Sorry yet again for the long silence. A (minor) eye operation and various social commitments have intervened. Plus loss of energy. Isn’t old age a bugger? ‘Never get old’, as I tell my younger friends; until I realise what the alternative is.
Obviously lots has happened since I last posted, most of it good: the Labour electoral ‘landslide’ (eh? with 30-odd per cent of the vote?); England reaching the men’s Euro soccer final; and our boys trouncing the West Indies in cricket – albeit embarrassingly easily. I miss the days when the Windies were really a team to be reckoned with. And when the Tory party was a decent and honourable opposition.
This is clearly a transformative time in British history, equivalent to Thatcher’s win in 1979; and, more alarmingly, in the world’s, albeit in a different direction there, with something akin to neo-Fascism on the political rise all over. You can see why: economic uncertainty, charismatic populists, and – possibly – a basic and rather unpleasant instinct in most of us. Keir Starmer has a tough task ahead of him. First he has to renew people’s trust in politicians and politics, after the last fourteen years of corruption and farce on the Tory side, and the ‘they’re all the same’ cynicism they seem to have engendered. He seems to be doing well on that – but it has only been a week. Then we’ll see where he goes on the other crucial issues: cost of living, the NHS, social care, inequality, our awful press, prisons, defence, Europe, Trump, immigration, Ukraine, Gaza, the climate… None of this is likely to affect the current Rightward turn in global politics; but it may soften the latter’s blows for us unreconstructed social democrats, and act as a flickering beacon of hope for others.
In the meantime there’s Sunday’s European final for us to look forward to, albeit nervously. I see that the latest slogan on the yobbos’ t-shirts is ‘Two World Wars and one Referendum’. Basic instinct?
Porter’s Pensées 
I hope the eye operation went well.
I would guess from your comments on the football that you don’t count on having many Scottish followers!
I think the really interesting decisions in Britain have yet to take place – those within and around the Conservative Party. They will determine whether a British version of Trumpian “National Conservatism” takes hold.
Incidentally, I note from some comments I have seen in the Guardian that the old FPTP argument that it keeps the far right out has been revived (not by the unfortunate Greens, obviously). But the last 14 years have seen a Britain more right-wing than was imaginable under Thatcher. Many far right parties in PR-dominated Europe hesitate to advocate anything so drastic as their equivalent of Brexit; most were envious of the Rwanda scheme for migrants. So perhaps what FPTP does is to displace the ideological battle from between parties to within the major parties, aided by the judicious application of external pressure from disruptive one-issue groups and the media. That’s why the future of the Conservative Party (if it has one) will be so important.
I would feel more hopeful if the Labour commitments on international development were less timid, but maybe iron chancellor Rachel Reeves will reveal a generous heart in the fullness of time, and I think David Lammy will want to make a positive difference.
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