Autumnal disquiet

Well, contrary to the promise I made, mostly to myself, to keep up some level of commentary on political developments here and abroad, the best part of two months has passed since I was last inspired to pen a missive. This, I must admit, is largely due to indolence, but I’ve also been feeling somewhat discouraged by the relentless negativity of the news of late.

Locally, any hope that the new UK government might have some sort of progressive vision has been all but extinguished by PM Starmer’s almost sadistic insistence that the country must endure the penance of economic pain before we can even think about starting to rebuild our shattered welfare and health systems. Economists are lining up to say that a policy of more austerity makes no sense at all, and that the government’s self-imposed fiscal rules are entirely arbitrary, but Starmer seems determined to prove that he is a lofty statesman, with the resolve to make unpopular decisions, even if there is no particular need to.

For a while some cheerful counterbalance was provided by news from the US, where the Harris campaign seemed to be building an unstoppable momentum, but more recently her lead has stalled within the margin of error, and it looks like the Democrats will have to be extraordinarily efficient in turning out their vote to secure a victory that is decisive enough to head off the threat of a violently disputed outcome.

And all that is before we even think about the genocide in Palestine, or the prospect of war in Ukraine escalating further, or the unimaginable suffering of civilians caught up in the conflict in Sudan, not to mention the electoral success of the far-right across Europe…

Still, I shouldn’t succumb to despair. It’s impossible to act on problems if we can’t even bring ourselves to think about them. I’ll try to be a bit more engaged in the weeks ahead.