Thank you, Low Status, for another beautifully observed piece. I wanted to respond with something humorous. However, having seen yet another terrorist supporting march through our capital city this weekend, led by black uniformed troops positively encouraged by a helpful police force, who’s only role seems to be to prevent anyone from hurting the sensitive feelings of the marchers, I’m straight out of humour now. The fight back against the path that we are treading is going to be so hard!
Thanks Mr James, that’s very kind of you. It’s difficult isn’t it? The last thing I want to see is clashes on the streets between different protesters. I do understand the police have a strategy of ‘reducing tensions’ but as you say, it just comes across as a form of encouragement, or at least, appeasement.
If Gaza was areligious then the war would be Gaza vs Israel. But this is really Muslims v. Jews. And it's not just Jews. Christians, Kurds, Yazidis, etc. All targets of Islam. Nor, in the UK, is the root cause multi-culturalism. Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. all peacefully integrate. The problem is Islam.
There certainly seems to be an exceptionalism at play in the UK. Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs don’t seem to either make demands, or have those demands catered to in the same way. Perhaps there’s actually a lesson there for the rest of us.
Douglas Murray certainly seems to think so. I’m more optimistic maybe. I think that a real robust desire to integrate people could pay off. But of course ‘multi culturism’ is a policy which stands opposed to integration. And integrate into what? We are told our existing culture has no value.
There's always the sweetness of hoping for the best of course. It tastes better than the bitter, ugly, facing of reality -- and sometimes the pessimists are wrong. I blame *everything* on John Lennon's 'Imagine'. Yes, dreaming is good, but so it waking up.
Conquest of the world at the edge of the sword is hard-coded into Islam. ISIS is to Islam what Billy Graham was to Christianity -- just living the Word as the Lord wrote it.
Maybe. But probably true of all Abrahamic religions. And so a more hopeful thought is that, for Islam, it's just a phase. But, whilst it's going through this phase, the rest of us need to give it special handling.
There's nothing in Christianity about conquest by the sword. Judaism started out as bronze age tribal religion of course -- most proud of their genocide of the Canaanites. Islam today most resembles the Judaism of 3000 years ago. Yeah, one hopes they eventually find a Reformation. We all know that for hundreds of years they were ahead of us in every way. But as you say, for the moment it would be best to keep them at a safe distance.
Integrate with people who, generally, think Oct 7th was not okay. Which is, ostensibly, all UK political parties. I have Muslim friends and, in regard to Oct 7th, they equivocate. I am really struggling with this.
There is definitely something rotten in Denmark. It smells horrendous and is toxic. It has spread across western civilization especially affecting our universities and political leaders. One of the most apparent symptoms is cowardice.
We are being governed by bullies who have encouraged the invasion of our homelands with those who seek revenge and destruction.
You are right, the leaders will not save us. In fact they are indeed the ones creating the chaos and inviting the “barbarians” into our homelands.
The military and police have been neutralized. There is no one to save us but ourselves.
Take away their power, their name calling. Who cares? They have only words, accusations, gas lighting. Sticks and stones will break my bones, BUT WORDS WILL NEVER HARM ME. Go
I think you have hit the nail on the head there Deidre. All the bulwarks have been neutralised as you say. So if you complain you are gaslit, or ostracised, or accused of being something you are not, usually acting in bad faith, a conspiracy theorist, or of course some kind of racist. Until you are forced to the fringes, and then of course, why would anyone take notice of people like you? You are on the fringes and easily dismissed.
Yes. You can see that one of the main vectors of attack is to discredit men and masculinity. No wonder so many disenfranchised young men look to a role model like Andrew Tate (I’m not a fan).
The progressive left seems intent on turning their fantasy villains, into reality. And fair enough, so far they seem pretty good at it.
Usually, I respond to these posts with the articulation with which my education has endowed me. On this occasion, however, I moved to say, barbarian brutes are within. They're not all muslims, although many are. And, to our collective shame, many are our children.
It’s depressing Lee. But there is hope in the next generation. I have definitely seen them pull away from some of the madness. They’re not vocal about it, they don’t need to be, they just turn their noses up, and walk the other way.
Great piece. It's amazing how our police figuratively (and literally, with BLM) bend the knee to every woke theory, ideology and idiocy. Not though if your name is W. Couzens and you have horrifically killed a young, white woman. Women on the street, holding a vigil - TERRORISTS!!
