And, despite the outcome of the election in Hungary, far-right nationalist populism is still on the rise, threatening democracy as well as principled, far-sighted policies on climate, energy, trade, technology and migration.
The people who disagree with The Guardian’s progressives are unprincipled, eh?
So what is the answer? Most of the thinkers we spoke to believe it lies in a stronger Europe.
Kick policy up to where it’s controlled by Guardian-type progressives and so immune from democracy, eh?
But when it comes to Europe’s future, optimism on its own is not enough to kickstart change. It must give way to activism – grounded in the conviction that a stronger Europe not only can, but must, be built.
Yep, that’s the plan.
Oh dear another poor dead horse that gets continually flogged.
The ‘Project’ has had it, the demos, who let’s face it are the last people one should ask, have has enough of it all.
A lot of the pro European governments are held together by shaky coalitions who are preparing the ground for populist victories. In the east, the Project was only supported because of free movement and a stable currency, politically it has never had traction.
Even that prime arse Donald Tusk has finally realised it.
ps It shows how desperate and dim they are when they celebrated Magyars victory.
Related to this, I wonder what had happened to my favourite European Integrationist, Ulrike Guerot.
Now I disagreed with nearly everything she said, but she had the ability to make sensible arguments rather than the claptrap in this article.
Since I stopped watching telly, I had lost track of her and now I see why. She had committed the ultimate sin of opposing the German Establishment about COVID and Ukraine and is now an unperson.
https://www.thomasfazi.com/p/enemy-of-the-state-the-political
ps Fazi writes a lot for Unherd.com
Reading that, theres’s cancellation and there’s Cancellation, of which that is definitely the second. Is this just a German thing? I definitely get the impression of ‘alles in ordnung’ in the national psyche so perhaps that Cancellation is an extreme reaction to someone rocking the boat.
This is why they are trying to ban the AfD, but no one has the courage to pull the trigger.
Krautsville is still a very conformist and (often unspokenly) rule-bound society.
Only a certain percentage in the Right Proportions in the Right Places when it comes to politics, much like the UK…
The AfD has the same problem as any “extreme right” anti-EU party has: as long as they don’t get 40%-ish of the vote, the Establishment can keep up the Unspoken Cordon Sanitaire, even if the coalitions to achieve that themselves are …. insane… and highly volatile.
Doesn’t help that Germany has an even greater Cultural Enrichment than the UK, mostly in the all-important city conglomerates, and *they* vote for more Bread, Circuses, and Family Reunions from the Establishment.
Add to that the usual Progressive Hotspots in the University Towns, which also dominate their elective region, just like the UK…..
It’s East v/s West again… And Countryside v/s City.. But the West has the big conglomerate cities, and as such an…. advantage….
Polls put AfD and CDU neck and neck. But as you say a cobbled together coalition with a seriously degraded SPD will keep them out.
Sachsen Anhalt might well provide that 40% though. The AfD hovers around 39 there.
as long as they don’t get 40%-ish of the vote, the Establishment can keep up the Unspoken Cordon Sanitaire,
There’s nothing unspoken about it in Germany.
That’s national… the turtles go alllll the way down….
In the latest municipals in Clogland they managed to keep out Wilders in three municipalities, with Wilders getting 40+ % of the vote, even outstripping the [Local] Party….
It’s *amazing* how “insurmountable differences” disappear when the Establishment wants to keep someone out, and chooses to ignore pretty clear election results.
One of the results is that people have given up on being Polite in tose regions.
Will never make the international news, but we *do* have pretty grim protests locally over here.
If it catches on…. might make the international news as a puff piece on how Evil us Cloggies are…
Using actual Violence against, etc…..
Everybody outside the MSM has the reaction of…. “Weelllllll it’s not *civilised*, but if you start ignoring *that* much and push on regardless…”
One of those cases where I do feel sorry for the coppers getting hurt, because they *have* to Maintain Order, ….. even if they, in general, actually agree with the protestors.
Their superiors are firmly in the Establishment Seat, so …..well… not much choice… Unless, etc…..
An AfD ban is now likely off the table, for good. The likely Uniparty strategy is now to await an AfD majority regime in an Eastern state and undermine and humiliate it via the deep state.
