Why I remain deeply pessimistic about my country’s future

It underlines a tragic truth that we liberals cannot shy away from. On the contrary, we must be alert to it. Hard-right nationalist populism is never about improving the lives of citizens, in a supposedly patriotic manner. Rather, it is fake. It is nothing but a game.

By hammering home the idea that there is a multitude of despicable enemies in our midst, people’s personal struggles become secondary. If one’s health and wealth slides further into a state of negativity, for many it won’t matter as they’ll feel superior to the groups they so despise. Not only will they feel superior, but all their feelings of anguish will be seen to be the fault not of the government, but of the tribes they’ve come to distrust.

All blame will be directed at the categories of people deemed to be societal problems, whether they be black, Muslim, liberal, gay, trans, foreign or Jewish.

The UK government is quite clearly playing this game. Poverty is rising. Inequality is growing. Covid is being allowed to kill with impunity. And yet, with the help of the Mail, Sun and Express, the government can get away with all this by shouting, in bold, about how the treacherous Remainers and the anti-English EU are the real culprits.

I remain deeply pessimistic about the future of my country. 

Sebastian Monblat 

Future historians – if we have a future left, thanks to the likes of Trump, Lord Lawson and climate change denying Tory Brexiteers – will take a dim view of the last three Tory prime ministers. 

Cameron – arrogant but ignorant, full of himself, mistaking being clever for intelligence or wisdom, ultimately foolish and a coward who quickly ran away, later denying any responsibly for the disaster he has set in motion.  He will be found responsible for Britain’s decline and the break up of the UK. 

Mrs May – another Tory risen to a level beyond her ability, equally foolish and arrogant, blinked and rather narrow-minded.  Her disastrous reign saw the Brexiteer thieves and liars steal our country and our futures.  Worse, she presided over one of the most inapt and intellectually challenged governments in the last hundred years and promoted morons and fools to positions of power and influence. She will ultimately rank as one of our worse prime ministers, probably since Lord North. 

Finally Johnson.  He has taken all that was wrong and foolhardy and unpleasant about his two predecessors’ reigns and amplified them a hundred-fold. 

A self-centred, bumbling, serial liar, of dubious real intelligence beyond sprouting Latin and writing bad journalism and books, he has brought our country to a new low.  He has undermined our values, our future, our unity, our standing within the world.  He is like one of these decadent Emperors from the final years of the Roman Empire, living in his own self-glory and fantasy world, as Britain finally falls apart.  He is likely to be the worst of the three, but they allowed him to survive and thrive. 

No matter who comes next, the damage is done, and possibly irreversible.  

Garth Groombridge

I have just watched Emmanuel Macron addressing the people of France on his plans for the managing of the Covid 19 pandemic in France and his projected plans for the future of the French nation. For nearly twenty minutes he talked eloquently and effectively to the people of France. He plans to vaccinate all adolescents aged 12 to 18 from September 1st. He aims to vaccinate most of the people of France before next winter. 

The contrast with the bumbling and uncertain attempts at leadership from the apology for a prime minister that we have in the United Kingdom is truly frightening. He is abandoning leadership in a free for all which will see the daily number of cases of Covid 19 rocketing to over 100,000, the number of hospital admissions rising into thousands and hundreds of more deaths. Sir Keir Starmer is right to say that Boris Johnson is reckless – indeed this is an understatement. We live in dangerous times.

David Hogg

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