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Who is this guy? He reminds me of an old comedy TV show from long ago. A face kept popping up that wasn’t supposed to be there, until it became so familiar its sudden appearances were funny for a time, but rapidly grew tiresome from over-exposure.

Nigel Farage was somewhat amusing for a time. He was the clown on the fringe of British politics until, like so many clowns, he eventually became wearing, and slightly sinister. It’s little wonder Farage and Trump have gravitated towards each other.

They both started out as clowns, but now, emulating that old TV show, they keep popping up unexpectedly. Trump will be in our faces for at least the next four years, given that the clown’s now become Master of the Universe, but please, Mister Farage, do us all a favour and just disappear.

Only a few days ago the BBC broadcast an interview with Gina Miller, the woman leading the legal challenge over Brexit. Who did the BBC choose to sit in the next chair and give the opposing viewpoint? Nigel Farage! No Labour, Tory, or even Liberal-Democrat representative was there to put their party’s point of view. No, instead they preferred to ask the idiot, Farage.

He’s once again temporary leader of UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), the most minority political party in Britain and an offshoot of the National Front, because by his own admission there’s so much infighting going on within its ranks that it’s impossible to produce anyone capable of leading this rabble. He’s left and returned, left and returned to the leadership so often he’s got his own revolving door policy.

This week he turned up yet again in America, hanging out with Donald Trump.

They should get on well. After all, they have much in common. Farage is a climate-change denier (“this loopy idea that we can cover Britain in ugly disgusting ghastly windmills and that somehow our future energy needs will come from that”), admires Vladimir Putin (…asked which current world leader he most admired, Farage replied: “As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin…”), is in favour of returning guns to the streets of the U.K., wants to deport all U.K. immigrants (though he couches his views in deliberately vague terms), supports private healthcare, and many other viewpoints that make him and Donald Trump ideal partners in political crime. One can only hope Mister Trump will find him so appealing he’ll add him to his list of cabinet ne’er-do-wells, and we’ll never have to see Farage’s cherubic little countenance ever again this side of the Atlantic.

Why should anyone have any interest in what this beer-swilling, arrogant, apology for a politician has to say? Politician? He’s not even managed that. Farage has never been elected to the British Parliament in his life. He’s failed every time he’s tried. He’s had to make do with a position in the European Parliament of Brussels because no-one else wanted it. He was happy there because he could make a nuisance of himself and insult the European members in his usual un-invigorating style. Frankly the man is an acute embarrassment to anyone with any sense of decency. One can only hope Donald Trump refuses to pay his fare home.

Though, frankly, I imagine even Trump will tire of this obnoxious clown before much longer.

But no, you didn’t.

You never kept your promises, Obama. You let your country down. You didn’t close Gitmo; you failed to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; you pandered to the corporations with your TPTPs and TTIPs. You promised ‘medical coverage for all’ and gave a handout to the insurance companies; you bailed out the banks with taxpayer’s money then allowed them ‘business as usual’; you failed to punish corruption by the wealthy; most of the jobs you managed to create were poorly paid, service jobs, that forced well qualified Americans into menial employment; you failed to restrain the military-industrial complex and allowed it to expand twenty-fold under your presidency; you became the ‘assassination-president’ who rained down terror from the skies on innocent human beings, while expanding the number of wars America is presently engaged in (there are currently U.S. Special Ops in 70% of the world’s nations!). Your parting gift to your political opponents – a vacant Supreme Court post you’ve left open for them to fill…

Here’s the result of your eight years at the top, Mister Obama…

…because – NO, YOU DIDN’T!

Today is election day in the United States of America.

Sparrow Chat has refrained from commenting recently on the candidates hoping to occupy the White House. It matters not one jot who eventually succeeds, both are equally bad for the people of America, and the rest of the world. Trump is a narcissist, who sees the presidency as the final pinnacle of all out power; Clinton is a corporate pawn enmeshed in the power-politics of big business. The people’s needs are not a part of either candidate’s remit.

The next occupant of the White House will merely be a mirror of the declining democratic society in the U.S.A. and the upsurge of corporate/military control (Eisenhower’s infamous ‘military-industrial complex’). As such, there’s little room for further logical analysis or comment.

There are few politicians in the world today worthy of praise, but one cannot overlook the Scottish Parliament’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who is fighting both for her country (Scotland) and its people, over the concerted efforts of the British Prime minister and her cohorts to extricate the U.K. from the European Union.

It may not be generally realised outside Britain, but the vast majority of its people’s representatives (MPs) from both parties have always been in favour of remaining in the E.U.. The referendum decision to leave (Brexit), by the slim margin of 52% to 48% was a people’s decision based not on the merits, or otherwise, of its E.U. membership but as a protest vote against a British government that had long supported the wealthy and powerful, leaving the middle classes to flounder financially.

If this sounds a note of familiarity, it’s because the British government is following to the letter the antics of an American Congress steeped in corruption, allied to the lobbyists of the corporations, and hellbent on steam-rollering its way out of democracy and into the Super-capitalist corporate state.

For Theresa May and close colleagues like Liam Fox, David Davies, (and not to forget the newly appointed Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss, who is the third consecutive politician with no legal qualifications whatever, to hold office as head of the Ministry of Justice and Secretary of State for Justice!), Brexit has come as a welcome opening to further follow the U.S.A. down the slippery road to corporate control. Freed from the shackles of European legislation we can expect trade deals galore that, like the Trans Pacific Trade Partnership, will be heavily weighted in favour of big business.

Nicola Sturgeon, it seems, is not happy to oblige. Her Scottish people voted in favour of remaining in the E.U. by a whopping 62% to 38%, way more than the slim wedge of majority votes that decided the U.K.’s future. She’s already threatened another Scottish referendum for independence from the U.K. if the British (or should we say, “English”) parliament tries to force unacceptable measures on Scotland over Brexit. Sparrow Chat would be fully supportive of an independent Scotland. The, then, English/Welsh government would find itself much weaker without Scotland’s economy.

Given the recent ruling in the High Court preventing May from triggering Article 50 without a parliamentary vote, and May’s quick decision to appeal that decision in the Supreme Court, Nicola Sturgeon has seized the opportunity to demand that The Lord Advocate, Scotland’s most senior law officer, be heard in the case:

The Scottish government had legal representatives observing the case, and later said it was considering whether to become directly involved when the appeal is heard.
Confirming that it would seek to intervene, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she believed Scotland should be treated as an “equal partner” in the United Kingdom.
If the Supreme Court was to allow the Scottish government’s intervention and ruled against the UK government, it could mean there would have to be a vote on Article 50 in Holyrood as well as in Westminster.
Ms Sturgeon stressed that she was not attempting to veto the process of England and Wales leaving the EU. But she said the “democratic wishes of the people of Scotland and the national parliament of Scotland cannot be brushed aside as if they do not matter”…
…Ms Sturgeon has pledged to do all she can to protect Scotland’s place in Europe, and to maintain its membership of the single market. ^[1]

It would seem there’s at least one politician left on the world stage who is still prepared to represent the people, and not the huge conglomeration of big businesses lobbying U.S. and U.K. politicians for a major portion of a democratic process they’re determined to destroy.

As the voting for the 45th President of the United States finally draws to a close today we’re left with only one certainty: after this election the American people will not find in their new president someone who has the slightest interest in their welfare, or those of the generations who follow them, although in keeping with the present incumbent, a silver tongue and persuasive manner may well kid them into believing otherwise.

^{[1] “Scottish government seeks to intervene in Brexit case” BBC, November 8th 2016}