Sophisticated Incompetence Is Britain’s New National Characteristic
London is the Athens of the North: not the Athens of Socrates, Praxiteles, or Pericles, be it understood, but that of Papandreou père et fils, Kostas Karamanlis, etc., which is to say the Athens of padded payrolls, corrupt politicians, crumbling infrastructure and disastrous public finances. The parallels, down to the long-term mortgage to pay for the fatuous honour of hosting the next Olympic Games, are striking but not altogether reassuring. Nor are the differences, such as they are, any more reassuring.
Britain’s government deficit is slightly larger than Greece’s, being 12.8 percent of GDP. Its national debt is for the moment only about two thirds, proportionately, of Greece’s, but it will rise to Greece’s current level in about three years’ time if the deficit continues at its current rate. Unlike Papandreou the Second, who has been obliged to make the right noises to appease the Germans (who are the only ones who can keep Greece afloat), Brown the First is still at the stage of denying the urgent necessity of cutting the deficit, for fear that the pullulating drones of the public sector might suffer and therefore not continue to vote for him. Three quarters of all jobs created in the British economy in the last 13 years have been in the public sector.
What depresses me most about the British situation by comparison with the Greek is that, whereas the latter was brought about by good old-fashioned Levantine crookedness, which at least has the merit of charm, the former was brought about with a good admixture of Anglo-Saxon evangelical self-righteousness, which is quite without charm.
Moreover, in Britain there is a high level of ideological support among the intelligentsia for massive deficits. For example, twenty professors of economic history, some of them very eminent, wrote a letter on March 3 to the Guardian newspaper as follows:
We are economic historians concerned at the recent tone of the debate as to the scale and scope of British public sector debt. History shows, first, that British public debt is not high by the standards of the last 200 years. It is rather low in comparison to the second half of the 18th century, the first three-quarters of the 19th century, and most of the interwar and post-second world war era in the 20th century. It is also low in the context of the developed world; only Germany’s and Canada’s are lower among the larger industrialised powers.
It is remarkable that economic historians, of all people, should view the matter so statically, as if the present moment were eternal, not taking into account the speed of the increase in the debt, the ageing of the population, the different place the country now occupies in the world, the uses to which all the borrowing was put, or indeed the crushing and impoverishing size of the debt after the Second World War. Never, it seems, have so many professors learnt so little from so much; sophisticated incompetence is now our national characteristic.
The moral of the story is clear. Beware of Greeks bearing economic statistics; and beware of Britons bearing bonds.
You can easily substitute U.S.A for England in this post.
Not to worry, formerly Great Britain will be an Islamic Republic soon enough & being bankrupt will be the least of your problems.
What has happened in the UK is that a new aristocracy has taken control. This is the Guardian Reading Class. They exercise power through their control of the media, especially the BBC. Unfortunately, unlike the hereditary aristocracy they replaced, this control is the only thing they do well. For the rest of the time, the GRC is incompetent. Interestingly enough, they are now becoming hereditary, soon we will have a Benn MP whose father, grandfather and great grandfather were also MPs.
As they don’t care what we think, by and large we don’t care what they think. Or we just don’t believe any of them.
Just how this will end I don’t know; but perhaps a new ruling class will emerge and displace the GRC in their turn. Who cares?
That’s our future. We should pay attention.
# 3 Thats the problem in socialists countries,nobody cares until the welfare checks stop coming.
I agree with #1 that the piece could easily describe the US. In fact, it could describe the entire West. The Western elites have completely separated themselves from the intellectual, moral, legal, and religious traditions of the West. They want nothing to do with us. And this conversion has been going on for quite some time as Marxism has slowly taken hold from indoctrination in the schools. (Studies have shown that the more time one spends in school, the more socialist one becomes. The post-graduates are far and away the most socialist segment of society.) I fear a coming conflagration the likes the West has not seen in many generations.
Leaders want to spend without taxing, and they reward ‘court’ intellectuals for providing them cover. Due to the prevelance of marxist thought in all academia, all mainstream economics is keynesian (borrowing is good) these days. The dullard, krugman, got a nobel prize in ecomonics for doing nothing more than criticizing president bush and talking marxism.
Scholars of the Austrian School, which accurately predicts the deleterious effects of borrowing, debasing currency, and artifically low interest rates from central banks, is marginalized as they prescribe fiscal responsibility.
michael,who cares? Well I do for a start. No mainstream politician will risk losing the public sector vote. If (like me) you are self-employed you risk alienating many friends when expressing a belief in reducing the government payroll.The tea party idea will not take off over here(how many British people even know what the Boston tea party was.)
