politics | Steve Woods

Advice to an elderly aunt in legal difficulties

11/11/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

Panorama is a current affairs documentary news programme broadcast by the BBC. First aired in 1953, it is the world’s longest-running television news magazine programme.

However, Panorama’s longevity has not shielded it from controversy, especially when it has committed a foolish act, as has come to light in the past few days.

A Panorama programme broadcast in Novermber 2024 about one of the runners’ suitability as a candidate for the presidency of the United States touched on the storming of the US Capitol on 6th January 2021 following an inciteful speech given to rioters by the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump, who is on a personal mission to Make America Grate Again (or something similar. Ed.).

Panorama’s great sin was to edit Trump’s speech (a necessity for the sake of coherence in most instances whenever President Felon opens his north and south for more than 10 seconds. Ed.) so it appeared even more inciteful than it already was, even though the hardcore MAGA louts had no intention of peacefully protesting. The editing was criticised in an internal BBC report, which somehow found its way into the hands of the Telegraph. Often regarded as the in-house journal of the Conservative Party, the Telegraph is no great fan of Auntie.

Once the leaked memo’s contents became known the media, media spokespeople and politicians all reacted. In particular, Karoline Leavitt (President Rapist’s Mouth of Sauron. Ed.) characterised the BBC as “100% fake news”.

Heads rolled as a consequence of the subsequent furore, namely those of the Director General Tim Davie and the broadcaster’s head of news, Deborah Turness.

However, that was not the end of the fallout. tRump, a man with a very thin skin and a vindictive lust for vengeance against every perceived slight, has threatened the BBC with a lawsuit for $1 bn. if there is no retraction of the “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements” allegedly made by Panorama.

The letter from President Golf Cheat’s lawyers state that the demand is being made under Florida Statute § 770.011, which as far as your ‘umble scribe’s limited legal knowledge stretches, is not applicable under the law of England and Wales. If defamation litigation is planned in Florida, it would not stand a chance if the Panorama programme in question – Trump: A Second Chance? – has not been broadcast in Florida itself.

Furthermore, if the case were held in England and Wales under the applicable law, there’s a further snag: a term limiting litigation for libel cases. The Independent notes that when interviewed by the BBC, British media lawyer Mark Stephens explained as follows:

The UK defamation claim is now out of time. He had one year from Monday October 28, 2024, when Panorama aired so he is 14 days out of time or so in the UK.

President Business Fraud’s lawyers’ letter to the BBC merits a reply, of course. Your correspondent’s opinion is that Auntie’s legal advisers should reply along the lines of the 1971 Arkell vs. Pressdram case. Pressdram is the proprietor of the satirical magazine Private Eye and its reply in this matter was as follows.

We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell’s attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.

The case was subsequently dropped.
ICC to ditch Microsoft

30/10/2025 Steve WoodsOpen Source, Politics, Tech

The International Criminal Court (ICC/CPI) in The Hague wants to become independent of US technology out of fear of reprisals from Donald Trump, the vindictive and bullying forty-seventh president of the United States (who is on a mission to Make America Grate Again, or something similar. Ed.), German news site heise reports.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The institution plans to replace the Microsoft software currently used in its workplaces with OpenDesk, an open source software suite currently being developed by Zendis, a company owned by the German Federal government.

The decision was taken due to the sanctions imposed by the current US Trump regime against court employees such as Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, under which Microsoft simply blocked Mr Khan’s access to email account. He was therefore forced to switch to the Swiss email service Proton. Back in May the ICC/CPI stated its work had virtually been paralysed due to its heavy reliance on service providers like Microsoft.

Furthermore, it is believed the US government in Washington is considering further measures against the International Criminal Court, which could also severely restrict its ability to function.

Achieving Digital Sovereignty

While the International Criminal Court only has 1,800 employees that need to be freed from dependency on US software, this can be regarded as a sign that geopolitics is increasingly concerned with technology. Business and politics recognise the dependence on US tech companies is a problem, particularly because the current US regime is using technology as a bargaining chip.

