Thank you again Simon for a really interesting and thought provoking article
Liberalism and globalisation are dying ! At the very least this generation's attempt to roll it out looks set to end in ignominious failure and perhaps its advocates will spend the rest of their days in a home !
I make this point because it is clear from voting patterns in Europe that the liberal establishment has completely lost control of the narrative, so much so Macron has decided to completely ignore the recent election result and appoint a pal of Jacques Chirac as the new PM.
In Germany, the surge for AfD in Thuringia and Saxony was greeted in Lower Saxony by the news the government had already pre agreed with VW the closure of factories which, given its golden share, will be greeted with horror by voters there of another establishment stitch up and betrayal of German economic might
It's less apparent in the UK I suspect because the UK is lagging the EU in terms of economic decline and the pain is yet to be felt. But it is coming ! But it has to be highlighted again that Labour's (and the LibDems) popular vote fell from the 2019 levels when they finished a distant second and fourth respectively
The system handed the party a landslide when the people are clearly turning away from it and I think this political fragility explains Starmer's rush to the bottom with proposals neither mandated nor wanted and running into a lot of flak as a consequence
The split amongst the hierarchy was never laid clearer than when Jamie Dimon told Davos 2022 that 'oil and gas are here to stay for another 50 years' echoing your point, and thus it seems the main driver of 'net zero' are those with the greatest problem securing energy requirements in the future !
Is this why the UK and EU have seemingly abandoned Israel and are now try to cultivate favour with the Arab states by supporting the Palestinian cause ? If so, they surely know these nations biggest allies are Russia and China, so any deal will come at a price that the EU especially maybe cannot afford given its extractive imperialism of the old French African colonoies appears to be coming to an end (with Russian and Chinese encouragement)
So, my own views on the EU notwithstanding, is the only way forward for Europe is for Germany to break from the EU hierarchy, leading to a break up of the EU and a reconfiguration of Europe as a commonwealth of nation states
A Trump win in November likely signals the formal end of US upholding old degraded British and European imperial interests (signalled when the Fed established SOFR to replace LIBOR as its dollar benchmark, something Dimon was a key player in the establishment of from 2017) so without those dollars pouring in, and a US likely more focussed on China in the developing multi polar world, Europe and the UK need to start making new friends without the arrogance of a former imperial master
Detailed and insightful as ever John. Unchecked immigration, net zero and attacks on white privilege rub enough people the wrong way to ensure constant unrest. Until the establishment learns that lecturing people doesn't change behaviour and undermines its credibility, the establishment parties will continue to decline in popularity.
There are benefits to immigration, reasons to be sustainable and equality can be improved, but this require positive policies, not hate speech laws, traffic restrictions, taxes and tolls and the constant media bombardment telling us we're bad people. We're not.
https://youtu.be/l1pqswXNAgs?si=HBMCDXercCPIc10f
Thank you again Simon for a really interesting and thought provoking article
Liberalism and globalisation are dying ! At the very least this generation's attempt to roll it out looks set to end in ignominious failure and perhaps its advocates will spend the rest of their days in a home !
I make this point because it is clear from voting patterns in Europe that the liberal establishment has completely lost control of the narrative, so much so Macron has decided to completely ignore the recent election result and appoint a pal of Jacques Chirac as the new PM.
In Germany, the surge for AfD in Thuringia and Saxony was greeted in Lower Saxony by the news the government had already pre agreed with VW the closure of factories which, given its golden share, will be greeted with horror by voters there of another establishment stitch up and betrayal of German economic might
It's less apparent in the UK I suspect because the UK is lagging the EU in terms of economic decline and the pain is yet to be felt. But it is coming ! But it has to be highlighted again that Labour's (and the LibDems) popular vote fell from the 2019 levels when they finished a distant second and fourth respectively
The system handed the party a landslide when the people are clearly turning away from it and I think this political fragility explains Starmer's rush to the bottom with proposals neither mandated nor wanted and running into a lot of flak as a consequence
The split amongst the hierarchy was never laid clearer than when Jamie Dimon told Davos 2022 that 'oil and gas are here to stay for another 50 years' echoing your point, and thus it seems the main driver of 'net zero' are those with the greatest problem securing energy requirements in the future !
Is this why the UK and EU have seemingly abandoned Israel and are now try to cultivate favour with the Arab states by supporting the Palestinian cause ? If so, they surely know these nations biggest allies are Russia and China, so any deal will come at a price that the EU especially maybe cannot afford given its extractive imperialism of the old French African colonoies appears to be coming to an end (with Russian and Chinese encouragement)
So, my own views on the EU notwithstanding, is the only way forward for Europe is for Germany to break from the EU hierarchy, leading to a break up of the EU and a reconfiguration of Europe as a commonwealth of nation states
A Trump win in November likely signals the formal end of US upholding old degraded British and European imperial interests (signalled when the Fed established SOFR to replace LIBOR as its dollar benchmark, something Dimon was a key player in the establishment of from 2017) so without those dollars pouring in, and a US likely more focussed on China in the developing multi polar world, Europe and the UK need to start making new friends without the arrogance of a former imperial master
Detailed and insightful as ever John. Unchecked immigration, net zero and attacks on white privilege rub enough people the wrong way to ensure constant unrest. Until the establishment learns that lecturing people doesn't change behaviour and undermines its credibility, the establishment parties will continue to decline in popularity.
There are benefits to immigration, reasons to be sustainable and equality can be improved, but this require positive policies, not hate speech laws, traffic restrictions, taxes and tolls and the constant media bombardment telling us we're bad people. We're not.