I can't wait to see the low-key softly softly approach to the anti-foxhunting ban marchers due on our streets in the near future. It won't be pretty, will it?
Another pin point article LSO. Thank you. Your words are an oasis in the desert of Woke.
But where do you think we go from here?
And by 'we' I mean those of us who see these injustices everyday and feel powerless to do anything about the direction of travel. The ongoing demonstrations (for want of a better word) in our major cities, the feeling that common sense and liberty are slipping away in equal measure, the jack boot of DEI adherence on our necks. How do we combat it effectively, astutely, with grace and intellectual superiority? On the one hand I feel like fighting fire with fire might be only way, but on the flip side we need to maintain the moral high ground (and our sanity)...I'm just not sure where we go from here.
Hi DJ. Thanks so much for your kind words. Where we go from here? It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. And I expect I’ll write about it soon. But essentially I think we need a new party/movement which is not Reform. (which I’m not against) It needs to be more left leaning than I think most of us on here are, certainly when it comes to the economy. It needs to appeal, at its heart, to young people, and make the case that a lot of the current liberal progressive policies of our ruling class are detrimental to their future prosperity. All the current trends, from neo communism to trans all seem rooted in despair. Young people are right, they are being short changed, so we need to offer them a positive road map to the future.
So what do you do then when the electorate keep voting for the party of the perpetrators and the feeble weak waste of space leaders who allow it to proliferate?.......apparently they just sit at home in apathy and allow it to go on, or they just keep on voting for it again. Occasionally they'll vote Reform to reject both but not in enough numbers to move the dial.
Nothing in sight other than Reform and if people are not prepared to use them as a vehicle for change then what is the mechanism for change.....I don't see anything. Perhaps leaving the country is the only option left?
Hi Punk. I hope she can continue to voice her support. I expect that as time goes on, the pressure on her, and other pro Isreal members will only increase.
Good stuff, sadly not heard at the Despatch Box. There are dozens of similar substacks, lonely voices crying out in the dark. The march through the institutions has been subtle, slow but sure. Those that organise activist marches are good at it like a professional military organisation. Rational centre people stay at home foolishly relying on the Marquis of Queensbury, Fair Play and Sportsmanship.
The Left play cricket by reducing the size of the bat then firing Rugby balls out of a cannon at the wicket. In the 1930s we developed Spitfires and Hurricanes in peacetime. Now there's a war on the reasonable people sit at home firing off substacks and Facebook comments. No points for guessing how it ends.
Thanks Zorro. You’re not the first to lament the lack of action from the dissenters. And I absolutely agree. Especially about playing by the rules. For my own part, I’m not really equipped to build Spitfires, just to occasionally spit fire. So that will have to do. I think you hit it on the head with your Freudian grammar slip. ‘Now there’s a war on the reasonable people…’. There very much is. Thanks for your cricket analogy. Lovely image!
I can't see this trend reversing anytime soon. We've left it too late. It started with the emasculation of the miners, the two million manufacturing jobs lost, ....flogging off public-asset housing on the cheap. Those left standing looked away, for the was 'no such thing as society'. We never believed it could 'never really be like that' , ... it was 'laziness', 'stupidity, lack of resilience', we said as we helped ourselves to more fromthe open till that was de-Mutualisation.
It's YOUR turn now, dear Reader, and 'there's no one left' with a common bond to defend you.
The miners, like Palestinians, were used by Hamas like Scargill who made them bite the hand that fed them. We saw the outcome then and today see the outcome in Gaza The Left destroyed the miners. The Unions and the accountants destroyed manufacturing. Labour councils neglected to build more council housing and you wouldn't expect Tory run councils to encourage Labour leaning voters in their midst. It's boomer thinking, I am one, and we elected liars and activists to run the place since.
We outsourced our mining and manufacturing to countries which were cheaper. And fair enough I suppose. But we never replaced those industries with high paying high skilled alternatives. And now we live in a low skilled low wage economy. And no one can understand why.
The communities which suffered most were hidden away like a mad aunt in the attic. Now those same communities seem to be taking the brunt of our current problems. And are encouraged to blame their neighbours or some bogeyman like ‘the rich’. Madly, they look to the cause of their troubles, our rubbish government, to fix them with more meddling and incoherent policies.
I'm struggling to fashion a reply to those two posits....I can't be offended by the prose, so that's a good thing, right?
However, as Maj stated "some recollections may vary" . I was a sentient father of two, originally from an area that relied on the mining industry, albeit the scrag-end of said industry.
