by Daniel Barge
There is a clear systemic problem with British politics. This is not yet apparent to the low-information observer, as it still looks like the old two-party system is operating, with one of the "big parties" on the up and the other one in Opposition. But this picture is highly deceptive. The fact is that Labour won a crushing landslide last year but were also incredibly unpopular!
That should be an alarm bell to anyone who thinks that British politics is just passing through another totally normal cycle. It isn't.
Both main parties are essentially hollowed out, with low membership, while being regarded by the general public with varying degrees of disinterest and loathing. It is only the UK's less than representative electoral system that has been able to maintain this facade of two-party politics for this long and that is about to collapse.
But the most significant change in British politics is its "internationalisation," which is kind of ironic since Brexit was supposed to make Britain much more of its own thing. Instead, we see a Britain that quivers like a feather not only in the economic tailwinds of America, but also in its political and metapolitical tailwinds. But this is not the only outside factor impacting British politics. There are others too.
This process has been heightened by the weakening of traditional media structures and the growing importance of social media. The latter means that memes, ideas, and attitudes are instantly shared between the UK, America, and the rest of the Anglosphere at lightning speed, with the rest of the World also involved at a slower speed.
Trump's election and the rise of Elon Musk on his coattails is also an event in British politics, as we see with Musk's recent willingness to comment on British politics. Another notable recent example was Tucker Carlson's platforming of junk historian Martyr Made and his extreme Anglophobic interpretation of history. There are countless others.
Added to this social media aspect, there is the penetration of more conventional British media by outside actors. Sky News is owned by Comcast, LBC by the Murdoch clan, and GB News (KGB News?) by Russian-linked dark money in Dubai.
I won't bother to mention the main printed press outlets, but here too there is plenty of disruptive foreign money, as well as a desperate hunger prompted by falling sales to latch onto anything kicked up by the internet or the "populist" news outlets.
The BBC meanwhile is forced into a position of relative impotence, playing "fact-checking" defence against the flood of disruptive narratives constantly being generated by this foreign-owned, click-oriented, and open news space.
Another important element in the modern British political ecosystem is the weakening ability of the establishment to marginalise and exclude people seen as "dangerous." The Tommy Robinsons, Andrew Tates, George Galloways, and even Nigel Farages of the world, despite failings that would have seen them hung out to dry in an earlier age, refuse to go away and in the process acquire unprecedented memetic power.
That should be an alarm bell to anyone who thinks that British politics is just passing through another totally normal cycle. It isn't.
Both main parties are essentially hollowed out, with low membership, while being regarded by the general public with varying degrees of disinterest and loathing. It is only the UK's less than representative electoral system that has been able to maintain this facade of two-party politics for this long and that is about to collapse.
But the most significant change in British politics is its "internationalisation," which is kind of ironic since Brexit was supposed to make Britain much more of its own thing. Instead, we see a Britain that quivers like a feather not only in the economic tailwinds of America, but also in its political and metapolitical tailwinds. But this is not the only outside factor impacting British politics. There are others too.
This process has been heightened by the weakening of traditional media structures and the growing importance of social media. The latter means that memes, ideas, and attitudes are instantly shared between the UK, America, and the rest of the Anglosphere at lightning speed, with the rest of the World also involved at a slower speed.
Trump's election and the rise of Elon Musk on his coattails is also an event in British politics, as we see with Musk's recent willingness to comment on British politics. Another notable recent example was Tucker Carlson's platforming of junk historian Martyr Made and his extreme Anglophobic interpretation of history. There are countless others.
Added to this social media aspect, there is the penetration of more conventional British media by outside actors. Sky News is owned by Comcast, LBC by the Murdoch clan, and GB News (KGB News?) by Russian-linked dark money in Dubai.
I won't bother to mention the main printed press outlets, but here too there is plenty of disruptive foreign money, as well as a desperate hunger prompted by falling sales to latch onto anything kicked up by the internet or the "populist" news outlets.
The BBC meanwhile is forced into a position of relative impotence, playing "fact-checking" defence against the flood of disruptive narratives constantly being generated by this foreign-owned, click-oriented, and open news space.
Another important element in the modern British political ecosystem is the weakening ability of the establishment to marginalise and exclude people seen as "dangerous." The Tommy Robinsons, Andrew Tates, George Galloways, and even Nigel Farages of the world, despite failings that would have seen them hung out to dry in an earlier age, refuse to go away and in the process acquire unprecedented memetic power.
Discussing grooming gangs presumably
But perhaps more important than the potent mechanics of disruption is the ideological vacuum that both the traditional Right and Left have created.
The top Tories, at least, seem to be aware of this, with both the present leader Kemi Badenoch and her defeated rival Robert Jenrick shamelessly cribbing from the play sheet of Reform UK, which itself looks like the "political wing" of GB News. Sunak was also a notorious although unsuccessful cribber.
As for the Labour Party, they seem to have an "out of time" feel to them, as if they are a "tribute act" to previous Labour governments, little realising that 1970s Britain or even 1990s Britain are long gone.
The party also seems to have lost its "Leftist" soul, something they always had to keep in check, but which was always there, nonetheless. The last real mainstream leftist in the party was probably Jeremy Corbyn, but since he was kicked out on fake charges of "anti-Semitism," with Labour going on to fully back Bibi Netanyahu in his recent wars, the last light of genuine Leftism seems to have been well and truly stifled under the wet blanket of the party's incompetent attempt to be "technocratic."
From the World of Gladstone and Disraeli, the legends of Lloyd George and Churchill, and the conviction politics of Margaret Thatcher or even Gordon Brown, we have descended to the politics of the unserious narcissistic grifter, foreign puppet, populist opportunist, and dead-eyed careerist, all pushed and pulled by a plethora of outside forces, like vultures feeding on a rotting carcass.
The top Tories, at least, seem to be aware of this, with both the present leader Kemi Badenoch and her defeated rival Robert Jenrick shamelessly cribbing from the play sheet of Reform UK, which itself looks like the "political wing" of GB News. Sunak was also a notorious although unsuccessful cribber.
As for the Labour Party, they seem to have an "out of time" feel to them, as if they are a "tribute act" to previous Labour governments, little realising that 1970s Britain or even 1990s Britain are long gone.
The party also seems to have lost its "Leftist" soul, something they always had to keep in check, but which was always there, nonetheless. The last real mainstream leftist in the party was probably Jeremy Corbyn, but since he was kicked out on fake charges of "anti-Semitism," with Labour going on to fully back Bibi Netanyahu in his recent wars, the last light of genuine Leftism seems to have been well and truly stifled under the wet blanket of the party's incompetent attempt to be "technocratic."
From the World of Gladstone and Disraeli, the legends of Lloyd George and Churchill, and the conviction politics of Margaret Thatcher or even Gordon Brown, we have descended to the politics of the unserious narcissistic grifter, foreign puppet, populist opportunist, and dead-eyed careerist, all pushed and pulled by a plethora of outside forces, like vultures feeding on a rotting carcass.
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