the times | Friday August 28 2020 1GM 31
Leading articles
with its pounding messages on the economy and
law and order, show how.
The online spectacle has taken place against the
backdrop of a Wisconsin town in flames amid
rioting after the police shooting of a black man in
front of his children. A white teenager now faces
charges of first-degree murder over the shootings
of two Black Lives Matter protesters. Mr Trump’s
reaction to the outrage that erupted after George
Floyd’s killing by police in May was widely derided
as tone deaf and capitalised on by Democrats amid
polls that indicated widespread concern over
racial inequalities. But support for the Black Lives
Matter cause has soured as violence has spread,
aiding Mr Trump’s efforts to spin his rival’s calls for
justice as pandering to the radical left.
Meanwhile, months into the pandemic, with
fatality rates falling, the public’s focus is swinging
towards the prospects for economic recovery. Polls
indicate that Mr Trump commands a substantial
lead over Mr Biden on the economy. That reflects
Mr Trump’s success both in claiming credit for
strong pre-Covid growth and in pinning the blame
for the downturn on the malfeasance of the enemy
abroad, China, the country that much of the
rust belt holds responsible for the decline of its
manufacturing industry. After the inevitable large-scale layoffs in the spring, millions of jobs are being
created. Mr Trump is a formidable campaigner and
the televised presidential debates will allow him to
probe the weakness of Mr Biden, who was often
found wanting in the Democratic primary race.
The Republicans’ virtual jamboree provided
an argument against a second term. Detractors
contend that four years of Mr Trump have left the
party little more than a personality cult. Nowhere
was this clearer than in its decision to forgo a
party platform in favour of a simple resolution “to
enthusiastically support the president’s America-
First agenda”. Voters heard the president endorsed
by no fewer than six Trump family members. Mike
Pompeo prompted an ethics investigation when
he not only became the first sitting secretary of
state to address a convention but did so during an
official visit to Jerusalem on the taxpayer’s dime.
Mr Trump’s disregard for rules and his outbursts
on Twitter give Mr Biden room to argue that the
president is a threat to US democracy and must go.
A sizeable chunk of his 2016 campaign team has
been criminally indicted or convicted, and insider
accounts paint his governing style as ill-informed,
impulsive and chaotic. Mr Trump’s victory last
time was a seismic political shock. While the fault-
lines remain, earthquakes can strike again.next election takes place. What’s more, the Lib
Dems may counterintuitively be helped by the
election of Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader. At
least part of the Lib Dems’ dismal performance in
December can be explained by fears over the
possibility of a Labour government led by Jeremy
Corbyn. This was enough to drive even some
opponents of Brexit into the arms of the Tories,
particularly in key southern English marginals.
Now, with Labour under more pragmatic leader-
ship, a vote for the Lib Dems may not seem so risky.
Nonetheless, to win these voters back, Sir Ed’s
first challenge is to find something new and
distinctive for the Lib Dems to say. Historically,
they have tended to prosper nationally when they
have been identified with a single issue. The
party’s greatest electoral success came in 2005,
when it benefitted from its opposition to the Iraq
war to win 62 seats. Beyond this, the party has
tended to rely on strong local campaigns and the
“none of the above” factor to pick up seats in
disparate parts of the country. But as Sir Ed
acknowledged yesterday, that is unlikely to be
enough to stage a revival from the present low base.Ms Moran had proposed to shift the party to
the left, making it more radical than Labour. In
choosing Sir Ed, who was a cabinet minister in the
coalition government, the Lib Dems have opted
for a centrist, who will position the party as one
that believes in “free markets, free trade and
competition”. This looks like a sensible choice. If
doubts grow about the Johnson government’s
competence and the Tories become further mired
in allegations of cronyism, opportunities may
open up for a responsible third party. The Lib
Dems may also be able to lure moderate Labour
voters, particularly if Sir Keir struggles to wean his
divided party off some of the radical left-wing
policies inherited from the Corbyn era.
