When Labour wins the next election, Britain will assume a role in Europe something akin to the indomitable Gaulish village in Asterix: the last holdout of liberal-Left political power in a continent swinging firmly to the Right. Yet for a certain kind of Brexiteer, their minds deranged by the Twitter battles of the previous decade, Europe’s Rightwards drift is an object of strangely self-defeating satisfaction. Like American Republicans endorsing the worldview of their enemies by calling the Democrats "The Real Racists", Brexiteers still stung by accusations of fascism for daring to leave the EU can now point at the high walls springing up like dragons’ teeth across the continent’s eastern marches, or at the blooming electoral fortunes of the radical Right, to make the case that Brexit Britain is the real redoubt of liberalism.
And they would be right: the Conservative Party’s hurling open of Britain’s borders will vastly outweigh the demographic change wrought by New Labour’s idealistic commitment to multiculturalism in its transformative effects; in Britain, even the Right-wing populist parties are zealous economic liberals, while the most successful social conservative movement in recent memory is led by veteran feminists, preserving their gains of recent decades. For the harder-edged British Right-winger, Brexit could be viewed less as a means to unlock Britain’s stifled potential than as an act of noble self-sacrifice to free Europe from our own country’s inveterate liberalism, a hand-grenade selflessly jumped upon to allow the continental bloc to meet its historical destiny. It is not difficult to imagine, in a decade or so, a Right-wing equivalent of The New European appearing on the Waitrose shelves, portraying the politics of the European Union now coming into being as an inspirational model for British Rightists — just as the ossified mental image of 2010s Europe still is for British liberals.
If this is the case, then the reverse is also true: British liberals will recoil from the new European Union as they once did from Bush’s America, finding in it the perfect ideological foil for their own acts of political self-definition. As the Greek political scientist Angelos Chryssogelos observed last year, the deepening enmeshment of British liberals with American progressive causes “means that any centre-left alternative to the Conservatives will be as uncomfortable with Europe as the Conservatives are today, albeit for different reasons”, so that “core features of the EU like its […] commitment to border security will become sources of ideological friction with progressive Britain, as much as the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice or fisheries are with conservative Britain today”.
There are already hints of the poles reversing, here and there: in The Guardian and the BBC’s newly horrified reaction to the brutally effective border management regimes of EU nations, or Gordon Brown’s claim that, “if you want to peer into the future of Europe”, you must observe with horror the rise of Vox, whose “power will embolden far-Right parties that have been proliferating across the continent”. His essay’s framing of Spain’s election this weekend as “a key battle in the Europe-wide struggle against neofascism”, in all its overwrought appeals to the ghosts of a century ago, is a perfect distillation of the mythologised version of the Second World War which still distorts our political discourse. Threatened by the 2010s version of populism, whose central tenets of rejecting unfettered globalisation and uncontrolled immigration have now become the European mainstream, the guardians of the neoliberal order reanimated the ghosts of Europe’s 20th century to preserve their hold on power. Once it was no longer tenable to claim that There Is No Alternative, the populist alternative was reframed as fascism to render it taboo to voters.
But while the obsessive need of anxious liberals to frame all forms of hard-Right politics as the revived incarnations of a dead 20th-century ideology may afford them a pleasing frisson of danger, it is of course analytically absurd. None of the Right-wing parties gaining power across Europe can plausibly fulfil the various definitions of fascism used by academic historians: historical fascism was hardly noted for its belief in the inviolability of national borders, after all. Last year’s dismissive essay by the great scholar of fascism Stanley Payne, whose definitions of the doctrine have been promiscuously applied by liberal commentators to the widely disparate Right-wing movements of today, echoes the famous scene in Annie Hall where Marshall McLuhan tells a pseud in a cinema queue he is an idiot who knows nothing of his work. Payne observes that, despite its total obliteration in 1945, “fascism once more became the dominant menace in the political and rhetorical imaginary, encouraged even further after the collapse of the Soviet Union”, so that its current “usage isn’t merely wildly contradictory, but applied in the most directly and specifically opposite ways”. But, as Payne observes, “all this is irrelevant to the political imaginary, dominated by fantasy and subjectivism and oblivious to empirical reality”.
[su_unherd_related fttitle="More from this author " author="Aris Roussinos "]https://staging.unherd.com/2023/05/boomer-europe-is-dying/[/su_unherd_related]
The 2010s fascism scare was a natural product of ideology: following the fall of the Soviet Union, a highly mythologised narrative of the Second World War evolved as the foundational myth of the new American-led order. In the myth, both Anglo-Saxon liberal democracy and Soviet communism joined forces to save Europe from its fascist demons. After decades of confrontation, liberal democracy then won out as the superior ideology, destined to conquer the world and lead it to its bright new future. Open borders were the best defence against watchtowers and barbed wire, and a globalised world would be the prophylactic against destructive nationalism.
The results are as we see. Yet few people in 1939 would have recognised this ahistorical narrative: the nation Britain went to war to defend, Poland, was a Right-wing authoritarian regime, just like Britain’s sole ally after the fall of France, Greece. In reality, the Europe of 1939 that Britain bankrupted itself to defend was composed of a diverse spectrum of political systems, most of which would be considered impermissibly Right-wing by the expansive definitions of today. If long-standing political taboos are now being broken across Europe, it is a situation marked not by the return of fascism but by a return to a diverse mix of Right-tilted governance systems, each of which relies more on its own national context and interests than on appeals to some malign pan-continental internationale.
Analysis in these terms provides a more productive route to understanding Europe’s near-term future in all its paradoxical complexity. Consider the case of Poland and Hungary, natural ideological allies sharply divided by their opposing stances on the war in Ukraine. Deeply committed to a Ukrainian victory, Poland has more to lose than to gain from a Republican victory in next year’s American elections, no matter how Right-wing the eventual nominee. If anything, Poland’s security now requires a Democrat victory, while Hungary’s stance would be vindicated by the elevation of a Ukraine-sceptic Republican to the presidential throne. Similarly, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni inspired the last bout of anxious wailing about the revival of fascism in Europe, until her strong stance in favour of Ukraine, coupled with a boringly inoffensive administrative style, helped her government meld itself seamlessly into Europe’s mainstream centre-right. The general trend in modern European politics is not a return to the dark passions of the Thirties, but of mainstream conservatives painlessly absorbing challengers from their Right: while the continent’s centre ground is drifting Rightward, the radical energies of the hard-Right are being dissipated as they embed themselves within the mainstream.
The Europe of the 2020s, then, will be marked by a continuation of technocratic EU governance, only shifted further to the Right than the notional conservatism of the neoliberal era, which functioned only as Left-liberalism with a slight time delay. Its politics shaped by a bloody war on its eastern marches, and an accelerating migration flow from its south, the EU of the coming decade will be defined by its borders. Aside from the symbolism of its component members joining together to fend off migrants, the recent joint mission of Rutte, Von der Leyen and Meloni to Tunisia to woo the country’s new dictator Kais Saied into a lucrative role as Europe’s border guard perhaps indicates a new approach to our continent’s neighbouring North African regimes. Saied’s ejection of sub-Saharan migrants to the country’s desert border posts has met with the silence of Europe’s tacit approval. As in Libya, what European human rights legislation forbids EU leaders to do themselves can be safely carried out by regional partners with little fuss.
[su_events_insert]
After all, the 2010s attempt to wish liberal democracy on North Africa failed utterly; the migration crisis it precipitated instead helped eradicate Left-liberalism as a viable electoral force in continental Europe. In these circumstances, both political necessity and ideological inclination will encourage EU support for North African autocrats as their chosen partners, neutralising the miseries of the deeper African continent as a source of political angst for the New Europe. North Africa will also surely fulfil a wider role for a Europe committed to energy transition and attempting to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels: as an untapped source of solar energy, Europe’s homes and factories will depend on the security of infrastructure erected on the burning sands of the Sahara. The stability of the regimes hosting Europe’s energy supply will thus vastly outweigh the democratic aspirations of North Africa’s people in the new European order, as Russia shores up its new position in the neighbouring Sahel, and Europe once again finds its strategic interests drawn to the Mediterranean’s southern shores.
On Europe’s eastern border, the Ukraine war will also define the political contours of the new Europe. Macron’s recent conversion to the idea of Ukraine as a Nato ally — an offer perhaps made in the secure knowledge the United States and Germany would forbid it — is a marked departure from France’s previous, failed attempts to woo Russia into a role as a security partner for an autonomous EU. Instead, Macron presumably views the perennial tension with Russia that would follow Ukraine’s absorption into the European sphere as a catalyst to strategic autonomy in itself, spurring measures like the recently-passed ASAP initiative for accelerated EU munitions production. Poland’s massive programme of rearmament to fend off the Russian threat is the greatest single boost to European defence capabilities in recent history. For all it's loyal Atlanticism, a booming, militarised Poland will be a far greater asset to a European autonomist project than anything offered by a militarily weak and deindustrialising Germany, whose rising political force is, in any case, the Russia-sympathising AfD. Again, far from the continent-spanning Right-wing alliance which excites the liberal imagination, Europe’s populist parties are increasingly divided by the Ukraine war, with those committed to the Ukrainian cause making common ground with liberals and centrists to accelerate the consolidation of an autonomous European sphere.
