October 07, 2005
Already, most of my friends do not bother to vote
Dr. Gabb has his latest Free Life Commentary up. In it he discusses the shame of it all and the current political vacuum left by the failure of the Tory party. On the up are regulation, illiberal legislation, increased police powers, decreased individual liberty and responsibility and an increasing propensity for people to consider all politicians as pretty much the same. All from the same tribe with the tribe 'elders' showing over and over again an utter hatred of the English people and their ways. Dr. Gabb thinks that things may finally reach a breaking point:
England today is very similar to England in the 1630s, or to France before the Great Revolution, or to Central Europe before 1848. We have a ruling class that has carefully stifled all peaceful means of dissent. The result is a crust of placidity over a mile depth of superheated magma.I agree with Dr. Gabb on a number of his points and always have done but I'm not sure he has got his timing right on this one.If Rebecca is right, the sandpaper on the skin will eventually begin to hurt. But the resulting convulsion will not be limited to the ejection of the Blair Government from office. The force of the convulsion will be proportionate to its previous containment. We are looking at an explosion of anger such as England has never seen.
When will this start? Perhaps tomorrow. Perhaps next year. Perhaps after one more failed placing of faith in a Conservative Government. What will be its immediate cause?
As with other revolutions, it will be some issue of such local significance that the more plodding historians will forever shake their heads over it in wonder. But unless some real party of conservatism can emerge in short order, and establish itself as a government in waiting, there will be a revolution.
Now, because I do not wish to become a victim of one of those new police state laws we were assured the Government needed to contain the threat of Islamic terrorism, I will say here that I do not advocate overthrowing the established order. I am certainly not the kind of person able to lead such an overthrow. Instead, I am only observing what seems to me an obvious truth. Because the rulers of this country will not read the letters and e-mails of respectable complaint, they will be forced one day to listen to the roar from the streets.
That is why Rebecca and I did not discuss who should be our choice to lead the Conservative Party. That is why I will not even raise the matter with Dr Tame. It seems now irrelevant who is to lead the Party of the Quisling Right. We may live at present in a political vacuum. Assuredly, though, some unstoppable force is about to fill it.
We live in comfortable times and although many people agree that all politicians are effectively the same they will generally remain comfortable with being comfortable.
Judgement is clouded by the local weather. By that I mean that what is close to your heart, what you are exposed to day in and day out, what you spend much of your time thinking about, all these things tend to lend an air of importance or significance to issues that don't register with most other people (at least not to the same degree). That doesn't mean these issues are not important, it may just mean that not many people know how important they are yet.
Take, for example, my own views on the deconstruction of the nation of England brought about by unfair devolution and the tendency for many in the political elite to consider England as a minor concern when stacked against the might of one minority or fantasy interest or another.
It's a big issue for me. The local weather is stormy. However, the further you move away the better the weather. It annoys my wife. Some of my friends have a clue. Some people shrug. Most don't know a thing about it.
If Dr. Gabb's revolution does come any time soon I doubt very much that it will come directly from the people. Most trust the police. Most have never been on the end of an illiberal policy. Most have not had their property taken away by the state. Most simply do not take an interest. CCTV rocks and ID cards, well, sounds good to me.
There is a political vacuum sure enough, but it's one that the people are not in any hurry to have filled. Why? Because all politicians are the same. You see, the market is saturated. There's no demand these days.
