As the increasingly unstable UK awaits Donald Trump’s visit, Gordon Munro commends an exhibition challenging west-centric views of trade and art with a portrayal of Trump as King Cotton, the new face of western capitalism. Could we see it in Edinburgh?
Trump
Tale of two tax reforms: Scotland v USA
‘While the Scottish government is introducing more progressive taxes, the US is in the process of passing a controversial bill which cuts tax bigly for the rich’. Jackie Kemp, now based in Boston, Mass., saees merits in both systems…
Will Salmond’s RT show make him a Kremlin tool?
‘Salmond has in the past proved an astute reader of the political runes. RT represents for him a platform for indulging his career and promoting the causes he believes in. It is therefore premature to conclude that Salmond’s latest venture marks his decline into irrelevance and disrepute’…
Can satire bring Brexit Britain to its senses?
This is a good time for satirists, though there’s no clear line between farce and tragedy in the real life script written in the words of our political leaders. Fay Young samples poetry and music inspired by Trump, May and Brexit.
US health care is sick – a bitter foretaste for us?
‘The wasteful and inefficient system pushes unnecessary treatment at the worried well and has no cap on cost. One aspirin cost my insurance firm $400’. From Boston Jackie Kemp reports on what lie in store for the UK if the NHS p[rivatisers get their way…
Hitting out at the world: Trump’s narcissism
“The problem for us ordinary folk is that a leader who feels constantly threatened becomes even more erratic, more authoritarian, more dependent on intimidation and tantrums as a stress management strategy. That is a serious problem for the globe.”
Stupid and energetic: Trump’s dangerous mix
“Simply standing together in peaceful solidarity as we did on Saturday is a start. And perhaps the best thing now, for those who oppose Trump just now, might be to hang around under the trees and keep our powder dry.” As protests mount globally against Trump’s Muslim ban, here’s a view from Boston, Mass.
Poetry and the power of simple pleasures
“With Trump in the White House and Britain heading blindly for Brexit, we must not be silent about horrors we witness, but let’s not stop enjoying and sharing simple pleasures’.” Fay Young reclaims the right to joy as a weapon against totalitarianism.
Will Trump declare war on the EU?
“Even if he only believes half of it, that could be enough to destroy the EU, and at its most extreme, the stability and peace of all Europe. Maybe he won’t turn out as bad as I fear. But I would rather not count on that.”
Coming of age: 2017 as year of resistance
“If 2016 was the year in which millennials realised that they had to confront the true reality of their meagre inheritance, 2017 must be a year in which resistance to authoritarian nationalism takes definite form. The awful questions that the past twelve months have posed can only be answered if we first understand this moment as a generational coming of age.”