Strong on defence, hard on migration and hawkish on Russia, the Europe now rapidly coming into being is a natural lodestar for British Right-wingers, dissatisfied at the failure of the Conservative Party to institute conservative governance. Like American conservatives making ideological aliyah to Budapest, perhaps British conservatives will soon look to Brussels as the inspiration for an unabashedly Right-wing politics, its harder edges ameliorated by sharp suits and inoffensively mainstream political aesthetics. Drawn closer into America’s cultural sphere by its wholesale adoption of the superpower’s progressive values, Britain’s political Left will conversely view our neighbouring continent with increased suspicion and distaste. Cut off by its own instinctive liberalism from the trends reshaping Europe, Britain will surely double down on its own Forties mythologising, the decade of the NHS’s foundation and of Windrush cementing its role as the ideological wellspring of the British state. The recent claim by the Labour MP Clive Lewis that the NHS is “our greatest defence against fascism” may not make any sense — Lewis is evidently not a student of the social policies of Thirties Europe — but is a perfect distillation of the new mythology swirling into formation.
[su_unherd_related fttitle="More from this author " author="Aris Roussinos "]https://staging.unherd.com/2023/07/britains-forgotten-european-empire/[/su_unherd_related]
But for the rest of Europe, the long ideological hold of the Thirties is finally fading into history: new political forms are being born as the last survivors of Europe’s nightmarish decades of self-destruction are laid to rest. The disastrous 20th century neutered Europe as an actor in history, and for decades it seemed like our civilisation would never escape its gravitational pull. The EU-wide rejection of the cordon sanitaire against Right-wing parties is thus a rejection of the last century’s debilitating stranglehold on political experimentation. Contrary to liberal fantasies, the taboo against fascism remains in force: it is only the use of the term to delegitimise any Right-wing form of governance that has lost its power. The corrective Rightward drift of Europe’s centre is in this sense a paradoxically progressive political force, while our retreat to cosy isolation, with Starmer as Left-liberalism’s Captain Mainwaring valiantly holding an increasingly civilisational Europe at bay, confirms Britain as the most politically conservative country on the continent. In finally laying the ghosts of the 20th century to rest, Europe is entering the future: as in Children of Men, only an increasingly dishevelled Britain stands alone, stubbornly holding out against the march of history.
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SubscribeAris is over thinking this. All across Europe there has been since the 1990s a popular, legitimate kickback against the anti democratic and suffocating excesses of the shiny new bossy Federal EU. France Denmark Ireland said Non long in referenda before the UK, its just their elites ignored them. 20 years on it is incredibly hard for those trapped in the dysfunctional Eurozone to consider Exit, hence Georgia targetting non economic affairs. She does not have the levers. We had the Pound – so we could get out more easily. Yet the vast majority of Europeans have long been and are like Brits hostile to the ever expanding reach of the EU Elites; their suppression of dynamic enterprise, regulatory protectionist mania, and progressive ideologies like Net Zero and the nightmare of Open Border Multiculturalism for which there is no consent. Whether they will ultimately reform or reject the EU is too early to say. But why the surprise that Italy Greece and Spain are joining Brexiteers in rebelling against Elite progressive orthodoxy?? The reason Britain is not 100% in lockstep and is reluctantly steering away from the Right now is of course due to the freakish failures of the Fool Johnson and his Fake Tories. He did nothing to push back against the Blob and the Progressive grip on law media and education..oh and creeps in Coutts too. He actually fortified them and made us a high tax Brussels-like Socialist dystopia with EU Clone State laws still. But Brits are no different from the Italians and Spanish. We led the Revolution against the EU and Progressive credos. Then the Remainiac Counter Revolution and lockdown catastrophe smashed it to pieces at birth, sinking the weedy Red Non Tories. Time for the Dutch and Spanish and others to pick up the standard and help to drive on the common cause of liberation from a profoundly anti democratic 1950s failed Model Empire and a renaissance of better looser allied European nation states.
Perhaps I’m missing something but nowhere does the right in Europe want to get out of the EU. It’s just the weird fantasies of Brexiteers that somehow the EU is about to collapse. In fact the whole right/left distinction is struggling to make sense of how things are moving. I can imagine a Europe with tough borders, more European nationalism along with high levels of social welfarism. But not sure if this is right or left
You are just a irritating Remainer ! You can imagine a Europe with actual borders ? It is already too late to make any difference I reckon .All we’ve had is socialist governments masquerading as Tories and all because they saw it as an easy way to get themselves elected , just by using a corrupt media to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes . It is disgraceful what has happened in our country especially when we knew that people wanted OUT .
You are just a irritating Remainer ! You can imagine a Europe with actual borders ? It is already too late to make any difference I reckon .All we’ve had is socialist governments masquerading as Tories and all because they saw it as an easy way to get themselves elected , just by using a corrupt media to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes . It is disgraceful what has happened in our country especially when we knew that people wanted OUT .
Perhaps I’m missing something but nowhere does the right in Europe want to get out of the EU. It’s just the weird fantasies of Brexiteers that somehow the EU is about to collapse. In fact the whole right/left distinction is struggling to make sense of how things are moving. I can imagine a Europe with tough borders, more European nationalism along with high levels of social welfarism. But not sure if this is right or left
Aris is over thinking this. All across Europe there has been since the 1990s a popular, legitimate kickback against the anti democratic and suffocating excesses of the shiny new bossy Federal EU. France Denmark Ireland said Non long in referenda before the UK, its just their elites ignored them. 20 years on it is incredibly hard for those trapped in the dysfunctional Eurozone to consider Exit, hence Georgia targetting non economic affairs. She does not have the levers. We had the Pound – so we could get out more easily. Yet the vast majority of Europeans have long been and are like Brits hostile to the ever expanding reach of the EU Elites; their suppression of dynamic enterprise, regulatory protectionist mania, and progressive ideologies like Net Zero and the nightmare of Open Border Multiculturalism for which there is no consent. Whether they will ultimately reform or reject the EU is too early to say. But why the surprise that Italy Greece and Spain are joining Brexiteers in rebelling against Elite progressive orthodoxy?? The reason Britain is not 100% in lockstep and is reluctantly steering away from the Right now is of course due to the freakish failures of the Fool Johnson and his Fake Tories. He did nothing to push back against the Blob and the Progressive grip on law media and education..oh and creeps in Coutts too. He actually fortified them and made us a high tax Brussels-like Socialist dystopia with EU Clone State laws still. But Brits are no different from the Italians and Spanish. We led the Revolution against the EU and Progressive credos. Then the Remainiac Counter Revolution and lockdown catastrophe smashed it to pieces at birth, sinking the weedy Red Non Tories. Time for the Dutch and Spanish and others to pick up the standard and help to drive on the common cause of liberation from a profoundly anti democratic 1950s failed Model Empire and a renaissance of better looser allied European nation states.
Something is wrong if I have to reread sentence after sentience.
Spot on. It’s one thing having a leftist writer in opposition to many of the readers,it’s quite another producing tortured prose.
Leftist??
Leftist??
I agree Jim – his twisting style ties the reader up in knots. We are left doing the hard work of untying it.
“sentence after sentience.” – is that deliberate or perhaps a ‘Freudian’ slip?
Total slip. I’m not that smart.
Total slip. I’m not that smart.
Same here. The author must have used Google Translate?
Spot on. It’s one thing having a leftist writer in opposition to many of the readers,it’s quite another producing tortured prose.
I agree Jim – his twisting style ties the reader up in knots. We are left doing the hard work of untying it.
“sentence after sentience.” – is that deliberate or perhaps a ‘Freudian’ slip?
Same here. The author must have used Google Translate?
Something is wrong if I have to reread sentence after sentience.
What an awful almost impenetrable word soup of “ intellectual” nonsense – from start to end.
What an awful almost impenetrable word soup of “ intellectual” nonsense – from start to end.
I have a much better idea than all this educated-class flapdoodle. Because, cupcake, would-be Johan Huizingas are already lining up to write “The Autumn of the Educated-Class Ages.”
Let’s just say that the educated-class rule of the last century or so is destroying itself by virtue of its own internal contradictions.
The educated-class conceit is that it is the Ally of the Oppressed. But in fact its rule is a monstrous and merciless oppression of the ordinary middle class, that will echo down the ages as an unparalleled injustice.
Flap-a-doodle-do for sure. But can’t you think of at least one historical or present-day injustice that might parallel the monstrous suffering of the ordinary middle class? And do people acquire equal virtue just by being uneducated and ordinary, or should there still be a contest to determine who’s most ordinary of all, and therefore fit to lead us?
Aren’t even the few politicians or writers you do like–provided there are any–part of an educated class, at least compared with Joe Twelve-Pack?
The near total destruction of the Grammar Schools by the late, odious, Anthony Crosland?
Ok, maybe so. I think that’ll still lag a length or two behind multi-generational debt slavery and other forms of involuntary servitude (actual, not figurative or hyperbolic).
The 1842 Income Tax Act, introduced by Sir Robert Peel.
Thus did the ‘rot’ begin.
Thanks for the history lesson(s). No irony intended.
Thanks for the history lesson(s). No irony intended.
Roy Jenkins ‘liberal’ reforms which have seen crime rise and rise ever since.
Or Blair’s daft adherence to 50% of all school leavers being ripped off with useless degrees and drowning the nation in debt with the cost.
Or Sunak’s wilful refusal to tackle legal and illegal immigration. Hardly surprising given his back-story.
The 1842 Income Tax Act, introduced by Sir Robert Peel.
Thus did the ‘rot’ begin.
Roy Jenkins ‘liberal’ reforms which have seen crime rise and rise ever since.
Or Blair’s daft adherence to 50% of all school leavers being ripped off with useless degrees and drowning the nation in debt with the cost.
Or Sunak’s wilful refusal to tackle legal and illegal immigration. Hardly surprising given his back-story.
Ok, maybe so. I think that’ll still lag a length or two behind multi-generational debt slavery and other forms of involuntary servitude (actual, not figurative or hyperbolic).
