THIS time last year, I looked back at what this blog had covered in the previous 12 months. Nigel Farage was mentioned 20 times, Donald Trump 73 times – another ‘win’ to go with his fake peace prize from FIFA.
That exercise won’t be repeated as it’s too depressing to be reminded how often those two occupy space in my mind.
This does though present a problem for a blogger who tends to write about politics. Do those who indulge my words and opinions want more Trump and Farage or is everyone frayed half to death by all the attention given to such terrible men.
What bliss it would be to ignore Trump, to drop him into history’s over-filled bin or, better to still, to wipe away his name as if from a blackboard (not a whiteboard, as he probably thinks those are better).
But just when you think it would be best to ignore Trump for now, to think of something else, anything else, he goes and invades Venezuela, kidnapping the president and his wife, declaring he will now be running the country, while also calling on his billionaire pals to share in the oil spoils.
This matter requires a better understanding of foreign affairs, a firmer grasp of the ways of old men who want to take the world with them, than I possess.
The US has just conducted something between a hostile takeover and a war. It isn’t about drugs, as Trump maintains. To recall that famous catchphrase from the Watergate scandal film All The President’s Men, “follow the money”.
The US attack is reported to have created a financial windfall for billionaire investor Paul Singer, who is said to have donated untold millions to Trump and Republicans in Congress.
Trump will now do whatever the hell he wants in the world, while ignoring international law. And it’s all about the money, alongside Trump’s wish to cause distraction (especially from those Epstein files), and to act like a tough guy even though he’s a spoilt softie who cheats at golf.
One of Trump’s often professed mad ideas has been that the US should conquer the Arctic territory of Greenland. Keir Starmer actually spoke against Trump on this, insisting that Denmark and Greenland should determine Greenland’s future.
This was encouraging in an age of what some are calling sycophantic diplomacy. This is what goes on if all the world has to pretend that a mad president isn’t mad at all, instead saying what a grand old president he is; or something like that.
Oh, as well as Greenland, Trump seems to be eyeing Columbia, Mexico, Iran and Cuba. America First is no longer a slogan for that country’s domestic politics – it means putting America first against all other countries. Shooting first and asking questions later. Or not asking anything at all, just shooting.
As for Farage, he’s the biggest Trump sycophant around, a Donald tribute act at the windy end of Clacton pier.
But the parallels here are worrying, and once again it’s all about the money.
Christopher Harborne, a leading cryptocurrency investor who lives abroad and once bankrolled Boris Johnson as an MP, recently donated £9m to Reform UK.
Should one small party be free to accept so much money; who else is funding Farage; and what proportion of such donations come from abroad and the US in particular?
Oh, and how much is spent on all those bots that support Reform UK, those digital splodges of aggression from accounts with two followers, or none at all?
Without social media, and his admitted skills at exploiting it, Farage would struggle to get anywhere. He’s never had time for political foot-slogging. Twisting things on social media and hanging around big money men to see what falls from their pockets is so much more congenial.
Just think, if social media hadn’t been invented, we would all find more productive ways to spend our time. And Trump and Farage might not be here to spoil our lives.
Oh, and it shouldn’t need pointing out but posting on social media that Trump should invade Britain and remove our prime minister isn’t patriotism. It’s treason, basically.
It’s unfashionable to defend Keir Starmer. I have my qualms but still believe that he offers a safe, diligent and thoughtful presence during troubled times. He is also quietly getting on with undoing the mess of long Tory years. And would you really rather have that chancer Nigel Farage, who offers refuge to the worst Tories?
Anyway, here is something sensible Starmer has just said about populism, that hard to shift graffiti of politics…
“We need to shoot down this idea that slogans and easy answers will fix the country. Johnson pretended to drive a bulldozer through a wall saying that would get us £350m a week for the NHS. It didn’t happen. Farage pretended that leaving the EU would reduce immigration. The opposite happened. We’ve already taken steps on food and agriculture to align with the EU’s single market. I think we should get closer. If it’s in our national interest to have even closer alignment with the Single Market, we should consider that and go that far.”