Category Archives: Elections

Trump, Brexit and Leftist Delusions – A Taste of Things to Come?

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Trump, Brexit and Leftist Delusions – A Taste of Things to Come?

By Duncan Whitmore

Over the weekend Special Counsel Robert Mueller finally concluded his investigation into the possibility of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia in the run up to the 2016 presidential election. A summary of the findings released by Attorney General William Barr cleared Mr Trump of the allegations, thus ending a wrangling, two year process that has seen a number of Trump aides prosecuted for peripheral charges but nothing that smacks of being in bed with “the enemy”.

Over here in the UK, final frustration with the quagmire of the EU withdrawal process on the Remainer side has led to a petition to revoke Article 50 receiving a record breaking five million signatures, while a “People’s Vote” march in London on Saturday apparently attracted more than one million attendees – both dubious figures, incidentally. Thus, we are now expected to believe that the “will of the people” has turned against a Brexit that never could have been anything other than a complete, unmitigated disaster.

All of these events represent, on both side of the Atlantic, the childish attempts by the leftist-liberal elite to block out of their minds the possibility that maybe – just maybe – their vision of globalisation, open borders, multiculturalism and ever greater degrees of economic control in the hands of multinational institutions really isn’t what millions of their fellow countrymen and women wanted. That may be Trump really did get elected to office fairly and squarely, and it was not a foreign-orchestrated stitch up; that may be the British people didn’t just swallow a bunch of “lies” from the official Leave campaign, nor was their vote for Leave, to quote Lord Adonis, a “populist and nationalist spasm” rather than the manifestation of a long, deep seated antipathy towards the EU that has been bubbling under the surface since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty.  All of these charades by those on the losing side have been nothing more than exercises in coating themselves in yards of bubble wrap – postponing the day when they have to step out of fantasy into reality, and realise that their visions of a world order that seemed so secure prior to 2016 are, in fact, crumbling around them. Read more

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Theresa May: A Study in Bare-Faced Wickedness

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Theresa May: A Study in Bare-Faced Wickedness
by Sean Gabb
21st November 2018

Because I am writing about the European Union, I shall be neither surprised nor upset if the majority of my British readers go straight for the delete button. I write near the end of a week of fierce and increasingly unanimous denunciation of the Draft Agreement the British Government has “negotiated” for our withdrawal. However, more than half the people on my mailing list live outside the United Kingdom, and some of these have asked me to explain to the best of my ability what is happening. Here is the briefest summary I can manage that still makes sense. Read more

Theresa May: A Qualified Defence (2018), by Sean Gabb

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Theresa May: A Qualified Defence
Sean Gabb
15th September 2018

One of my books
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I am presently sat in a Turkish hotel, brooding over the e-mails I keep receiving from my Conservative friends. If some of them want Boris Johnson to replace her, and others Jacob Rees-Mogg, they all agree that Theresa May must go, and that this will somehow improve our departure from the European Union. I have no doubt she would make a better pole dancer than Prime Minister. But I am astonished that anyone with half a brain could want change from our existing state of affairs. It is not, I grant, the best possible state of affairs. It is, even so, the best available. Read more

Jeremy Corbyn: A View from the Right

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Jeremy Corbyn:
A View from the Right
by Sean Gabb
27th August 2018

One of my books
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Seen from my point of view, on the libertarian right, there are at least three ways of looking at the alleged or real anti-semitism of Jeremy Corbyn. The first is that it is very, very funny. Since the 1970s, he and his friends have been whining about the horrors of racial prejudice. Now, every time he opens his mouth, he says something that upsets Jews – and that may legitimately be of concern to them. You tell me it is uncharitable if I fail to keep a straight face. The second is that the scandal is a distraction from the real issue in British politics. Next March, we are supposed to leave the European Union. Whether we shall or ought to leave with some kind of agreement is arguably more important than with whom Mr Corbyn shared a platform at the Conway Hall in 1987. These first two being noted, I will focus on the third, which is what impact he will have on the so far arrested realignment of English politics. Read more

The Not So Resistible Rise of Jeremy Corbyn

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The Not So Resistible Rise of Jeremy Corbyn
by Sean Gabb
19th April 2018

One of my Books
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When Jeremy Corbyn became Leader of the Labour Party in 2015, the Conservative Party rejoiced, and his own parliamentary party went into a long sulk. The received wisdom was that an avowed socialist, with some very iffy connections, was so unelectable that the Conservatives could expect at least five more years in office. I disagreed. Sure enough, he came a good second in the 2017 general election. I will now say with fair surety that, if there were an election next week, Mr Corbyn would get an overall majority. It might be a big overall majority.

Let me discuss the reasons. Read more

The Futility of Electoral Politics

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The Futility of Electoral Politics
by Sean Gabb
8th April 2018

One of my Books
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There was a time when I felt obliged to argue for certain propositions. However, we have now reached a stage where these propositions can be taken as at least a working hypothesis. We are governed by a coalition of fools, cowards, drunkards, whoremasters, and whores of every kind. Their mission is to finish turning England into a financial casino in which a few hundred thousand punters and croupiers grow very rich, while the rest of us – when not working as cleaners, drivers, cooks, and jesters without licence – live either as atomised individuals or in ethnic and religious communities, each too powerless to impose on the others any one agenda of dissent. This is not to say we shall be impoverished in the traditional sense. We shall have no shortage of food or of shiny electronic toys. But we shall not have the luxury of owning property, and our only security against falling into real poverty will be obedience to our masters and an outward show of conformity to whatever they claim at any one moment to believe. Read more

Britain and Europe: The Long Goodbye? – Sean Gabb Speech in Bratislava, 15th August 2017

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A speech given by Sean Gabb in Bratislava, on the 15th August 2017, to the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS). He spoke to an audience of Slovak journalists and politicians on the background to Britain’s impending departure from the European Union, and discussed what may happen next.

The video was produced and edited by Philippa Gabb.

NB – the main speech is in English, though the flattering Introduction by Richard Durana is in Slovak.

Summary:

  1. In the 2015 general election, David Cameron needed to attract large numbers of UK Independence Party votes in order to secure an overall majority for the Conservative Party.
  2. British entry to the European Union (then called the European Economic Community) had split the Conservative Party. This led eventually to the emergence of the UK Independence Party, which was able to take enough votes in the 2010 general election to deny the Conservatives a majority.
  3. David Cameron’s strategy in 2015 was to offer a referendum on EU membership.
  4. He made an error in calling the referendum in June 2016, when much British attention was fixed on the migrant crisis of 2015. The result of the referendum was largely due to fears of more immigration from Europe.
  5. After the referendum, the Conservatives declared that Britain would leave, but had no plan for leaving. Either they were unaware of the complexities, or they were unable to agree on how to manage these complexities.
  6. They still have not plan. Even so, Britain is to leave in March 2019, and the process will become increasingly exciting for impartial observers.
  7. Dr Gabb’s own view is that the peoples of Europe are bound together by common experience and common problems, and that a close working relationship must emerge from the process of British withdrawal. His final point is that the European Union is not the best vehicle for articulating these commonalities.
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