RABBLE-ROUSERS

 Rabble-rousers are dangerous fellows, whom we sometimes rather guiltily enjoy, but who can mightily upset our societies. History produces many examples of this species, who need to be recognized for what they are before they cause undue damage. A rabble-rouser, or more correctly a “demagogue”, is most effective in democratic societies, where the people, or at least the electorate, appoint the government and can be moved to replace or reorganize that government. Typically, the techniques employed by the rabble-rouser include scapegoating, fearmongering, lying, oversimplifying, distorting and promising the impossible. Mix these often-unseen elements with practiced emotional oratory and strong personal charisma and you have a powerful brew on your hands, sometimes a brew involving violence and mayhem. With some sadness, I have to admit that this demagogic profile fits to a T the present US President Donald J. Trump.

                 Trump inflames the passions of his audience

I am not blind to the merits of President Trump. He has given a new voice to many Americans who felt marginalized and he has put a bomb under an Establishment hitherto tenacious in its possession of privilege. The US has prospered and avoided new military conflicts. He has even helped Israel make peace with her neighbours. Yes, there is a credit side on the Trump balance sheet, but, alas, the liabilities side is much larger. For the Donald presidency has seen outrageous lies disseminated daily, with very few retractions, amid a weird atmosphere of self-congratulation and rampant egotism. Trump has appealed to the prejudices of his supporters, notably fear of Mexicans and immigrants generally. His language is so tactless he has widened the gap between whites and other minorities in the US.

Internationally Trump’s hostile attitude has alienated his natural allies in Europe and the Far East. Over-simplifying tricky issues, Trump has withdrawn from alliances, treaties and partnerships leaving a power vacuum which Russia and China are only too happy to fill. This is a poor legacy for future Western democrats and is the product of Trump’s ignorance of US diplomatic history and espousal of a tub-thumping America First policy (or rather “slogan”). He has substantially debased the dignity of his office.

We hope Trump is a one-off, though US demagogues have a long pedigree from William Jennings Bryan through Huey Long to Senator Joe McCarthy. I dread a close US presidential election on 3 November, only about three weeks away, with Trumpian screams of “Fraud” and possible recourse to a controversial Supreme Court, erratic House Speaker Pelosi and a fanciful bipartisan ticket if normal inauguration is made impossible. It could be very nasty indeed!

Americans may need to be vigilant and agile if things go seriously wrong constitutionally.  There is a chilling historical precedent. Adolf Hitler’s Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag after the elections on 30/01/1933 but had no majority. In February the Reichstag building was set alight by the Communists, said Hitler, but more likely by the Nazis, to cause panic. A temporary state of emergency was declared on 28 February suspending basic rights and there was paramilitary violence. New elections took place on 6/03/33 but the Nazis still failed to get a majority. The Prussian elite and the Nazis came to an understanding at Potsdam on 21/3/33 and passed an Enabling Act which transformed liberal Weimar Germany into a de facto legal dictatorship on 23/3/33 under Adolf Hitler. All this was achieved in just 2 months. If Trump has no scruples about, nor respect for, the traditions of the US, he has this deadly pathway to follow. I hesitate to use Trump’s name in the same breath as that of Hitler, (they are worlds apart) but I cannot say there is absolutely no danger.

   

Wilkes and Liberty

                         

Influential Nigel Farage

The UK is far from perfect. It has not been much plagued by demagogues recently but John Wilkes in the 1770s caused a huge popular anti-monarchist furore and Lord George Gordon led the infamous Gordon Riots of 1780 which ravaged London.  In our times Nigel Farage has been an eloquent advocate of Brexit, a cause I support, using all the rhetorical tricks, swaying the 2016 referendum and pretending to be “just Folks”. Nor can the French gloat: their parade of odd-balls includes Jean-Baptiste Marat, revolutionary terrorist and failed Ami du Peuple, General Boulanger, the “man on the black horse” who excited the French briefly in 1890, and Jean-Marie Le Pen, extreme nationalist who polled surprisingly well in 2002 for President.

