If power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, then what about absolute, eternal, total power forever? What does that do to the price of eggs? Because yesterday the National People’s Congress in Beijing voted to abolish the ‘2-term’ rule of leader by which the boss man can only serve 2 five-year terms as President. That is no more. So President Xi can rule his little heart out until his little heart actually gives out. It was a close contest. With 2,958 voting with the President to abolish the rule and 6 voting against. They had a recount. Mainly so the dissenting 6 could be identified and will be out of a job by today, locked up by Wednesday and in some forced labour camp by Friday. They introduced the 2-term rule after Chairman Mao died. The founder of Communist China. Who did all sorts of things of a fair-ish and decent nature but was also responsible for an estimated 30-50 million deaths, mainly of some kind of ‘dissenters’. I’m not sure how rich he was at the end but let’s say Chairman Mao was never short of rice.

Over in that other model of the Communist Dream, Putin is still serving up ‘the dish best served cold’ in the wake of the latest revenge killing in Salisbury. Which ‘might’… ‘allegedly’… ‘possibly’… be something to do with Russia. Maybe. And Putin again is in sole charge of a totalitarian state. In which ‘dissenters’ tend to get arrested and disappear with what would be over here, alarming frequency and worry. But over there is just ‘life’. And again it is reckoned that Putin has literally billions stored up in various offshore accounts. Just a little ‘nest egg’ so he can keep the heaters on when he retires. But how far from the original mantra of: from each according to his ability to each according to his needs? Ok, he might ‘need’ another little jet plane, what’s the problem?

And that is the dream to which Jeremy Corbyn and most certainly John McDonnell aspire. I just caught part of a speech to by the latter to the Scottish Labour conference yesterday and in an almost throw-away line, as the shadow chancellor was slagging of Conservative policies generally, he blamed the usual ‘market forces’ and ‘big business’ and then just kind’a threw in ‘terrible liberal democracy’ as a third horn of his personal devil. What? You got a problem with over-hornage? Who said the Devil can only have 2? You ever seen him??? Well thank you.

But since when, in Britain, has ‘liberal democracy’ been an evil? Been the cause of problems? Yet in McDonnell’s sick and warped mind that is the case. Whereas the totalitarianism in China and Russia are political aspirations.

He is a very dangerous man. I bet he does tai chi too.

Happy Monday

A xxxx