I recall that Thatcher decided that her term would not go down in flames like Sunny Jim Calaghan, who's terms were wrecked by the same crew.
Scargill was at fault, to the extent that he refused to ballot the whole NUM membership. I told told him so from the back of an NUM meeting at a Labour Conference. He was shocked, as he didn't know where the hubub was coming from he resorted to addressing the 'Tories at the Back' - I replied that if he talking to me, he could get his jacket off. ( much to the amusement of Dennis Skinner, but less to, Tony Benn). The cheaper coal, came from as far afield as Nottingham - proud men who didn't think much of Brillo or Mick McGahee
My gut tells me that a majority would have voted 'Out' , but he didn't want to take the chance of a 'wrong' result. So Nottingham et all told him to shove it and Thatcher stiffened the backbone of the Old Bill, in the days when their culture was all about identifying 'villains and sorting them out'. Those Gold Plated pensions ( and other piggies who stuck their snouts in,,,,,we know the usual suspects), were paid for by the proceeds of the North Sea bonanza, Privatisation, and Council House sales. ( The later was used for tax-cut bribes....worked a treat - no house rebuilding neccessary, apparently,
The warnings against the long term Fiscal fallout was dire from the actuaries, but ignored as that was for 'another time'.
And here we are..... 'IN ANOTHER TIME'
What did Norway and its 'Soveriegn Wealth' fund know anyway? We were 'selling the rain', untochable in our red braces.
That money was truly, truly spaffed. So forgive me, as I forgive you - I'm not in a mood to tolerate Menshevik, and comfy bougisie finger pointing.
Thanks LSO. It would be nice if we could be confident that purveyors of egregious lies like Ali would be prosecuted under section 179 Online Safety Act 2023:
Unfortunately it's more likely to be vicars' wives saying that biological men are men who fall foul of this piffle, although perhaps they could pray this in aid:
Ha ha the fact that it has taken ‘scientists’ until 19th February 2024 to discover that men and women’s brains are different tells you all you need to know!
Ha ha. In the 80 and 90s there were whole DVDs and videos of comedians doing hour long sets explaining this strange biological phenomenon. Maybe the scientists should have got on ebay, and bought themselves a few of those. I expect that would have been cheaper than their grant funded inquiries.
I still think of Billy Connolly and Kenny Everett in drag together, or indeed Kenny crossing those foam rubber legs and saying "It's all in the best possible taste!"
Apologies LSO, it’s taken a while for me to read this; I have been keeping the wolf from the door.
I noticed in one of your comments that you advise young people to leave the country and I completely agree. TFF advocates Dubai and having visited a few times I get that. Oh the irony that it is a Muslim country.
I am trying to persuade my recently now working age sons to leave this multicultural shithole, sorry green and pleasant land, not necessarily for financial reasons (although being taxed until your pips squeak is not a great start) but it’s more to do with personal safety.
There is only one logical conclusion to allowing the intolerant to take over a tolerant country - the once tolerant will take only so much and then there will be an overreaction, an explosion of frustration. Maybe it will be a riot at a ‘demonstration’, maybe it will be an attack on a mosque that goes wrong or maybe someone who’s been burgled once to often with no response from the second tier of the police service and then decides to reach for a weapon to sort it out themselves.
The backlash from allowing a country to rot from weak leadership, open borders, allowing radical Islam to flourish and an establishment that allows all this will be violent. It’s not right, but it will be entirely understandable.
Hi Matthew, hope that wolf has been sated for now. To be honest I constantly veer between ‘we can fix this’ to ‘where’s the escape hatch?’ I’d like to think there is a way forward, but it would take Milei levels of political will. And we don’t seem to have anyone who possesses that at the moment.
I find your scenario too bleak to contemplate to be honest. But it does seem to me that the progressives are conjuring into existence the very backlash they claim to fear. I’ve mentioned more than once my terror of ‘revolutions’. Which always make poor people poorer and deader, and just mean a bit of musical chairs among the elites.
On balance I do think it is probably time for young people to leave. Maybe not Dubai. Great short term, but their apparent racism towards the Indian underclass leaves me queasy. It would be ironic to complain about growing inequality under the law in the UK and then decamping to Dubai, where it is baked in. I am basing this on what I’ve read about the place. I’m absolutely no expert.
But some parts of America maybe. I would have said Canada a few years ago. But Wow, look how that has turned out!
