The USA has in the past year revelled in isolationist policies, probably to the detriment of the rest of the world. Hello USA. There is a “rest of the world”, and it isn’t ALL anti-USA, but the proportion may be growing.
On the other hand the UK has agonised about its actual policies, trying to decide whether to be isolationist, semi-isolationist, semi-integrated, totally integrated or something in between.
At home I listen to the news and analysis thereof. I have decided that actually watching TV news is about 20% informative and 80% time wasted.
I wonder if the USA has an adequate system of regulation against the accidental election of an idiot to control so many national governmental institutions. The USA of course has a defined constitution, amended over time to be highly detailed, but possibly still inadequate. Any writer of rules must know that one cannot pre-regulate every possible situation.
I also wonder of the UK system of government is too tightly bound, in that nothing can actually be changed until sufficient elected members consider that there will otherwise be a catastrophe, and then it is referred to another, un-elected, group, many of whom are more experienced and less reliant on public opinion, to rationalise the decisions of those who are. The UK famously has no written constitution, but law is based on expanding precedent. Parliament has its own rules, sometimes outside general law.
Meanwhile, the Chinese appear to be the bogeymen for the USA, whereas Russia is the UK’s current nasty, with the EU as the focus of current attention.
Happy 2019 everyone. I expect more of the same.
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 