Appeasers

I have elsewhere described Brexit as "the revenge of the appeasers" in that Chamberlain and company in the 1930s deliberately disengaged from Europe and "faraway countries of which we know nothing". It took Winston Churchill and a world war to bring the reality home. However, I do baulk at labelling Mrs May as "Theresa the Appeaser" as one Labour MP did in the Commons yesterday. As Boris Johnson pointed out, Trump was democratically elected and is held to account by a democratically-elected Congress, both by electoral processes similar to that of the UK. He is hardly a dictator. If there is an appeaser in this matter, it is president Trump himself. He suggested in his election campaign that he would tolerate Russia's annexation of Crimea and Donbas. Putin may theoretically also have been democratically elected, but there are many doubts about the freedom of the process. Fortunately, Mrs May seems to have persuaded the President that it is necessary to maintain NATO.

Another point that was made by several Conservatives in questions to the Foreign Secretary yesterday was that there are eighteen countries which refuse to recognise Israeli passports or even allow entry to holders of passports bearing Israeli visas. This has been going on so long that one tends to forget about it, but for the record I believe that this is wrong. Israel was created by the United Nations a lifetime ago and the eighteen should accept the fact, just as they endorse the UN resolutions against Israeli war crimes and extra-territorial settlements. Two wrongs do not make a right, though, and in any case the logic of the two bans is different. Trump's is aimed at potential terrorist immigrants from predominantly Muslim nations. The objection of the eighteen is that Israel stole the land which she occupies and that she is an illegal state. This may be wrong-headed, but it is coherent, divorced from religion and unlikely now to stir up global unrest. The opposite is true of the Trump executive order. Fortunately, this will expire in spring.

The start of US takeover of global entertainment?

On 30th January 1917, "the first jazz record is cut by 'The Original Dixieland Jazz
              Band' according to Robert Heckendorn."

Another giant passes

Tam Dalyell will probably be most remembered for raising the West Lothian question and for his harrying of Margaret Thatcher over the Belgrano affair. However, in his heyday he was one of the few bridges between politicians and scientists (I came to know of him through his long-running New Scientist column). He would have been appalled at the logic-free decisions taken by the current administrations in London and Washington, He was a spokesman for the ordinary serviceman and an ardent European, both resulting from being a cavalryman in the wasted Germany after the second world war. He had not only seen Belsen, but saw it in context.

He also contributed mightily to the Independent's library of obituaries (where is it now?) not only revealing, from personal acquaintance, facets of celebrity politicians, but also bringing to our attention lesser-known MPs (not all of his own party), engineers and scientists and worthies barely recognised south of the border. If he had a fault, it was taking to heart the motto De mortuis nil nisi bonum. Even allowing for this, Dalyell genuinely appreciated the qualities of many Conservative and Liberal MPs of his generation. He was one of the least tribal of socialists. It is appropriate that the much-reduced online Indy gives him a send-off of the calibre of his own contributions.

I cannot help shedding a tear.

Turning the clock back

Russian calendar for 1917, pre-calendar reform and pre-revolutions
(acknowledgements to https://www.facebook.com/aleksandr.lozhkin)

I was wrong. In an earlier post, I assumed that Donald J Trump did not mean most of what he promised and that, being inexperienced at the top level of politics, he would have to bring in established advisers from within the system.

In the event, he is already not only fulfilling his promise to turn the clock back for US citizens (stifling Obamacare, restarting a devastating gas pipeline scheme, discriminating against Hispanics and so on) but also embarked on policies which may be bad for global trade and political stability. Things are moving so fast that it is not worth starting a list, but most frightening is his intention on moving the Tel Aviv embassy to Jerusalem and thus burke a two-state Palestine for the next four years.

Even more worrying are most of his selections for cabinet posts. It remains to be seen whether Congress, Republican-controlled though it is, will stomach all his choices.

Into the midst of this Theresa May will stroll, curl up on the White House carpet and wait to have her tummy tickled.

La Cenerentola

On this day, two hundred years ago, Gioachino Rossini's "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella) was premièred in the Teatro Valle in Rome. As it happens, Rossini is this week's Composer of the Week on Radio 3. One still marvels at the sky-rocketing early career from early beginnings and his amazing fecundity, leading to such wealth that he was able to retire from writing opera at the age of 37.

Judah Ajumbi is right to call for trial of trigger-happy police

Channel 4 News is reporting that the Police Federation is defending the Bristol police pair who tasered the former race relations advisor.The Federation claims that the two were only doing what the public expect of them. One wonders which section of the public they are thinking of. Perhaps there are people out there who still believe it is in order to assume that all people with a dark skin are up to no good, but Bristol has a sizeable Afro-Caribbean component to its population. Race relations in Bristol are not as bad as many cities I have visited, but it is not going to help if there is seen to be one law for the majority and another for the minority. The officers concerned may feel they have a case, but it must be justified in public in court.

Inauguration blanket coverage buried child abuse history

I have complained before about the BBC's obsession with the United States. The rest of the UK media's fixation on Donald J Trump is not far behind. As a consequence, the fall-out from the collapse of the power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland which coincided with the build-up to the inauguration was not covered, though one must acknowledge that BBC Radio has since been catching up. However, there has been practically nothing about the long-overdue inquiry into child abuse in Northern Ireland institutions. Moreover, there is now no Northern Ireland executive to receive and process the inquiry's findings and recommendations.

Time was when the heady mix of child abuse, politicians and high-ranking professionals and the alleged involvement of the security services made at least the second lead in the media. Now the media seem to be complaisant with the Establishment in the playing-down of the findings. To my mind, the proven facts of the Kincora business, let alone the allegations, are more gross than the abuse scandals in England which so obsessed Newsnight.

I am grateful to the persistent and thorough Cathy Fox for the link to Colin Wallace's response to the publication of the report. It is noticeable that not all the inquiry papers are yet online. More will be trickled out. One hopes that there are mainstream media, in addition to Cathy Fox and Private Eye, who are keeping an eye on this.

Just what Swansea City needed

I was quietly confident that Paul Clement was the man for the job of Swansea City manager, as soon as I saw his c.v. He has at last brought confidence back to the team, both in themselves and the fact that he knew how to organise them. It was as much the manner of the victory over Liverpool yesterday as the scoreline that cheered those of us watching on the box and, more importantly, the faithful fans who travelled to Anfield.

I shall go out on a limb and say that Swans' major difficulty at the end of the season, when the team will finish in the middle of the table, or just above it, is to keep Paul Clement on board. If I am wrong, I will publicly apologise, just as Messrs Savage, Toshack and some other football pundits should do when they are proved wrong.

Savage: it would be a mistake if they appointed Clement, it's bizarre;

Toshack: Swansea City will be relegated from the Premier League; the credentials of Clement are questionable