HELLO FROM THE RSC IN STRATFORD

Picture from the Stratford Herald, the local news sheet. An early picture from the 2023 Royal Shakespeare Company production of As You Like It currently on the main stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. 

We are staying in Avonside which is not far from the theatre and quite close to the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare’s tomb is located.  

Holy Trinity Church Stratford-upon-Avon

The Theatre is just a bit further north about a 12 minute walk.

We are here until the 5^th August 2023 with the odd visit to London, now and again. The production received some quite good reviews from the Times and the Telegraph (4 stars out of 5) and the local papers. The Guardian was positive but only 3 stars. In any event the audiences seen to enjoy it and it’s great for Celia to be working in her 80^th year. Tee hee.I think she looks pretty terrific. There are some other quite good actors in the show as well.

TO MY FRIENDS IN AMERICA

Not being in the United States, what information I gather about the country comes from looking at various online journals, newspapers, YouTube and any number of other bits of media information from friends and relatives. I do not know anyone who favours Donald Trump, so any information garnered from such friends and relatives is quite one-sided.

 

I must admit I am predisposed to a one-sided view of Mr Trump. From the outset of his campaign to become President of the United States he has displayed every element of crass and crude behaviour, as well as a narcissism that can only be described as psychotic. He is the epitome of the schoolyard bully having been allowed to grow up into adulthood without ever having been checked or disciplined. His ego is so advanced that having inherited a great deal of wealth, he has somehow translated that fact, into his personal belief that he did it all by himself as a great deal maker. He did not make his fortune nor is he a deal maker. He has however, managed, by constant repetition of the falsehood, made a great many people believe he did. He has convinced the ignorant and the gullible that his fantasies are real. He does not let go of an idea that has become fixed in his head and he repeats it ad nauseum until people around him begin to believe it. He has so convinced himself of such a lie that his apparent sincerity in repeating it somehow enthralls those around him into his orbit. His supporters are therefore not your normal average citizen who may take issue with some things but generally stand by their man. His supporters have become acolytes so spell-bound that they have forgotten what independent thought might be, or else he has something on them so horrendous that they give into him regardless, or he has paid them. It is impossible to tell.

 

Why has Ted Cruz, who spoke in the most derogatory terms about Trump when running against him in 2016, become such a stalwart supporter? Why is Lindsay Graham, who at one time claimed ‘enough is enough’ now so devoutly behind him? Why has Kevin McCarthy, who initially was prepared to disown him after the January 6^th debacle, become so strong a defender? Why have so many who initially spoke out against him, come to revere him? Is it fear of his ‘base’? That number of surprisingly young people, maga supremacists and various conspiracy theorist like Q Anon and The Proud Boys? Whatever and whoever they may be, they are clearly armed and dangerous.

 

That the House of Representatives would seek to expunge the impeachments of Donald Trump is again astounding. What doublethink is this? That anyone criticising Mr Trump, for his previous affiliation with Russian hackers, or for any criticism, should be censured is a continuation of the nightmare that the House has become; yet, we have Marjorie Taylor Greene loudly proclaiming the Constitutional rights upholding freedom of speech? How does that make sense? It is a house divided. It is a house divided against itself. If nothing else, the evangelists amongst the representatives should be well acquainted with Mathew 12:22-28 and Mark 3:25.

 

Any attempt by Democratic representatives to speak reason, reality and truth goes nowhere. The forensic examination of the idiotic unsubstantiated statements of the likes of Boebert, Taylor Greene, Gaetz, McCarthy together with Senators Hawley, Graham and their ilk, leads to nothing. If anything, it increases their stubborn and  stupid entrenchment in supporting dishonour, deceit and criminality, else why do they protect the likes of George Santos?

