Getting Political

I do not tend to post much about politics on Hive. I know some people here will very much disagree with me on various things. That is fine as we cannot expect to all have the same ideas. My politics would probably be described as 'left of centre', but I have never been a member of any political party and I may vote pragmatically based on who can win and what I think they can offer. With the recent UK election and other events around the world I decided I needed a bit more insight and have been listening to a couple of political podcasts. Pod Save The UK and The Rest Is Politics (TRIP) both cover UK events with the latter including international news too plus they started a US version. TRIP has got fairly big and ranks in the top 10 UK podcasts. They did a live show at the Albert Hall last year that we attended and we went to see them on the current tour too at the much bigger O2 (aka The Millennium Dome).

It is pretty remarkable that a political show can attract around 15,000 people to such a big venue. The presenters are Alastair Campbell, former journalist and communications director for the Tony Blair Labour government, and Rory Stewart, former Tory MP and leadership candidate. They will disagree on some things, but they debate well and keep it civil.

The first half had Alastair and Rory discussing the current Tory leadership election and how Labour are doing after 100 days in power. The former is a total mess and the latter is not going so smoothly. The Conservative party were fighting themselves over divisive issues rather than running the country. After Brexit they went more to the right to try and compete with Reform who got their wish with Brexit (under another name), but want more done about immigration. Labour are doing themselves no favours, but I trust them more to actually serve the whole population.

The second half brought out the presenters of the US edition, journalist Katty Kay and former Trump campaign director Anthony Scaramucci. Of course they talked about the up-coming election. Scaramucci knows Trump well and although he remains a Republican he is one of many who do not want Trump to be president again. I imagine that a lot of the party are disgusted at how it has been sold out to that charlatan. I am also no fan of his. I believe he is in it for his own ego and could potentially cause even more damage to democracy. He has said as such with talk of a military purge of his enemies. In my opinion he is sexist, racist, a bully and not too bright. He is showing real signs of cognitive decline. If he were to win then there is a high chance that his VP Vance would have to take over. He seems pretty nasty too and was previously unimpressed by Trump.

I think the last decade or so has seen efforts by various forces (Russia, China, North Korea, various rogue billionaires?) to spread distrust in politics, the electoral system, 'mainstream' media and other authorities. Of course the systems are not perfect, but some of the alleged conspiracies are just fanciful. Trust and respect have to be earned and some of these people have built those up over decades. Trump seems to get a free pass to lie and act weirdly with little comment from some of the media.

Politics does need shaking up, but going more extreme is rarely the answer. It works best when opposing parties can actually agree on some things that are good for the country. It should be about serving the majority of the people rather than just having power.

We are seeing various minorities being blamed for our problems. Immigrants are an easy target, but most of the US is of immigrant origin, but it tends to be aimed at the marginal groups. Then there is all the talk of trans people who are a tiny minority. I would not be surprised if priests and politicians are convicted of more sex crimes than trans people. There is the 'anti-woke' brigade too. I take that term as meaning respect for those who are different to you and so it is not a bad thing. Our societies have been multi-ethnic for decades and that is not going away. We have to all get on for things to function. Meanwhile various people are making millions and influencing the politics for their own ends. Elon Musk is one of these. I can agree the guy is smart, but he seems to be on a mission to spread division. He donates millions to Trump, but that is pocket change to him.

I will say that Harris seems like a fairly reasonable person. She is a career public servant who knows the system. You do not see her attacking large segments of the US population. She has said she will work with Republicans and many have spoken up for her as they want a less partisan atmosphere. I like politics to be less 'exciting'.

Things are looking tight at the moment, but we may not be seeing the full picture. I want to see Trump get well beaten. He seems likely to contest the result if he loses. Even though I am not in the US he would have impact on the wider world. Putin would gain from it so would other dictators. Beware of those who offer easy answers to difficult problems.

I just wanted to have my say and there is much more I could add. Feel free to disagree and downvote me if you want.