We need a working class/lower middle class tory leader who has run a successful business and created jobs themselves. Someone a bit brash,not impressed by public school …ts and willing to tell Obama where to put it.
Now why am I wasting my lunch time on here?
This a correct image of the Disunited Kingdom of Not-so Great Britain, which is reaching new high under the direction of Cheik Gordon Brown, who govern from his bunker in Londonistan …
Britain will get some forme of Sharia law by 2050 and will hopefully be a cold version of Saudi Arabia
My mother was an Englishwoman.(She was a war-bride who met my Dad when he was stationed there in WWII.) I have always loved British history, British traditions and the British people. However fifty years of elitist socialism have done what Napoleon and Hitler could not do – They have destroyed the country. The English have gone from being a vibrant and confident people to an over-regulated nation of grievance-mongers nearly all of whom feel entitled to receive something from somebody else. The new “toffs” (accurately described above as the “Guardian Reading Class”) have nothing but contempt for the nation and “the people” they always claim to be so concerned about. The only purpose of the British intelligentsia seems to be to despise everything and everyone in the West. Jean Francoise Revel once said “Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.” Tragically that is now England in a nutshell. One of the ways we “defend ourselves” is acting responsibly in matters of natonal finance and economics. The fact that the English academic community remains in thrall to the tattered remnants of discredited Keynesian dogma tells you all you need to know about their sense of responsibility.
Wow…Big Brother is walking right behind you and you still think an election will change things. Next election’s ballot will contain “Sharia Law” or “Big Brother”. To 9., Samuel, if you’re looking that far ahead, you certainly cannot be decerning the times. Wake up people!!
I take no pleasure in admitting that the US national culture seems to differ from the british only in degree and number of years down the path. We are working feverishly to catch up.
There does appear to be some subset of people resisiting the march towards marxism, and it remains to be seen if they will ever form an electoral majority at the national level.
Can I just point out to the pessimists that there are about 2 million Moslems in the UK out of a population of 65 million. There are also 2 million Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Animists and so on – all of whom come from countries that are locked in combat with Moslems. So a Sharia state in the UK is probably some way off.
And for Terry in Israel – 20% of the Israeli population are Arab – mostly Moslem.
RE: Michael in England @ March 30, 2010 – 9:00 am
I admit that I am not in England, but I do make a deliberate effort to keep an eye on what is going on over there. I read several Brit papers every day online, both because I have acquaintances over there who I worry about and because right now the foreign press is giving a more accurate and less State controlled report of some aspects of American political news than American papers.
I also watch your NHS closely, not only because I fear it coming here; but also because while my daughter was a student over there she had to avail herself of the NHS and she saw first hand the appalling level of care. I am a retired Peace Officer, and in two cases she saw with her own eyes; if they had happened here I would be arresting medical staff for First Degree Murder with aggravating circumstances in one, and at least Criminal Manslaughter in the other. What she saw was confirmed by other acquaintances who have immigrated from Britain, some of which had worked in the NHS. That is on point, because if the British people will allow the government to do that to them as the norm, they are not going to stand up and defend themselves from an imposition of Sharia with the approval of the government.
I do not claim to any especial authority based on that level of observation, but I am probably more knowledgable about British affairs than 90% of my countrymen.
Two points that would militate against your belief that numbers will decide the matter.
First, you already have “no-go” zones in some cities akin to the 750+ French Zones Urbain Sensibiles where Sharia Law rules and civil/criminal law does not. Your current Labour government, after first denying that there were Sharia Courts operating with government sanction, then admitted that there were one or two. Then it came out that there were dozens. And the number is growing. Right now, Her Majesty’s Muslim subjects [especially female ones] do not have the absolute protection of the Queen’s Laws the same as other subjects. It is inevitable that the day will come when a decision of which legal system will apply will be on point in a case involving a Muslim and a non-Muslim in Britain. Looking at both the PC nature of British society, and the trends in both of your major parties, I am not betting on the absolute supremacy of British law.
