As you prepare for the weekend, I honestly don’t want to be the one who ruins it before it even begins, but I do fear for the state of the world at the moment. With the USA led by a malignant narcissist with likely frontotemporal dementia, Donald J. Trump, eager to deflect from the mountain of Epstein files which are likely to incriminate the leader of the Western World to a catastrophic extent and Israel by a genocidal maniac and war criminal, it does really feel like things are beginning to get out of control. The unhinged lunatic and current US defence secretary – sorry, war secretary – the born again Christian Pete Hegseth has now announced that “firepower over Iran and Tehran is about to surge dramatically” and with the US/Israel alliance in full attack mode, just how bad can this get? My view is very.
The least of our worries is the effect on the economy. Petrol and diesel prices are already surging and gas prices have already risen by 50%. If, as many expect, supply chains are adversely affected, everything else will begin to cost more, too.
Unsurprisingly, the media has piled in with criticism of the government’s response to America and Israel’s war. The political right, from the Fagash Fuhrer Nigel Farage to the Tory party’s useless leader Kemi Badenoch, have been critical of the government for not following in Trump and Netanyahu’s footsteps, while the far left from the populist Greens to old Magic Grandpa himself, Jeremy Corbyn, have attacked the government for defending British people and British interests abroad. Keir Starmer’s government has been a little accident prone in its first 18 months in power, but if the far right and the far left are united in their criticism, then they are clearly getting something right. Indeed, opinion polls consistently say that voters of all parties, including Reform UK Ltd, support the government’s current stance. So, for what it is worth, do I.
As I said the other day, my old mum who, it must be said, shuffled off her mortal coil some 26 years ago, always said the next world war would begin in the Middle East. While this was obviously based on what we call a ‘gut feeling’, I always felt there was likely to be some truth to that. With at least one mad man – Trump – leading the blind charge into Iran, I can only see things getting worse, unless of course he gets bored and moves on to something else, like perhaps capturing another foreign leader he doesn’t like and bringing him back to the US.
I am not convinced that Iran has the capability to strike our little island nation, but who knows how far it could go in what it would see as retribution in such a volatile area? Already, other Middle Eastern countries have suffered collateral damage as a result of Trump and Netanyahu’s war. Even if the main action continues over there, who knows if things couldn’t turn ugly over here? It is at times like these when you need strong and calm leadership. So far, the government has provided exactly that.
It is clear that Trump and his wretched government have no real plan beyond destroying the entire Iranian leadership and its military capability and somehow installing a more favourable leadership, although Dementia Donny has already been forced to acknowledge that many of the Ayatollah’s likely successors have also been killed. You feel that Israel will not rest easy until the Middle East has been turned into dust.
How could the military aspect affect us, then? Tehran is over 3000 miles away from London. Good point. I don’t know. But just this morning, alleged Iranian spies inn England have been nicked by Inspector Knacker. What were they allegedly up to, allegedly? Will there come a time when things escalate and the rest of the world is drawn into the conflict? We know none of these things. But if you are young enough to be conscripted, it might be an idea to keep a close eye on News At Ten for the foreseeable future.
Trump and Netanyahu’s war has no plan, no aims or objectives beyond regime to be achieved by shock and awe, no exit strategy. The odds are that, one way or another, this will not end well, militarily and economically. It is becoming clear that Trump will do anything to distract from the Epstein files, including, I fear, a world war or a version of it.
Have a nice weekend and hopefully there will be another weekend next weekend. I’m thinking of spending most of it in the pub, just in case. This might not be the end of the world, but like World War Two, it could be the end of the world as we know it.