The ICC/CPI is not alone in moving away from the Beast of Redmond: for example, the German Army has also concluded a framework agreement with Zendis for “sovereign communication and collaboration solutions” such as OpenDesk.
High gains grifter

29/10/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics, Social Media

In the May 2024 general election, the constituency of Clacton returned a member of parliament to the House of Commons, not just an ordinary MP, but a party leader, in this instance one Nigel Paul Farage, head honcho of Reform UK, the latest incarnation of the Farage Fascist Fan Club (see also UKIP and the Brexit Party. Ed.).

During his days as a member of the European Parliament, Farage was not the most regular attendee in the debating chamber, although he was more than prepared to take the parliament’s generous salary and allowances, even misusing the latter for his own ends rather than those for which they were intended.

Anyway, enough of past history, let’s come up to the present. Since being elected to the green leather benches, Farage has had difficulty finding the Palace of Westminster to do the job he’s supposed to do for the good burghers of Clacton. Furthermore, he’s also had problems finding Clacton, although his partner has bought a house in the constituency, although the source of the funds for the deal is unsure.

However, just because he’s happy to take his MP’s salary of nearly £94,000 per year for the work he is expected to do for his electorate and mostly manages to avoid, this does not mean Farage is workshy. Indeed, one glance at his Register of Financial Interests (which runs to two pages. Ed.) reveals the Reform leader is earning over £1m from sources other than the largesse he receives courtesy of the taxpayer.

This has prompted the Led By Donkeys collective (posts passim) to film a video of his extra-parliamentary earnings and trundle it around the streets of Clacton, as well as its being circulated on social media.

This latest activity has not escaped the attention of the local media, including the Clacton Gazette, which prefers to refer to Farage’s income declared in the parliamentary register as a claim from Led By Donkeys. This places the Clacton Gazette in clear breach of article 1 – accuracy – of the IPSO guidelines. The Gazette claims (their word. Ed.) to be regulated by IPSO, another of the UK’s regulators, all of whom seem to come with rubber teeth as standard equipment.

Furthermore, in the comments below the piece most of the constituents of Nigle, as some call their dishonourable member, seem to believe he can do no wrong.
News of Irish independence bypasses Shropshire

28/10/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

In December 1921 the Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State as a largely self governing and autonomous dominion within the British Empire. It came into existence one year later on 6th December 1922. This marked the first step towards Irish independence and the beginning of the end of English meddling on the island of Ireland which had started with the Anglo-Norman invasion back in the 12th century, i.e. some eight centuries.

As a political entity, the Irish Free State endured until the end of December 1937 when a new Irish constitution was adopted and the state became a de facto republic.

However, news of these events between eighty and one hundred years ago still seem not to have reached some remote areas of Englandshire, like the county of Shropshire and its main local newspaper, the Shropshire Star, which today published this story under the UK News category (screenshot below).

It’s clearly going to take centuries for the British/English to lose their tendency to regard large swathes of the world and other peoples’ countries as belonging to the British/English state.
For British read English?

14/10/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Oddities, Politics

Yesterday’s Guardian carried a piece entitled Most of Great Britain’s major rail operators are back in public hands – is it working?.

At this point it would be easy – and flippant – to refer to Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, but your ‘umble scribe wishes to delve further into the substance of the article without invoking said law and saying no.

Given that the map handily provided to illustrate the article manages to miss the line to Oban, one might question the accuracy and utility of the entire piece.

Rail privatisation was a project undertaken with subsequent disastrous results by the Conservative government of John Major. It separated management of the track from the running of rail services of said track. It has resulted in services that no longer serve the travelling public (e.g. no holding a local service if the train from London is running late, especially if they services involved are provided by different operating companies. Ed.).

Ever since the end of the Covid pandemic some renationalisation has been undertaken. As train operating company franchises have expired, the services themselves have been taken back into public ownership, mainly due to concerns over financial woes and poor performance. This process started under the last Conservative government. In Cymru and Scotland, where transport is a devolved matter, Trafnidiaeth Cymru/Transport for Wales and ScotRail were both nationalised by the Welsh and Scottish devolved governments in 2021 and 2022 respectively, since when the latter abolished peak fares on its services in September 2025.

Withing England the pace of renationalisation has accelerated under the present Labour government, with three operators appearing in the public books since May: South Western Railway, C2C and Greater Anglia.