 

I see the YouTube packages put up by TYT, Meidas Touch, Brian Tyler Cohen, David Packman and others. I see CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC broadcasts all referring to Trump’s big lie. I see articles in the Los Angeles Times online, Puck news, The New Yorker and others. I occasionally listen to KPFK in Los Angeles. They are all denouncing the lies and deceptions promoted by Donald Trump and the Republican Party members of Congress. All that stuff represents quite a substantial number of media which added together must reach a significant number of American citizens; however, it seems to have no effect.  I see the results of polls taken with regard to support for Trump. Even if convicted of all the charges contained in current indictments, an equally significant number of American citizens would still vote for and support him. His Republican Party ‘colleagues’ in Congress are even now doing the same in spite of the plethora of facts exposing the rather revolting character of this man.

 

There are clearly two Americas with very different views, but both claiming adherence to the Constitution. One is committed to a free and caring society, with all the social requirements that are essential to allowing freedom of worship, universal and unfettered education, guaranteed rights and access to health and necessary welfare, security and safety in the home and on the street, equitable relations between employer and employees, all under the protection of the bill of rights contained in the Constitution and the rule of law and duty of care. That includes  dominion over one’s own body. So long as one does not cause harm or distress to another, the individual’s right to choose their own path with respect and dignity is paramount.

 

Then there are the committed closed-minded nationalists who refuse to hear or listen to anyone who might make them doubt their certainty. They are loud and determined to run roughshod over any opposition, and by any opposition I mean anyone who does not approve of unfettered gun ownership, does not follow their form of worship, does not seek to interfere with a comprehensive liberal education, anyone who believes in diversity and real freedom of expression, anyone with an open mind. We saw an example of this during the 2020 election when a BBC reporter attempted to interview Taylor Greene, she walked away declaiming him a foreigner with no right to ‘interfere’ in American politics. It is the refusal to open the mind and not with fixed ideas of what they think is ‘American’. They claim to want to make America great. At what or how? Do they have any idea just what makes America great.  It is not isolationism, it is not bigotry, it is not waving a flag or carrying a gun, and shouting USA, USA, USA…It is not egocentric and narcissistic. It is not I AM.

 

What made America great was its open heart, its 'normal heart'. It is written into the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. It is written into the Gettysburg address with the blood of those it was spoken to commemorate. It is written on the beaches of Normandy and the Sands of Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal. It is written on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

 

What the maga people are doing is making a mockery of America. They are creating a cartoon fantasy world  completely at odds with its history. They do not know its history, but have swallowed some sort of myth that misinterprets everything about the past and can speak only in slogans They have no substance of any kind. They are all mouth and no trousers.

 

I do not know how these americans will go about dividing the nation. A realignment of States? A return to the Mason Dixon line? Allow a division down the Mississippi with one group on the left bank and the other the right? Or just let the Magas have the middle keeping the east and west coasts for civilisation.?

 

If America is going to survive as America it had better get its act together pretty soon, you have but 16 months left. The issues of 160 years ago have grown in complexity, but are still very much the same. Will that government of the people, by the people, for the people perish from the earth?

SEVEN YEARS ON

When I woke up on the morning of Friday the 24^th June 2016 the exchange rate for the Pound against the Euro was £1 for €1.305, by the 30^th June 2016 it was €1.209 and by 7^th July it fell further to €1. 171 a drop of 10.26% in a fortnight. It now stands at €1.166 after seven years. In November of 2015, eight years ago it had reached €1.4407 per pound. The strength of the currency was such that one could travel into the eurozone and have 20% greater purchasing power than in the UK. It climbed back up to €1.21 in March of 2022 for a brief period but has now dropped again. It was almost at parity in March of 2020 at  €1.06.   In any event it is clear that the last seven years have hardly been a great success.

