Wednesday 14 June 2017

Non-stop events

A long time ago a British Conservative prime minister, Harold Macmillan, was asked what he feared most as leader and he famously replied, or he is supposed to have famously replied: "Events, dear boy, events." These last few weeks it has all been about events. No head of government can wake up in the morning and say to himself or herself: "I think I'll have a nice quiet day today, nothing much in the diary, sod it, I'll go for a row down the river and have a picnic." Oh no, just when everything is ready, the sandwiches are made, the phone rings and BANG, the quiet day is over. For Trump, there hasn't been a quiet day since he arrived in the White House although he has managed a few holes on his favourite golf course. But basically, if it's not some latest Russia-related scandal, it's leaks galore in the Washington papers, missiles launched by Kim Jong-un, Syria needing to be Tomahawked, Merkel being grumpy, shootings all over the place etc etc. For Theresa May, as if nearly losing her job wasn't enough, today there has been the most ghastly tragedy in the block of flats that burst into flames in London, killing at least 12 people, the scandal of why this could have happened and who was to blame for not ensuring proper fire safety regulations, plus the never-ending talks with that DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) woman, Macron's crafty pitch for the UK to stay in the EU, and England losing against Pakistan in the semi-final of the world cricket tournament. It's all too much to bear. Quite why Theresa wants to hang on I don't know. I see that nice Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat leader, has just resigned. That didn't take him long and he didn't even have a bad election result. What is going on in our country? We're about as strong and stable as the Titanic! I would like someone in an important position to say: "Ok, to hell with all of those who voted to leave the EU, Brexit is now a banned word, we're staying with our European friends, and by the way we won't have Trump here on a state visit until he learns to be civil, and we want a new YOUNG, brilliant, charming, sweet-natured, visionary politician to lead our country, I don't care which sex or which party." There, then we can all be strong and stable together and look forward to a bright future.

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