Decline and Fall

When I was born India was still the jewel in the crown of the British Empire, but changing times would obviously result in the end of the old colonial empires. The British people, although financially stretched, were basking in the glow of their triumph over the evil German Nazi and Japanese militaristic regimes, and we were recognised as one of the most important countries in the world, being head of the Commonwealth, a permanent member the UN security Council, and were soon to become one of the founding members of NATO.

The Labour government was launching the NHS, giving people the opportunity to receive free medical care, the implementation of the Education Act (1944) provided universal free secondary education, and raised the minimum school leaving age from 14 to 15. Our democracy was strong, with principled leaders such as Churchill and Attlee dominating parliament, while the BBC was still the organisation which had spoken for the nation during the darkest days of the war. The population was, although not exclusively, homogenous, and shared basically the same cultural assumptions.

Although the costs of winning the Second Wold War were immense we still had one of the leading aircraft industries in the world, our merchant fleet was one of the largest on the planet, and we were soon to establish ourselves as a nation taking part in early space development. Above all we retained a massive industrial sector, not relying on foreign nations to make, inter alia, our cars, trains and domestic goods. The Armed forces, though much reduced were still among the strongest, although obviously eclipsed by the two superpowers. Although we will always have criminals among us they were treated as such by a police force, and justice system, which imposed penalties appropriate to the crimes committed.

Where are we now? In almost every field we are much diminished, and look set on a course which will see us become even less significant. One of the favourite subjects in history lessons at school was the classical world of antiquity, and of course Edward Gibbon's 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was a major source for such studies. There seems little doubt that future historians will create similar works to chronicle the fate of the UK, as we face our own decline and fall.

The once loved NHS is crumbling, suffocated by a useless bureaucracy, and absurd decisions taken by politicians, in particular the need for nurses to have degrees, thus destroying the idea of nursing as a vocation, rather than a career, and leaving us in the ridiculous position that, while a nurse must have a degree, this imbecilic government now proposes that actual doctors do not. The march of the Marxists through the institutions have obviously succeeded in education, as children are brainwashed with nonsense about our history and values at school, the process being completed by the full indoctrination of university students, of which there are anyway far too many. The BBC is a disgrace, speaking only for the Guardian reading section of society, clearly hating this country, and seeking to undermine it at every opportunity.

On the economic front we have seen the almost total destruction of our manufacturing base, leaving us as a supplier of so called services. Does anyone really believe that once foreign nations have developed their own heavy industry they will not then also create the sort of service industries upon which we are supposed to rely? In the event of a conventional war perhaps we should ensure that the front line is full of HR personnel, along with public relations experts, and pointless bureaucrats, not that they would be able to stand for long against the sort of armed forces possessed by our enemies, and which we used to have. Ours have been consistently betrayed by successive governments so that, however good their quality, their quantity makes them even less able to defend this country than the Kaiser's contemptible little army.

Every organisation has been corrupted by the insanity of political correctness, to the point where the police waste their times policing people's thoughts, and the prison service demands that warders treat convicts like hotel guests. Bureaucracies are riding high, not merely in the police service, but in the civil service, and local government, where these arrogant, unelected functionaries are defying elected representatives in order to prevent policies mandates by the people being implemented, or perhaps just so that they can idle at home.

The total lunacy of the gender wars deserves many articles, but sufficient to say that biological sex is a reality, and that those who deny this are either insane, or motivated by an agenda which seeks power, regardless of truth, and prepared to sacrifice confused children as young as six on the altar of their psychotic claims. In the same way the unquestioning manner in which the political class has accepted the truth of the claim that climate change is man made is distorting everything, and will leave us unable to travel, or to heat our homes.

As we watch idiot protestors breaking the law in support of their agendas, those who refer to the suffragettes as a means of justifying this to protest about issues on which they feel strongly, are completely missing the point. If one has no right to change things by democratic means, as was the case with the female half of the population, who did not possess the vote, then indeed illegal action is the only route forward. However, in a democracy, where everyone has access to the ballot box, the avenue to be used is to support, and elect, those who advocate the changes you wish to seen made, not to attempt to achieve your aims by force. To do otherwise invites anarchy.

Protest is one thing, blatant law breaking something else entirely. I wonder just how many of those who excuse pressure groups such as "Extinction Rebellion" would react if others were to emulate them, but in support of policies with which they disagreed. For instance, it is obvious that the political and bureaucratic elite have successfully blocked a proper implementation of Brexit, as evidenced by the latest retreat from abolishing EU laws to which we are still subjected. If Brexiteers were to block traffic, disrupt legitimate events, and vandalise works of art unless this latest change of policy was reversed, I very much doubt that the militants who claim to approve of such behaviour would be supportive of the idea that it was fully justified. The two ideals which we, and our cousins in the USA, have given, however imperfectly, to the world, are democracy, and the rule of law. If the latter is ignored by anyone who has an axe to grind, then the former will not long survive. The morons of that curse, social media, actively seek to pull down our democratic system in favour of rule by a vociferous minority.

So who is to blame? For decades this country has been dominated by an intellectual political and bureaucratic elite, educated largely at Oxford and Cambridge, whose stupidities continue the path laid down by their fellows before the Second World War, who hated their own country, and supported either communists or fascists, rather than admit that their own country's system was best. Since the days of Attlee and Churchill, with the brief exceptions of Margaret Thatcher, and Boris Johnston, our so called leaders have always had much more in common with each other, whom they pretend to oppose, than with the ordinary people of this country. We need intelligent people to be the doctors, engineers, and scientists of the future. We do not need intellectuals, who can no doubt quote 19th Century poets until the cows come home, but have no understanding for, or love of, this country and its people. Of course not every Oxbridge graduate, politician or bureaucrat subscribes to this, but the overwhelming majority do.

Looking at today, Rishi Sunak's government is consistent in one thing. It makes promises to implement policies clearly aimed at public support, only to, within a short period, to unfailing announce that it will not after all go ahead, or that it might, but only at some indeterminate point in the future. Far from providing a reason to vote Conservative it is generating despair among its natural supporters, relying on Hillaire Belloc's principle of "always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse", given the alternative of a coalition of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens.

This reversal of promises made has been highlighted by the decision not to go ahead with, by the end of 2023, the removal of laws resulting from EU membership, thus betraying once again the will of the people as expressed in the 2016 referendum. It is also a sell out by the Prime Minister personally, as, when running for the leadership, he was definite that these laws would be repealed. He may appear a personable man, who was apparently a Brexiteer, but it is obvious that he is prepared to say anything for power, yet to have little intention of actually sticking to his word. Boris Johnson was hung out to dry over supposed breaches of good faith, yet the current Conservative leadership seems to have turned the making of U turns into an art form. Unless they can find the courage, to quote Shakespeare's Henry V to "Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood", and implement the policies upon which they were elected they will deservedly lose the next general election.

So what of the future? Despite the best efforts of Toby Young with the Free Speech Union, of Lawrence Fox's Reclaim party, and the continued existence of Reform UK and UKIP, the intellectual Blob will remain in control. Many years ago I read "When the Kissing had to Stop", a novel in which a morally degenerate Britain was finally destroyed by its enemies. As one who fought for decades against EU membership, won, and has then seen our victory undermined by the denizens of the Westminster regimes, I know that no third party can now win. As we import a million foreigners a year into this country, and the Labour Party threatens to allow EU citizens to vote here, while no doubt creating a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, whose price will be proportional representation, the chances of the indigenous population forcing any change are virtually nil. We are in the process of declining. All that is left is the fall.