Politics

Politics Are Screwed

I've had a lot of conversations with French friends recently about Brexit and politics more generally. I've explained that, in my view, politics in the UK has never been in a worse state in my lifetime. It's not just the lack of politicians of discernible stature, which I've commented on before, but the state of the major political parties at a time when we needed them all to be strong. The Labour party has just re-elected a leader who seems firmly intent on a Marxist agenda that the electorate at large will never accept and who lacks any credibility in Parliamentary debates. For that very reason he has split the party in two. The conservative party is also split in two, between those who want a °hard° Brexit, with no trade agreement with the EU, and those who want some kind of compromise. In effect; it's a split between the extreme right and the middle-right of the party The Liberal democrats, who normally occupy the middle ground, are barely visible and seem not to want it. It's a very bleak picture for anybody but the rich.

My French friends recount a similar tale. The current President, Hollande, is universally reviled. However, none of moderate persuasion wants either Sarkozy or Le Penn; and nobody can see any viable alternatives. Immigration is a major issue here as elsewhere and, if it came to a straight fight, Sarkozy would probably be voted in to keep Marie Le Penn out. Nobody wants that but nobody can see an alternative. Italy, Germany, Hungary and other European countries are in a similar state.

In the USA Trump, who is seen anywhere but in the USA as a dangerous clown, is not that far off being elected. None of the Americans I know can see Trump winning but then nobody in the UK seriously thought the UK would leave the EU. And none of the Americans I know really want Hilary Clinton, they just see no alternative.

All this is at a time when the conflict in Syria could trigger a global conflagration and when Putin in Russia, who has said the former USSR should never ave been broken up, is acting like a testosterone fuelled adolescent and seems to want to recreate it. Pitt the Younger, on his deathbed, lamented the state he left his country in. Anybody now might lament the same of the world.