These ‘digital nomad’ visas which a few countries are starting to offer are beginning to appeal….
> At that point the dam burst and a tsunami of anti Jewish hatred burst through the levees to engulf the country.
Oy vey, oy vey, oy vey, the goyim are picking on us again! And it's pure antisemitism for the sake of antisemitism.
It's a dangerous play. By creating an unbreakable link between concern for 10,000 dead Palestinian kids and raw antisemitism for its own sake, what happens is that you might get what you ask for. The game has traditionally been that the Jews are picked on, therefore they can do whatever they want with impunity. 1200 were butchered on Oct 7 ergo Israel can kill as many Palestinian kids as it wants to -- it would be antisemitic to suggest otherwise, meh?
But what if, instead of the 'poor us' meme justifying the carnage, it falls the other way? IOW, if concern for the Palestinians now justifies antisemitism? -- after all the Jews insist that the two are inseparable so, they might just get what they ask for: I sympathize with the Palestinians ergo -- by your own insistence -- I hate the Jews.
I'm not saying this very well. But the thing is that global public opinion has swung in favor of the Palestinians and the cry that this is antisemitism could be self-fulfilling. Nuts, it IS self-fulfilling as we see every day. And it doesn't help that the woke, are Hamas' useful idiots at the moment.
I myself take the opposite tack -- I'm half Jewish and I'm anti-Zionist and there are a million like me. Far from antisemitic I think that the Jews are, per-capita, by two orders of magnitude, the most essential people on the planet. Nevertheless they should not steal other people's land. So long at the *essential fact* is that the Palestinian's grievance is legitimate, things like Oct 7 will end up glossed over by that fact.
And the old lies are no longer working. No need to repeat them here. The world just isn't buying them anymore. Time for real justice. Israel is going to need the moral high ground in the coming years.
Hi Ray. That’s a very interesting take. I’m definitely not saying that Isreal should get a free pass. If I give that impression then I am at fault, it is not my intention.
But the Oct 7 attacks have indeed led to an outpouring of anti semitism. 2/3 of last years anti semitic attacks here in the UK took place in the last two months of the year, after the Hamas attacks.
I don’t want to debate the broader conflict here, I’m not equipped to do that. And I respect your position. My point is that it certainly seems that concern for Palestinian civilians is being used as cover for some old fashioned racism.
> But the Oct 7 attacks have indeed led to an outpouring of anti semitism.
Yes, they surely have, and there is a deep lesson to be learned from it -- tho I'm not sure I know what it is. Firstly it's counter intuitive ipso facto. All logic would suggest sympathy for Israel but instead we see the opposite. My own thoughts on the matter still need a lot of work, but yes:
> My point is that it certainly seems that concern for Palestinian civilians is being used as cover for some old fashioned racism.
... unquestionably true. Which is why I say that rather than lumping all 'pro-Palestinians' in with the genuine anti-semites, we should do exactly the opposite -- tho the sympathy-seeking instinct is to do the former, I say it only increases the number of genuine Jew haters. It's a high stakes tactic -- you win big when you win, but you loose big when you loose.
We should rather make a very pointed distinction between genuine anti-semites, woke twits who just reflexively support brown Victims -- these people are unworthy of the flattery of being called anti-semites, they are simply woke twits, who don't even know the name of 'The River' or 'The Sea' ... and pro-semites like myself who just think it's time for justice.
The woke disease of the manichean binary -- Good Victims vs. Bad Oppressors -- infects us all. But I do not choose between sympathy for the Oct 7 victims and the dead Palestinian kids, I'm on both sides at the same time -- I want the butchery to stop.
Agreed. My main target I think was the ‘woke twits’ as you call them. I hope that came across. They are the ones jumping on the bloody bandwagon and getting a kick out of it.
Very well observed again, LSO, and yes, violence is never far from the Progressive toolbox. When Orwell wrote 1984, it came from his experience with the Spanish communists.
Thank you, Low Status, for another beautifully observed piece. I wanted to respond with something humorous. However, having seen yet another terrorist supporting march through our capital city this weekend, led by black uniformed troops positively encouraged by a helpful police force, who’s only role seems to be to prevent anyone from hurting the sensitive feelings of the marchers, I’m straight out of humour now. The fight back against the path that we are treading is going to be so hard!