But that points to Sir Ed’s second challenge: to
secure his party a hearing. His most successful
predecessors, Charles Kennedy and Lord Ashdown
of Norton-sub-Hamdon, were able to build the
party’s fortunes by capturing public attention
with their debating skill in the Commons and TV
studios. Sir Ed will need to develop similar
communication skills. If he does, he may yet find
a receptive audience.and yet this latest tribute, welcome as it is, feels
overdue. Recipients of a blue plaque must have
been dead for at least 20 years. Khan has thus
been eligible for this recognition since 1964. No
disrespect to the numerous worthies meriting
markers in the past 56 years, but Khan’s sacrifice
ought to have taken precedence long ago.
English Heritage oversees 950 blue plaques in
London. The scheme started in 1866. Khan’s
marker will be the first to commemorate a woman
of Indian heritage. In the fulness of time, given the
many eminent living British Indians, there will be
a host of others. Meanwhile a mere 14 per cent ofplaques commemorate women of any ethnicity
and only 4 per cent honour black or Asian people.
In an era when memorials of all types have
become controversial, these imbalances need to
be redressed. London’s landmarks should better
reflect the capital’s diverse population.
Three well-to-do boroughs, the City of West-
minster, Kensington and Chelsea and Camden,
account for 70 per cent of the plaques. Buildings
in humbler areas tend towards impermanence,
and plaques can be installed only on the actual
residence, not a redevelopment of the site. English
Heritage should consider relaxing this rule.Shock Doctrine
President Trump defied the odds in 2016 and, by focusing on the economy
and law and order, he could yet do so again in November’s election
Four weeks ago President Trump as good as
conceded that he was in danger of losing this year’s
election. Sinking in the polls as violence exploded in
the streets and American deaths from coronavirus
mounted, he suggested via Twitter that his
reckoning with voters be postponed until everyone
could cast their ballots in person, darkly warning
that widespread postal voting would result in
electoral fraud. Joe Biden, his barely visible
Democratic rival, continues to outflank him in
both national and battleground state voting,
support driven at least as much by opposition to
Mr Trump than by his own leadership qualities.
The president himself mused that if he failed to
win re-election “it can only be my personality”. In
50 years, no White House incumbent has been so
far behind at the start of the party conventions.
Yet in a year that has already proved stranger
than the one of his first victory, it would be foolish
to rule out Mr Trump’s re-election. At this stage in
the 2016 race, Hillary Clinton was far further
ahead than Mr Biden in three of the four key swing
states she went on to lose. Although this time round
there are many fewer undecideds, the emphasis
that the electoral college throws on the midwestern
rust belt could deliver for Mr Trump as it did four
years ago. This week’s Republican convention,Long Way Back
Sir Ed Davey faces a formidable challenge to restore Liberal Democrat fortunes
It is tempting to dismiss Sir Ed Davey’s election as
Liberal Democrat leader as an irrelevance. So far
has the party faded from public view since its
crushing defeat in December’s general election
that many will have been barely aware that a
contest was under way. The heady days of 2019,
when the party thought that it could rebuild its
fortunes by mobilising opposition to Brexit, have
long gone. The confidence that propelled the
former party leader Jo Swinson to kick off her
election campaign by proclaiming herself as
Britain’s next prime minister is a distant memory.
Instead the Lib Dems are reduced to being Britain’s
fourth-largest political party, with 11 parliamentary
seats and languishing at 6 per cent in the polls. The
party that Sir Ed has inherited, after a landslide
victory over Layla Moran, his only rival, has never
looked farther from power.
Nonetheless it would be a mistake to write the
party off. In purely psephological terms, the Lib
Dems’ fortunes are not as bleak as they would
seem. The party came second in 91 seats last year,
with the gap small enough in many cases to put it
within striking distance in 2024 or whenever theOut of the Blue
Women and minorities are under-represented on commemorative plaques
If anyone’s former home deserves the honour of a
blue plaque, it is surely that of Noor Inayat Khan.
