Convenience Big Store: Republicans hail hardline Hungary

14 August, 2021

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US politics

Republicans hail hardline Hungary

Tucker Carlson's trip to Hungary has made liberals "sit up a little straighter", says Jared Yates Sexton in The Daily Beast. The Fox News pundit is on a whistle-stop tour of the country: this week he spoke at a far-right conference, attended dinners with Budapest's high-flyers and interviewed Hungarian PM Viktor Orban. Carlson sang Orban's praises. He "thinks families are more important than banks," he told Fox viewers. "He believes countries need borders. For saying these things out loud, Orban has been vilified." It's telling stuff. Carlson is the poster boy of right-wing America – his show is the most watched in the country, with an average audience of 2.8 million. For Republicans his opinion is invaluable. Perhaps Hungary is the direction the GOP is heading in? In a way, Carlson is "broadcasting from a foreign land and a possible future".

If this is the future of American conservatism, count me out, says historian Heather Cox Richardson on Substack. In the past decade Hungarians have watched their democracy erode. As soon as Orban retook office in 2010, he established control over the media, "cracking down on those critical of his party, Fidesz, and rewarding those who toed the party line". In 2012 things got worse. "His supporters rewrote the country's constitution to strengthen his hand, and extreme gerrymandering gave his party more power." The Hungarian PM is candid about his grabs for power. He wants to, in his words, replace democracy with "illiberal democracy" or "Christian democracy". But, no matter what he calls it, this is "not democracy at all". America would be foolish to emulate it. "On paper, Hungary is a democracy in that it still holds elections, but it is, in fact, a one-party state overseen by the prime minister."

That's typical liberal American nonsense, says Will Collins in UnHerd. They're desperate to paint Orban as a monstrous autocrat. Take it from someone who lives and works in Budapest: Hungary is not a "one-party state". If it was, it would be news to Gergely Karacsony, the anti-Orban mayor of Budapest, who many are tipping to beat the incumbent in the 2022 parliamentary elections. "One-party states do not allow opposition figures to run the capital, speak at protest rallies in front of parliament, and lay the groundwork for a national campaign." Liberal Americans are projecting their own fears on to Hungary and concocting lies in the process. Trust me, Orban isn't the "illiberal bogeyman" of lefty nightmares.

Bogeyman or not, this Republican-Hungarian relationship is a fad, says Janan Ganesh in the FT. First, the idea of a cohesive bloc of populists is far-fetched: "Parties that define themselves by national egoism are hardly given to acting in concert." Second, I can't see American right-wingers warming to the Hungarian PM's statist economics. "It is an open question how many Republicans know that Orban part-nationalised private pensions." And finally, Hungary has spent years cosying up to China and is home to the largest Huawei supply centre outside China. For the GOP, Xi Jinping is the public enemy number one. With all that in mind, "the indulgence of foreign populists crosses from the eccentric to the self-harming". This love-in won't last.

Love etc

Lily Allen and David Harbour got hitched in Las Vegas. David Harbour/Instagram

Couples who got married during the pandemic have a good chance of staying together, says Stephen Mihm in Bloomberg. Research shows that marriages embarked on during economic downturns last longer than average, as couples form stronger bonds when "enduring tumultuous times together". And the cheaper the rings and wedding ceremony, the longer a marriage is likely to last.

Books

Uneasy may lie the head that wears the crown, says Barry Forshaw in the FT, but crime queen Val McDermid "maintains her regal position by a readiness to innovate", as proved by 1979 (Little, Brown £20). Unlike her earlier, England-set Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series, this book sees a return to her native Scotland, "keenly drawn here".

During the Winter of Discontent, ambitious young journalist Allie Burns is trying to "nail a scoop" that will establish her in the "sexist male newsroom". Along with fellow reporter Danny Sullivan, she uncovers a homegrown terrorist cell. But "is it a good idea to infiltrate the group"?

McDermid was a newshound at the time, and it shows, says Mark Sanderson in The Sunday Times. The first novel in a quintet that will continue with 1989, 1979 is full of "the romance of print". She makes you feel the "thrum of the presses beneath your feet" and the newsroom "crackles with competition and prejudice". The tricks of the inky trade "are depicted with relish". Then the story takes a sudden tragic turn and becomes a "shocking" murder-mystery. Returning to her old stamping ground has reinvigorated McDermid: "This is her best book in years."

Available as an audiobook on Kobo from 19 August.

Life

David Levenson/Getty Images

From evil genius to "complete idler"

After graduating from Oxford in 1994, Dominic Cummings headed to the "gold-rush environment" of post-Soviet Russia, he tells Lynn Barber in The Spectator. There he found "extreme corruption, oligarchs stealing everything, unbelievable nightclubs". He tried to set up an airline flying from Samara to Vienna, but was "chased out of town by the mafia" and left the country after a couple of years.

His time in Downing Street ended in a similarly abrupt manner. Cummings had always distrusted Carrie Johnson, whom he thought "was a wrong 'un from the day I first met her back in 2016". When he and Boris Johnson "came to the break-up in the final few days, we sat on the sofa and he started reading out questions from his phone and I said, 'Have you lost your mind? Your crazy girlfriend is sitting upstairs texting you questions?' And he was like, 'Omigod, you're right, she's driving me crackers. We've got to find her a job with lots of foreign travel.'"

But it was Carrie who won the battle for the PM's favour, and Cummings left No 10 last November. "I am a complete idler," he says. "Basically I just sit around reading, and talking to my wife and boy, interspersed with occasional projects that catch my interest." I tell him I've concluded that reading is a waste of time, because I always forget everything. "I know exactly what you mean. But when I think what I could do instead I can't think of anything."

Despite his denials, he clearly misses being in the thick of British politics. "He keeps chewing over the past, while also worrying about whether an asteroid will hit the Earth. I want to tell him: 'Don't worry, be happy.'"

Property

THE PIED-A-TERRE "The most valuable property postcode outside London? It's Hove, actually," says Country Life. This two-bedroom flat in the East Sussex resort is on the third floor of a Grade II listed building. Minutes from the seafront, it has views of a public garden and the English Channel. £525,000.

Eating in

Florian Seefried/Getty Images

When I'm stressed, I eat one potato chip, says Jennifer Aniston in InStyle. "A chip. Crunch, crunch, crunch." I'm good at self-restraint, the actress adds. "I know. That's so annoying." I don't know that it's annoying so much as it is bonkers, says Olivia Craighead in Gawker. One, "that seems like too many crunches per chip". Two, I'd rather have none than just one. "Jen, I need you to know something. You can eat more than one chip. It won't ruin your life. You can even, dare I say, eat a bag of them if you want to." In Aniston's home town, Los Angeles, I'd wager there are countless varieties of salt-free non-potato chips on offer. Consider it a healthy snack. "I'm begging you, for your own sake, free yourself from your organic shackles and eat another chip."