Peter Black has a typically thoughtful piece about the troubled times in which we live. Like many of us, he draws parallels with the breakdown of the Weimar Republic. It seems to me that what has saved us (so far!) from a neo-fascist dictatorship is that our constitution does not allow the head of government to take unchallenged and wide-ranging emergency powers, as Weimar did. Nor is our head of state as feeble as Hindenburg was.
To me, the present situation echoes previous occasions in our political history when established political parties were thrown into confusion: the Peelite breakaway over the repeal of the Corn Laws, which broke the Tory/Whig duopoly, leading to the emergence of the Liberal and the modern Conservative parties; and the break-up of that same Liberal party over Irish Home Rule, giving a kick-start to Labour. It seems to me that in both situations the outcome was not inevitable, and that a different path could easily have been taken.
Our future is similarly unpredictable. Throw into the mix a mercurial US president who seems intent on antagonising traditional friends while at the same time stifling world trade and one worries. One worries.
No comments:
Post a Comment