Thanks Mr James, that’s very kind of you. It’s difficult isn’t it? The last thing I want to see is clashes on the streets between different protesters. I do understand the police have a strategy of ‘reducing tensions’ but as you say, it just comes across as a form of encouragement, or at least, appeasement.
If Gaza was areligious then the war would be Gaza vs Israel. But this is really Muslims v. Jews. And it's not just Jews. Christians, Kurds, Yazidis, etc. All targets of Islam. Nor, in the UK, is the root cause multi-culturalism. Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. all peacefully integrate. The problem is Islam.
There certainly seems to be an exceptionalism at play in the UK. Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs don’t seem to either make demands, or have those demands catered to in the same way. Perhaps there’s actually a lesson there for the rest of us.
Yes. We need to just say it: Islam is incompatible with Western civilization.
Douglas Murray certainly seems to think so. I’m more optimistic maybe. I think that a real robust desire to integrate people could pay off. But of course ‘multi culturism’ is a policy which stands opposed to integration. And integrate into what? We are told our existing culture has no value.
There's always the sweetness of hoping for the best of course. It tastes better than the bitter, ugly, facing of reality -- and sometimes the pessimists are wrong. I blame *everything* on John Lennon's 'Imagine'. Yes, dreaming is good, but so it waking up.
Conquest of the world at the edge of the sword is hard-coded into Islam. ISIS is to Islam what Billy Graham was to Christianity -- just living the Word as the Lord wrote it.
Maybe. But probably true of all Abrahamic religions. And so a more hopeful thought is that, for Islam, it's just a phase. But, whilst it's going through this phase, the rest of us need to give it special handling.
There's nothing in Christianity about conquest by the sword. Judaism started out as bronze age tribal religion of course -- most proud of their genocide of the Canaanites. Islam today most resembles the Judaism of 3000 years ago. Yeah, one hopes they eventually find a Reformation. We all know that for hundreds of years they were ahead of us in every way. But as you say, for the moment it would be best to keep them at a safe distance.
Never could stand that song!
Integrate with people who, generally, think Oct 7th was not okay. Which is, ostensibly, all UK political parties. I have Muslim friends and, in regard to Oct 7th, they equivocate. I am really struggling with this.
I too am struggling with this.
There is definitely something rotten in Denmark. It smells horrendous and is toxic. It has spread across western civilization especially affecting our universities and political leaders. One of the most apparent symptoms is cowardice.
We are being governed by bullies who have encouraged the invasion of our homelands with those who seek revenge and destruction.
You are right, the leaders will not save us. In fact they are indeed the ones creating the chaos and inviting the “barbarians” into our homelands.
The military and police have been neutralized. There is no one to save us but ourselves.
Take away their power, their name calling. Who cares? They have only words, accusations, gas lighting. Sticks and stones will break my bones, BUT WORDS WILL NEVER HARM ME. Go
Farmers, truckers, plumbers, fishermen.
Where have all the men gone?
I think you have hit the nail on the head there Deidre. All the bulwarks have been neutralised as you say. So if you complain you are gaslit, or ostracised, or accused of being something you are not, usually acting in bad faith, a conspiracy theorist, or of course some kind of racist. Until you are forced to the fringes, and then of course, why would anyone take notice of people like you? You are on the fringes and easily dismissed.
Yes. You can see that one of the main vectors of attack is to discredit men and masculinity. No wonder so many disenfranchised young men look to a role model like Andrew Tate (I’m not a fan).
The progressive left seems intent on turning their fantasy villains, into reality. And fair enough, so far they seem pretty good at it.
Usually, I respond to these posts with the articulation with which my education has endowed me. On this occasion, however, I moved to say, barbarian brutes are within. They're not all muslims, although many are. And, to our collective shame, many are our children.
The witless, stupid bastards.
It’s depressing Lee. But there is hope in the next generation. I have definitely seen them pull away from some of the madness. They’re not vocal about it, they don’t need to be, they just turn their noses up, and walk the other way.
Great piece. It's amazing how our police figuratively (and literally, with BLM) bend the knee to every woke theory, ideology and idiocy. Not though if your name is W. Couzens and you have horrifically killed a young, white woman. Women on the street, holding a vigil - TERRORISTS!!
I can't wait to see the low-key softly softly approach to the anti-foxhunting ban marchers due on our streets in the near future. It won't be pretty, will it?
Another pin point article LSO. Thank you. Your words are an oasis in the desert of Woke.
But where do you think we go from here?