The near total destruction of the Grammar Schools by the late, odious, Anthony Crosland?
First this new Elite was massively expanded by the Blairite New Order; hundreds of thousands of new well paid cushioned neo Keynsian public sector and Quangocracy jobs, bloating the Blob. New Labour simultaneously pulverised and oppressed the manufacturing working classes already shattered by the ruthless globalization of the Thatcher years. Our Elite consciously betrayed that class – the northern Red Wall – by signing up to the EU’s Single Market – a licence for mass uncontrolled 6m + population movement – so collapsing the national labour market. Brexit then gave an enraged elite unbridled licence to despise this class for their afrontery in challenging a status quo which – in London and SE – had seen them all become property millionaires via their ruthless irresponsible rigging of the market. Now ,- yes – the Zil Lane Elite are moving on to hurt the middle classes working in the enterprise or capitalist culture their Islington groupthink brands as discriminatory and immoral. Now everyone is hurting except for this cadre; final salary fat cat politicos, quangocrats and greedy striking Lets Do Harm NHS consultants. They are all immune to the poisons their multiple failures and greed have unleashed on society. A now unmasked contempt for all the ‘grifter’ classes who do not conform to their extreme Equalitarian groupthink – pro BLM, pro Net Zero, pro NHS, pro CRT pro magic money theory etc etc ‘ has been nurtured. Every and any class that contests Elite Virtue will be subject to deranged progressive rage.
Flap-a-doodle-do for sure. But can’t you think of at least one historical or present-day injustice that might parallel the monstrous suffering of the ordinary middle class? And do people acquire equal virtue just by being uneducated and ordinary, or should there still be a contest to determine who’s most ordinary of all, and therefore fit to lead us?
Aren’t even the few politicians or writers you do like–provided there are any–part of an educated class, at least compared with Joe Twelve-Pack?
First this new Elite was massively expanded by the Blairite New Order; hundreds of thousands of new well paid cushioned neo Keynsian public sector and Quangocracy jobs, bloating the Blob. New Labour simultaneously pulverised and oppressed the manufacturing working classes already shattered by the ruthless globalization of the Thatcher years. Our Elite consciously betrayed that class – the northern Red Wall – by signing up to the EU’s Single Market – a licence for mass uncontrolled 6m + population movement – so collapsing the national labour market. Brexit then gave an enraged elite unbridled licence to despise this class for their afrontery in challenging a status quo which – in London and SE – had seen them all become property millionaires via their ruthless irresponsible rigging of the market. Now ,- yes – the Zil Lane Elite are moving on to hurt the middle classes working in the enterprise or capitalist culture their Islington groupthink brands as discriminatory and immoral. Now everyone is hurting except for this cadre; final salary fat cat politicos, quangocrats and greedy striking Lets Do Harm NHS consultants. They are all immune to the poisons their multiple failures and greed have unleashed on society. A now unmasked contempt for all the ‘grifter’ classes who do not conform to their extreme Equalitarian groupthink – pro BLM, pro Net Zero, pro NHS, pro CRT pro magic money theory etc etc ‘ has been nurtured. Every and any class that contests Elite Virtue will be subject to deranged progressive rage.
I have a much better idea than all this educated-class flapdoodle. Because, cupcake, would-be Johan Huizingas are already lining up to write “The Autumn of the Educated-Class Ages.”
Let’s just say that the educated-class rule of the last century or so is destroying itself by virtue of its own internal contradictions.
The educated-class conceit is that it is the Ally of the Oppressed. But in fact its rule is a monstrous and merciless oppression of the ordinary middle class, that will echo down the ages as an unparalleled injustice.
An article that went in lots of different directions but didn’t say much.
In the UK Boris and his crew postured for a right turn on immigration and various other policies and crucified the opposition with a massive majority swing – the people had long tired of middle of the road complacent policy and he was finally a politician going to give them what they wanted.
The only problem being was once in, he didn’t deliver.
Immigrants in rubber boats in numbers that would fill stadiums being the most obvious on the BBC.
I find it ironic that you look over the water to the EU and their public want the same policies in place and are now starting down that road without the U turns.
Centrist thought sees this as populist (whatever that is) but it’s actually called “doing what you got voted in to enact”.
Democracy anyone?
The EU technocrats will play the long game, get these politicians to do their dirty work for them so they can keep their hands clean and maintain their piety in all things, seeing this as an indignant, unpleasant wave that must be ridden for a while until things settle down and then back to same old top down rule later on.
This publication goes in lots of different directions and doesn’t say much too.
This publication goes in lots of different directions and doesn’t say much too.
An article that went in lots of different directions but didn’t say much.
In the UK Boris and his crew postured for a right turn on immigration and various other policies and crucified the opposition with a massive majority swing – the people had long tired of middle of the road complacent policy and he was finally a politician going to give them what they wanted.
The only problem being was once in, he didn’t deliver.
Immigrants in rubber boats in numbers that would fill stadiums being the most obvious on the BBC.
I find it ironic that you look over the water to the EU and their public want the same policies in place and are now starting down that road without the U turns.
Centrist thought sees this as populist (whatever that is) but it’s actually called “doing what you got voted in to enact”.
Democracy anyone?
The EU technocrats will play the long game, get these politicians to do their dirty work for them so they can keep their hands clean and maintain their piety in all things, seeing this as an indignant, unpleasant wave that must be ridden for a while until things settle down and then back to same old top down rule later on.
The week before the Queen died it felt to me as though a page of history was turning, we know what was behind us but the new page looked blank. The picture is becoming clearer, we are in the age of Borders. The western elite and globalists have not yet realised however much they try, it is coming, for better and worse. The ordinary people of Europe are standing up to the globalists, our stand against them has stalled but will still happen. Either labour will get in, make things so much worse but clearer, or there will be a hung parliament, I’m not sure which will be better.
I agree. I think an interesting question is whether a ‘Blue Labour’ faction will reappear, one that understands this and rebukes the party’s current fascination with Wokery – one seeing the woods for the trees. I doubt it, mainly for generational issues (their newest MP is a classic example of where Labour is headed), but if the backlash against Net Zero becomes A Thing, who knows? Angela Rayner even said it – parties who don’t listen to voters get punished. A 180 by a Corbyn-supporter of the sort who, too often, blames the electorate rather than offered-up policies, for failure.
That’s a point well made. History (the academic version) isn’t supposed to be about Kings and Queens any more, but perhaps history (the popular version) may well look back upon our recent change of monarch as a turning point; at least in terms of timeline if not rule as such.
The one point made by Aris that actually furthered discourse on our times was regarding the change of focus in European politics away from the agenda determined by the two great wars of the last century.
I agree with this
I agree with this
The British would vote for nationalist parties but the voting system unlike in Europe makes it impossible. The same reason goes for the other side as to why the Greens will never get in. The best option is to let the Tory party die and an actual right-wing party may appear but even then it would be hard for them to get power with our voting system. Not to mention the demographic change…
Perhaps things have to get worse with a Labour government before the younger demographic realise they need to change who they vote for and the Conservatives decide their survival depends on aligning with the views and aspirations of the majority.
“Not to mention the demographic change…” Well, quite. As the author said “the Conservative Party’s hurling open of Britain’s borders will vastly outweigh the demographic changes wrought by {New Labour} in its transformative effect”. As someone in the Telegraph the other day remarked – words to the effect – it is unlikely that a post-Brexit Labour government would have dared to open the borders as wide as the Conservatives have done.
Oh, the irony! As everyone knows Brexit would never have happened had it not been for a desire to radically reduce the insane immigration levels which led to a demand for a referendum. So the Tories (meaning in practice the appalling Johnson) have doubled or trebled those insane levels.
The difference between Britain and the continental countries is not that we in this island are more, or less, liberal on immigration but that they have electoral systems (proportional representation) which enable public concerns to be quickly felt, we do not.
Perhaps things have to get worse with a Labour government before the younger demographic realise they need to change who they vote for and the Conservatives decide their survival depends on aligning with the views and aspirations of the majority.
“Not to mention the demographic change…” Well, quite. As the author said “the Conservative Party’s hurling open of Britain’s borders will vastly outweigh the demographic changes wrought by {New Labour} in its transformative effect”. As someone in the Telegraph the other day remarked – words to the effect – it is unlikely that a post-Brexit Labour government would have dared to open the borders as wide as the Conservatives have done.
Oh, the irony! As everyone knows Brexit would never have happened had it not been for a desire to radically reduce the insane immigration levels which led to a demand for a referendum. So the Tories (meaning in practice the appalling Johnson) have doubled or trebled those insane levels.
The difference between Britain and the continental countries is not that we in this island are more, or less, liberal on immigration but that they have electoral systems (proportional representation) which enable public concerns to be quickly felt, we do not.
I agree. I think an interesting question is whether a ‘Blue Labour’ faction will reappear, one that understands this and rebukes the party’s current fascination with Wokery – one seeing the woods for the trees. I doubt it, mainly for generational issues (their newest MP is a classic example of where Labour is headed), but if the backlash against Net Zero becomes A Thing, who knows? Angela Rayner even said it – parties who don’t listen to voters get punished. A 180 by a Corbyn-supporter of the sort who, too often, blames the electorate rather than offered-up policies, for failure.
That’s a point well made. History (the academic version) isn’t supposed to be about Kings and Queens any more, but perhaps history (the popular version) may well look back upon our recent change of monarch as a turning point; at least in terms of timeline if not rule as such.
The one point made by Aris that actually furthered discourse on our times was regarding the change of focus in European politics away from the agenda determined by the two great wars of the last century.
