The King reborn

+As the US Supreme Court has shown, we should be grateful up to a point that our judges are not appointed because of their political affiliations. Of course our judges may have a strong tendency to side with the interests of the powerful (Assange’s extradition comes to mind) but they can also stop things like Boris Johnson’s premature proroguing of parliament. Now that the US Supreme Court has decreed that presidential ‘official acts’ are immune from prosecution a whole newish world opens up. I say ‘newish’ because god knows how many illegal wars and assassinations have occurred under various presidential orders without legal consequence. Since the president is commander in chief, I wonder if his or her immunity will protect those who follow the chief’s orders? Should all those loyal public servants of Richard Nixon be posthumously pardoned (if they haven’t been already) for their roles in Watergate? It’s odd to think that a U.S. citizen could be prosecuted for inciting a riot, but their president may not, so long as it was an ‘official act.’ But the placemen and women on the Supreme Court bench who have made this judgement may have ushered in more than they wished for. Whilst the current ruling is clearly designed for Trump’s benefit, it could benefit any incumbent. All they need say is ‘it was an official act.’ Who says America hasn’t got a monarchy?
 
+A longstanding debate during elections centres on the role of the press—does it influence readers to vote in a certain way, or merely reflect readers’ pre-existing views? I think I have found the answer. That bastion of bias free, trustworthy truthsaying, the Daily Express has conducted a poll of its readers and an ASTONISHING majority voted for Farage, with only a miserly 5% voting for Starmer (that he appealed to 567 Express readers—should we be worried?). I will dare to suggest that the rag hasn’t converted anybody to Farage’s camp and can only serve to solidify their devotion to the little demagogue. So far the Daily Express hasn’t endorsed any party, although the Sunday Express has endorsed Sunak. The nation awaits all of a quiver.
 
+I am delighted to read that my Tory successor in Morley, ‘Dame’ Andrea Jenkyns has got herself embroiled in a murky mess with Reform UK. According to a report in the Independent attempts were made by Reform to lure her into defecting. She has after all pictured Farage in one of her leaflets. Threats of libel suits are now flying around, with words like ‘bribery’ being mentioned. Jenkyns should never have won the seat in the first place of course, it must have been gifted to her by somebody whose name I can’t quite remember (sobbing sounds off stage).