Someone heard an opinion that was voiced, On the radio

When the lists are produced of the great innovations of the past 50 years, the radio phone-in should be high up on it. Nothing better exposes the worst and best of the British people. Included in this should be vox pops, which are even more random but are just as illustrative. Last night's World Tonight, which canvassed the views of people in Wrexham, perfectly illustrated the thoughtful, intelligent side of the electorate as well as its mindless idiocy. One woman's opinion that Labour didn't need and shouldn't go into minute detail about its policies was a brilliantly basic critique which came shortly before the leak of the party's manifesto. Gerald Kaufman's wonderful description of the 1983 manifesto as "The longest suicide note in history" was as important for the word "long" as it was for "suicide". The leaked manifesto falls into the same trap. But in case listeners became complacent about the quality of the electorate, this woman was balanced by a bloke whose views didn't extend beyond "Get Out, and Get Out NOW". Of Europe, naturally, though he probably also meant immigrants. This morning's Today was equally illustrative when Nick Robinson got the views of a sort of focus group over an Indian takeaway in Leeds. While there were some who were concerned about what leaving the EU would mean and its consequences, there was the usual "Get Out, and Get Out NOW" (hitherto to be known as GOaGON) guy who wanted to rid ourselves of those ghastly meddling foreigners so we could worship the Queen once again (I paraphrase, but only slightly). What is most disturbing about the GOaGEN bunch is that they can't ever listen to the growing number of business leaders, farmers, scientists, academics, the Irish government and so on - none with a political axe to grind - who warn of the enormous dangers Brexit will bring. Their utter lack of understanding of the incredibly complex inter-weaving of this country with the European Union and the difficulties and consequences of trying to break those tens of thousands of links is as upsetting as it is tragic. Far from acknowledging that, come what may, Theresa May is going to drive the UK out of the union into whatever uncertain, impoverished future lies ahead, they complain that she has wasted eight months and is dragging her feet. If it wasn't for the radio exposing us to real people who think like that, we might believe such absurd views were the exclusive property of the MailSunExpressTelegraph. Sooner or later they will discover that ignorance isn't bliss. It is disastrous. Footnote: There is only one thing to say about the sacking of the head of the FBI: Lock him up! And I don't mean James Comey.

Roll on Jexit

Of all the reasons not to vote for Jeremy Corbyn, none better demonstrates his lack of understudying of what this country faces than his insistence that there must be no challenge to the drive to get the UK out of the EU. He has never asked questions about the result of the referendum despite the obvious use of fraud and lies to achieve it. Even more critically, there is ever-growing evidence that it is going to be a catastrophe for this country and its people. He has said nothing about the sharply rising inflation caused by the steep fall in the value of sterling which was a direct consequence of the referendum result. He blindly accepts the bizarre view that Brexit will bring all sorts of opportunities when there is no evidence of that - on the contrary, informed opinion is that it will do the opposite. He never warns that the inevitable economic slump which will come is going to badly hit public finances, leading to public services suffering. Much as Labour’s leader despises the banks, you might think he would at least be concerned that thousands of City jobs will move out of the UK. London’s loss will be a gain for Frankfurt, Dublin and Paris. Corbyn’s reaction to Emmanuel Macron’s presidential victory was no more than a surly welcome of le Pen’s defeat, with no mention of the man who thrashed her. He has failed to comment on the new French president’s statement that Brexit means “…submission to the US. What is going to happen is not ‘taking back control’, it is servitude.’ Loopy anti-Europeans have always dismissed such statements as coming from people who don’t know what they are talking about, even when they are national leaders or major businessmen. Knowledge and experience count for nothing compared to swivel-eyed hatred of the EU and the unwavering belief that Britain can be great again standing alone against the world. What an opportunity there is for the leader of the opposition to make an intelligent, passionate case for doing something positive with the terrible situation the nation has been plunged into. But that is outside Corbyn’s comfort zone which doesn’t stretch beyond a small group of adoring, naive lefties. His grasp of real life is tenuous. He has never really believed in the EU, pigeon-holing it as a capitalist conspiracy. So he plunges into this election pretty well supporting Theresa May on the single biggest issue. Which makes complete nonsense of her claim that she only called it because there was division and undermining of her position on Brexit at Westminster. What frauds they both are.

Why isn't the right question about immigrants ever asked?

