My generation, the wartime and early post-war
generation, is of course largely retired, economically inactive and slowly but
surely diminishing in number. We are not a key constituency but take pride in
our traditions, our achievements, our human contributions and our wider
families. We try to take a mellow view of the behaviour of our younger
successors, although we are not always in sympathy with, or in understanding
of, the modern world. We prefer not to talk of alienation nor isolation but the
fact is we find ourselves living in a hectic, noisy, mad-house cosmos beyond
parody, stretching our tolerance and critical faculties to the utmost limit.
The Finnish Eurovision
entry – Cha-cha-cha
To set the scene, this year’s Eurovision in
grim Liverpool, upon which vast treasure is expended, was won by a Swedish
(actually a Berber Moroccan) chanteuse called Loreen caged in a
box whose tortured “song” was supplemented by gestures from her hideously
elongated finger-nails. Worse, in second place was the Finnish effort, fronted
by a kinky-looking gentleman with lurid green sleeves who ululated his tongue
in a disgusting fashion. The UK entry, screamed by Britain-hating activist Mae
Muller, was deservedly second last, only just surpassing the truly dismal
German entry. All the songs were of the thumping Euro-technopop genus, their
connection with real music totally inaudible. What rubbish and yet how many
column inches and TV hours were devoted to this dystopian, freak-show
spectacle!
The second-rate-farce theatre of Westminster
politics is in equal turmoil. I am a Brexit-supporting Conservative, much
influenced by the transformational Margaret Thatcher governments of the 1980s.
We are supposedly enjoying a Tory regime, but where are the Tories? Our Prime
Minister, Rishi Sunak, has piled tax upon tax, regulation upon regulation as if
he wanted to outdo unlamented Brussels. The economy creaks forward by a tiny
fraction a month, robotically controlled by Jeremy Hunt and less
internationally competitive by the day. There are occasional flashes of common
sense from Michael Gove, Suella Braverman and Jacob Rees-Mogg but we see no
consistent vision for the future and nothing remotely inspirational. Some blame
inflation, the Ukraine war and Covid for the malaise, but actually the basic
problem is a Tory lack of grip and political cunning – a government needs to be
5 steps ahead of its political adversaries, not 3 steps behind. But who on
earth will follow these inept, burnt-out has-beens?
Most people believe Sir Keir Starmer and Labour
are in pole position to sweep into power at the next election. That is not a
mouth-watering prospect, to say the least. Starmer is an unreconstructed Woke
Leftie, who swallowed every idiocy pronounced by the appalling erstwhile Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn, without demur. The image most associated with Starmer is
he (accompanied by his crass deputy Angela Rayner) piously “taking the knee” in
respect towards the dubious and violent Black Lives Matter cause. His
principles blow with the wind – Brexiteer one day, Remainer the next – today he
promises to ‘renegotiate” Brexit. He denounces crime, while failing to mention
he was Director of Public Prosecutions 2008-13, and took no relevant
initiatives. He says he would give the vote to working- resident EU citizens,
but flip-flops today when the obviousness of this gerrymandering became plain.
He is a man of straw. There are no principles he would not bend in the search
for power and none he would defend if seriously challenged. He has no spine and
Churchill’s 1931 description of Ramsay Macdonald would resonate, –“The boneless
wonder sitting on the Treasury bench”
Keir Starmer and friends
Starmer’s party, his members and activists, are
a talentless rabble, mad, bad and dangerous to know. They are bad because they
have turned their backs on key principles of liberal democracy, like free
speech (supporting the cancellation of dissenting voices in universities).
Their attitude towards Russia and China is at best ambivalent, so we certainly
cannot sleep easily in our beds, as the Left has no respect for our hard-won
freedoms or the principle of national defence. Their traditional pay-masters,
the trades unions, are re-asserting themselves and openly preach communist
claptrap, such as the imminent destruction of capitalism. They may well fool
many in the moronic reaches of the electorate, but we can only pray that enough
sensible voters have survived to stem their toxic flow.
Currently, there is not much to encourage us.
The Civil Service is infiltrated by the Woke, doctors and nurses strike for
absurd pay rises, the NHS is near collapse, school staff strike at the drop of
a hat. It is not just the public sector either. Bank workers “work from home”,
businesses suffer huge absenteeism, the entire work-force is often idle and
work-shy. Can it ever be turned round?
My generation needs some good news. In the
existing atmosphere, we are returning to our shell and not surrendering
anything. We are not sending the Elgin Marbles back to Greece, we are not
apologising for the sins of the past like Slavery (Arabs and black African
rulers were much worse than we were) or Colonialism (that impertinent US
Declaration in 1776 was a robbery for which we should be richly compensated!
Maybe that is a long shot!?). Just say No! to adversaries and not be an easy
touch for anyone.
SMD
17.5.23
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