The British would vote for nationalist parties but the voting system unlike in Europe makes it impossible. The same reason goes for the other side as to why the Greens will never get in. The best option is to let the Tory party die and an actual right-wing party may appear but even then it would be hard for them to get power with our voting system. Not to mention the demographic change…
The week before the Queen died it felt to me as though a page of history was turning, we know what was behind us but the new page looked blank. The picture is becoming clearer, we are in the age of Borders. The western elite and globalists have not yet realised however much they try, it is coming, for better and worse. The ordinary people of Europe are standing up to the globalists, our stand against them has stalled but will still happen. Either labour will get in, make things so much worse but clearer, or there will be a hung parliament, I’m not sure which will be better.
This article has almost as many clever convoluted phrases as there are dinghies upon the channel.
This article has almost as many clever convoluted phrases as there are dinghies upon the channel.
“…in Britain, even the Right-wing populist parties are zealous economic liberals…”
To encounter a lie as blatant as this description of today’s leftist Conservative Party, just a few lines into the article is an “abandonment criterion” for me. The rest remained unread
I agree. I don’t think even the fringe parties are economics liberals.
Surely ‘Right-wing populist parties’ was nothing to do with ‘today’s leftist Conservative Party’.
I agree. I don’t think even the fringe parties are economics liberals.
Surely ‘Right-wing populist parties’ was nothing to do with ‘today’s leftist Conservative Party’.
“…in Britain, even the Right-wing populist parties are zealous economic liberals…”
To encounter a lie as blatant as this description of today’s leftist Conservative Party, just a few lines into the article is an “abandonment criterion” for me. The rest remained unread
Aris Roussinos should get out more. The major point of Brexit was to take back control, not keep looking over the fence at our neighbours. Unless, of course, you are a Rejoiner and want to get back into arguing about car parking spaces.
When I worked we had an unofficial office rule – no talking about Religion, the Monarchy, or car parking. It was too divisive and incapable of being resolved.
Control of what, exactly? Care to elaborate, instead of reciting slogans?
Those areas who voted to leave EU appear to correlate to the old Danelaw where serfdom was largely absent. Serfdom was far less in Cornwall and Kent than in affluent Midlands. Is there a correlation of voting Remain and areas which had the greatest and longest extent of Serfdom ?
Control of what, exactly? Care to elaborate, instead of reciting slogans?
Those areas who voted to leave EU appear to correlate to the old Danelaw where serfdom was largely absent. Serfdom was far less in Cornwall and Kent than in affluent Midlands. Is there a correlation of voting Remain and areas which had the greatest and longest extent of Serfdom ?
Aris Roussinos should get out more. The major point of Brexit was to take back control, not keep looking over the fence at our neighbours. Unless, of course, you are a Rejoiner and want to get back into arguing about car parking spaces.
When I worked we had an unofficial office rule – no talking about Religion, the Monarchy, or car parking. It was too divisive and incapable of being resolved.
No, Aris, all this proves is Britain is an outlier, its institutions, history and politics in no small part shaped by 22 miles of water separating us from the continent. Your article reads like one where you’ve come to a conclusion and worked backwards.
I know the author probably didn’t write the sub-heading, but it nevertheless exemplifies your point by casting the UK as an “outcast” rather than the reality of the choice brought about by referendum result.
Edit: i see the sub-header has now been changed…
Ben correctly identifies Britain has always having been an “outlier”. The only European country whose legal system is not based on the codification of Roman Law. As a country we were absent from the EU three line whip on burden sharing, migration, financial crisis etc, not to mention the well documented reluctance to join the Euro.
That’s where we were on 23rd June 2016, before the EU Ref. Outliers. Half in/half out, but outliers.
“Outcast” is a state of mind conferred on the Nation since by utterly certifiable nutcases on both sides of the debate. Not aiming this at you, obviously, Steve. I have made similar points about the sub-heading writer.
The bit that chimed with me about Aris’s piece is that the people who shout loudest about “Rejoin” seem to have the least understanding about the recent political re-alignment of countries that form the EU.
Also, in the wake of Ukraine, the strengthening of the awkward squad (Visegrad), especially the one country courted by both Trump and Biden, Poland, now the US realise that they might need a few folk in the East who don’t mind getting their hands dirty.
This is one of the reasons why I think Aris wrote the piece backwards – he chooses to ignore the growing military and economic significance of Poland. The Visegrad states have adopted a ‘cakeism’ within the EU of which the average ‘Leave’ voter would be proud – shrewdly taking the Union’s money whilst doing everything legally possible to avoid overreach. it’s revealing how captured by the EU the UK’s Vichy-like civil service are, seeing what was achievable even inside the Union when you dug your heels in. Even now, it feels like Visegrad countries are more ‘outside’ the institution than we are. The *true* outliers, perhaps, paradoxically are on the inside.
I was referring to the sub-header, which has now been changed, excluding the term “outcast” when referring to the UK.
The titling on this website is often sub-par and obviously aimed at clickbaiting
Of course, which I acknowledged. Thank you.
The titling on this website is often sub-par and obviously aimed at clickbaiting
Of course, which I acknowledged. Thank you.
This is one of the reasons why I think Aris wrote the piece backwards – he chooses to ignore the growing military and economic significance of Poland. The Visegrad states have adopted a ‘cakeism’ within the EU of which the average ‘Leave’ voter would be proud – shrewdly taking the Union’s money whilst doing everything legally possible to avoid overreach. it’s revealing how captured by the EU the UK’s Vichy-like civil service are, seeing what was achievable even inside the Union when you dug your heels in. Even now, it feels like Visegrad countries are more ‘outside’ the institution than we are. The *true* outliers, perhaps, paradoxically are on the inside.
I was referring to the sub-header, which has now been changed, excluding the term “outcast” when referring to the UK.
Ben correctly identifies Britain has always having been an “outlier”. The only European country whose legal system is not based on the codification of Roman Law. As a country we were absent from the EU three line whip on burden sharing, migration, financial crisis etc, not to mention the well documented reluctance to join the Euro.
That’s where we were on 23rd June 2016, before the EU Ref. Outliers. Half in/half out, but outliers.
“Outcast” is a state of mind conferred on the Nation since by utterly certifiable nutcases on both sides of the debate. Not aiming this at you, obviously, Steve. I have made similar points about the sub-heading writer.
The bit that chimed with me about Aris’s piece is that the people who shout loudest about “Rejoin” seem to have the least understanding about the recent political re-alignment of countries that form the EU.
Also, in the wake of Ukraine, the strengthening of the awkward squad (Visegrad), especially the one country courted by both Trump and Biden, Poland, now the US realise that they might need a few folk in the East who don’t mind getting their hands dirty.
I know the author probably didn’t write the sub-heading, but it nevertheless exemplifies your point by casting the UK as an “outcast” rather than the reality of the choice brought about by referendum result.
Edit: i see the sub-header has now been changed…
No, Aris, all this proves is Britain is an outlier, its institutions, history and politics in no small part shaped by 22 miles of water separating us from the continent. Your article reads like one where you’ve come to a conclusion and worked backwards.
Unlike many of the commenters so far, I think this is a brilliant essay, and the analysis is on the money on many fronts. The biggest mistake we can make regardless of political stance, is to wilfully not see sensibility flips brewing at the macro level. Beyond that, we are all liable to be wrong about accurately predicting consequences – for example I thought Russia would quickly steamroll Ukraine and I didn’t think the West would stand up for Ukraine to the extent it has, and I was incorrect on both counts.
Having said that, I think the essay is ignoring the factor of European demographics, which are dreadful – the only (relative) exceptions are France and the UK – and this will have a big say on how things pan out. I also think a large slice of UK conservatives will remain wary of the EU notwithstanding the rightwards tilt, because the question of the ‘democratic deficit’ still remains. I also think several more left/right flipflops are coming, as populaces look for someone, anyone, to deliver them from the economic thumbscrews that I’m afraid are set in place for the next couple of decades.
You’re absolutely right, and I’m finding it hard to understand so many comments and upvotes with the opposite view. But though there will, as you say, be many flip flops in the next couple of decades, I’m not sure that ‘left/right’ is correct – as AR indicates in the article, the language has failed to keep up with the politics. I have no clue what a currently Conservative voter thinks they are supporting that is ‘right-wing’, nor which ‘left-wing’ party is available to a Corbynist in a voting station.
You’re absolutely right, and I’m finding it hard to understand so many comments and upvotes with the opposite view. But though there will, as you say, be many flip flops in the next couple of decades, I’m not sure that ‘left/right’ is correct – as AR indicates in the article, the language has failed to keep up with the politics. I have no clue what a currently Conservative voter thinks they are supporting that is ‘right-wing’, nor which ‘left-wing’ party is available to a Corbynist in a voting station.
Unlike many of the commenters so far, I think this is a brilliant essay, and the analysis is on the money on many fronts. The biggest mistake we can make regardless of political stance, is to wilfully not see sensibility flips brewing at the macro level. Beyond that, we are all liable to be wrong about accurately predicting consequences – for example I thought Russia would quickly steamroll Ukraine and I didn’t think the West would stand up for Ukraine to the extent it has, and I was incorrect on both counts.
Having said that, I think the essay is ignoring the factor of European demographics, which are dreadful – the only (relative) exceptions are France and the UK – and this will have a big say on how things pan out. I also think a large slice of UK conservatives will remain wary of the EU notwithstanding the rightwards tilt, because the question of the ‘democratic deficit’ still remains. I also think several more left/right flipflops are coming, as populaces look for someone, anyone, to deliver them from the economic thumbscrews that I’m afraid are set in place for the next couple of decades.
