This pretence is most fruitful with immigration. The government’s failure to maintain living standards and public infrastructure, from health to housing, can be disguised – with the help of the rightwing press – by presenting migrants as a constant drain on those resources.
The census results are dribbling out at present. And there has been a lot of migration. And of asylum seeking (of course, they’re not exactly the same thing). 14% of the population is foreign born. That’s a vast change in a pretty short time.
Whether it’s a good or a bad thing is up to you. But trying to deny that it is a thing doesn’t work.
See also the Guardian articles on ‘why aren’t the press making as much fuss over right wing terror (the Dover firebombing) as they do over Muslim terrorism?’
Maybe because that was a miserable failure and not an atrocity littering a concert hall with dead children?
They aren’t falling over themselves to present the perp as a lone wolf nutter, and not at all representative of right-wingers everywhere? I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
14% of the population is foreign born.
That’s just what shows up in the census. How many illegal immigrants are going to fill that out?
Who could believe that Nesrine Malik would lobby for more people like Nesrine Malik to come to the UK?
Julia and BiW; I’ve noticed that ITV seem desperate to present white people as the biggest threat facing Britain recently with ‘The Walk In’, and the latest storyline on Corrie about evil ‘White Supremacists’.
I don’t remember them ever doing a story about ‘Grooming Gangs’ however, or a drama about the planning and execution of the Arena bombing. Odd that, isn’t it?
As at the 2011 census, there were two parliamentary constituencies with a Muslim majority population (population, not voters, but youngsters do grow into voters). There were a further eight constituencies with at least a 1/3 Muslim population, a further 16 with an at least 20% Muslim population and 54 with an at least 10% Muslim population.
It will be interesting to see what the 2021 census shows. If indeed that information is released this time round.
Just seen this in the Speccy.
I can empathise with a lot in this article, because I am in that age group and am widowed and have no interest in another relationship :
Over the last few years my attitudes have become increasingly extreme and consider myself politically ( and religiously) homeless and disenfranchised.
I stopped watching TV because I objected to being lied to by the news and only accidentally listen to it on the wireless.
Why does nothing work anymore ?
I live in a constant perplexity as to whether the Powers That Be really are all idiots or have a sinister ulterior agenda, because no one that climbed the greasy pole can be that stupid.
And so on…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/we-need-to-talk-about-boomer-radicalisation/
Tim
AEP in the Torygraph cooks Murphy’s goose – behind a paywall but worth pointing out. LEt me know if you need me to DM you the text of it.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/07/whoops-central-banks-may-soon-need-gigantic-bail-out/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
Otto – Anecdotally, almost everyone I know has a story of a retired relative or family friend who has gone down the rabbit hole of online politics. This is not simply older people having unfashionable views, but being sucked into a world of conspiracy and permanent outrage. Many have given up on mainstream news outlets, subscribing to cranky YouTube channels, Facebook, and Twitter, rather than regular TV, radio, or papers. WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels also provide a more private flow of misinformation.
This is true, but what do we think ‘regular TV, radio or papers’ are trying to do?
Often this has made them angry and isolated, unreachable by anyone who doesn’t buy into their world view.
Lol.
Steve
Anyone who doesnt agree with me is literally Hitler !
🙂
Nobody asked me if I wanted around a fifth of the population of my country to be foreign-born, with another big chunk apparently refusing to assimilate. I’d vote for almost anyone who could sort this mess out.
Yes, I read that. Fun but it is also AEP, who can become a little overenthusiastic. The thing that Murph will hate is that central banks now lose money on MMT. They’re paying the banks more in interest than the gain on their holdings of gilts. And just as the profits went to the Treasury when it was the other way around, so the losses have to come from there now.
Steve:
This is true, but what do we think ‘regular TV, radio or papers’ are trying to do?
Never mind schools and universities…
1/6 of the population are foreigners? It can’t be! This country is such a horrendous bigoted racist hell-hole, I know it is, the Guardian keeps telling me.
Yeah. I do recommend reading that Speccy article. In a sense, it describes us here. And Spud’s a radicalised baby-boomer cult all on his own.
Although I do wonder, sometimes, about some of the ideas people fixate on. I think it’s because the baby boomers, as a generation, have gone through their lives to an extent insulated from life’s realities. The benefits of the Welfare State. The slow but reliable growth of prosperity. They have had it very easy. Now they’re looking around for someone to blame as things go wrong. They never think to blame themselves.
The seeds of what they’re unhappy about were planted 30-40 years ago. It was bloody obvious what would grow from them at the time. But they didn’t want to do anything about it then. Too busy enjoying their comfortable lives. So the lobsters were boiled.
If you pay milions of people to sit at home producing nothing then overall living standards are going to fall because all that missing production cannot be consumed.
Living standards *in aggregate* are not a result of money income but of production(/import) of goods and services.
For avoidance of doubt, net imports of goods and services have to approximate to zero in the long term unless you are Genghis Khan.
That the Grauniad thinks that its readers do not understand this tells us something
Yeah BiS, but it is the future that we were sold by the politicians. We worked ( most of us ) and paid our taxes ( mostly ) and were told that things could only improve. But now thanks to the stupidity of the politicians and the endless mendacity of the media, we see that the whole system was built on sand. It is the disappointment that hurts most.
Difficult to put a finger on when it started to go wrong.
Personally I like to blame Harold Wilson.
For everything.
