Theresa May is duplicitous, vindictive, power hungry and constantly breaks her promises. But these things are by no means the worse things about her. The worst things about her are her periodic outbreaks of morality, which Macaulay said made the English ridiculous. Her morals led her to promise that there would be no hard border with Northern Ireland, a promise quite unnecessary that is destroying Brexit.
George Osborne was a power hungry schemer and trimmer, but the worst thing about him was his morality, his passionate belief in the EU, international organisations and internationalism. During the 2016 referendum campaign, Max Hastings, a Remainer, urged him to hold out some scintilla of hope to the many people distressed by immigration levels.
George Osborne was a power hungry schemer and trimmer, but the worst thing about him was his morality, his passionate belief in the EU, international organisations and internationalism. During the 2016 referendum campaign, Max Hastings, a Remainer, urged him to hold out some scintilla of hope to the many people distressed by immigration levels.
“I think we should leave that to Ukip”, he said primly. But what about raising the possibility of revisiting the ECHR? The chancellor responded that to fly any such kite “would set a very poor example to countries such as Belarus”. I came home and transferred my little all into US dollars.'Tony Blair was scheming but it was his idealism that caused all the trouble: mass immigration; unjust wars of intervention in foreign countries; state imposed feminism and political correctness, etc, etc. The same is equally true of Harold Wilson, who brought in hate speech laws (though it was under Tony Blair that they were first very widely used).
Looking to Europe, it's very true of Frau Merkel and of HerrJuncker, who constantly calls for more to be done for refugees.
A lot of the problem, even though most people in Western Europe are now godless, stems from theology, which underlies everything in history. It stems from the left-wing Christianity that seized hold of the Catholic Church and of Protestantism in the 1960s and has not loosened its grip.
Orthodox Christianity has not been touched by this as it was not touched by the Reformation or the Enlightenment and this, I have slowly come to see, is a large part of why, though I am a Catholic, I find Romania so very congenial.
The greatest living Englishman, historian, priest and religious writer Dr Edward Norman, said long ago, in his 1978 Reith Lectures, that for modern man welfare considerations had taken the place of the sacred.
Things have changed since 1978. Now, although welfare considerations are still held to be sacred, anti-discrimination ideas and ideals are widely considered the holy of holies.
A lot of the problem, even though most people in Western Europe are now godless, stems from theology, which underlies everything in history. It stems from the left-wing Christianity that seized hold of the Catholic Church and of Protestantism in the 1960s and has not loosened its grip.
Orthodox Christianity has not been touched by this as it was not touched by the Reformation or the Enlightenment and this, I have slowly come to see, is a large part of why, though I am a Catholic, I find Romania so very congenial.
The greatest living Englishman, historian, priest and religious writer Dr Edward Norman, said long ago, in his 1978 Reith Lectures, that for modern man welfare considerations had taken the place of the sacred.
Things have changed since 1978. Now, although welfare considerations are still held to be sacred, anti-discrimination ideas and ideals are widely considered the holy of holies.
You could argue that the failure of British foreign policy in the 30s and the consequent loss of the Empire and Great Power status were due to the moralising nature of that foreign policy. Like getting all indignant about the Italians doing in Ethiopia exactly what the British and French and every other colonial power had done numerous times.
ReplyDeleteYou could indeed argue that. Mr Gladstone and Woodrow Wilson are good examples, whose heirs are Mr Blair, George Bush the Younger and Mrs Clinton, but had Mr Gladstone succeeded in giving Ireland Home Rule Ireland would be part of the UK now, much happier and Brexit would be very much less problematic
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