And by 'we' I mean those of us who see these injustices everyday and feel powerless to do anything about the direction of travel. The ongoing demonstrations (for want of a better word) in our major cities, the feeling that common sense and liberty are slipping away in equal measure, the jack boot of DEI adherence on our necks. How do we combat it effectively, astutely, with grace and intellectual superiority? On the one hand I feel like fighting fire with fire might be only way, but on the flip side we need to maintain the moral high ground (and our sanity)...I'm just not sure where we go from here.
Hi DJ. Thanks so much for your kind words. Where we go from here? It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. And I expect I’ll write about it soon. But essentially I think we need a new party/movement which is not Reform. (which I’m not against) It needs to be more left leaning than I think most of us on here are, certainly when it comes to the economy. It needs to appeal, at its heart, to young people, and make the case that a lot of the current liberal progressive policies of our ruling class are detrimental to their future prosperity. All the current trends, from neo communism to trans all seem rooted in despair. Young people are right, they are being short changed, so we need to offer them a positive road map to the future.
So what do you do then when the electorate keep voting for the party of the perpetrators and the feeble weak waste of space leaders who allow it to proliferate?.......apparently they just sit at home in apathy and allow it to go on, or they just keep on voting for it again. Occasionally they'll vote Reform to reject both but not in enough numbers to move the dial.
Nothing in sight other than Reform and if people are not prepared to use them as a vehicle for change then what is the mechanism for change.....I don't see anything. Perhaps leaving the country is the only option left?
Leaving the country is what I recommend to young people. Only, where to go?
Rachel Reeves is a keen supporter of Israel and as Chancellor she will be the second most powerful person in government.
Hi Punk. I hope she can continue to voice her support. I expect that as time goes on, the pressure on her, and other pro Isreal members will only increase.
Good stuff, sadly not heard at the Despatch Box. There are dozens of similar substacks, lonely voices crying out in the dark. The march through the institutions has been subtle, slow but sure. Those that organise activist marches are good at it like a professional military organisation. Rational centre people stay at home foolishly relying on the Marquis of Queensbury, Fair Play and Sportsmanship.
The Left play cricket by reducing the size of the bat then firing Rugby balls out of a cannon at the wicket. In the 1930s we developed Spitfires and Hurricanes in peacetime. Now there's a war on the reasonable people sit at home firing off substacks and Facebook comments. No points for guessing how it ends.
Thanks Zorro. You’re not the first to lament the lack of action from the dissenters. And I absolutely agree. Especially about playing by the rules. For my own part, I’m not really equipped to build Spitfires, just to occasionally spit fire. So that will have to do. I think you hit it on the head with your Freudian grammar slip. ‘Now there’s a war on the reasonable people…’. There very much is. Thanks for your cricket analogy. Lovely image!
Those missing commas eh?
I can't see this trend reversing anytime soon. We've left it too late. It started with the emasculation of the miners, the two million manufacturing jobs lost, ....flogging off public-asset housing on the cheap. Those left standing looked away, for the was 'no such thing as society'. We never believed it could 'never really be like that' , ... it was 'laziness', 'stupidity, lack of resilience', we said as we helped ourselves to more fromthe open till that was de-Mutualisation.
It's YOUR turn now, dear Reader, and 'there's no one left' with a common bond to defend you.
What have we become?
The miners, like Palestinians, were used by Hamas like Scargill who made them bite the hand that fed them. We saw the outcome then and today see the outcome in Gaza The Left destroyed the miners. The Unions and the accountants destroyed manufacturing. Labour councils neglected to build more council housing and you wouldn't expect Tory run councils to encourage Labour leaning voters in their midst. It's boomer thinking, I am one, and we elected liars and activists to run the place since.
We outsourced our mining and manufacturing to countries which were cheaper. And fair enough I suppose. But we never replaced those industries with high paying high skilled alternatives. And now we live in a low skilled low wage economy. And no one can understand why.
The communities which suffered most were hidden away like a mad aunt in the attic. Now those same communities seem to be taking the brunt of our current problems. And are encouraged to blame their neighbours or some bogeyman like ‘the rich’. Madly, they look to the cause of their troubles, our rubbish government, to fix them with more meddling and incoherent policies.
I'm struggling to fashion a reply to those two posits....I can't be offended by the prose, so that's a good thing, right?
However, as Maj stated "some recollections may vary" . I was a sentient father of two, originally from an area that relied on the mining industry, albeit the scrag-end of said industry.
