BLOG 6!

For those of you still prepared to indulge me in my weekly bout of spleen venting, welcome back! For any newcomers, welcome to McGuck’s weird Weekly Digest world! This is my slightly acerbic take on this week’s political events, shenanigans and goings on in NI, UK and the USA! So, buckle up and brace yourselves, as it’s been a bit of an explosive train wreck of a week, politically speaking!

As always, we begin our weekly politics odyssey right here in good ol’ Norn Iron! The headlines are being dominated by a dramatic increase in the infection rate here for Covid-19, which prompted NI Health Minister, Robin Swann, and the NI Chief Medical Officer, to issue dire warnings about the possibility of having to take more drastic lockdown measures again if we can’t bring the current spread under control. It would appear that Strabane, Legenderry and QUB Halls of Residences, in particular, are best avoided at the moment!

Fresher’s Week must’ve been great craic altogether this year, not! At least QUB are taking care of their student’s welfare by offering to provide food deliveries for self-isolating students, at a cost of £210 for 2 week’s worth of supplies! That’s a lot of Pot Noodles and Tayto crisps! When price checked at Tesco, however, the same items could be purchased for £55! Yes, you read that correctly! Well, that will put the partying out of them now, at least, as they’ll have blown their entire student loan on groceries!

Someone who doesn’t need to struggle to get by on a student loan is Mr Ian Paisley Jnr. Yes, he came in for some criticism here last week, but he just can’t seem to keep himself out of the spotlight for all the wrong reasons at the moment. It seems Ian Jnr was in trouble (again!) with the parliamentary Standards Commissioner. He has had to apologise for failing to register a free, luxury family holiday in the Maldives. However, unlike previous free holidays he had availed of in Sri Lanka, he was deemed not to have breached the rules on paid advocacy on this occasion, therefore, no further sanction was necessary! Great! Let’s get on Tripadvisor and see if we can guess which human rights abusing paradise island will be next on the travel agenda! No wonder he looks delighted here, as he hitches a ride to the airport with DUP Leader, Arlene Foster!

This week’s Twitter twit of the week award goes to SF MLA, Gerry Kelly! (They’re making a habit of this!) Gerry has made no secret of his PIRA past. Well, he can’t exactly hide it, really, as he was convicted of the Old Bailey bombing in London and sent to the Maze prison, whereupon he helped organise and lead a mass escape of 38 PIRA prisoners in 1983. Mr Kelly shot and wounded a prison officer and another officer was stabbed and later died from his injuries. This week, Mr Kelly, who now serves on the NI Policing Board, controversially tweeted on the anniversary of the escape. He described the breakout as being “one of big Bob’s best ops!” (A reference to the recently deceased veteran Republican, Bobby Storey) He followed that up by stating that he was “proud of being part of the biggest escape in British penal history!” Perhaps, it might have been advisable to keep these insensitive thoughts to himself, or to a private WhatsApp group, at the very least? Here is Gerry, demanding to chamois the bonnet of a police Land Rover, because it was “boggin’, so it was!”

Speaking of twits, Priti Patel, the UK Home Secretary, was hitting the headlines again this week, after leaks from her department suggested that the Government has considered setting up a detention centre in the Ascension Islands, (get your Google Maps out!) using decommissioned oil platforms in the North Sea, or requisitioning disused ferries! Other potential locations being looked at by the Home Office include the Shetlands and the Isle of Wight. There was even a suggestion that they could use wave machines to push asylum seeker dinghies back towards the French coastline, but it was pointed out that this would run the risk of simply capsizing the dinghies instead! Surely, they never seriously discussed this, did they? Really? It’s getting more like an episode of ‘In The Thick Of It’ by the week with this Tory government!

Now, before you accuse me of a lack of balance, here’s a twit who’s not a Tory – Margaret Ferrier, MP SNP, also hit the headlines this week. There have been calls for her to resign after she travelled from her constituency in Scotland to Westminster on Tuesday, despite having tested positive for Covid-19 on the Monday night! Her grossly irresponsible act has attracted criticism from all quarters and even Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon has called on her to resign. Her days may be numbered!

And speaking of numbers! It has been another poor week for the hapless Boris Johnston, as he got confused about his own government’s latest Covid restrictions, then followed that up by announcing a “ huge investment” for a hospital in Leeds, but couldn’t recall the actual amount of the investment and was left floundering in a tv interview, desperately appealing to his aides to bail him out! Is Boris the perfect example to highlight Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson’s assertion during the exam results debacle, that there’s a danger that some people end up being promoted beyond their abilities?

Boris’ problems don’t end there, either. The government was forced into an embarrassing climb down in the Commons this week in regard to initiating new Coronavirus restrictions and enforcement without consulting parliament. Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, announced that they would relent and give parliament a say in future decisions after around 50 Tory MP’s threatened a backbench rebellion.

