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Things fall apart

Regular readers may have noted my prolonged silence of late but the seismic outcome of the May 7th elections in Great Britain has roused me from my Trump-induced torpor. Rendered temporarily speechless by the swirling madness of recent world affairs, I have been re-energised by the extraordinary turn of poltical events domestically. There can be little doubt in anyone's mind (apart, perhaps, from incumbent Labour Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer's) that the old 'two-party' system of politics in Great Britain (ie England, Scotland and Wales - Northern Ireland having a different system and not being involved in this particular electoral cycle), where power has oscillated between the Conservative and Labour parties for a century, is finally at an end. It has limped on in Westminster politics since Tony Blair's half-arsed devolution project of the late-1990s, but in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, nationalist parties have been empowered and in Scotland the Scottis...
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Hope and Experience - Austen homage

                                                                                                                                                                   Chapter I It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young man in possession of a decaying house must be in want of an architect. That was never truer than in the case of the young Lord Baramdene who found himself shivering in a bedchamber of his late uncle’s house, which he had but lately inherited and just now entered for the first time, seeking shelter from a raging winter storm whi...
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Coalition of the unwilling

Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has gained many admirers for his unequivocal "no to war" stance in relation to the joint US-Israel bombing of Iran. It is safe to say that Donald Trump cannot be counted amongst Sánchez's fan-base, saying "Spain has been terrible" and threatening to "cut off all dealings” with the country. One is tempted to observe that anything that annoys Trump should be counted a positive outcome and anyone who criticises him is likely to find themselves on the right side of history. Even Sir Keir Starmer, while signally lacking Sánchez''s clarity and charisma, has been cast in a more favourable light by provoking Trump's ire - and that is no small achievement. While we may well concur with Trump's assessment of Starmer as being "no Winston Churchill", history is also likely to conclude that Trump is no Franklin D Roosevelt. However, as leftwing and small 'g' green commentator, George Monbiot, h...
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Hemispheres of influence

When Marco Rubio tells the 62nd Munich Security Conference: "our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe", he is being uncharacteristically gracious but also disingenuous. In using 'Western Hemisphere' as a synonym for The Americas he betrays a narrowly skewed US perspective. No great surprise, I suppose, coming from the US Secretary of State, especially under the current 'America First' administration, but drawing arbitrary lines on maps is, and always has been, extremely problematic. To pull it off convincingly requires hegemonic power such as that exercised by the British Empire at its height or by the United States and Soviet Union after World War Two.  That world no longer exists and the US - along with the rest of the world - knows it. What follows, though, is quite literally up for grabs. Hence Rubio trying, somewhat desperately, to pitch the Trump White House's Monroe Doctrine-inspired outlook to its European ...
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Eastward ho!

Somehow, Starmer in China doesn't have quite the same ring as Nixon in China but his mission is still significant. The great 15th century Chinese explorer-admiral, Zheng He, led seven expeditions to the 'Western' or Indian Ocean. He brought back many trophies and envoys from more than thirty kingdoms, including Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) before being forbidden any further expeditions by the new Emperor, Hongxi, in 1424. This effectively put a stop to Chinese inquisitiveness about the world beyond its own borders and led to centuries of isolationism and introspection, leaving it ill-prepared to repel the mercantile, territorial and imperial incursions of Britain, France and the United States - with their unequal treaties, treaty ports and opium wars - in the 19th and early-20th centuries. For its part, the UK has not seen its Prime Minister visit China for eight years, the last to do so being Theresa May. Starmer's current visit, therefore, will probably be viewed, like C...
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The madness of King Donald

According to the old proverb, when you sup with the devil you should use a long spoon. This needn't, however, deter Keir Starmer from visiting Xi Jinping in China later this month, perhaps just make him a tad more cautious when he does so. Because the fact is, unpalatable as it may be, that we now need to bolster our ties with China if we are to have a hope in hell of countering the much greater danger presented by a madman in the White House. The fortuitous, if controversial, decision to green-light the new Chinese mega-embassy at Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London can only help to ensure Starmer receives a warmer reception in Beijing than might otherwise have been the case when he makes the first visit of a British Prime Minister since 2018. This is timely indeed as, having just listened to the entire rambling address of Donald Trump to the assembled delegates of the World Economic Forum in Davos, I have grave concerns for the future of the world while Trump remains in pow...
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