Decline of the West

'lll fares the land to hast'ning ills a prey

Where wealth accumulates and men decay.'

That has been the story of the West in my lifetime. Wealth is going to decay a lot now, for a time, and the birth rate will continue to fall throughout Europe and the developed world. The West will rediscover some manly virtues and be revitalised by this war and but so will the pseudo-West, the Eurofederalists, the neo-cons who are in the saddle now, the globalists and people who want as many immigrants and refugees as possible. The liberals will use Putin as a stick to beat the conservatives. Unfair but politics is, as Alan Watkins used to say, a rough old trade.

Emigration will continue to empty Eastern Europe, including the Ukraine, whose population is dwindling faster than any other European nation. Two million Ukrainians have fled their country, the fastest population movement in modern history. Those in Romania and Poland will mostly return but many will not and fewer of those who fled further west will do so.