I sit here waiting for the Chilcot report to be published. I was wondering why I had so little memory of the events leading up to the Second Iraq war and I realised that I was living in rural Southern Ireland at the time and the whole thing seemed a world away. I had pretty much disengaged from politics. As a foreigner living in a country with a difficult past I did not think it entirely appropriate to engage with the political process. Besides, the difference between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael was indecipherable to an outsider and reflected which side your family had been on during the civil war. I lived about quarter of a mile from the birthplace of Michael Collins, but this did not sway me one way or the other. As in so much of rural England the more left leaning parties were pretty well non existent, and it was surprising how despite having proportional representation, the TDs (MPs) were all very locally based, as if personality and origin trumped political party. I suppose the party with which I felt the closest idealogical links would have been Sinn Fein, were it not for that elephant in the room, the fact that I was British.
As I wait I will reflect on the events of yesterday. The Fox has gone and so has the Crabb, leaving only the Gove and Mrs Leadsom to take on Mother Theresa. The prospect of any one of them becoming Prime Minister does not appeal. Whichever one prevails it will still be down to the party faithful to decide which of the final two they want, while the rest of us sit around powerless to do anything. There is something to be said for the idea that the resignation or death of a sitting Prime Minister should automatically trigger a General Election. I'm happy that they use any method they want to choose their leader, but when that leader will automatically become Prime Minister which has been the case far too often in recent years, then I am less content.
Jeremy Corbyn is still leader of his Party, and the dip in support in the country which is constantly being invoked by those who want to depose him seems more wishful thinking than fact. A death threat has been sent to Kevin McKeever of Portland Communications in the form of a hand delivered note. This is conveniently untraceable and could have been the work of anybody. It may well have been a misguided Corbyn supporter, but given the fact that the Anti-Corbyn faction are constantly stressing the idea that Momentum is a hot-bed of militants (I'm a member and I'm not a militant, but that proves nothing) the note could have just as easily originated from that wing of the party, or even from a shit-stirrer with no affiliations at all, after all Facebook and Twitter are full of them. I don't suppose we shall ever know.
Meanwhile Corbyn has been attacked for the gender make-up of his shadow cabinet, by the group, The Labour Women's Network, including two women, Kate Green and Luciana Berger who had just resigned from the shadow cabinet themselves. The claim that he only has women 10 out of a possible 24 is not good enough. Give the man a break.
The Eagle still hasn't landed, she is circling round, waiting for Jeremy to do the decent thing, and squabbling with Owen Smith about who should stand. There has even been talk of arbitration to decide.
Chilcot is out. 'The UK went to war in Iraq before all peaceful options for disarming Saddam Hussein were exhausted', to quote the BBC website. There will be a lot more to say about this in the coming days so I will leave it there.
Stirling continues to fall in value, property bonds have been suspended, and universities are already expressing concern about the future of research projects which threatened.
Some good news, thought not for him, Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to six years for the murder of his girlfriend. He was lucky it was only six years, it should have been fifteen but the judge felt sorry for him. I don't.
Clearly there is a lot still to be resolved. We shall just have to wait and see how everything pans out.
Love Tim xx
No comments:
Post a Comment