Fazi is a leftist, opposed to “austerity” and “neo-liberalism”. And he co-directed a documentary on America’s global military bases, featuring Chomsky, Gore Vidal…
True, but he is quite sound on the state of Germany and Europe.
The people who disagree with The Guardian’s progressives are unprincipled, eh?
I thought anyone who disagreed with The Graun was literally Hitler?
Funny how anyone who disagrees with MOAR TAX, govt spaffing money on its cronies and KillTheJews™ is Literally Hitler.
You forgot APenisIsAlsoLadyParts™….
I don’t think Uncle Adolf was in favour there.
Though, apparently, he only had one testicle…the other being in the Albert Hall…
He, and his pals, very much weren’t…
They even had special shoulder patches to identify the Gays, Deviants, and Progressives ( “moral deviants” ) they moved into the barbed wire-fenced holiday camps they sent them to for Safekeeping.
It’s not as if the problem is *new*, we just let the Clowns get a solid foothold…
Rule 1: The Guardian is always right.
Rule 2: Should The Guardian be wrong, refer to Rule 1.
So, the Guardian is a woman.
Ran by communist cunts anyway….. so…yes?
Er…the Graun is not unlike Hitler…
If you removed the obvious stuff about Jews and lebensraum, most lefties would love the nazis.
Most people classed as “far right” are actually quite lefty. Mussolini, Oswald Mosley, Franco.
The modern left aren’t into the uniforms either. At least not smart-looking Hugo Boss ones.
And the uniforms…. It’s just blue hair, vagrant hippie look and a choice between emaciated Vegan or land-whale..
If you can more or less tell what you’re going to get in a person… It’s a uniform.
Today’s lefties are very much aligned with the stuff about Jews.
” threatening democracy as well as principled, far-sighted policies on climate, energy, trade, technology and migration.”
Funny… we feel the same about the “progressive” socialists featured in this puff piece.
tl;dr: In order to save Europe we have to double-down on mass third-world immigration and net-zero policies as well as stop people voting for parties that they like.
Fortunately due to AI and robotics any perceived value of “cheap” unskilled labour from third world immigration will be swept away next decade.
Unskilled they unquestionably are but do you seriously believe those responsible for enticing the third world to flock to our shores and partake of the unsurpassed benefits system actually expect in return a single days work apart from delivery driving and running Turkish barbers/vape shops?
There never was any clear economic benefit to the country, not even with the Windrush mob who basically saw a cheap way to get away from the even direr economies they fled from.
…
Even the BBC knew that.
https://x.com/damocles561/status/2007148163703140719?s=61&t=VX5cJ0-osgn_JSz7j-uowQ
But that’s the point to some of the people. The servant problem. Other workers paying to subsidise their cappucinos being made and their cleaners.
My own take is that immigration should be maybe 1-2% of the population. Let’s have the rare talents like Alfonso Cuaron or rich blokes like Hans Rausing living in London. Basically, one of the best 20 film directors alive. You can’t easily create people like that. And being here means they make films here. Nurses? We can train people to do it. Care workers? You can look after granny or pay full price for her care.
In US, it was never about cheap labor. It was . . . is . . . about labor unencumbered with Federal law. Washington has created a mess of regulation “protecting” labor. Which makes them unemployable.
Hispanics are paid the same employers pay everyone. There is no second tier pay rate. It is a commie lie.
Hispanics are reliable, hard working, dependable, leave their drama at home, and don’t have EEOC on speed dial.
It IS about labor cost, but the lower cost is not in “cheap labor.”
Think this is naive. Potentially AI will cut down on “skilled” migration because of its effect on “knowledge” jobs. But we’ll no doubt get more of “British people don’t want to wipe bums or do physical work so we need to have lots of foreign people come and do that instead”.
…
But the people themselves will still be here. What then?
From what I read, it appears that Mr. Magyar may not be the compliant little EU poodle the left have painted him out to be……….
Absolutely he isn’t. He’s also not the compliant little Russian poodle that Orban, bizzarely (but maybe money n’ threats), turned out to be. Add a fresh face after sixteen years, he was almost guaranteed a win.
He’s also not the compliant little Russian poodle that Orban, bizzarely (but maybe money n’ threats), turned out to be
There’s no great mystery here (other than why our only choices wrt Russia are “obedient poodle” or “get used to the idea of your children dying in a war”).
Hungary imports 80% of their oil and gas, and 100% of their uranium fuel from Russia. Dirt cheap, and reliable supply.
