I tend to be someone who thinks this country is basically finished. Hence my recent article ‘England is Lost Forever’. Not my most subtle title.
Listeners of the Weekly Sceptic will know our Glorious Leader Toby Young is somewhat more optimistic. And now we have another optimist (sort of) in the form of Tom McTague, who claims in UnHerd that Britain has pretty much always been on the verge of collapse, at least in the eyes of the doomsters and gloomsters. Here’s an excerpt:
Have things ever been so grim? Given the depressing reality of contemporary Britain — with the endless stories of sleaze and decay, decline and division — it is easy to draw that conclusion. Surely the NHS has never been this dire, the union this fragile or the country’s economic prospects this bleak? Surely we’ve never had a Government, or a parliament, quite so devoid of ideas and ambition? For those, like me, who find themselves asking these questions more regularly than ever, there is a salve of sorts available: modern British history. If you think you’re living through the worst of times today, think again — it’s usually like this.
Over the past few months, researching a book on Britain’s long, troubled relationship with Europe, I have found a strange solace in the almost seasonal nature of our national life, with its endless wintery crises (usually involving the weakness of the pound and our ability to pay our way) that eventually give way to spring-like calms. Ben Pimlott’s biography of Harold Wilson, for example, is like a thunderstorm of charm and disorder, short fixes and political escapism. There was, of course, plenty of honour and achievement along the way, but as you turn the final page, you cannot help but wonder what it all amounted to. Here was a magical politician who dominated British politics for more than a decade, only to fade from national consciousness with alarming speed, his ghost barely even troubling the minds of his successors let alone haunting them. Today, Wilson is back in vogue as the man who finally ended 13 years of Tory rule, a favourite of Keir Starmer and some Sixties nostalgics, but this was a man almost broken by his own decline — and his country’s.
Wilson, though, is the rule in this regard, not the exception. A similar air of despondency hangs over almost all of Britain’s post-war leaders up until 1979, each of whom fixated on the notion of British decline but were unable to escape its clutches.
Admittedly, to call this optimism is stretching things, but I understand the claim that we are by no means in uniquely bad times. Though this sidesteps the issue of mass immigration, which of course increased radically from 1997 onwards. Not to mention the illegal migrant problem, the escalating insanity of the culture war, and the existence of Nicola Sturgeon. I could go on. But McTague claims:
For Britain, the truth is that our crises are never quite as important as we imagine — and nor are our leaders.
To illustrate the point, here’s a challenge: when was the last time a British Government or prime minister pro-actively achieved something of lasting importance, addressing some great strategic threat before it became an existential challenge? The disasters are far easier to list, but not the lasting achievements. Did any of Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Liz Truss leave us with any lasting monument to progress? It is hard to think of one. They largely managed crises — or, more often, caused them.
Here he is on more solid ground. Though he goes on to argue that even Thatcher is overrated, which will irk many.
Still, whether you agree or not, it is 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.
In other news water is wet, and Chris Packham is an ignorant raging hypocrite.
“Chris Packham is an ignorant raging hypocrite.”
. . . with a weird penchant for cheap, late 1950s-style polo shirts that make him look an even bigger knob.
I wasn’t sure if he was going for the Northern Soul vibe, but I know what you mean about those vintage shirts.
I used to like Chris Packham in The Really Wild Show when I was a kid. Not sure what went wrong over the years. Unfortunately there seems to have been many of the people who I liked and respected who’ve jumped on one agenda or another ( scammy Covid sure as hell brought many out of the woodwork ) and they’ve ended up being disappointments of epic proportions. And when I say “agenda”, I can safely add the latest Gaza-Israel conflict to that as I really had no idea I was living in a society amongst so many Jew/West-hating terrorist supporters. No matter the manufactured ’cause’ people are outing themselves left, right and centre. To be frank, I had zero clue I was unwittingly rubbing shoulders with so many nobheads generally!
What happened over the years were that you became an adult. Pac kham’s simplistic world view is that of a child.
Jim fixed it for him…oooh maaatron
… and central planning by state bureaucrats leads to shortages or unnecessarily high prices and inferior products.
You will have noticed the BBC removed the programme from BBCi player where Packham made comments that the Daily Sceptic people have connections to oil companies implying they have an agenda. ——–Isn’t it laughable that the Sceptic or GB News etc gets accused of bias by the likes of Packham when the BBC itself is really just a climate activists channel that point blank refuses to broadcast anything at all that might question climate change dogma, and who spout endless unvalidated propaganda about climate change and the BBC is all funded by the license fee. So people are in effect paying for their own brainwashing.
Apparently the BBC non apology advised that they cannot be expected to stop guests on live shows who express these opinions yet they expect OFCOM to close down GBN on the same grounds.
