For reasons I don’t fully comprehend, it’s about this time of year when I really struggle to get to to sleep, so I’ve got into the habit of listening to a political podcast at bedtime in the hope it will bore me asleep.
Good take. The Remain and EU reaction to Brexit should for anyone who isn’t in their indoctrinated camp confirm the necessity of Brexit. The EU has essentially refused to recognise the vote and determined to 1. Punish the UK as severely as possible through forced negotiations in bad faith and 2. Conspire with Remain politicians and organisations to keep running the Brexit campaign for a decade after the result. These two choices show that the EU is a hostile power. When you ask for a divorce and the response is the ex partner stalking you, spying on you, and attempting to beat you up and impoverish you, it confirms that the divorce was necessary and what’s necessary next is to remove yourself as far as possible from the ex.
It was never just the economics. It was always this attitude that they own and control us (from both the EU itself and its smug, arrogant but perversely submissive British supporters). Remainers act like the courtiers and favourites of a foreign absolute monarch. They all make it very clear that they hate us.
Besides which, everything they say about the economics is a lie anyway because they take ten years of COVID lockdown insanity, insanely high tax levels crippling the economy, vast and fraudulent wasteful spending and Net Zero madness as ‘the cost of Brexit’, when none of those things has anything to do with Brexit. You can look on GDP growth charts and instantly debunk the Brexit damage argument-the huge damage is in 2020, not 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019. And Remainers were generally also COVID fanatics.
"....while our politicians have had the power and the opportunity to change tack, they simply don’t want to."
I don't think as your title suggests 'Decline is a policy choice' - I believe we are in serious decline because the clear majority of our politicians are incompetent cosmetic charlatans.
But they do seem to like the idea of being ruled by the EU Commission again. I understand that because then they can draw the money and do very little. Brexit has shown them to be incompetent.
Excellent article. We’ve probably fared better these past ten years than if we’d remained in the EU. Without doubt our contribution to the AI economy would have been far less significant if we were constrained by EU laws and stifling regulations. And even though they’ve acted vindictively and used Northern Ireland as a stick to beat us economically we’ve survived ok and reduced our dependence on their trade. Just imagine how well we could have done with proper leadership from people who believed in a future outside the EU.
I do have some sympathy with those that saw their businesses all but destroyed, as we left, plus there are many who don't understand the importance of leaving an organisation where The unaccountable unelected Commission writes the law.
So Pete - one of your best substacks to date. 🌟.... maybe 🌟🌟!
Brexit is/was a process - it took 45 laborious years of EU membership to realise the mistake we had made - disentangling was always going to take a long time. And yes, it's painful, by god it's painful.
Muncheau wrote a couple of years ago that Brexit was an almost economic non -event - as was pointed out by another commentator above. Plus, given the utter crap that the EU finds itself in : Ukraine, migration, Russia, unstable government in Germany, wait for France next year - it all points to a less than successful project even when we finally left in 2021.
I genuinely think people, some centre right influencers, and some politico's are beginning to see the fractures in the EU - at the best of times keeping 27 rats in the EU sack is hard, when events such as they are take multiple turns for the worse, well it's just going to get worse.
My optimism is that the UK being more agile will be able to manoeuvre itself out of the way of the inevitable slow motion Trainwreck that is the EU - granted with Starmer& Burnham's reset this is difficult but Burnham is going to have a torrid time being a willing supplicant of a Macron/UVDL shafting. The reset is a terrible mistake especially when it is realised that the ECJ will begin to rule on our more advanced AI companies/initiatives.
All in all - there are reasons to be cheerful or maybe more sanguine than things suggest. I've a feeling that democracy will outlast technocracy - it's more a matter of when and how it happens.
I agree with the sentiment but supporting a party that fraudulently declared they would abide by the referendum and then did everything to avoid it, was bizarre.
Boris Johnson was a Tory hero that replaced EU migration with 3rd world migration and increased it. Still a hero amongst some Tory’s!
Once in power demands for British waters to be returned to British trawler fleets / a symbol of leaving the EU was ignored by Parliament with Johnson the lead.
