+The news that former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow has joined the Labour Party perhaps should come as no surprise. He was after all the Parliamentary Labour Party’s choice to become Speaker. Now, in the not too distant future could we see John Bercow, Leader of the Labour Party? I jest of course, but since Starmer’s time appears to be coming to an end, we could perhaps do with somebody who has some fire in his or her belly, rather than some blankly staring, cliché riddled platitude peddling middle of the road cipher. I suspect Bercow has other ambitions. He probably just wants to find a quicker route into the Lords.
+I joined a Zoom meeting yesterday which was part of the York Festival of Ideas. Tackling the vexed question of what is the future of liberalism, Timothy Garton-Ash was the main speaker. It was hard not to be impressed by his love affair with this thing called ‘liberalism’ but it made me question whether there was ever a golden age or perhaps a triumph of liberalism and if so when was it? Small ‘l’ liberals are in a bind now that we have seen the rise of a new populism, and autocracies around the globe. But ever since the Enlightenment (wonderful word that, concealing so many ills) civilisation has been one long march of war, slavery, colonialism, imperialism, inequality, etc., etc., etc. There have of course been redeeming features, and no doubt the concept of democracy is amongst the greatest, but that too is and always was warped by so many deficiencies one doesn’t know where to begin. Perhaps ‘liberalism’ will always be in the future.
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