 

I don’t know just what currency exchange rates indicate about economies generally, but when travelling abroad it gave one a certain confidence that one could afford that little bit extra. A nicer hotel, an extra bottle of wine at supper, any number of little treats that make travel much more pleasant. On top of it all, once on the continent one could travel from the tip of Spain to the borders of Belarus, nearly 2500 miles, without the need to show a passport or suffer a customs inspection. You had the freedom to roam about virtually the whole of Europe. Indeed, just over seven years ago a certain Ms Liz Truss stated:

 

"I don't want my daughters to grow up in a world where they need a visa or permit to work in Europe, or where they are hampered from growing a business because of extortionate call costs and barriers to trade. Every parent wants their children to grow up in a healthy environment with clean water, fresh air and thriving natural wonders. Being part of the EU helps protect these precious resources and spaces."

 

Just what happened to change her thinking is anybody’s guess, but whatever it was, it must have been something akin to a stroke, given what her eventual premiership led to. On top of this, we recently had the new Prime Minster telling the citizens of Northern Ireland that they have the best of both worlds, almost unfettered access to both Europe and the United Kingdom. How good is that?

 

The current polls on the relationship with the EU in the United Kingdom are mixed. A rapprochement is most definitely a favoured view, although there are still a number of diehards who cling to a very faded belief that the United Kingdom can go it alone. Perhaps it was that very confidence that one felt in those years of 2015/2016 when the pound was riding high, that gave them the illusion that all was right with the UK and its economic clout, and so they voted to leave. That clout was only possible so long as it remained part of the European Community. It had one at the best seats at the table and could have used that to much greater effect. It whined and moaned about not getting its way on certain matters, gave up on grown-up proper negotiations and diplomacy and arrogantly left the room. Instead of walking out through the front door into the sunlight, it took the wrong door and ended up in the toilet.

 

I know there are world-wide issues that have greatly affected the United Kingdom as a whole. The war in the Ukraine and the Covid Pandemic. The resulting economic problems have caused severe anxieties across the globe; yet in the United Kingdom, those problems have been exacerbated by the withdrawal from the European Union. It is clear that the eastern European conflict and the pandemic must be resolved on a global basis. In addition, people are being displaced across the world. It is only by coming together that further catastrophe can be avoided or at least made less painful.

 

Everything that has happened in the last three years has indicated the need for international cooperation; yet, rather than make the effort, the entrenchment of isolationism and self-serving populism is on the rise. Any form of protest is being legislated out of existence through scaremongering bigotry and executive orders by politicians who are without scruple of any kind. How the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom can tolerate Suella Braverman is beyond comprehension. How he can stand in front of people claiming he is delivering for the people of the country by halving inflation, improving the National Health Service, and tackling immigration, is a mystery. It is all words without conviction. The only thing his repeated rhetoric is doing, is disguising the continuing oppressive legislation that is turning this country into an Orwellian nightmare. The Organisation LIBERTY has launched legal action against the Home Secretary for overriding Parliament on protest powers. I would have thought that is where the Labour Party should concentrate its effort.

 

The Liberty website is worth a look: 

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/liberty-launches-legal-action-against-home-secretary-for-overriding-parliament-on-protest-powers/

 

Why are we still having this problem?

 

Elsewhere problems are hotting up for Mr Putin and Mr Trump. Dissension in the ranks and potential mutiny in Russia and early and speedy trial motions for Trump, which may force him to trial in early December. His interview on Fox news with Brett Baier is also causing him some difficulty:

This is an interview with commentary put out by Midas Touch on YouTube:

WHAT DID THE PRIMIE MINISTER KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?

I have now read the report from:

House of Commons Committee of Privileges

Matter referred on 21April 2022 (conduct of

Rt Hon Boris Johnson):

Final Report

Fifth Report of Session 2022–23

Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report

Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 15 June 2023

 

The opening summary of the report – advisedly repetitious so as to confirm and emphasise the actions taken by the committee – paragraph 7 states:

 

7. We took written evidence, submitted with statements of truth, from witnesses present at the relevant times, to inform us of what Mr Johnson would have known at the time of his statements to the House. We heard oral evidence under oath from Mr Johnson. In response to Mr Johnson’s proposed reliance on material that was not supported by a statement of truth, we ourselves obtained further evidence on his behalf. We relied only on first-hand evidence and not on hearsay. We considered evidence supplied by the Government, including emails, WhatsApp messages and photographs. We received a limited number of WhatsApp messages from Mr Johnson. We paid a visit to No. 10 to inspect for ourselves the locations of the various gatherings to which Mr Johnson referred in the House. We considered all of the evidence that we received and came to conclusions about the facts.