I recall that Thatcher decided that her term would not go down in flames like Sunny Jim Calaghan, who's terms were wrecked by the same crew.
Scargill was at fault, to the extent that he refused to ballot the whole NUM membership. I told told him so from the back of an NUM meeting at a Labour Conference. He was shocked, as he didn't know where the hubub was coming from he resorted to addressing the 'Tories at the Back' - I replied that if he talking to me, he could get his jacket off. ( much to the amusement of Dennis Skinner, but less to, Tony Benn). The cheaper coal, came from as far afield as Nottingham - proud men who didn't think much of Brillo or Mick McGahee
My gut tells me that a majority would have voted 'Out' , but he didn't want to take the chance of a 'wrong' result. So Nottingham et all told him to shove it and Thatcher stiffened the backbone of the Old Bill, in the days when their culture was all about identifying 'villains and sorting them out'. Those Gold Plated pensions ( and other piggies who stuck their snouts in,,,,,we know the usual suspects), were paid for by the proceeds of the North Sea bonanza, Privatisation, and Council House sales. ( The later was used for tax-cut bribes....worked a treat - no house rebuilding neccessary, apparently,
The warnings against the long term Fiscal fallout was dire from the actuaries, but ignored as that was for 'another time'.
And here we are..... 'IN ANOTHER TIME'
What did Norway and its 'Soveriegn Wealth' fund know anyway? We were 'selling the rain', untochable in our red braces.
That money was truly, truly spaffed. So forgive me, as I forgive you - I'm not in a mood to tolerate Menshevik, and comfy bougisie finger pointing.
I was there.
Thanks LSO. It would be nice if we could be confident that purveyors of egregious lies like Ali would be prosecuted under section 179 Online Safety Act 2023:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50/section/179/enacted
Unfortunately it's more likely to be vicars' wives saying that biological men are men who fall foul of this piffle, although perhaps they could pray this in aid:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/19/men-women-brains-work-differently-scientists-discover/
Ha ha the fact that it has taken ‘scientists’ until 19th February 2024 to discover that men and women’s brains are different tells you all you need to know!
Ha ha. In the 80 and 90s there were whole DVDs and videos of comedians doing hour long sets explaining this strange biological phenomenon. Maybe the scientists should have got on ebay, and bought themselves a few of those. I expect that would have been cheaper than their grant funded inquiries.
I still think of Billy Connolly and Kenny Everett in drag together, or indeed Kenny crossing those foam rubber legs and saying "It's all in the best possible taste!"
Apologies LSO, it’s taken a while for me to read this; I have been keeping the wolf from the door.
I noticed in one of your comments that you advise young people to leave the country and I completely agree. TFF advocates Dubai and having visited a few times I get that. Oh the irony that it is a Muslim country.
I am trying to persuade my recently now working age sons to leave this multicultural shithole, sorry green and pleasant land, not necessarily for financial reasons (although being taxed until your pips squeak is not a great start) but it’s more to do with personal safety.
There is only one logical conclusion to allowing the intolerant to take over a tolerant country - the once tolerant will take only so much and then there will be an overreaction, an explosion of frustration. Maybe it will be a riot at a ‘demonstration’, maybe it will be an attack on a mosque that goes wrong or maybe someone who’s been burgled once to often with no response from the second tier of the police service and then decides to reach for a weapon to sort it out themselves.
The backlash from allowing a country to rot from weak leadership, open borders, allowing radical Islam to flourish and an establishment that allows all this will be violent. It’s not right, but it will be entirely understandable.
Time to leave?
Hi Matthew, hope that wolf has been sated for now. To be honest I constantly veer between ‘we can fix this’ to ‘where’s the escape hatch?’ I’d like to think there is a way forward, but it would take Milei levels of political will. And we don’t seem to have anyone who possesses that at the moment.
I find your scenario too bleak to contemplate to be honest. But it does seem to me that the progressives are conjuring into existence the very backlash they claim to fear. I’ve mentioned more than once my terror of ‘revolutions’. Which always make poor people poorer and deader, and just mean a bit of musical chairs among the elites.
On balance I do think it is probably time for young people to leave. Maybe not Dubai. Great short term, but their apparent racism towards the Indian underclass leaves me queasy. It would be ironic to complain about growing inequality under the law in the UK and then decamping to Dubai, where it is baked in. I am basing this on what I’ve read about the place. I’m absolutely no expert.
But some parts of America maybe. I would have said Canada a few years ago. But Wow, look how that has turned out!