All democracies are targeted by plausible rabble-rousing demagogues. We democrats must ignore their blandishments and repeat to ourselves the proven values of reason, tolerance and unity to weather the storms capricious nature will hurl against us.

 

SMD        11.10.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

FOLLOW THAT TASTE-BUD!

 

One of the many pleasures of Lockdown is the tsunami of TV programmes, even channels, devoted to acquiring, preparing, cooking and eating food. Not plain food but mouth-watering, fancy, quasi-exotic food stretching the culinary talents of many viewers. Personally, I am a fan of Rick Stein’s fish and seafood enthusiasms but I do not disparage The Great British Bake-off and the myriad shows explaining the delights of Indian, Thai, Spanish and, I imagine, Belarussian delicacies.

        A Rick Stein bonne-bouche

Influential as they are, these programmes got me thinking. I thought of Covid-stricken Donald Trump, aged 74 and at 110 kg and 6ft 3in, classified as clinically obese. I too am 110kg but am aged 78 and a mere 5ft 10in, so my classification is a, rather alarming, state secret. Our esteemed Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had his own almost lethal brush with Covid-19 in April. Once short and fat, he has now lost 2 stone and his diet regime is simple – eat less and exercise more! Mind you, Petronella Wyatt, an ex-lover of Boris, describes Boris in this week’s Spectator, as one whose “idea of fine dining was Pizza Express!”. She also relates a crisis in their relationship when she cooked him an elaborate seafood risotto. Arriving late as usual, he looked on the dish “as one might gaze upon a dish of beetles,” saying “I can’t eat that. Do you have any crisps?” Petronella writes “This enraged me more than any of his sexual delinquencies. As Colette said, Food has ruined more relationships than infidelity!”

But Boris is now right – we must eat less. One of the 7 Deadly Sins, invented by early Church Fathers, is Gluttony, a vice we hardly recognise these days.

The Emperor Vitellius

Vitellius only survived as Roman Emperor for 8 months in 69AD. His claim to fame was his gluttony and, armed with emetics, he had 3 gastronomic beanos every day!  Unsurprisingly, according to ever-unreliable Suetonius, he had a flabby reputation but his feasts were spectacular. In one he served 2,000 choice fishes and 7,000 birds before reserving for himself a huge platter containing the livers of pike, the brains of pheasant and peacocks, the tongues of flamingoes and the milt (semen) of lampreys. This brutal fellow was soon dispatched by the Roman mob, aiding Vespasian’s legions.

Fast forward to the Victorian naturalist Frank Buckland (1826-1880) whose gluttony took a peculiar form. Buckland was the son of amateur paleontologists, his father becoming a clerical Dean. His parents regularly feasted on delicacies like mice in batter, squirrel pie, horse’s tongue and ostrich.

 

                                   

        Frank Buckland pioneer of zoöphagy

There was a notion in the 19^th century that new options could be found for providing new food for humanity. From a boy, Frank decided to eat his way through the animal kingdom, He ate cats and then he befriended zoos, whose dead beasts he consumed. Starting with a panther (yuk), he moved onto black bear (ugh). It became a lifetime obsession and he founded The Acclimatisation Society. In 1862 he invited 100 guests to sit down to a relatively conservative sea-slug, kangaroo, guan and curassow dinner. He later progressed to boiled elephant trunk, rhinoceros pie, porpoise heads and stewed mole. Buckland was a real pioneer in his very odd field.

We associate gluttony with excessive eating but it also embraces the familiar phenomenon of those who are excessively particular about their food. There is a very striking passage in C S Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, where Lewis imagines a correspondence between a Senior Devil and the Junior Devil he is mentoring:

 “But what do quantities matter, provided we can use a human belly and palate to produce querulousness, impatience, uncharitableness and self-concern? Glubose,(a Senior Devil) has this old woman well in hand. She is a positive terror to hostesses and servants. She is always turning from what has been offered her to say with a demure little sigh and a smile ‘Oh please, please ... all I want is a cup of tea, weak but not too weak, and the teeniest weeniest bit of really crisp toast’. You see? Because what she wants is smaller and less costly than what has been set before her, she never recognises as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others.”

