Panic on the streets of London

A couple of thoughts strike the bemused, slightly appalled, observer of ITV’s leaders’ debate (19 November 2019) between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. One is that the producers at ITV don’t appear capable of running an orgy in a brothel. One is that at the highest level of political engagement in Britain today, you can expect to see weird experiments that may transgress the laws of thermodynamics, in that it is possible for supposed political leaders to generate almost infinite amounts of heat without any apparent light. Viewers to this lightweight bout without contact were “treated” to a continuation of the largely pointless political polarisation and tribalisation that has transfixed the country for the past three years and counting. Another is that neither Messrs Johnson nor Corbyn appear remotely concerned – or their spin doctors have advised them not to broach the topic with a bargepole – that we may all (i.e. the developed world) be collectively hurtling towards a bigger economic crisis than anything to do with either Brexit or accidental Marxism combined. The out-of-control spending pledge bidding war that has recently intensified between the major parties is both the absurd cause and grotesque symptom of the malaise.

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