Viktor Orban has conceded defeat in the Hungarian election after 16 years in Office. His opponent Peter Magyar is also on the right. However Orban is a key figure in the international far right and his removal will be a welcome setback not least for a key ally the Italian fascist PM Meloni.
Its a setback for Trump too after JD Vance appeared on one of Orban’s election platforms this week, while of course complaining about outside interference in the Election.
Meanwhile the political mood that saw Hungarian voters eject Orban will need to continue. Magyar’s politics are not so different, even if without Orban’s extensive far right links for the moment
Before the Open golf. Eric Hobsbawm on golf & class
As far as I can ascertain Eric Hobsbawm was not a golfer. He was however interested in golf as an indicator of class and gives a number of examples in the Age of Empire
Golf clubs were to play an equally important role in the (Anglo Saxon)masculine world of middle-class professional men and businessmen. The social potential of this game played on large, expensively constructed and maintained pieces of real estate by members of clubs designed to exclude socially and financially unacceptable outsiders struck the new middle classes like a sudden revelation
The late miners leader Mick McGahey described golf as a waste of time. At his election victory party in November 2024 Trump had as the guest of honour Bryson DeChambeau. He is a championship winning golfer, aside from being extremely annoying, which no doubt endears him to Trump. DeChambeau has failed to make the weekend cut in the last championships he has played in. Very Trumpian.
The class divide is clear from a historical perspective too. Eric Hobsbawm noted in Labouring Men that in the late nineteenth century as the male working class was identifying itself by wearing a cap, the middle class turned to golf courses. Twenty-nine golf courses were laid out in Yorkshire between 1890-95. Before 1890 there had been just two.
For a good while Nigel Farage has been a cheer leader for Donald Trump. He has offered to be the go between with the President and the UK Government and has made a number of trips to the US to meet Trump. Actual meetings have been less common. Those with better memories than Farage may recall a recent visit to Mar-a-Lago where he planned to have dinner with the President. Trump was not there.
Of course Trump and Trump’s war with Iran is very unpopular and its hitting Reform’s voting numbers. So Farage seeing that Trump is bad for business in every sense is trying to distance himself. Even Starmer has played his Trump cards better than this…
A bit of Grade 11 listed St Stephens Church has collapsed, clearly an omen for where Ambridge is going. Chris and George have cleared up the rubble with the latter making some suitably acerbic comments to Alan the Vicar about religion (George should be a Methodist btw). Meanwhile the Easter Promises still seem to be carrying on helped by Carol Tregorran….
Budgies
Norman Stanley (and definitely not Derek) Fletcher has been relocated after Khalil thoughtfully gifted the bird to Lynda and Robert. However Fletcher was then later relocated to Azra and after advice from Alistair the Vet that is exactly where he is going to stay…
Pip
Pip has told Daveed about the lump she has found in her breast but tbh he seems more interested in the impact this might have on him. Later she also told Roooth who some years ago recovered from breast cancer. An important storyline
The Editor was to be found glancing at an old episode of In The Thick of It this week and noticed one David Archer appearing as a Government Minister….
Brian
Is Brian Ok? No one knows but the fact that he proposes to entrust the future of Home Farm to Adam suggests not…
Tim Martin appeared on GBNews on 10th April 2026. I don’t watch it so I can’t reveal what he was going on about. Possibly ordering at the bar rather than by App which he has been vocal about (Wetherspoons has at your seat App ordering but you can also order at the bar).
The answer to the question above however is ‘no’. Whatever Tim Martin’s personal views the clientele in most Wetherspoons pub is far more diverse than many other pubs. The big sellers are the breakfasts, the coffee and Pepsi. The cask beer is usually well kept.
The Met Police are institutionally racist and corrupt and have been for a while. Strangely action to deal with this never quite seems to happen.
The Met are also specialists at wasting police time and public money.
When Home Secretary Yvette Cooper decreed that Palestine Action was a banned organisation. In due course in February 2026 a Court found that it should not have been banned. Many hundreds of people had previously been arrested for holding signs mentioning the forbidden words. In most cases trials are on hold as the latest Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is appealing the decision (on April 28/9th). Originally the Met Police said they would make no further arrests pending the appeal. Then without any reason they decided they would. The Met often claim that they act without fear or favour but that may not be quite the whole truth here.
This has led to the Met arresting another five hundred people in Trafalgar Square on 11th April again for mentioning the forbidden words.
The aim of course is to restrict the right to protest particularly on Palestine. It is not working as pictures of old age pensioners, clearly not terrorists, being carried away by police underline. The police of course are only following orders but the person who gave the orders, one presumes the Met Police Commissioner, deserves to be called to account and dismissed.
Right-wing historian Niall Ferguson argues that the Strait of Hormuz may end up worse for the US than Suez did for Britain
In October 1956 Britain along with France and Israel launched a military operation to gain control of the Suez Canal from Egypt which had nationalised it. The US did not back the mission and it ended in short order primarily because it was destabilising the British economy. It marked the end of Britain as an imperial power, and it might be argued that the ruling class has looking for a replacement role ever since.
Niall Ferguson is a veteran right-wing historian. That is not meant to denigrate his historical research much of which is interesting even if the conclusions can be debated. In recent times Ferguson has, perhaps, cast doubt on his professional judgement by becoming a Trump fan.
No more. In a lengthy piece in The Times (11th April) he suggests that Trump’s war with Iran may turn out even worse than Suez did, Trump knows nothing of history but JD Vance is aware of Suez, arguing that the US should have joined in. Now he is trying to find a way of extricating the US from the Strait of Hormuz debacle.
Ferguson who has clearly had his time with Trump suggests that the likely impact of the war on the US economy and a failure to achieve whatever the aim of the Iran War were supposed to be will also lead the US to find itself in a post imperial rolr.
He concludes ‘the core lesson of Suez is that time is not on the side of an overstretched hegemon because the economic costs of war pile up faster than the strategic benefits can be reaped’
On Thursday the Green candidate Rob Yates comfortably shaved the Reform candidate to be elected a Councillor for Cliftonville on Kent County Council. The sitting Reform Councillor had been jailed for 12 months and subsequently disbarred hence the by-election.
The Green vote soared compared to 2025 and one part of that is likely to have been that the successful candidate Rob Yates is the Mr Margate moustache wearer of the year in an annual contest held in March 2026.