The UK hasn’t had a right-wing government since Thatcher. Chance would be a fine thing.
European so-called “right-wing” parties are mainly economically illiberal, protectionist and bureaucratic. France’s Marine Le Pen is a case in point. She doesn’t want foreign competition or open markets, thanks very much.
The only “right wing” policy most of them have in common is on immigration.
What is economically illiberal about the UKs current system? From what I can see businesses have had almost everything they could have wished for for a long time. A globalised economy, massive immigration of cheap labour, the unions are all but destroyed and employees rights diminishing with creations such as zero hour’s contracts and the gig economy. Credit until very recently was inexpensive (and still isn’t particularly high by historical standards) and executive pay is completely unrestrained. How much more supply side assistance do they need in order for us to see the benefits they promised?
Much like the Communists who rather than admit their system was a failure simply claimed it hadn’t been tried properly yet, Thatcherite neoliberals are now falling into same trap. Never mind that homeownership rates are falling, we have a new category of full time workers needing government assistance to pay the bills, inequality is at record highs and privatised utilities are expensive and poorly performing, if just keep giving those at the top what they ask for eventually that money will trickle down
What is economically illiberal about the UKs current system? From what I can see businesses have had almost everything they could have wished for for a long time. A globalised economy, massive immigration of cheap labour, the unions are all but destroyed and employees rights diminishing with creations such as zero hour’s contracts and the gig economy. Credit until very recently was inexpensive (and still isn’t particularly high by historical standards) and executive pay is completely unrestrained. How much more supply side assistance do they need in order for us to see the benefits they promised?
Much like the Communists who rather than admit their system was a failure simply claimed it hadn’t been tried properly yet, Thatcherite neoliberals are now falling into same trap. Never mind that homeownership rates are falling, we have a new category of full time workers needing government assistance to pay the bills, inequality is at record highs and privatised utilities are expensive and poorly performing, if just keep giving those at the top what they ask for eventually that money will trickle down
The UK hasn’t had a right-wing government since Thatcher. Chance would be a fine thing.
European so-called “right-wing” parties are mainly economically illiberal, protectionist and bureaucratic. France’s Marine Le Pen is a case in point. She doesn’t want foreign competition or open markets, thanks very much.
The only “right wing” policy most of them have in common is on immigration.
The question in the 1930s was which political faction will rule? Now it’s which hedge fund?
That’s easy to resolve, repeal the 1823 Judgement of Death Act.
Prior to that, the punishment for fraud and uttering was a mandatory capital sentence. Unlike many other capital sentences* it was normally executed.
I very much doubt many of our esteemed ‘hedge fund managers’, ‘money lenders’ etc etc would “swing for it”, to lapse into the vernacular.
(* Commuted to transportation first to the West Indies and the American Colonies, and later to Botany Bay and Van Diemen’s Land.)
That’s easy to resolve, repeal the 1823 Judgement of Death Act.
Prior to that, the punishment for fraud and uttering was a mandatory capital sentence. Unlike many other capital sentences* it was normally executed.
I very much doubt many of our esteemed ‘hedge fund managers’, ‘money lenders’ etc etc would “swing for it”, to lapse into the vernacular.
(* Commuted to transportation first to the West Indies and the American Colonies, and later to Botany Bay and Van Diemen’s Land.)
The question in the 1930s was which political faction will rule? Now it’s which hedge fund?
I found this essay hard to read. I don’t think the failing is mine.
I found this essay hard to read. I don’t think the failing is mine.
When it comes to deciding the next government Starmer will not win at the next election. Labour may end up as the biggest party, but not with an overall majority.
When it comes to deciding the next government Starmer will not win at the next election. Labour may end up as the biggest party, but not with an overall majority.
Simply put, Europe is having its Bexit moment. We remain at the vanguard of the national/globalist fight. Can the Brexit vote get enacted by the current political class? The current state of the right suggests not. Apathy appears to have been the big winner in the recent by-elections – none of the above. Britian is left economically and right culturally. We need a new party to break through. Given the convergence of 4th ind revolution, sovereign debt crisis, climate challenges and ageing demographics, I suspect we get a different political arrangement. The spectrum I see – from one end no democracy (after all the AGI can predict the outcome) or e democracy at the other. Perhaps some form of swiss-style cantons/referenda as a happy.middle? In a uniparty world the current system cannot hold. Pitchforks will out.
The current iteration of the elite right won’t, because that strata are globalists in their bones. But it is eminently possible for a new right to emerge in the short term that is more nation centric. I don’t think there is much chance of such a new left emerging. In the medium and long term though, all such turns go for a burton, as simply not relevant to a world with large amounts of machine intelligence.
The current iteration of the elite right won’t, because that strata are globalists in their bones. But it is eminently possible for a new right to emerge in the short term that is more nation centric. I don’t think there is much chance of such a new left emerging. In the medium and long term though, all such turns go for a burton, as simply not relevant to a world with large amounts of machine intelligence.
Simply put, Europe is having its Bexit moment. We remain at the vanguard of the national/globalist fight. Can the Brexit vote get enacted by the current political class? The current state of the right suggests not. Apathy appears to have been the big winner in the recent by-elections – none of the above. Britian is left economically and right culturally. We need a new party to break through. Given the convergence of 4th ind revolution, sovereign debt crisis, climate challenges and ageing demographics, I suspect we get a different political arrangement. The spectrum I see – from one end no democracy (after all the AGI can predict the outcome) or e democracy at the other. Perhaps some form of swiss-style cantons/referenda as a happy.middle? In a uniparty world the current system cannot hold. Pitchforks will out.
‘When Labour wins the next election, Britain will assume a role in Europe something akin to the indomitable Gaulish village in Asterix: the last holdout of liberal-Left political power in a continent swinging firmly to the Right‘
THE UK as the indomitable liberal redoubt. Absolutely ridiculous proposition. Liberalism: the triumph of Enlightenment thinking; scientific materialism; secularism; universalism; the erosion of any mediating institutions between the individual and the state/corporate market; hyper-mobility; the dominance of corrosive transactionalism in every sphere of life including systems of welfare, the family and all areas of civil society – Liberalism is absolutely dominant everywhere on earth.
Utterly incoherent and in some places delusional
I do not think the Enlightenment applies to Britain. We had all the liberties foreigners desired by the late 17 th century if not earlier. The post 1689 British history is about freedom and the Agricultura land and Industrial Revolutions. Navigators breakfasted on steak and beer while the French revolted over a lack of bread.
Jacob Brownowski said The British enlightenment was the Industrial Revolution.
I do not think the Enlightenment applies to Britain. We had all the liberties foreigners desired by the late 17 th century if not earlier. The post 1689 British history is about freedom and the Agricultura land and Industrial Revolutions. Navigators breakfasted on steak and beer while the French revolted over a lack of bread.
Jacob Brownowski said The British enlightenment was the Industrial Revolution.
‘When Labour wins the next election, Britain will assume a role in Europe something akin to the indomitable Gaulish village in Asterix: the last holdout of liberal-Left political power in a continent swinging firmly to the Right‘
THE UK as the indomitable liberal redoubt. Absolutely ridiculous proposition. Liberalism: the triumph of Enlightenment thinking; scientific materialism; secularism; universalism; the erosion of any mediating institutions between the individual and the state/corporate market; hyper-mobility; the dominance of corrosive transactionalism in every sphere of life including systems of welfare, the family and all areas of civil society – Liberalism is absolutely dominant everywhere on earth.
Utterly incoherent and in some places delusional
This guy is UnHerd’s house troll. Sorry, but when I see his byline from now on, I’ll just skip – as with Oliver Bateman and Terry Eagleton. How long before I skip UnHerd altogether?
You have a point. This article shows he’s a bit unhinged by Brexit, outdated and meaningless labels of Left and Right, and shouting at odds and ends of events and minor parties as if they were major currents. Europe’s ‘move to the right’ is simply a reaction by its voters, those who live real lives and face hard truths, to the lack of moral fibre of its rulers. The UK hasn’t got there quite yet; they are only just realising that our own centre-right, the Tories, are as feeble-minded as the rest. We’ll catch up as soon as a a ‘muscular moderate’ emerges, but we may have to suffer the lurching incompetence of a Labour term first.
Just do it then. If you don’t want to listen to opposing viewpoints then go find some mindless internet forum to shout buzzwords in to. Stop looking for attention with empty threats and simply find a site more suited to your tastes
And Fazi
No, don’t.
I love to read all those guys because the comments sections to these articles (much more important reading than the articles themselves) gives me the ammunition and the counter arguments I need for sorting my own thoughts and ideas, thus preparing me for my debates with progressive friends.
Agree, when an article like this comes along, I usually read half of it, skip to the last paragraph and then read the comments . The comments make these intellectual gobbledygooks worthwhile…
Agree, when an article like this comes along, I usually read half of it, skip to the last paragraph and then read the comments . The comments make these intellectual gobbledygooks worthwhile…
You have a point. This article shows he’s a bit unhinged by Brexit, outdated and meaningless labels of Left and Right, and shouting at odds and ends of events and minor parties as if they were major currents. Europe’s ‘move to the right’ is simply a reaction by its voters, those who live real lives and face hard truths, to the lack of moral fibre of its rulers. The UK hasn’t got there quite yet; they are only just realising that our own centre-right, the Tories, are as feeble-minded as the rest. We’ll catch up as soon as a a ‘muscular moderate’ emerges, but we may have to suffer the lurching incompetence of a Labour term first.
Just do it then. If you don’t want to listen to opposing viewpoints then go find some mindless internet forum to shout buzzwords in to. Stop looking for attention with empty threats and simply find a site more suited to your tastes
And Fazi
No, don’t.
