Lots and lots and lots of fuss about betting on the general election. Less attention is paid to the biggest bet of all – Rishi Sunak’s frightening flutter in opting for 4 July.
At Tuesday lunchtime, I was held up crossing the Mall by the procession for the state visit of the Emperor of Japan. I fumed a bit, but the modest crowd’s modest interest was soothing. How success is taken for granted. The recovery of Japan from disgrace, hunger and ruin was a miracle, the triumph of western, especially American, nation-building – such a miracle that everyone has forgotten it. When I was a boy, Hirohito, the wartime emperor, came on a controversial state visit. Private Eye ran the headline ‘There’s a nasty Nip in the air’. Now his blameless grandson passes unnoticed. Japan’s position as a stable force in the free world is now considerably more secure than that of Germany.
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