You could write that as 1 line:

[ -z "$var" ] && echo "empty" || echo "no it aint"

Maybe they should try looking a bit closer to home with that they were rescued from bankruptcy by Russian oligarch donations and one of their favoured sons awarded a position in the House of Lords to the billionaire son of a former KGB director!

What an amazing coincidence that number matches the minerals deal that trump was offering them!