Better the Devil you know

Better the Devil you know is a track by Kylie Minogue that was recorded in 1990.? The strict meaning of the statement is that you would prefer to have contact with or do business with a person you already know, even though you don't like them, than with a person you don't know.? We are, of course, in an Election Year on both sides of the Pond and the question I keep asking myself; Is it Better the Devil you know in Politics or is it Better the Devil you don’t know in Politics?

Let’s begin with a critical appraisal of the UK General Election, its runners and its riders.? The date has not yet been announced by the Prime Minister but the longer he dithers over this announcement the more we will witness the rise of his own Party’s right wing ‘back stabbers’.? By the way, I would dismiss anything that has a Liz Truss stamp on it.? The idea that she wants to contemplate a New Popular Conservative Party when she is one of the least respected and least popular leaders of our time, has to provide the sequel to that cameo performance when she wilted before the proverbial lettuce as the most useless Prime Minister in history.? She must be incredibly thick skinned to even consider a return to the front line and, to bastardize a famous quote from Mark Twain, the reports of her re-incarnation must be greatly exaggerated.? Even in the land of the blind, Liz Truss would have to adopt Houdini Powers simply to survive and the sooner that she leaves front line politics the better for all our mental health. If there is any credence in a New Popular Conservative Party it’s The Reform Party because, come the General Election, they are going to inflict major damage on Conservative Values as they will be challenging every seat in the country.

I can sympathise to a degree, albeit modestly, with Rishi Sunak on some of his pledges because he is about as good as you are going to get as a Leader amongst the mix of current runners and riders.? In racing parlance there are not many, if any, winners worth backing.? It would be complete folly to have yet another leadership contest before the next General Election and I can hear the distant sounds of Brenda from Bristol; Not Another One. No, the Conservatives have failed to deliver both economically and politically and it’s time, in the words of that classic song from Doris Day to Move over Darling.? That track could indeed be a great election anthem for the Reform Party to adopt.? Just remember that you heard it here first.

However, this is where I need to get back on track with Kylie.? Better the Devil you know or better the devil you don’t know.? I have gone on record in previous articles that you cannot put a cigarette paper between the policies of the Conservatives and the Labour Party.? The WOKE agenda can be held responsible for this state of affairs.? Where does this leave Mr Ed or should I say Sir Ed Davey who hopefully wasn’t knighted for his services to the Post Office.? You can write your answers on a post card but may I politely suggest that the Liberal Democrats led by this Talking Horse, if you believe the opinion polls, is now the Fourth Party in the UK after the Reform Party and it is not that much ahead of the Green Party.? His popularity as a leader has clearly been severely impacted by his fundamental weakness to investigate affairs at the Post Office when he was the Post Office Minister.? That, of course, was when he was a Minister in the Coalition Government jocularly known as the CONDEM Party.

We are also witnessing a plethora of handbrake turns from SKS and one thing is abundantly clear.? UK Governance is long overdue and we are definitely in need of a new party, but one that is minus Liz Truss please.? Government needs to adopt a new direction that downsizes peripheral issues and prioritises the most important issues.? Good leaders are not meant to be good things to all men and women ??Sometimes they need to be a tad unpopular in order to drive change and the Media also needs to allow time for Government to implement these reforms with, of course, some accountability but it must also allow a degree of freedom to implement policy.? I have noticed over recent years the rise of the vocal minority over the silent majority, driven by unsocial media, and in its simplest format, this is not healthy and neither is it democratic.? We are in desperate need of Politicians and policies that will drive economic growth and prosperity/productivity.? Not everyone will benefit immediately but these changes will be in the best long term interests of the country.? We just need some short term pain to promote long term gain because the days of prancing around in the centre circle with Politicians taking cheap swipes at each other are well and truly over.?

I hope I have ruffled a few feathers with these comments because the truth always hurts and if I haven’t ruffled any, then I need to up the ante.?

Let’s turn the focus of attention now to the other side of the pond and the forthcoming US Presidential Election but before we arrive at the main course later this year we clearly have to deal with the usual cocktail of in fighting at the Primaries.? It looks like a foregone conclusion that Donald Trump will win The Republican Nomination which will gives us all a fair indication of how Grass Roots and Rust Belt America is thinking but the more interesting scenario rests with The Democratic Nomination.? Usually the incumbent President would just watch the other Party beat itself up in the Primaries but we are definitely not living in usual times.? The free world is led, or should I say is allegedly led, by President Biden with a very selective and sometimes no memory.? I have seen more realistic Avatars walking the grounds of the White House and when it comes to presentations at the lectern one has to say in my best John McEnroe voice; You cannot be serious and where is the Vice President if, indeed, you can even remember her name.

Unless we get a viable Democrat Candidate to challenge Biden, and there have been rumours that Michelle Obama will enter the race for the Democratic Nomination, even the most hardened Democrats would have to question the prospect of four more years for President Biden.? He doesn’t even look fit enough to complete his first term.? So without a credible candidate to challenge Donald Trump it is very difficult to see anything other than a Trump Presidency. Four more years of Trump; it is more a case of God Help rather than God Bless America.

As an outsider looking in you have to say that US Politics is in an even bigger shambles than UK Politics.? I don’t want to sound ageist but it must be time for the US to pass a law preventing Presidents from leading the Free World after their seventy fifth year of birth.? If Presidential Candidates were like Warren Buffet I could raise that threshold to eighty but I doubt there is anybody in the Senate or the House of Representatives who could hold a candle to Warren Buffet.

Maybe those astute enough can see the looming problems relating to the mountain of debt and this issue of course needs to be addressed quickly but anyone interested has probably taken the sensible view that the next Presidential Contest is the proverbial hospital pass and is definitely therefore one to lose.? Indeed, the case for deferring action on this alarming debt problem has now lost all credibility and when it comes down to choosing the next President we should perhaps take note of some lyrics in the song

I'll forgive and forget if you say you'll never go

Nothing could be further from the truth when the choices are only Biden or Trump and you could even apply a similar conclusion in the UK between Sunak and SKS?

Perhaps the solution has to be better the devil you don’t know if there is someone out there who is up for the challenge.? Somehow I think the answer will be a definite no. However in the UK at least we do have a credible Third Party of choice in the REFORM Party.? The Gladiators are ready for the fight.