There are philosophical dilemmas like that of Epicurus (why children die and tragedies like the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey occur if God is all-powerful and could prevent them), moral dilemmas like that of the tram (choosing between driving it along a track to which there are five tied unknown, or by another in which there is only one person, but it is your son) and mathematical dilemmas (the Hodge conjecture, the Riemann hypothesis, the Navier-Stokes equations...). And there are miracles, like those of Lourdes and Fatima, the resurrection of Lazarus, the wedding in Canaan or the loaves and fish.
There are also political dilemmas, such as that of the British Conservatives: how to win the next elections (possibly in October 2024) with their popularity in free fall, after what will be more than fourteen years in power, with five prime ministers in seven years and after the ignominious fall of its last two leaders, the frivolous Boris Johnson and the enlightened Liz Truss. A poll by the Daily Telegraph, sympathetic to their cause, does not bode well for them: 21 points behind Labour; if the British went to the polls today, they would suffer the biggest defeat in a century, and their presence in the Commons would be reduced to 45 seats, behind the Scottish SNP, which would be the official opposition. An immeasurable punishment.
The Tories need a miracle. Until now, Rishi Sunak had opted to recover common sense, reassure the markets after the provocations by Truss (whose throat was cut), restore an air of normality to politics, establish achievable objectives (limit illegal immigration, reduce queues at public health, cut inflation and debt, grow the economy), and work long hours but in the shadows, without attracting attention. But without success.
So Sunak has given his strategy a twist and thrown a little –or a lot– of bait into the equation. He has appointed Lee Anderson, a 56-year-old former miner from industrial, working-class England and former Labor councillor, a sort of poor English Trump, who advocates the death penalty to combat crime (“The Executed they do not commit crimes again"), it would send the Royal Navy against asylum seekers who cross the channel in boats, it would radically cut social benefits because their beneficiaries "spend the money on cigarettes, beer and subscriptions to Netflix", it would abolish the food banks with the argument that "anyone can have dinner for one euro" and the expenses of the NHS (public health) in its interpreter service, since "whoever wants to speak to the doctor in Urdu, go back to Pakistan" .
The Trumpist Anderson seeks controversy like the former US president in his tweets. He would deny medical treatment to alcoholics and overweight people, since "their cancers and heart problems are their fault and nobody else has to pay for them." He laughs at gender issues and those who “can't tell the difference between a man and a woman”, and proclaims that he won't watch England soccer matches until the players stop kneeling in protest of racial violence.
Sunak has promoted him to the forefront, on the electoral straight, in a desperate attempt to win back the ex-Labor working-class voters in the north of England who were seduced by Johnson and gave him an absolute majority but have lost faith in the conservatives and their promises to equalize the country. And also a Brexit that in three years has lost all its luster and points to the pantheon of the great debacles of British politics, along with Suez and the Iraq war, a project founded on madness , marinated in fantasy, full of contradictions and sold based on lies.
Brexit has been an earthquake whose aftershocks are still being felt and has left little room for common sense, which was Sunak's original bet. It has provoked in the conservatives a bigger fault than the San Andreas. After being the laughing stock of the planet during the 44 days that his tenure lasted (little more than the five weeks in Jules Verne's balloon and less than the nine and a half weeks of the unbridled sexual relationship between Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke in the film ), Liz Truss has tried to vindicate herself by attributing her fall to a left-wing establishment conspiracy and leads a group of fifty deputies who ask for less taxes. Johnson continues to hatch a possible return behind the scenes, while pocketing millions (there are already five) giving lectures. Nigel Farage's far-right Reform Party gains supporters.
Post-Brexit Britain was going to be Eldorado, but it's more like the Happy Valley of the TV series, an economically depressed and socially fractured country. The Tories have a dilemma. Does anyone offer a miracle?