Get some ba**s man or you will all be out on your ear. Starmer soon caved over the Port Talbot nut zero steel mess when he realised thousands yes thousands would lose their jobs.
Was the concern for thousands of jobs or just the MP?
I worked in the car manufacturing industry for a few years down in Cowley. The madness of this government chopping and changing their minds about Nut Zero, and this utterly crass law imposing fines if they don’t sell enough electric vehicles, makes my blood boil. Just bloody well scrap it NOW before you destroy the industry, and all the jobs that go with it.
Do they not understand the time it takes to get a car to manufacture from the drawing board… Serious planning, engineering, investment in production lines, and developing Just In Time delivery of 30,000 or so parts to those lines doesn’t just pop up out of nowhere.
I’m just sptting feathers at the sheer arrogance and stupidity of our government and the way they have imposed their virtue signalling ideology on the motor industry, pushing them this way and that without seemingly understanding the implications to one of the most complex manufacturing processes in existence. Madness. Sheer madness.
It is time for all these important manufacturing bosses, who together have a very strong say in the running of the country, to grab the UK government by the scruff of their necks, force them to sit down with them and listen to some very strong words about what needs to be done to rectify the utter nonsense of Net Zero.
Current price of petrol is ridiculous. Why has it increased so much over the last month or so?
oops
What I meant to say…Yes, weird. Especially when the GBP to USD rate right now makes it cheaper to buy at the moment (oil being priced in dollars). Having said that, the rate was considerably lower during the last month and this would have an effect, as stocks of fuel are often purchased “spot”. At the beginning of April exchange rate was 1.27 dollars to pound (in other words, you could buy 1.27 dollars with £1). However, this dropped to 1.24 during April. The exchange rate has risen again in last couple of days to 1.27 so let’s hope it is a temporary blip!
From what I understand its the base oil price / OPEC cartel.Its gone up something like 10% in the last couple of monthes or so and that takes a little time to filter through to pump prices ..
This is not just about cars and the motor industry this is about the wholesale destruction of this country. The UK will be de-industrialised. There will be no stopping until we arrive at a feudal state and probably with a feudal size population too if Billy gets his way and we succumb to the Pandemic Accord and the International Health Regulations.
We really are in a war and those who have turned on us are hell bent on getting their own way. At the start of the Scamdemic I warned my family that there would be blood on the streets. I see no need to change that view. The Davos Deviants are not playing politics and every life lost is a victory for them. At some point we will have to really fight back.
Yes indeed, It does seem like cars are going to be the critical gritty point where ordinary people run up against the madness of the insidious net-zero new world order. Many middle and low income folk rely on a trickle down of cheap and cheerful secondhand cars to keep them mobile, these measures mean that this supply is going to dry up. What happens when a large swathe of the UK population finds themselves without a car?
The demise of motoring will have a huge effect, not just on the motor industry itself but also on leisure, tourism and retail. It will also have a huge effect on small businesses like builders, plumbers and electricians who will struggle to run an affordable van.
As you say this is a huge issue, how does it play out? how does it end? I have no idea other than to say it will not be an easy ride.
A chilling analysis…you raise some interesting points there.
That, combined with the attack on small private landlords that our Tory (in name only) government seem determined to pursue, and we’ll all be sleeping in our derelect cars by the time they’ve finished.
An attack on the small private Landlords who obey the law.
We now have a two tier legal system where those who do not obey the law are doing well renting out to desperate people with no regard to their health or safety. Ignored of course by all those Agencies who are supposed to prevent this happening.
“At some point we will have to really fight back”. ——-But that requires people to have to think there is something they need to fight back against. ——Propaganda is a very powerful tool which is why governments use it. OfCourse they now call it PR. If people don’t know they are being manipulated either by covid or climate propaganda then they won’t feel any need to fight back. You say you warned your family, and this is not an easy thing to do. It is easier for most people to run with the herd.
So what difference to global temperature (whatever that is supposed to mean) will Net Zero in the UK make if it is implemented in full by 2050? I am pretty certain this is of no concern to our UN lackey Politicians who are prepared to decimate Industries, destroy the economy, lower living standards, force us to give up reliable and effective gas central heating for a silly heat pump at great expense, double and treble energy prices, force us out of perfectly good cars and into ones we maybe don’t want, hinder us from flying or eating beef etc etc etc etc. ——-Just as in 2019 when Net Zero was waved through Parliament with not the slightest concern about the cost or of the viability, our politicians do not care if what they are doing will benefit the climate or lower the temperature and why would that be? ——-Because Net Zero and Sustainable Development and climate policies of all kinds are NOT about the climate. These climate conferences the IPCC have and all of the COP jamboree’s are economic and political conferences, with climate as the excuse.