman, will be less enthusiastic. Her intemperate language has been her downfall and her resignation letter was grossly disloyal. But there is no doubt she speaks for many law-abiding Britons. Before an election, parties tend to veer to the centre – the same phenomenon is playing out with Labour. Party discipline is being enforced, dissenters muted, a veneer of respectability manufactured.

I hope that some realities will be faced. Multi-culturalism has failed in the UK. It simply leaves the nation ungovernable if minorities like the Moslem one are free to act out their quarrels and deadly hatreds on the streets of Britain. We have seen this in the explosion of support for the murderous deeds of Hamas, the desecration of our war memorials and the toppling of statues of those honoured by British people. Britons originating from, say, Jamaica, Nigeria, Iraq or Pakistan may have different perspectives but they should discard them quickly if they are to stay here. Like the USA, Britain must protect her frontiers and create a monocultural framework within which all can celebrate the nation’s achievements and live in peace with all other citizens. I see this as a great task for current and future generations. Many European countries are overwhelmed by economic immigrants, a small but alarming percentage of whom are predatory criminals causing havoc in the likes of Italy, Germany and Spain. The miscreants must be rooted out – it is a matter of protecting national existence, no less. Do we have the backbone to defeat these enemies?

 

SMD

17.11.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

DISUNITED STATES

Amid all the horror, trauma and furious controversy of recent weeks, our King Charles III struck the right note in his well-chosen Mansion House speech in the City of London, urging tolerance and moderation everywhere, a familiar theme for the respected British monarchy. We know that much of what he said was platitudinous, but it was sincerely expressed and reassuring in its way, showing that at least Buckingham Palace was not caught up in the present fury and hysteria; we are happy to be reminded of our long-established moral and civilised values. Well said, Your Majesty!

 

King Charles reassures

Sadly, our world is in a terrible turmoil. The Russian invasion of Ukraine consumes human and material treasure on a huge scale. The surprise and brutal Hamas attack on Israel was actually targeted on innocent civilians and was inspired by blatant, visceral hatred of Jews. Israel will inevitably retaliate with mighty vengeance, causing more civilian deaths and destruction. Hezbollah, Islamic State, various Syrian and Iranian-backed terror groups will add their poison to the mixture. Europe and the West are waking up to the fact that uncontrolled immigration from Asia and Africa simply imports to the streets of London, Paris and New York tribal blood-feuds and religious fanaticism which unbalances the receiving nation. Our politicians should unite to stop this nonsense.

Getting politicians to agree on anything is a hard ask in almost all countries today. The politicians’ dark but useful arts of deal-making and compromise have been lost to ideological “principles” and a polarisation of opinion. The bi-partisan or crossbench approach is labelled as weakness. An MP cannot select the good bits of his opponents’ programme but he must swallow every syllable of his own party’s policy, dross and all. Parliamentary democracies can be slow to make big decisions but debate is vital and party management is an important element. Look at the depressing chaos in the USA, where government business is hamstrung by wafer-thin majorities, Federal funds are regularly blocked and the simple appointment of a House Speaker got totally bogged down. The prospect of a feeble Presidential election in 2024 pitting barely adequate machine politician Joe Biden, now much too old, against obnoxious and ignorant egotist Donald Trump, if he can escape his blizzard of hostile lawsuits, is just too awful to contemplate. One admirable feature of America however is that her national loyalty runs strong and her citizens, white, Hispanic, black and many others, unite in defending it, even in an excess of patriotism to European eyes.

Many multi-national nation states have been torn apart by historic, even tribal, differences. Yugoslavia, once a proud unitary state ruled by dictators, fractured into 7 new countries after bloody civil war. Belgium has Flemish and Walloon communities scarcely on speaking terms. The Czechs and Slovaks chose to separate peacefully and end Czechoslovakia. Spain struggles to suppress Catalan secession and Andalusia is a different world. The Soviet Union could not bind her imposed empire together and collapsed in 1991 into 15 entities. Italy’s prosperous North offends the backward South. In all these countries politicians must be exceptionally nimble to head off trouble.

Even the United Kingdom, embracing devolution perhaps too enthusiastically, is troubled by nationalist agitators seeking to deepen the historic fault lines between English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish. Their influence is currently on the wane while happily the old adage Unity is Strength holds good and most of us rejoice in our British identity first and our home nation identity second.

