Trump is back on his feet but the world is still poorly.

 Trump is back on his feet but the world is still poorly. 

This is where it becomes very difficult. Since way back in March the world has been completely turned upside down, inside out and never quite the same again for the foreseeable future. Our plans and projects have been put on hold for goodness knows how long and what appeared to be a temporary crisis has now degenerated into a hellish predicament. We are perplexed, bamboozled, helpless, floundering and foundering on some storm-battered rock, crying out for help, simultaneously laughing and crying because we really don't know what to do next and how to approach our fellow member of the human race. 

In Washington DC, Donald Trump is recovering from a near-death experience and maintaining that he's never felt better. Roughly a month or so from now our American friends will be summoned to vote for their next President yet again and the choice is, it has to be said, fairly limited. In fact the choice is non existent, negligible if you like, if only because the competence and prowess of both Trump and his opponent Joe Biden has now been questioned to the point that neither is considered as even remotely good enough. 

After emerging from hospital last week with the symptoms of Covid 19, Trump just went about his business as if nothing had happened which of course it had. It's just that some leaders of the free world love to think of themselves as untouchable, invincible and immune from any kind of illness. Shortly after being admitted to hospital Trump, although gasping for air, put on the bravest of faces. He was briefly very poorly and there was a suspicion that this was much more serious than was at first thought. 

But oh no not Donald Trump. Trump just felt hugely obliged to follow in the footsteps of that other leader of his country Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister. You remember what happened to Boris. We were a couple of weeks into the lockdown here in Britain and poor Boris was just poleaxed, flattened, out for the count. Soon the world's Press converged on Downing Street and the beads of worry seemed to be pouring from Conservative Party headquarters. Boris had Covid 19 and for a while we privately feared the worst although in retrospect Boris was fit as a fiddle, full of beans, resilient as they come. 

However with oxygen mask on his face and ventilator strapped to his body, the signs were not good. Johnson was feverish, bronchial and seriously ill. Britain braced itself for the unthinkable but not only did he make a more or less full recovery but he also told us that the country had nothing to fear but fear itself. There were rallying cries, guarantees that eventually the whole world would feel a lot better about itself. He said that within a short period of time, London would come back to life, the shops, pubs, clubs, restaurants, gyms, leisure centres, restaurants and sport would return fitter and stronger. 

Then within the last couple of weeks or so everything slipped away from us, reverting back to the way it almost was back in March. Yesterday in the northern heartlands of England, where the powerful wheels of the Industrial Revolution once thrived, small pockets of closely-knit communities shut up yet again. Oh no, thwarted again. Can this really be happening? After everything we'd done and all that hard work had now been undone. It was time to go back to square one. That just doesn't seem right. 

So we ploughed on relentlessly, emptying supermarkets of vital supplies of eggs and toilet rolls and checking to see that we hadn't thrown out last week's Lottery numbers. The thinking here was that if we had, by some miracle, won £80 million and the ticket had slipped down our sofas without realising that we did indeed have the winning numbers then life would only get more frustrating. We were already struggling so what on earth would the future hold for us?

Anyway here we are almost seven months down the line and gibberish is running straight into ambiguity, befuddled thinking is quite clearly stressing us all out. Now let's see. Why don't we just hide in a cupboard for the rest of the year until New Year's Eve when Boris will suddenly give us the all clear? That's it. Excellent idea. What have we got to lose? The viral war was punching a huge hole in the ailing economy, the West End of London looked as if a whole procession of cowboys had just left a dusty Wild West town and everything was utter carnage. Nothing but tumbleweed blowing down the road. 

Hold on though we've still got the American election to deal with and that in itself is an emotional disaster area you'd be well advised to steer well clear of unless of course you happen to be an American. It's either the incomparable Donald Trump for there can be no logical comparison. Or Joe Biden who may think he'd make a wonderful president but will then realise that he may have picked the wrong year or even the wrong generation. The popularity of any American president may be entirely subjective but when you've only got two very comical contenders for the role all bets are maybe off. Still, perhaps we've misunderstood both men because both men could be genuine forces for good. 

We are rapidly approaching the end of a year that must surely be the one year in our lives that some of us will be desperate to see the back of. Certainly in modern times it will not only be remembered for all the worst reasons you could possibly think of but it may be the most tragic of all time. Of course history will tell us all about the abominations of the Second World War and the Holocaust. But then we think of the present day and we remain unscathed, undeterred, ready to conquer the odds, winning the battle hands down. 

Of course there was Vietnam, the seemingly endless Middle East conflict and then more recently Bosnia, the horrors of Cambodia and the brutal, murderous IRA on the British homeland. But this year the deadly virus that is coronavirus has been equally as catastrophic. Still, there are three months of 2020 left and we will get through this. It's time to face up to this invisible virus. You'll never get the better of us. We're here because we've done this before and that triumphant day may be closer than you think.