Back Story Newsletter
Good Morning,
Britain’s Democracy
When Britain’s P.M. Liz Truss crashed the economy because of massive tax cuts to the rich, with no way of funding the debt crisis, her Conservative party reacted with forcing her to resign after just 44 days in power.
It’s been a mess, but you can argue democracy still works here, with the markets reacting to legislation, and legislators reacting to voters and the markets, and a sense of accountability is still in place.
Contrast that to the United States where a former President Trump’s ratings never fell below 34% in a toxic political divide, despite as the Atlantic notes this week:
“Trump presided over the separation of migrant parents from their children, advised Americans to inject disinfectants during the deadliest pandemic in a century, told thousands of lies, tried to pass a bill that would take health-care coverage away from roughly 20 million Americans, repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin, then incited an attempted authoritarian takeover of the United States government on January 6”.
So yes politics are damaged everywhere it seems, but democracy limps forward in some traditional form of convention here in the UK. The U.S. is staggering in its division and complete suspension of traditional values of democratic norms and about to get worse as the race for President in 2024 approaches.
So on with the news here in London - (this is called burying the lead in the new business) it would appear former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is out. He claims he got at least 100 votes to enter the Conservative race to replace Truss and then promptly withdrew his name from the running. Translation - Boris didn’t get 100 votes of his party and lied to say he did.
Regardless it would appear Johnson’s former Chancellor Rishi Sunak will announce even today he has clenched the leadership race and is the new P.M. It could happen any hour now and the British markets are already responding positively as Sunak, a former banker, is considered stable and ready to right the economy so battered by Truss’ gross incompetence. Or at least give it a try and he will be the 3rd P.M. in 2 months!
What is not so Democratic say the opposition, is the fact more than 70% of Brits want an election, not an internal Conservative Party selection of the next P.M. But those are the rules, as Conservatives were elected until potentially 2026.
Ukraine War
A flurry of calls took place over the weekend between Russia’s head of Defense, Sergei Shoigu that are deeply disturbing and to some degree shocking in their nature.
Shoigu called his counter parts in France, Turkey, Britain and America on the weekend, in which he had told them of Russian concerns that Kyiv was plotting to detonate a device laced with radioactive material.
A so called dirty bomb is not a nuclear bomb, but a device that spreads radiation after some kind of detonation.
Shoigu’s claim was refuted by British Defence Sec. Ben Wallace even as Russian news outlets carried a claim – without evidence – that the creation of a “dirty bomb” was in its final stages, and that Kyiv was receiving nuclear components from British specialists.
The claim by Russia is thought to be an attempt by the Kremlin to lay the ground work for some kind of dangerous escalation in Ukraine, and after the Sunday call between U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Defence Minister Shoigu, Austin said in a twitter post “I rejected any pretext for Russian escalation & reaffirmed the value of continued communication amid Russia’s unlawful & unjustified war against Ukraine.”
Is Russia planning something because of its ground losses in Ukraine? I think you can certainly interpret these calls as an indication it is. Whether that be a nuclear detonation, or the blowing of a major dam on the Dnieper above Kherson.
Increasingly Russian leader Putin is being backed into a corner, of his own making, but desperate none-the-less. These calls lay the ground work for a ‘false flag’ op.
Other News…
-The 20th session of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing ended Sunday with Xi Jinping securing an unprecedented third presidential term. That was the theatrics arranged for maximum political ends. But on Saturday, China’s former top leader, Hu Jintao, was unexpectedly led out of the session while he was seated in a prominent position, at the front table in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, right next to his successor, Xi.
-Salman Rushdie's agent has told a Spanish newspaper that the author has lost the use of an eye and movement in a hand as a result of him being stabbed multiple times at a literary event in New York state in August.
-Just the fact this news item is the last in this newsletter tells you just how relaxed we have become about Covid, and perhaps wrongly so as it begins a winter come back. CDC director Rochelle Walensky tested positive for COVID-19 Saturday. She is up to date on her vaccines and boosts and is experiencing mild symptoms. Get the connection? Got your booster?
Have a good Monday!
Dana Lewis