It is a year of elections. The ones I have been focused on are in the Western world: the US election, and now the UK snap election.
In both, the “sensible” vote seems to be on the Left. This is not because the Left is brilliant or even appropriate medicine to these great mature economies. It is because the options on the Right are ridiculous.
America has a choice between two very old men. Biden at least has a track record of economic growth, employment and recovery from Covid. Trump has a track record of dishonesty and grift and may end up being convicted of cheating in the 2016 election. But Biden’s Attorney General did not litigate this, it was litigated as a financial crime by the State of New York. This may have an unfortunate side effect for Trump, as it is not a Federal conviction that can be pardoned. If the documented financial crime that funded hidden election campaign overspending is seen as sufficiently convincing to the pivotal jury decision as to get a unanimous finding, American democracy has shown how fragile it can be, but Trump will be damaged. That the GOP Republicans chose Trump as their candidate is a demonstration of their actual thinking process. He captures the headlines daily. American Democracy is all about the potential to mislead.
The UK has an easier path to ending the 14 year rule of a failing Conservative Government. It lost its way with the opportunistic Cameron as PM, could not find it with May. Got a resounding thumping election with a duplicitous and failed Johnson, who was briefly replaced with the hapless Truss, the embarrassed party put in the “sensible” Sunak to save the say. Instead, he has proven to the electorate that he has very little effect as a leader of a flailing Government that achieves very little, except it seems by accident.
He is running on his “leadership that saved the economy from Covid” when he increased the national debt by two trillion pounds, and presided over the most dramatic increase in immigration ever.
Whether this is a benefit or a terrible liability in the long run, the electorate is smarting from the pain in the short term, and calling a snap election 6 months early seems to be his final mistake.
So, we have to now start to turn our attention to the next Biden/Harris ticket and Keir Starmer with his band of competent MPs that are likely to win a substantial majority.