New Painting: I feel like I often struggle with paintings, trying to fine tune them and seeking a look that I sometimes cannot quite accomplish. I find myself stuck sometimes. The result is that I don’t seem to be able to paint some thing in a smooth, step-by-step sort of way. I marvel at artists who can just sit down and bang outa painting. But my most recent painting was a bit different. I picked out the picture and the painting just emerged bit by bit. As you can see, it is really four stripes, and I did them one by one, but what was nice was that each of them emerged relatively effortlessly, although each took a bit of time. Maybe it is a sign that my technique is improving. The painting is of a view during a walk on the Isle of Skye. It doesn’t quite capture the beauty of the Isle of Skye (and the photo of the painting isn’t that great), but I like it.

Britain is Stumbling Towards Something: It is all bizarre, but it seems like it might be coming to some sort of an end. It is at least an end from the Conservatives point of view. Of course, I’ve been thinking this for the past three weeks and some new convulsion has always followed. Indeed, Labour now seems to descending into its own internecine fighting and a really ugly fight.

Conservatives: The internal war in the Conservative Party has really been going all year. The whole Brexit referendum was really about the split in the Conservative Party and Cameron’s desire to get the Eurosceptics to finally shut up. Well, that didn’t work very well, did it? The ugliness in the Brexit campaign was all from the Conservative’s side (and the utterly creepy Neil Farrage of UKIP, of course), so it was inevitable that retribution would follow the vote. What was kind of surprising was that the bloodletting did not occur behind closed doors but, instead, were spectacular public executions. Now, somehow or other (and if you want to assume that there was some sort of back room conspiracy here, you would not be alone), the Tories decided that nine weeks of inevitably nasty campaigning to choose the next PM would just prolong the agony, so Andrea Leadsom decided (was forced?) to fall on her sword and withdraw, leaving us with Theresa May as an unelected PM. This is probably about as good a result as was possible under the circumstances. May is experienced and reputedly tough. She is certainly right wing, without being too far right. A Conservative election would have forced her to say what she believed and wants to accomplish as PM, so this sudden ascension leaves some mystery about what Britain is really getting. But in the short term at least, Britain does get some semblance of stability, which it desperately needs. In the longer run, May is probably doomed to failure since there is really no way to negotiate an exit from the EU that doesn’t make huge parts of the population massively unhappy. She will either have to give in on immigration and agree to freedom of movement to get free access to the market or protect the borders and cause a recession. She can’t win. But it will take a while for it all to happen and at least the appearance of a firm hand at the wheel might keep the pound from sinking to parity with the dollar by year’s end, as some predict. As I finish this post, May is meeting with the Queen, in the antiquated ceremony in which the Queen asks her to form a new government.

Labour: What a mess! Angela Eagle decided to announce her challenge to Jeremy Corbyn on Monday morning. It is unlikely that the Conservatives did it on purpose (but if they did it was really Machiavellian), but Leadsom gave her surprise announcement withdrawing from the race at the exact same time, effectively preempting Eagle and Labour’s moment. Corbyn has showed no inclination to do anything other than fight this, so a major Labour fight is now in the offing, with a permanent party split or breakup looking somewhere between possible and inevitable. The big immediate question was whether Corbyn needed the support of 51 Labour MPs to run or would he allowed be to run automatically as the challenged leader. Labour’s rules aren’t clear but they ultimately decide to let Corby run automatically. There is still a chance of litigation challenging this. While the sitting Labour MPs are largely united in their contempt for Corbyn as a leader, they also are worried that Corbyn would win any vote of the huge and growing Labour membership. It is hard to predict the outcome of all of this. It does seem likely that the supporters of this challenge will eventually be challenged themselves by Corbynistas. Eagle’s offices have been attacked and the Corbyn people are already plotting to get her constiutency to attack her with a vote of no confidence. The anti-Corbyn MPs are getting death threats. I do think Corbyn means well, but he thinks he is leading a movement rather than a political party and doesn’t completely control that movement. He doesn’t seem concerned about the possibility of an election. So you can see why the sitting MPs, looking at potential electoral slaughter and without a leader who seems cognizant of his political role, are fed up. But the left wing movement people love Corbyn and regard the PMs concerns as treason. So just as the Conservatives have gotten together behind May, Labour appears to be in absolute chaos. It is all really a shame because Britain really could use an effective party to counter the Conservatives.