Finally and inevitably, I call upon the French to get our gastric juices flowing again. The enigmatic Francois Mitterand, President of France (1981-1995) had concealed his prostate cancer while in office. Later, knowing he was dying, he called together 30 friends and family for a final dinner and they consumed Marennes oysters, foie gras, capon and as the coup de grace a plate of ortolans (bunting song birds). It was illegal to kill or trap ortolans even then but the French surround eating ortolans, bones and all, with a ritual of covering the head with a large napkin to retain the distinctive taste of these tiny birds, drowned in Armagnac and roasted in a ramekin.

Truly taste-buds take us on strange journeys – time for the Alka-Seltzer!

                    The innocent Ortolan

 

SMD

5.10.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

A NEW WORLD

We are impatiently awaiting the end of Pandemics and Lockdowns. We are already frayed at the edges and yearn for a return to an ordered, sociable and civilised life and to the prompt return of the freedoms temporarily lost during the emergency. I will not stray into the immediate plans of our present bunch of third-rate politicians but instead raise my eyes to the New World we will soon be stumbling through. I am a retired oldie, with very limited ambitions and horizons, but many of you, my readers, are enjoying the prime of life and have bursting energy to seize the opportunities which will present themselves globally. For our Old World is going to change radically and we all must adapt.

                                                         An Empty City of London

        An Empty Regent Street in London’s West End

The necessities of Lockdown have propelled commerce and industry to embrace, much earlier than forecast, the latest technologies and novel ways of working. Home working is now well established, often with all necessary digital equipment provided by employers. It appears to be every bit as productive as office working. Businesses are learning how to train home workers and integrate them into the culture of their employer. At most, one day a week may be required for group personal interaction – the other 4 days of home working will have the benefit of zero commuting, looser hours and more time for wife and family (or their equivalent). We are social beings and I assume post-Covid we will be free to meet up with all and sundry and travel where we will.

The elephant in the room is the fate of Britain’s forests of metropolitan offices – in the likes of The City, Canary Wharf, West End and in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh – home working could see them empty rapidly. These reliably growing (and highly lucrative) property interests have made entrepreneurs seriously rich and underpin the value of many a fund or share portfolio. Yet they could simply go poof! and spectacularly so.

Severe reductions in commuting will have other effects. Transport will have to recalibrate with far fewer trains and fewer peak periods. City centre businesses will languish or move to other, cheaper catchment areas. Populations will shift: why live in some deadening South London suburb when you could be on the South Coast? Maybe the reduction in offices could mean instead a rejuvenation of central areas if many more flats were built and “entertainment” complexes emerged.

Looking further ahead, is there employment for everybody? So many clerical or unskilled jobs can be done efficiently, using artificial intelligence and robots. Self-driving vehicles and transport systems may make redundant an army of bus, railway and airline staff, joined by warehouse and wholesale people. Every state may be faced with a growing pool of un- or under-employed citizens who will need an ever-increasing financial safety-net and to be appeased with bread and circuses to keep them acquiescent.

                 A State-produced happiness drug

Another problem of our New World may be the polarisation in society between the minority of busy contributors and the majority of relatively idle hands. The divide will be even greater than our existing gaping social chasms. Recent experience suggests that achieving agreement between the various classes will not be possible. Democracy may be a casualty with a search for a Strongman (“Big Brother”), rule by decree and a regimented lifestyle. I do not want to paint a wholly dystopian picture but we may need to brush up on our Huxley, Orwell, Golding and Attwood!

Ever the optimist, let us instead explore a sunnier scenario, to lift our spirits and stimulate our warmest hopes. We will emerge from the Covid crisis healthier and wiser. Commuting will be in decline but the pace of change may be slower. A huge building boom of city centre residences on brown land, of new settlements outside London and of recalibrated infrastructure will save the jobs and swell the ranks of building workers, joiners, plumbers and electricians and their supporting businesses. A quickly recovering UK will generate the taxes substantially to reduce budget deficits and to attract foreign investors.

