Upside Down Cake

 

UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

There is a traditional British confection, usually with a pineapple base, called an upside-down cake, and as I emerged, blinking, from winter hibernation and writer’s block, I thought that our world has a new, peculiar flavour, with old certainties up-ended and familiar tastes transformed. It will all take some getting used to, analysis will be intense and we would be wise not to rush to judgement. Modern humanity is restlessly dynamic and old alliances may wobble. If governments are elected on a platform of radical and rapid change, we can expect a bumpy, pot-holed journey.

Upside Down Cake (per Mary Berry)

Before we criticise others, we would be wise to contemplate our own navel. The UK is not a happy ship. It is a sharply polarised society- Left v Right, Woke v Traditional, North v South, Brexiteer v Eurofanatic. From 2010 to 2024 it had an inept Tory government, helped by facing an unelectable Labour opposition of loony Leftists. Its leaders, hollow Cameron, guileless May, erratic Boris, gambling Truss, or uninspiring Sunak, did not quicken the pulse. They were unlucky to encounter the Covid plague, but every country suffered that. Then Labour found new leadership in Keir Starmer and in 2024 convincingly won the election. Labour’s hour had struck.

What a disaster! With Rachel Reeves as Chancellor, the government made mistake after mistake. Unaffordable public sector salary rises, high tax increases on employers, class war attacks on private education, tax privileges withdrawn from many farmers. Doctrinal stuff poorly presented. UK politics became more fractured. Farage’s Reform Party capturing many on the Right, Lib Dems and Greens attracting the Woke dreamers, even the declining Nationalists getting a boost. Starmer himself often looks the part of PM but the public suspect that while he can master a brief as a lawyer, he lacks any inner conviction or driving principle. He will not long survive as leader. Faced with higher defence obligations and shaky public finances the UK must cut its coat sharply.

Britain’s unlikely saviours

The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 by a narrow margin and after many a wrangle finally left in 2020. The Brexiteers caught onto a popular current as the benefits of EU membership were not apparent to many; the civil service and the Establishment Blob loved the EU and yet every attempt was made by Europe to humiliate, frustrate, exploit and thwart the UK, notably by France, Germany and the EU Commission. The chances of the UK working happily with these people are very remote. Europe is much too disparate to agree any coherent policies, with wide economic and political gaps separating her various blocs. Only wishful thinking by dreaming Starmer can overcome this hard reality.

  

E Macron                                          U von der Leyen                            O Scholz

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The ingredient in our cake which was once an enviable honey-pot but is now a flailing paprika-laden poison is our erstwhile ally, the United States of America. Donald Trump returned to office 100 days ago in January 2025, comfortably overwhelming Biden and Harris. In his campaign Trump had to dodge a few bullets, but his nationalistic MAGA message was consistently preached and lapped up. The world did not take Trumpism very seriously but had to rethink as Trump imposed high tariffs, which he levied erratically but hunkered down to a trade-war with China and South East Asia, formidable opponents.

Much worse, Trump kept shooting himself in the foot by changing sides in the Russia – Ukraine War, withdrawing military aid to Ukraine, praising Russia, disparaging NATO, insulting Zelensky, ignoring the EU. There have been some conciliatory gestures, but trust in Trump’s USA is rapidly melting. He also threatened Canada and Greenland with annexation, roundly condemned by them. This whole foreign policy issue has been treated by Trump as an expanded poker game and he has behaved with a degree of egotism and crassness which would have brought blushing shame to his many distinguished predecessors.

Yet the Trump regime has sound democratic credentials and there is some common sense in most of its policies. Trump complains about judgments against him (which he routinely evades) but he does not ignore the Constitution – he is a keen supporter of states’ rights. He pushes his programme by presidential edict as his majority in both houses of Congress is thin. He is a demagogue, but the US has seen quite a few of them in history. All the instincts of the UK public, all anglophonic, cultural and inherited values pull the UK towards the US. Relations are going through a rough patch. The UK needs to deploy all her diplomatic skills in re-establishing harmony and goodwill between our like-minded nations.

SMD

1.05.25 Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2025

LIFE'S PLEASURES

 

LIFE’S PLEASURES

We get a bucketful of misery from so many aspects of our existence that it is worth remembering that our lives are enriched too by a catalogue of delights, many of which are free. I set out a small list below which reflects my no doubt old-fashioned personal tastes – make your own list, it will cheer you up!

