UK and World Politics

UK politics seem to be in odd shape at present:

The Labour party is hugely split with on the one hand their leader  Jeremy Corbyn an old fashioned rebellious type politically on the party's left and on the other, with  most Labour MPs being more to the political centre or right of the party. Add to that the  collapse  of Labour in Scotland   Labour seems to  provide no decent opposition let alone scope for an alternative government.

The Conservative party seems only marginally better. Splits in the party led to David Cameron's attempt to improve the terms of the UK's membership of the EU. When the EU failed to offer any significant improvement the people voted to to quit the EU and David Cameron resigned almost immediately.  Theresa May was brought in quickly which saved the Tories from complete melt down, but now is faced not only with negotiating and exit from the EU but also with major crises at home such as the cost of the National Health Service which is endeavouring to grapple with the huge increase in patients caused in part by the increasing age and numbers of the UK population.

The Liberal party which was almost wiped out in the last general election is making a point of being pro-EU but such point is fraught with danger for the Liberals because if there is a general election particularly if one comes soon following  the decision of the Supreme Court - Brexit and Parliament - expected this month and the party does not do far better than it has done throughout my own adult years, their influence both as regards the EU and otherwise will be disastrously undermined.

The Scots Nationalists superficially at least seem stronger than the other main parties but if they play their trump card of an Independence referendum  again so soon after doing so only a couple of years back and lose once more, their days as a strong political party could be numbered also. A difficulty for them is that other EU countries  such as Spain, do not wish to encourage parts of their nations to seek independence so are hardly likely to assist the Scots Nationalists.

Of course the UK and its  political parties are not alone in facing huge difficulties.

World politics too seem to be in a state of turbulence:

There are general elections in several European nations this year and the Euro currency is unlikely to be viable long term without massive change.

Marine  Le Pen in France seems unlikely to win the presidential election there but  anything could happen. The rise and rise of the Italian 5* Movement is causing havoc with politics in that EU country compounded by the ongoing Italian banking crisis. The conviction for inciting discrimination of the Dutch far right political leader Geert Wilders does not appear to have affected his popularity and Holland too has a general election shortly.

Perhaps far more significantly is the outcome of the US presidential election, leading within the next few days, to the hand over by Barack Obama to Donald Trump, who in my view is putting this as mildly as I can, unlikely to serve the Western World well.

Whether or not the Russians tried to influence the USA presidential election may well be  a side issue as US adult men and women voted as they thought apt.  If the Russians did indeed attempt to persuade Americans to vote for Mr Trump I should have thought that such attempts would have caused many Americans to vote the other way or are we/they so malleable in C21 that personal political views are no longer formed?

The ISIS killers are of course still at large but  there is no World War  in sight and despite the gloom and doom in the news, the world's population at large is better off now than it has ever been before.

Let good hope and optimism win through in the months ahead.