Bill Bryson: Britain ideal place for Communism

Thirty years ago, in Notes From A Small Island, Bill Bryson, the most famous British writer ever to come from Des Moines IA, had this to say about the suitability of Not-so-great Britain for the Communist social experiment.

It has long seemed to me unfortunate...that such an important experiment in social organization [as Communism] was left to the Russians when the British would have managed it so much better. All those things that are necessary to the successful implementation of a rigorous socialist system are...second nature to the British. 

For a start, they like going without. They are great at pulling together, particularly in the face of adversity, for a perceived common good. 

They will queue patiently for indefinite periods and accept with rare fortitude the imposition of rationing, bland diets and sudden inconvenient shortages of staple goods, as anyone who has ever looked for bread at a supermarket on a Saturday afternoon will know. 

They are comfortable with faceless bureaucracies and, as Mrs. Thatcher proved, tolerant of dictatorships. They will wait uncomplainingly for years for an operation or the delivery of a household appliance. 

They have a natural gift for making excellent jokes about authority without seriously challenging it, and they derive universal satisfaction from the sight of the rich and powerful brought low. Most of those above the age of twenty-five already dress like [east Europeans]. 

The conditions, in a word, are right.

Roughly a year after Mr Bryson's highly recommendable book appeared, Sir Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Bliar ascended to the leadership of the Labour half of the Uniparty* and became Prime Minister of the Disunitede Kingdom. Evidently he had read the book, for he did his damndest to turn Britain, if not Red, then deep Pinko.

He failed, of course, because Margaret Thatcher had made it politically impossible to renationalize the steel industry, railways, etc., and not enough Third World migrants -- legal and otherwise -- had been "welcomed" to the green and septic isle to complete the transition to totalitarianism.

Fast forward to July of 2024 when British voters, having tired of a succession of feckless and inept "Conservative" governments, gave the Labourites 411 seats in a general election, whereupon the equally feckless and inept King Charles III invited Sir Keir Starmer (to be played in the movie by Sir Michael Palin) to form the next government and lead Britain down the People's Path to, errr... thingy... you know....

The Starmer government quickly set new records for incompetence, DEI, and geneeral wokeness in the face of common sense. Of 122 ministers appointed by the New Dear Leader, 18 have resigned, 1 has been dismissed, and 20 have left to spend more time with their families. [These figures are from Wikipedia, so should be taken cum grano salis. Ed.]

Given the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to show buyer's remorse, the British electorate gave Sir Keir's Labour Party (and, it must be said, the "Conservatives" as well) a rirhgt thrashing in a local elections bloodbath which saw it routed on English councils, and destroyed in Wales and Scotland. See *"Uniparty politics FAILS in UK...", WWW 10/5/26.

Does this mean that Bill Bryson was wrong? I think not. It's just that his timing was off. If Sir Keir can somehow cling to power through one more election [I'll take that bet. Ed.], he and his Pinko friends may yet reduce No-longer-great Britain to the level which prompted Mr Bryson to  write what he did. IMHO, Britain is fecked (as the Irish say) but I don't expect to be proven right until... maybe this fall!

Uniparty politics FAILS in UK... still working in Canada though

    I often think it's comical... fa-la-ah-lah

        How nature always does contrive... fa-la-ah-lah

    That every boy and every gal

        That's born into this world alive

    Is either a little Liberal

        Or else a little Conservative! Fa-laaaa-lah!

Private Willis (of the Grenadier Guards), in Iolanthe, book by W.S. Gilbert

Ever since the electoral reforms of the mid-19th century, the Mother of All Parliaments -- the Westminster Parliament of the so-called United Kingdom -- has been dominated by a party of the left(ish) and one of the right(ish). The latter calls itself "Conservative". The "Liberal" party, as the former was known when W.S. Gilbert wrote those lyrics was supplanted in 1924 by the Labour Party, which, under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, is now having its turn at bat.

The Right Honourable Mr Starmer has a rude awakening a couple of days ago when his party was thrashed in a local elections bloodbath which saw it routed on English councils, and destroyed in Wales and Scotland.