Second, Britain has criminalized any public objection to, disagreement with, or opposition to offensive or illegal Muslim activities [even with regard to terrorist acts] as racial crimes. Both major parties accept this political orthodoxy, and anything that is not an automatic acceptance of the inherent virtue of the “religion of peace” is relegated to the political fringes. The only ones who are serious about the changing nature of Britain [including concern with other aspects of what the "Guardian Reading Class" are doing to Britain] are considered to be part of either the BNP [which all "right thinking people" consider to be neo-Nazis] or the UKIP [which all "right thinking people" consider to be nut cases]. And both of these parties, who are the only ones who really oppose the “GRC” of either party are subject to deliberate state interference in their political freedom to prevent them from running and winning. Your Tories are like our RINO’s and DIABLO’s; who will undo nothing done by Labour.
Even if some Britons decided to resist, you don’t even have control of your own laws and courts anymore, with the majority of British law being made in Brussels. With all due respect, from the outside it looks like your ruling elites have all been suborned; and there is no hope of another Runnymede. The only thing that will change things would be a reprise of either Wat Tyler or Boudicca; and it does not seem that Brits have the heart for that. I note that the literal translation of Islam is “submission”.
It may look far different to you, but that is what it looks like to me.
Subotai Bahadur
The USA better RE-awake to the idea’s that made this nation great; reason, liberty, personal responsibility, ingenuity, or else we’ll be drinking from the trough of Londonistan.
The thinking needs to change in here in a hurry.-god forbid we end up like Gordon Brown and the other socialist p**sies infecting England.
That must be English for “Smart Power” .
Winston Church said, in 1929, on the Labour Government:
“One can quite easily see that they have their way they will reduce this powerful country to one vast soup kitchen.”
Well they have done so.
One of my theories that that in ridding itself of the Aristocracy, and replacing it with a Bureaucracy, Britain has rid itself of the spark and gallantry so loved by Churchill and admired by Anglophiles throughout the world.
That the Muslims are a tiny part of Britain’s total population is not so important as that they have self confidence, spark and drive, Michael, attributes that easily overcome the secularist weakness of British government and society.
Can’t help thinking there is too much generalising in people’s comments. Some Muslims may have confidence, others may not and some are moving to the west to escape from theocratic rule. Engaging these people intelligently is vital.
There is no prospect of Britain becoming an entirely Muslim nation but there is a strong probability that some areas of the country (midland inner cities etc)will become Sharia zones (at least in practice.) More non-muslims will move out to the countryside and suburbia,others will emigrate to Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada if they will have them. Where I live in the sussex countryside there are very few minorities apart from travellers passing through. Most of my neighbours are DFLs (down from London) who want their kids to be educated among mainly anglo-saxon children who don’t carry knives or wear the veil.
I am reading a wonderful book, “The Irrepressible Churchill”, a compilation of great quotes. And here is wone for #17, davidstanley:
(September, eve of war, 1939: hvol I of his Second World War)
“It is a curious fact about the British Islanders, who hate drill and have not been invaded for nearly a thousand years, that as danger comes nearer and grows, they become progressively less nervous; when it is imminent, they are fierce; when it is mortal, they are fearless. These habits have led them into some very narrow escapes.”
Well, given your description of the silent reaction of urban society’s breakdown in your country, the English are taking the intelligent road now: back to the back country and hills (as in Gildas’ time), or overseas, like my own ancestors did in 1853.
Theodore, isn’t the answer to the question you posed in the title, along the same lines as to why the Cliveden Set, before the start of the Second World War, concluded that the best way to deal with Hitler was to give him crumbs?
The approach seemed reasonable, and because they deemed themselves to be reasonable people, tally ho was the sentiment!
The rules of good government have been known for five thousand years. Foremost among them is thrift. Much of modern social science is devoted to finding ways to rationalize breaking these rules for the benefit of rent-seeking special interest pleaders.
#13 Michael (in England).
Re: your remark that 20% of our population is Muslim – yes, & you have no idea what a problem this is, what a threat to our security they represent. They are a disloyal, hostile, enemy Fifth Column, coexistence is a total failure, a myth for mush-for-brains liberals & the politically correct. The most accurate comparison would be to the Seudeten Germans in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia.
I would further point out that for most of Europe, including your country, immigration has not stopped, they have a much higher birthrate than Europeans, they are increasingly radical, your incompetent & cowardly politicians on the Left pander to them for votes, & they don’t necessarily have to be a majority to effectively control gov’t. policies to their advantage. Islam is more a political movement than a religion. This is certainly not the case with the other minorities you mentioned. If 20% of our population was Buddhist or Hindu, I would be totally unconcerned.
