There is indeed something wicked coming to Britain, probably the most wicked thing that we’ve seen as a nation in centuries. However it’s not my thumbs that are pricking and alerting me to a massive shitstorm coming down the road. What’s pricking me is just observing the nation and what people are choosing to say and do and how they and those who govern Britain are reacting to Britain’s increasingly serious problems.
Britain is a country that is shabby, poorly run, economically in ruins and led by a political class who are utterly divorced from the concerns of ordinary people. None of these things are the sort of things that make for a successful society.
There is also increasingly a sense that people are starting to draw lines, battle lines if you wish, between themselves and others. These lines are not subtle or difficult to see or perceive but are getting more and more visible. You’ve got people drawing themselves into groups over issues such as religion, race, political belief and much more and what’s worse is that they are doing this not because they want to but because they feel that there is no safe alternative but to become more tribal in their views. When lines like this are drawn up any then attempt at nuance in this situation is pointless because the tribe will be able to point to the bad things that happen should people step out of the boundaries of their tribe. I’ve seen this sort of tribalism in groupings of both the Left and the Right
The ‘something wicked’ that I opened this piece with is political conflict becoming extra-Parliamentary and of a sort that we’ve probably not seen outside of Ulster during the troubles. This is not something I want to see but it is something that I see that could happen if the current political paths continue to be taken.
It’s hard to understate just how huge Britain’s problems are. We are energy poor thanks to political diktat, we are massively in debt, we cannot properly defend ourselves, we have a welfare state that is costly, healthcare that is a quality and safety lottery, a sluggish economy, massive and growing social and religious and ethnic conflict problems along with a government that is borrowing just to stay economically still. Britain is in a massive mess and it could all go pop before anyone has a chance to clear up the mess via political means.
Let’s just look at a couple of issues that should be more pressing for Britain’s political classes one of which is the fact that we’ve now got the sort of hostile religious divides that Lebanon had prior to that country plunging into a devastating and lengthy civil war. This is a problem that needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency but it is also a problem that requires honesty about the issue of religious and in particular Islamic extremism and there are very few in British politics who are prepared to be that honest.
Unfortunately overseeing this problem of a growing and hostile religious divide appearing we have the misfortune to have in power an out of touch, unpopular government that is wedded to bad policies and hemmed in by the various wings, funders and client groups that Labour needs to satisfy. Instead of honestly looking at the current problems and act in a manner favourable to the British people, the government runs around desperately trying to keep the lid on the enormous problems that the nation faces. We have a Housing Minister who knows that no significant number of houses will be built, a defence department that cannot adequately defend the nation, an education sector that is inadequately educating, and an energy department that is one very cold winter or political dispute with the French away from a blackout.
Secondly, whereas once we at least attempted to encourage integration now we have a situation where some, although not all, members of some minority groups seem to have divorced themselves from the wider society and live parallel lives unconnected to the rest of us. Often their only dealings with the nation as an entity is through the welfare system or social housing or via the crumbling policing and justice systems. Too many have no interest in accepting the ways of the majority and virtually zero effort is made by the state to change that position. They have no interest in the nation’s history or its society or its people, no loyalty or respect for the nation. For too many people Britain is just a dormitory, but one where a person can arrive and be fed and housed by a welfare state that has long since properly served its original target audience or its original intentions. At a time when stuff like welfare and housing is being allocated by those born overseas is becoming a subject that is becoming more and more talked about then it’s almost certain that this situation will create resentment. It’s clear that there is growing resentment from members of the majority population and among those who pay taxes, about not being to access the services that they and their ancestors paid to build and run. Even if they can access the services they need they may find that they are are badly run, have poor service priorities or maybe even corrupt in some way or are managed by members of a public sector ‘lanyard class’ that is increasingly being seen as uninterested in helping them.
These two issues alone are very very serious but unfortunately we have the misfortune to have very few adults capable of dealing with these problems in the political room.
What I see, hear and read from various sources worries me. It worries me because I can see where things are going and it isn’t going anywhere good.
The political class are so remote from the average Briton that they have no idea what is is like to have a job that is insecure or be unable to compete in the housing market either to purchase or to rent or have to deal with Britain’s appalling public services. They have no concept of the misery that many of Britain’s traditional working class communities have been tumbled into as a result of decades of piss poor policies relating to migration, public spending, business and industry, education and much else. We have a government that regardless of party label is neither of the people or for the people and that’s really not a good situation for a nation to be in.
The tensions are rising, the batteries of conflict are being charged up and I dread to think what could happen should there be some incident, such as for example, a Beslan style school massacre in the UK. Of course in the event of such a terrible crime there’s little doubt that the Government will resort to feelings management and emotional manipulation, the ‘Don’t look back in anger’ path, but what if it doesn’t work? We’ve had many so years and so many incidents that have shaken trust in government, the Rape Gang scandal, Covid, two tier policing and justice and the general weariness that comes from having to deal with Britain’s crap public services. The ‘don’t look back in anger’ narrative might have worked after the Manchester Arena attack but, nearly ten years on, this policy, it might not work again, especially if the population is aware that they are being manipulated in order to stop an adverse reaction towards both the government and its client groups, from the people. Too much has happened in the UK for such soothing bromides to be uncritically accepted today even though they might have been in the past. Things are a whole lot more tense than they were ten years ago with more Britons being negatively affected by the backwash or just plain failure of the social and economic policies of successive governments.
Britain is clearly in a mess. We’re skint, have been divided and are ruled by a political elite that cares only for themselves or the client groups that keep them in power. None of this is good, none of this will lead to good places and none of what we are experiencing or could in future experience, are characteristics of a properly functioning society. They are instead the characteristics of a failing or even a failed state. There might be time to repair some if not all of the damage that has been done to Britain by its political and administrative classes, time for the sort of peaceful political solution that any decent and civilised person should want, but if you desire something better you have got to get out there and vote for it. A tsunami of honest votes for change might dilute the dishonest votes in some of Britain’s ghettos and which returns morons or worse to Parliament.
What worries me is if we don’t get the chance to vote for change before a national collapse, if events, dear boy, events, rear their ugly head then an already fragile country with an equally fragile economy might implode. What could kick this off is legion: A bank run, a credit crisis, punitive inflation, even greater energy poverty, a rise in terror attacks including of the Beslan type, a particularly gruesome crime committed by one of Britain’s particularly gruesome ‘guests’, an act of policy stupidity by the government of catastrophic proportions or an as yet unforeseen calamity could be the reason things all go ‘pop’. If you added even just a couple of those problems onto a Britain that already suffers from unemployment, energy poverty, homelessness, poor public services and increasing social tensions, then we could be well on the way to at worst a Lebanon type situation or at best one akin to Ulster.
Britain is in deep shit and I can only see things getting worse. The future ain’t bright for Britain that’s for certain. Something wicked could quite easily come to a country that has managed to avoid the worst that has happened elsewhere.