Also, despite the controversial Internal Market Bill passing through the various stages in the House of Commons, it may still face stiff opposition and/or delay from the more deliberative House of Lords. Plus, the EU have launched formal legal action against the UK Government over the matter, which breaks international law.

To finish off what was a pretty grim week for the PM, his rather eccentric father was pictured out shopping without wearing a face mask! Tut, tut! Stanley shouldn’t feel too bad, though, as he wasn’t the only one to mistakenly flout the Covid rules this week. Ex-Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was photographed at a dinner party with 8 other guests, rather than the regulation 6! Oh dear! The Daily Mail will no doubt be calling for him to be clapped in irons forthwith! Both men were very apologetic and neither received a fine for breaking the rules!

And so to a big week in politics in the USA! It began with the announcement of conservative judge, Amy Coney Barrett, as Trump’s pick for the US Supreme Court vacancy, as predicted here last week! There was a lavish, ceremonial nomination launch at the White House with dozens of invited guests present and barely a face mask in sight! It has now been said that this may well have been the ‘super spreader’ event that led to Trump aide, Hope Hicks, contracting the Covid virus, then passing it on to the President and his wife Melania on board Air Force One! Questions have been repeatedly asked about Trump’s seemingly cavalier attitude to observing any Covid restrictions, such as the wearing of face masks! Here is Ms Hicks pictured with President Trump!

At the time of writing, Mr Trump has been taken to a military hospital as a precaution but is said to be suffering fairly mild symptoms. Well, it’s not like he’s old, overweight or likely to have any underlying health issues, is it? Let’s avoid the urge to use the phrase ‘Covid Karma’, shall we?

Then, there was the big reveal by the New York Times regarding Trump’s federal tax returns, or lack of them! Despite declaring himself to be a billionaire, Mr Trump only paid $750 in federal taxes last year! Just for the record, the average Joe American paid over $15,000! In ten of the previous fifteen years he paid zero! Apparently, he claims to be so much in debt that he cannot be liable for the taxes! I’m no financial expert, but something doesn’t add up here! Clearly, the IRS (Inland Revenue Service) agrees, which is why they are currently engaged in a legal battle with Trump’s lawyers to reclaim almost $100m in unpaid taxes from him. If he loses that one, he’s in big trouble!

The main event in the US this week, however, was the first of the live, televised presidential election debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I think it’s fair to say that the media and public reaction to the often chaotic and bad tempered affair was more entertaining than the event itself.

The consensus among many commentators?

The losers of the night were the American public. The Times in the UK wrote, “The clearest loser from the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was America.” The paper went further, saying the event “was not a debate in any meaningful sense” but rather “an ill-tempered and at times incomprehensible squabble between two angry septuagenarians who palpably loathe each other”.

“That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck,” said CNN host Jake Tapper. “That was the worst debate I have ever seen. It wasn’t even a debate. It was a disgrace.” His CNN colleague Dana Bash had even harsher words: “I’m just going to say it like it is. That was a s— show.”

“Honestly, sitting through that debate felt like getting a COVID test in both nostrils at once,” said Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

I think you get the gist! This was car crash TV at its worst! An overbearing Trump, constantly interrupted Biden as he tried to speak and was barely contained by the Fox host/moderator, who looked an increasingly frustrated figure. Highlights, if you want to call them that, were Trump’s refusal to condemn far right extremist groups, like the Proud Boys, whom he merely asked to “Stand down, and stand by!” He also defended his Supreme Court nomination of the conservative, devout Christian, Amy Coney Barrett. Trump also bragged about standing up to “big pharma”, by allowing the sourcing of cheap, generic drugs. (Not likely!) There was also a blunt defence of his leaked tax returns which, let’s face it, is fairly indefensible! There was a chink of light on climate change when Trump admitted that it exists and that humans are at least part of the cause. However, he followed up by defending his actions on promoting the gas guzzling car industry, continued coal production and also reiterated his belief that the annual wild fires on the west coast were mainly due to poor forest management!

Biden for his part, was more coherent, if a little ponderous at times, and failed to land any knock out blows on his ranting adversary. He probably did well to keep his temper in check, particularly when Trump kept repeating unfounded allegations about his son’s business dealings. Joe’s big problem remains his age. Even though he’s only 3 years older than Trump, it can seem like more sometimes. That may seem unfair, but it’s how the American electorate may look at it, too! Overall, however, as many of the commentators noted, there were no real winners here, especially not the American people themselves.

On a final note, Trump’s apparent illness has thrown up the spectre of his administration seeking to delay the November election. Being behind in the polls, this would obviously suit him by buying more time. He may even be able to announce the roll out of a Covid vaccine by then! However, let me assure you that this is unlikely, as the election date is pretty much set in stone, as per the US Constitution and would require new legislation to be passed in Congress. The Democrats currently control the House of Representatives, so that won’t be happening!

So, that’s all for this week, folks! Stay tuned for more news and going’s on next week in the crazy world of politics! Until then, stay safe and stay informed!