Get a Grip

It’s almost impossible to write anything about the state of the world inclusively and sensitively. There’s so much going on, and I find myself trying to work out which horrors are most horrific.

Closest to my home, Israel has invaded Lebanon, and Iran has launched ballistic missiles against Israel. I have been watching fighter jets take off from a British-operated airbase to participate in action. Israel vs. Iran is a scary scenario, and it’s now not a scenario; it’s a reality.

To the North, Ukraine continues to battle Russian aggression. That President Zelensky has to jump up and down to remind the world that while its attention is elsewhere, the meat grinder continues mincing hundreds of thousands of men and women is sickening.

I look to the UK for hope.

A Conservative Party that abandoned every principle it ever claimed to hold dear has been slammed in an election. A Labour Party emboldened by a historic majority must surely be outlining how it will return the UK to some sane and serious governance. No. Actually, the cabinet got together, had a chat, and said, wait for it, “Let’s take some money off pensioners.” Presumably, it will take a shot at its other foot next week.

The Conservatives, battered by their defeat, have decided to examine themselves, rethink, and develop policies to get elected and help put the country on the right track.

No.

Instead, past leaders and potential future leaders take turns trying to demonstrate what morons they are. What’s wrong with the UK is the European Convention on Human Rights. Yep. That’s it. Mitterand, Adenhauer, and that wishy-washy woke Churchill. They’re to blame for everything. I mean, you win one war, and everybody lionises you.

The leader of a political party (FPÖ) in Austria is dubbed the Volkskanzler by his minions. The last Austrian called that had a toothbrush moustache and caused the world unequalled horrors. In fact, the FPÖ was founded by members of the SS.

That’s alright, then.

Honestly, take all this alt-right stuff, roll it up and stick it up your...oh, you get the picture.

What about America? Oh.

Where the right in the UK continues to argue that concerns about immigration, poverty, and access to work and services can all be managed by a weekly flight from the UK to Rwanda, the Republicans are, by their admission, making up stories about immigrants eating pets. Oh, for heaven’s sake. There are kids so disturbed that they are going to school and killing their classmates with automatic weapons, and senior politicians think they need to invent narratives to engage the electorate. Really?

The good news is that all is well in China. Unless you’re a Uyghur, Kazakh, or any Turkic ethnicity. Tibetans are also on the receiving end of arbitrary detention and false imprisonment. Hong Kong, previously a beacon of freedom and rampant capitalism, reverted to Chinese control in 1997, with a Sino-British Joint Declaration outlining and enshrining the rights of Hong Kongers. Bejing characterises it as “a historical document...that no longer has any practical significance.” Oh. China pours money into Africa, buying ever-increasing influence and ruthlessly puts down dissent at home. Occasionally, we catch it eyeing Taiwan or “the world’s computer industry”, as a cynic might term it.

Russia wages war on a European country. The Middle East is on fire. China looks like a predator assessing the herd to spot the weakest. Meanwhile, North America and Europe are fascinated by social media, the power of the polemic and politics as Game of Thrones.

So that’s nice.

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