I love to read all those guys because the comments sections to these articles (much more important reading than the articles themselves) gives me the ammunition and the counter arguments I need for sorting my own thoughts and ideas, thus preparing me for my debates with progressive friends.
This guy is UnHerd’s house troll. Sorry, but when I see his byline from now on, I’ll just skip – as with Oliver Bateman and Terry Eagleton. How long before I skip UnHerd altogether?
Britain would have a more of a right wing if we had proportional representation voting system. A right wing party currently has no chance of getting any power here and therefore talented individuals will not get involved in nationalist politics. Unfortunately added to this is an anti intellectual sentiment so people don’t care for protecting their culture and keep their heads down.
Interesting. I was thinking exactly the same.
I think many people get confused with Aris’s indulgent use of paradoxes. Especially at the end when he highlights EU Federalism as now being a traditional right wing project which he reimagines as EU Progressivism. This reimagining obviously turns on his implicit central argument that Continental Europe is finally overcoming the dark shadow of its fascistic past which is allowing EU unification to occur through traditional right wing policies.
In this respect, national Progressive Britain is now the embodiment of a new European Conservatism whereas Progressive EU is the resurfacing of old right wing ideas.
I think Aris is trying to articulate an historical European political transition using a reversal of terminology but one that doesn’t really work. Just stick with Conservative and Progressive as they are rightly understood and instead preface Federalism with Conservative or Progressive.
Conservative driven EU Federalism or Progressive driven EU Federalism.
Interesting. I was thinking exactly the same.
I think many people get confused with Aris’s indulgent use of paradoxes. Especially at the end when he highlights EU Federalism as now being a traditional right wing project which he reimagines as EU Progressivism. This reimagining obviously turns on his implicit central argument that Continental Europe is finally overcoming the dark shadow of its fascistic past which is allowing EU unification to occur through traditional right wing policies.
In this respect, national Progressive Britain is now the embodiment of a new European Conservatism whereas Progressive EU is the resurfacing of old right wing ideas.
I think Aris is trying to articulate an historical European political transition using a reversal of terminology but one that doesn’t really work. Just stick with Conservative and Progressive as they are rightly understood and instead preface Federalism with Conservative or Progressive.
Conservative driven EU Federalism or Progressive driven EU Federalism.
Britain would have a more of a right wing if we had proportional representation voting system. A right wing party currently has no chance of getting any power here and therefore talented individuals will not get involved in nationalist politics. Unfortunately added to this is an anti intellectual sentiment so people don’t care for protecting their culture and keep their heads down.
I’m stuck trying figure what he means by “Republicans endorsing the worldview of their enemies by calling the Democrats “The Real Racists.” How is calling one’s political opponent a racist an endorsement of said opponent’s worldview?? Makes no sense to me at all.
I agree, it’s pretty convoluted: but i think he means that using the language of their opponents, i.e. “Racists” is a way of giving credibility to their use of such terms.
The worldview being endorsed is the one that says ‘racism is a very serious problem that we need to focus on’ — as opposed to ‘racism is a sideshow the wealthy liberals want to talk about so they don’t have to talk about class, poverty, inflation, violence or countless other more important things’.
I agree, it’s pretty convoluted: but i think he means that using the language of their opponents, i.e. “Racists” is a way of giving credibility to their use of such terms.
The worldview being endorsed is the one that says ‘racism is a very serious problem that we need to focus on’ — as opposed to ‘racism is a sideshow the wealthy liberals want to talk about so they don’t have to talk about class, poverty, inflation, violence or countless other more important things’.
I’m stuck trying figure what he means by “Republicans endorsing the worldview of their enemies by calling the Democrats “The Real Racists.” How is calling one’s political opponent a racist an endorsement of said opponent’s worldview?? Makes no sense to me at all.
What exactly is this article trying to say? It appears to be the ramblings of a Leftist Euro-federalist suffocating under the inevitable failure of that doctrine under its inhetent contradictions
What exactly is this article trying to say? It appears to be the ramblings of a Leftist Euro-federalist suffocating under the inevitable failure of that doctrine under its inhetent contradictions
I never fully agree with Aris, but he’s written many articles more coherent than this one.
When are journalists going to stop talking in terms of Left and Right?
The terms are a nonsense. It’s sometimes not even clear which label Aris would choose (I suspect he’s a Big State Nationalist, more of the pre-Thatcher Right than the Left, but he’s regularly assumed to be a Leftist).
The reality is that we have several axes, and although voters cluster at certain points in this multi-dimensional space, it’s hard to say where the “Left” and “Right” labels go:
* respect for rule of law (including strong borders)
* respect for individual freedom
* respect for reality
* concern for national defence and self-sufficiency
* desire for involvement in American-led foreign adventures
* desire to protect the environment
* desire for redistribution of wealth
* preference for balanced budgets
* preference for low vs high legal migration
* preference for traditional British culture vs multiculturalism
* preference for protectionism vs unrestricted international trade
Traditional Old Labour working class leftists were all for redistribution of wealth and protectionism, but outside the economic sphere they were well-grounded in reality (you wouldn’t catch them claiming men were women, and vice versa). They cared more about law & order and national defence than they did about saving the planet, and they weren’t all that keen on foreigners.
New Labour were as different from Old Labour as they were from Thatcher’s Conservatives. They were keen to tear down centuries of tradition, and push the state into every area of our lives. They claimed to care about the environment, but their policies in this area made no sense. Their “idealistic commitment to multiculturalism” was real, at least as far as they enjoyed annoying “racists”, but the more cynical among them were well aware that corporate interests enjoyed cheap labour.
Conservatives from Cameron until Truss just carried on New Labour policies, with a bit more financial discipline in the Cameron-Osborne years and unbelievable financial recklessness in the Johnson-Sunak years.
Truss really was ideologically different, but she combined some sensible instincts (seek growth, allow markets to operate, leave people alone) with some mad ones (prioritise tax cuts for the rich, ramp up legal migration).
Aside from some deranged youngsters, who accept American Progressive politics unthinkingly, most British people are closer to each other in their views than they are to the bundle of policies offered by any of our parties, “Left” or “Right”.
I never fully agree with Aris, but he’s written many articles more coherent than this one.
When are journalists going to stop talking in terms of Left and Right?
The terms are a nonsense. It’s sometimes not even clear which label Aris would choose (I suspect he’s a Big State Nationalist, more of the pre-Thatcher Right than the Left, but he’s regularly assumed to be a Leftist).
The reality is that we have several axes, and although voters cluster at certain points in this multi-dimensional space, it’s hard to say where the “Left” and “Right” labels go:
* respect for rule of law (including strong borders)
* respect for individual freedom
* respect for reality
* concern for national defence and self-sufficiency
* desire for involvement in American-led foreign adventures
* desire to protect the environment
* desire for redistribution of wealth
* preference for balanced budgets
* preference for low vs high legal migration
* preference for traditional British culture vs multiculturalism
* preference for protectionism vs unrestricted international trade
Traditional Old Labour working class leftists were all for redistribution of wealth and protectionism, but outside the economic sphere they were well-grounded in reality (you wouldn’t catch them claiming men were women, and vice versa). They cared more about law & order and national defence than they did about saving the planet, and they weren’t all that keen on foreigners.
New Labour were as different from Old Labour as they were from Thatcher’s Conservatives. They were keen to tear down centuries of tradition, and push the state into every area of our lives. They claimed to care about the environment, but their policies in this area made no sense. Their “idealistic commitment to multiculturalism” was real, at least as far as they enjoyed annoying “racists”, but the more cynical among them were well aware that corporate interests enjoyed cheap labour.
Conservatives from Cameron until Truss just carried on New Labour policies, with a bit more financial discipline in the Cameron-Osborne years and unbelievable financial recklessness in the Johnson-Sunak years.
Truss really was ideologically different, but she combined some sensible instincts (seek growth, allow markets to operate, leave people alone) with some mad ones (prioritise tax cuts for the rich, ramp up legal migration).
Aside from some deranged youngsters, who accept American Progressive politics unthinkingly, most British people are closer to each other in their views than they are to the bundle of policies offered by any of our parties, “Left” or “Right”.
Britain was never designed to be run by the lower middle classes…
What about Non Conformist, tough, practical, patriotic working class such as Ernie Bevin( Baptist Preacher ) ?
Bevin was the epitome of a solid working class, patriotic Englishman, who could ‘smell’ a treacherous ‘Commie’ at five hundred yards.
He was also the man who gave us the ‘bomb’. Bravo!
He should NOT be confused with the odious Nye BEVAN, he of the notorious ‘vermin’ speech’.
Bevin was the epitome of a solid working class, patriotic Englishman, who could ‘smell’ a treacherous ‘Commie’ at five hundred yards.
He was also the man who gave us the ‘bomb’. Bravo!
He should NOT be confused with the odious Nye BEVAN, he of the notorious ‘vermin’ speech’.
What about Non Conformist, tough, practical, patriotic working class such as Ernie Bevin( Baptist Preacher ) ?
Britain was never designed to be run by the lower middle classes…
Pretentious drivel
Pretentious drivel
The EEC has never been Liberal or democratic. It is an oligarchic bureaucracy largely founded by Christian and Socialist Democrats, mostly Roman Catholic, to prevent, the domination of Europe by Communist and or Nazis/ Fascist. The 1920s and 1930s Europe is a period of conflict involving violence between the Communist and Nazis/Fascist. The EEC has been designed to prevent democracy, the type where dictators can be elected to power by giving civil servants, of the French sort (E N A) and appointed politicians, the power to thwart the popular mandate.