 

As I stated in my previous blog, members of the Committee who had been to Downing Street before, would know just what the situation might have been like and indeed, as I surmised, all the members of the Committee inspected the locus in quo. What else could they do given the explanations made by Mr Johnson about his conduct and movements?

 

One must keep in mind that the purpose of the committee was to determine, not that certain events took place in Downing Street in contravention of guidelines and rules in force during the pandemic lockdown (that was a given) but whether or not Mr Johnson lied to the House about the conduct of those events. He repeatedly made statements denying any wrongdoing had taken place. He claimed those statements were made as a result of advice he had received about the matter, and that so far as he knew at the time those statements were made, they were accurate. That they turned out to be wrong was unfortunate but not deliberate on his part. He firmly believed, hand on heart (he claimed) what he was saying was true; therefore, he is not responsible by reason of ignorance.

 

The Committee saw Mr Johnson as the Prime Minister. Their brief was to determine just how ignorant the leader of the Government could have been. What did the Prime Minister know and when did he know it?

 

We have all been here before. Nixon and his Watergate coverup. Tony Blair and his “I believed what I was doing was right” in relation to non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Is it something in the water these ‘leaders’ drink that turns to arrogance and narcissism? Is it “If I believe it, it must be true”? Boris knew it from the first 'cheers!'

 

What the Commons Committee of Privileges determined after seeing, hearing and reading all the evidence they were given, was that it was not ignorance but deviousness. Mr Johnson’s own employment history of being fired for deception was only repeating itself. He lied and lied again. Regrettably it was in the most important job in anybody’s life.

 

Whoever is Prime Minister, president or ruler of any kind, is important not just in their life but in all our lives.  What they do in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, France, Turkey, Hungary, Myanmar, China and everywhere else affects the quality of our lives. The cost-of-living crisis is everywhere, but exacerbated more specifically in the United Kingdom by Brexit. The National Health Service is being destroyed by the governments of the last 13 years. This is all part of Boris Johnson’s and his predecessors’ legacy.

 

What is interesting is the manner in which Mr Johnson was finally expunged. It was a simple thing. Were the people in Downing Street having a few too many after hours knees ups? Without a moments thought Boris denied it all, as was his usual approach to stuff he thinks of as trifling; but, a few tabloid guys, who love this kind of stuff, after about a year, got hold of the photos and video nonsense and it all came dribbling out. All so long ago they cried, who cares about silly parties? And that was the mantra, all very silly and we have cost of living and Ukraine to worry about. Boris even hot footed to support the Ukraine for a great photo op as the first foreign leader on the scene. Isn’t he marvellous? Stop being silly going on about something so last year. The repeated assurances in the face of glaringly obvious pictures raised questions of ethics and in due course he lost his mojo and to top it off the Committee of Privileges was brought into action. It became a matter of truth. The committee’s relatively short but forensic examination of the question punctured the ego and the resultant petulance overflowed with accusations of witch hunt and kangaroo court just as Mr Trump has done in the United States. In fact, Mr Trump has written the book on this stuff. Like Trump, Mr Johnson still has his supporters, who seem not to have taken in what the report actually says. For god’s sake, just look at the pictures if you can’t read.

 

What is so silly is that all he had to say, at first time questioned, was “There are some questions. I’m looking into it and changes will be made”. He could have waffled his way out of it for years. It is easier for him to lie.