There’s no alternative suppliers willing and able to take over at the same low prices. So Hungarians can look forward to sharply rising energy costs, more inflation, and higher unemployment when they are severed from their current energy provider. But at least they can say “grr, Putin”? That’s got to be of some comfort, in these distressing times.
Other European countries have gone on purchasing their Russian energy without being so pro-Putin, though, or been so determined to undermine support for Ukraine (Slovakia partly excepted). It seems likely there was more to it than energy, especially as Magyar hasn’t persisted with Orban’s approach.
I watched an interview with Orban’s deputy some time ago which was interesting. He was adamant that Ukraine should have given up the fight straight away (sound familiar?). When asked what he would do if Russia exploited that weakness and turned up on Hungary’s border, he said Hungary should capitulate. Amazing.
I’ve seen it suggested that Russia may have covertly offered Hungary and Slovakia chunks of western Ukraine, perhaps with support for re-establishing the whole Austro-Hungarian Thing. Dunno about that but something sure was odd.
Corruption and kompromat seem the most likely candidates to me.
Dearly beloved PJF,
It seems likely there was more to it than energy, especially as Magyar hasn’t persisted with Orban’s approach.
Dunno. Buying nearly 100% of your nation’s fuel at sweetheart rates is the kind of deal that’s hard to walk away from if you are the incumbent and care about getting reelected. I don’t know what the percentages are elsewhere, but a politician promising to do economic (and other) harm to his own people is normal in the EU. NB Magyar also disagrees with the EU’s timescale for ending Hungary’s relationship with Russia. He’ll be called a Putin simp before long I reckon.
He was adamant that Ukraine should have given up the fight straight away (sound familiar?).
Of course he’s right. Ukraine has been fighting this war for more than 4 years now, and has nothing to show for it. Except all the glorious dead and newly minted cripples.
If they hadn’t fought the war, or had done the deal Boris flew to Kiev to stop, they’d have lost either the same amount of territory (worst case) or possibly no territory (Minsk 3), have hundreds of thousands of men still alive and well, and not experienced millions of refugees or their country being bombed to Helen Back.
Because, as I told ye at the start, Ukraine can’t win this war against a much bigger country next door. And I’m sorry to have to remind you there’s no second place prizes in war. Losing with blood on your knuckles is still losing. If Mike Tyson invites you to fisticuffs, the smart thing to do is decline to be Iron Mike’s punchbag. Yes, it’s very brave of Ukrainians to keep fighting, but their lives are being spent very badly here.
Please don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what I see like Roy Walker.
When asked what he would do if Russia exploited that weakness and turned up on Hungary’s border, he said Hungary should capitulate. Amazing.
You have a limited imagination, perhaps? No offense intended. Not fighting a war you can’t win (Hungary’s population: 10m, Russia: 143m) doesn’t mean you roll over and die.
It means you live to fight another day.
This is what I had in mind from the start when I said Ukraine should decline the invitation to fight Putin’s war: the Russian occupation would be brief and nasty (for the Russians). There’s a million and one ways the Ukrainians could have fucked with them whilst minimising *Ukrainian* casualties. Everything from simply withdrawing their labour (that’s how Hitler’s putsch attempt ended in humiliation and prison, the civil servants refused to cooperate) to turning every street in Ukraine into NornIron style bandit country. It would have quickly crushed Russian morale and shown everyone – including Russians – that they’re the baddies. Not the defenders of Russian speaking peoples they claim to be. And Russia does not now, and definitely didn’t have at the start of the war, the millions of spare troops required to occupy a country of Ukraine’s size.
(Even a long occupation isn’t the end of the world, if it means preserving your people – your nation. Ireland survived 700 years of occupation, but doesn’t look like surviving another 20 years of “independence”.)
Ofc, that’s all predicated on the observation that this is not a war of “genocide” (as preposterously claimed by Ukraine). And it’s not a land grab either. One thing Russia doesn’t need is more land. And Russia is not actually Mordor, and its people are not orcs, genetically predisposed to invasion. But obvs, ymmv.
I’ve seen it suggested that Russia may have covertly offered Hungary and Slovakia chunks of western Ukraine
I’ve seen lots of crazy things suggested, but that one takes the garibaldi. When you think about it for a second, it makes no sense for a number of fundamental reasons. People say shit like that to delegitimise anyone who isn’t eager for war with Russia. But not wanting to fight a land war with Russia is like never going against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Just common sense.
