I wrote yesterday about my recovery from political depression after the British General Election in May this year. I’ve kept my thoughts to myself about politicians ever since but, if I’m going to talk about the new Brits on the block, I might as well confess admiration for some overseas politicos too. Politicians are mostly unpopular and derided – it is probably easier to say horrid things about them than nice ones. To show that I can, occasionally, be generous-hearted, here goes.

I’ve always admired Barrack Obama, the US President even if I’m worried about his wobbly policy over Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve written a lot about him over the years but, sufficient to say, he’s been impressive with his cool, his dignity and his thoughtful and eloquent words at important moments of crisis. I shall miss him when he leaves at the end of his term.

Just when I thought well any Democrat is better than any Republican, even if she is the only candidate, along came the wonderful Bernie Sanders. Well, far be it for me to second guess the next American presidential elections but it is truly amazing to hear an ancient American politician talking like a modern man of the left. Hey, you guys aren’t meant to talk like that over there or so I’d thought. Anyway, I suppose, I’d be happy to have Hillary Clinton as the next President rather than any of those scary Republican candidates.  Donald Trump! You’re kiddin’ me, America, he isn’t really a front runner, Come on!

The shameful way Greece has been treated by its European partners is another political story that I’ve shirked in my self-imposed silence. It’s been a bad year for the European Union with the bullying of Greece and the fracturing of its membership’s will over the fate of thousands of refugees. I’m a fan of the EU but if I had my reservations about its short-comings,  I now have some more and I’m now scared that its current record is going to encourage, wrongly in my opinion, too many Brits to vote No in David Cameron’s misguided EU Referendum when it comes along. Out of the politicians,  I’ve loved Yanis Varoufakis, well, I always go for the losers these days. He might love himself a bit too much but he’s stuck to his ideals and made some biting comments about the great European hierarchy – ones that we should all take on board. With or without Mr Varoufakis, I send all of my best wishes to Greece.

Angela Merkel might have been the bad guy over the Greek crisis – her intransigence was a genuine obstacle to a sensible European compromise and sensible compromises are what the EU is supposed to be about. Well, so bad marks there to Chancellor Merkel but, who would of thought it, full marks for her out-spoken defence of all those refugees and, in one stroke, elevating herself to become the conscience of Europe in one of its worst moments of crisis since the formation of the EU. When Britain’s leadership is almost invisible in Europe and the World these days, it is to Frau Merkel that we have to look for vision and compassion. Wow! Did I really say that? It shows how desperate the situation in Europe really is.

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I rather like the new Pope. He’s not my leader or anything like that but I’ve admired the way he appears to be turning the papacy into a power for good and a voice for the poor and the under-privileged. He’s a man of peace too so it was lovely to see him up there in the Vatican giving us a symbol for hope and peace when those two children released peace doves out into St Peter’s Square.
It was a shame about the crow and the seagull.

It was though a more appropriate image for these troubled times. We all want peace, I hope, but we don’t always clock how difficult it is to achieve.  At least it looks as if the doves got away. If they didn’t, I just don’t want to know about it.

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My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

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It would be churlish to wish ill of either of these men – both elected to power yesterday with authority over billions of people. Communism and Roman Catholicism are both belief systems that profess sympathy for the poor and deprived as their initial point of inspiration. Mr Borgolio and Mr Xi talk of  a desire to make our world a better place – fairer and less corrupt. One as the new Pope Francis I who now leads the World’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics and the new president of China, Xi Jinping who will lead the Chinese population of 1344.1 million Chinese.

Strange then that the Roman Catholic Church and the Chinese government are responsible for some of the most repressive and unforgiving policies in the modern world. While people in their respective medias celebrate new beginnings with hope, let’s not be churlish, OK, but let’s be realistic too. How many of us, “free-born” men and women, culturally unconnected with either system, would wish our lives dictated by the narrow dogmas and prejudices both institutions try to perpetuate in their zones of influence?

How many of us would really wish to entrust ourselves to the people newly elected to reign in these golden palaces? I wish them well, Pope and President, because I wish their people well. I wish their people luck too especially those of them whose lives don’t fit snuggly with their leaders’ beliefs and prejudices.

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