Do out-of-touch MPs inhabit the same country as us?
I TRULY despair for Britain. If the last two weeks are anything to go by, then things have never looked so bad. And they’re only set to get worse, not better. Westminster has turned into a sick pantomime of politicians completely adrift from the rest of the country.
How is it possible that Parliament descended into chaos over a vote regarding Gaza – a territory thousands of miles from Britain – when MPs have never shown the same fervour over the myriad of issues this country faces?
Why haven’t MPs stormed out over the state of the NHS, poor infrastructure or illegal immigration? Where was this palpable outrage when it was revealed that underage teenage girls were being sexually abused by grooming gangs in Rochdale?
Never mind that the whole Gaza vote was one giant virtue signalling exercise. Why not, at the very least, virtue signal over things affecting British citizens in Britain today? And to no one’s surprise, what has happened since last week’s calamitous vote has proved even more disappointing.
Lee Anderson’s blundering remarks about Islamists “having control” of London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer have taken centre stage and fuelled more theatre. As have MP Paul Scully’s comments that there are “no-go” areas in Birmingham and London.
YES, both men’s comments were clumsy and foolish. But some truths are self-evident and can no longer be avoided. Britain does have a problem with Islamist extremism. It does have a problem with certain groups self-isolating and not adopting British values. It does have a problem with rising antisemitism and other forms of hate (including anti-Islamic hate). With every police force in the country reporting rising incidents of antisemitic hate crimes, there may very well be pockets of the country Jews may not feel welcome in.
So when are our politicians going to get to grips with this?
The likes of Keir Starmer seem more interested in theatrics and faux outrage than discussing issues threatening to tear the country apart.
I am watching the country I love decline by virtually every metric.
On defence, our forces are in a dismal state. Recruitment levels are at an all-time low, defence spending has halved as a proportion of GDP since the 1980s, and the creeping ideology of diversity, equity and inclusion has seen the RAF pay compensation for discriminating against white men.
Economic growth is nowhere to be found and, coupled with unsustainable welfare spending, is a recipe for disaster.
Young people are unmoored and disillusioned – with a long list of grievances, legitimate and otherwise.
Businesses are increasingly saddled with higher energy costs and more regulations (under a Tory government too, ironically). National infrastructure is quite literally falling apart, and I am embarrassed that our pothole-ridden roads wouldn’t be out of place in a destitute, third-world country.
Councils are broke, poorly managed and have the audacity to request more money from the residents they are failing.
On immigration too, we have utterly failed. Legal immigration has never been higher, and illegal immigration has led to a surge in unvetted, single men disappearing into the underbelly of British society.
When we do seek to remove foreign national offenders, the Government is powerless in the face of supranational courts, human rights lawyers, a charity industrial complex and a broken asylum system ripe for abuse. Lastly, our progressively crime-ridden cities are managed by people with no interest in tackling the problem.
LOOK no further than London, where under Sadiq Khan’s leadership, knife crime has increased by 49 per cent since 2016.And to add insult to injury, Mr Khan is more interested in peddling misinformation to justify charging people and businesses an extra £12.50 a day for driving into London.
I was most offended by Mr Khan’s shameless excuse of “racial justice” to justify this obvious money grab. It is the politics of virtue-signalling, empty rhetoric and symbolic acts. It is much easier than reason and action.
Everywhere we look, things are getting worse, not better. And one must wonder if we are inhabiting the same country as those who govern us.
Both Conservative and Labour politicians seem oblivious to the public’s frustrations. Can Britain survive as a nation when the people elected to represent us are working against its prosperity? I doubt it.
‘Politicians seem oblivious to the frustrations of the public’