Something to celebrate at last?
In October 2020 – I posted – Greece here we come!
All empires fail and fall. Most implode either
through over-reach or the rot of complacency and corruption which sets in when
the master of the universe types who ‘build’ empires with bloody brutality –
often tactical and military genius – and just the raw desire to own what
everyone else has, have gone. There often follows – in the longer-lived empires
a period of exceptional display; of building, art, cultural development,
philosophical and scientific development because of the mix of talent, wealth
and free time of many of the elite and of course all the hard job of actually
living being done by slaves. So far so good - as long as you’re not just one of
the mob or a slave...
But then those who were in at the start and drove
the expansion are superseded by those who grow up expecting life to fall into
their laps. They have what we call today entitlement.
They are blind to their short-comings and shored-up by position they have not
earned and wealth they have not earned and the fawning adulation of those whose
positions rely on the structure that has stagnated.
The point I was making in my blog referencing Greece
is that the fall of Britain may be one of the fastest, most spectacular acts of
conscious self-harm coupled with lack of self-awareness in history.
Greece may well have failed due to a 300 yr drought.
Who is to say that was not the case? Rome arguable rotted from within with the
usual mix of corruption, infighting, sexual degradation, greed, overreach and
promotion of the privileged rather than the talented.
Britain somehow held onto the credibility of empire
long after much of the empire was gone. A significant part of the modern world
spoke English. The influential motion picture industry was predominantly
English-speaking. And though the world was re-set after WWII – Britain managed
to scrape a foothold in the new world with massive post-war social reform further
stabilised when it secured membership of European Economic Community which
began in January 1973.
However, there was to be only a very short gap – 6
years – between that event and the biggest disaster for working Britain of
modern times – Margaret Thatcher.
From that time to the the Royal Mail give-away in
2014, everything that belonged to the British people was sold off. ALL the
family silver. There was the punishment beating of the working class which
began with the miners’ strike and led us to where we are today – a country of
minimum wage economics, growing wealth inequality, falling life expectancy in the
poorest areas. We now make little of use to the world and have committed the
final act of self-harm in Brexit.
If anyone is in any doubt – despite the fact that
much of the media – and especially the BBC are terrified of saying the word – last week in Bloomberg – Adam Posen, former
policy maker for The Bank of England stated unequivocally that 80% of the
current cost of living rise is down to Brexit, something farmers and logistics
firms and lorry drivers have been saying for much longer. And it’s worth
remembering not all of the rules of Brexit trade have as yet been implemented.
There is worse to come.
So – really – I'm just echoing a former blog and
of course pointing out that for once – Britain won something. In this case – gold in the fall from grace race.
Although, we didn’t fall – we jumped.
The UK
still had major standing in the world at the turn of the 21st
Century but is now an economic basket-case run by sexually
incontinent, entitled morons, bullies and corrupt, avaricious non-entities. You can only conclude that when it comes to self-annihilation – we beat
both Italy (Rome) and Greece.
Well done us.
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Small comedy gig in Dundee tonight (tues 3rd
May) Hunter S Thomson pub basement ICEBREAKER comedy. If I get any footage I’ll
try post something on youtube. It’s been a LOOONG time.
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