His Majesty's Loyal Opposition can take no cheer from the Labour debacle, as the Conservatives also lost hundreds of council seats across Once-great Britain. Labour also lost control of the devolved parliament of Wales, to the nationalist Plaid Cymru party, while the Scottish National Party kept its majority in Scotland.

While the slightly less leftish Liberal Democrats and the loony Green Party made gains, the big winner was the Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage. Mr Farage now looks the best bet to be the next prime minister of the Disunited Kingdom, as pressure mounts on Sir Keir to fall on his sword. See "Over 100 Labour Politicians Call on Prime Minister Starmer to Resign After Election Disaster", Breitbart News, 10/5/26.

What we are seeing here is nothing less than the destruction of Britain's two-party system, where power is rotated between two parties with virtually indistinguishable liberal democratic policies, who might better be called not "Labour" and "Conservative" but "Ins" and "Outs".

Vote share projections by Rallings and Thrasher suggest that if a general election had been held on the same day as these local elections, Labour would have scored only 15%, with Reform on 27% and the Tories on 20%. The Greens and the Lib Dems were both on 14%. At a Westminster election those numbers would probably produce a hung Parliament, with Reform the largest party but well short of an outright majority.

Prime Minister Starmer has argued that his Labour party stands its best chance at political survival with him at the helm, rather than tacking to the left or right with a replacement leader. Speaking to The Observer yesterday Saturday, he said he hopes to be in power for the next eight years, meaning that he hopes to lead the party to victory in the next general election in 2029. 

For his part, Nigel Farage boasted of a "truly historic shift in British politics" and said he is "heading for Number 10" (i.e. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's residence), as Reform plundered seats in previous Labour strongholds in the North and Midlands. Mr Farage predicted that Starmer will likely be removed from office by mid-summer, and joked that he would be "very sad" to see Sir Keir ousted, adding "he is the greatest asset we have got."

Meanwhile the Canadian parliament continues to be controlled by the Uniparty, a de facto coalition of the leftish ("but not so much as under Trudeau!") Liberals and the rightish ("but not so much as under Harper!") Conservatives. 

The only thing the two parties disagree on is who should sit on which side of the House of Commons. The general election of 2025 resulted in a hung parliament, with the "New Look Liberals" four seats short of a majority, In the year since, that embarrassing shortage of power has been rectified by the simple expedient of having three Liberals and one pinko (NDP-er) cross the floor to sit on the government side. Canuckleheads will now be ruled by the wokesters of the Laurentian Elite until the next election in 2029.

"All socialism involves slavery." (Herbert Spencer)

[Who Herbert Spencer? Ed.] Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. He originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species.

In Left Luggage (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1967), C. Northcote Parkinson (author of The Law), says: "In his approach to sociology and policisa, Herbert Spencer had one tremendous advantage over rival theorists.... He knew what he was talking about." 

At page 35, he (Parkinson) writes: "In The Man Versus the State (1884), Spencer distinguished clearly between 'the regime of status' and the 'regime of contract'.... To give people greater freedom should enable them to benefit themselves. To benefit them directly, by contrast, one must insist, first of all, on obedience."

There follows a lengthy quote from Mr Spencer's book, from the section headed "The Coming Slavery", at page 314.

There is that increasing need for administrative compulsion and restraints which results from the unforeseen evils and shortcomings or preceding compulsions and restraints. Moreover, every additional State-interference strengthens the tacit assumption that it is the duty of State to deal with all evils and secure all benefits. 

Increasing power of a growing organisation is accompanied by decreasing power of the rest of the society to resist its further growth and control. The multiplication of careers opened by a developing bureaucracy tempts members of the classes regulated by it to favour its extensions.... 

The people at large, led to look on benefits received through public agencies as gratis benefits, have their hopes continually excited by the prospects of more. A spreading education, furthering the diffusion of pleasing errors rather than of stern truths, renders such hopes both stronger and more general. 

