A Sense of Proportion

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A couple of things from this week's New Statesman, which plopped through the letterbox this morning. Will Dunn on Trump, and Andrew Marr on the status quo thus far here in the UK. Will Dunn's beautifully observed sketch serves to emphasise the unreality of Trump's continuance of his own 'reality' show, masquerading as a 'Presidency'. If one looks back at any of this orange clown's public pronouncements and the context in which they are given, it is fairly obvious that he is still living in his very own, self-created Truman Show, a Man living in a fantasy of his own creation. The only difference between Trump and Truman, is that Truman was the unwitting dupe and Trump is the willing but witless participant, who has simply lost track of the boundary between actual reality and his self-confected personal 'reality'.

Andrew Marr quietly takes us through the veil of the hysterical political commentariat to assess the actuality of the current government's progress. As always, what needs to be brought to the table of discourse is a sense of balance and proportion: weigh the pros and cons, and synthesise an overview that represents where we actually are. Many claims are made that much is being done in this or that arena, that much money is being expended by governments in the service of the 'common good'. It's all relative, and the showboating of some is balanced by the quiet work of others. On Gaza, Trump boasts that the US has sent $60m in aid: as Dunn points out the US government gets through that amount of pocket change in five minutes.

By contrast, the UK government has pledged an investment of £1.6bn just to fix the potholes in the UK's roads [Andrew Marr, ibid]. The fact that £1.6bn might still be insufficient to cure our archipelago's suspension damage issues, puts Trump's Gaza aid sum into stark perspective. All of a sudden, $60m seems such a pitifully trite sum, given the sheer enormity of the problem facing the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, our government; despite its political gaffes and economic missteps, is nevertheless quietly getting on with the job of investing in the country's infrastructure and its public services. At the same time, Keir Starmer has had to suck up his ring-grinding embarrassment of dealing publicly with the reality TV host with orange skin, simply because he happens to be the President of the United States.

Suck it up he did, however; and as boring as Starmer is, I'd rather trust him at the helm than that deluded comb-over'd twat any day. Que Sera, Sera, but sometimes you simply have to trust that some people are sane and right-minded, despite apparent evidence to the contrary. Likewise, it's always good to be able to spot a wrong 'un from the off. And never forget, Trump holds 'The Football': he is the sole guardian of the Domesday button. Sucking it up has never been more important than now, and keeping one's enemy close has as great a pertinence now more than ever...

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