On this murky morning in the Val di Lima, after much of our very heavy snowfalls have melted away, one thing is clear: we shall be spared another four years of one of the most divisive political leaders the world has seen for some time. The USA has a long history of what it has called ‘splendid isolationism’. Pearl harbour changed all that and if it hadn’t Europe would be suffering under the successors of another divisive leadership – the one appointed as chancellor of a certain nation in 1933. OK, the Capitol attackers were eventually thrown out. But so were the Munich bier Keller putsch adherents in 1923. Let us hope and trust, however, that this won’t happen again in another ten years’ time despite the promise (or threat) that ‘we will return’

A good political leader unites – a bad political leader divides. It’s that simple and that’s why so many of the issues that set us apart from others including, sadly, some of our family and (now former) friends were instigated by political machinations.

I was amazed to discover that in Bagni di Lucca there are people around who still believe that the previous POTUS was the best thing since sliced bread. Even more, that he had been unfairly treated. How could a person who diminished the USA’s prestige in the world, someone who, in the midst of all the news he condemned as ‘fake’, was the biggest fake himself; someone who has left a nation (and much of the world) in a position desperately needing hope and healing feel deceitfully treated?

Luckily the new POTUS in a true atmosphere of benevolent grandfatherliness has already signed several decrees reversing the damage that would have continued under the previous office holder: damage to the environment, damage to the efforts to contain the worst pandemic seen for over a hundred years, damage to the social fabric itself and much else.

Sadly, the maiming that was encouraged under the USA’s previous administration will be difficult to be repaired in at least one other country: the United Kingdom. The new president has little time for the B word and the UK had always been seen as the gateway into Europe not just in terms of trade but quintessentially as the way to cease that continent’s near-Armageddon in the two World Wars of the last century.

(Sandra meeting a soldier from the Roman Army when England was part of a previous European Union called the Roman Empire.)

The wall that the UK has built around itself cannot be physically seen but only felt in the increasing number of bureaucratic and fiscal barriers being knocked against by the continent’s inhabitants. We already know about finny beings dumped into the sea because of inoperable trade agreements and the confiscation of bacon butties from truck drivers by the customs authorities because of import restrictions. There is now a lot more of this sort of thing on the way ready to make the UK feel itself ever more a separate nation cut off from the continent not just by today’s fog but by further red tape in the form of hardened fiscal controls and taxes. Already everyone from large organisations to individuals is starting to suffer. The great financial institutions, which have made the City of London into a world hub, are already establishing office s in the EU and increasingly will transact business from those offices.  We all know now about the limited mobility thrust upon our passports and the confiscation of a whole citizenship from them. Everything from roaming charges to pet passports is being affected. Let us trust that all citizens are now sufficiently well-informed. What is especially significant in these times of on-line trading is that UK inhabitants will be forced to pay considerable duties on previously duty-free items shipped from the EU. More and yet more will follow. Everyone in the UK will be worse off than before for at least another twenty years…

It took four years for the majority of the American people to fully realise what kind of president they had voted for. I just hope it won’t take longer than that for the UK to finally realise what a futile exercise brexit is.

We are all free to hold our own opinions in a democracy but there is no room for schadenfreude in this ‘fortress UK’ situation. The white cliffs of Dover will still be standing and continue to form part of the same geological chalk belt that extends into northern France.

(When Dover was blocked against barbarians by the Roman army instead of being blocked by queues of HGV’s on the M2. Our photos dating from 1987…)

There is no great need to say ‘I told you so’ for it will be on all our heads. What is now needed is for the majority to fully realise the tragedy that has befallen the UK and to unite in ways that may restore at the very least the membership of a customs union and a trade concordat. Let us hope that those still believing that Britain has regained its ‘sovereignty’ in spite of the fact that it is now at the mercy of the rest of the world and effectively grovelling to sign trade agreements which will never be as good as those it had when a member of the EU.

(A local mountain, the Balzo Nero, now more appropriately to be called  ‘Balzo Bianco’ because of the recent snows)

However, what is even more pressing today is to consider how to terminate the world health crisis before it terminates us. In a democracy we are plainly entitled to hold our views on vaccination and decide whether to go for the jab or not. Yet even this issue is dividing people as much as anything else can divide. I do not care if a person holds views against vaccination. They will have their reasons for holding such views, perhaps because of personal experiences under previous vaccinations they may have had. (I am less enthusiastic about ‘religious reasons’). My maxim is ‘stand fast to your own views but be prepared to modify them if new facts come to light. And never spend the rest of your life trying to convince others that they must embrace your way of thinking about issues.’  After all it would be a dull world if everyone held the identical opinion – a world rather like those synchronically marching in step soldiers one views in victory parades from the northern half of an East Asian peninsula.

That’s why a facebook group centred on those living in our beautiful nearby city of Lucca gives me great concern. A member of the admin group vetting contributions from senders appears to be using the platform to expound views against vaccination in an almost obsessive way merely instilling dissent and consternation among other group members. Admin should be neutral in such matters, rather like the Speaker in the UK’s House of Commons.

Perhaps we should restrict our discussions as to which bar serves the best ‘pezzi dolci’ or which is the easiest footpath to get to the top of Monte Incoronata (actually there is only one here: the ’Via degli Avi’ recently restored to much acclaim). However, we must also realise that it’s no good playing the violin while fires rage around us (to paraphrase what a Roman emperor is supposed to have done).

The saddest thing of all, however, is that friendships and alliances will be almost irreparably damaged if I, for example, find that someone else’s views on global warming, Trump, vaccination, fascism, Brexit, flying saucers, some religious organizations, meat-eating, flat earth theory etc. etc. are so different from mine as to render any rational communication impossible with them. When friendships are broken this way then it’s truly a tragedy… perhaps often worse than most other things that occur in this troubled world.