 

Mr Trump has been twice impeached. The United States’ Congress’s version of the Committee of Privileges. It is, sadly, a far more complicated process and conviction requires at least two thirds of the Senate, or 67 Senators, to agree on a finding of guilt. Mr Trump survived because of party lines. Here, Mr Johnson faced a group of seven MP’s, four from his own party who spent a year looking into the matter. This was no quick fix. Their recommendations now go before the House for approval. Party lines have been shelved and each MP will vote with their conscience. A free vote and a simple majority will settle things.

 

The United States Constitutions have put up such barriers to safeguard the integrity of the individual, that it has become almost impossible to deal with a miscreant in the shape of a Donald Trump. It was never contemplated that such an individual, a chronic liar and psychotic narcissist would ever be in such a position of authority, let alone be elected President.

 

I am sure that there are many American citizens who would relish the institution of a Committee of Privileges to report on the flotilla of lies put out by Mr Trump, leading to his being expunged from the American landscape.  As a result, various Justice Departments will have to bring indictments and prosecutions to successful conclusions, for anything like that to happen. Even then it is not certain that millions won’t vote for him. He will exhaust every legal protection offered by the constitution he seeks to dismantle. What a country. What do we know? We’ve known it for years.

THE JOHNSONIAN VERSION OF I'LL BE BACK

Friday 9th June 2023:
It is difficult to know where to begin. The British Prime Minister’s visit to the United States firmly confirming the United Kingdom no longer has the influence it once had on the world stage. It still maintains a large public profile but I am of the view that its influence is waning year on year.

According to US News and World Report (which now operates entirely online and has been publishing news, consumer advice, rankings and analysis for some years) on the overall ranking of best countries, the United Kingdom is at number 8, below Switzerland, Germany, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Japan and Australia. The analysis claims:

The United Kingdom is a highly developed nation that exerts considerable international economic, political, scientific and cultural influence. Located off the northwest corner of Europe, the country includes the island of Great Britain – which contains England, Scotland and Wales – and the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The country’s role on the global stage faces new questions as the nation has withdrawn from the European Union. The Brexit process sets out new rules for how the U.K. and the European bloc will operate with each other. For example, the freedom to live and work between the U.K. and EU has come to an end and U.K. citizens will need a visa if they want to stay in the EU more than 90 days in a 180-day period.

The journal is more on the conservative side in its reporting, so when one see phrases like “The country’s role on the global stage faces new question as the nation has withdrawn from the European Union”, one must take pause.  It is now clear, after Mr Sunak’s meeting with President Biden, that its role has diminished and is in decline.

It is no longer a world banking hub.. The breakaway from the EU has seen to that. It now seeks to be some sort of CAIA or Central Artificial Intelligence Agency and a leader in making electric vehicle batteries, which is nothing more than a mobile phone battery, only several thousand times bigger. Is that going to save the day?

VW's  batteries, rather like a big Nokia battery

As to the United States the ex-President has now been indicted on some more serious charges than payments of hush money. What I do not understand is why it is taking so long for the State Of Georgia to indict him for attempting to pervert an election, and why the United States Justice Department has not indicted him for sedition and inciting to riot. The man’s entire body and skeletal structure is held together by deception, deceit, dishonesty, prevarication, mendacity and dissimulation. I suspect one of the reasons he will not go before a court of law and take the witness stand is that he would commit perjury by simply opening his mouth. His arrogance and narcissism is such that he could probably take a lie detector test and pass  because he believes what he is saying is real. Trump is a walking advert for “Welcome to Fantasy Land”. I’m sure he and Disney would get along very well, particularly in the relationship with Mr DeSantis.

Saturday 10th June 2023

Whiile trying to review the 37 counts in the indictment against Donal Trump, which is apparently detailed in a document of 49 pages, I note that Boris Johnson has decided  to  stand down from Parliament. He has  quit the House of Commons with a Trumpian style narcissistic rant blaming everybody but himself.  He too claims conspiracy against him and cries of kangaroo court proceedings. He complains he has been convicted without a shred of evidence. How could the committee not believe him when he claimed his comments, whilst admittedly misleading, were made on the best advice that he firmly believed what he was saying was true?

