What a mess the world is in these days! (or is it just that I’m getting old and can’t keep up with the latest inanities?) The American Republican government has raised free enterprise, rampant capitalism and American exceptionalism to the status of a religion, and our ideology-driven Conservative government has bought into it hook and line – and the sinker is coming, I fear.

A year ago our government was saying that there was no financial crisis on the way, so eat, drink and be merry. Now they are saying that the government met the crisis a year ago and dealt with it then, so no further steps are necessary. Meanwhile, unemployment rates and the poverty gap are rising and food banks are busier than ever – or would be if we could afford to keep them stocked.

We have also been told that global warming and the environment are not important. Any day now, I expect to hear that they too have been dealt with while the country was sleeping. Meanwhile, the Arctic ice is melting, the polar bears are dying out, water tables are dropping, respiratory diseases are on the increase, and farms are going out of business. (Or is all this the fault of the previous Liberal government? – C’est la faute de liberal?)

We are told that it would be contrary to democratic principles for the other political parties to try to replace the present government with a left-of-center coalition. Is it democratic to continue to rule on the basis of principles rejected by the majority? Or to try to destroy an opposition party when it is vulnerable due to leadership problems?