"...You don't know what you've got til its gone……”

In the past few weeks a few words from two of the 20th century’s truly great hits have been haunting my mind; their words provoked by the appalling debacle of the Brexit vote and in the last few weeks the worst nightmare of most of the world’s population – the election of Donald Trump as the most powerful man in the world, President of the USA. I could not possibly add to any of the hyperbole and analysis that has taken place on these two game changing events except to say that in Saturday’s Guardian Conservative politician (and a woman I have little time for) Anna Soubrey, had it exactly right when she commented that we in the UK have “lost the plot”. I can only say that if that is true of the UK then the electorate of the USA have gone completely mad.

We now have the bizarre situation that the retiring President Barack Obama has been touring Europe meeting European and world leaders and, according to the political media ,“passing the baton of freedom” to Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany. Merkel herself has just announced that she will stand for a fourth term as Germany’s Chancellor and I for one am delighted. Despite our alleged “special relationship” with the USA - always a dubious privilege, but now a poisoned chalice in this era of Trump – we have, by our Brexit vote, lost all credibility as an international power who should be taken at all seriously. We are unquestionably quite unfit to take on the “baton of freedom” or any kind of leadership in the world. We, in the UK, are now led by a rag tag outfit of dangerous nonentities and political opportuntists while the USA is led by – and to quote the words of a normally charitable man, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams – “a man [with] a total indifference to truth (not to mention decency), no connected strategy but an incoherent series of crowd pleasing postures as if [his] aim was not to do anything as president simply to be president. It is the ersatz politics of mass theatre in which what matters most is the declaration of victory”.

Williams is right and what he says of Trump has resonance here in the UK with the language, politics and policies (such as one can identify them) of the political chancers that now are in charge of the Westminster madhouse. Over the past few days I have watched with no little horror as the graceless, narcissistic Trump has invited more and more extremist head cases into his tasteless Trump Tower lair and offered them jobs that will profoundly affect the world. I have watched in disbelief as nepotism has run rife through the American political landscape as his daughter, son in law and anyone else he fancies sits in at the top table – in some way, each of them now given that prerogative by his election to speak on behalf of millions of Americans. And I have sworn in exasperation as a failed UK politician, Nigel Farage and his henchmen have somehow infiltrated Trump’s circle and are now by default representing the views of the UK. To add salt to the wounds there is already talk of Farage being offered a knighthood or some similar award and of Trump being invited to dine with the Queen at Windsor. And a few minutes ago I read that Farage is castigating the UK government because they have "distanced themselves" from Trump's suggestion that Farage should be the next UK ambassador to Washington.This is the politics of the madhouse a thousand times over. It makes the court of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland look the epitome of sanity and good taste. No wonder Obama is touring the world pleading for some sane response from people like Angela Merkel – he certainly won’t get it from the current UK leadership. John O’Gaunt’s famous description of England as being “this royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle” is no more; we are rather this “septic isle”.

Tasteless and worrying - both the subjects and the lift

As I watched the unfolding picture of Trump’s “appointments” on TV and then watched “an ordinary American woman” sporting green lipstick and painted eyebrows that curled upwards into her hair line telling the world that Trump would solve all her country’s ills I could only reflect that here is the richest, and most powerful society that the world has ever known in terminal decline; what we have witnessed in the USA in the past few weeks is a mortally sick society. And although we in the UK have perhaps not yet reached so low we are certainly in extreme intensive care.

Watching  the megalomaniacal Trump/Farage and the rest reminded me of that other great mad leader, the Roman Emperor Caligula. Increasingly known for his narcissism, cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversity he was finally assassinated by officers of the Praetorian Guard, senators, and courtiers. During his reign he killed off those who were close to him or whom he saw as a threat. He increasingly appeared in public dressed as a god and was self-absorbed, angry, killed on a whim, and sated himself on spending and sex. He was accused of sleeping with other men's wives and bragging about it, killing for mere amusement, and of incest with his sisters and prostituting them to other men. He sent troops on illogical military exercises, turned the palace into a brothel, and, most famously, promised to make his horse a consul. In the end he gave up on that whim and appointed the horse a priest. To raise money for his excesses Caligula began auctioning the lives of the gladiators and he caused starvation. Finally, at the games at which he was presiding, he ordered his guards to throw entire sections of the crowd into the arena during intermission to be eaten by animals because there were no criminals to be prosecuted and his notoriously short attention span caused him to be bored.

Donald Trump fits many of these excesses to perfection; his lack of attention span is well documented, his predatory sexual exploits the stuff of infamous legend. His narcissistic and megalomaniacal personality which has spawned the  grossly unpleasant Trump Tower, complete with gold lifts, would have been loved by Caligula. And Trump’s mad cap schemes and comments such as building a wall to isolate Mexico would have got the nod of approval from the ancient Roman. The world should be very afraid.

Trump with his worrying clan (Klan?)