Let us reflect. I have never been inside downing street. I have no idea of the layout or how proximate some areas and rooms are located in relation to others, but many members of the committee (the majority of whom are member of the Conservative Party) have been and know exactly what one can and cannot see when in the building or the garden at the rear. Given the photographic evidence and their own common sense over what can or cannot be seen and heard in Downing Street, and assuming that Mr Johnson is not deaf or blind, they  chose not to believe him and his denial of what was clearly obvious. Most of the general public thought he’d got it wrong  on the photographic evidence alone.  Clearly Mr Johnson, like Mr Trump, has no idea of what evidence actually consists of. Statements made, pictures taken and exhibits found, together with eyewitness accounts generally make the case. Mr Trump and Mr Johnson have made so many statements (many of them contradictory and without foundation, coupled with the fact - a word I use advisedly -that they do not read anything of importance put before them or actually listen to advisors) that they condemn themselves by simply opening their mouths. 

What is most astonishing is the number of people who are willing to swallow their farrago of nonsense and tissue of lies.  That some members of the public, as well as Parliamentarians, fail to see through the deception and the braggadocio,  and interpret what they see as charisma, is beyond astonishing. Is it any wonder that fraud and con artists have swelled out of the woodwork to inundate the internet with their poison stealing millions of pounds from the unsuspecting and trusting  individuals who happen to fall for their scams?

The fact that they have achieved high office having duped so many of the electorate as well as political colleagues is shameful. As a result it has created division and mistrust. Their disregard for honesty and integrity has lowered all forms of scrutiny allowing miscreants of all sorts into positions requiring the highest degree of personal conduct. It has created a population growing ever more suspicious of all public servants as well as their neighbours. Who or what can one trust? This is not how we should be living our lives.

The mere fact that Mr Johnson hints in his tirade that he may once again seek public office is terrifying. What is more terrifying is that Mr Trump continues to seek high office and, despite the finding by a jury that he is a misogynist and sexual deviant, despite having been indicted for serious criminal acts of perverting the course of justice and misusing funds, despite all that, he continues to be supported by an astonishing array of politicians and millions of the American electorate who seem to care nothing about loosing their souls. What amounts to a wholesale misappropriation of the constitution of the United States is likely to be achieved through the ballot box. The Republican Party are being led like lemmings over the precipice. The trouble is, the rest of the world will suffer as well. Being President of the United States does carry with it a great deal of global responsibility as well as domestic. That it should once again fall to the likes of  a Trump is nauseating in the extreme.

As to Boris Johnson, we may not quite have seen the back of him; but, with his parting shot, is it not clear that Mr Sunak’s only real choice is to call a general election now?

REMINISCENCE AND 12 YEAR CYLCES

Tuesday 6th June 2023:
Seven years ago Celia and I were in the Cotentin, Peninsula, France in the town of L’Etang Bertrand. We woke up to the news on the 24th June 2016 that the United Kingdom had voted to leave the European Union. It was a disastrous day. Seventy-Nine years ago today, Operation Overlord was launched. Celia and I visited the various beaches. Standing on Omaha Beach one can look across the bay all the way to Le Havre which is 50 miles away, however one need only look towards Ouisterham to see the full landing area which was a mere 30 miles wide. It may sound a good distance, but when standing on the beach and looking east it is remarkable how close it all seems.

The view from Omaha Beach landing looking east

There were no ghosts whilst walking along the sand, but then I was not there in 1944. I can only imagine what it must be like for someone who had been there then to walk along the beach now. Looking from the water’s edge towards the land, one can see not an inkling of what might have been there on that day.

