Roughly 20 years ago, Fantasy Football was popular with kids. Young people could select real players for their fantasy team and enjoy following its progress without being constrained by reality. In more recent years, it is Fantasy Politics that has risen to prominence.
Like fantasy football, fantasy politics can be fun. You get more drama, more excitement, plus the opportunity to feel self-righteous while ignoring all the constraints of real life as, in your head, you cleverly solve every complex problem with a simple solution, because everyone else is too stupid to see the solution but you.
Donald Trump is a master of fantasy politics; remember this ‘stable genius’ pledged to lower food inflation (it has gone up) and to end the Ukrainian war in a few days (6 months later and war has intensified) but these failures are never his fault. His personality does not allow him to accept responsibility.
Here in N. Ireland our own Ian Paisley senior was the first fantasy politician, who boasted for years that he would smash Sinn Fein, only to embrace SF into government as soon as he got power. His DUP party sold us Brexit as ‘bringing back control’ and ‘restoring sovereignty’, but today they complain that the union has been weakened.
And of course, we also have ‘Nigel and the Reformers’.
Nigel sold us Brexit by encouraging people to believe that EU membership and uncontrolled immigration were synonymous with each other, but 5 years after Brexit he tells us immigration is worse than ever and the solution is …?
Apparently, the solution to the disaster that was Brexit is to trust Nigel once more, if you can believe Brexit enthusiasts like Sammy Wilson.
Britain is Not Safe
At this time, Britain is vulnerable. We have left the safe harbour of the EU; the undefined myth of a globally powerful Britain has evaporated and there are significant social tensions within our nation. Food & energy inflation coupled with concerns over immigration are creating societal strains and some USA politicians seem determined to amplify these tensions for their own ends.
USA politicians are dependent on the super-rich for funding and the super-rich do not want to have lots of rules, regulations or human rights limiting the ways in which they can use & abuse their workforce to increase their wealth. Human Rights laws protect the little guy from the powerful, and removing or restricting human rights is rarely good for working people, but it will be good for the owners of big business, and the politicians they finance. Power will shift from the hands of the many, to the hands of the few.
We cannot trust the USA under the current erratic leadership. Today’s US President has similar personality issues to Kaiser Wilhelm II who foolishly led Germany into WW1 in 1914. Trump, with an erratic, insecure, and aggressive personality, makes silly decisions such as planning to take over Greenland, in the same way Kaiser Wilhelm tried to expand German territory in Africa prior to WW1. Trump expects flattery and obedience from those around him; he does not respond well to criticism and seems happy to sacrifice Europe to Putin’s control.
Yet some are still bewitched by Trump and would like to see Britain as a vassal state for the USA and following Trump’s every whim, while others want to follow his path to power, offering our people simple solutions to complex problems.
When your country is in trouble, you want grown-up realists in charge.
Sadly, the reality of running a country is tedious planning and much hard work. It requires balancing available money, with many different needs from disparate interest groups and trying to make deals with foreign countries who are not obliged to work in step with the UK since we voluntarily left their club. Good government means telling people unpopular truths about what is possible.
I am not a fan of the current Labour government, but I do not fear them in the way I would fear allowing the Fantasy Politicians to take over. Do we really want the people who led us into a completely unplanned and disastrous Brexit to once more decide the future of our country?
Arnold is a retired teacher from Lisburn, now living in Belfast.
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