These ‘digital nomad’ visas which a few countries are starting to offer are beginning to appeal….
Well funny you should mention Digital Nomad Visa’s - we are looking into the very same thing. Will keep you posted!
Please do Matthew. I’m very interested.
At some point a Caesar type of figure will emerge.
Then all bets are off.
> At that point the dam burst and a tsunami of anti Jewish hatred burst through the levees to engulf the country.
Oy vey, oy vey, oy vey, the goyim are picking on us again! And it's pure antisemitism for the sake of antisemitism.
It's a dangerous play. By creating an unbreakable link between concern for 10,000 dead Palestinian kids and raw antisemitism for its own sake, what happens is that you might get what you ask for. The game has traditionally been that the Jews are picked on, therefore they can do whatever they want with impunity. 1200 were butchered on Oct 7 ergo Israel can kill as many Palestinian kids as it wants to -- it would be antisemitic to suggest otherwise, meh?
But what if, instead of the 'poor us' meme justifying the carnage, it falls the other way? IOW, if concern for the Palestinians now justifies antisemitism? -- after all the Jews insist that the two are inseparable so, they might just get what they ask for: I sympathize with the Palestinians ergo -- by your own insistence -- I hate the Jews.
I'm not saying this very well. But the thing is that global public opinion has swung in favor of the Palestinians and the cry that this is antisemitism could be self-fulfilling. Nuts, it IS self-fulfilling as we see every day. And it doesn't help that the woke, are Hamas' useful idiots at the moment.
I myself take the opposite tack -- I'm half Jewish and I'm anti-Zionist and there are a million like me. Far from antisemitic I think that the Jews are, per-capita, by two orders of magnitude, the most essential people on the planet. Nevertheless they should not steal other people's land. So long at the *essential fact* is that the Palestinian's grievance is legitimate, things like Oct 7 will end up glossed over by that fact.
And the old lies are no longer working. No need to repeat them here. The world just isn't buying them anymore. Time for real justice. Israel is going to need the moral high ground in the coming years.
Hi Ray. That’s a very interesting take. I’m definitely not saying that Isreal should get a free pass. If I give that impression then I am at fault, it is not my intention.
But the Oct 7 attacks have indeed led to an outpouring of anti semitism. 2/3 of last years anti semitic attacks here in the UK took place in the last two months of the year, after the Hamas attacks.
I don’t want to debate the broader conflict here, I’m not equipped to do that. And I respect your position. My point is that it certainly seems that concern for Palestinian civilians is being used as cover for some old fashioned racism.
> But the Oct 7 attacks have indeed led to an outpouring of anti semitism.
Yes, they surely have, and there is a deep lesson to be learned from it -- tho I'm not sure I know what it is. Firstly it's counter intuitive ipso facto. All logic would suggest sympathy for Israel but instead we see the opposite. My own thoughts on the matter still need a lot of work, but yes:
> My point is that it certainly seems that concern for Palestinian civilians is being used as cover for some old fashioned racism.
... unquestionably true. Which is why I say that rather than lumping all 'pro-Palestinians' in with the genuine anti-semites, we should do exactly the opposite -- tho the sympathy-seeking instinct is to do the former, I say it only increases the number of genuine Jew haters. It's a high stakes tactic -- you win big when you win, but you loose big when you loose.
We should rather make a very pointed distinction between genuine anti-semites, woke twits who just reflexively support brown Victims -- these people are unworthy of the flattery of being called anti-semites, they are simply woke twits, who don't even know the name of 'The River' or 'The Sea' ... and pro-semites like myself who just think it's time for justice.
The woke disease of the manichean binary -- Good Victims vs. Bad Oppressors -- infects us all. But I do not choose between sympathy for the Oct 7 victims and the dead Palestinian kids, I'm on both sides at the same time -- I want the butchery to stop.
Agreed. My main target I think was the ‘woke twits’ as you call them. I hope that came across. They are the ones jumping on the bloody bandwagon and getting a kick out of it.
Very well observed again, LSO, and yes, violence is never far from the Progressive toolbox. When Orwell wrote 1984, it came from his experience with the Spanish communists.
Thanks P. That wonderful book becomes increasingly accurate with each passing year.
Don't worry, Britain's Armed Forces will protect us...
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/this-report-from-the-respected-rusi-think-tank-is-sedition-not-analysis/
**Chef's Kiss**
Nailed it.