The next stage, according to the Guardian article, is the establishment of a new state-controlled company called Great British Railways, expected next year, which will manage rail infrastructure and services.

The logo for Great British Railways is a real dog’s dinner, consisting principally of the old British Railawy InterCity logo from 1966, combined with that Bloody Butcher’s Apron that some call the Union Jack.

Given that services are already nationalised in Cymru and Scotland, your ‘umble scribe wonders if what is being proposed is actually applicable to those devolved administrations. Although the information the government has released to date states it is applicable to England, Cymru and Scotland, all the announcements made to date all relate to train services provided solely in England.

Your correspondent believes this indicative of the centuries-old English colonial attitude to the island of Great Britain and perhaps a more apposite name for the government’s intentions would be English Railways minus the Great (which frequently happens to be grate. Ed.) with the corresponding logo in the colours of the flag of St George.

If any passing readers can supply more details about the ownership of infrastructure and provision of services in either Scotland or Cymru or how Great British Railways is likely to develop, kindly comment below.
Noun becomes terror organisation

20/09/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media
Antifa or anti-fascist is a noun with the following definitions:
1. a political movement whose followers are left-wing activists who oppose fascist authoritarianism, capitalism, and extreme right-wing ideologies such as nationalism, xenophobia, and white supremacy; and
2. a group of such activists, or a member of such a group.
Opposition to fascism has grown in recent years with the increasing prominence of extreme right wing politics and politicians, particularly in western democracies.

Not least of these prominent extreme right wing politicians is the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump, who is on a personal mission to Make America Grate Again (or something similar. Ed.).

The Donald has made no secret in the past of his hatred for those expressing anti-fascist sentiments and standing up to his extreme authoritarian regime; and if you are opposed to anti-fascism, Donny, you know what that makes you, don’t you?

The Tangerine Tyrant has now gone further than he ever has before, posting the following on Truth Social his social media platform that defies nominative determinism.

Yes, you read that correctly. A noun is now ‘A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION’.

Just like antifa, organization (to use the US-EN spelling) is a noun. Amongst others, it has the following definition.

A group of persons organized for some end or work; association.

As is usual when The Donald starts throwing his weight about on social media, there has been some criticism, particularly from those with expertise in terrorism, not to say outright ridicule, but more on the latter presently.

The most clear criticism your ‘umble scribe has seen has emanated from ex-US Navy man Malcolm Nance who replied to Trump’s invective as shown below.

As regards the mockery of Trump’s flawed logic, untold numbers of social media users have posted about members of their families who have been involved in anti-fascist actions.

Your correspondent also posted a photograph of a prominent anti-fascist activist from 1942.

Major-General Dwight D. Eisenhower photographed in 1942.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Those of us with long memories have not forgotten the last time Uncle Sam displayed noun-based hostility. In 2011, the war on terror was declared by then President George W. Bush and resulted in such horrors as the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (which has yet to close. Ed.) and so-called extraordinary rendition, i.e. the state-sponsored abduction of people in a foreign jurisdiction and transfer to a third country, usually for interrogation linked to the use of torture.

Taking all the above into account, one has to credit Trump with one thing: he’s doing a great job of making America grate.

Update 23/09/2025: It was announced overnight that Trump has issued an executive order designating the aforementioned noun as a domestic terror organisation. In the text of the executive order, a common Trump playbook tactic is apparent – accusing one’s opponents of exactly the kinds of actions – e.g. doxing and physical assault – his MAGA louts have been inflicting on their perceived opponents for years. Anyway, the very best of luck on your witch hunt against a noun and an idea, Donny! Your action is reminiscent of another Don and his epic quest against windmills* in La Mancha.

* = The Donald also has a well-documented hatred of of a particular kind of windmill known as a wind turbine.
The BBC and Farage – a complaint

09/09/2025 Steve WoodsMedia, Politics

Today The National reported that the Liberal Democrats had written to broadcast regulator Ofcom to complain about the BBC’s excessive coverage (one might even say cheerleading. Ed.) of one Nigel Paul Farage, liar, charlatan, racist, Brexit cheerleader and chief honcho of alleged political party Reform UK.

Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dems’ culture and media spokesperson, has remarked: “The BBC is following Farage around like a lost puppy and the resulting wall-to-wall coverage is giving legitimacy to a man who wants to do to Britain what Trump is doing to America.”, as well as stating that the broadcaster is compromising its reputation.

Furthermore, the party states that it only receives a fraction of the coverage given to Farage and his fan club despite the Lib Dems having eighteen times as many MPs.

The full text of Mr Wilkinson’s letter is as follows:

Dear Melanie Dawes,

I’m writing to you to urge you to review whether the high volume of coverage of Reform UK by the BBC is in line with broadcast guidance.

The BBC is an important part of our national story. Research carried out this May revealed what many of us know instinctively: that the BBC is the most respected broadcaster in the world – ranking first across the globe for trust, reliability and independence. Its mission is to act in the public interest. The corporation is governed by Royal Charter.

By paying such disproportionate attention to Nigel Farage’s latest outfit, Reform UK, the BBC is compromising its reputation. To many licence fee payers, the broadcaster gives the impression that hangs on every word uttered by Nigel Farage, despite his party’s scant representation in Parliament. Most recently, we have seen Reform enact bans on journalism and spread dangerous untruths at its autumn conference, linking Covid vaccination jabs to cancer.

The coverage of my party, the Liberal Democrats, has been disproportionately low. The broadcaster’s online platform, BBC Online, mentions Nigel Farage three times as frequently as it does Ed Davey. In Parliament the Liberal Democrats represent eighteen times as many constituencies as Reform UK.

This discrepancy does real damage to the BBC’s reputation as a fair, independent broadcaster and its ability to abide by its own charter. By giving Reform lift and airtime that is denied to other parties, the BBC assists Reform’s poll rating – an interference in politics that goes against its chartered responsibility.

This country deserves fair, proportional and balanced journalism. Currently the BBC is required by its regulator to deliver this in the regulated period: the election seasons where state broadcasters are required to give proportionate coverage to political parties, based on their parliamentary heft. Our petition sets out proposals for an extension of this regulation, to year-round – a plan that would give the electorate the respect it deserves by consistently providing fair coverage across the political spectrum.

I urge you to consider our proposal.

Yours sincerely

Max Wilkinson MP

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport

The National is not the only media outlet to notice the disproportionate airtime Farage receives. Middle East Eye has also noticed the disparity, particularly with regard to Farage’s appearances on the BBC’s Question Time topical debate programme. It states:

As just one example of this systematic effort to force Farage on the country, Jeremy Corbyn has been on BBC Question Time three times in 42 years as an MP. Left-wing MP Zarah Sultana has never been on it. Farage, who was elected an MP only last year, has appeared 38 times.

Ofcom guidance to broadcasters states they must “not give undue prominence to the views and opinions of particular persons or bodies on matters of political or industrial controversy and matters relating to current public policy in all the programmes included in any service taken as a whole“.
It sounds like Auntie is definitely in breach of Ofcome guidelines. However, the rest of the British media also give Farage a very soft ride and seem reluctant to press him on the feasibility of his party’s policies and his own abhorrent opinions.

Indeed, the harshest criticism of Farage in recent times has come from Democrat Senator Jamie Raskin, when Farage skived off doing the job he’s supposed to be doing in parliament to appear before a US congressional hearing on censorship. Mr Raskin did not pull any punches.

The British media ought to take a leaf out of Senator Raskin’s book.
Sin and the Home Secretary

02/09/2025 Steve WoodsMedia, Politics

Sin is generally accepted to be a transgression against divine law. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, shameful, harmful or alienating might be termed “sinful“. Synonyms form sin include offence, crime, violation, sinfulness, felony, trespass, wrongdoing.

All those secular alternatives bring us very swiftly to the doors of the Home Office and its Secretary of State, one Yvette Cooper. The Home Office’s responsibilities include public safety and policing, border security, immigration, passports and civil registration.

And it is border security and immigration that are currently exercising Ms Cooper’s mind.

Ever since the previous Tory government blocked off all conventional ways of applying for political asylum in the Untied Kingdom, the country has been experiencing a so-called migrant crisis, with desperate people risking their lives to cross the Channel in inflatable boats. Once they arrive in Blighty, they become the responsibility of the Home Office which is currently using hotels around the country to house the the massive backlog of applicants for asylum.

