Peter Rhodes on greenwashing, shoplifting and Trump's road map to peace
Star columnist Peter Rhodes gives his views on Donald Trum, shoplifting in the UK and more
The Yanks are not like us. Millions of Brits will sympathise with Democrats who make the point that they accepted defeat graciously, unlike Donald Trump and his chums four years ago who clung to power like a pitbull with a bone. But millions of Americans genuinely don''t understand this mind-set. In the Land of the Free, a good loser is still a loser.
We are over-using our crystal balls, forecasting what Trump may or may not do in his first four years. He doesn't even become President until January 20, about 70 days from today. A lot can happen in those 10 weeks. We might wonder, given that would-be assassins twice got within shooting distance when he was merely a candidate, how many more idiots might be oiling their assault rifles now that he's president-elect?
But assuming The Donald does become President on January 20, the war in Ukraine should end on January 21, in line with his famous promise to stop hostilities in 24 hours.
How will he do it? I'd put money on a brief phone call to Kyiv in which President Trump invites President Zelenskyy, the heroic, T-shirted symbol of resistance, to “be reasonable” and surrender parts of Ukraine grabbed by Russia. It sticks in the craw but there is no clean, honourable way to end this war and if Donald Trump, a man not overburdened with honour, has a road map to peace, let's see it.
A report by the Country and Land Business Association warns that farms hit by the Chancellor's inheritance-tax grab may be snapped up by foreign corporations which will plant millions of trees to cut their carbon footprints. This practice is denounced by some naturalists as a “greenwashing” scam. So a Labour government takes a swipe at hard-working, patriotic British farmers and fills the pockets of foreign capitalists. Oops.
A YouGov poll, revealing that 40 per cent of the public believes shoplifting can be acceptable, is deeply depressing. I wonder how many of these soft-hearted folk would be quite so relaxed if a shoplifter, having filled his bag with stolen goods, then pick-pocketed their purse on the way out. What the 40 per cent seem to be saying is: theft is okay - unless it's theft from me.
