In response to Fandango’s Who Won the Week posts, I have been looking at my own newsfeeds.
I wanted to highlight this week an ongoing story in the UK. If you are in Europe, you’ll undoubtedly know about it, but I doubt anyone further afield will be aware. But we all have our own concerns about immigration.
Migrants into the UK generally have to cross the English Channel first, and my story tonight was sparked by an event which was huge in its own right, a tragedy which saw a dinghy capsize, drowning all 27 migrants on board.
To an extent, the UK’s response to the tragedy was reasonable. They recognise that the French need to mplay a big part, because all these boats trying to cross the Channel are being launched from France.
I can maybe even understand that the UK is so concerned, it might throw possible solutions into the ring. Can we do this, can you do that, can we both do something else, even, to try to dilute the problem? But there’s a limit to how far you can go with this, because nobody wants to feel like they’re being pushed around.
But our PM, Boris Johnson, took it a step further.
He sent a letter to the French. It contained all of these things. But then, he made his letter open. Not only was the release timed to coincide with the evening news here, but he also released it to Twitter.
Now, someone using Twitter as a mouthpiece to spout forth their view of the world. Who does that sound like?
Not at all surprisingly, the French are pissed. Given that their response was to pull out of talks which had been scheduled the very next day, the UK shot itself in the foot. That’s not how you do diplomacy. Not if you want to achieve results.
I just thought that this parallel with Trump was uncanny. He took an already-low bar, made it lower, and now, the UK government wants to emulate him! We should be demanding higher standards from public servants, not lower.
I bet the rest of Europe must be sighing with relief that we are gone!
Mister Bump 
There are just too many “Trump” want to be in this world. Who would want to sink that low and be that crass?
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But, as you say, there are lots of people who follow him. Even here.
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No accounting for taste or common sense.
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I see a lot of these problems as endemic, unfortunately. The natural result of breeding generations of selfish people. Everywhere.
Seriously, a lot of the people I follow are a generation older than me. I don’t think I’m misrepresenting them by saying that they want for the whole of the population to be vaccinated. For the good of society, and indirectly, for their good. But there are generations of people who simply have no concept of “society”. I must admit, the people I follow even sound part-alien to me. So anyone younger…
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Trump was a nightmare of epic proportions. I’m not too fond of Twitter either
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Twitter is a lightweight platform. It was suited to Trump, because he too was a lightweight. In that he could not grasp complex issues. I’m worried what that says about British politicians.
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Trump was unqualified narcissist who had no business being any form of a leader but he tapped into a portion of Americans who felt disenfranchised and disconnected from everyone else and it worked plus idiotic media never took him seriously neither did Hillary
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Hillary’s problem was that she was a big part of the machine that disenfranchised people. When Trump sain “Drain the Swamp”, it resonated with lots of people. The trouble is, there is always a swamp.
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Yes I agree but she didn’t fight hard enough to win then turns around and wonders why
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yep, complacent.
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Twitter allows bullies in real life to have a free for all on line.
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They do have the technical means of tracking everyone down. Every device, at any rate. But there are often privacy laws in place that make it difficult.
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It boils down to accountability and as long as people support bullies it won’t stop
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It’s true.
Unfortunately human nature is such that people will not behave better, except if they feel they are more likely to be caught. We need to bully the bullies!
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I think we need to stop putting them on pedestals and shrink them down to size
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BJ is just a Trump wannabe and just as much of a buffoon, or so it seems to me from across the place pond.
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That’s about right. European leaders ended up just mocking Trump and I suspect they do the same to Johnson. You realise what a train-wreck they are when they put out their propaganda, because we’re able to hear all sides of the news nowadays.
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