        Liberty leading the People by Delacroix

Instability is an enemy of progress. China is a great power and the domination of the Han Chinese gives it strength. India is perhaps less stable, with many historic divisions, and the promotion of Hindu nationalism by Modi seems to be a mistake. The Muslim world is notoriously fissiparous, ranging from Türkiye with its Kurdish minority, violent Iraq, multi-faith Lebanon with Sunni, Shia, Maronite and Druze ever-contending, and Palestine under the baleful influence of Hamas and Fatah, not to mention the sinister theocracy of Iran.

Yet all societies are dynamic and static conservatism cannot endure forever. Aspirational idealism must find a lawful channel to express itself as bottling it up simply makes the eventual eruption more violent. Politicians of vision, if we can find them, can lead all our nations to a secure, satisfying and fraternal future.

 

SMD

27.10.23

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

THE JOYS OF AUTUMN

It is a time of beauty and completion, of harvests safely gathered in; our bard Keats sang its praises:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

Our gentle idealisation of the season, our rose-tinted-spectacles-view is supported by Harvest Festival displays of homely satisfaction.

 

                                                                    The Richness of Harvest

 

To round off this beautiful moment we can revel in Vivaldi’s Allegro from his Autumn concerto in The Four Seasons:-

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7hGiZ579cs&ab_channel=caballeroh

But we do not have to be too misty-eyed. The reality of a British autumn is lovely enough. I think about the trees in all their full autumnal glory, stately and colourful, their leaves a riot of russet hues carpeting the ground to the delight of children in wellies. I think of dogs snuffling about in canine curiosity and insects digging down in anticipation of cooler nights. We allow woollies to replace cottons, we layer with pullovers and sport tweedy hats, striking scarfs, cosy gloves and robust boots. At last, reaching our warm firesides, sheltering from the rising evening wind outside, we gratefully quaff our lush dark sherry or wee dram of finest Scotch. Heaven!

For Autumn too always seems to me to be a time of celebration and convivial laughter. Church Harvest festivals are perhaps losing their prominence but the laity keep the seasons carefully. Hallowe’en is well observed in Scotland and rural England, Australia and in the USA it is a raucous and lavish celebration, a survival of the Mayflower heritage. How much we loved as schoolchildren “ducking for apples”, playing party games and eating rich fruit cake, and most of all scraping out a raw turnip (tasty, but indigestible) and fashioning a “neep lantern” with slit eyes and toothy jaws to terrify the evil spirits- the American pumpkins are much easier!

                                    Anglophone Halloween

A more adult Autumn celebration is found at the Munich Oktoberfest, part harvest part folk festival. The locals dress up in lederhosen und drindl but that is not obligatory. What is obligatory is to consume substantial quantities of excellent German beer, supplemented by Wurst and to have a jolly, convivial time.

                    Oktoberfest in Munich

Yet these are one-off events and the Autumn treat we are more likely to experience is the casual meeting at the local pub, when a polite chat becomes a more profound conversation and you grow to value the person with whom you are talking and to appreciate new perspectives on how we live. You have made a new friend! Hurrah!

This 2023 Autumn is much fortified by an overflow of sporting events to quicken the pulse. As I write, Europe has made a splendid start to her attempt to win the Ryder Cup golf in Rome, leading 6.5 to 1.5. I hope Europe can keep ahead, though the singles are America’s strong suit. Grand Prix racing and the Cricket World Cup in India will also be gripping – not to mention the World Series Baseball tournament for which the Atlanta Braves are currently favourites.

The most absorbing competition is however the Rugby World Cup in France. Already we have seen many clashes of the Titans, great stuff from Ireland, Wales and Fiji, some gems from my native Scotland, solid games from New Zealand and England – but I put my money on France, the host with all the connected advantages. I expect to see peerless Antoine Dupont raise the trophy, probably playing with a protective face-mask after his fractured cheek injury, captain of a truly formidable French team. Allez France!

            The French captain Antoine Dupont

May you all enjoy a marvellous and mellow Autumn!

SMD

29.09.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

NEEDS SORTING

Our great nation is going through some kind of collective mental and moral breakdown and we need to shake ourselves out of negative attitudes and of what our French friends call Nostalgie de la Boue, the attraction to low-life culture, experience and degradation. How else can we have actually honoured or promoted the careers of such flawed characters as Prince Andrew, Boris Johnson (alas!), Jimmy Savile, Russell Brand or Ghislaine Maxwell – none of them role-models, for sure.

