In the Brave New World of 2024 Britain, the Stasi meet the Keystone Cops in a kind of Carry On Kafka, says Toby in his latest Spectator column. But does the comic dimension of the authoritarianism detract from the moral outrage? The Allison Pearson debacle is an obvious example of the absurdism; another is the ‘trial’ of a 17 year-old girl by the Football Association. Here’s an excerpt.
The free speech advocacy group I run has taken on the girl’s case and is helping her appeal the ban, but I sometimes worry that the comical aspect of episodes like this – that the young man on the ‘ladies’ team had a beard! – means people are less morally outraged than they should be. It’s hard to laugh and be angry at the same time. George Orwell said the reason the British Army would never adopt the goose-step was because people in the street would take the mickey out of them, imagining that our keen sense of the absurd would be a bulwark against totalitarianism. But our woke overlords have found a way around this by coming up with a uniquely British version of despotism, simultaneously comic and creepy, as exemplified by the Scottish Government’s employment of the Hate Monster – a cartoon creature that looked like a hairy pepperoni – to promote the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act. The Scottish writer Ewan Morrison referred to this as “cute authoritarianism” – and the fact that our Brave New World is so laughable means people sometimes don’t notice quite how sinister it is.
But Carry On Kafka also has its upsides. For instance, the Free Speech Union has won several big lawsuits because of the sheer incompetence of people on the other side. The diversitycrats who run HR departments are such zealous enforcers of progressive dogma, they often ignore their companies’ policies and procedures, which the employment tribunal takes a dim view of. And they frequently misunderstand the Equality Act, believing it empowers them to persecute anyone who dissents from progressive orthodoxy when, in fact, it protects gender critical feminists among other heretics.
This points to a broader benefit: if we have to live in a British version of North Korea, better it should be run by David Lammy, Bridget Phillipson and Ed Miliband than, say, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket scientists. Not because the assault on our freedoms is leavened by the comic relief of watching Starmer’s buffoons running amok in Whitehall, but because they’re too stupid to work out which levers to pull and buttons to push to implement their oppressive policies in full. To paraphrase Orwell, if you want a picture of Britain’s future, imagine a clown shoe stamping on a human face – for ever.
Worth reading in full.
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I’m sure there is bike parking at Hemel Hempstead station.
I have no sympathy for the travel problems. At about her age I had to travel a lot on the Central Line before carriage, track and signal updates. Also Northern, North Circular before multi lane. on rainy days water ran inside the carriage.
I had to endure the period of Heath power cuts. Walked through tube corridors illuminated by paraffin lamps hanging precariously from anything available. Worked mornings with normal lighting but afternoons and evenings either Tilly lamps, torches or candles.
As did everyone else I walked to the station every day in all weathers and home in the evening. Wellington boots in snow or strong rain and I kept an old pair of shoes at work to change.
During the IRA bombing of London, during another strike, I slept on the floor or an old sofa at work two nights a week. I remember windows crashing when the IRA bomb exploded in Bishopsgate not far away.
The thing is, we were brought up with a strong work ethic and there was no alternative. Family and myself to support and upper teens percent mortgage rate. Inflation 27% the year my wife and I married.
No cocktail bars. No online shopping. No credit cards or mobile phones. BT took six months to install a landline.
Its completely different expectations. I’m old enough that my parents both served in WW2. When it snowed, even though 7 or 8 years old, we were expected to put the wellies on and walk to school. All the teachers and service staff would be there. It was just a thing you did. Now, my teacher wife has colleagues who, despite being only a couple of miles away, don’t come to school because they ‘can’t get the car off the drive’. In fact one of them, she walks past their house in her boots, but they still cry off.
For me the generation have been told to expect everything done for them, and it all has to be ‘safe’, and when it isn’t, they collapse. Thats probably really unfair, but what do I care.?
I remember sitting outside The Crown on Clerkenwell Green after work and hearing the Bishopsgate bomb go off.
Scoop up your pennies and travel, dear lady. There’s a world out there, London isn’t everything, y’ know.
