…is a rhetorical question we like to ask.
More and more we ask it in all seriousness.
When, for example, peering at the peers in the House
of Lords and seeing a dodgy Tory-appointed Russian donor or a certain Ms Mone
who profiteered to the tune of many millions via dubious PPE contracts during
covid, we are incredulous – who are these people?
But in more up-front politics the question becomes
absurd in the extreme because the true response to ‘who are these people’ is
that we know exactly who they are and more importantly – many have been elected
by the people after the facts were public.
Let’s start with the obvious one. Donald Trump – the
77 year old convicted rapist and ex-president. Prior to his being elected it
was known that he was a multiple failed businessman/conman with an appalling attitude
to women and minorities. Once elected, the baseness of his intellect, his gross
venality, infantilism and general unfitness to walk the streets let alone hold
high office were thrust very definitely in our faces. He is now the GOP
candidate for this year’s Presidential race. And, shame on the Democrats by the
way, for not choosing a stronger candidate.
Here in the UK we have of course seen the
premiership of one Boris Johnson; a man who never missed an opportunity to be
unfaithful or dishonest. A man who surfed the sewers of both misogyny and
racism and somehow came out smelling – if not of roses – at least something
clearly acceptable to the British public.
Up here in Scotland we have dear old Alex Salmond
and his Alba party – think the UKIP of Scotland. Despite some of the appalling things
this new organisation has done – Alba candidates are treated like normal people
when it comes to press reporting. Some, I’m sure will get elected at the coming
local and national elections.
Alba was a party that openly welcomed a candidate
knowing he was an anti-vaxxer and had racist views against travellers and
appalling views regarding homeless people. Alex Arthur used dehumanising
language referring to homeless people as “pigs” (The Herald 30th March 2021) similar debasing language
used by Trump was widely and internationally condemned.
Then there is Salmond’s cosiness with Putin’s
pennies.
Salmond was publically deplored by all parties when
he refused to give up his RT programme even after the Salisbury poisonings and
was only separated from his doynaya korova (cash cow) after pressure following
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The programme Salmond hosted along with Ms Tasmina
any-party-that-will-have-me Ahmed-Sheikh was shunned by politicians of all hues.
The idea that Alba is a party interested in Scotland’s
future is so mad it cannot be ignored. Alba is not a ‘wing’ of the Indy
movement. An Alba Scotland would alienate anyone who cares about fairness,
decency, international credibility, minorities, loyalty and public standards.
ALBA is simply the Alex Loves Being Alex
party and is nothing to do with what is good for the rest of us.
Netanyahu – who, to my mind – is driven in his ongoing,
Western-sanctioned slaughter of Palestinians by one thing – to stay out of
prison which is where he seemed to be headed last autumn. America knew who/what
he was before they let him loose in Gaza.
We knew who Putin was before he invaded Ukraine. To
anyone who thinks Putin could not have been stopped I say there used to be a
you tube clip of Boris Johnson (then PM) sneering at his own defence advisors
when they told him there was imminent danger of Putin invading Ukraine. Johnson
is now re-cast as the erstwhile hero of that mess – mainly due to his own PR
exertions – which tells us as much about the failure of the media as about the hideousness
of the man.
But then – that brings us right back to the start of
this post – and the close ties of Russian Oligarchs to the Tory Party.
Who are these people? We know exactly who they are – and we let them in…