Britain’s Not a Modern Country Anymore — It’s a Right Wing Farce

History Will Ask One Question About Britain in the 21st Century: What the Hell Happened?

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Pity poor Britain — when you’re not laughing grimly. There’s a reason it’s become a global pariah and all-around embarrassment: it’s not a functioning modern society anymore, it’s a far-right wing farce. Imagine that Fawlty Towers ran a country, and you wouldn’t be far off the mark. And yet in all this are the seeds of a warning for everyone else, about what happens when you hand power over to lunatic, fanatics, and crackpots, how a society as learned and wise as Britain can even produce such figures, and most of all, how to become a failed state.

Let me begin with a story that’s so surreal it’s going to make your jaw drop. “Is this…a joke?” you’re going to ask me in about ten seconds. But it sums up where Britain is today — and where the world will be if it’s not careful. You’ve probably never heard of a fellow called Jacob Rees-Mogg. He became a major, big-league politician in Britain. If “Dickensian villain” was a life goal, he’d have won. He dresses like it’s still 1884, and when he opens his mouth? It’s more like 1664.

This bizarre figure plays to Britain’s sense of cute nostalgia. Hey, a guy practically wearing a frock coat, with that dorky a haircut — he can’t be a villain, can he? Why, look how adorable he is. Rees-Mogg rode the Brexit train all the way to power and became the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. He backed breaking up with Britain’s largest trading partner and oldest ally. He rants about climate “alarmism.” And while Biden’s out there reinventing America’s economy, his idea of industrial strategy was…nothing whatsoever. This is how you ascend to power in Britain today: by being a crackpot. Orwell would have laughed, but….

I haven’t got to the punchline yet. Rees-Mogg just set up a new wing of Britain’s conservative party, the Tories. What’s it called? National Conservatism. Go ahead, this is the part where your teeth chatter in giggles of horror. As one memorable wit on Twitter put it, Nat-C sure has a ring to it. It’s funny, because, well, it’s not a joke. Political factions that begin with National and end with -ism have a pretty poor record when it comes to history, you might deduce, if, oh, you’ve ever read even a kids’ book about modern history. Is that unfair? Let’s delve into what this new faction wants to do.

The official website for national conservatism goes one further and sets out a “statement of principles” which underpin the movement, including a focus on “national independence”, the “rejection of imperialism and globalism”, and a stance on immigration centred around “much more restrictive policies” which may include “a moratorium on immigration”.

No wonder Twitter exploded in fresh horror at this lunacy. Sound, well, fashy enough to you? But this is one of Britain’s — at this point — most senior and experienced politicians. He wants to literally start a Nat-C party.

Like I said: not a functioning modern society, a far-right wing farce. And yet this is what passes for normal everyday politics in Britain now. No wonder Europe’s horrified, and Members of European Parliament now openly saythat Britain’s become a far-right wing country, with little in common even with European conservatism, “Christian Democratic” parties, which, having learned from history, isn’t….Nat-C. I mean can you even imagine what has go through someone’s head to invoke these shudder-inducing parallels from history?

You’re rightly doing that face where your eyes open wide in disbelief, and you’re looking at me, like, come on, it can’t be that bad. And yet I’ve barely just begun.

What else is happening in Britain? The Home Secretary — that’d be the most senior member of government responsible for domestic affairs, the equivalent of America’s Secretary of State — is obsessed with….wokeness. You’ve heard of Ron DeSantis? He’s inspired Britain’s most senior domestic political leader to just throw it all out there. Every day, she emits levels of ugliness and bile that’d make everyday bigots blush. I’m not kidding. Not long ago, she was scapegoating refugees for “invading” Britain in “swarms,” which Holocaust survivors, not to mention some of the country’s top public figures, were so disgusted by, that they warned it was reminiscent of, well, you know — the “Nat-C’s”.