Power is the only force that matters. To waste it is to waste everything, and to waste a force so fundamental, should hold the greatest shame.
The story of Britain’s demise over the last century culminating in our current order is simply a tale of wasted power.
Manifestations of power are not constant, there is always more to take, and always more to give away, likewise, its use is not constant, there is power in acting, but there can equally be power in not acting at all. The throws of political power often come to fruition between warring factions, perhaps in a national revolution, an internal struggle within a government or monarchy, two countries quarrelling, etc.
Britain is not going through any of those throws, instead, we are somewhat standing still, yes, we have a functioning government, and yes we have political parties that pretend to be different from one another, but the power that is there to be taken and used is left, almost as if it’s been locked in a box and someone has thrown away the key.
I wrote at the beginning that the story of Britain’s demise over the last century is simply a tale of wasted power, that is true, but that’s not to say power is never wielded. It clearly is, it has not been hidden away, it reveals itself when it is needed. The last real great usage of power was when the British state shut down the entire country for months on end due to a bad flu, when they forcibly closed schools and businesses and forced everyone to wear masks, when they sacked care workers for not being vaccinated, when they made it illegal to travel within your own country, when it was illegal to have your family and friends in your own house. This was a magnificent sinister physical manifestation of power, it proved that if they wanted to, the British state could control your entire life and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it. The coronavirus lockdowns showed us that the British ruling class could wield power, authoritarian power.
The power that was wielded for the coronavirus outbreak was a self-inflicted act of power, the ruling class may not have realized this at the time, although some definitely did, but it has become clear that the actions taken caused further ruination to Britain for almost no gain.
The ruling class now only wields power for the mundane, the self-inflicted, the unimportant, and the counterproductive. Devolution is one example, and if the Labour Party’s plans are anything to go by, it will only get worse. The British system has diluted its power to jumped-up councils in the form of the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies which now house wannabe MPs who seek to break up and secede from the Kingdom whilst also being able to challenge the authority and credibility of Parliament. The European Union was another example of this dilution of power, thanks to the referendum in 2016, that dilution has now returned, albeit not entirely, we are still a part of the European Court of Justice and the European Convention on Human Rights. British politicians just couldn’t bare having total control over the country they have been elected to serve. Various Acts of Parliament such as the Communications Act 2004, and the Equality Act 2010 represent more sinister wielding of power. There are many people in Britain that have been sent to jail for tweets they have sent, charged under the Communications Act, and you thought we lived in a free country. Under the Equality Act, white people are displaced as positive discrimination is rife and institutions such as charities and NGOs, as well as government departments use it to push extreme racial, gender, and societal changes. Climate change is another self-inflicted wound, Britain’s net-zero plan is contributing to our economic decline and high energy prices, combined with our involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Power is wielded to let violent criminals out of jail or keep them out of jail and allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country. I want readers to know that these acts of power are not just the fault of politicians, they are the fault of the entire system that props up the ruling class of Britain. It’s not you or me that is responsible for any of the above, we have had basically no say.
Power in Britain is not lent to substantial causes that spur progress such as domestic nuclear energy production, building houses and reforming planning, embracing technological advancements and startups, healthcare systems, education reform, reducing immigration, economic growth, civil service/state reform, tackling crime, space travel, public infrastructure etc. British GDP per capita is 30% lower than the US, and 12% lower than Germany, and Poland is set to overtake Britain in this metric by 2035. We are becoming poorer and slipping as a first-world country. By refusing, ignoring, or impeding progress, Britain misses massively consequential opportunities.
There are three pillars wasting power in Britain that make up the bulk of the ruling class, the first is Parliament, currently, more specifically the Conservative Party, with its (former) 80-seat majority, could legislate to build a wall in the channel between Dover and Calais if they so pleased, they choose not to. The second is the Royal Family with its increasingly damaged reputation, it does anything to ensure its own survival and only keeps the country stagnant, the royals stood by as they lost an empire, do you really think they are going to act upon our current predicament? The third, is our great institutions and organizations, that ‘Rolls-Royce’ civil service we all rely on, the massive charities and NGOs that have more influence on policy than you or I do, universities and schools, the historical media outlets that control narratives and cement the ruling order.
These three pillars I like to refer to as The Court. The Court is decentralized, but each pillar exists to cement and protect itself and the wider system, therefore their interests align. Parliament and the two main parties would like to keep their cushy jobs, influence, titles, and prestige, they serve the system because the system serves them, they won’t go about wielding power to make changes, it’s too hard and the system suits them anyways. The Royal Family upholds the system for the same reason Parliament does, it suits them. The same story for institutions and organizations, journalists uphold the system because they need to sell stories and they need sources for those stories, but secretly they would like to become MPs one day too.
The power wielded is to protect the system, it’s nothing new, and it’s how states have operated for thousands of years. People will tolerate a system that protects itself as long as they are seeing some improvement in their own lives, the problem arises when that system seems to operate in complete contempt for the people it is supposed to serve.
What happens to an apple, if its left for long enough, that is if no one decides to take it and eat it, it stands still, what happens if something stands still for too long, it becomes stagnant, in the case of an apple, after about a week, the stagnant/still apple will begin to rapidly decline/spoil. This is the trajectory Britain is now on, stagnation and eventual decline, much has been written of this, everybody knows things in our country are gradually becoming worse, yet no one with any appearance of power seems to want to do anything about it.
The Court has not acted upon this decline, and when people do not act and use the power that has been given to them, we can theorize the following.
The first is that The Court is content, even happy with the way things are, they see minimal or even no issues with the current order, either because they do not see or agree that the order is failing, or because the current order protects their own interests and ignores the interests of the nation and her people.
The second is that even if they do agree that the system is failing, they are too lazy and incompetent to wield their power to reverse the decline. Cowardice.
Ultimately there is truth to both of these theories, but the conclusion remains the same, Britain’s ruling class, The Court, is not fit to govern, they are not fit to lead, they are given the titles of rulers but do not know the art of ruling. The only solution is to replace them, they must all fall.