Britain never experienced the political violence of the 1920s and 1930s, defeat, capitulation and collaboration. The Anglo Phone World in the 1920s and 1930s did not capitulate to dictatorship: most of the EU did.
The last time Europe was united under Charlemagne. If one looks at Europe until Britain joined, it is Charlemagne’s Empire , Netherland, Belgium, France, West Germany and Northern Italy. This is why the EU has the Charlemagne Prize. If one looks at then political heart of the EU it is close to Charlemagne’s capital of Aachen
The European Coal and Steel Community formed in 1951, by controlling coal and steel prevented any further war. One cannot build tanks and guns from wood.
European Coal and Steel Community – Wikipedia
If those countries had stopped with the Coal and Steel Community , re- created a Hanseatic League based upon free trade and nothing else and not tried to re-create Charlemagne’s Empire, we would have a prosperous Europe, which respected local cultures and allowed countries to play to their strengths.
Those founding the EEC and EU (Spain obviously had experience of conflict and war ) did it to prevent war. Britain joined for trade reasons. Consequently the EU will sacrifice all and everything to maintain a political union, including introducing the Euro, a currency which benefits Germany the most and devastates countries such as Greece.
De Gaulle said Europe is France and Germany, the rest are trimmings. It was the French jockey on the German Horse.
What brings empires down is over reach. It is resentment of the USA power and a desire to recreate Charlemagne’s Empire in order to match the USA and USSR which has caused the problems.
Jean Monnet – Wikipedi
Paul-Henri Spaak – Wikipedia
Walter Hallstein – Wikipedia
Robert Schuman – Wikipedia
Alcide De Gasperi – Wikipedia
The EEC has never been Liberal or democratic. It is an oligarchic bureaucracy largely founded by Christian and Socialist Democrats, mostly Roman Catholic, to prevent, the domination of Europe by Communist and or Nazis/ Fascist. The 1920s and 1930s Europe is a period of conflict involving violence between the Communist and Nazis/Fascist. The EEC has been designed to prevent democracy, the type where dictators can be elected to power by giving civil servants, of the French sort (E N A) and appointed politicians, the power to thwart the popular mandate.
Britain never experienced the political violence of the 1920s and 1930s, defeat, capitulation and collaboration. The Anglo Phone World in the 1920s and 1930s did not capitulate to dictatorship: most of the EU did.
The last time Europe was united under Charlemagne. If one looks at Europe until Britain joined, it is Charlemagne’s Empire , Netherland, Belgium, France, West Germany and Northern Italy. This is why the EU has the Charlemagne Prize. If one looks at then political heart of the EU it is close to Charlemagne’s capital of Aachen
The European Coal and Steel Community formed in 1951, by controlling coal and steel prevented any further war. One cannot build tanks and guns from wood.
European Coal and Steel Community – Wikipedia
If those countries had stopped with the Coal and Steel Community , re- created a Hanseatic League based upon free trade and nothing else and not tried to re-create Charlemagne’s Empire, we would have a prosperous Europe, which respected local cultures and allowed countries to play to their strengths.
Those founding the EEC and EU (Spain obviously had experience of conflict and war ) did it to prevent war. Britain joined for trade reasons. Consequently the EU will sacrifice all and everything to maintain a political union, including introducing the Euro, a currency which benefits Germany the most and devastates countries such as Greece.
De Gaulle said Europe is France and Germany, the rest are trimmings. It was the French jockey on the German Horse.
What brings empires down is over reach. It is resentment of the USA power and a desire to recreate Charlemagne’s Empire in order to match the USA and USSR which has caused the problems.
Jean Monnet – Wikipedi
Paul-Henri Spaak – Wikipedia
Walter Hallstein – Wikipedia
Robert Schuman – Wikipedia
Alcide De Gasperi – Wikipedia
I’m trying to pick the croutons out of this word salad – and struggling to get much nutrition
I’m trying to pick the croutons out of this word salad – and struggling to get much nutrition
Reading about the Gordon Brown essay which sees “fascism” everywhere it strikes me that the development of a professional politician class has been very damaging. Brown was a student politician who became an adult politician; the young man who was elected for Selby last week studied history and politics and is now a politician. Such people see everything in terms of a political essay, or article, or speech: if they spent 20 years doing something else, with people who weren’t that interested in politics, their perspective would be completely different and to my mind a lot more useful.
Reading about the Gordon Brown essay which sees “fascism” everywhere it strikes me that the development of a professional politician class has been very damaging. Brown was a student politician who became an adult politician; the young man who was elected for Selby last week studied history and politics and is now a politician. Such people see everything in terms of a political essay, or article, or speech: if they spent 20 years doing something else, with people who weren’t that interested in politics, their perspective would be completely different and to my mind a lot more useful.
Aris – great topic and interesting perspective, but I would respectfully suggest a Summary or Abstract at the start of all your articles. From reading the comments, this would be very welcome as most readers feel that you are too verbose.
Aris – great topic and interesting perspective, but I would respectfully suggest a Summary or Abstract at the start of all your articles. From reading the comments, this would be very welcome as most readers feel that you are too verbose.
An interesting article but not entirely correct. Aris has fallen foul of the same error he notes in the Left. “.. in Britain, even the Right-wing populist parties are zealous economic liberals.” Not true: UKIP had a very socialist set of economic policies in its 2019 manifesto but the Left couldn’t see past it’s immigration policy, so of course labelled it fascist.
I’m not sure either that Europe is drifting Right – except that controlling immigration is seen as Right wing. It’s more, as in Britain, a move by voters against hopeless incumbents.
An interesting article but not entirely correct. Aris has fallen foul of the same error he notes in the Left. “.. in Britain, even the Right-wing populist parties are zealous economic liberals.” Not true: UKIP had a very socialist set of economic policies in its 2019 manifesto but the Left couldn’t see past it’s immigration policy, so of course labelled it fascist.
I’m not sure either that Europe is drifting Right – except that controlling immigration is seen as Right wing. It’s more, as in Britain, a move by voters against hopeless incumbents.
An article about right-wing politics and conservatism with 13 mentions of “fascist/ism” and zero mentions of “family”.
In case anyone didn’t understand the author’s perspective.
An article about right-wing politics and conservatism with 13 mentions of “fascist/ism” and zero mentions of “family”.
In case anyone didn’t understand the author’s perspective.
“… historical fascism was hardly noted for its belief in the inviolability of national borders, after all”.
No, Aris, that’s precisely what historical fascism was noted for. You’re mistaking the state for the nation. State borders were violable; national borders, not. Germans in Sudetenland (or Austria, or Memel, or Danzig) were within the inviolable national border, the nation of Germans.
“… historical fascism was hardly noted for its belief in the inviolability of national borders, after all”.
No, Aris, that’s precisely what historical fascism was noted for. You’re mistaking the state for the nation. State borders were violable; national borders, not. Germans in Sudetenland (or Austria, or Memel, or Danzig) were within the inviolable national border, the nation of Germans.
Odd, in UK especially, the leftist liberal led imposition of “climate friendly” policies, inefficient heat pumps, banning wood fires and welcoming dubious refugees.
Imposition of electric cars which cost more and use even more fossil fuels to make and run. Gender bias and other minorities’ positive discrimination, brainwashing the young and so on, is not seen as fascism.
That Europe may be seeing sense at last, the silenced centre sensible are awake and could cooperate with us on trade and science again is seen as fascism.
All part and parcel of this deluded hypocrite’s hogwash. We have to pay for this. Perhaps we should reciprocate and charge him reading time. Unherd would go bust in no time.
Odd, in UK especially, the leftist liberal led imposition of “climate friendly” policies, inefficient heat pumps, banning wood fires and welcoming dubious refugees.
Imposition of electric cars which cost more and use even more fossil fuels to make and run. Gender bias and other minorities’ positive discrimination, brainwashing the young and so on, is not seen as fascism.
That Europe may be seeing sense at last, the silenced centre sensible are awake and could cooperate with us on trade and science again is seen as fascism.
All part and parcel of this deluded hypocrite’s hogwash. We have to pay for this. Perhaps we should reciprocate and charge him reading time. Unherd would go bust in no time.
I can’t see how anyone could claim that fascism suffered “total obliteration in 1945”. The Soviet Union continued as a fascist state, and Russia continues from that, along with the theoretically independent former Soviet republics, of which only Ukraine has escaped. And then there was Spain and Portugal, happily even identifying as fascist until their respective dictators fell off their perches. Then there was Tito in Jugoslavia. Just because a regime calls itself ‘communist’ it doesn’t mean that it is. And that lot is just Europe!
I can’t see how anyone could claim that fascism suffered “total obliteration in 1945”. The Soviet Union continued as a fascist state, and Russia continues from that, along with the theoretically independent former Soviet republics, of which only Ukraine has escaped. And then there was Spain and Portugal, happily even identifying as fascist until their respective dictators fell off their perches. Then there was Tito in Jugoslavia. Just because a regime calls itself ‘communist’ it doesn’t mean that it is. And that lot is just Europe!
“…despite its total obliteration in 1945, “fascism once more became the dominant menace in the political and rhetorical imaginary,””
As far as the Axis powers were concerned Fascism was defeated in 1943 when Italy was defeated. In 1945 it was National Socialism that was totally obliterated. There were several important doctrinal differences between the rival ideologies.
“…despite its total obliteration in 1945, “fascism once more became the dominant menace in the political and rhetorical imaginary,””
As far as the Axis powers were concerned Fascism was defeated in 1943 when Italy was defeated. In 1945 it was National Socialism that was totally obliterated. There were several important doctrinal differences between the rival ideologies.
