At the beginning of 1964, the Winter Olympic were held in Innsbruck, Austria, just over the hill, so to speak, from Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy where the current Winter Olympics are taking place. Also in the first week in January, there were armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians in the Panama Canal Zone precipitating a major international crisis, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers.
Also in that year, in South Africa, the Rivonia Trial had begun and Nelson Mandela made his “I am prepared to die” speech. He and seven others were later sentenced to life imprisonment. Martin Luther King received the Novel Peace Prize. The bodies of two hitchhikers, who were kidnapped and killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, were found during the search for three civil rights activists who had also been killed by the KKK in Mississippi. There were race riots in Philadelphia and in Jacksonville, Florida, during a tour of the United States, John Lennon announced that the Beatles will not play to a segregated audience. The Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is released by the Arab League and Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as leader of the Soviet Union; Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assume power. The last judicial hangings in the United Kingdom are executed.
All in all, in 1964 there were a lot of problems, and events, not too dissimilar to the current year. I was 21, going on 22, demonstrating against the House un-American Activities Committee who had arrived as a result of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkley campus where Police had arrested 800 students. I could see FBI agents (easily recognisable) taking pictures of the demonstrators, and I presume there is a photo of me in an FBI archive. That’s another story.
So getting back to this opening week of February 2026, where does one begin? A week in politics is indeed quite a long time. Many people going from hero to zero and some people, already at zero, plummeting to even greater depths. Political leadership seems to be at rock bottom. In the United Kingdom, mistakes are made, and the general public is disenchanted. Yet the polls indicate an extraordinary attention being paid to the most vile side of current British politics in the shape of the Reform Party, run by a ex public school bully bigot, who has been outed by numbers of his fellow students. In the light of this obviously hateful background, how is it he can possibly be supported? If Peter Mandelson, a gay man, can be so vilified for just knowing Mr Epstein, how is it Mr Farage is excused such aggressive venality in his youth, which has clearly stayed with him, given how he refuses to apologise and sticks with denials.
What can people possibly be thinking when answering pollsters with positive support for Reform? Has the British Public lost perspective? Has it somehow lost all sense of decency or shame? Does what is happening in the heartland of the United States, the killing of civilians protesters for standing up for civil rights, have no effect? Do they not see that our own civil rights are being endangered by a Trump supporting mouthy clown? What is happening? There are so many questions and unhealthy disturbing distractions, that it seems impossible to find ways to cope. On the one hand the destruction continuing in Ukraine, Middle East, Middle America and Africa and on the other hand, as a British Citizen, domestic politics in the UK over budgets, inflation, immigration, health service, health care, housing, racism, misogyny and representative leadership, gives one pause for thought. Is there anything to worry about?
It appears the collection of one disgraced man’s papers and memorabilia has catapulted public resentment and anger over two continents. His deceit, proclivities and, seemingly, close associations with pubic figures and influencers has these same figures scurrying around like rats deserting a sinking ship. Many, if not most, are being protected by the sycophancy of the United States Department of Justice towards one particular well publicised and close associate (who claims to have dissociated himself from Epstein long ago). In order to protect him they dare not reveal other prominent and influential individuals for fear of the entire structure falling down around them. So they dissemble and lie to the public claiming they are transparent and upholding the Constitution of the United States.
Yet, Donald Trump is already a convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender. How is it that all is forgotten and set aside? His association with another sex offender is hardly surprising. Like Farage’s bullying bigotry, Putin’s and Netanyahu’s barbarism, all is dismissed as if it never happened. I would love to be told that I have got it all wrong and that I have misrepresented and completely misunderstood what is going on. I am eager for another rational point of view.
I confess I had belief back in Los Angeles of 1964, although it was cracking after the assassination of John F Kennedy. There was a sense of hope watching those press conferences with him, during which he answered questions with respect and articulate thought. A president who may have dodged a question now and again but never attacked or vilified the questioner. Indeed, despite the difficulties one could understand the press corps saying “Thank you Mr President” at the end of a briefing, and they meant it. The loss of grace, humour and simple intelligence in that office or any political office is sorely missed. It may surface now and again, but rarely. Mind you, some of the press might roll back a bit of the arrogance.
The following are, in my view, well woth a listen. In paticular the meeting in Paris (secoond film - conference 12).
