A new english lockdown, a new us president, a new french war on terror? | thearticle
A new english lockdown, a new us president, a new french war on terror? | thearticle"
- Select a language for the TTS:
- UK English Female
- UK English Male
- US English Female
- US English Male
- Australian Female
- Australian Male
- Language selected: (auto detect) - EN
Play all audios:
England is on the eve of a new lockdown. America is probably on the eve of a new President. France may be on the eve of a new war on terror. A year ago, none of these events was predicted.
If we had been able to look into the future then, the world we are now living in would have seemed almost unrecognisable. A year from now, the same may be true. Just about the only thing of
which we can be certain is that the earth will continue to turn on its axis and Boris Johnson’s hair will still defy gravity. The unpredictability of events has itself proved to be
unpredictable. We used to suppose that the unknowns were mostly known, or at least in principle knowable. We know, for example, that Presidents of the United States can lose elections after
only one term of office. It just doesn’t happen very often. (The last time was 28 years ago.) What was not only unknown but unknowable was that Donald Trump would be swept out of office by a
coronavirus pandemic . Even more surprising for those who treat the past as a guide to the future, Trump — at 70, the oldest US President ever to take office — is about to be replaced by an
even older one. A year ago it was far from certain that Joe Biden would even win the Democratic nomination. Now he is poised to take the White House by storm. Likewise, we have known for
years that relations between France and the Muslim world were on a knife edge, ever since the _Charlie Hebdo _and Bataclan massacres in Paris five years ago. There have been murders and
arson attacks on the Catholic Church before. What could not have been foreseen, however, was that Emmanuel Macron’s declaration of war on Islamist terror in reaction to the beheading of a
French teacher for showing his class the cartoons that were the pretext for the 2015 massacres would then lead by a chain reaction to the condemnation and boycott of France by the leaders of
nominally friendly Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Egypt and especially Turkey. The ferocity of President Erdogan’s denunciation of his French counterpart has astonished Western
diplomats and alarmed the intelligence community. Erdogan used every inflammatory comparison in the book, from Crusaders to Nazis. Infuriated by Macron’s threat to cut off foreign funding of
French Islam, he is deliberately whipping up paranoia in France by evoking a non-existent threat: a persecution of French Muslims. With France already facing violent protests against
lockdown, the prospect now looms of what has been described as a “low-level civil war” in the _banlieues, _the desolate housing estates that ring French cities. As Marx and Engels might have
said, a spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of Islamist revolution. And what of Britain? Battered but not broken by Covid-19, the country is preparing to enter a tunnel with only a
flicker of light at the end. When asked if this month-long lockdown might be extended until the new year, Michael Gove was honest enough to reply: “Yes.” In response, the political landscape
is already shifting. Nigel Farage, as quick to dump Trump as he once was to embrace him, is rebranding himself as the leader of an anti-lockdown “Reform Party”. The last time Farage did
this, conjuring the Brexit Party out of thin air, the Conservatives finally pressed Theresa May’s ejector button. Boris Johnson was supposed to be the new James Bond: licensed to kill the
new threat from the hard Right, while seeing off Jeremy Corbyn and the hard Left. All this came to pass, less than a year ago. Now, however, Boris Johnson is looking less like the late Sir
Sean Connery as 007 and more like Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring. After all the tumult of the last 12 months, who could say with confidence that the Prime Minister will still be in his
job a year from now? One thing, however, is certain: the West is not done for yet. If the United States could survive four years of Trumpery, it will surely survive Uncle Joe, too. (Although
it is, of course, by no means certain that Biden will last four years.) If France could survive five republics, four revolutions, three monarchies, two empires and one dictatorship since
1789, she can surely survive the fury of a Turkish demagogue. What of the people of England? Nigel Farage may claim that they never have spoken yet, but when in fact they did speak last
December, they rejected his brand of populist demagogy, just as they rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s brand of anti-social and anti-Semitic socialism. Provided that the PM can offer consistent and
coherent leadership in the coming weeks of maximum uncertainty, there is no reason why confidence in the Government should collapse. We now know from the recently published Home Intelligence
reports during the grim years of 1940-41 (_The Spirit of the Blitz, _edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy Crang, OUP £30) that morale fluctuated, rumours abounded and some groups — including
Jews and Catholics — were scapegoated by many. Yet the Blitz spirit was more than a myth: the British really did rally round Churchill and endured the almost unendurable because they
believed that they would ultimately triumph over Hitler. The finest hour was made possible by faith in final victory. Today’s ordeal is of an entirely different order from that of 1940-41,
because the enemy is unseen and still largely unknown — hence the unpredictability of the pandemic. Yet one key aspect of the future can be predicted: that a Covid spirit is indeed emerging
to match the Blitz spirit of fourscore years ago. This people — not only the English, but the British people — will pull through. And _TheArticle _will continue to give voice to a wide
spectrum of opinion for as long as our growing army of members permits us to do so. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have
an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation._
Trending News
South Korean navy patrol plane crashes in country’s south, killing 4SEOUL: A South Korean navy plane crashed during a training flight on Thursday, killing all four crew members on board, ...
Private sector must help achieve 'hunger free' india: g20 sherpaNEW DELHI: The country's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Wednesday called for greater private sector participation to en...
Let's learn | wordsville: the case with no questions | season 2024- Did a word that's important to you go missing? - And now all you can feel, do, or think is the opposite of that w...
Bogatha Waterfall springs to life with early rains in TelanganaMULUGU: With the onset of the monsoon season, Bogatha Waterfall has begun receiving copious inflows of water from the up...
Mismatched final season and the royals s2: netflix confirms new seasons of fan-favourite shows_MAAMLA LEGAL HAI_ SEASON 2 The quirky legal comedy set in Patparganj District Court is back for another round of silly ...
Latests News
A new english lockdown, a new us president, a new french war on terror? | thearticleEngland is on the eve of a new lockdown. America is probably on the eve of a new President. France may be on the eve of ...
Intraday Data provided by FACTSET and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by FACTSET. All quotes are in local excIntraday Data provided by FACTSET and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by FACTSE...
The page you were looking for doesn't exist.You may have mistyped the address or the page may have moved.By proceeding, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and our ...
Ex-minneapolis cop has murder conviction reversed, raising concerns about derek chauvinby DEREK MAJOR October 26, 2021 ------------------------- A former Minneapolis cop convicted of murder may regain his fr...
PedroTodos temos um Passado. Todos temos uma história de vida que nos acompanha à medida que a espuma do tempo avança. A maio...