For those out there who can remember the Age of Aquarius – happy clappy, long hair (yes I had some once) – welcome to the flip side.
The world is now blessed with two perfect exemplars of volume and volubility over substance. Two towering egos playing fast and very loose with people’s lives, especially those who, against every sensible argument to the contrary, put them in their exalted positions.
The first, of course, is the Cheesy Whatsit that is Donald Trump, but that one is only on the runway. After takeoff will be the time to dig the bomb shelter and stock up on tinned goods. But the support team he is assembling is boding well for future nightmares.
Meanwhile, on our side of the Atlantic, we have our own, our very own, Latin-spouting, verbose and voracious publicity devouring version.
Articulate where Trump is almost neanderthal, but with the same deep respect for women, the truth and the people, and a never-ending desire for self-engrandisement, Boris Johnson has proved, once again, that the mouth comes before the brain.
The most annoying thing about his latest utterances, that leaders in the Middle East are fighting proxy wars to settle their own long-running disputes, is that he is right. And that is proved by the fact that he agrees with me, as I have been saying the same thing, on this blog, for a long time.
Obviously he isn’t aware that he agrees with me, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that we are both right.
So why am I complaining? hypocrisy. Plain and simple.
He has stated recently that Saudi Arabia hasn’t as yet reached the tipping point in its involvement in Syria and Yemen, and therefore we can continue to supply them with weapons of wide-spread destruction.
He has now stated, to an audience in Italy, that Saudi Arabia and Iran are guilty of using and fermenting religious differences to cause havoc, destruction and death in other countries.
The first statement is beyond idiocy, the second is true. But both from the same person?
And it ignores the fact that, over the years, a variety of UK governments have also been involved in proxy wars, albeit not via the religious conduit.
Added to the fact that Johnson said this in Italy while his esteemed leader was trolling around the Middle East prostrating herself before their millions – of dollars – and we have the perfect political and diplomatic disconnect.
If he is going to make these statements, then make them to the actors in the drama, not the audience. And maybe, just maybe, have a consistency across the government’s representatives.
This is not intended to congratulate him on one astute observation, or that I am behind the public face of our government leaders.
What it is, I suppose, is a clear indication that international relations are going to be in the hands of flip-flopping egos.
It gets harder to retain hope within a world that is being pulled apart by narrow and destructive self interests.
And, as soon as my back has recovered, I will start work on that bomb shelter.
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