                    Surveying The Promised Land

Trading arrangements with the EU will be settled amicably on a pragmatic basis without the panic of deadlines and ultimatums. International travel, holidays and business, will resume, in due course with hydrogen powered aircraft. Eating more fruit and veg and less red meat will improve our health and our air quality and we will soon live in a world flowing with milk and honey (calm down, Sidney). A liberal Tory or moderate Labour government will return our beloved UK to being a proud and happy land capable of prospering mightily in the brave New World!

 

SMD

24.9.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

SHAFTS OF LIGHT

There has not been much to cheer about in recent weeks globally or nationally; yet while we may be on the cusp of disaster, the odds still favour the UK and the West and a positive outcome to the crisis is still the most likely outcome. Now and then a shaft of light breaks through. On Saturday night I watched the Last Night of the Proms and despite earlier woke wetness from retiring Lord Hall, the new BBC Director-General Tim Davie did a U-turn and delivered a perfectly sensible concert with much reduced numbers (and, alas, no audience).  The BBC redeemed itself and did not do its usual act as the broadcasting wing of BLM. A South African soprano Golda Schultz sang beautifully and a modest choir sang Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, and Jerusalem in the time-honoured fashion, words and all. I was even able to blub through You’ll never walk alone in my own time-honoured fashion! I imagine certain arrogant London virtue-signallers and their provincial toadies hated it, but I am equally sure most of the nation cheered loudly. These Proms were a welcome morale-booster.

Pared-down orchestra for the Last Night of the Proms 2020

The news from the Covid battle-front has been gloomy. A sharp rise in infections in the UK, as restrictions are loosened, leading to a tightening-up. The Rule of Six drastically limits social life and will no doubt be much evaded. Our population is somewhat anarchic, with faint deference to government and scant respect for the real perils of Covid. Happily, the death rate remains quite low. The government does its best, but constant changes undermine its credibility. We need a vaccine quickly. Other European countries have similar experiences. We crave a return to normality, to civilized family gatherings, shopping, restaurants, pubs and international travel.

The UK economy is slowly recovering from the crisis. GNP had declined 20% to June 2020 and is forecast to bounce back by 11% to September. Many businesses are operating below par, the return to school is not complete and universities see much confusion. Predictably, teachers and NHS nurses are threatening to strike if they are not paid more in this time of emergency and shaky public finances. The next six months will see an employment shake-out as the furlough scheme unwinds and other subsidy schemes end. Inventive new programmes are required. The UK has signed a new trade agreement with Japan, the first step in re-focusing our overseas commercial arrangements, to our mutual benefit.

Lord Frost and Michel Barnier at loggerheads

There is no sign of a break-through in the Brexit negotiations with the EU. Both sides have notionally immoveable red lines and the most likely result today is no-deal. The UK must plan for that sad outcome and her dramatic proposal to override the Withdrawal Agreement in respect of Northern Ireland is part of that planning. Both sides are fighting dirty in the count-down to final Brexit. EU hypocrisy in respect of ignoring treaties was remarked upon by maverick, but articulate Greek ex-Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis noting that France and Germany ignore EU state aid rules at the drop of a hat. The UK must defend itself against the EU’s “predatory diplomacy” in Ambrose Evans-Prichard’s words. There is still a chance of a last-minute deal, but time is ebbing away. Roll on 1 January 2021!

            

Another shaft of light is the retreat of BLM, to the dismay of the woke super-spreaders in our universities and in academia. The BLM movement had set off generous sympathy and support for minorities oppressed by brutal police action in the US or otherwise disadvantaged. In a pitch for popular support, after its bouts of statue removal, it had talked about the “football family” and how together crowds and players should “take the knee” to demonstrate solidarity. Then newspapers published the actual manifesto of BLM proposing, inter alia, the destruction of capitalism, the abolition of the police and the emptying of all jails – in other words the usual Hard Left claptrap. Suddenly the penny dropped. The BLM movement was not Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela incarnate but rather Karl Marx and Malcolm X disguised. The FA, with the support of many black players, ordered the removal of BLM slogans from players’ shirts and nobody is authorized to “take the knee”. Football is a conservative and apolitical pastime, ill-suited to Marxist discipline, so BLM was always on a loser. Let’s hope it fades away.