The news at 6am this morning reported that the Tories are once again going to make a manifesto pledge to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands. About half an hour later there was an interview with the head of NHS Providers who is deeply concerned with, among other things, the drastic fall-off since the referendum in the number of EU nationals coming to work in our health service. Some contradiction here? Not in the minds of the Conservatives, obviously, or of Ukip, which promises zero immigration in the xenophobic electoral escalation against “foreigners”. It is an inescapable truth that a great number of people in this country - and many others - are concerned about immigration. Politicians are accused of not talking about the subject when the reality is that it is never far from the top of their agenda. What particularly angers me is that not a single one of them makes the pro-immigration argument by asking the simple question about who the immigrants are. What they do ask (or blindly accept) is: Are there too many (or, in its even nastier version, Are we being swamped)? Instead, why don’t they ask these questions: Do you want to stop doctors coming here? And nurses. When there is such a shortage of both. Do you want to prevent people coming who will care for our elderly? And if you do, who will look after your grandparents/parents/you in old age? Do you want to ban the people who pick our fruit and work on the land? Or will you go and do this back-breaking work yourself for a pittance? If not, are you happy to see the end of the great British agriculture industry? How about keeping out foreign students, who bring in huge amounts of much-needed funding for our universities? As well as the many non-UK academics who contribute so much as well as providing the academic diversity essential to higher education. Do you want to stop the bankers and other City high-fliers moving here, attracted by London’s (current) pre-eminence as the world’s financial centre, and who pay massive sums in UK tax, helping to fund our public services? And how would you propose plugging the gap that would be left in paying for the NHS, education, defence, law and order, and social services? And so the list and the questions go on. There is hardly a business above corner-shop size which is not dependent on labour from other countries. They need immigrants which means our economy and prosperity depend on them. But when do you hear that argument? Rarely, and never from politicians. Instead we are fed prejudiced nonsense in a race to the bottom.

The pits and the pendulum

After the all-night dramas of the European referendum and the US presidential, there was nothing surprising listening through the night to the results of the local elections come in. Depressing, but not surprising. Turning the fortunes of a political party is a slow business, even in this age of rapid swings. The electorate tends to fall out of love with a party over the course of several elections while taking a similar time to consummate its flirtation with an alternative. The huge success of Labour under Blair in 1997 and 2001 has taken 20 years to evaporate and reduce the party to its present parlous state. Jeremy Corbyn's leadership is just the icing on the cake - or should that be the shit on the sandwich? The change in the Tories' fortunes has taken even longer. From the heights of Thatcher's triumph in 1983 in the wake of the Falklands War, the decline was remorseless. We must never forget what a state the party was in under William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. David Cameron began the task of turning around the tanker but he still couldn't win the 2010 election, which is why he had to go into a shotgun coalition with Nick Clegg. Even though he got an overall majority in 2015, that wasn't so much because he was trusted and accepted but due to the near-absolute collapse in support for the Liberal Democrats. It has taken the result of the referendum, which led to Cameron going to be replaced by a tunnel-visioned, hysterical Theresa May completely swallowing the Ukip agenda and the consequent collapse of that party, to once again put the Conservatives into an overwhelming position. Helped, of course, by Jeremy Corbyn. That is what the results of the local elections confirm with next month's national poll sure to do the same. The pendulum will swing once again, though how long that will take and, more importantly, in what direction, are the big questions. In any case, by the time that happens, there won't be much to save of this country - or what is left of it.

Two bloody hopeless women

If I had to choose whether I would rather be stuck on a desert island with Theresa May or Diane Abbott, I think my preference would be to eat myself rather than be condemned to suffer either of them. Both had their day in the spotlight yesterday - well, as prime minister, May is never far away from it, but she did another big BBC interview, this one against a backdrop of Portsmouth Harbour (no one pushed her in), and was naturally the star, and only, turn on the Tories' first election broadcast. Diane Abbott, despite the belief in the Corbyn camp that she is a great broadcast performer, gave the most excruciating exhibition on Nick Ferrari's LBC show. Not for the first time, she came over as a politician who never reads a brief, doesn't know the facts, only thinks about things superficially and is convinced she can bullshit her way through anything because she is so witty, clever and charming. The thought that she would be home secretary in a Corbyn government is both terrifying and laughable. At least she wouldn't be heckled or booed when she spoke at the Police Federation conference - delegates would be unable to as they would be guffawing so much. Her being in charge of this country's complex Home Office organisation would be as ludicrous as Theresa May being in charge of it. Oh, hang on - she was - for a record six years. And now she is prime minister. Every day Mrs May is bombarded by Brexit realities that should bury her, her government and her party. Yet on she ploughs robotically, parroting ridiculous lines that are an embarrassment to this country. By singling out the May/Abbott duopoly I don't want to imply that women can't do what men can. On the contrary, women are on the whole better than men in politics at all levels. It is just these two women who have, for different reasons, risen to positions which they shouldn't be allowed near. The same can be said about some men - stand up David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn, to name but two - but it is the prime minister and shadow home secretary who thrust themselves to the foreground yesterday. And succeeded in doing nothing except confirming what a mess this country and its politics are in.

