Jack Cohen – Xmas in England and Liberal Opinion
Although I went to England for family reasons, here are some general observations. I found the region where I was staying near Southend was extremely crowded and busy in the period before Christmas (Xmas). The Hotel I was staying at was fully booked and I saw several people being turned away. Just across the road was a huge Tesco “extra” supermarket. It was the largest I have ever seen, certainly on an American scale and was unthinkable when I was growing up in the UK.
I went to this supermarket many times and it was always completely crowded with huge lines at the cashier’s, as well as the self-check-out, which was very convenient and automatic. But, people were very polite and helpful. Instead of going to the restaurant next door for breakfast and some evening meals, I simply bought cereal and other foods at the Tesco and ate them in my room, and this certainly cut down on costs and was more convenient. By the way, Tesco was named after its founder T.S. Cohen, although I believe it is no longer Jewish-owned. The number of new autos and the crowds spending lots of money before Xmas gave the impression of affluence. Driving around the area there were the usual lights on houses and stores and Xmas trees. They had carolers and a brass band at the entrance of the Tesco.
On Xmas eve my two good friends really went out of their way to drive me to my sister-in-law’s home in Marlow, Bucks, right on the other side of London from Southend (83 miles or 133 km, a 2 hr drive). On the way, we stopped at the Bell Inn in Horndon-on-the-Hill, as perfect an example of an old English Inn as you could get, with excellent food.
On Xmas Day we were hosted for a bountiful Xmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings. As things will, the conversation turned to Brexit. My host thought it would be a disaster and he reminded me that London had voted against it, opposite to the rest of England (Scotland also rejected Brexit). He was very skeptical of Boris Johnson and his antics. I pointed out that if we are democrats we must abide by the majority. He expressed concern for immigrants who are suffering in order to reach Britain. I pointed out that as a well-off liberal he was more concerned about non-citizens than the working poor in the north of England who are losing their jobs to immigrants from the EU (principally Poland, there are ca. 1 million Poles in the UK) and that’s why they voted for Brexit. Of course, there was no resolution to this discussion
On return, I had a conversation with an American about the impeachment of Pres. Trump. He said that Trump should be impeached for misusing his power for personal gain for trying to get dirt on his opponent Joe Biden. I expressed a view that there was no “smoking gun,” that the impeachment was not based on fact, but rather on political animus towards Trump. He rejected this, he said that Trump deserved to be impeached. I pointed out that many Democrats had said they wanted to impeach Trump as soon as he was elected. He agreed, he said he deserved this, he said that intending to break the law was as bad as breaking it. When I said that this was the first partisan impeachment in US history, he said that the Republican Party was a criminal conspiracy. When I rejected this, he became insulting, he said that I was a mouthpiece for Fox News, and inferred that since Trump was stupid I must be too. At this point, I terminated the conversation. This was a clear example of how Democrats have developed a visceral hatred of Trump and can see no reason.
PS. I am not Trump, I did not choose Trump, but the people did, by the required democratic process. It should be noted that the conversation that the impeachment was based on took place on June 25, 2019, while Trump took office on Jan 20, 2017, so no crime could have been inferred then! (although they tried to impeach him on the basis of the Mueller inquiry of Russian collusion and that failed). When I watched the hearings, I saw no evidence that an actual quid pro quo took place, there was no announcement by Pres. Zelensky of an investigation of the Bidens, he said that he was not pressured and there was no actual investigation. Everything else is supposition. Further, the aid for Ukraine was released in a comparable time to all other foreign aid.
