Oh, When Will Britain Just Grow Up?

Peter Hitchens writes:

Oh, when will Britain just grow up? We have no money, yet we spend billions on arming Ukraine in a dubious war in which we have no national interest. We cannot control the beaches on our southern shores, on which strangers land almost daily, but we tail along behind the Americans in the pretence that we can control the Red Sea as we seek (as far as I can grasp) to get entangled in yet another war in the Middle East. Haven't we had enough of these stupid brawls?

We spend decades failing to do justice to wronged postmasters. We cannot keep order in our pothole-peppered streets. Our children can't read or write. Our universities, when they are not imposing mad speech codes on students and teachers, sell themselves to the highest bidder to ensure they can pay their vice-chancellors' enormous salaries.

We have created a society in which working hard is probably the worst possible route to riches. If you want to be comfortably off (and perhaps get a decoration or a peerage too), go and strip some assets, or sell dodgy PPE to the NHS, or some such.

Look, we are astonishingly fortunate. We have a birthright of immense value, an uninvaded, beautiful territory handed down to us by our parents and grandparents in what was, all things considered, pretty good condition.

We have all the resources and skills needed to prosper. We have priceless possessions – the rule of law, freedom of speech and thought, general mutual trust, an inheritance of buildings and transport systems which, lovingly looked after, will serve us for centuries to come.

If we cultivated our own garden and ensured it was well-defended enough to keep enemies away, we would remain one of the most enviable nations on the planet.

If we wanted to fix our major problems, it would not actually be that hard. The difficulty is that nobody does want to fix them.

I've written and spoken about them for years, from the destruction of the family and the schools to the trashing of our culture, morals and history, and a few kind people have listened – but in general I might as well have stayed in bed.

A big reason for this is that we cannot tear ourselves away from the delusion that we are a Great Power, swaying the destinies of nations all over the world. We are not.

How anyone can think this who has visited (say) Blackpool in recent years, or wandered down one of scores of gap-toothed high streets, or endured our public transport system, or tried to find an NHS dentist, I do not know.

How can we be giving money and weapons away to others, when so much of our heavy taxation goes to pay interest on our nation's huge debts? How are we embroiled in an Eastern European shambles which 99 per cent of the population do not even understand, when our Navy is shrinking visibly, from neglect of its ships and from the growing unwillingness of anyone to serve in it? I can't bring myself to mention the state of the Army, so embarrassing has it become.

There should be, in this country, a great wave of outrage and frustration, big enough to sweep the existing political parties off the map and start again. But the only passions which engage anyone are futile ones, especially the dreadful cult of Net Zero. And, of course, the great political standby, another bloody foreign war.

And:

At some point I shall write at more length about the High Court's failure last week to come to the aid of Graham Phillips, the unlovable video blogger sanctioned by the Foreign Office.

The case is not about Mr Phillips. It is about free speech, and whether the Government can punish people for exercising it. And in the judgment issued on Friday by Mr Justice Johnson, it is clear that the Sanctions and Anti-Money-Laundering Act of 2018 has this effect.

He said: 'The provisions that apply here were intended to impact on fundamental rights, including free speech.' Did you know that? Neither did I. To clear up any doubt he later added: 'The Act was intended to permit the Secretary of State (in certain circumstances) to make regulations that authorise the imposition of sanctions in response to the exercise of free speech.'

What Mr Phillips is accused of doing is in some way 'destabilising' Ukraine, or 'undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine'. Personally, I doubt whether Mr Phillips's crude and minor output could destabilise a child's spinning top. Nor has it helped the Putin war effort. The wording is obviously a catch-all.

And here's what I think is the key bit of Mr Justice Johnson's judgment, where he says it is 'foreseeable' that 'a person who positively supports Russia's propaganda war against Ukraine (for example by parroting Russia's propaganda narrative), rather than simply expressing an independent view which happens to align with Russia's interests' might also face having his assets and income frozen.

Well, I regard my position on the Ukraine war as an entirely independent one. I never even read or listen to Russian propaganda on the matter. But I am, even so, almost daily accused on social media of 'parroting' Russian positions, and if someone like Liz Truss or Lord Cameron or James Cleverly decides, without any form of trial, to accuse me of such 'parroting', then I too could be sanctioned.

I might say I was (in the judge's words) 'an objective independent and fair-minded journalist' who had happened to say things that 'did not align' with UK Government policy. But how would I prove it? The Government would be its own prosecution, judge and jury, and my only recourse would be to take the matter before someone, well, like Mr Justice Johnson. Be warned. These are dark times for dissent.

And:

The Defence Secretary, a Mr Grant Shapps, asks the Royal Marines to justify their existence.

As far as I know, Mr Shapps's only definite achievement in many years of undistinguished office has been the introduction of the accursed e-scooter to our roads (and, more importantly, to our pavements).

Once, his actions would have seen him laughed out of office. Now they will make an interesting footnote in the history of this country's final decline, which will be written by whoever conquers us.