Can I ask you a question? Do you think we should have fought WW1? To my mind, the Ukraine war is eerily like WW1. Not just in the style of fighting, but in the sunk cost fallacy driving both sides to sustain ever mounting losses. Mark Rutte and other senior NATO figures keep promising us that we’ll be at war with Russia soon. I think we should decline, and let Mark Rutte and other senior NATO figures go and fight Russia if they want to.
Of course, if Russia nuked London into a cloud of radioactive dust, I’d write a very stern letter of complaint to my MP, assuming the little fucker survived.
As I said the other day, Britain loves wars. And whenever people do, there’s always some invocation about how successful we were, and that Adolf bloke.
We generally kept out of wars after WW2. Which I think is actual memory. People in the 1970s who remembered the effects. It’s often explained that the reason for appeasement is that the British people really didn’t want another war. The effects of WW1 had been devastating. It’s once you get people born after the war, like Blair and Boris that didn’t suffer the effects, that war sounds like a good idea.
I of course believe that the Ukies’ error was to get rid of their nukes. If they’d kept them and jiggered their gears to let them be used against the Russkies, the worst case scenario’d be a nuclear wasteland from Kyiv to Vladivostok. We wouldn’t have been bothered.
Look at Kim. He’s stuck with his nukes, and no foreigners are giving North Korea a hard time.
I’d break out the best bottle of something I can find, and celebrate
Dear illustrious fellow commenter Steve
I am out butterflying today so cannot engage with your fascinating contribution. I did, however, see a large chalk lion engraved on a hillside on the way here. It was splendid.
Ok PJF wins.
Yea Steve but think of all the drones thrthe Ukies have sold.
Being invaded has given them a whole new industry.
The Russians would never nuke London…
The Clowns there are doing a fine job of doing the job of ruining a nation for them, without much prodding on.
Parts of W Ukraine (and Romania/Transylvania) are ethnically Hungarian. My Hungarian mate (in his 70s) told me his dad was born in Hungary, spoke only Hungarian, but the village where he grew up is now in Ukraine.
Indeed, and Trans Carpathian Ruthenia – where Bob Maxwell was born – was part of Czechoslovakia. Now part of Ukraine – the region round Uzhgorod I think?
Orban seemed to be using Russia as a counterweight to the EU.
I’m not sure that’s a sensible strategy, but it’s an understandable motive.
“I’ve seen it suggested that Russia may have covertly offered Hungary and Slovakia chunks of western Ukraine, perhaps with support for re-establishing the whole Austro-Hungarian Thing. Dunno about that but something sure was odd.”
Kremlin-linked nationalist bloggers and propagandists, who have been outriders for Putin’s policies in Ukraine since 2014, regularly published such maps, with other chunks of western Ukraine going to Poland. The suggestion was for Russia to get all of the historically Russian parts including Kyiv, Kharkhiv, Odesa plus “Novorussia” and for the traditionally Austro-Hungarian or Polish bits to get swallowed up by those countries with present or previous ethnic communities there, either leaving a rump West Ukrainian state with a capital at Lviv or potentially no Ukrainian state at all.
Fwiw I’m sceptical of there being a serious offer made, even covertly, but that might be where the rumours came from. And while those outriders aren’t a direct insight into the mind of senior bods at the Kremlin, they do give some indication of the desired end state. They were open about the desire to annex Donetsk and Luhansk, and later Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, years before it happened.
Even at the official state celebrations of those latter annexations in Moscow, at which Putin gave a victory speech, other speakers got up and called for the imminent annexation of Kharkhiv. That simply wouldn’t have been allowed unless it suited the Kremlin for someone to try to whip the crowd up with it. There are no secrets made that they regard Odesa, Mykolaiv and even Kyiv as “Russian cities” too. A warning signal to the West and Ukraine that there’s more to come if they don’t accept the current losses, or an expression of what the Kremlin would find a desirable state of affairs, or both?