Wednesday 7th June 2023
On that day, my father was 36, my mother was 31 and I was one year and nine months. The impact of the events of that day, and the subsequent year to May 1945, resonated throughout my parents’ lives and consequently on my own upbringing. Their teenage journey to America around 1920, from a war-torn Hungary to New York, effectively coming of age in the crash of 1929. The next twenty years were probably the most eventful years of their lives. Indeed, by the time they got married in 1949, age 41 and 36 they had three kids aged 10, 8 and 6.

The seeds of their political views were sown in the 1920’s, fully grown by 1929, reinforced by the 1930 depression era, and practically carved in stone by the aftermath of the second world war. The revelation of the holocaust and yes, the sacrifices of the citizens of the Soviet Union with nearly 27 million people dead, both civilian and military, from all war-related causes, were not to be ignored. They worked exceedingly hard so that their children would not go through any of the difficulties they faced, all the while supporting the political left, and somehow, behaving like gypsies dragging their kids all over the United States and Western Europe, with a brief flurry in the Middle East.

I still have no idea how they managed it all the while exhorting us to support the  proletariat. I grew up eating in restaurants and Hotels across Europe, in Paris, Basle, Zurich, Stuttgart, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Rome, Venice, Naples, Capri, Madrid, Seville, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Cannes, Nice, Biarritz, Zagreb, Belgrade, London, Guildford, Llandudno, Haifa, and many other places and places in between. Quite apart from New York, Miami, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and yet more places in between. I cannot count the number of churches, cathedrals, monuments, museums, castles,  galleries, theatres, etc I was  taken to. I even went to school, or rather several schools.

As you can see, we travelled a lot. I also believe we were the only house on South Rodeo Drive to have jars of cucumbers pickling in the sun on the front windowsills. I should add that my parents were not the only leftists in Beverly Hills, nor indeed the only nomads. All that travel had taken place in the seven years between 1949 and 1956 when my brother Ted and I enrolled at Beverly Hills High School. I was 14 in September of that year, only twelve years on from the events of the 6th June 1944.

It should be noted that 1956 was a momentous year in itself. The Suez crisis, the Hungarian revolt, John Osborne’s Look Back In Anger opens at the Royal Court, Nikita Khrushchev denounces Stalin, Fidel Castro and followers land in Cuba, Burgess and MacLean surface in Moscow, and John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Claude Shannon, and Nathaniel Rochester assemble the first coordinated research meeting on the topic of Artificial Intelligence. These are but a few of the events which will have many repercussions in later years.

Another 12 years later is a whole other story. By this time I am in London. 1968 is something else again. The months of May and June have a lot to say for themselves. Indeed, 12 year cycles from 1944 seem to engender dramatic events, 2016 being an instance in point. But what about the proletariat ?

As I am at present in Stratford-upon-Avon, that will have to do for the nonce, so more of this anon. 

A SHIFT TO THE RIGHT ?

I have read a number of articles by many different people commenting on the lurch to the right of many current governments. What is surprising is that these administrations have been elected in the course of seemingly free elections.

There is a piece by Simon Tisdall in the Guardian dated 4th June 2023 entitled:
Europe’s lurch to the  right rolls on. Only unity on the left can stop it.
The article is headed:
Recent polls in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Finland tell the story of voters swayed by fear and prejudice. Progressive parties - take note Keir Starmer - need a clear, principled agenda to turn the tide.

