Oh for those mysterious days of Trump, impeachment and Covid 19.

 Oh for those mysterious days of Trump, impeachment and Covid 19.

If somebody had told you 50 years ago that the world would be confronted with a deadly virus, a dodgy, crooked and corrupt American president and Brexit, you might have been inclined to believe the one  rather than both. The memory of Richard Nixon sniffling uncontrollably into his handkerchief as a result of the most disgraceful, discreditable, disreputable, pernicious and dastardly act of deceit and double-crossing is like a scar in the history books.  

Roll forward another 50 years or so and we're very much back where we started with one or two notable exceptions to the rule or maybe that should read as the one major difference. Back at the end of the 1960s and 1970s, nobody would have imagined that by the year 2021 we'd all be struggling to come to terms with a global virus and pandemic that literally shook the world to its foundations and left us all dumbfounded and shocked. 

And yet we are. In America of course all hell has broken loose on its Washington streets, the natives have run riot and the protesters have become appallingly violent. They've broken into the Senate, smashing doors, wrecking any piece of furniture that might come their way, throwing their weight about with unbridled aggression and then threatening to break every rule in every law book into the bargain. None of us can believe the sheer monumental scale of  modern society's rude awakening to the hard facts of life. 

Now we hear that Donald Trump is about to face impeachment charges for sparking off that frightening skirmish. He was the one who keeps insisting that he was blatantly robbed of serving a second term in office and has only now grudgingly accepted defeat. Some of us were rather hoping that Trump would just shuffle off into the land of isolation and seclusion never to rear his head ever again at any political rally. But Trump apparently is still spitting feathers, getting hot and bothered, throwing more tantrums and generally causing disorder on the highest scale. 

Shortly Joe Biden will become the next President of the United States but you wonder whether the former incumbent is sulking and moping so much that he'll have to be dragged out of the White House kicking and screaming. To say that Trump is a painful liability would be a gross understatement. The man has quite clearly lost his marbles, sanity has deserted him altogether and the man's mental health is hugely questionable. Any comparisons with Richard Nixon are perhaps not entirely appropriate since at least Nixon had the decency to apologise for his misdemeanours. 

For his part Trump is probably languishing in a dark room, refusing to be told what to do and generally behaving with all the decorum of some bolshie three year old who keeps throwing their paint brushes across the room. He won't be coming out or responding to any requests for a word or two until they give him back his toy cars. It's as simple as that. 

Sadly, American politics has now descended to its gravest point where the totally irresponsible actions of its President has brought the whole of the office into complete disarray. He maintains that last year's election was rigged, that the votes that were counted had been counted so inaccurately that a good deal of jiggery-pokery and manipulation has been at work here. How to read the mind of a man whose thoughts are so muddled now that he may just as well be totally ignored because nobody will be listening to him at any point.

But here we in the first month of 2021 and not a great deal has changed. The news agenda still reminds  you of early episodes of Doctor Who, the total number of people who have died in Britain since the beginning of the first lockdown is now in its thousands almost every day and it almost feels as if the bombs are still raining down on us, the missiles are hammering into the buildings and the explosions are just relentless. 

During the Second World War most of London took to the Tube railway shelters underground to hide from the evil monster of the Nazi tyranny. This time though the enemy is invisible but still destructive in so many ways. This time we're subjected to a whole barrage of grisly percentages, mind blowing statistics, more graphs, men in suits delivering the same old message over and over again as if we need to be reminded of it all.  

A couple of nights ago you watched a young woman beside herself with grief at the loss of her husband. The BBC reported on the terrible plight of a wife sobbing bitterly and still shocked at the abrupt ending of her husband's life. The verdict was that the husband had died because of Covid 19 but the tears became rivers and then oceans. You really didn't know which way to turn because your heart was in the process of breaking for her. Of course they both had everything to live for but nothing would ever bring the husband back and she remained inconsolable. It was the most sobering moment of the year so far. 

But then you remembered another BBC shock horror story when we were shown the full predicament being faced by doctors, surgeons, men and women in operating theatres working around the clock to save lives in their hundreds and thousands. You saw nurses breaking down, eyes red with tears yet again while some of the most eminent and knowledgeable of those in the medical profession were just overwhelmed, mortified, at their wits end, privately crumbling under the pressure but still impeccably restrained and dedicated to their calling. 

Throughout the ages we've always been able to cope with seasonal flu outbreaks during the winter but this one has quite literally knocked us for six. It looks like hell on earth but maybe we've now been conditioned to the harsh reality of it all and shouldn't be unduly surprised. The fact is though that although the number of infected cases do seem to be showing slight signs of levelling off, our streets and roads are still graveyards, all manner of masks are being donned as further evidence of something we've known about since last March and most of us are just surviving on the essential foods to keep us alive. 

Now we acknowledge that health, mental health and safety are of paramount importance. But for those of us who haven't seen the inside of a restaurant, theatre or cinema since goodness knows when this may feel like a custodial sentence or being trapped at the bottom of a well. Eventually we'll be rescued but for the time being we've just got to sit and wait. Patience will have to be a virtue whether we like it or not. 

The good news is that the vaccines for the coronavirus are being rolled out in the time honoured fashion of a conveyor belt. We can't get enough of vaccines, the jabs in the arms that are designed to fend off the virus until whenever. Almost two million people have now been administered with these various vaccines so far but there's a long way to go and the full effect of the said vaccines may not be known for some time. 

Still, we've all got a roof over our heads - or at least a vast majority of Britain has. As for the homeless, hungry and destitute this must feel like genuine torture and your hearts go out to those who have nothing. When will they be receiving the vaccine? It's hard to tell but we will be told in due course. Our stomachs are full and we still have the comfort of knowing that this will end. We can still sleep at night and we can still wake up in the morning. We have to be grateful because life is the gift that keeps giving. That coffee looks delicious. Keep calm everybody.