When the Labour Party with Blair then Brown as PMs , spoke of admiration for Thatcher, the die was cast for me. Voting Labour was a betrayal and I never did again.
But Tory’s accepted a run of PMs that betrayed their loyalty and still held out some hope they would mend their ways.
Both are rotten to the core and can’t be resurrected - Greens/Lib Dems are even more corrupt.
I doubt Reform can be saved.
It only leaves Restore unless a party with a leader of great significance emerges.
Waiting for a new party to appear is like a teenager thinking the love of their life will suddenly appear from nowhere.
No, it’s either Restore or rebellion and I prefer a (comparatively) peaceful return to sanity of the former to the emerging violent prognosis.
Good post Pete. I started off as a Remainer (basically didnt see the point of the disruption of leaving) but as the campaign progressed, nobody on the remain side could provide any good reason for staying in. What was obvious to me then was that the liberal middle classes believed that the EU was much more "civilised" and "cultural" than the UK and thought all europeans sit around all day listening to string quartets while sipping espressos in baroque town squares. Their main concern was whether Toby and Jemima would still be able to go inter-railing during their gap year. What is depressing since 2016 is how the libs have doubled down on this worldview rather than see the disastrous impacts of mass immigration, ruinous energy policy and de-industralisation across the EU.
Brexit , schmexit. Tory lib lab . It’s as if changing policy can buck physical reality.
Decline was baked in when our coal peaked in 1913.. we got a bump in the 80s from shallow sea oil and gas , about 3.5 mbpd at peak. About 1988 , now it’s a measly .5mbpd.. we use 2.5… that’s just oil.
All else must be shipped in, traded for whatever we got…. Wanna swop some hydrocarbons and manufactured goods for some paper promises (sterling) and legacy cool Brittania . All we got to sell really is costly turnips (animal feed ) and visas… oh, and ‘services’ (better get good at that one, I mean real good - I don’t mean declining average IQ population services .. that won’t fly)
Good take. The Remain and EU reaction to Brexit should for anyone who isn’t in their indoctrinated camp confirm the necessity of Brexit. The EU has essentially refused to recognise the vote and determined to 1. Punish the UK as severely as possible through forced negotiations in bad faith and 2. Conspire with Remain politicians and organisations to keep running the Brexit campaign for a decade after the result. These two choices show that the EU is a hostile power. When you ask for a divorce and the response is the ex partner stalking you, spying on you, and attempting to beat you up and impoverish you, it confirms that the divorce was necessary and what’s necessary next is to remove yourself as far as possible from the ex.
It was never just the economics. It was always this attitude that they own and control us (from both the EU itself and its smug, arrogant but perversely submissive British supporters). Remainers act like the courtiers and favourites of a foreign absolute monarch. They all make it very clear that they hate us.
Besides which, everything they say about the economics is a lie anyway because they take ten years of COVID lockdown insanity, insanely high tax levels crippling the economy, vast and fraudulent wasteful spending and Net Zero madness as ‘the cost of Brexit’, when none of those things has anything to do with Brexit. You can look on GDP growth charts and instantly debunk the Brexit damage argument-the huge damage is in 2020, not 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019. And Remainers were generally also COVID fanatics.
You wrote :-
"....while our politicians have had the power and the opportunity to change tack, they simply don’t want to."
I don't think as your title suggests 'Decline is a policy choice' - I believe we are in serious decline because the clear majority of our politicians are incompetent cosmetic charlatans.
But they do seem to like the idea of being ruled by the EU Commission again. I understand that because then they can draw the money and do very little. Brexit has shown them to be incompetent.
Excellent article. We’ve probably fared better these past ten years than if we’d remained in the EU. Without doubt our contribution to the AI economy would have been far less significant if we were constrained by EU laws and stifling regulations. And even though they’ve acted vindictively and used Northern Ireland as a stick to beat us economically we’ve survived ok and reduced our dependence on their trade. Just imagine how well we could have done with proper leadership from people who believed in a future outside the EU.
I do have some sympathy with those that saw their businesses all but destroyed, as we left, plus there are many who don't understand the importance of leaving an organisation where The unaccountable unelected Commission writes the law.
