Sometimes you have to fight for the right

I am not suggesting violence, but perhaps we could learn a lesson from the People of Hong Kong?

It seems to me, and I am sure others also, an egregious insult to democracy and the free world. I just know, regardless of political colour, this is not how it was meant to be. I am, of course referring to Trump, and though he is not quite (yet) as bad - Johnson also. And while I am at it, I am not very keen on his cabinet either or Mr Corbyn and his followers, nor the Scottish National Party nor the Liberal Democrats.  As Terry Thomas might have put it: "They're all an absolute shower."

And if we are, as "The Human Race" - trying to move our civilisation forward, the people in charge right now, on both sides of the Atlantic feel like a few giant steps backwards.

The political landscape in the USA and the UK are entirely different, but there are some spooky similarities.

I suppose the most glaring of these is the propensity for so many seemingly decent people to be hoodwinked by such apparent lies, untruths and exaggeration by facile politicians. Or perhaps it just exemplifies the divisions, biased and stupidity of so many individual citizens - or even the lack of involvement by uninterested citizens who could make a difference, if they chose to get involved.

What beggars belief is, not how characters like Trump and Johnson got into power in the first place, (which is unbelievable) but rather how men and women of stature and influential position support them. These are meant to be the people who hold leadership to account. There are a few notable politicians who stand out as beacons of integrity. But there are far too many politicians and members of Congress from all persuasions who fail to understand, that every time they defend the indefensible, they are damaging their own credibility as people.

We spend our lives building and honing our character, developing our values, learning from our many inevitable mistakes. We have to earn the right to be trusted - we define our integrity by our behaviour. These politicians reach the pinnacle of their power and influence by their leadership. And then they trash themselves in public by supporting an unfit leader whose actions are more akin to a mobster than the leader of a great free world nation.

We now have many political figures who have denigrated their own reputation by their determined effort to support the appalling behaviour of Trump and Johnson. Repeatedly we see men and women put party before country.

We need good honest leadership. We need a steady hand on the tiller. We need politicians who refuse to be cowed or intimidated by the bullies of a corrupt administration. Someone who can steer us out of the quagmire we are in and get us onto Terror-Firma. We so badly need to reassert the values of honour, honesty, compassion, kindness and intelligence. Intelligence, not as in spying but as in having intelligent people who have a broader perspective and greater understanding of the world we are sharing.

But it starts with us, all of us. We need to be honest with ourselves. We are tiny cogs in a massive engine - but we make a difference. We certainly can make a difference, if we so choose.

You don't have to be Einstein's understudy to work out that Trump and Johnson are both habitual liers.

So, after much deliberation, I have reached this conclusion:

As all clear-thinking people know full well, a great injustice was perpetrated on the British People. This was the tissue of lies told by the leave campaign. In our justice system, when there is an injustice, it is quite rightly rectified and corrected. The exaggerations and lies told by the leave campaign resulted in a small majority in favour of leaving. This was wrong and should now at least have the chance to be corrected if the majority of people feel they may have been misled.

We know we have a small minority in our parliament who are fixated on this ideology of an isolated Britain forging its own way in the world. After three years of this ridiculous holding pattern of indecision and endless delays, surely the honest and most just course of action is to hold another referendum and act on the result immediately.

As far a Trump goes - that would be best for everyone - He goes. Impeach him. Be done with him. He is destroying the fabric of America and come to that, the world too. The sooner he is gone, the better for everyone.

Rick - Suffolk - UK - 27th October 2019

rick@notesfromengland