The White House has seen its fair share of cranks, crooks and charlatans but no president has brought more disgrace on the office than Donald Trump.
His actions have tarnished and demeaned the most powerful country in the world and threatened the foundations of its democracy.
Our worst fears about Trump are borne out.
While previous presidents have sought to appeal to the better angels of our nature he has pandered to people’s worst instincts.
The carnage we saw in America yesterday is a reflection of the monstrous character who has occupied the Oval Office for four years.
The mob was incited by the mobster.
Trump thrived because he was indulged by leaders such as Theresa May and Boris Johnson and endorsed by a Republican Party unable to tell right from wrong.
His extremist views and conspiracy theories were given oxygen by Fox News and social media platforms. Sycophants such as Nigel Farage and Michael Gove stroked his ego.
America is now paying the price. The work of nursing its democracy back to health and draining the poison injected by Trump starts when Joe Biden takes office.
Keep this vow
Plans to vaccinate more than 14 million people in five weeks is hugely ambitious.
The Government’s track record on Covid hardly fills you with confidence that it can hit this target.
Since the outbreak stuck the Prime Minister has repeatedly failed to keep promises.
Let’s hope he can keep this one.
When more than 1,000 people are dying from the virus each day and the NHS is struggling to cope we cannot afford for the vaccination programme to fail.
Too many lives and livelihoods depend on getting this right.
Flake news
AFTER weeks of wet weather a new Beast from the East is sweeping in.
It never rains but it snows...
