INDEX	February 26, 2025
Nothing to fear but fear itself?
Just before dawn there was a blackbird singing outside my window. The bird was a very talented singer but what struck me as very odd was that he seemed to combine elements of the warning cry, those shrill repetitive beats, with the much more melodious dawn chorus song. Even the blackbirds are doing it: using fear to attract attention. Look on TikTok and if you can get past Trump's come to Costa Del Gaza ai generated video, it's hard I know; you will find myriad voices trying to get your attention by telling you disaster is about to strike. Iran has just bombed Israel (they haven't). Israel is about to hit the Iranian nukes (they aren't). A law is going to be passed to enable prosecution for subversive comments made in your own home but picked up by your phone or some other listening device (it isn't). Fear stalks the land. And why shouldn't it? The world's super-power has just elected a totally unpredictable narcissist as president. And yet in some ways it's unbelievably wonderful. Most of my life I have wanted to get rid of the US bases in Britain and now it might just happen. If Trump pulls the plug on NATO it will probably collapse because of its own internal contradictions. Bloody good job if it does since the greatest danger to this country comes from the imperial delusions which cause the UK to act like an American lapdog and attack countries with whom we have no quarrel. In Britain we have a Prime Minister who is trying to pretend he's a Tory since he foolishly believes that's what the grown ups want. If he looked at the opinion polls he'd find that's not at all what they want. What they want is the nationalisation of the utilities. A decent public transport system. A properly functioning National Health Service. Care for the elderly. And so on. There is every possibility that when he gets turfed out on his ear he will be replaced by someone who actually listens to the public. It doesn't really matter which party they belong to since we have learned that politicians will promise anything to get elected and then do whatever motivates them.
INDEX Jonathan Brind	February 26, 2025