Worse still, such hopes are ministered to by candidates for public choice, to augment their chances of success; and leading statesmen, in pursuit of party ends, bid for popular favour by countenancing them. 

Getting repeated justifications from new laws harmonizing with their doctrines, political enthusiasts and unwise philanthropists push their agitations with growing confidence and success. 

Journalism, ever responsive to popular opinion, daily strengths it by giving it voice; while counter-opinion, more and more discouraged, finds little utterance.

Thus influence of various kinds conspires to increase corporate action and decrease individual action. And the change is being on all sides aided by schemers, each of whom thinks only of his pet plan and not at all of the general re-organisation which his plan, joined with others such, are working out. 

It is said that the French Revolution devoured its own children. Here [in Great Britain], an analogous catastrophe seems not unlikely. The numerous socialistic changes made by Act of Parliament, joined with the numerous others presently to be made, will by-and-by be all merged in State-socialism -- swallowed in the vast wave which they have little by little raised.

"But why is this change described as 'the coming slavery'?" is a question which many will still ask. The reply is simple. All socialism involves slavery.

Elsewhere in Left Luggage, Mr Parkinson gives his own explanation of the motivation and actions of today's leftists.

They came to realize...that the lower classes cannot be resued from the slum unless they will do as they are told. This, they came to see, is a basic principle of existence.

You cannot help an old woman to cross a busy street unless she will accept your guidance. The very act of going to the rescue makes you superior to the person rescued. And just as folk in danger must obey the orders of the lifeboatman or fireman, the victims of the industrial slum must follow the social reformer's advice.

That they are incapable of saving themselves is the most obvious result of their ill-treatment. Kindly but firmly they must be shows the way to escape. A better environment can be theirs but only if they will obey orders. It is this kindly coercion that has come to be known as Socialism.

The emphases are mine. WW

So farewell then, Prince Philip

His Royal Highness Prince Philip, consort of Her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, died this morning, surrounded by most of his family -- you know who wasn't there -- at Windsor Castle.

Affectionately (?) dubbed "Phil the Greek" by the British satirical newspaper Private Eye, Prince Philip was actually part of a very large German-British royal family, the Battenbergs, who members sat on the thrones of Russia, Germany, Greece and Great Britain at various times in the 20th century.

Philip, Prince of Greece and Denmark, the son of Princess Alice of Battenberg and grandson of the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, took the name Mountbatten when he became a naturalised British subject on his marriage to Princess Elizabeth in 1947.

Philip became the longest-living royal consort in British history, surpassing Queen Caroline, the wife of George III. He spent 74 years supporting his wife in a role that both defined and constricted his life. He died just two months short of his 100th birthday.

Walt didn't know Prince Philip personally, [Really?! Ed.] but was inclined to like him for being politically incorrect, and by all account not suffering fools gladly. His dislike for Crown Prince Charles was fodder for "Heir of Sorrow", a parody of a Mills & Boon bodice-ripper which appeared regularly in Private Eye. One can only imagine what he thought of Prince Harry and the Princess of Woke.

The Prince was known to be "irascible and tough-minded", not afraid to call a spade a spade. He is said to have told a British diplomat posted to Hong Kong not to stay there too long "or you'll become all slitty-eyed like them." And on viewing a rat's nest of wires on a tour of a factory in India, he remarked, "Must have been done by a local electrician." 

In the 21st century, saying those kinds of things makes one politically incorrect, and obituaries are being published even as I write describing the late Prince as "racist" and "sexist". I don't think he would care. Here's a photo, posted on WWW years ago, which we think pretty much sums up Prince Philip's view of himself and his place in the overall scheme of things.

What is the reason for the enigmatic smile on his face...and the priceless expressions on the faces of the others, especially Prince Harry? Did Prince Philip fart? Seems like he didn't take himself too seriously, and Walt says, "Good on yer, Phil! RIP."

Seen today on the Internet. [Is this right? Ed.]

Seen of BBC.com landing page. That's all ye know and all ye need to know about the Once-Great Britain.