The strange case of Britain’s demise
Remarkable article.<p>2000-odd words, goes into great detail talking about politics, psycho-analyzing the Tories...it is all because they went to Eton...of course...the Brexit, the bankers...it is all so simple.<p>A brief sentence is expended on planning, no mention about supply-side problems, the productivity crisis in govt (which is now 50% of the economy)...nothing.<p>I will say this another way, you can measure the intelligence by looking at the gap between how often they talk about Brexit and how often they talk about economic reform. People who talk endlessly about Brexit have nothing to say about any economic reform...beyond reversing Brexit (and then say, without self-awareness, something sniping about the &quot;religion&quot; of Brexit). There is no content.<p>The UK has many problems but the worst is an elite that is almost totally preoccupied with arguing and rutting with other members of that same elite. Recursive, insular, almost no connection with reality.<p>That was the problem from the 20s until Thatcher (with exceptions, there were a few good men on both sides...Labour just totally imploded first). That crept back into the Tories in the early 90s, and crept back into Labour with Brown (I will ask you this: Brown oversaw one of the most catastrophic bailout programs that actually brought down healthy institutions...he is still advising Labour, how...he devised not one but two constitutional programs that imploded...he is STILL advising Labour on a third one, how...the article talks about people leaving politics, if people leave how is this unflushable turd still there).<p>All of the Tories who left after Brexit were some of the worst, most incompetent people in politics. All they did by the end of 2019 was argue with other politicians, they had no connection with reality. The current Cabinet are fine, there are lots of very obviously competent people attempting to deal with massive structural issues (Home Office has gone feral, Justice has gone feral, Health is beyond repair...again, the article mentions not one word about this...why might that be?). Look at Labour...they have Starmer (not wholly competent) and Reeves (who is risking a coup by meeting the Tories on policy)...again, the biggest issue is the profound lack of progress made on massive structural issues and this comes down to a failure of political leadership, not a failure of voters.