30 min listen
Freddy Gray is joined by Jacob Heilbrunn, Americano regular and editor of the National Interest. They discuss the Strait of Hormuz, rising energy prices and whether the US can extricate itself from a conflict it may not be able to win – and whether we're watching the end of Trumpism.
‘Donald Trump is a complicated person with simple ideas,’ said Kellyanne Conway, the former White House senior counsellor. ‘Way too many politicians are the exact opposite.’ It’s a good way of understanding the 45th and 47th US President and his extraordinary success. His turbulent personality causes mayhem, yet his political aims have remained constant, straightforward and popular. Decades ago, as a New York tycoon with a keen eye on international affairs, he identified three priorities for America: tackle the nation’s trade imbalances, force Nato allies to spend more on defence, and destroy terrorists. When it comes to realising those simple ideas, however, his more complex attributes emerge.
Last Monday, I delivered a speech to mark the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s second-best book: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The year 1776 was a momentous one for many reasons. It saw the installation of James Watt’s first steam engine, the recognition of Captain Cook by the Royal Society for his work in preventing scurvy, and his departure on his final and ultimately fatal voyage. It witnessed the publication of Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
Home Labour’s National Executive Committee refused permission for Andy Burnham, currently Mayor of Greater Manchester, to stand in a by-election at Gorton and Denton. The decision was made by ten people, including Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, with only Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, voting for Mr Burnham. Mr Burnham winning the seat had been seen by some as a route for him to become prime minister after Andrew Gwynne, its MP (who was suspended from the Labour party for bad jokes), left the Commons by applying for the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. The by-election will be on 26 February. Fifty Labour MPs signed a letter to Sir Keir calling the decision ‘a real gift’ to Reform.
Dilbert taught me how to read. Stacked perilously high – between Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side – in my childhood home’s bathroom, Scott Adams’s cartoon provided the perfect reading material for the porcelain throne. Even before I knew what most of the words meant, I’d belly laugh at page after page of banal workplace humour. This is bizarre: why, as a preschooler, was I so tickled by these jokes about human-resources departments and fax machines? His plain little cartoon contained insights that his country still hasn’t fully recognised Adams, who died on Monday, enjoyed more than a three-decade run as honcho of the funny pages, starting in 1989.