Unwelcome in the hillsides

I am sitting in a rather nice cafe on the outskirts of Cardiff and wondering where the great Tory surge that is supposed to be sweeping across Wales is taking place. There are an impressive number of election signs and posters up but they are all for Plaid Cymru or Wales Labour. I suppose they are for the local elections rather than the Big One a month later, but they do give an indication of the way support runs. Perhaps, you might think, it is in the rural areas where admiration for Theresa May is to be found. Yet where I am is rural by most standards. So here I sit, musing and toying with the idea that in Wales it must be the former industrial areas which are moving to the Tories. That was the story in the US presidential, where the rust-belt voters put Trump into power, and apparently in France, too, where that same type of electorate is now widely supportive of Marine le Pen. These people - in all countries - share a disappointment in the usual politicians, a fall in living standards and an understandable anger. But they kick out at the wrong targets by giving their support to the very people who will do them even more damage. I have just looked at today’s South Wales Echo which has on its front page: "Revealed - The hidden poverty in our valleys - Shocking tales of deprivation blighting the towns and villages of South Wales". Those tales, recounted by a charity, are indeed shocking. Some families are even living without beds or light bulbs. Turn to page five of the Echo, though, and you will see that the latest Sunday Times Rich List revealed that two Welsh “power couples” have seen their wealth increase by more then £700 million in the past year and are now worth £2.6 billion and £1.6 billion respectively. So, weighing these two stories against each other, we have on one hand families living in desperate poverty unable to even afford light bulbs and on the other people worth billions who can afford anything and everything they want. Is there something to be learnt from that? Apparently not for the Welsh voters who are jumping into bed with the Tories, the party of the rich and the one which destroyed their coal industry. In the European referendum, Wales, unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, voted to leave. Partly, in common with Leavers everywhere, because of the influx of immigrants. The full top ten of wealthy couples in the Rich List is reproduced in the Echo. These are some of their family names: Bertarelli, de Carvalho, Santo Domingo, Pinault, Moritz, Zabludowicz and von Opel. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help feeling that none of those names sound particularly British. As far as I am concerned, they are welcome here. But you never hear those voters who so vociferously and aggressively demand massive curbs on immigration insisting that this sort of incomer should be blocked. Instead they want to stop those like Polish builders and Romanian agricultural workers who come here to work hard, doing jobs the indigenous population won’t, for low incomes Brits sniff at, as well as desperate refugees fleeing terrible persecution. I don't blame most of those who hold such perverted views. The ones I do blame are the disgusting politicians and newspaper editors/proprietors who take advantage of their ignorance, stoke their prejudices and are leading the country and the world down a very dangerous path.

Baldrick would be proud of this plan

So this is Theresa May's cunning plan.
She calls an election, knowing she will win with a bigger majority than she has now and possibly by a landslide.
Then she goes into negotiations with the EU about the UK's exit, realising she is going to get absolutely zilch of what she has been proclaiming she will achieve. So out she walks.
Out of the negotiations and straight out of the European Union.
This theory is predicated on the assumption that the penny has dropped for the prime minister and she grasps how impossible it will be for her to get any of the things she has been trumpeting that she will get.
Leaked reports of her Downing Street meeting last week with EU leaders which led them to the conclusion that she lived on another galaxy show the absolute absence of a meeting of minds. When the barking Brexiteers, the ignoramuses who blindly follow them and the mugwumps who run the Tory press say "We told you so", there are only two routes she could follow. One is to admit that the attempt to leave the EU is absurd and will result in devastation for the UK. This is not going to happen, even though it is the only sensible, logical course.
The other is to flounce out, insisting that the other 27 nations are unreasonable and impossible to deal with. So here we go, leaping into our own brave future alone. Over the cliff edge, brothers and sisters, let us boldly go where only lemmings have gone before!
As a plan, this is so ridiculous that it would have been rejected from a Blackadder script as being too insane. If there was any serious thinking going on in the Government, they would work out that, if it would take at least 10 years to negotiate our EU exit, the time it would take to deal with the aftermath of a walkout would be even longer. Not five minutes but to infinity and beyond. For the legal and commercial implications are as vast as the Milky Way.
The latest poll suggests Theresa May is the most popular prime minister for 40 years. It will be interesting to see what the figure is in a year, let alone five, when the consequences of what she is doing hit home.