But we are not. We laugh and mock him (and the UK equivalent Brexit crew). We shake our heads in frustration and sorrow that these dangerous clowns have taken power. But in reality we have done nothing. When the UK was politically mugged by the Brexit vandals they did exactly what Rowan Williams voiced: they displayed a total indifference to truth – promising and saying anything (extra money for the NHS and the like) to secure victory. Victory justified and justifies all in contemporary Britain and America. Trump has followed in Brexit's footsteps making outlandish claims and totally unsustainable and unreasonable promises. We now live in a post truth era,  and what have we done?  Nothing. President Obama has as always been dignified and correct seeing, what one can assume, is the greater good, the bigger picture, the human perspective. In a world today where outcomes justify all our actions the only questions that we ask are - does it make us richer, will we be healthier, can we gain an advantage from it, does it solve the problem, will the public buy it......... Obama has been one of the few politicians who has asked the greater questions that we seem never now to ask in this modern world; namely, is it right, is it good, is it worthy, is it honourable, is it just, is it decent? As societies the US and the UK have stopped asking these questions that are at the very root of our humanity and which separate us from the animals - we are no longer able to see their importance or verbalise our concern. If we had or did ask these important moral questions then  Trump, Farage, Johnson and the rest would never have emerged to gain the power that they have. We have largely lost our ability to think as humans and the rule of the jungle is increasingly filling our TV screens, our High Streets, our media and our governments.

Ensuring that there must be an ordered and legal transference of power as the US constitution demands Obama has played out his role to perfection - as he has done throughout his presidency. Hilary Clinton, albeit through clenched teeth, rightly gave a gracious speech to acknowledge Trump’s victory. But all the time the great, the good and we lesser mortals "do the right thing", the powers of evil – be they Trump or the  Brexit crew - assume more and more ill gained power. While democracy acts “correctly”, as the law demands, those with malign intentions – the Trumps, the Farages, the Johnsons and the millions who voted for them make the law look an ass by their disdain for its core principles of truth and integrity. And the rest of us stand and watch. And when the law tries to assert itself as the law lords did recently in the UK when they reminded the government of the need for following the law in regard to the Brexit parliamentary debate the right wing populist press, led by the rabble rousing Daily Mail and its neanderthal readers, howled in rage shouting down and vilifying our most senior judges. We should be very afraid.

Decent people are already missing Obama

As Obama toured the world’s capitals saying his farewells to world leaders last week an increasing number of people took to the air waves and to social media thanking him for all that he had given in his eight years in office. No, he didn’t fulfill all the promises of his first inauguration speech. Yes, I’m sure that he made mistakes and could have done better in some areas – he would, being a decent and humble man, be the first to admit to those faults. But his decency and basic goodness shone through. Suddenly, when the world woke up to Trump we all realised what we had lost. It was the same in the UK; David Cameron was disliked (by me especially) but he was not a charlatan or a chancer; he was not a blatant misogynist or liar. Donald Trump and to a lesser degree (simply because they are such a nonentities) Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson have managed something quite unthinkable just a few months ago: they have made George W Bush look not only an intellectual but the epitome of virtue and goodness. As Hilary Clinton said in one of her speeches before the election she had always criticised the policies of George Bush but never his suitability or right to be president. She was right – and by implication Trump has no right or suitability for the post he is now about to take – whatever the election result. In modern parlance he, like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, is “not fit for purpose”.

But, we watch and allow it to happen. Like turkeys voting for Christmas.

A few weeks ago Theresa May, the UK PM, took exception to one of the well used comments current in today’s UK, especially amongst those like me who are horrified at the Brexit vote. Many of my persuasion are of the view that we prefer to be seen as citizens of Europe or even the world rather than what we will be categorised as, once Brexit takes effect, citizens of the UK . May suggested that “to be a citizen of the world is to be a citizen of nowhere”. Well, Theresa May is entitled to her view but I am not bound to subscribe to it and as Obama passes the torch of freedom to Angela Merkel I, for one ,will be far more interested in what Frau Merkel has to say about the world and my place in it than I will about what May, Trump, Farage, Johnson or any other of these charlatans utter. My reason? – simple. I’m sure that Merkel has her faults, she is a politician so we should all have a healthy skepticism but, her defining qualities are decency, humanity, a large measure of integrity and truth, and most important she displays all the necessary qualities to prove that she is a human being. I find those qualities in very short supply or non-existent in Brexit and Trump land. So, Mrs May, unfortunately I might not legally be able to call myself a citizen of Germany but I can, indeed, be a citizen of a Europe or world perceived and led by Angela Merkel once she takes the “baton of freedom” from Obama.

Passing the baton? Let's hope so.

I started this blog by confessing that a couple of songs had been going through my mind in recent days. I have not forgotten. Two of the very great songs of the 20th century and a time when things were simpler. In 1970 Joni Mitchell brought us Big Yellow Taxi.....and the words that keep going through my mind from that wonderful song:

“Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot”

And the other? From Don McLean’s mighty 1971 hit American Pie a song about which Ph.Ds have been written as to its meaning: the death of the American dream with the death of Buddy Holly?......or was it (as is my firm belief) Kennedy? Or was it both and was McLean forecasting the demise of that great country and which we are now witnessing with the rise of Trump? Whatever, the words of McLean’s fifth verse seem prophetic and so apt for Autumn 2016 in both the USA and the UK:

“…..I met a girl who sang the blues

And I asked her for some happy news

But she just smiled and turned away

I went down to the sacred store

Where I'd heard the music years before

But the man there said the music wouldn't play

And in the streets the children screamed

The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed

But not a word was spoken

The church bells all were broken

And the three men I admire most

The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost

They caught the last train for the coast

The day the music died

And they were singin'

So, Bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my chevy to the levy

But the levy was dry

And them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye

Singing this'll be the day that I die….”

"You don't know what you've got, Til its gone” and “The church bells all were broken, And the three men I admire most, The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost, They caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died ………".  Can there be a sadder but more telling and accurate commentary upon the terrible times in which we now live? I think not. We should all be beyond angry at what we have allowed to happen.