Tony Millard serves up a tasty critique of politics.
I was listening to Radio 4, my only live link with the Anglosphere, the other day and heard a short trailer for Sunday morning’s news and comment slot, Broadcasting House. The journalist listed out five reasonable-sounding but right wing policies and then sought our amazement by saying they were taken from Le Pen’s manifesto. I got thinking about this whilst doing something pointless with a tractor and it occurred to me that the body politic is in many ways like the human body.
Left wing policies – radicchio and polenta, right wing policies – carpaccio of beef and wild boar sausage. No healthy human body can be properly and efficiently nourished with only one or the other, and it’s the same with nations. Some of Mr Le Pen’s view I am sure are reasonable and meritorious but are rejected wholesale by the left because of some of his less palatable concepts. Unfortunately, our politicians believe in a mostly herbivorous diet and lack conviction when it comes to richer flavours. Perhaps someone should gently remind them of our omnivorous tendencies and introduce them to a Fiorentina (T-Bone steak, Tuscan style) every now and then.
Tony Millard (Tuscany, Italy)
