Labour isn't Working

Eighteen months ago, the UK dismissed the four failed Tory Governments led by 5 Prime Ministers that had overseen no growth, a massive decline in public services, austerity, a disastrous Brexit, and the worst response to Covid in Europe. The loss of world influence and respect, and spiralling immigration, simply added to the reasons to fumigate the lethal legacies of Johnson and Truss. The 2019 intake of Tory MPs had culminated in 24 being suspended or resigning amid corruption charges or failures to observe ministerial codes of practice. 

Keir Starmer was the beneficiary, gaining a massive 174 majority of MPs from only 33.7% of the vote. It was a tepid victory for a Prime Minister who was seen more as a steady hand than an inspiring leader. The subsequent collapse in support of the Labour Party to 20% has stemmed from poor financial management by the Chancellor, too many U-turns and a dictatorial centralising tendency by Number 10. Like many, I thought that Keir Starmer would provide some stability and begin to rebuild the UK's economy and public services. With his legal background, he would also bring justice to all those who had been let down by the previous governments, from the infected blood scandal, Hillborough disaster, the Post Office Horizon scandal and the Grenfell Tower fire, as well as restoring our relationship with Europe. 

He has made progress in foreign affairs, but has abandoned many Labour policies, reduced International Aid and made little progress on the cost of living and community care. Projects like the Heathrow expansion and the Oxford to Cambridge rail corridor suggest that there is still a London-centric bias in political decisions, whilst investment in rail modernisation in the north has been further delayed.

It's a Labour of Love to get any London government to support Manchester, even the train fares are designed to add friction to the relationship. There is only a curmudgeonly recognition by Starmer and his acolytes of Andy Burnham’s achievements in Greater Manchester.  Keir Starmer has plummeted down the popularity charts, aided by the rapacious right-wing press, social media and his own inability to inspire the electorate. His premiership is on a shoogly nail, and the prospect of the effervescent Andy Burnham returning to Parliament could not be entertained.

The vacancy created by Andrew Gwynn, the MP for Gorton and Denton, resigning, should have created the opportunity for the local constituency Labour Party to select who they thought would have the best chance of retaining a seat. It had a majority of 13,000, but is under serious threat from Nigel Farage and his plague of failed Tory MPs. Not so, the Labour Party showed once again that it is a centralising body. Its National Executive, including Keir Starmer, voted to prevent the Mayor of Greater Manchester from standing on the dubious grounds that it would cost too much to have an election for the Greater Manchester Mayor.  Since when has the cost of elections been a reason to ditch local democracy? Starmer's eyes narrowed as he tried to explain the reasons for the decision. He fooled no one; this was a blatant attack on a possible future rival.

The mendacity within the Labour Party had reached breaking point; London had stamped on Manchester's right to choose. Later in the day, there was some nemesis as Keir Starmer's beloved Arsenal were put to the sword by Manchester United. It was the first time I had cheered Manchester United since they won the European Cup in 1968. Starmer has rolled his last dice.

Walk Alone

 

Source of the River Forth

After 4 or 5 weeks of being housebound as I recovered from becoming bionic with a new hip, I have begun to take my legs for walks in familiar haunts. The occasional shopping trip started the comeback once I was able to ditch the crutches, and then I attended some exercise classes in the nearby community-run leisure centre. It was time for a walk on the wild side, so into the Trossachs forests, where I had run over 18.000 miles whilst wearing out my original hip. I did a couple of kilometres frolicking about on a dank winter's afternoon, taking photos of places I had run past on thousands of occasions. Walking alone seemed just right.

Loch Ard

Exit of Loch Ard

A couple of days later, I had met Gregor and Emily for a Sunday Lunch on an equally dull, drizzly day and decided to take a stroll around Flanders Moss on the way home. The chill wind and harsh, boggy, washed-out landscape had a bleak beauty. I ambled around with hands deep in the pockets of the insulated jacket and the hood up. This was reminiscent of hundreds of mountain walks, but with no gradient. That is what I am looking forward to next.

Flanders Moss Viewing Tower

Under the Boardwalk, having some fun

Carbon Capture

Flanders Moss below Thornhill

Trump's Dystopian Days - Series 2

Telling Journalists on Air Force One that he doesn't care about their safety

At this time of the year, the dark, damp days prompt a search for a TV series to binge-watch. You can relax in an armchair and sneak past Blue Monday. It started with The West Wing; in another year, the 62 episodes of Breaking Bad kept us going until February. We had Trump's first presidency - Series 1, the episodic ramblings of a real estate vendor, which culminated in the attack on the Capitol. We watched that episode live on a Saturday evening; it was compulsive viewing and far more violent and worrying than the pared-down Panorama version. 

In recent years, Ted Lasso. Slow Horses and This City is Ours have been the go-to series for January binge-watching. They are well-scripted and entertaining, but lack the random uncertainty and threat to global security that Trump's Dystopian Days - Series 2 provides. A pity that Hannah Waddingham, Gary Oldman or Sean Bean weren't in the cast of White House wannabes; they would have taken out Trump and his sycophantic numpties.

2026 has given us another series of The Traitors, but it is too contrived. It only partly captures the misguided vigour, braggardly behaviour and fleeting self-beliefs of President Trump's second coming. The series 2 episodes are released almost daily, aimed at creating as much chaos and conflict in the world as possible. Deflecting the media from issues he wants banished, like his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, his failure to secure a peace deal for Ukraine, the genocides in Gaza, the cost of living crisis in America, the stagnant economy and the cuts in government programs. It has resulted in a growing disenchantment with his second term in office, with the most recent opinion polls finding that two-thirds of the electorate believe he has raised the cost of living and gone too far with weaponising the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in many cities.

On the world stage, his rogue interventions have caused chaos on tariffs, so-called peacekeeping initiatives and interference in foreign governments in the Middle East, South America, Europe and most recently in Greenland. Not that these interventions are either considered or likely to be sustained, they are here today, gone tomorrow threats or, at best, flimsy statements on Truth Social, his social media platform. Truth Social must be the most bigly oxymoron ever.  Empathy, like truth, was never one of Trump’s strong suits. As he said to the journalists on Air Force One on his return from his UK state visit in September, "Fly safely, you know why I say that? Because I'm on the flight, otherwise I wouldn't care." There was far more moral integrity in Breaking Bad than Dystopian Days - Series 2 has ever given us, and at least Skyler tried to keep Walter White respectable, something Melania knows is impossible with the Donald.

Hopefully, his second reign of dystopian democracy will fizzle out as the mid-term elections approach. His popularity is waning, his ever more crazed interventions are the musings of an adult mutant kleptomaniac. The problem for world leaders and institutions, American cities, the Federal Reserve, universities, journalists, and Wall Street is how to play Trump.  His popularity is waning, his health is wobbling, and his timescale for action will be finished after the mid-term elections. Is it better to ignore his threats or face him off? Either way, it is more than probable that his utterings may come to nothing. 

By next year, he may be gone, and there will be a multitude of TV and Streaming Platforms commissioning new series on the idiosyncrasies of President Trump. The real question will be how much damage he has done to world peace, international aid and institutions like the United Nations and NATO and whether his America First policy has finally ended the American Dream. He currently rates as the second worst President ever. His dreams of Mount Rushmore and a Nobel Peace Prize are also a figment of a warped imagination. The entry of the word 'Trumpism' in the Urban Dictionary should be worth waiting for. Five years ago, I called him a Cockwomble , it would be a good synonym for Trumpism.

The Nobel Peace Prize Medal gifted by Mario Coriba Machado