Up And Away

Apparently, the figures are not looking as good as they should be.  Our Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ozymandias, formerly Osborne, who tries to keep the lobbyists happy by spending and the markets by not spending is chasing the dream.

It reminds me of the 1956 short French film, "The Red Balloon", in which a small boy is in thrall to a rubber thing with hot air in it; see it on Youtube at 36 minutes.  It is all very improbable yet convincing.

I first saw this late in 1958 in a private showing, when Harold Macmillan was fiddling with the budget to gain re-election in 1959.  He was lucky, but the signs are that Ozy may not be.  There are too many things going wrong.  Scandals in the party, the EU row, and a government that is finding out that to be pro-active necessarily means upsetting someone.

It leads me to remind people that quite often General Elections are lost, mostly by a government, rather than won by the other party.  The Tories under Botcher Cameron are already on course to lose given the way the markets are going and other matters.  One aspect is that it is claimed that Jeremy Corbyn cannot win.

But Corbyn may not intend to win.  It may be his personal ambition to create a Labour Party that will simply allow the Tories to lose and bring in a different Labour Party, then under a different younger populist Leader put in place by Corbyn and friends to win.  It could happen.

If a fervent Left wing party does come to power, one of the first things to go could be the Royals.  So who might be the honorary President, father of the New Republic, perhaps Corbyn himself?  What chances might there be?

"The Red Balloon" was a fantasy of course detached from any reality, but it was good to watch.  It is much more comforting than any of the fantasies at present on offer.