The Kremlin website contains hosts several essays alleging that Ukrainian is a fake language, that the Ukrainians are not a real ethnic group but simply a bunch of confused Russians, etc. BTW Steve, this is why the Ukrainians weren’t keen to just accept a period of Russian occupation. They were concerned it would end like it has for the Tibetans and Uighirs – not all groups get to survive being run by someone else even if they do resist. This is also why they refer to it as a “genocide”, in the sense of a bloody cultural elimination of the Ukrainian nation/people rather than millions of dead bodies. Where the Russians are running the show they have banned Ukrainian language media and education, destroyed the Ukrainian language books in schools etc.*
Russian officials have publicly referred to Ukraine as a fake state or even “the former Ukraine”. So when the propgandists talk about Ukraine being totally dismembered as a final war goal there’s obviously some official encouragement behind that. Might be bluster of course but there’s no denying that senior Russians are saying this stuff. Either the end goal was for Russia to swallow Ukraine whole, or something needed to be done to keep the remainder of the territory pliable. A far smaller Ukraine with a constitutional requirement to have no military, and preferably a Russian puppet in charge? Ukraine to be broken up into separate oblast-sized republics that are effectively Russian satellite states, as was done for years in Donetsk and Luhansk? Or just dump the rest of Ukraine on Poland, Hungary and Slovakia to deal with?
All of those have been discussed in the Russian public discourse. The latter has a few disadvantages, in that Ukrainians living within the EU would be free to plot trouble and be largely out of Russia’s reach. But it would have the big pro of not leaving any rump Ukraine with festering resentments that could strike back against Russia in the future, and the Poles and Hungarians could be trusted to clamp down on Ukrainian nationalism within their own restored territories (which hopefully they’d repopulate with Poles and Hungarians). And Orban and his ministers seemed to enjoy having their photo taken next to maps of Greater Hungary – and indeed had taken steps to give minorities in neighbouring states more access to Hungarian state services, much to the annoyance of said states. So it seemed he’d at least be up for it. And even if the Polish government was shy of the idea officially, there was a nostalgia about Lwów and lingering resentment of the mass killings of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in WW2. So it seemed logical to many Russians that Poland would ultimately want those territories back if the opportunity presented itself.
Pie in the sky stuff because of course the Polish government wouldn’t want to be seen to participate in the dismembership of Ukraine or absorb a few million unwilling, angry, and heavily armed Ukrainians. But you can see why Russians, even senior Russians, might find this idea plausible. Again worth remembering many senior Russians badly misread the Ukrainian situation by assuming the Russian-speakers in particular would welcome them with open arms, rather than signing up for Azov and the likes. So not surprising they might misread the Poles too.
I doubt very much that any formal offers got made, even quietly. But I also think Orban would have believed, implicitly, that if Ukraine eventually collapsed and the Russian army overran it, then he would have access to territorial spoils if he wanted it and a free hand from Russia to do so. Presumably starting off with a “protection mission” to neighbouring territories during the post-collapse chaos, and then integrating and formally annexing the territory later. (And that the Poles knew likewise but were less likely to pursue it.) I don’t think this needed a formal offer being relayed to him from the Kremlin – he had a sufficient ear to the ground to know that Russian officials regarded any post-collapse Hungarian intervention in historically Hungarian-speaking areas as a welcome prospect. Ditto for Slovakia who might seek to “protect” the neighbouring Rusyns.
* Of course that’s all the while complaining of how the Ukrainians treat Russian speakers. And while that may be less than ideal, but perhaps comparable to the laws designed to promote Welsh at the expense of “colonialist” English in Wales, it hasn’t stopped a Russian speaker like Zelenskyy being elected president, and several of the more extreme Ukrainian nationalist groups like Azov are primarily Russian speakers. The clue for that one is in the name, it’s geography. Ukrainians from around Azov speak Russian but contrary to the Kremlin this doesn’t actually make them Russian. There are a different bunch of Ukrainian nationalist extremists in the west of Ukraine with Ukrainian as their mother tongue, more linked to anti-Soviet and anti-Polish partisans in WW2 and in many ways nastier than Azov.
BTW Steve, this is why the Ukrainians weren’t keen to just accept a period of Russian occupation. They were concerned it would end like it has for the Tibetans and Uighirs
I understand. It’s a shite situation and it’s easy for me to say what they should do, from the relative safety of Britain. Not my circus. My first thought when it comes to war is, “how are the good guys gonna win?”. If the answer is “dunno” or “they can’t”, I would look for other ways to win. Because death is permanent, and losing a war is a terrible outcome in its own right. Sir Harry Paget Flashman and General Patton had the right idea, imo. In war, we want to arrange it so the enemy dies for his country. We want Daddy to come home for Christmas and hug his children. Easy to say, natch. But isn’t that what we all want? If that’s what we want, let’s try to make it happen, no?
