Nobel Peace Prize winner, Sir Austen Chamberlain, half-brother of Sir Neville Chamberlain (of “Peace for Our Time” fame) delivered a speech in 1925 in Birmingham, where he said “It is not so long ago that a member of the Diplomatic Body in London, who had spent some years of his service in China, told me that there was a Chinese curse which took the form of saying, ‘May you live in interesting times’. There is no doubt that the curse has fallen on us.”
We are hearing this same phrase today – stridently targeted at President Donald Trump. And to make it more interesting, the online betting site Paddy Power has the odds of him getting impeached in the first six months of his presidency at 4 to 1 — and the odds of him failing to complete his first term at 7 to 4.
Impeachment was first introduced in England in the mid 1600s as a charge, or ‘peach’, of treason or other high crimes against the state. Currently 23 countries have followed suit with their own tailor-made procedures. In the U.S. impeachment means a charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office. In both countries, the charges are brought forward by the lower houses (Commons and Representatives) and the trial is held by the upper houses (Lords and Senate). In England, if the charge is upheld, it can lead to imprisonment. British politicians, understandably, haven’t used it against each other since the mid 1800s. In the U.S., if the charge stands, the person is simply removed from office. It makes great theatre and the politicians and press love it. Pardons can be given by the Crown or a subsequent president (see presidents Nixon and Ford). The Crown cannot be impeached. Instead, King Charles I was beheaded.
And so we come to President Donald Trump. He has been issuing executive orders so fast that the Washington press is stridently frustrated at the lack of time to criticize and mock. He has put timeline pressures on Congress to bring in legislation and find the funds needed to the degree that pork barreling, an integral part of the U.S. legislative process, will be very difficult to organize. As for the rest of us, NAFTA is on the table – today. And we can expect an urgently negotiated free trade agreement with the U.K. – before Brexit is finalized.
As for NATO, well there is the rub. The future of that organization lies totally in the hands of Putin and Trump. Can they make a deal? Putin wants international recognition as a major player in world affairs almost as much as he wants to reconstitute the USSR. China is making him redundant. Trump wants to move military operations to the Pacific to solidify his bargaining positions over trade with Pacific Rim countries. And therein lies not only the business deal but also the matter of impeachment. They may well need a ‘middle man’.
Somehow I don’t see Justin Trudeau at the table. But Prime Minister Theresa May could well be there. After all it was the Brits that started it all. And what about Prince Charles?
Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
