UP TO DATE

UP TO DATE

Having just returned from lecturing on the excellent Golden Eagle Danube Express (Budapest – Krakow – Warsaw – Malbork – Gdansk – Berlin – Dresden – Prague – Salzburg – Vienna) I was interested to see what had been going on in my absence.

The much heralded Anchorage summit seems to have achieved nothing. The war goes on and Trump still appears to side with Putin, while the US Secretary for Defence, soon to be renamed the Secretary for War, again states that the USA won World War One.

Here the Green Party, hitherto a bunch of harmless tree huggers, have elected as their leader a socialist demagogue who’s fiery oratory has nothing to do with living on lentils and stopping cows farting in order to save the planet from extinction, but a great deal to do with the evils of Capitalism. He is apparently open to a coalition with Corbyn’s band of lunatics and keen on taxing the rich. That he is unshaven and a homosexual is obviously irrelevant to the eco warriors who elected him.

The illegal immigrants continue to arrive in rubber boats (1,000 today, Saturday) and the incompetents who masquerade as our government remain unable to do anything about it. The only party with a workable solution is Reform (Leave the ECHR and deport the lot to where they came from, including to those countries where they will be persecuted).

There is much fuss and feathers on the subject of free speech. One is of course free to state one’s opinion on any matter, but that freedom stops short of incitement to violence. If you encourage your correspondents to burn down hotels housing illegal immigrants, or advocate punching perverts, then Mr Plod will undoubtedly pay you a visit.

The Swedish goblin, off to provide sustenance and encouragement to Hamas, has had to turn back due to bad weather (how sad), in the meantime the mothers of the starving children of Gaza look pretty well fed to me.

Any historian is irritated when Films or TV mutilate historical fact. What actually happened is every bit as interesting as that which is invented for effect. The latest blockbuster being shown on BBC TV is King and Conqueror, a ten part dramatisation of the lead up to the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is well acted, beautifully filmed and shot in some exotic locations. It tries to follow the history but then every so often leaps into the ridiculous. As far as I am aware, Edward the Confessor did not murder his mother, by beating her to death with his crown, nor did William, Duke of Normandy, fight and kill King Henry I of France. While at the Battle of Stamford Bridge Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, and Tostig Godwinson were indeed killed, they were not killed by Harold Godwinson personally. Similarly there is no evidence that Harold had his elder brother Sven killed while on pilgrimage. The cause of ‘Diversity- Inclusivity-Equality’ should have no part in historical drama. Morcar, Earl of Mercia, was not black. Of course I could be wrong.

The dreadful Angela Rayner is, at long last, gone. Yet another cabinet minister caught on the make. With a tattoo and a broad Mancunian accent her appeal was to the barely literate oik tendency and while she has had to resign her ministerial posts and her position as deputy leader of the Labour Party, this latter post is elective and she could theoretically stand again – and would almost certainly be elected with the support of left wing MPs, trade unions and ordinary members. She is still an MP and Starmer would not welcome the idea of her sniping from the back benches.

In China President Xi, flanked by Putin and Kim Jong Un, with leaders of other dubious regimes in attendance, took the salute at a military parade. The choreography was excellent, although we do not know how effective are the armoured vehicles and missiles on display. China has commissioned her third aircraft carrier the Fujian. I am not a naval constructor but according to two of my naval friends the Chinese aircraft carriers are no good (how they arrive at that conclusion I know not).

And they call it the silly season…