So, it’s over. The verdict has been delivered, and the sentence – four more years of Trump – is about to begin. In Britain both Nigel Farage, not unexpectedly, and Suella Braverman appeared on BBC Radio this morning to enthusiastically welcome the news. I wonder how many other Brits share the same opinion? More, probably, than we innocent liberals liked to think.

It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise; and wasn’t to a soft Marxist like me, who rejects the Hegelianism, doesn’t fully understand the economics, and is uncomfortable with the determinism, but has nonetheless long been impressed by the ‘theory of history’ that is found in Das Kapital. The idea of events being driven by underlying material forces – mainly economic – has always seemed to me to be born out by the actual history of both Britain and the USA, the two leading capitalist powers in modern times. Trump, as I’ve suggested before, embodies what might be seen as the latest – possibly the last – ‘stage’ of capitalism: mainly financial, shorn of any innovative or constructive rationale, and its ‘ethics’ reduced to a merely competitive and acquisitive (a)morality.

According to Marx, at this stage the whole system should now be crumbling under its own internal contradictions, to be succeeded by revolution, a dictatorship of the proletariat, and eventually socialism. I can’t see much sign yet of any of that; and have no hope – or fear – of its coming before capitalism – and everything else – perishes as a result of climate change. (Which Trump denies.)