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.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The Face of the Clown otherwise known as the son of the Toolmaker . Give this man a problem to solve and he can be guaranteed to make the wrong decision .
The problem isn’t so much finding solutions to problems, it’s their continuous looking for problems for their chosen final solutions.
Just what I was about to say, effectively… To every solution there is a problem!
Does anyone else remember that a fool or incompetent person used to be known as “a tool”. I remember it in my youth in the 1950s. So when TTK tells us his father was a tool maker he says more than he would wish to do.
Starmer reminds of Kryten from Red Dwarf fame. Psychiatric Counsellor | Red Dwarf | BBC Comedy Greats
“if you want a picture of Britain’s future, imagine a clown shoe stamping on a human face – for ever.”
Needs to enter the lexicon of standard quotes – quite superb.
Beat me to it – a sublime paraphrasing!
It is certainly true that the current Labour government consists of a unique cohort of exceptionally dim individuals:
The Toolmaker’s Son,
The Mastermind,
The Ginger Slapper,
The Halifax tea lady,
The Loud Hair Dye.
They are not all dim, but they do march to a different honk.
They are dim, but then you don’t need to be 140IQ to follow instructions from the WEF, do you.
Like the IHT on family farms. Its not a clumsy effort to raise more tax money, its a calculated attempt to destroying family farming. As soon as you realise, put your hand up…
And with them a key component of England’s economic, social and cultural fabric.
They’ve destroyed heavy industry and mining which also were key elements.
They’ve destroyed the CoE.
They’re destroying education and the younger generations are growing up essentially feral.
Is it really a coincidence? Or enemy action?
And what must WE do to our enemies?
By whom, I mean Westminster, not putin.
The first launch of icbms ever!
Come on Munroe, you thrive on this!
Then there is the Tommy Robinson case. Why would a man be willing to go to jail for maintaining his film statements and those of his court witnesses, all of whom were called liars by the judge.
It’s turning out not to be so funny for the ordinary people who are currently in jail for long terms just for saying things many of us agree with, but which the communist police, judiciary and MPs think is beyond the pale?
It’s not funny. And a monkey, randomly and incompetently pulling the levers of power, can still cause great mayhem and armageddon. These communist scum must be politically destroyed. And there must be a reckoning on rhe way our society has become so totalitarian. The various Laws that enable any government to become despotic about people’s speech and thoughts, must be repealed. We have to go back to the basics only. You have no right to be protected from speech and ideas you do not like.
When my younger son and I visited Glastonbury (town) during the Covid Tyranny (for want of something better to do) his comment was “I suppose at least it’s useful to have all the nutters in one place.”
Unfortunately, we seem to have the same problem in Westminster.
The lowest common denominator underpinning almost every single one of Starmer’s budget policies has been the socialist drive to eradicate freedom of enterprise and to move the means of production into the state’s hands at the behest of large corporations. So far this has been proven to be so in Education, manufacturing, energy, and now farming.
“… to move the means of production into the state’s hands at the behest of large corporations.”
That’s Fascism not Socialism but the outcome is the same – central economic planning control.
Yes but do we really want incompetents, too stupid to know which levers and buttons to push in command of the ship or passenger plane as the rocks or mountain side approach?
Foreign intelligence agencies have rightfully concluded that the British are in a difficult and painful situation which cannot be resolved without outside help. Just admit it in your heart if you feel that this is truly the case. Vacuums don’t stay empty for long.