Our sneaky government is slowly choking off the import of Muslims. They won’t admit it yet, but they are. And the pessimists about my country always extrapolate in a straight line. Because Muslims behave in one way now doesn’t mean that “our” Muslims will continue to do so in the future. As to them having “self confidence, spark and drive” – don’t make me laugh! If they did have these qualities they wouldn’t be Muslims!
Michael(in England), I think you are right about the pessimists and the Eurabia concept is itself a political statement. There are so many unfactored variables in the equation and Mark Steyn etc have to emphasise the most extreme outcomes. Some one will now say I am in denial but just as Islam is influencing Britain I think Britain and the west is influencing Islam. Dr Daniels himself has expressed the view that much of the problems we are experiencing are because of the extreme challenge Islam is subject to in the west.(I hope I have not misrepresented his views there as I am an admirer of his work.)
I can’t help thinking Islam is better undermined by guile than full frontal attack.
#22 Michael (in England).
I think you are far too complacent. Your political elites, as in the rest of Europe, are not only financially irresponsible, incompetent, self-serving, & corrupt, but they have sold you out to Islam.
I’m not any less critical about politicians in my own country – far too many are appeasers, politically correct morons & spineless wimps. As it happens, Caroline Glick wrote an excellent article recently on just some of the problems we face from our Arab population – you might find it interesting to check out her website.
There is also an excellent post at the Sultan Knish website, ”The Immigration Jihad” which might make you less complacent.
Dear Dr. Dalrymple:
When you write something like “Brown the First”, you imply that there will be a “Brown the Second”, and while it’s really none of my business, I nevertheless would view such a happenstance with no small measure of dismay.
Do you know something that we your American cousins do not in this regard?
“What depresses me most about the British situation by comparison with the Greek is that, whereas the latter was brought about by good old-fashioned Levantine crookedness, which at least has the merit of charm, the former was brought about with a good admixture of Anglo-Saxon evangelical self-righteousness, which is quite without charm.”
You sell yourself and your mates short, Doctor.
Britain, pound for pound, has the best sense of humour on the globe. I suspect that “Anglo-Saxon evangelical self-righteousness” is a vital component of your countrymen’s intrinsic funniness…but maybe that’s just me.
You follow with a sublime example of the British Gift:
“For example, twenty professors of economic history, some of them very eminent, wrote a letter on March 3 to the Guardian newspaper as follows:”
Might I inquire if it is so in Britain for professorial practitioners of the dismal science as it is in my own land…that they are heavily beholden to the government-subsidised largesse for their station and salary?
So, naturally, they would “stand on their dignity” and exhort HM’s Government to pay no heed to the coming debt crisis, as long as THEIR ‘rice bowls” are promptly and generously filled.
It’s so like a Monty Python skit that has written itself!
And you maintain that there is no charm to be seen!
Baderdash, sir!
@Bilgemen
You mean Good old british humour like the one of Shire Network news ? Those guys are the best political and satirical podcast around
Friend Sams:
Sadly, my present circumstances preclude me from savoring your linky-love, we have a “net nanny” installed aboard…(well, in Norway actually), to protect our fragile seafaring morals from the Indelicate Things one can find on the Internet. Apparently our corporate masters suspect that we are, to a man, addicted to pornography and other Unsavoury Pursuits, and would rather not have their satellite internet bandwidth occupied with such pastimes,(lucky for me that they do not feel similarly about blog-jawin’); and so, I will have to take your word for the comic genius of the Shire Network News.
I’m sure that if it originates in Great Britain, it’s humour is utterly worthy of wearing an adult diaper while watching, though.
“Anglo-Saxon evangelical self-righteousness” -er, surely Scottish evangelical self-righteousness as the “prudent” Brown was Chancellor from 1997 to 2005 and Darling from then onwards.
Brian has it right. The UK’s recent decline has been caused by Scot run Labour. Led by incapability Brown. The only thing Labour are good at is spending other people’s money.
Best possible outcome is for the break up of the disunited Kingdom and for home rule for England.
Several commentators above have put their finger on the reason why the “intelligentsia” in Britain support high public spending, even with a huge deficit. As Karl Mark perceptively said: “Economics is the basis, and all else is superstructure.”
Almost all of the intelligentsia live off the public purse, whether as university economists, state bureaucrats, or BBC employees. Their house newspaper, The Guardian, depends for its very existence on public sector advertising.
The next Conservative government will have to reduce the size of the public debt, and hence the public sector, or else the IMF will come in and do it for them.
This should be taken as an excellent good opportunity to drain the swamp.