The wartime Special Operations Executive agent
was betrayed to the Gestapo, tortured and subse-
quently shot by the SS in Dachau concentration
camp in 1944. English Heritage will unveil her
plaque, the first to be announced since lockdown
was imposed, in a virtual ceremony today. The
location is a poignant one: 4 Taviton Street in
Bloomsbury, London, is the address that Khan
scratched on a food bowl during her incarceration.
Khan’s heroism has been acknowledged before,
not least with the award of a George Cross in 1949,UK: The environmental protest group
Extinction Rebellion starts four days of
demonstrations across the country.
A swallow’s strident,
two-toned alarm
call fills the sky. The
little fork-tailed bird
is chasing a
sparrowhawk.
Fearless, it dives
and swoops at the lethal predator, which is
twice its size. The swallow’s cries alert the
rest of the local Hirundinidae family, and
soon a whole flock of swallows and martins
are harassing the lone raptor. Their aim is to
make as much noise and fuss as possible.
Since sparrowhawks are stealth hunters and
require the silence of surprise, this kind of
vocal disturbance stymies them.
Sparrowhawks do not have an adverse effect
on swallow numbers, nor the general
songbird population. Their presence is an
indication of a local ecosystem’s health.
jonathan tulloch
In 1837 the pharmacists John Lea and
William Perrins began to manufacture
Worcestershire sauce; in 1994 Sunday
trading was legalised in England and Wales.
Florence Welch, pictured,
singer, Florence + the
Machine, How Big, How
Blue, How Beautiful
(2015), 34; Sir Richard
Aikens, lord justice of
appeal (2008-15), 72;
Ai Weiwei, artist, activist
and film-maker, Coronation (2020), 63; Sir
Michael Arthur, senior vice-president of
Boeing and president, Boeing International,
70; Stuart Bithell, sailor, Olympic silver
medallist, men’s 470 (2012), 34; Jack Black,
actor, School of Rock (2003), 51; Wyn Calvin,
entertainer, known as the Welsh Prince of
Laughter, 95; Lindka Cierach, fashion
designer, 68; Greg Clark, Conservative MP
for Royal Tunbridge Wells, business, energy
and industrial strategy secretary (2016-19),
53; Imogen Cooper, pianist, 71; Hugh
Cornwell, musician, The Stranglers, 71; Sir
Michael Craig-Martin, conceptual artist, 79;
Prof Wendy Davies, historian, Welsh History
in the Early Middle Ages (2009), 78; Kezia
Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour Party
(2015-17), 39; Baroness (Rona) Fairhead,
trade and export promotion minister
(2017-19), 59; David Fincher, film director,
Fight Club (1999), 58; Armie Hammer, actor,
Call Me By Your Name (2017), 34; Sir Tom
Hughes-Hallett, founder, Helpforce NHS
support group, chief executive, Marie Curie
Cancer Care (2000-12), 66; Sir John
Kingman, chairman, Statistics Commission
(2000-03), 81; Mary McCartney,
photographer, 51; Lord (Duncan) Menzies,
senator of the College of Justice in Scotland,
67; Julie Meyer, founder and chief executive,
Ariadne Capital investment company, 54;
Denis Orde, circuit judge (1979-2001), 88;
Jamie Osborne, National Hunt trainer, 53;
Sir Christopher Paine, president, British
Medical Association (2000-01), 85; Philip
Purser, author, The One and Only Phyllis
Dixey (1978), 95; Emma Samms, actress,
Dynasty (1985-89), 60; Sheryl Sandberg,
chief operating officer, Facebook, 51; David
Soul, actor, Starsky & Hutch (1975-79), 77;
Shania Twain, country singer, That Don’t
Impress Me Much (1998), 55.
“Trade isn’t about goods. Trade is about
information. Goods sit in the warehouse until
information moves them.” CJ Cherryh,
science fiction writer, Chanur’s Legacy (1992)
Nature notes
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