Mr Tisdall  states inter alia:
“Each country is different, its circumstances unique. Yet a broad pattern is discernible – and it’s not difficult to trace. The banal common denominator is that parties of the European left, hard and soft, are too fractured and fractious to build winning coalitions that offer convincing alternative solutions to voters’ problems. Like Spain and Italy, recent election outcomes in Greece, Turkey and Finland suggest the dominant issues for electorates are the cost of living, energy and inflation. Other shared worries include security (foreign and domestic), migration, climate and environment, and national identity (loosely defined).”
He goes on:
“It’s not as though rightwing conservatives, populists, nationalists and assorted radicals and extremists have all the answers. Anything but! Where they hold office, as in the UK, Hungary and Poland, they are often clueless and divided, too. But centrist and leftist parties are struggling to convince voters they can do any better.”
After recent elections in Spain, he states:
“the far-right Vox Party…the third largest party nationally and distorting echo chamber for the Francisco Franco fascist era, trebled its share of councillors last weekend. Vox’s success partly relies on a favoured hard-right tactic, used across Europe: the weaponisation of ethnic, racial, gender and regional difference. Its particular targets are Basque and Catalan nationalist parties. Guess who were among the first to congratulate Vox? Meloni and Hungary’s autocrat, Viktor Orbán.”
He concludes:
“The radical right’s resilience should ring alarm bells in Britain, too, which, despite itself, is not immune to European trends. By shifting rightwards in hopes of winning power in 2024, Starmer’s Labour risks empowering its opponents. Better to draw a line like Sánchez, Spain’s socialist leader, then set one’s own agenda, offer a clear choice and trust voters to decide. It’s not that complicated. Unity, plus well-defined, principled policy programmes, is the way the left stops losing – and learns to win again.”
(You can read the whole article at:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2023/jun/04/europes-lurch-to-the-right-rolls-on-only-unity-on-the-left-can-stop-it)

Whatever can be said about unity may well be the path to power; however, what puzzles is the idea that one can weaponise ethnic, racial, gender and regional differences to stimulate fear and prejudice in order to persuade the electorate to actually support the purveyors of such tactics. So far as I can tell, most governments (in particular western Europe and the Americas) claim to support freedom, of speech, of religion, or race, of gender as the highest ideals of a progressive society. Laws are enacted in order to discourage and indeed criminalise such prejudice and hate; yet, despite holding up  these ideals, in order to gain votes and thereby power, the far right stimulates the very opposite behaviour. How is this possible, and why does it succeed?

Is it that, despite the higher ideals of society, the majority of the electorate are unified by the far right’s appeal to their baser instincts? Is it that the unity of the far right overshadows any unity on the centre or left of the political spectrum? Are the left so fractured that they are incapable of coming to some common consensus?

I have been pondering just what is the make-up of the British electorate. According to government statistics, the current socio-economic classification of the adult population aged 16+ is as follows:
Managerial, administrative and professional occupations.   33.0%
Intermediate occupations.                                                            22.0%
Routine and manual occupations.                                              28.8%
Full time students.                                                                           7.7%
Never worked/long term unemployed.                                       8.5%

Most of the top group is located in London and the south east of the country. As to the rest it is difficult to say. Of that top third there are surely a number of Labour Party supporters, and I would have thought the rest of the hoi polloi would lean towards the Labour Party, but that is clearly not the case. Suppositions are not reliable evidence at all. As an example, in the Dagenham and Rainham constituency Labour Party MP Jon Cruddas was elected with a majority of 293 in 2019 from a majority of 4652 in 2017. In the 2016 referendum 70.3% voted to leave the EU. Indeed the east end of London including Ilford North, Barking, Erith and Thamesmead, and Eltham, whilst reelecting Labour MPs voted to leave the EU.

How the British electorate will vote in any coming election is difficult to predict despite the polls. Will they succumb to fear and prejudice and create a Conservative majority or create a minority Labour Government supported by another party in coalition. Either way there is no guarantee that a left of centre social agenda is on the cards. Will a Labour majority or coalition repeal the various bits of recent legislation that have ripped the constitution apart and created what can only be described as a framework enabling an authoritarian state? I wonder.

It is however clear that Mr Tisdall’s comment “By shifting rightwards in hopes of winning power in 2024, Starmer’s Labour risks empowering its opponents” is indeed a worry. Starmer’s attempts at keeping all those who voted both labour and leave on his side are not at all reassuring. Perhaps, now that Brexit, having been promoted by fear and prejudice at the outset, is at last being seen as the large failure it always was, Mr Starmer can unify the Labour Party into the social left of centre government it deserves. Perhaps even more left than some might suppose. I wonder.