Imperfect Brexit
Seven years after the referendum there are no signs of the "Sunlit Uplands" that we were promised. The UK has just signed a trade deal with the Pacific nations, so we will be alright for coconuts, but the expected trade deal with the US never happened. Our economy has shrunk by 4%, immigration has almost doubled, and the cost of living has gone through the roof.
The Brexiteers have two answers to all this. Their first response is that it's all the fault of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And their second excuse is that Brexit never really happened.
They claim that we had an imperfect Brexit, far removed from the noble vision of Boris Johnson that's been betrayed by 'remainers' within the Tory Party. This is the same argument that the Communists used when news of famine and poverty emerged from the Soviet Union. It was, they said, because the Revolution had been betrayed by reactionary elements within the CPSU.
Old-school Reds and Brexiteers can cling to their self-deception but the rest of us know that the laws of supply and demand trump utopian dreams of economic nationalism and free beer for all the workers.
It was an act of criminal insanity for the UK to turn her back on the biggest and most successful single market in the world. We did not regain control of our money and our borders as we were promised. Our national debt has risen to a staggering £2.6 trillion, and we have exchanged Polish workers for Pakistanis.
Since the referendum thousands of elderly Brexit supporters have popped their clogs, and the opinion polls are showing a majority for re-joining the EU. At present none of the established political parties have caught up with public opinion, but it's bound to happen eventually.
Who will be the first member of parliament to stand up and admit that he was wrong?
Overturning Capitalism
John McDonnell the former Labour Party shadow chancellor told the BBC in 2018 that it was his job to overthrow capitalism. A noble ambition but one that's easier said than done.
The French Revolution of 1789 did not cause the collapse of the Livre. It was King Louis XVI who bankrupted the country by fighting the Austrian War and supporting the rebel side in the American War of Independence. The Jacobins only made things worse by printing Assignats which were linked to land values. These promissory notes quickly became worthless and were abandoned when First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte introduced the gold Franc in 1801. France's experiment with revolutionary economics was over.
The Russian Revolution was supposed to do away with capitalism, but the first thing the Bolsheviks did when they seized power was to sell their grain harvest on the world market. They exported so much grain that they caused the Ukrainian famine of 1928. They nationalized industry and agriculture but ran them as profit-making businesses. Their trade with Germany, under the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, filled their coffers and their state bonds were traded on the stock markets of the world. The so-called Russian Revolution was a military coup that practised old-fashioned capitalism. Its principle financier was Kuhn, Loeb & Co which eventually became Lehman Brothers and collapsed in the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. Kuhn Loeb & Co made a lot of money out of the Russian Revolution but the Rothschilds backed the Tsar and lost a fortune.
An insight into Bolshevik thinking came when fighter pilots of the Free French Normandie-Niemen Air Force in the Soviet Union were offered cash bonuses for shooting down Luftwaffe aircraft. This capitalistic practice was apparently accepted by the Red Air Force.
The Nazi regime was as practical as the Bolsheviks. Hitler had the 'socialists' in his Party shot on the Night of the Long Knives. And guided by his Rothschild-trained Economics Minister, Hjalmar Schacht (pictured), he sold interest-bearing bonds to finance the reconstruction of the Reich. So close was Hitler to the Money Power that when he invaded Czechoslovakia, Schacht persuaded his good friend Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, to transfer the Czech gold reserves to Germany. The persecution of the Jews was driven by racism but the confiscation of Jewish property was simply theft.
Hjamar Schacht was not a member of the Nazi Party, he escaped prosecution after the war and lived to the great age of 93. Adolf Hitler blew his brains out as the Red Army stormed Berlin, and Joseph Stalin died in his bed following a purge of Jewish doctors in 1953.
But few people know their history and the myths that revolutions in France, Germany and Russia overturned capitalism persist. Capital is fundamental to society and all attempts to do away with it have failed. St Timothy stated: "the love of money is the root of all evils." And he was right. We certainly need to regulate and reform capitalism, but we can forget about confining it to "the dustbin of history."
A reply to Ron DeSantis - Sam Dickson
Dear Governor DeSantis:
Thank you for your email asking for my support.
This message will never reach your eyes - but perhaps your campaign employees will be led to remove me from your email list.
You said:
"I will never stop standing up for what I know is right - even when it goes against the grain of public opinion."
Unfortunately, that is not true.
In fact, it is the utter opposite of the truth.
You enthusiastically do what is wrong whenever you can promote yourself by currying favor with a group that might help you in your career.
You showed this a few months ago when you betook yourself to a foreign country (Israel) to sign a Florida law to criminally punish American citizens who distribute leaflets critical of Israel and the support of Israel by Jews resident in the United States.
Why sign a FLORIDA law in a FOREIGN country, Governor? (A question that needs no answer to you or anyone else).
I guess we should be grateful to you for the rare honesty you displayed in flying to Israel and affixing your signature in the glare of strobe lights to the law you sought and procured for the purpose of showing the Israeli government that you will happily serve it and put its interest ahead of your constituents' First Amendment right of freedom of speech.
Your unspeakably repulsive law elevates to a felony the misdemeanour littering offense of leaving a pamphlet on a driveway...if (and only if) the pamphlet criticizes Jews or their ethnostate in the Middle East.
If a pamphlet attacks Caucasian Americans, the Roman Catholic Church (I am not a member), the Christian religion, Southerners (I confess, I am one), gays, vegetarians or even Blacks, then the offense is only a misdemeanour. It becomes a felony only if the pamphlet criticizes Jews who are - by your choice - elevated to a special position of privilege denied to all other categories of people in our society. No other group gets this special little perk.
It goes without saying - and you know it as well as anyone - that your conduct is violating the First Amendment rights of American citizens to cater to a group of dual loyalists and the foreign nation they adore - is so appalling that any fair minded, decent American is disgusted by you.
How could anyone be so deluded as to imagine that someone whose character is as pathetically debased as yours would ever do anything for our people, their culture, their religion and our nation?
But you - with good reason -calculate that people will not see you as you really are and properly drop you from consideration once and for all.
I will never vote for you under any circumstances.
Sam Dickson
Climate Change - Vic Sarson
I am in favour always of balance and of measured behaviour.
While I never denied Climate Change, barring some misinformation and exaggeration, I have not taken the view that it is entirely man-made. That said, I do believe that we need to modify our behaviour regarding using up resources and pollution and look seriously at doing so. We have to strike a balance between 'Ecology' and 'Economy'. If we prioritise ecology, we suffer economically and vice versa. Government action needs to be fact-based and not driven by pressure groups largely made up of fanatics, political agitators, and vested interests - political or commercial. When we account for only one percent of the carbon emissions generated on the planet we should not be worried about opening a coal mine. If we fall down economically we would be less able to afford environmental protections.
I would add that throughout the era of 'climate change' oil exploration has continued and at times increased. Politicians who vent environmental rhetoric are often found to be in favour of lengthened and additional airport runways. Oil acquisition was a major factor in launching the Iraq war. In 1970 there was a TV documentary about oil supplies being about to run out and the potential impact on society and the economy that frightened a lot of people. Since then, there have been other programmes pursuing the same theme. Yet in the 1970's the Arab oil producers fought to lessen and restrict oil production and further exploration continues.
While being no fan of Rishi Sunak or the present 'government' I am fully in agreement with the five year extension to 2035 for ending the production and sale of petrol and diesel powered cars in line with the EU.
Boris Johnson in bringing the date forward by five years was simply trying to upstage the EU. His action, like all others, was ego driven.
He had no understanding of the details involved in the change of date nor the slightest concern.
European Outlook - https://europeanoutlook.blogspot.com
Nation Revisited
