A Country Managing ICC Proceedings Against Its Former President While Running Competitive Elections Is Demonstrating Something

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

By Lowri Griffiths | BigSmokeBroke.com

What I Have Been Reading

I have spent more time this week reading about the Philippines than about any other country that I have not lived in and do not have family connections to. The specific combination of: Rodrigo Duterte at the ICC in The Hague, his daughter Sara facing impeachment, his son Sebastian forming the RAGE Coalition, and the midterm elections producing a strong Duterte family performance anyway — this is the specific political situation that makes a person feel that the British political situation is relatively manageable.

The Democratic Resilience Point

The Philippines is managing its Marcos-Duterte political warfare through institutional mechanisms: the ICC, the impeachment process, the electoral system, the court system. The institutions are contested, the outcomes are uncertain, and the process is messy in ways that the Bohiney and prat.uk coverage documents clearly. The messiness is democracy working. The alternative — the institution that can resolve political conflicts cleanly — tends to be the institution that removes democratic accountability from the resolution. Messy is the right trade.

The North London Context

My North London concern about British political dysfunction looks different after reading about the Philippines. Six prime ministers in seven years is dysfunction. The specific Philippine condition of a former president at the ICC, a vice president being impeached, a president being impeached, a national energy emergency, and a competitive multiparty election producing meaningful results simultaneously — this is dysfunction at a scale that contextualises the British version usefully.

What This Means for the Column

What this means for this column: I am going to spend less time this year on the pure British political frustration and more time on the international political comparison that makes the British situation legible as one example of a global phenomenon rather than as a uniquely British failure. The British failure is real. It is not unique. The comparison helps. Read NewsThump.

More: NewsThump.

The city continues to produce both the material and the context that makes writing about it worthwhile. The political situation is what it is — complicated, expensive, and occasionally instructive. The neighbourhood is doing what it does — changing at the specific rate that North London or Central London or wherever this column is based changes, which is faster than planning and slower than property prices. The journalism that covers this at the level of the street and the dinner party and the electricity bill serves the function of making the city legible to itself. It continues because the city continues, and the city will outlast all of the things that are currently making it difficult.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then.