I was contemplating all of us human beings on our precious and vandalised earth. We are, after all, all a part of this. Something happens with societies when they allow the darkness of corruption to descend upon them. Like everything, there are degrees - as there are degrees of oppression - but how does it start? We look at countries like Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran - and then perhaps slightly less egregious, but on the road to oppression countries like Turkey, Hungry, Brazil, and so the list goes on. Unfortunately, that is not a complete list - not by any means - it would include many other countries around the world. It seems to begin with Leadership or rather lack of moral integrity in leaders.
The difference is between power on the one hand and Leadership on the other. Of course, ideally, in true democracies, they twin together. But as soon as power is separated from the accountability of true Democracy, it ceases to be democratic and becomes autocratic - a dictatorship. It becomes corrupt and unaccountable. The human trait of greed for power and avarice takes over.
Equally, even in democracies that are having a tough time, there are always shimmers and beacons of light that reflect joy, commitment, pride and honesty, even if only in short moments. You don't have to look too far.
That same pride that we have for our children, and even for ourselves when adversity has been conquered or overcome, a task, exams, a competition or a fear.
Prince Harry, who has made such an arse of himself, came out into the light with unusually modest behaviour to celebrate his Grandmother's seventy years of rule. That couldn't have been easy for him, but the fact he came over for the Platinum Jubilee, I bet, made many people smile, not least his Grandmother. I have no idea if he has said his sorries yet, or indeed, if he will, but amazing things can happen once you take that first step down the road of honesty and contrition. And we human beings have a remarkable capacity to forgive. AKA Bishop Abel Mus and the South African .......
Borris Johnson was booed walking up the steps of St Paul's, which is unpleasant for anyone to experience. The freedom to demonstrate opinions is a cornerstone of Democracy, and while public opinion is not always correct - as in Mob-Rule - there are only rare occasions when it should be ignored - as in Prince William's recent experience at the Football.
I know that no one should live their lives as if they are in a permanent popularity contest, but when people express their resentment, you have to try and understand what prompted such spontaneous dissatisfaction.
Hence our seemingly thick skinned Prime Minister should understand that he has shot his bolt, and it is over.
His premiership began with a few thousand conservative party members voting him into power. It was so undemocratic that it beggars belief, but by default - it is the system we use. He then proceeded to sack life-long loyal conservative MP's from the conservative party for having the temerity to publicly disagree with him - which I always thought was the whole point of Parliament.
He then proceeded with Brexit and compleated the task to much self-adulation, only now to say he got it wrong on Northern Ireland and wants to move the goal posts. The second time in his premiership when he has given his word on our country's behalf, only to break or threaten to break our collective word yet again.
Companies all over the UK are suffering from a lack of people willing to work. It is so typical of human nature - we have it so good, but our greed kicks in, and we decide we want it even better. We want to have our cake and eat it. So we leave the EU in a fit of racist fear stoked by Borris and his cronies; the EU being a far from perfect organisation but never-the-less, still pretty powerful. And here we are, left with an utterly dysfunctional Government with shockingly backwards-looking policies, now with the highest inflation for the last forty years and higher immigration per year than the previous ten years - just not from EU countries.
In a world that needs more than ever before to come together, we are perhaps on the verge of a more divisive state than ever in my lifetime. That Johnson may have made some good decisions regarding supporting President Zelensky and Ukraine is not a reason to keep him as our Prime Minister. He has, on reoccurring occasions, proved himself to be thoroughly unworthy of the task, including misleading (in our language - lying) Parliament on more than one occasion.
Refusing to be accountable is the beginning of autocracy and corruption. Borris Johnson's refusal to face the facts makes him unfit for any high office, and judging by the decisions he and his ministers are reaching, his Government is rotten.
In this coming week, conservative MP's will have a choice. If they fail to step up to the plate now - come election time, they will only have themselves to blame. The sooner Borris is gone, the better.
As for the world, we have three battles to face. 1) Over-Population 2) Pollution and Resource 3) Democracy versus Autocracy.
Who knows what will happen - a plague - a devastating war, Trump becomes President again - or perhaps we will all sit down and be really civilised, say sorry for the hurt we caused and for when we got it wrong - forgive and talk and act with joined-up cohesive remedies for the ills of our world - like grown-ups?.
Leadership is not a joke or something that should be taken lightly. Good Leadership is many things, but it is the difference between being accountable and obfuscating the truth. For everybody's sake - Johnson has to go.
Rikki - Suffolk - UK - 4th June 2022
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