However, this arrangement has not found favour with the racists and xenophobes from the right wing of the Conservative Party, the Farage Fan Club and more extreme elements, who have been causing trouble outside hotels and trying to make the country look like a downmarket version of the Nazis’ Nuremberg rallies.

The response of Ms Cooper and the government has been to adopt the clothing of the far right in an attempt to appease the unappeasable. This has included ~~suspending~~ breaching the Human Rights Act provisions in respect of family life, an action some might regard as sinful.

Nevertheless, Ms Cooper is not content with this digression and lack of humanity, as was apparent from The Guardian’s live blog today, as per the following screenshot.

They’re people, not widgets, Ms Cooper!

Yes you did read that correctly.

Warehouses.

This is indicative that Ms Cooper has ceased to regard these desperate people as human beings, since one stores objects in warehouses, not people.

This dehumanisation is dangerous, as was pointed out by the late Terry Pratchett in his Carpe Jugulum Discworld novel.

Below is a dialogue on sin between the witch Granny Weatherwax and the Omnian missionary priest Mightily Oats.

“And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” “It’s a lot more complicated than that—” “No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.” “Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes—” “But they starts with thinking about people as things…”

It is not known whether Ms Cooper has ever read Carpe Jugulum, but even if she hasn’t, your ‘umble scribe thinks that treating people as people and not things is the natural way of things.
Making America Grater Again

22/08/2025 Steve WoodsPolitics, Social Media

In political science lectures many decades ago, one of the myriad facts we students absorbed was that authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in the 20th century had a tendency to rewrite history along the lines of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell‘s dystopian novel Nineteen Eight-Four.

Whilst it may be argued that all nation states include total fabrications and distortions in their national fairy stories (e.g. the fictional King Arthur in English/British history. Ed.), some are more accomplished than others in their incorporation of lies and events that never occurred, some are more prone to this practice than others; and the United States is a past master of telling itself fibs. Some of the US of A’s biggest lies were examined in a three part documentary series by historian Lucy Worsley in 2019.

Indeed, one might say that the American national story is dominated more by the lies it contains than by the ugly truths of the course of American history if it chooses to omit, such as the genocide and dispossession of the indigenous inhabitants and the cruelty and exploitation inherent in chattel slavery and the plantation system.

Having spoken extensively above of American lies, it’s time to move to Washington, DC and the presently blinged-up man cave otherwise known as the Oval Office, currently occupied by the country’s Liar-in-Chief, the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump, who is on a personal mission to Make America Grate Again (or something similar. Ed.).

The Donald has taken to his Truth Social* social media echo chamber earlier this week railing that museums and universities were not telling ‘proper’ US history and were too “WOKE” [sic]. He wrote the following.

As regards one of Tangerine Insurrectionist’s targets, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, this was on the receiving end of his ire for having the temerity, much to Trump’s wounded pride, of mentioning his two impeachments in his first term of (subsequently removed. Ed.) from its exhibit on The Limits of Presidential Power.

What Trump’s social media post merely indicates he wants bully US institutions into doing in order to pander to his own exceedingly vain, distorted, white, racist, privileged world view. This line of action has a name: historical revisionism, something to which the now defunct Soviet Union was prone during its existence from 1922–1991 (e.g. prominent but out-of-favour individuals being deliberately edited out of photographs and the remainder of the official record).

Wikipedia defines the phenomenon as follows:

Historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) scholarly views or narratives regarding a historical event, timespan, or phenomenon by introducing contrary evidence or reinterpreting the motivations of the people involved. Revision of the historical record can reflect new discoveries of fact, evidence, and interpretation as they come to light. The process of historical revision is a common, necessary, and usually uncontroversial process which develops and refines the historical record to make it more complete and accurate.

One form of historical revisionism involves denying the moral significance or accuracy of the historical record. This type of historical revisionism is called historical negationism, and is contentious as it often includes denying the veracity of genuine documents, or deliberately manipulating statistical data to reach predetermined conclusions. The destruction or alteration of cultural heritage sites is also considered a form of illegitimate historical revisionism when it serves to deny the cultural or historical claims of ethnic groups.