So Pete - one of your best substacks to date. 🌟.... maybe 🌟🌟!
Brexit is/was a process - it took 45 laborious years of EU membership to realise the mistake we had made - disentangling was always going to take a long time. And yes, it's painful, by god it's painful.
Muncheau wrote a couple of years ago that Brexit was an almost economic non -event - as was pointed out by another commentator above. Plus, given the utter crap that the EU finds itself in : Ukraine, migration, Russia, unstable government in Germany, wait for France next year - it all points to a less than successful project even when we finally left in 2021.
I genuinely think people, some centre right influencers, and some politico's are beginning to see the fractures in the EU - at the best of times keeping 27 rats in the EU sack is hard, when events such as they are take multiple turns for the worse, well it's just going to get worse.
My optimism is that the UK being more agile will be able to manoeuvre itself out of the way of the inevitable slow motion Trainwreck that is the EU - granted with Starmer& Burnham's reset this is difficult but Burnham is going to have a torrid time being a willing supplicant of a Macron/UVDL shafting. The reset is a terrible mistake especially when it is realised that the ECJ will begin to rule on our more advanced AI companies/initiatives.
All in all - there are reasons to be cheerful or maybe more sanguine than things suggest. I've a feeling that democracy will outlast technocracy - it's more a matter of when and how it happens.
The establishment will continue it’s trajectory until the immigrant population is sufficiently large to stymie any meaningful change.
I agree with the sentiment but supporting a party that fraudulently declared they would abide by the referendum and then did everything to avoid it, was bizarre.
Boris Johnson was a Tory hero that replaced EU migration with 3rd world migration and increased it. Still a hero amongst some Tory’s!
Once in power demands for British waters to be returned to British trawler fleets / a symbol of leaving the EU was ignored by Parliament with Johnson the lead.
When the Labour Party with Blair then Brown as PMs , spoke of admiration for Thatcher, the die was cast for me. Voting Labour was a betrayal and I never did again.
But Tory’s accepted a run of PMs that betrayed their loyalty and still held out some hope they would mend their ways.
Both are rotten to the core and can’t be resurrected - Greens/Lib Dems are even more corrupt.
I doubt Reform can be saved.
It only leaves Restore unless a party with a leader of great significance emerges.
Waiting for a new party to appear is like a teenager thinking the love of their life will suddenly appear from nowhere.
No, it’s either Restore or rebellion and I prefer a (comparatively) peaceful return to sanity of the former to the emerging violent prognosis.
As Pete makes clear, Restore is not the answer. No political party is. The system is broken. I think we are a little way off rebellion as yet, but...
I've just come across "The Great British PAC", not something I'd heard of before. Might be going somewhere, or not!
If he’s right we are either resigned to war or to Islamisation. I prefer a peaceful answer without islamification.
Good post Pete. I started off as a Remainer (basically didnt see the point of the disruption of leaving) but as the campaign progressed, nobody on the remain side could provide any good reason for staying in. What was obvious to me then was that the liberal middle classes believed that the EU was much more "civilised" and "cultural" than the UK and thought all europeans sit around all day listening to string quartets while sipping espressos in baroque town squares. Their main concern was whether Toby and Jemima would still be able to go inter-railing during their gap year. What is depressing since 2016 is how the libs have doubled down on this worldview rather than see the disastrous impacts of mass immigration, ruinous energy policy and de-industralisation across the EU.
Brexit , schmexit. Tory lib lab . It’s as if changing policy can buck physical reality.
Decline was baked in when our coal peaked in 1913.. we got a bump in the 80s from shallow sea oil and gas , about 3.5 mbpd at peak. About 1988 , now it’s a measly .5mbpd.. we use 2.5… that’s just oil.
All else must be shipped in, traded for whatever we got…. Wanna swop some hydrocarbons and manufactured goods for some paper promises (sterling) and legacy cool Brittania . All we got to sell really is costly turnips (animal feed ) and visas… oh, and ‘services’ (better get good at that one, I mean real good - I don’t mean declining average IQ population services .. that won’t fly)