Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

The Tory party is in a rather disorientated state for the start of an election campaign. At one level the strong economic recovery looks good, but the fact that it is built on household debt, a house price boom and falling living standards, for all not engaged in financial services, guarantees that it will in due course turn bad. The only question is when? Tory cynics believe not until after they have won the general election. Labour realists fear the same thing.

Other factors are now, however, in play. The electorate is much better informed and much better in touch with itself through social media, than at any time before. It no longer trusts politicians. Moreover it actually thinks politicians are liars and people who are on the make, make promises and then break them. So they pay much less attention to campaigns and much more to impressions and to popular personalities. The two most popular personalities in UK politics today are Nigel Farage and Boris.

Farage’s impact on the election campaign is both understood, predictable and feared by most Tories who have not already joined him. Boris’s impact is at times beyond understanding, entirely unpredictable, but welcomed by almost all Tories. The trouble for the Tory HQ is that the only reason for his popularity is the certainty that his ultimate goal is to replace Cameron. After Cameron has lost the election, which Boris believes he will.

That is a bit of a funny atmosphere in which to organise a winning programme, but Downing Street and Tory HQ (where is it now?) are confident they can pull it off. Well they would be of course, because they are all cronies, privately educated and bitchy. How do we know that? Of course! Baroness Warsi; a Tory of quite a different stripe who has resigned over the Government’s tardiness in calling Israel to book over Gaza. Now anther junior foreign office minister has gone even as I write this. Dear me! Time for a reshuffle perhaps? Oh, no, they have just had one.

Suddenly Ed Milliband is beginning to look like a safe pair of hands.

This Blog has been unrelenting in its criticism of Western foreign policy since 9/11; in particular we condemn the tribal nature of traditional likes, which has lead to an increasing gulf between the UK and US and Russia. The problems with Russia over Ukraine could be easily foreseen and could equally easily have been resolved, so that all elements in that divided and badly governed country would have been faced with a united position from both West and East. Instead both Kiev and Donetsk have played one off against the other, while the population cringes amid the upheaval and violence of civil war.

Now we are witnessing the potential collapse of the Iraq state, under the weight of its own sectarian hatreds and the onslaught of the genocidal and ruthlessly efficient, as well as well equipped and resourced, IS. We have seen from the humanitarian disaster which is Syria that the West’s early judgement that Assad was a gonner has proved wholly wrong. What is overlooked in embarrassment is that Russia warned this would be the outcome. Russia and China warned over Libya and abstained. Now we can see with good reason.

Even the State Department and Foreign Office can now see that among the countries most vigorously opposed to the rise of ISIS and who have deployed covert and overt military assets to help stem the tide, are Iran and Russia. Meanwhile the US and UK are also deploying military assets in the same cause; the US is actually engaged in air strikes against IS, as well as aid  drops for the terrorised Yazidis. The UK is dropping aid of its own as well as supporting the US with refuelling and logistics. It would all work so much better if everyone was working together for the same objective. This is what foreign policy is supposed to be about. Put simply diplomacy only works if it is built on facts not fancies.

To promote the launch of the new compact edition, with a striking new cover, of Hitler’s First Lady in denser type and therefore 100 pages shorter, the paperback will be on  offer  for a short period at the special price of £5.99, or currency equivalent, worldwide from Amazon.  The new Kindle  of this edition will be on sale at £0.77p.  Get it now!

Customer Review   ” I really enjoyed this book – fascinating plot that had me gripped. At centre of the story is an Anglo-German family whose loyalties are torn during the second world war. The woman has an affair with Hitler – seems rather far-fetched but the book draws you in and I couldn’t put it down!”

Historical drama spanning more than one hundred years, from its origins at the beginning of the twentieth century to continuing repercussions into the twenty-first. Here is an extract:

Hitler, who had been lounging, rumpled, in his chair, sat up and pulled his tunic straight. The Nazi brown had been replaced by field grey.

‘How do you plan to do that?’

‘Contacts are beginning to develop in Lisbon and Madrid with representatives of those in the British Establishment who oppose the continuance of the war. They need time to prepare but I think before we move on Russia, a deal will be possible.’

Hitler smiled.

‘Rudolf, you are a subtle player of the kind the British, who love intrigue, respond to. Go ahead, but take care and not a word to anyone! This is for you and me only.’

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