As ED will tell you, we don't know much about politics. We suspect - rather strongly - that, on more than one occasion, we have been misled, ignored, sneered at, abandoned, or downright conned by politicians of all parties. We are not alone, we know, in our suspicions.
Brexit (that horrible new 'word') is a case in point. As the full import of what has been done in our name sinks in, we all begin to reflect on how we voted. More importantly, was the information we were given by all parties - information upon which, one way or another, we acted - factual, accurate and honest? Or did they all scare us with 'facts' regarding how dreadful life would be if we left/remained in the EU? We decided - albeit by a narrow margin - to leave, and ED and I were disappointed. However, this is a democracy, the people had spoken, and we had better just get on with it, but one is left with the feeling that somehow, whichever way we voted, we are all victims of 'misinformation'. We shall see. One of the unfortunate side effects of the referendum seemed to be the emergence from whichever wet stone they had been hiding under of some singularly unpleasant people - Douglas Carswell and Michael Gove being among the leaders in this field. Then, of course, there were the equally unpleasant people who didn't hide, among whom we noticed particularly that grinning little toad, Nigel Farage, and Boris The Clown.
It was all very messy, with politicians cutting each other's throats in their bids to become PM in ways which would have turned Brutus and Judas Iscariot green with envy. It was fairly obvious, though - even to ED and I - that the Thatcheresque Mrs May was going to carry the day, while Johnson and Gove tried to kill one another. We thought initially that she was the lesser of the three evils, and at least, unlike the Labour Party, she could probably be trusted to find her bum with a map. Imagine, then, our dismay on learning that she had appointed Boris The Blonde Buffoon as Foreign Secretary! Caligula once made his horse a Consul, and we feel that the old Roman, mad as he may have been, had made a wiser choice than Theresa. We'd have happily settled for the horse.
We are not alone in suffering from politicians, of course, and the good 'ole US of A has it's very own mega-version of Boris in that most ghastly of humanoid life-forms, Donald Trump, a man so inappropriate in every way to be President of the most powerful nation on earth, that the mind boggles at the very thought that even one, single, downtrodden and disillusioned, American could ever have considered for one minute nominating him. But nominate him they did, and he has caused no small amount of mischief ever since. That's America for you. When you consider that there existed for a while the possibility of him and Boris being world leaders, there would have been a very good case for reaching for that button before they did.
There is an office in Moscow, very near to the Kremlin, where sits a man who we shall call The Impaler (the clue really is in the name), and he is praying fervently for the success of Herr Trump. He has wrong-footed more capable adversaries than Trump before breakfast, and would welcome a rest. He is politically very astute, is The Impaler, and he is as cunning as he is powerful. He is ex-KGB. Likewise, in the HQs of ISIS and Al-Quaeda, there are banners behind the desks of their leaders, which say - in addition to 'Allahu Akbar' - "Throw Us a Bone - Vote for Trump". Our banner says "Please God, Not Him".
This is the man who would ban an entire religion from emigrating to America, remove rights from the LGB community, and - if the Guardian is to be believed - increase stop and search laws that deliberately target coloured people. He's not big on women having too much say in things, either, and just in case you thought you are safe if you are a white male, it ain't necessarily so. If you are an immigrant with incomplete documentation you could be deported without further ado. So, is he a racist? I can't think of another (polite) word to described what he is saying.
This is also a man who has failed utterly to distinguish between Muslims and terrorists. Muslims are just that; people who belong to the religion of Islam, a religion founded (as are most religions) on a belief in compassion, love, and certain moral values put there to ensure that civilisation is civilised. It has many parallels with other religions, and is not so far removed from our own, except that Muslims seem to be a little more sincere in their beliefs. Terrorists, on the other hand, are a group with murderous intent and hate in their hearts, who hide behind Islam, and perpetrate outrages in its name, thereby trampling over everything good, to the horror of Muslims and others the world over. As the Dalai Lama said recently, "There can be no such thing as a Muslim terrorist, any more than there could be Buddhist or Christian terrorists", he added that terrorism went against the teachings of all religions, and was therefore separate from them., a good point well-made, I feel.
Mr Trump says he knows Muslims who are "wonderful people", and has Muslim friends.
Not for long, I suspect.
When in hole, Mr Trump, stop digging.
Sieg Heil!
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