Ukrainians are very courageous people, they’ve earned the world’s respect. But what’s the end game here? Trump tried to negotiate an end to the fighting, the EU aligned governments seem to want to keep it going indefinitely, and so does Russia. This seems mental to me, the last thing Western civilisation needs is a mass killing of the white men we need to sustain it.
“thinkers”? The word that sprang to mind for me began with W. Being a bit less coarse and a bit more charitable I’d accept “believers”. But thinkers? No, no, no…
“far-sighted policies on climate, energy, trade, technology and migration.”
So, far-sighted eh? So what’s the end game in all of those subjects? Seems to be they want us all aboard the bus but the destination board on the bus is blank. Anyway, that’s only five impossible things and we are entitled to six.
What a spectacularly smug and pompous pair of cunts you are.
“We consulted extensively with people who share our views and can report a firm consensus!”
I think they mean the EU’s future. In which case, whatevs.
If you think you can overcome these barstewards through the democratic process you’re living in a dream world. “Activism” means extra-democratic. Outside the democratic process. And they will use any means to defeat you. These people are terrorists with good PR.
Hidden amongst the smug self-congratulation, there is this:
“The return of global protectionism has also given the continent the impetus to finally eradicate internal trade barriers to unleash the power of the truly integrated EU single market.”
I also saw earlier that Von Leiderhosen has announced a roadmap towards a single market in the EU. Will the New Single Market be more Single than the previous one?
A lot of the barriers to a single market are very deep indeed.
Language barriers really hinder movement of labour and services. Even with goods it’s a pain because of branding and packaging. The media markets are very separate too. It’s not as easy as going on a national advertising campaign in the US or a single member state.
Different countries have totally different legal systems. Recognition of qualifications means a lawyer from country A might be able to go and practise in country B in principle – but in practice it’s different laws, different procedures, delivered in a different language.
Different countries have different tastes, different cuisines, different cultures. If Poles don’t eat snails then it’s hard for France to flog them more escargots.
The EU seems dead set on pursuing policies that increase the cost of transporting goods between member states.
EU Central expenditure is a tiny fraction of national member state budgets. Pork might be inefficient and undesirable but part of why the USA functions as a single economy not 50 stuck together is all that spending on federal projects. Which also contributes to the movement of labour across the country – employees and their families move around for work in the military, national laboratories or other federal employers. The EU does have the habit of spreading its specialist agencies around geographically but the numbers you’re dealing with make the effect insignificant compared.
To compensate for all these inherent limitations the EU would need to impose much stricter rules to achieve the same level of internal trade the USA does. In some ways it already does so, a lot of market regulations are more harmonised across Europe than the US. Ability to practise professions based on qualifications in another state is enshrined in legislation. It still doesn’t help much. Hence the EU end up needing to go further and further.
Ultimately “unleashing the power of the single market” isn’t all fluffy positive sounding stuff like more trade and people moving around more (which Brussels bureaucrats see as more of a positive than communities experiencing high immigration from poorer parts of the EU do). The stuff that drives productivity forward and makes the EU as a whole richer is quite Schumpeterian. Destruction of inefficient industries in some states, concentration of those industries in the regions where they enjoy a competitive advantage. Compared to the USA, the EU has too many firms making stuff at too small a scale and too geographically diffuse.
The thing that drives trade is increased competition from outside your region, ultimately killing off uncompetitive industries so your region has to import those products from across borders instead. While hopefully maintaining its advantages in other areas which increases local exports. Ultimately everywhere ends up more specialised and more productive, but a lot of traditional industries and employers need to die to get there. In other words the EU’s actions to “supercharge a single market” largely boil down to finding ways to stop places supporting or protecting their local legacy industries. Maybe economically rational but you need to be prepared for it to be politically unpopular and carry a “populist” backlash. And if a group like French farmers is the target of it, then they may have enough political capital to stop these grand ideas dead in their tracks.
The single market and the “you must treat foreign goods identically to native goods” gave us crappy Polish light fittings with no weight support and the wrong electrical connections “but they’re in the shops, I insist you install it”.