I understand that the property/rental market in London is totally messed up, but no-one is forcing you to live there!
…such a narrow minded, entitled, defeatist attitude I cannot tolerate…
London is awesome (well, I found it so, often) but yes some people who were born or gravitate there tend to think everywhere else is hopelessly unsophisticated. My kids grew up there but have moved away, as have we. If you love it genuinely, which some do, then make the sacrifices. However there’s a lot of work there, and for some types of work you may be faced with difficult choices, especially with this rather silly “return to the office” mentality.
This feels like a continuation of the trials of Generation Y. Basically expectations in life do not meet reality. Who is to blame? Parents? Schools? Link below:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html
No dishwasher! Oh, the poor love.
Yeah, but housemates-to-be.
Yes, she sounds somewhat entitled.
However, the cost of transportation in Britain is exorbitant. And the service is dreadful.
In comparisons with other European countries,.the UK is a disgrace.
When I was young, transport was not cheap, but it was reasonable. And the service was a.lot better. A lot.
There could be a bit of reflection in that regard. Why is the UKs transport so dreadful?
The end of your third sentence sums it up – this country is completely broken and the worst is yet to come.
Anyone young and independent enough should leave whilst they can.
if she finds it hard to cope without a dishwasher, the omens are not good for a move abroad…
Well I suspect that public transport in continental Europe is more heavily subsidised than in the UK. I like free markets but rail lends itself to regional monopolies and I am not convinced our current arrangements are ideal. That said, London commuter rail services are pretty frequent compared to, for example, Italy, and since “covid” they are good deal more bearable because of WFH. Before lockdowns it was bloody awful (well, it required one to be relaxed in the face of crowds, delays – character building?).
Who the Hell gets a taxi to and from the station?
Go the whole hog, get a F***ing Chauffer to and from the office!
Oh deary, deary, the trials of those who were told they were extra special and would always be at the front of the queue.
Welcome to the real world.
The guy who decided it was a brilliant idea for everyone to go to work at the same time was as thick as mince.
Enjoy London, Ruby!
(Seriously, someone tell her… 🤦♂️ )
It does always make me wonder how the country which invented railways now seems to have forgotten everything it once knew about them. Our rail service is frankly a complete joke, especially compared with those in major European nations. How have we lost the ability to run a railway?
Can’t she purchase a monthly or annual train pass?
If she goes to work 5 days a week then she should get an annual season ticket as you get 12 months travel for the cost of 10. Not working a full week has made this more difficult. During my last month’s of work I was on a 3 day retirement scheme and in response to the post covid hybrid working there was a new ticket introduced that gave you 12 daily journeys at a reduced price to a daily rate. There was talk of an extended ticket that might last you a year at that rate. As I was working reduced days for 6 months I did look at the cost of an annual ticket and then cashing it in but because of the 12 months for 10 cost, they would charge you for the months used at the full rate and so refund less than half the cost making it more expensive than the 12 journey days ticket.
Hemel is not that far from London, I used to have to train it in every day from much further, then tube across. In my working past I have had a 2 hour each way drive to work, that was for 4 years. I would consider myself lucky to work 7 hours, my average was 10 but many days spanned into the early hours of the morning. The trains since the 90’s have always been late, expensive and dirty, nothing has changed, so I do feel for young people in that instance, and current taxation, employment and landlord regulations means that people are left with very little of their own money as the Government continues to steal most of it.
There needs to be incentives to work rather than the ease of collecting benefits, but there also needs to be a radical shake up of the attitude to work and business by people, I believe the rot sets in through the school system which seems to focus on grievance, victimhood and hate rather than the pursuit of excellence and knowledge.
When this Cheshire country lad used to visit an ad agency in London in the ’80s I used to walk from Euston to Soho as it was quicker than tube or taxi, and more pleasant. The featherbedded ad men were aghast at the idea of walking anywhere in London when they had clients like me to pay through the nose for their every working minute.
My heart bleeds.