You look forward to a great interview on your podcast, then 4 come alongside unexpectedly. First up, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert (and if you happen to assume you detest Benjamin Netanyahu, you’ve bought nothing on his former colleague); then veteran US legislator Nancy Pelosi, who took me to job over Iraq; adopted by former UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who took Liz Truss to job over a lot of issues: then off to Athens to see the Greek PM, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Of the 4, Mitsotakis was the one I knew least about, and studying up on him prematurely, I wasn’t satisfied I would really like him as a lot as my Relaxation Is Politics accomplice Rory Stewart would.
A reasonably entitled background, his father having been prime minister earlier than him; educated in Paris, London and the US; a banker and financier, with the phrase “technocrat” in nearly each profile; and his New Democracy basically the Tories’ sister celebration.
But once I requested him the place he would sit on a UK political sliding scale, with Corbynite Labour on one finish and Braverman/Farage Tory-ism on the opposite, he mentioned with out hesitation: “proper within the centre”.
He didn’t maintain again on Brexit – very a lot in tune with the New European on that one – and whereas he was diplomatic about his relationship with Rishi Sunak, speaking about how vital the UK remained to Greece, he was however the newest chief I’ve met who appears way more all for Keir Starmer than within the present PM.
I’m unsure I might have been fairly so diplomatic about Sunak had I been him… chances are you’ll bear in mind, on a go to to London final November, Mitsotakis gave a BBC interview by which he was requested in regards to the Elgin Marbles, or Parthenon Sculptures because the Greeks name them, and trotted out the usual line that Greece needs them again to allow them to be “reunified” with the art work from which Lord Elgin took them within the early 1800s.
The response from No 10? They cancelled a deliberate bilateral assembly, which might have been their first, the next day. Speak about sledgehammer diplomacy!
It was round that point it turned clear that simply as Boris Johnson and Liz Truss had character flaws that made them unfit to be prime minister, so does Sunak… petulant, entitled, all too flappable when issues don’t go his manner, unable to grasp why individuals don’t see him as he sees himself. None of those are good qualities in a pacesetter.
When our LEADING interview together with his Greek counterpart comes out, somebody ought to pressure Sunak to observe. Mitsotakis listens to questions, then solutions them, quite than speeding by means of endlessly repeated “traces to take” written by Tory Central Workplace; he’s considerate and reflective; he is aware of historical past, and tries to use classes from it; he admits to occasional errors.
When he talks of the pressures on politicians, it isn’t to “poor me” complain about his personal life, however to precise the worry that the perfect younger individuals won’t ever take into account politics as a profession, leaving the door open to populists.
His stance on populism – much more than the truth that he knew the place Burnley had been within the Premier League and wished us effectively within the relegation wrestle – was the primary purpose I warmed to him. He has put populism on the coronary heart of his governance – warning of its risks, exposing it, difficult it, defeating it, quite than, as Sunak alas has sought to do, indulging it and bathing in its murky, and finally self- and country-destroying waters. Anti-populism, he suggests, has to develop into an actual political pressure.
I’m positive if I had had greater than the hour-long interview and a really gratifying al fresco dinner, I might have discovered just a few faults, and for positive, although he’s effectively to the left of Sunak, he’s to the fitting of me on just a few massive points. However my God it was refreshing to do an extended, detailed interview with a “Tory” politician who not as soon as mentioned “I’ve been very clear”… “that’s not the query you ought to be asking”… “that’s not what I hear from individuals when I’m out and about …” and who, quite than continually boasting about what he had achieved, sought to elucidate what he was making an attempt to do now and sooner or later, and why.
Olmert and Pelosi are already out, Kwarteng and Mitsotakis to observe. Take pleasure in. However please, Sunak workforce, within the pursuits of politics and democracy… get him to hear, and be taught.
Probably the most miserable second of the journey was the arrival. Simply forward of passport management is a huge map of Europe. All EU members have their nationwide flag positioned upon their nation. And there, all on its little previous own-io, with the French tricolour to the fitting, the Irish tricolour to the left, is flagless World (sic) Britain.
Folks from the flagged international locations peeled off to have their passports computer-read, and whizz by means of. The remainder of us walked off gloomily to attend in line and get one other bloody stamp in our French- and Polish-made new blue passports.
Madness. The entire thing is madness, and I’ll by no means cease saying so.
“Q: What’s the definition of a gentleman? A: A person who can play the bagpipes… however doesn’t.” Ha, bloody ha… if I had a fiver for each time I had heard this borderline racist (basically anti-Scottish) “joke”, I might be incomes virtually as a lot as once I was a busker, almost half a century in the past, once I raked it in for 3 easy causes:
1) Novelty worth (in Europe that’s, which is the place I plied my commerce);
2) Bagpipes are louder than different devices so different buskers can’t compete;
3) Guitarists and singers must do a number of numbers earlier than going spherical with the hat… with the pipes, one tune and I’m achieved, and on to the following spot.
All this got here flooding again in Athens, the place I heard a pipe sound I had by no means heard earlier than, and adopted the music to a stunning man referred to as Angelos, who appeared not in contrast to the traditional picture of Jesus Christ, and who had made his personal Greek pipes; a goatskin bag, with a chanter (the bit the place your fingers go) produced from a cow horn, tied into the bag by string, the music coming by means of reeds fabricated from bamboo. It was a haunting sound, the cow horn amplifying it superbly.
After all, I had a go, and did OK, contemplating many variations with the Highland bagpipe: no drones; six notes not 9; the holes very shut collectively, so massive fingers not a plus; and most of all of the bag beneath the fitting arm not the left arm, which despatched my muscle reminiscence everywhere, mistaken arm squeezing on the mistaken time.
Nonetheless, Angelos thought it was a great effort, and so did the lady who threw a coin into his field whereas I used to be taking part in.
I posted movies of our efforts on social media, together with close-ups of the varied elements of his instrument. Certainly one of my followers requested his favorite synthetic intelligence instrument to determine the cow-horn chanter and clarify what it was.
The reply: “This seems to be a picket bat or stick to steel studs or spikes embedded alongside its floor. It appears to be some sort of improvised weapon or self-defence instrument.”
Extra anti-bagpipism, AI-style. AI could also be sensible, nevertheless it’s not as intelligent because it thinks, and can by no means be as lovely as a musical sound made by human hand and coronary heart.