There is some cheer in the real world of sport. Arsenal had a good early season win but Leeds gave champions Liverpool an epic game in their 3-4 thriller. England bounced back to beat the Aussies in their ODI cricket series and Lewis Hamilton won yet another Grand Prix. Life isn’t so bad!

SMD

14.09.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

JOY ON THE WING

In this Limbo-Lockdown life we are living, we come to appreciate birds rather more – many come to see you and you do not need to make a huge or perilous effort to see them. So, I celebrate a clutch of British birds, not always the prettiest but easily remembered and much cherished. Of course, birds get a mixed press, they are unpredictable and coolly independent as Hitchcock reminded us in his 1963 The Birds (see clip below) and others will shudder at the memory of the pigeon lady of Central Park, NYC, in 1992’s Home Alone 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplpQt424Ls&ab_channel=Movieclips

A black-billed magpie in flight

I start with the Magpie as there are many here in Folkestone and, unlike many other breeds, its population is growing. I am not sure why, but lack of predators and protective laws must play a part. A member of the crow family, it is said to be a most intelligent bird, which can recognize itself in a mirror and use casual items as a tool. It is attracted to shiny objects and has a reputation as an aggressor and a thief – most delightfully captured in Rossini’s opera The Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra), whose overture is a perennial concert “lollipop”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYfaKAIf-SU&ab_channel=MannheimerPhilharmoniker.

Another breed of bird which is plentiful (maybe over-plentiful) here in Folkestone is the Seagull. They roost and nest in every spot they can find, usually high up on roofs and chimneys and they make plenty of noise, an unmelodic squawking. They swoop about and will quickly pinch a neglected sandwich when not dive-bombing you or your car with unpleasant bird-lime. They are not lovable birds with their beady eyes, surprising bulk and insolent manner, but they are an indispensable part of coastal living and we must live-and-let-live in the prescribed generous fashion.

Personally, they opened a door for me. In the early 1960s I read The Herring Gull’s World by Niko Tinbergen, a masterly description of a gull’s habitat and life-style. He was a father of the modern science of ethology and inspired me to build up at least a superficial knowledge of animal organization and its evolution into human traits. This led me to read the splendid books by the American dramatist and scientific populariser Robert Ardrey, notably African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative, both fascinating reads, and to read Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz’s On Aggression even though many of both’s assumptions have since been challenged. So, the seagull flies further than expected.

Seagulls loudly making themselves at home

I move on to the somewhat unloved Starlings, a very common garden bird but drastically declining nationally. I remember starlings in our Scottish garden, chasing blue-tits, thrushes and blackbirds away from the feeder, greedily gorging themselves. At a distance they look black but in fact they have a purply- green sheen.  Starlings are most famous for their spectacular “murmurations”, huge flocking legions near their roosts – often 5,000 birds and occasionally 30,000, a sight to behold.

A UK starling murmuration

The common Starling

 

When I lived in the Cotswolds, a regular visitor to our garden was the colourful Great Spotted Woodpecker, clicking her beak on the bark of trees searching for insects. Further afield, visits to the Hebridean island of Mull would include a short trip to Staffa, home of Fingal’s Cave, inspiration of Mendelssohn. Staffa hosts a colony of Puffins, those jaunty little birds who delight by their tameness.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

The sociable Puffin

My final British bird is altogether more formidable. The migratory Osprey or sea-eagle had become extinct in southern Britain in the 19^th century and extinct in Scotland in 1916. It was reintroduced with I pair in 1954, at Loch Garten in Spey-side, but by 1976 there were only 14 pairs, achieving a kind of break-through by 2001 to reach 158 pairs. There are few more thrilling bird-watching sights than an osprey dive-bombing into a lake catching a fish in its talons, (see below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqGKX7Eofy4&ab_channel=BBC.

To conclude, common in the Mediterranean, but rarely seen in Britain, is the Hoopoe. This beautifully crested bird greatly attracted our dear Cotswolds friend Philomena de Hoghton who was our first house-guest when we moved to Athens. She delighted in the hoop-hoop song of this proud little fellow. Happy memories!

