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9:28am on Sunday, 25th January, 2026:
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In the Hans Christian Anderson story, The Emperor's New Clothes, everyone knows the emperor is wearing no clothes. They go along with the pretence that he is, because they don't want to be thought of as stupid. Only when a child points out that he's wearing no clothes does the façade collapse.
Pretty well every politician knows that the current president of the US has some form of dementia. Our leaders go along with the pretence that he doesn't, because they don't want their country to be in for a pounding. All it would take is for one leader, speaking on a world stage, to say openly what everyone can see and no-one will have to pretend any more.
Someone could have done this at the Davos meeting earlier this week, but they didn't.
My guess is that every politician also knows that the man will die soon, so they just have to wait it out.
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Copyright © 2026 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).