The Tramp Of Time

Living in the UK as long as I have,
I have lived through one change of monarch
[she started young and was exceptionally healthy],
and fourteen changes of Prime Minister.
I have been a UK citizen both when it was
outside of the EU and when the UK was in it.

In both the EU remained the UK's closest neighbour.  

Abroad, there have been six popes, 
twelve different American presidents,
and seven different leaders of Russia,
where stable leadership meant corruption
at the top and increasing economic instability
the further down the social hierarchy you look.

The seven part series that documents
life under the third to sixth leaders, Trauma Zone
shows this up in more detail than can be absorbed, perfectly.

My views of the leadership have changed
as I have aged. In my twenties when Capitalism
disappointed me I was curious about Communism,
but from the place I was in I could not separate truth
from propaganda, not even with petty local rulers.

The older I got, the nearer I got to being the age
of the leaders that I both despised and admired.
I thought that with parity of age with them,
when I was over fifty, I'd come to a more balanced view.

But with my age, as I am now,
the links between age and competence
are more complex than I previously read.

All I can say is that populations reap what leaders sow,
and the wisest leaders are often the quietest,
but they have to wait for history to downsize
the noise of the loudmouths who want their say
to speak for everyone else, little realising
that they are just bit part players on the world stage.