Prince Andrew

Boris Johnson

                                 

                                                            Russell Brand

Behind the personalities, there are serious issues and leadership challenges which need sorting and I list 5 – others will have much longer lists.

(1)    Political Behaviour. Westminster is an undignified bear-garden – far too many MPs (radical boundary changes required) and respect for the neutrality of The Speaker has been greatly damaged by Bercow’s tenure. The adversarial tradition should be modified with different seating arrangements and stronger cross-party committees. The unwritten UK constitution should be respected – prorogation of parliament, for example, to suit the party in power cannot be tolerated. PM’s Question Time needs to be remodelled, as it is uninformative in content and artificial in concept. Government must always be accountable to parliament, but it does not need a bogusly dramatic accompaniment. Perhaps the worst legacy of Boris is that the veracity and integrity of the Prime Minister is no longer a given assumption. Some of the time-honoured flummery of parliament, including The Lords, deserves the too long-delayed dustbin.

 

(2)    The National Health Service. Said to be the 5^th largest employer in the world with a payroll of 1.7m people, the NHS is a revered institution, once hardly ever criticized. When Covid struck we were encouraged to give it a clap every week and clang pots and pans in appreciation. But the obvious waste and incompetence displayed eroded confidence and the retreat of GPs from the front line and opportunistic strikes by nurses, junior doctors and senior consultants did not impress the public. The use of unqualified receptionists as gate-keepers, shielding the doctors, was scandalous and the whole edifice is too expensive and bureaucratic to survive without urgent reform. The staff union leaders, mostly extreme Lefties, have destroyed public goodwill. Tales of mis-diagnoses, appallingly bad care in certain hospitals, the Lucy Letby scandal and the past calamity of polluted blood administered to patients (£26bn compensation estimated) further undermines the NHS’s reputation. Vigorous management and focused financial plans would reignite public affection for the NHS.

 

(3)    The Media. Britain has always suffered from her “gutter press”, but now with a Woke-rampant BBC / ITV and rancid social media, the smell from the media drains is overpowering. The lowest common denominator holds sway, with a deeply moronic output and opinions expressed as facts, to which only a tiny minority subscribe. Toxic cancel-culture is everywhere and bias partout. The current Russell Brand imbroglio is a case in point. Brand may well be an insufferable twit and was given too much latitude, but he is not yet a criminal. There must be at this stage a presumption of innocence and still the laws of defamation and contempt of court probably need strengthening (and enforcing, by our abject Police and Judiciary.)

 

                                    

                                                             

               Rupert Murdoch (92), ruthless arch-agitator                Piers Morgan, his cheerleader

(4)    Devolution and Local Government. If the last 20 years have shown us anything, it is evident that if you give a politician an inch, he will take a mile. The well-meaning devolution experiment has been a disaster and somehow the political clock will have to be put back and devolved powers and privileges drastically reduced. In Scotland, a once proud nation has seen its home reduced to a crime-ridden, drug-guzzling, squalid slum by fanatical leaders obsessed with absurd dreams of “Independence”, when it is one of the most neighbour-dependent states in the world. Wales is another political slum, where nothing works well, while the obtuseness and ignorance of Northern Ireland’s crew are legendary. England itself is not much better with Birmingham going bust and cosmopolitan London rocked by its ill-conceived but woke ULEZ scheme. When local authorities are charged with real responsibility, like the regulation of care homes, they make a spectacular mess of it, employing low-lives who abuse vulnerable patients. Let’s face it, the UK talent pool of competent managers and administrators is alarmingly shallow.

 

(5)    The Watchdogs. A classic solution for the control of powerful institutions is the appointment of an overseeing watchdog, who has the ability to rectify abuses and omissions, and has the power to challenge and monitor those institutions. But these watchdogs are fallible and the question is soon asked: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?). Such watchdogs hover over the City, Education, the Health Service and many other government departments. Their effectiveness is questionable, and while they provide well-paid billets for experienced old hands, they are often far too close to their erstwhile friends and colleagues. Thus recently, charged with investigating whether “de-banking” banking customers for political reasons was widespread, the City watchdog, the FCA, pronounced that they had asked 34 banks and found no evidence that anyone had been “primarily” de-banked for political reasons. This flies in the face of widespread publicity given to the struggle of Brexiteer Nigel Farage to retain his Coutts Bank account and the subsequent resignation of the CEO of NatWest, the owner of Coutts, when clear evidence emerged. Another mess – as we Scotsmen say, “There’s none so deaf as those who do not want to hear!”

