Andy Street

Just an old Prussian tradition So it’s auf wiedersehen to Angela Merkel who left office recently, she was Chancellor of Germany for 16 years. Back in 2005 it was a very different world, we had Tony Blair as our PM, in the USA George W Bush was President while Jacques Chirac held that role in France. Even so it’s worth looking at Merkel’s rise and departure and assessing her legacy. The latter is an unhealthy obsession with all leaders now and seems to dominate their time in office. We see this with Johnson on a regular basis during the two years he has been PM. With Merkel now gone from office we shall see if the eulogising of her continues and make no mistake here, for throughout her political life she could rely on a level of praise from the liberal left who adored her that came close to worship. It’s at this point we should note that this did not happen with Johnson, his rise to fame was very different. These people who praised Merkel did so not for what she did but for simply being the Chancellor of Germany. So will we see the adulation give way to a more critical analysis? Yes some people have been critical and their criticism goes back a long way, see HERE and HERE. Generally speaking she got an easy ride but did she deserve it?

Midshipman Johnson rules the waves

George Orwell was a Socialist and prior to WW2 Socialism was the go-to cult of the more flamboyant section of the middle class. As we have seen the natural tendency of people like Orwell to preach on the subject was much of the reason his publisher did not like the second half of ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’. As Orwell had spent some time at Eton I think we can see the problem from the point of view of the publisher. History shows that on a general level Socialism fell out of favour with much of the population. However, the middle class are known for their determination to save others from themselves. And now the go-to cult for those intent on cutting a dash is ’wokeism’ which is very similar. It relies upon large amounts of money which the practitioners don’t have. Thus they are bound to spend other people’s money to get the desired result. Here we should remind ourselves of the thoughts of Margaret Thatcher, how Socialism eventually fails as you run out of: ‘other people’s money’. That sentiment is generally dated as coming from a TV interview she gave in 1976 and still applies today, though now we have:‘levelling up’. We part dealt with that slogan in the first section of this double post. The Conservative party cling to the notion that this slogan is a winner. What they fail to spot is that it is in the same league as:‘for the many not the few’.

The Metro Mayor has a plan to spend your moneyYour chance to make a difference, or is it? Here come the delayed local elections and we look at the contest for the Metro Mayor(MM) for the West Midlands. The story goes back to the Labour government of Tony Blair. For it was they who began the process and legislation for directly elected mayors. However, the idea was not popular and of the regions offered this only around a third voted for it. Originally Birmingham voted against the proposal in 2012. But then with just a minor tweek to the original scheme the MM project was passed into law in 2017 without another referendum. It was possible for the government to get away with this as the minor tweek to the proposal made it seem they were paying attention to the public:’ we hear what you say’. Yes, the situation, the detail, had been changed. Well they would say that! But the over-arching principle of an extra layer of government had been rejected by the previous ballot. So the public were ignored and the government went, so to speak, around the back to get this idea done. Is this important? Yes and could be the root of low voter turnout in the MM elections. To put this episode into perspective we should remember that the government had just ‘lost’ the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Dom, coming up roses!
What is the UK press up to, what does it do? Not so long ago the press went into meltdown over Dominic Cummings and his trip to the farm in County Durham owned by his father. It was fun while it lasted, for them. They love a witch hunt and here was a great opportunity, it also meshed with the culture wars they are so keen for us to learn about. To the press Cummings is special as he is seen to be more powerful than they are; or that's what they think and these thoughts count for a lot of the aggro. Cummings went to Oxford, privileged eh? No not really Emily Maitlis went to Cambridge and she is, 'one of us'. Reports suggest that while at Oxford Cummings was next to invisible in that he did very few of the things students are noted for. So, no sport and not for him a position in the Oxford Union or nights out with the boys from the Bullingdon Club.He seemed only to study and was seen as a loner, there are even whispers that a senior academic with connections to MI6 was impressed by Cummings.

After graduation he worked in Russia for a few years and is fluent in the language. Back in the UK he began his ever upward journey in politics. Working for Business for Sterling then briefly for the Conservative party he eventually ran a think tank. Next he was involved in working against setting up the North-East Regional Assembly.