1.      Scotland

I had the good fortune to be born in handsome Aberdeen and educated in lovely, if chilly, Edinburgh. Away from the Central Belt, Scotland is the sparsely populated playground of Europe.

Oh for the crags that are wild and majestic

The steep frowning glories of dark Lochnagar (Byron)

We rejoice in the beautiful Road to the Isles – Sure by Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go – and no visitor should miss Mull and sacred Iona, among whose ruins your piety will grow warmer, according to Dr Johnson. You can trek, climb, golf, drink, fish, sail or philosophise. Whatever, Scotland punches well above her weight.

2.      Hollywood

My father’s family business included a local chain of 12 cinemas and in the interval between school and going home I sat in in a cinema watching every second feature in the 1946-50 era – Abbott and Costello, The Bowery Boys, Francis the talking mule, Roy Rodgers or Gene Autrey Westerns. Later, as my tastes changed, my celluloid education took in Doris Day, Judy Garland, Howard Keel, Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly musicals and blossomed with Humphrey Bogart classics and Bette Davis dramas.

I spent many happy hours of my life watching films. I do not agree with everything America does but Hollywood for me was a great civilising engine.

3.      Buildings to die for

From my European standpoint there are a handful of buildings which have the “wow-factor”, rooting you to the spot, yet easily enough accessible.

 I first nominate La Sainte Chapelle, Paris, the rayonnant chapel built by Louis IX in about 1350 to house

 

his Passion Collection including the purported Crown of Thorns. Its Upper Level has the most stunning display of medieval stained glass in the world.

 

Then there is Ottobeuren Abbey in Bavaria, fabulously Rococo, exuding rapt devotion, with a riotous profusion of plaster saints in joyful ecstasy.

 

Rococo is not much seen in the UK, but I find this dynamically flamboyant style irresistible.

My other wow-factor building is Amiens Cathedral, surely the finest Gothic cathedral in Europe. It is the largest cathedral in France, double the size of Notre Dame de Paris. Mainly dating from the 13^th Century, its sculpture and carvings are admirable, and its proportions give it majestic solemnity. A 19^th Century restoration overseen by Viollet-le-Duc was a triumph.

                                      

                                                                      Amiens Cathedral

4.      English “Laugh out Loud” Writing.

Beneath a thin layer of reserve the English are a boisterous race given to joking, tomfoolery and farce. Tudor and Jacobean writers were notably unfunny (sadly including Shakespeare) but 18^th century novelists could easily raise a titter and by the first half of the 19th century we were experiencing the irrepressible genius of Charles Dickens where a tumult of  rich characters like Pickwick, Mr Micawber, Sarah Gamp, Sam Weller, Mr Bumble, Uriah Heep and Ebeneezer Scrooge make his pages dance before our eyes.  But Dickens was a crusader and few of his novels are flawless – convoluted plots, unconvincing female characters, sentimentality and regular dull patches.

The 20th century produced 2 brilliant comic writers in the UK, P.G. Wodehouse and Arthur Marshall. Wodehouse created his own fictional world populated by imperious Aunts, absent minded aristocrats like Lord Emsworth, Mr Mulliner’s unique anecdotal vignettes, worldly manservants like Jeeves, fairly brainless men about town in the Bertie Wooster mould, and an enormous hilarious oeuvre, recording his creations’ madcap activities - be they gossiping at the Drones Club, playing golf or having adventures chasing determined young ladies around stately homes. PGW is incomparable.  

My other favourite is Arthur Marshall (1910-89), frustrated actor, schoolmaster at Oundle, post-war radio turn as Nurse Dugdale, reviewer, columnist, TV personality on Call my Bluff. Arthur perfected the acute short piece deriving high comedy from ordinary matters, British Rail, Devon resorts, puddings, the West End theatre, (where his acquaintance was matchless). In later life on TV, chins a-wobble, emanating good humour and sunshine, Arthur revealed his true worth – a blessed National Treasure.

                                                               Arthur Marshall

5.      Human Genius

My catalogue of uplifting pleasures is endless – we humans have created so much beauty and culture that this conclusion is inevitable. High Art is our proud achievement. The poetry of Wordsworth and Keats, the paintings of Rembrandt and Tiepolo, the music of Purcell, Charpentier, Beethoven and Mozart or the 26 ancient Anglican Cathedrals. I will receive criticism that my taste is pale, male and stale, but it would not be a surprise if the old favourites are in fact the best. Drink in the achievements of our forebears -they invigorate and sustain us!

 

SMD

26.5.25

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2025