Time to end uncivil and nasty politics

George W. Bush has congratulated Joe Biden on winning the US presidential election, and called him a “good man” and the election “fundamentally fair”.

Many of us were not particularly impressed with Bush when he was president, but then we could never have imagined anyone as awful as Donald Trump holding that office. Bush’s statement today shows him, if nothing else, to believe in fair play and decency.

In this, Bush takes after his father. Bush senior was the previous US president to lose an election, to Bill Clinton, and only serve one term. When British prime minister John Major called him to commiserate him, Bush told him that he had been impressed with Clinton’s knowledge, adding that he would be “good to work with”. It’s hard to imagine Trump saying that about anyone. (In fact, John Major also made a similar comment about Tony Blair to Bill Clinton after losing to Blair in 1997.)

The late George Bush once said, “Because you run against each other that doesn’t mean you’re enemies. Politics doesn’t have to be uncivil and nasty.” Hopefully, the ousting of the president who those terms describe perfectly can be the start of a return to a politics characterised by civility and fair play on both sides of the Atlantic.

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