Or, if such rule does happen, it will involve a bunch of people who're so nutty that once they're in power they morph from bullied to bullies, and start to destabilise the geopolitical world order e.g. by threatening to annex Greenland.
Or, if such rule does happen in a non-nutty way, it will be merely a blip, just like Thatcher and Boris were blips. (The fact that the Thatcher blip lasted 11 years and Boris's a mere 3 speaks volumes.)
The non-Left are now basically fighting a rearguard action. It has to be done – unless you want to just roll over like a pussy, which of course many do. But the rewards of rearguarding are limited.
Britain is fawked. It's poised for a long, long period of slow but inexorable decline – punctuated, as all historical trends are, by occasional blips. (In investment, such blips are called rallies in a bear market.) Historically, there's nothing unusual about this. Every empire has peaked and then progressively declined, with hopeful little blips on the way down. Look at the basket cases of modern Greece and Italy, which in one sense merely represent the ruins of long-ago empires.
Like sharks and relationships, societies have to keep moving. If they're not moving up, they're moving down. Generally speaking, staying still is not an option.
The cultures-rise-and-fall theory is one possible perspective on the matter. Another is that socialism (as a mindset) is a virus which, once it takes hold of a society, leads to inexorable decay. Socialist ideology eats away at the flesh of a society, until all that remains is a skeleton with a few flaps of meat. Socialism succeeds partly because the less well off foolishly believe it will produce nirvana; but mostly because it appeals to people who enjoy having power over others.
Success, for a country as much as for a corporation, depends on one or more exceptionally talented individuals at the top. But the West no longer likes the idea of exceptional individuals – or rather, the elites don't, which is what counts.
Imagine what would happen if a Thatcher did come along. Obviously she/he would be completely pilloried by those who identify as leftist, including most of the influential part of the media. But even those who don't vote Labour are likely to view her/him with suspicion. Why isn't s(he) more egalitarian, more 'caring', less 'narcissistic'? How dare s(he) act entitled, when s(he) should be consulting with dozens, or preferably hundreds, of colleagues before making any decision? S(he) should be putting 'fairness' first, and not emphasising brutal things like efficiency!
But the age of liberty didn't last. Soon a new ideology arose, supposedly based on rationality and welfare, which decreed that society should be 'perfected', using the latest trendy ideas of intellectuals. Education quickly became a target for bringing 'enlightenment' to the masses. As the new ideology has become dominant, we've seen a repeat of the Christianity phenomenon: an ideological class that controls thought, via its control of education, and via its dominance of the media, the arts, and culture generally.
Once again, ideological dominance is providing an elite class with power, even if it's not of a kind that readily translates into monetary gain. As with the early Church, the power motive may often be unconscious, and individual members may think of their actions as motivated by benevolence and by a desire to do the 'right thing', rather than by the joys to be experienced from directing and controlling other people's lives.
While Brexit and Trump seemed to be signs that electorates had been brainwashed less than expected, the phenomena may have (largely) represented last-ditch efforts by a generation that remembered a world before woke – when thought and speech were freer, and genuinely critical, rather than pseudo-critical in Marxist fashion. Ten years on, much of that generation has died, and been replaced by Millennials and Zoomers, most of whom were brought up on socialist ideology and know nothing else.
However much the right-wing press complains, or Trump slash Vance finger-wags, Britain's banning/penalising/censoring bandwagon has become unstoppable. Labour is planning to criminalise criticism of Islam. The Greens want to make the sin of 'misogyny' include criticising a woman for anything whatsoever. (A possible argument for changing sex: become female, and criticising you will cease to be legitimate.)
I realise my comments may not be morale-boosting for rearguarders who are fighting in the trenches. Fighters need hope, if they are to fight effectively. But I thought I had better tell it as I see it. So Mr Farage, Mr Jenrick, if you read this, I recommend you forget what you've read. Certainly do not incorporate it into your speeches. And if any right-wing journalists are reading this (I know they are – though presumably most of them would rather gnaw their own leg off than give us any publicity), the same goes for you too: it's probably better to hold out hope, than to promote despair.
* Second picture shows rearguard action by the Greeks after the Battle of Domokos, from an illustration by Henry Wright (1849-1937).
