Depending on their political allegiance, America is celebrating or decrying what they call (apparently) the trifecta, which is a combination of three successes and derives from betting. In this case, it refers to Trump’s victories in the Presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives, to which one might add his inbuilt majority in the Supreme Court.
What this will mean, in practice, is a complete absence of checks and balances in government, giving Trump carte blanche to do pretty much whatever he wishes. It is clear from the early appointments to key roles that the policies which he threatened will be implemented.
The mainstream media in the UK has been raising its concerns about this loss of due democratic process, pointing out that the US now has a mentally unstable president who is free to pursue his idiocies without any accountability.
The press is right to do so. And one would wish that they would demonstrate some consistency from their high horses by condemning equally the electoral dictatorship which is the current Labour government.
That Starmer has adopted such an authoritarian approach will be no surprise to members of his own party. They gave him a majority in the leadership election after reading his 10 pledges and his commitment to democratic socialist policies. Having achieved the leadership, he then reneged on all those promises.
So it should have been no surprise at all when the new Labour Trifecta - Starmer, Reeves and McSweeney - immediately reneged on the promises that they had made to then electorate as a whole during the election campaign.
More than than that, it reneged on what amounts to the founding principles of the party itself. “Labour is a moral crusade or it is nothing” proclaimed Harold Wilson.
It is no longer a moral crusade, but neither is it nothing. Rather, it is a highly organised, highly disciplined, authoritarian machine.
Nor is it governing in the interests of “working people”. Nor even in the interests of retired working people, reliant on their pensions and winter fuel allowances to live.
And the real issue is that these dictatorships are not the result of a coup. No armed forces were involved. The only weapons used were lies, launched into the electorate by the “laser-focused” media.
The power of Trump and Starmer is overwhelming. Their own parties have been purged of all independent thinking and, as Johnson’s expulsion of thirty or so Tory MPs, it is the more honourable and intelligent members who are being disappeared to be replaced by the likes of Akehurst, Josan, Athwal, Ward, Tatler et al.
Even Blair didn’t stoop to this kind of behaviour. But Boris Johnson did. And now Starmer is. They have all the power and all the responsibility. But …
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Today from the everysmith vaults: Bob has left these shores after a highly acclaimed tour of the UK, reaching into Wolverhapton even. The culmination was, appropriately, at the Royal Albert Hall, and I'm listening to that final show - thanks as ever to the remastering mastery of BennyBoy.
What this will mean, in practice, is a complete absence of checks and balances in government, giving Trump carte blanche to do pretty much whatever he wishes. It is clear from the early appointments to key roles that the policies which he threatened will be implemented.
The mainstream media in the UK has been raising its concerns about this loss of due democratic process, pointing out that the US now has a mentally unstable president who is free to pursue his idiocies without any accountability.
The press is right to do so. And one would wish that they would demonstrate some consistency from their high horses by condemning equally the electoral dictatorship which is the current Labour government.
That Starmer has adopted such an authoritarian approach will be no surprise to members of his own party. They gave him a majority in the leadership election after reading his 10 pledges and his commitment to democratic socialist policies. Having achieved the leadership, he then reneged on all those promises.
So it should have been no surprise at all when the new Labour Trifecta - Starmer, Reeves and McSweeney - immediately reneged on the promises that they had made to then electorate as a whole during the election campaign.
More than than that, it reneged on what amounts to the founding principles of the party itself. “Labour is a moral crusade or it is nothing” proclaimed Harold Wilson.
It is no longer a moral crusade, but neither is it nothing. Rather, it is a highly organised, highly disciplined, authoritarian machine.
Nor is it governing in the interests of “working people”. Nor even in the interests of retired working people, reliant on their pensions and winter fuel allowances to live.
And the real issue is that these dictatorships are not the result of a coup. No armed forces were involved. The only weapons used were lies, launched into the electorate by the “laser-focused” media.
The power of Trump and Starmer is overwhelming. Their own parties have been purged of all independent thinking and, as Johnson’s expulsion of thirty or so Tory MPs, it is the more honourable and intelligent members who are being disappeared to be replaced by the likes of Akehurst, Josan, Athwal, Ward, Tatler et al.
Even Blair didn’t stoop to this kind of behaviour. But Boris Johnson did. And now Starmer is. They have all the power and all the responsibility. But …
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Today from the everysmith vaults: Bob has left these shores after a highly acclaimed tour of the UK, reaching into Wolverhapton even. The culmination was, appropriately, at the Royal Albert Hall, and I'm listening to that final show - thanks as ever to the remastering mastery of BennyBoy.
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