Britain Will Soon Cease 2 Be
Plodding along in the midst of an unheard-of crisis and facing mounting problems, Britain under its unelected premier Gordon Brown remains assertive and pushy on the world stage clamoring for its share of attention every day.
Whether posing as America’s best friend, lecturing other countries on a whole range of issues, especially on democracy (although itself is a plutocracy), or running spy rings all over the world, the message is unmistakable - Britain remains a major player on the world stage and views everybody who disagrees as a vital adversary. Why is this happening and should the world be worried?
Britain’s economy is overwhelmingly dependent on its financial services sector and the North Sea oil and the country’s prosperity depends on international demand for financial services and also on oil prices. At present, global oil prices are falling, financial services are not in great demand, to put it mildly, and Britain’s national coffers are empty. In fact, they have been mostly empty ever since WWII. Hence Mr Brown has no resources to do anything but to wag his thickly coated tongue at foreign leaders purporting to lecture them on how to deal with the crisis.
British finances have been parlous for some time and Number 10 is never really far from defaulting on its debts or from going to the International Monetary Fund with an outstretched hand. However, Mr Brown knows that a dose of assertive preaching goes down well with the global economic elite and especially with his own electorate - and so parliamentary polls are not due any time soon. Under the British constitution (which really doesn’t exist, not in writing anyway), he doesn’t have to have an electoral mandate from the populace. He will try to stay in power for as long as possible, claiming his unique expertise and (one-eyed) vision, insisting that he has to save the world from an economic catastrophe which only he, Gordon Brown, can do.
The success of this plan hinges on Mr Brown retaining a modicum of popularity among ordinary Brits and credibility among foreign economic operators. His crisis solving credentials are the trump card. The more he can claim to have saved the world and averted a global depression, the better his chances of political survival.
Yet there is a deeper reason for Britain’s continuing noisy assertiveness. Over the past five decades (since WWII), the country has suffered humiliation after humiliation. The collapse of the British Empire brought about the end of Britain as a global superpower. Political chaos and economic collapse during the erratic 1970s left London on the verge of complete disintegration and oblivion and dependent on aid from Britain’s one-time greatest enemy, America. Above all else, Mr Brown wants to send an emphatic message that this disastrous era of national decline will never be repeated. He may well be wrong and this is why the world need not be unduly worried.
Financial services from London are unlikely to be much needed in the future. When British financial speculators and hedge fund managers can no longer impose themselves on their unfortunate clients, Britain’s economy will commit suicide with them. Genuinely successful nations have innovative scientists, world-class universities, major companies turning out popular products and/or vast natural resources. Britain has none of these assets. Instead, it has glib-talking politicians, and nothing else.
World economic processes completely beyond Mr Brown’s control (and which he doesn’t even begin to understand) decide the fate of the British economy. Far from being a continuing or even a rising power able to decide its own destiny, the harsh truth is that Britain under Mr Brown depends on the whims of foreign investors and economic donors. Bad times will almost certainly follow the recent years of plenty.
Britain’s future looks disastrous. Immigration, emigration, territorial disintegration, race- and faith problems, alcohol- and substance abuse, teenage pregnancies, rife knife crime, corruption, organized and not-so-organized crime, its disadvantageous geographical position (far away from all trading routes in the modern world) and the fact that it’s facing overpopulation compound its many problems. Within years, Britain will probably cease to carry any weight on the world stage.