Trump: An important message to the world

The majority of commentators have issued angry cries of condemnation in response to Donald Trump’s surprise victory.

That is understandable. For he is beyond doubt a bigot, a racist and a misogynist.

Nevertheless, such criticism ignores the fact that Trump’s election to the most powerful job in the world marks a rare moment of convulsive change in world history.

Let me explain.

We were all taught in school history lessons that revolutions — apart from military coups — come from the Left. This one — rather like Brexit — comes from the Right.

The fact is that Trump’s election symbolises a widespread revulsion at those who seized control of the political and economic establishment over the past half-century.

Starting in the Sixties, this elite captured first the universities, then the schools and then much of the mainstream media. It finally grabbed control of political parties and then the instruments of government (in the case of Britain, the Civil Service) and other key national institutions.

Clever, chippy and articulate, this new ruling class mocked traditional notions of honour, duty and public service. It considered the nation state as an artificial construction — and continues to do so.

This mindset is exemplified by the New York-based philosopher who is currently delivering the Reith Lectures — sponsored, of course, by the BBC, which to many is the HQ of political correctness.

The title of Kwame Anthony Appiah’s lectures is Mistaken Identities, and the core of his argument is that the nation state is a mere ‘social construction’ — in another words, a myth.

For Appiah (who the BBC grandly describes as a ‘cultural theorist’), we are now all common citizens of the world.

Disgraceful: Hillary Clinton described Trump supporters as 'deplorables' on the campaign trail

Such views have been shouted at us for the past 50 years — arguing that patriotism is either misguided or shameful.

People such as Appiah believe that national borders have no moral validity; that a refugee from a country such as Somalia has the same claim to state services in Britain (such as education, healthcare, welfare and housing) as the families of Welsh miners.

It’s the same philosophy which lies behind the monolithic European Union.

However, I believe that this well-meaning but blinkered dogma ignores reality. It ignores history and culture and it assumes human beings are all the same. It forgets that it was Britain which stood alone and defeated fascism in World War II. It despises all longstanding institutions. It sneers at anyone who disagrees — and that includes the silent majority.

Indeed, such pernicious thinking was behind Hillary Clinton’s disgraceful description of such people as ‘deplorables’. Also, it has long mocked religion and sought to confine it to the private sphere.

Morally revolting: Sir Philip Green, pictured with his wife Tina in 2006

Most crucially of all, the ruling elite has set out to destroy the two-parent family, a framework which for millennia has done more than any other to shape human society.

It is important to point out that since the Sixties, laws have been passed that have made divorce much easier and there have been changes to the tax system which have encouraged single-parent families and marginalised fatherhood.

As academic studies have shown, the human cost of this giant social experiment is beyond computation in terms of broken lives. With its insidious attacks on institutions such as the family and the Church, and by destroying people’s sense of community, the liberal elite has removed those traditional bulwarks against exploitation of the vulnerable.

For it was families, community networks and church groups that came together to enforce standards of decency and morality. These also helped those who fell on hard times.

Meanwhile, this state-driven attack on these institutions has coincided with a period when differences in the wealth of the rich and the poor are at levels not seen since the Victorian era. A new class of super-rich has taken advantage of cheap labour offered by mass immigration. This international elite has also shamelessly exploited the increasing sense that national boundaries don’t matter and have spirited their money away to places which impose less in taxes.

By doing so, they are defying the traditional contract under which people pay tax in a country to which they show loyalty. What’s more, they are abrogating any sense of duty or even fellowship with other human beings.

And then there’s the grotesque example of Philip Green, the morally revolting High Street tycoon who was garlanded with a knighthood by Tony Blair and advised by Goldman Sachs, the amoral firm of greed-driven U.S. investment bankers who also financed Hillary Clinton.

While his ilk have accrued obscene amounts of insidious wealth, millions have become impoverished. Indeed, a large part of the explanation for Brexit was that three-quarters of the UK population have had stagnant or declining real incomes over the past decade.

The comparative figure in the U.S. is 80 per cent — and is part of the reason for Trump’s victory.

As a tax-avoiding billionaire, Donald Trump will never be a genuine champion of the poor

As it happens, I don’t believe that Trump, despite championing the dispossessed, will be able to change much as President. He won’t build his wall with Mexico. He won’t make peace with Putin. He won’t bring back the jobs in America’s steel industry that have been lost.

I guess that he will end up joining the very same establishment that he vilified in order to win office. This is because he himself embodies too many contradictions.

His personal history (he’s been married three times) is too chequered for him to be a convincing champion for family values.

As a tax-avoiding billionaire, he will never be a genuine champion of the poor. He has no serious programme for government. He will fail. But, like it or not, this odious man could be a vehicle for massive social and economic changes that will affect each and every one of us.

But his victory also sends a very important message to the world.

Such events are infectious: 1848 was the year of revolution in Europe and 2011 saw the start of the so-called Arab Spring. Expect a wave of populist uprisings across the world against liberal elites, starting with victory for Geert Wilders’ authoritarian Party for Freedom in the Netherlands next March.

The chances of the far-Right’s Marine Le Pen becoming French president next spring have just sharply improved, too.

We have entered terrifying times.

Boris's shame over kidnapping

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson

It's more than two years since a British citizen called Andy Tsege was kidnapped and removed to Ethiopia on the orders of the country’s brutal government.

He was a victim of so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ (the state-approved apprehension and transfer of detainees to foreign countries for interrogation where there is a risk that they might be subjected to ill-treatment).

For the following 12 months, the father-of-three was held in solitary confinement. He’s not been allowed access to his family, or to lawyers, or charged with any crime.

It looks highly likely that he’s been tortured even though his only offence appears to have been to criticise Ethiopia’s dreadful human rights record (Mr Tsege is a prominent campaigner who has spoken in front of the U.S. Congress and the European Union human rights committee).

He has lived in this country since he sought political asylum in 1979 after his younger brother was murdered by the Ethiopian government.

These are the facts. Shockingly, neither Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson nor his predecessor Philip Hammond have demanded Mr Tsege’s release.

There are now fears that he may be ill and that his life is in danger.

Mr Johnson’s refusal to intervene on his behalf means that he — and Britain — will bear a heavy moral responsibility if something bad happens.

Our man in D.C. was asleep at the wheel

Why is Nigel Farage the only British politician with good links to the forthcoming Trump presidency?

Whitehall fingers of blame are being pointed at Sir Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the United States.

This ardent Europhile was asleep at the wheel during the presidential campaign — assuming Hillary Clinton would win.

Thus he failed to establish any proper relationship with Trump’s team, even though this was a basic requirement of his job.

Indeed, I’m convinced this was the main reason why Theresa May came so low down in the list when Trump rang foreign leaders on Thursday.

(Mrs May was tenth — after the leaders of Ireland, Australia, Egypt, Turkey and South Korea.)

There is a long tradition of similar Foreign Office mess-ups.

For example, our man in Tehran in 1979 informed his bosses in London that the ruling Shah was secure — not long before he was deposed in the Islamic revolution.

In 1982, the Foreign Office was confident the Argentines would not attack the Falklands. Look what happened next!