Month: January 2021

Forming a Disorderly Queue

by andrewcurnow1971, posted in Brexit, Little Bit Of Politics, The C-Word

I wouldn’t normally feel moved to stick up for a feckless, disingenuous chancer. But…

Having unexpectedly found myself in support of Mr Trump last time (well sort of) this week I feel moved to compliment Boris Johnson (well sort of). Not for anything he’s done, things haven’t taken quite as extraordinary a turn as that – but for something he hasn’t done.

That is to say, where we might have expected a misjudged, misplaced, “good old UK/hurrah for Brexit” bit of bragging, he hasn’t made any comment on the EU vaccine row which has variously grumbled, outraged and shocked its way through this week’s news.

I for one can’t remember having as many conversations about drugs as I have this week, not since Zammo’s fall from grace in the mid-80s, but what’s I’ve found especially maddening is the attempt, maybe by the media, maybe by the EU itself filtered through the media, to spin the ‘AstraZeneca EU under-delivery’ debacle into a ‘UK versus EU’ story instead.

At least based on the news reports, you’d be forgiven for thinking Boris had personally blockaded UK shipments headed for the continent. Whereas in fact it’s a business, making a business decision, and deciding NOT to use UK-produced vaccines to top up the lower-than-hoped supply levels from its various plants within the EU. A decision entirely made by AstraZeneca, about an agreement solely with the EU, and so by definition nothing to do with the UK government whatsoever.

Which ought to have been it, really. Until (in a bizarre example of just the sort of arrogant heavy-handedness which ardent Brexiteers used to claim happened all the time (but never actually did)) the EU proceeded to make claim after claim that supplies must be diverted from the UK, that EU requirements must be first priority, and even that they had a contract explicitly saying this must be so.

Fired up with their own indignation, the EU then went too far, when health commissioner Stella Kyriakides rejected ‘first come, first served’ as an acceptable business practice – instantly uniting Brexiteers and Remainers, because if there’s one thing the people of the UK can agree on it’s that we all absolutely respect the principle of the queue.

At the same time, the commissioner seemed to be asserting that ‘might has right’ is acceptable, on the grounds that the EU is 27 countries, and is therefore bigger and more important. Given the choice between that and ‘first come, first served’ I know which feels the less morally dubious.

The EU followed up this public relations triumph by confidently publishing their watertight advanced purchase agreement… which unfortunately demonstrated (despite the bold, but misguided, description of the clause as “crystal clear” by President von der Leyen) that it didn’t actually say what they had been telling us all week it did.

Most shocking of all perhaps (allowing for the fact that I’ve put my bargepole aside so am not even going near the whole Northern Ireland contretemps) is that, with no ill-advised gloating from Boris, and with other ministers making conciliatory comments, it has made our lot look (temporarily I’m sure) like actual grown-ups, with ethics and integrity. (Even, though it pains me to say so, even Michael Gove.)

What’s slipped through the cracks though, amidst all the arguing over who has and hasn’t got how much of which vaccine yet, is that it doesn’t really matter. If by ‘getting back to normal’ we mean an end to restrictions; being able to travel; being able to welcome overseas tourists back to the UK – if we mean getting back to (awkward phrase in the circumstances) free movement, that depends on everyone being vaccinated everywhere.

Of course every government wants to get its own population done as soon as possible (that is, to be fair, sort of their job); but they must know that to genuinely return to where we were, it requires all countries to do the same. So other than getting a headline or two, being the first country to be ‘fully vaccinated’ (whatever that might actually turn out to mean) is a slightly empty achievement.

Tired old phrase, but we are all in it together. Still.

An Uncomfortable Silence

by andrewcurnow1971, posted in Little Bit Of Politics, Trump

I wouldn’t normally feel moved to stick up for an arrogant, misogynistic, would-be dictator. But…

Originally I had a few thoughts to vent on poor, hard done by Ming the Merciless, of Flash (A-Ah!) fame, who’s recently been made the subject of a ‘warning’ to anybody watching the film. But once again our old friend Mr Trump, around who events always move so quickly, has overtaken me – although, serendipitously, I was able to leave my above opening sentence untouched.

I wouldn’t want anybody to panic, considering Mr Trump’s extraordinary behaviour in recent weeks – this is absolutely not a case of, to misquote, “I come to praise Caesar, not to bury him.” (For anybody keeping score, that’s now three would-be dictators I’ve got in before the 150 word mark, three).

In regard to that, I suspect that when/if it comes to any actual legal proceedings, it will be impossible to prove a direct causal link between Trump’s comments and demonstrators storming the Capitol. Nevertheless, although he’s well-practiced at doing the faux-innocent “it wasn’t me!”/plausible denial kind of thing, clearly there is a connection; and even if he didn’t quite envisage how it would play out, or the extent to which it would escalate, he doesn’t seem to have been unduly bothered. Still maintaining his absurd “stolen election” line, he is perfectly happy to throw America’s constitution, electoral system, and global reputation under a bus if it gets him what he wants.

Regardless of that, though, where I find myself unexpectedly troubled, and unexpectedly agreeing with Angela Merkel, is in Mr Trump’s being banned from Twitter (which, given how much use he made of it, and how energised and active a tool it was for him, is sort of like getting him neutered).

By all means highlight factual inaccuracies; certainly, have some kind of ‘time out’ policy. I wouldn’t mind if they want to put him on the naughty step for a week to think about what he’s done. (Although to be fair, he’d probably spend the whole week thinking how brilliantly he’s done, and what a great guy he is.) But to permanently ban him, that sets a dangerous precedent (even if he is a dangerous President (I’m sorry)).

To my mind, letting (or forcing) Twitter, and its big brother Facebook, and all the rest, decide this stuff is absolutely the wrong way around. It’s like David Cameron complaining about Jimmy Carr, whose wily accountant had helped him avoid tax. Surely, rather than complain about the person exploiting the loophole, Cameron should have been complaining about the loophole? (Or even, given that he was, you know, Prime Minister, closing the loophole!)

Similarly, if “we” think there are things that should not be (allowed) on social media, make an actual law against it. Don’t have Twitter police it, leave that to, erm, the police.

It probably doesn’t seem that important given that it’s Trump – many of us won’t miss his distinctive brand of egocentric SHOUTY offensiveness. But as ever he’s an unnuanced example of something that’s in fact much less black & white.

I’m not suggesting Joe Biden is going to be as controversial as Trump, goodness knows that would take some doing. But, for example, during the 1980s there was some sympathy towards the IRA in the USA, certainly far more than on the UK mainland. It’s a stretch to picture Mrs Thatcher on Twitter, but if she had been, one can easily imagine very hard, uncompromising posts from her about the IRA. Would Twitter, a US-based organisation, have banned her because of them?

Freedom of Speech is a luxury we all enjoy, often treating it as an automatic thing, if we even bother to think about it at all. But it comes with the flipside that people have to be free to say things we don’t like. We have to (a) accept that; but (b) given that in every day experience most people seem to be mostly good most of the time, hope that anything truly ‘unacceptable’ will be scorned and objected to BY other people. NOT by Twitter, etc slapping it down and deeming it so.

Although obviously, that’s just my opinion. You’re free to disagree.