I recently put my back out fitting some light fittings the tenants had enthusiastically bought – which had no way to physically attach them to the ceiling, had no way of connecting them to the supply wiring, had no was of feeding wiring to them.
I had to shop around for some back boxes to mount them in – which were so floppy it was near impossible to get them square so the panels would fit in them; I had to work out a way of feeding trunking to them, drill holes in the fittings to mount trunking connectors, which ended up with each end having to move outwartds to fit but the only available motion was inwards….
All because “oh, I don’t like these strip lights, these I saw in the shop look much nicer, they are clearly ok to fit, they wouldn’t be in the shop otherwise”
Why was fitting new lights a you problem, rather than a tenant problem?
You’d trust your tenants to do electrical work on your property?????
I’d either prohibit the work or make them pay for an electrician!
People voting for the party they like is a threat to democracy according to the Grauniad.
…
“… principled, far-sighted policies on climate, energy, trade, technology and migration.”
The reality: reckless, blinkered policies on climate, energy, trade, technology and migration.
Stronger Europe = Fourth Reich. (Germany is planning to build the strongest military force in Europe to “protect” it. Just like before.
These people fetishise a version of democracy that doesn’t exist. Democracy means that we don’t all vote for their version of utopia and sometimes we win elections. Their version of democracy is that they win all the time and the ‘far right’ are removed from society – Zack Polanski has already said that quiet bit out loud.
The version of democracy I want to see is one in which if you don’t pay for the consequences of your vote then you don’t get a vote in the first place.
Amen.
That would be nice if democracy (PBUH) actually delivered what you voted for. Given that a manifesto isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, I don’t see that happening. We all end up paying for what we didn’t vote for.
They use far-sighted so they can say it isn’t long enough when they inevitably fail spectacularly. It’s the new socialism has never been tried.
OT but on a similar theme the comments on this post from Michael Crick dated 22/6/2024 are most entertaining to read. Lots of people should be ashamed, but the left doesn’t do shame:
That is golden. I’m going to save that quote for, oh I don’t know, May 8th perhaps.
Far-sighted: til the time real communism is tried.
I cannot read the comments, but surely the answer is simple: the media comprises 9.99% communist shills, and mostly stupid ones at that.
If only the communist shills were less than 10%!!
99.9%!
You can put the word ‘cancel’ before x (i.e xcancel.com) if you really want to read them. Some depressingly stupid people though. Did you know the media didn’t make enough fuss about Brexit? Utterly disinterested they were.
A sample of the comments
Thanks.
I don’t understand why people want to publicly humiliate themselves in this way. They might as well be ranting at fellow passengers on a bus.
How do you know they don’t?
The problem is that most of the Old Media are people who don’t need the money nowadays. It used to be a job for male heterosexuals. Apart from the fact that it attracted people who were curious and could write, it attracted people who liked to make money. So you had working class people doing it. People who wanted to pull birds, raise a family.
A lad that I hung out with in my teenage years, his dad worked as a senior reporter for the local paper. He could run a household on that. They weren’t rich but they did fine.
Once the net came along and anyone could publish, the money dropped out of it. Lots of straight men would probably like to do it, but the money is so shit, they don’t. Which leaves 3 types of people: women, gays and idiots with family money. And that skews the politics, the subjects. More feminised, less male and hetero, more Let Them Eat Cake.
Many politicians haven’t realised this shift. That the old press is no longer particularly representative. There’s a lot of amateur media – people sharing things on Facebook that 20 of their friends see, or quite small YouTubers that collectively add up to a lot of people. Carl Benjamin AKA Sargon of Akkad gets about 100,000 views per video. Which is 1/6th of Newsnight. So 6 blokes in places like Swindon are bigger than a Properly Important News Show.
It’s why Reform are doing so well but seem so utterly hated by all wings of the MSM. Reform’s supporters are outside of that.
Once the net came along and anyone could publish, the money dropped out of it.
Not exactly. What changed is everyone could ADVERTISE. That’s what happened to the press’s money.
And then, with less money to hire talent, they started gleaning story lines from Twitter/X. Not realizing it’s a freak show and represents almost no one. Broke/lazy/stupid press brought us invasion, DEI and trans rights.
That was Napoleon’s plan as well.