…and it’s all going to make us ill for a very long
time.
Trump, the one-man political plague of locust and
the Brexit botch are, jointly, the biggest blow to western democracy and social
cohesion in a generation. They obliterate and distract from the things that
actually matter. It’s as if someone deliberately blocked the toilets in the
biggest building in town and the public are so mesmerised that they haven’t
noticed the broken sewage works beginning to ooze and now there is a tsunami of
shit building up behind them as they gawp at the turds in front of them.
Whether it’s an air crash in Cuba killing 110 people
in a plane run by an airline that had prior safety concerns or yet another
school shooting in Texas – or the collapse of barely tentative talks with N
Korea after John Bolton shot is mouth off about ‘The Libya model’ for dealing
with N Korea or whether it’s the collapse of more UK institutions and
businesses as the hard right of the Conservative party bully and stamp their
feet for toxic Brexit – nothing that matters – nationally or internationally - is being dealt with.
There is a new outbreak of Ebola in DR Congo, Coral
reefs – one of this epoch’s most beautiful natural icons – are decreasing at an
alarming rate as seas warm and wildlife struggles against devastating human
pollution and dumped plastic. But nothing grabs the headlines (maybe briefly
the latest royal wedding) like another example of Donald Trump not being able
to spell or – Bill Gates’ revelation that the leader of the most powerful
country in the world and serial adulterer does not know the difference between
HIV and HPV.
And here in the UK with xenophobia and jingoism as
deeply embedded as a misdiagnosed tumour, there is no stirring, credible voice
raised against the obvious oncoming chaos. In many posts I’ve highlighted that decades of
privatisation have left Britain plundered and poor - just as we blunder into
Brexit. But these two socio-political dots are still not being joined up.
On the other side of the pond, the idea that Mueller
is going to swoop in and rid the US of the orange menace is so far wrong as to
be verging on lunacy. If the GOP won’t shift him nothing will and if corruption
and scandal and treason and sexual predation and misogyny and lying and
supporting fascists haven’t been enough for The Republican party, what on earth
do you think is going to do it? And those who think that Brexit can be reined
in with a big dose of common sense are worse than deluded. We forge ahead to
the cliff edge even as we can see it collapsing before us – as I said in another letter published by The
Independent 6 days ago -
In the past, although we cannot claim to have always
successfully elected people of talent and depth, intelligence and diligence –
they were usually people who gave a pretty good appearance of being such. We
seemed to want to be led by people who we could admire – people who we hoped
were better than our average. With the overwhelming of popular culture by
reality TV and social media and the rise of political populism – we want people
like ‘us’ - the worst of us. Hence – here in the UK we have a bunch of craven
spineless wishy-washy privileged non-entities. In the US there is a fat,
stupid, semi-literate, sexually revolting, cowardly greedy fat guy.
And that is why Trump will not be easy to get rid of
and Brexit will run to the bitter end.
Is this seriously the best that the foremost
democracy and the oldest modern democracy in the world can do?
The answer, sadly, seems to be YES.
*
If you are looking for summer reads, kindle versions of ALL my books are on offer at less than half price from tomorrow (wed 23rd June) until next week (wed 30th June)