Th splendid Hoopoe

        

SMD, 

5.09.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

GETTING ON

I am “getting on” (in years) and now and then I come to a land-mark. This Blog is actually my  500^th one, and since launch in July 2011 I have subjected my readers to an unremitting cascade of my views on politics, great historic figures, styles of architecture, cathedrals and churches, works of art, places to visit, the glories of Scotland, England and Greece and various other highways and byways. I thank my very kind readers for their patience and forbearance leading often to generous praise and only occasionally to raspberries, doubtless well deserved! The only bad news is that I am going to persist with my blog-writing, although you may see a slackening in its regularity!

An evocative view of the Statue of William Wallace in Aberdeen by His Majesty's Theatre

As this is my 500^th I will strike a happy note. I will sheath my poison pen, blunt my back-teeth, hold my tongue and find good in all men, although some will make me dig deep. I really do attach importance to “getting on” (with other people) – it is easy to make enemies but less easy to make friends. We are sociable beings and any obstacle to congeniality must be quietly overcome. Britain is a moderate country, in size, in climate, in political tradition and in common inter-action between its citizens – any display of extremism is best left unsaid. Vociferous expression of controversial opinions is deemed unwise. Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re (gently in manner, resolute in deed) was a Roman, and later a British, watch-word.

I am blessed with a supportive family. My lovely wife does not always agree with me but crucially we “get on” and are able to smooth over our little differences. My 3 sons are proudly independent and a generation ahead of me in attitude, yet they tolerate and even enjoy my peculiarities and age-encrusted enthusiasms, be they fragrant scallops, stirring patriotic songs, Six Nations rugby, wry ceremonial music by Purcell, University Challenge or schoolboy memories of games of conkers. Every man develops his own hinterland and uses it as a kind of reserve dynamo.

Looking outwards, my nation is gingerly making a great transition, leaving the EU, as democratically ordained, and developing new relationships in a fast-changing world. We hope for cordial interaction with our old EU friends and wish them well although their direction of travel is not ours. Inevitably our negotiations with the EU have been abrasive, there is much at stake on both sides. We share most EU values and recognise the fundamental importance of “getting on” in the medium term.

Our strongest ally historically is the USA, although the Trump Presidency has shaken many assumptions. A stranger to diplomacy or polite communication, populist Trump has nevertheless kept the US out of new military entanglements, overseen a strong economy, woken up complacent NATO members and even softened some Arab animus towards Israel. He could easily win a second term although the bien-pensant favour elderly Joe Biden. More than ever, a key aim of the UK is to “get on” with whoever is at the helm in Washington. Our bonds with the Old Commonwealth will strengthen as we develop a CANZUK bloc, hopefully to be joined by India and South Africa and others who share our democratic fundamentals.

Internally, the UK faces many challenges. The elephant in the room has been the Covid pandemic, throwing business, schools and the NHS into confusion. Our Conservative government has not performed well, slow to react initially and changing tack with regular U-turns. But the pandemic was unforeseen and the struggle to control it required talents notable in their absence. Boris’ style as a cabinet chairman rather than a chief executive has marginalized his contribution which must be hands-on. But his government is well entrenched and contains astute ministers, who will surely win through. Although I deplore her ruinous Scottish independence fantasies, I give credit to Nicola Sturgeon for running her devolved SNP government reasonably efficiently and decisively.

Finding common ground?

                                                                  

When the pandemic abates, people of goodwill should unite for a radical programme of reform. Surely a rejuvenated and inspiring role can be found for the moribund House of Lords, maybe a half-nominated and half-elected regional Senate. The raising of educational standards is a priority in our technological age and the elimination of deadening poverty and discrimination would remove an affront to our rich society. Equality of opportunity, high aspiration and material amplitude can be our bedrock as we face the glorious future. If we “get on” with our fellow-citizens, we can bring to fruition the dream of the poet, Robert Burns:

Then let us pray that come it may,

(As come it will for a' that,)

That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,

Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

It's coming yet for a' that,

That Man to Man, the world o'er,

Shall brothers be for a' that.

SMD

26.08.20

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2020

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