Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Dr. Rachael Benedict is an American historian and a best-selling author. She has a British connection through her estranged father Saul, an English thriller writer. Saul, whose parents were of Anglo-German origin, has spent much of his life plotting to expose secrets from World War Two, which are so sensitive they have been subject to an extensive cover-up lasting seventy years. As the time approaches for him to make his move to expose duplicity, murder and lies at the heart of the British State, he seeks Rachael’s help. This provokes a killing spree as parts of the security services of both Britain and the United States become engaged in the drama, with one side determined to get the secrets out and the other determined to keep them hidden.
Set equally in the United States and Britain, the narrative grips from the first page, transporting the reader to the heart of government both in Washington and London and on into the darkest corners of the secret states on each side of the Atlantic. Rachael battles forward to unearth the truth both from intrigues of the Nazi era, but also within her own family, surviving three attempts on her life, before finally achieving her goal. Not only does she expose the truth from history and from her own roots, she has to delve deep into her own emotions to find the truth about herself.

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Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places as the long reign of the government totters to an end, following the ousting of the iconic Margaret Thatcher. The novel catches the mood of those times with a host of fictional characters who engage in political intrigue, sex, money laundering and murder, pursued by an Irish investigative journalist and his girlfriend, the daughter of a cabinet minister found dead in a hotel room after bondage sex.

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For those outside the US who watch and try to fathom the Trump presidency, the extraordinary sequence of events which has unfolded in the saga of the projected meeting with Kim Jon Un, defies explanation. The surprise was that it was set up at all and when it was it became a foreign policy triumph for an administration in pretty hot water all across the diplomatic firmament.  Then bit by bit, with incessant talk about Libya as an ideal model or possible consequence, the whole thing was undermined and an angry Trump has cancelled it. But make no mistake, the first stone was thrown by Bolton not by Kim.

Trump’s letter to Mr Kim is quite gracious and beguiling, whilst unable to resist the ‘ours is bigger’ boast. Perhaps this leaves the door open? Or has it fallen off its hinges? Trump supporters, a little under half of America, will rejoice at wise decisions and measured responses. The rest of America and most of the rest of the world, will regard this as yet another example of an administration in chaos with which constructive business is impossible.

At this moment  this blog is too confused to offer a view. Time will tell.

The revelation from HMRC that the extra cost to the economy of new technology controlled borders will be in the order of £20 billion annually comes as no surprise. Countries do not organise customs unions and free trade deals because they do not know what to do with their days; they set them up because the alternative is too expensive and reduces both living standards and trade. Downing Street’s response to the damning evidence given by the head of H.M. Revenue and Customs to the Treasury Select Committee, is that it knows there are problems.  Wow.  Clever.