Trumpetry

I'm trying to get to grips with these words 'left' and 'right.' They seem to have shifted their meaning over the past few years.

I recently posted on a wee Facebook reading group I'm in that Bill Bryson these days seems to me to be the archetypal Conservative Home Counties man. He has taken UK citizenship but he really only sees England - not the UK or Great Britain - and really southern England at that. He hates change and would prefer if we could keep things the way they were when he first came to live in England from the USA about 40 years ago: mostly by that he means polite (that's the people) and 'unspoiled' (that's the countryside). He hates technology (HS2, the Channel Tunnel, Heathrow), bureaucracy (the National Trust, the staff of any public institution) and service that could be described as anything less than subservient. One of our American members was surprised by my post: in the US, Bryson's regarded as pretty far to the left.

If that's what soft and cuddly Bryson would be, what about me? Green, social democrat, in favour of equality, etc. O, but I already know that: when I posted on another FB thread that I found it shocking that Americans would repeal Obamacare and leave so many more people without health insurance, I was immediately attacked as a Commie. Mind you, the same thread also called me some sort of socialist and a dangerous leftie. Either I've got a very ignorant bunch of FB friends or there's some confusion out there about what these terms mean.

On FB and twitter right now, I can see 'lefties' being blamed for attacks on Donald Trump and on his wife Melania and son Barron. When I read the comments people make, there's nothing at all to suggest that these people are anything to do with the left - or right - in politics but plenty to suggest they are seriously horrible people who have realised they can write anything about anyone online and go unchallenged.

No, I'm not attacking freedom of speech. If anything, I'm pointing out that with that freedom goes responsibility: being a grown-up (and if you have the vote you are understood to be a grown-up) means you have to agree what is and is not a legitimate target: Donald Trump is. What he does and says as president are. His political appointments are. His family is not. In fact, attacking his wife and son is a distraction from what is actually going on: a transition from government by politicians (ultimately answerable to the ballot box) to government by billionaires (all male, all white billionaires at that, answerable to no one except the man who appoints them). It's a bit like Theresa May's clothes: all that fuss about what she wears took our eyes off the mis-firing of a Trident missile - and since I live just down the road from where these warheads are stored, this is of some concern.

The trouble with people like Nigel Farage and Donald Trump (two cheeks of the same arse if you like) is that they fling the door open to chancers like Marine Le Pen. She's been on TV and radio today distracting French voters from the Socialist opposition announcing their candidate by proclaiming that the EU is finished, that the UK started a domino-effect when it voted to leave. She's not saying what comes after the EU but you can try this on for size: Marine Le Pen is right-wing but gets a lot of funding for the Front National from oligarchs and billionaires who can see many advantages for them if the EU collapses. Then capitalism and multi-nationalism will be triumphant and the last entities that could control them will be gone. At that point your children, grandchildren and their descendants will be at the mercy of people whose only interest is money. Happy with that?

Maybe now is the moment to declare the terms 'left' and 'right' officially dead. What's at stake is constitutional democracy and any semblance of fairness in society. The enemy is big money.

The women have shown the way with their marches. I noticed the UK papers described 'hundreds of thousands of women' marching across the USA. Little mention of what they were marching for or of the marches that took place across the rest of the world. If I was being really chauvinist, I'd say 'step aside, guys - leave it to us. We don't accept what Trump is offering - the Bryson view of an ideal world - so we'll take it from here.'