Yeah, Ottokring, but you bought the goods. If you’re unhappy about the immigration, the time to have opposed it was before it accelerated. But that was the time of the pearl clutching over the NF & later the BNP. They were prescient. You weren’t.
Personally, I’m a follower of St Anders Breivik of Norway. Action not words.
followerDisciple sounds better doesn’t it. Or convert? More religious. Whatever, prophet for our times. PBUHThere’s a fine lion between bantz and fedposting, BiS.
@BiS “I think it’s because the baby boomers, as a generation, have gone through their lives to an extent insulated from life’s realities.”
There was quite a bit of “life’s realities” in the 70s and early 80s. Strikes (generally), miner’s strike, power cuts, 3 day working week, poll tax riots, race riots, ‘Black Friday’, mobs hacking policemen to death, the Austin Allegro. In fact it was a generally shit time and something we have as a reference point to today’s issues.
I’d say it was anyone who’s memories don’t stretch back past 1990 who believes that the end of the world is here and things have never been so awful.
(puts on white cloak and pointy hat, puts hand in fire and sobs )
It is true… for a while I turned away from the true path of St Enoch (pbuh), believing that we solved most if those issues.
AndrewC the whole point of the exercise was that those days were not supposed to return ! How is it possible that we have arrived back in 1973 ?
These boomers, eh?
Men who have had real jobs, have deferred gratification, raised kids, measured risks and resisted the temptation to shag the secretary are now toxically masculine and subjected to a barrage of signage and public address announcements infantilising them.
And they have the cheek to call bullshit on this. Get with the programme!
“We had ..the Austin Allegro.”
And then there was the Ford Pinto, a car that would burn you alive because Ford wouldn’t spend a couple of bucks to fix it. We boomers had that, and nowadays cars are safe. (EVs not included)
There’s a fine lion between bantz and fedposting, BiS.
Is there Steve? I believe that those who would rule us have so hollowed out democracy that it virtually doesn’t exist. I believe that the US presidential was stolen. Not by rigging the ballots but by an MSM propaganda campaign that commenced in the run-ups to ’16 & continued to ’20. Aided & abetted by the permanent State. Same in the UK with the Brexit Referendum. The result was fought bitterly for 4 years & you still haven’t really been given it. You’ve had endless promises about curbing illegal immigration but still nothings been done.
I say, if you want change you’ll have to fight for it. And that means using the tactics of your enemies. They’ve proven them to work. As they tell us, politics is personal. Make it personal for them.
“The thing that Murph will hate is that central banks now lose money on MMT. They’re paying the banks more in interest than the gain on their holdings of gilts. And just as the profits went to the Treasury when it was the other way around, so the losses have to come from there now.”
Thats no problem, they’ll just say they won’t pay interest on the deposits any more. You’ve already had Paul Tucker come out and say exactly that. And he’s no Spud-like internet nobody spouting nonsense, he was deputy governor of the BoE so fairly well connected to the Establishment. If he’s floating it, you can bet your bottom dollar its being seriously considered.
Lets face it, the idea that the BoE is staffed with experts with brains the size of a small planet and Solomonic decision making abilities is a joke. Like every other State organisation it has become infested with wokism, with people who have little knowledge of what they are supposed to be doing, who are never held to account for failure (indeed it seems to be an advantage, Andrew Bailey was the head of the FCA which was a complete disaster under his helm, yet still gets given the job of heading the BoE), and who owe their jobs not to any ability but to knowing the right people and holding the right political views. Its the modern equivalent to the old days when the Governorship of the BoE would be given to the younger son of some aristocrat because ‘He went to my school and is a good chap’. Its why everything in this country is falling apart, and the BoE is no exception.
Here here, BiS. They call it ‘terrorism’ because it works.
Of course it does. PIRA bombed its way to power sharing. The Mussies have got the politicians so scared “Islamaphobia” (being scared of Islam) is a hate crime. BLM got its way with riots, arson & murder.
There a spectrum. At the top’s killing. At the bottom’s Just Stop Oil blocking the M25 & police visits over non-crime “hate speech”. Because the State indulges in it as much as its opponents. If they are its opponents. Difficult to tell, half the time. Frustration to intimidation to terror.
Breivik’s target was a training camp for tomorrow’s Norwegian socialist politicians. We know what happens to similar for the opponents of socialism. The authorities shut them down as nests of “far-right extremists”. As for what Breivik thought he was doing & why, I don’t much care.
Talking bout Minecraft activities might blow off some steam, but at the legit risk you, and people you know / casually associate with online, will get the paddywagon at their door for a surprise 4AM party. We’re also living in a world where websites can get blacklisted off the Clearnet for much less than this.
Best not to do it.
Right wing Spicy Happenings always serve the exact same interests as leftwing Spicy Happenings, because TPTB will always use either or both to clamp down harder on you and people they think are like you. You cannot “win” this game through violence, and it’s a mug’s game to even talk about it, because all you’re doing is creating priceless content for any civil servant, quango or copper who has an interest in dredging up some “right-wing extremists” to persecute in the wake of the latest Current Thing. The judge won’t be on your side btw, and neither will the journos who show up to take pictures of your house.
My Lord JC – who knew a thing or two about public speaking in a regime that would love to imprison or kill you – told us to be harmless as doves but wise as serpents.
I reckon let Him be the lion. ✌️
PS – God loves you and so do I.
Don’t go being a twat now.
Aslan Rules!
Your Lord JC got himself nailed up working that plan, so the story goes. You reckon that’s an optimum outcome?
As another famous religious figure said. “People follow a strong horse”.