Coverage of US general election

 I have complained in the past about the excessive coverage of the four-yearly American boxing match on domestic BBC TV. The issues are always domestic and personality-driven. There seldom seems to be a change of foreign policy when Democrat blue turns to Republican red or vice versa.

It does give work to the huge staff of BBC America, which does seem to be a staff benefit. BBC America does sell output to other stations round the world, but does it pay for itself? Why do we see around a dozen BBC reporters from the States, while Canada - a fellow Commonwealth member - receives little coverage and then from a US-based reporter? Why does the whole of South America merit only a couple of reporters, who do not seem to stay very long?

But this year is different. The nature of the contest and its outcome have implications for the UK.

Prime minister Johnson and his manager Dominic Cummings clearly draw their inspiration from the way the presidency was won and the style in which it is conducted. Trump's grotesque chauvinism and appeal to the worst aspects of human behaviour, especially his racism, have their echoes over here. Johnson also lies consistently and is happy to set different groups of the population against each other. Manipulation of voters' feelings via social media was a significant contribution to election success on both sides of the Atlantic, though the technology behind it was almost certainly applied to traditional campaigning also. If there is a decisive anti-Trump vote on November 3rd, so decisive that Trump cannot convincingly challenge it in the courts, it will show that US voters have had the scales lifted from their eyes. Those moderate Conservative MPs (there are some) who have so far gone along with Johnson on the sole grounds that he has been successful may well have second thoughts as a result. 

As to foreign affairs, the world needs a president of the US who honours treaties and realises that he does not know better than the experts. One expects less interference in others' affairs from a Biden presidency. We should expect a Democrat presidency to be at least as tough to negotiate a treaty with as any; Democrats are traditionally less keen on free trade than Republicans. However, one can count on Biden to negotiate in good faith and be consistent. His record suggests that he listens to expert advisers. Consequently, there would be a serious attempt to reverse policies which potentiate global warming under Biden. One trusts that he would also restore America’s contribution to the WHO – indeed, also cooperate more with the UN in general.

Of course, as is entirely possible, voters who turn against Trump could give a consolation vote to the Republicans in the Senate and Lower House. There could be deadlock in Washington.

The Roche limit

 Also the Roche Lobe and the Roche Sphere owe their names to Édouard Albert Roche, born on 17th October 1820. He was pre-eminent in the field of celestial mechanics. His bicentenary does not seem to have been marked here, presumably because he published only in French.

Death of the last Liberal newspaper

 I was reminded by a post on Liberal Democrat News that this is the sixtieth anniversary of the Cadbury family's forced merger of the News Chronicle with the Daily Mail. There is nothing to add to what I wrote on the fiftieth anniversary or to what Michael Meadowcroft has to say about the socialist Guardian.

Verdi's second thoughts

 Thanks to urgent party business and difficulty connecting to the Internet yesterday, I missed my usual weekday blog post. The suspicion grows that each successive Windows 10 update adds code to the connect sequence so that older machines like this one time out at busy times.

Anyway, Covid apart, nothing much caught my eye recently except this report from euronews. It seems that Giuseppe Verdi originally wrote around 100 bars more music for his grand opera Aida than was performed at its gala Egyptian opening. Verdi, a man of the theatre, probably judged that the shortened version played better, but enough people were interested in the material unearthed from the composer's archive to warrant a premiere performance. Not that Verdi let it go to waste himself, incorporating much in his Requiem.

I was never a great opera enthusiast, but the Grand March became very familiar in the 1950s because it was used as the station ident. for the English language output of Egyptian State Broadcasting. 

Old people die

Charles Walker MP, who clearly feels that Harold Shipman was misunderstood, claims that the threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been overplayed. “The fact is people in their 80s and 90s die”. he told the Radio 4 Today audience,“we just can’t save every life, because the cost to the living is too high.” 

Declaration of interest: I am only a few years short of the median age of death from Covid-19, 82.4. I make no special claims for myself, but I look around and see men and women of my generation still making great contributions to the public good. Besides, we tend to forget the ordinary people, the much-loved grannies and granddads in their 70s and 80s (note that word "median") who, apart from a depressed immune system, are in good health, playing a full part in family life.

Further, it is not only old people who die as a result of this virus. They are most at risk from casual infection, but adults in the prime of life can fall victim if they are exposed often enough and for long enough.  The prime example is Dr Li, the Wuhan optician who first blew the whistle on the virus. He was only 34 when he died. We have seen the same pattern in our NHS and care services, with BAME workers most at risk. The median age here seems to be 54. Also at risk were drivers of one-man-operated buses. It seems to me that closing bars and restaurants protects the staff rather than the patrons; closing schools aids the teachers rather than the pupils. 

SARS-CoV-2 is not like a dose of the 'flu. It is more lethal - possibly ten times more so. Moreover, those who survive infection, even if they do not require hospital treatment, may suffer long-term effects. Breathlessness, fatigue, mental disturbance and kidney and liver function impairment are among reported symptoms even when all trace of the live virus has gone. What is more, it is not yet obvious which patients will incur what after-effects and who will be apparently unaffected. Dr Adam Rutherford, a fit 45-year-old workaholic until the virus struck in March, shared his woes in a recent Radio 4 documentary. 

We still do not know enough about this virus to adopt the laissez-faire attitude of Charles Walker and his like-minded friends. That is not to approve of the crude centrally-directed methods of the government in Westminster, still not cognisant enough of local interests and knowledge, but they are still preferable to continuing to let the virus rip.

 

Cocaine trafficking hit by virus

The travel restrictions imposed as a result of the current pandemic have hit the coca trade harder than all the enforcement action of the last forty years. It is reported that it is now extremely difficult to transport cocaine to the most lucrative markets in Europe and as a consequence the price to the traffickers and growers has plummeted. 

Impartial money advice

 Among the tools provided by https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/ are guides on how to manage bank accounts and a means of comparing bank accounts and charges. 

Fiji independence day