Trump’s social media post shows all the hallmarks of historical revisionism, but at the same time, he seems determined to make America safe again for ignorant, racist, insecure, selfish and entitled old white men like himself.

Note in particular the word again. Trump is harking after an imagined lost past. As for museums and the future, The Donald doesn’t realise that museums serve to collect, preserve, interpret, and display objects of cultural, historical, or scientific significance. Their primary functions include safeguarding heritage for future generations and facilitating education. If the future is involved, the role of museums and the like should be educating people about the mistakes of history, not airbrushing or erasing them.

* = No irony was intended in the naming of the platform. Ed.
WECA and the cult of personality

13/08/2025 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics, Social Media

The West of England Combined Authority – usually abbreviated to WECA – was established in February 2017 and covers the local authorities of Bristol City Council, Bath & NE Somerset and South Gloucestershire. The decision to establish WECA – after being proposed by central government – was one taken by the local authorities involved. There was neither consultation of the residents concerned, nor a referendum of the relevant electorates to seek their approval. Your ‘umble scribe therefore regards its democratic legitimacy as dubious.

The first election for the mayor of the new authority was held on 4th May 2017. It was won by South Gloucestershire Conservative politician Tim Bowles, a man who shunned publicity so much he was known by some in local social media circles as Invisible Tim.

The invisibility of the WECA mayor all changed when the next incumbent arrived in 2021, Labour’s Dan Norris. Norris so craved publicity he made great efforts to get his name in the media and in the public’s head so much that his efforts bordered on the narcissistic, leading your correspondent to refer to Norris in social media posts as Dan, Dan the Vanity Man. Indeed, it could be said that Norris would have attended the opening of an envelope if a press photographer was present to record the event.

Norris was renowned for two acts of self-promotion during his term of office, both involving buses. Firstly, his name appeared on posters on every bus stop in the WECA area, but more on that topic later. Secondly, not content with getting his name of every bus stop in the district, Norris decided he ought to be on the side of a bus as well, purporting to promote driving a bus for a living and advertise a free bus travel scheme, but actually a chance to get likenesses of a vain man and his dog on the side of a double-decker. WECA spent £10,000 on this sycophantic stunt that was ultimately ruled to have been spent ‘unlawfully’.

Norris’ term as WECA mayor ended in disgrace. He became an MP and was for the last part of his term of office Dan ‘Two Jobs’ Norris. In April 2025 Dan, Dan the Vanity Man was arrested by Avon and Somerset Police on suspicion of rape, child sex offences, child abduction and misconduct in public office.

Continuity vanity

In May Norris’ term of office ended. His replacement is Helen Godwin, who has been involved in local politics since 2016, according to her Wikipedia entry.

However, very little has changed with the change of incumbent. There’s still a free bus travel scheme (but for children of school age. Ed.) and the bus stop posters now feature Godwin’s name instead of her predecessor’s.

One might believe on the strength of the above evidence that something is seriously amiss in the West of England Combined Authority. For the last four years and for the foreseeable future, the authority seems to be in the grip of what is normally referred to as the cult of personality.

Wikipedia defines the cult of personality as follows:

A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, is the result of an effort which is made to create an idealized and heroic image of an admirable leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Historically, it has been developed through techniques such as the manipulation of the mass media, the dissemination of propaganda, the staging of spectacles, the manipulation of the arts, the instilling of patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies.

In addition to obvious examples like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Argentina’s Juan Peron, the cult of personality has over the centuries affected countries spanning the entire alphabet from Albania to Zimbabwe. It is currently flourishing in the United States where his MAGA lout supporters think Donald John Trump, the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist in chief, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, can do no wrong.

In 1988 the US band Living Colour released a single, The Cult of Personality off their debut album Vivid. Taling about the single, band member Vernon Reid stated; “The whole idea was to move past the duality of: That’s a good person and that’s a bad person. What do the good and the bad have in common? Is there something that unites Gandhi and Mussolini? Why are they who they are? And part of it is charisma.“. Reid also remarked: “‘Cult of Personality’ was about celebrity, but on a political level. It asked what made us follow these individuals who were larger than life yet still human beings.“

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Continuity vanity

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