Part way through I had to look up the dictionary definition of ‘liberal’. I found nothing about right-wing, fascism, populism, or globalism, just what seems quite reasonable: ‘political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law’ [Wikipedia]. This seems to me very different from neo-liberalism and its bid to make the USA the single world power and remake the world in its corporate image. Maybe we need a new word for ‘liberal hegemony’ because it does not seem very liberal for the vast majority of the world’s population. And another thing: what is wrong with a commitment to border security? All life follows that policy.
Part way through I had to look up the dictionary definition of ‘liberal’. I found nothing about right-wing, fascism, populism, or globalism, just what seems quite reasonable: ‘political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law’ [Wikipedia]. This seems to me very different from neo-liberalism and its bid to make the USA the single world power and remake the world in its corporate image. Maybe we need a new word for ‘liberal hegemony’ because it does not seem very liberal for the vast majority of the world’s population. And another thing: what is wrong with a commitment to border security? All life follows that policy.
“There will never again be war on the European continent ….”
“There will never again be war on the European continent ….”
This is fan fiction, right? Its curious oscillation between historical fact and inventive fantasy yields a narrative unconnected with reality, even as a negation of it; but abandoning logical inference and analytical rigor in favour of creativity and fevered imagination was the whole idea, yes? An interesting if unexpected departure for Unherd. We’ll see how it’s reviewed.
This is fan fiction, right? Its curious oscillation between historical fact and inventive fantasy yields a narrative unconnected with reality, even as a negation of it; but abandoning logical inference and analytical rigor in favour of creativity and fevered imagination was the whole idea, yes? An interesting if unexpected departure for Unherd. We’ll see how it’s reviewed.
Barely comprehensible word salad (reminds me a tad of my litcrit essays at college) and all to indulge in the predictable and bitter remoaner caricature at the end. Please remember Aris that history is a long game and nobody really knows what’s round the corner or how things will pan out in 10, 20 or 50 years time.
Barely comprehensible word salad (reminds me a tad of my litcrit essays at college) and all to indulge in the predictable and bitter remoaner caricature at the end. Please remember Aris that history is a long game and nobody really knows what’s round the corner or how things will pan out in 10, 20 or 50 years time.
The article is about Europe and UK, but it made me think more about US since UK’s future is impossible to untangle from US.
I’d come to see the progressive movement in US as something of a bad joke until recently. This was because Wokeism appears to be have arrived due to a reaction of the American elite to both Left and Right-wing populism that got a hold of American politics making Trump a president. It’s not something anyone actually wanted or believed in, just something that was necessary for the powers that be to continue to hold on to that power.
But now I’m beginning to think it may last longer. What if Americans have in fact managed to innovate a new form of Communism? Communism is ownership of all property by the state. Woke Inc appears to favour ownership of all property by large Woke corporations. This would be a political innovation that marries American conservatism with a progressive outlook: a role that liberalism used to play until recently.
Given the choice between a Right-wing Europe and progressive extremist US, I suspect UK would chose to side with the latter. Perhaps the roles are being reversed 100 years later. Considering Fascism of the 30s was a form of progressive extremism, perhaps it’s the English speaking world’s turn to take the proverbial flag now.
In the USA, there’s a feeling that ‘woke’ has peaked…if from nothing else, public exhaustion of its antics. But the battle continues….
In the USA, there’s a feeling that ‘woke’ has peaked…if from nothing else, public exhaustion of its antics. But the battle continues….
The article is about Europe and UK, but it made me think more about US since UK’s future is impossible to untangle from US.
I’d come to see the progressive movement in US as something of a bad joke until recently. This was because Wokeism appears to be have arrived due to a reaction of the American elite to both Left and Right-wing populism that got a hold of American politics making Trump a president. It’s not something anyone actually wanted or believed in, just something that was necessary for the powers that be to continue to hold on to that power.
But now I’m beginning to think it may last longer. What if Americans have in fact managed to innovate a new form of Communism? Communism is ownership of all property by the state. Woke Inc appears to favour ownership of all property by large Woke corporations. This would be a political innovation that marries American conservatism with a progressive outlook: a role that liberalism used to play until recently.
Given the choice between a Right-wing Europe and progressive extremist US, I suspect UK would chose to side with the latter. Perhaps the roles are being reversed 100 years later. Considering Fascism of the 30s was a form of progressive extremism, perhaps it’s the English speaking world’s turn to take the proverbial flag now.
If we look a layer below the socio-political level of commitment, I think we will see in the modern liberal (who assumes he’s the reasonable one) a sort of intellectual dishonesty and cowardice that has supported, defended, and even promoted the sort of illiberal narrative driven authoritarianism. That sort of cowardice that goes along with what clearly seems to be dishonest, harmful, and antihuman commitments should help us understand what’s really to blame, and how it’s those within modern liberalism itself that are part of the problem.
This is one of the fatal flaws of todays self-proclaimed liberals. They’re great at externalizing everything, and want to make anyone and anything responsible and therefore accountable except themselves.
As it stands, when one extreme is force fed to people, and the truth that would balance it out is demonized and censored, it eventually gives rise to an extreme expression of that position.
I would also appeal to the fact that the West has run its course in regards to its core beliefs. The sort of deeper understanding of an eternal soul, a just God who will judge mankind, and the ethical constructs of Western Christianity have been jettisoned, and therefore what remains is too hollow of any real substance to form personal character that is required for the sustaining of a healthy Western culture. That’s going to be replaced with something.
There is a reason Klaus Schwab wears his little Klingon outfit, and they have their little rituals. His beliefs are at the level of a religion. We’re dealing with the establishment of new religions, and people will hold to their religions with such zeal that no amount of logic or evidence will get through. There is a reason the climate people will glue their bodies to the road, or like the one in the US did set his own body on fire. It’s the same reasons behind the Nazi like rituals, symbols, and idolizing Stepan Bandera in Ukraine and even Poland, or the zeal, and fervor beyond all logic reasoning at which the LGBT, or abortion issues have expressed themselves. Like it or not, whatever you consider and call “liberalism” relies on the accepted universal truths it was built on, or it dies, and something far darker awaits to fill the hollowed out void in hollowed out people.
If we look a layer below the socio-political level of commitment, I think we will see in the modern liberal (who assumes he’s the reasonable one) a sort of intellectual dishonesty and cowardice that has supported, defended, and even promoted the sort of illiberal narrative driven authoritarianism. That sort of cowardice that goes along with what clearly seems to be dishonest, harmful, and antihuman commitments should help us understand what’s really to blame, and how it’s those within modern liberalism itself that are part of the problem.
This is one of the fatal flaws of todays self-proclaimed liberals. They’re great at externalizing everything, and want to make anyone and anything responsible and therefore accountable except themselves.
As it stands, when one extreme is force fed to people, and the truth that would balance it out is demonized and censored, it eventually gives rise to an extreme expression of that position.
I would also appeal to the fact that the West has run its course in regards to its core beliefs. The sort of deeper understanding of an eternal soul, a just God who will judge mankind, and the ethical constructs of Western Christianity have been jettisoned, and therefore what remains is too hollow of any real substance to form personal character that is required for the sustaining of a healthy Western culture. That’s going to be replaced with something.
There is a reason Klaus Schwab wears his little Klingon outfit, and they have their little rituals. His beliefs are at the level of a religion. We’re dealing with the establishment of new religions, and people will hold to their religions with such zeal that no amount of logic or evidence will get through. There is a reason the climate people will glue their bodies to the road, or like the one in the US did set his own body on fire. It’s the same reasons behind the Nazi like rituals, symbols, and idolizing Stepan Bandera in Ukraine and even Poland, or the zeal, and fervor beyond all logic reasoning at which the LGBT, or abortion issues have expressed themselves. Like it or not, whatever you consider and call “liberalism” relies on the accepted universal truths it was built on, or it dies, and something far darker awaits to fill the hollowed out void in hollowed out people.
The Conservative Party was always more keen on the EC than Labour, and it was Heath who took the UK in. I suspect it will be a Conservative and not Labour Government which rejoins sometime in the 2030’s.
The Conservative Party was always more keen on the EC than Labour, and it was Heath who took the UK in. I suspect it will be a Conservative and not Labour Government which rejoins sometime in the 2030’s.
Democrats are the real racists.
But it’s true, and personally I predicted this years ago – Britain leaving the EU would result in the rise of populism in Europe.
At the time I didn’t realise I’d be grateful for it when it happened.
Democrats are the real racists.
But it’s true, and personally I predicted this years ago – Britain leaving the EU would result in the rise of populism in Europe.
At the time I didn’t realise I’d be grateful for it when it happened.
What a load of waffle.
What a load of waffle.
A very good piece.
a hilariously bad piece
a hilariously bad piece
A very good piece.
What’s the big deal with pointing out that the EU is becoming more right wing and more militaristic? All self evident, and the author is right. Lots of buyers remorse among the gnashing ranks of the Brelievers lol.
I don’t have ‘buyers remorse’. I just find it odd that so many ‘remainers’ that still want to overturn the democratic vote to leave still think that ‘Europe’ is 1960’s France.
WT F has Brexit got to do with it? Try getting out more.
I don’t have ‘buyers remorse’. I just find it odd that so many ‘remainers’ that still want to overturn the democratic vote to leave still think that ‘Europe’ is 1960’s France.
WT F has Brexit got to do with it? Try getting out more.
What’s the big deal with pointing out that the EU is becoming more right wing and more militaristic? All self evident, and the author is right. Lots of buyers remorse among the gnashing ranks of the Brelievers lol.