A heavy agenda of Reform is suggested in this piece, unlikely to be completed in my lifetime. But I suggest that the powers-that-be start down the hard and treacherous road now!

 

SMD

21.09.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

AMERICAN PROS AND CONS

 

I am into my 5^th of a 6-week holiday in America, hosted by my wonderfully kind son, who is making his career here. I have been in the US a number of times previously but it is a wide and colourful canvas and I may not fathom accurately the wide divergence between her people, geographically, racially or in  their aspirations. As a Brit, I tend to apply British standards, not always appropriately, and as an 81-year-old, my world-view is unlikely to be entirely in tune with much modern thinking. So be warned, take my views with a generous pinch of salt!

We cannot be other than impressed by the material prosperity of America. The laden shopping malls, the spacious, well-maintained houses, gardens and parks, the untold thousands of new electric cars and the confident, voluble citizens speak of a society at ease with itself and attractive to other nations. In city centres the office blocks tower above, restaurants and cafés galore with all the accoutrements of a dynamic mega-consumer society. Life is great for those securely employed, healthy, reasonably educated and with the energy to participate in The American Dream.

The fate of those who have none of these things is more uncertain. Money makes the World go around may be a Liza Minelli/Joel Grey song from Cabaret in 1930s Berlin but it could be equally appropriate anywhere in 2023 USA. America could afford, but does not have, a comprehensive Welfare State – there is piecemeal provision for the poor and needy but many slip between the cracks, often rural whites, blacks and Latinos.

                                                Minelli and Grey cynically make money go around

The feeling against the welfare state in the USA is long-established and quite definitively ideological. Pre- and Post-war Europe embraced state welfarism and the power and size of their central governments grew substantially. But the cost also grew substantially, and governments like the UK’s were seen to struggle under the burden – the American response was to stay clear and rely on private insurance provision and only reluctantly consent to some rudimentary Federal commitment. Vested interests, in the shape of a highly prosperous medical profession, Big Pharma, huge private pension funds, vast insurance combines, have grown up and hardly any US legislators dare to defy them and insist they serve participants in the gig economy and the underclass too. The universe these interests do serve are what we Brits call “the prosperous middle classes”, a lucrative market, unlikely to be disturbed.

Yet, for all its inequities, the US economy is a huge global success story. At $26.8 trillion, it accounts by itself for about 25% of world GDP and only China at $19.3 tr. comes anywhere near, and former stars Japan $4.4 tr, Germany $4.3 tr., India $3.7tr., UK $3.1tr.and France $2.9tr lag well behind. The per capita lead is equally impressive with :

USA                 $80,000 per capita

Canada              $52,000

Germany          $51,000

UK                   $46,000

France               $44,000

Japan                 $35,000

China                 $13,000

India                    $2,000

States with huge populations are held back by the sheer weight of mouths to feed and people to employ, with the notable exception of the USA!

It would be neat if we could ascribe America’s good fortune to its good government but the facts tell us otherwise. Despite a historically admired Constitution and a delicate framework respecting Federal and States rights, America is a sadly polarised nation. Finding any kind of consensus between the warring factions and interest groups is a Herculean Labour, only resolvable with, effectively, bribes and crude “pork barrel” corruption. With a politicised judiciary, partisan causes can get plenty leverage and notions of cross-party cooperation get scant support. Relations between Democrat and Republican at the Federal level are poisonous, there is hardly even an agreed agenda and coherent democratic debate is notably obstructed. Sometimes a little wisdom shines through, but we have to go back to January 1961 to admire Eisenhower’s farewell presidential address when he warned the nation: “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military-industrial complex”- still highly relevant, as the world teeters regularly on the edge of war. In our age of AI, pandemic and huge scientific progress, Ike’s other warning was equally prophetic: “We should be alert to the danger that public policy could become the captive of a scientific-technological elite”.

We in the West are moving on from our old religions and our traditional deference. We are in danger of becoming money-worshippers, basically knowing in Oscar Wilde’s words the price of everything and the value of nothing. A sad fate for the civilised!

Americans are a highly articulate people and much good flows when people talk together in a civil fashion. Divisions can be overcome, policies can be agreed and the stridently bitter neutralised. It is a cliché to say there is strength in unity and happiness in working in a common cause – but I will say it!

America naturally has the problems of all developed nations and yet the world should pay tribute to its great virtues and give thanks for its unremitting historic and contemporary generosity!

 

SMD

18.8.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023