So dear old Blighty has the worse Covid and excess death rates in the world, we knew. And now we know dear old Blighty has the worst crash in GDP of any major nation in the world ...
After resisting the launch of lockdown until later than other countries around the world and relaxing controls at a slower pace, the ONS said the UK had plunged into the deepest decline of any G7 nation in the second quarter. The downturn is also deeper than any other country in the EU and surpassed a 12.1% quarterly drop in the eurozone.
A worse collapse than any EU country and even a worse collapse than the poor benighted Euro zone. No wonder BoJo, Farage, and the Brexit mob are trying to distract the peeps attention onto some rubber dinghies in the channel.
There is no option to turn to within Blighty's constitution. The government, all three main parties, the public sector, the civil service, and the rest: not one bit of it offers any hopeful solution whatsoever.
Ergo, we need a new constitution.
And if the new constitution involves any of the above listed institutionalised failures owning and operating the means of production and distribution then you haven't understood the problem as elucidated by Ronnie Reagan.
Because I knew that a new constitution will never happen until collapse, disintegration, and civil war have ended the United Kingdom, I was not in favour of Brexit and handing unfettered "take back control" to the above listed institutionalised failures.
Do you get that argument now? How many more multiples of 60,000 dead will it take before you do? Home much more economic output decline will it take before you do? In your case, Blue Socialist Brexiteers, no amount of death and destruction will change your statist Billy Britain minds. It's OK if they die and we are poor, because at least we've "taken back control" - your words, not mine.
And for the rest of the Yellow and Red Socialist UK, no amount of death and destruction will change their state educated and BBC brainwashed statist minds. The one saving grace, the last torch of reason, prosperity and success, was in the hands of foreigners because we couldn't be trusted with it: Margaret Thatcher's legacy: The single market and the four freedoms, shone back on Blighty from Brussels and kept us more prosperous and free in all our history since the Romans rocked up. And you just switched off that one and only light at the end of the tunnel.
Ergo, oblivion it is then.
SoD
So the combined Q1+Q2 figures for the UK are worse than France's and Italy's but better than Spain's. Still, as a Remoaner I suppose you don't like facts.
By the way, how is World War Three going? You remember, the one you assured us would happen back in 2016, along with a 5% economic slump and 800,000 immediate job losses?
Crickets
Posted by: Steve T. | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 14:12
Another moderately entertaining jeremiad. I'm glad to see the word "Blighty" in there, but would appreciate if you could mention "Fluffbun" and "Gödel", and some fantasy games.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 16:53
It's a tight race:
"Gross domestic product plunged 20.4% in the second quarter, the most since records began in 1955 and roughly double that of Germany and the U.S. It also pushed Britain into its first recession since 2009."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-12/u-k-has-worst-economic-slump-in-europe-with-20-4-contraction
"The U.S. economy shrank at an annualized 32.9% rate in the second quarter — the worst-ever contraction on records that date back to 1947, the government said on Thursday."
https://www.axios.com/us-gdp-q2-coronavirus-contraction-worst-ever-ed533bbf-1113-47fa-aee2-6e66fb553977.html
Both are attributable to the minimal responses to the pandemic. This is the kind of thing that happens where the idea government is always the enemy takes hold.
Posted by: Bob | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 16:56
Local police have just announced that Cornwall is full! Don't say what of.
Posted by: Backofanenvelope | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 17:24
Steve T,
We haven't done Brexit yet, in case you hadn't noticed.
Blighty's GDP growth was top of the G7 countries in at least one quarter of every year from 2013-2016, and above the average of the G7 from 2012-2016 ...
https://fullfact.org/economy/uk-economic-growth-within-g7/
Take a look at what happened to GDP after the Brexit referendum in mid-2016 on those charts. Hero to zero.
The deficit was falling, debt as a percentage of GDP was falling, unemployment and inflation were trace, living standards were starting to rise.
Blighty was an exceptionally well handled economy under Cameron and Osborne, the Thatcherite wolves in "hug-a-hoody" and "Big Society" sheep's clothing.
And the peeps fumbled a vote after Cummings bullshitted them, just one vote, after which every poll since shows they regret it and have reversed their decision.
And now, even before Covid plays out and before Brexit actually happens, Blighty is a failed state just waiting for the markets to give the thumbs down and finish her off.
A sad story.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 17:41
Another £100m on the test, track and trace farce goes down the toilet of public sector procurement spasticity, this one with more than a hint of a whiff of corruption in the air ...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/11/uk-government-serco-contact-tracing-contract-leaked-memo
And even tiddly 5m population New Zealand says Blighty is not match-fit at negotiating trade deals, an embarassment 4 years after the referendum vote ...
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/new-zealand-post-brexit-trade-deal-1-6789052
Notice how the "match-fit" quoting NZ pol is happy to hire Leave.EU to help his election campaign though?
Those two say it all about post-Brexit referendum Blighty's list of world-class exports, don't they? Graft and bullshitting people. But no-one to even negotiate those into a trade deal.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 18:17
And the peeps fumbled a vote after Cummings bullshitted them, just one vote, after which every poll since shows they regret it and have reversed their decision.
Are you really that thick that you believe this?
Posted by: pils | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 18:31
Well bugger me, has old Ambrose "Cry Wolf" Evans-Pritchard actually cried wolf validly for once in his life?! ...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/08/12/time-go-growth-covid-destroys-economy/
It is official. The UK has ended up in a super-league of its own, with the highest level of excess deaths in Europe and the deepest economic contraction in Europe as well.
This is the worst failure of British state policy in my lifetime, a domestic Suez, for which nobody has yet been held to account.
The so-and-so's been cribbing me off D&N!
Let's read what else he has to say after the first two paras first ...
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 18:31
David?
Anything in your spam from me?
Posted by: JK | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 18:48
Seems AEP is backing all horses, but a good opening couple of paragraphs nevertheless.
Here's something more full-blooded: Chris Patten, former Governor of what was once the opposite of a failed state, Hong Kong, pondering whether Blighty is becoming a failed state - a year ago, even before Dombo and Covid arrived to back his pontifications up ...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fnlondon.com/amp/articles/brexit-britain-is-becoming-a-failed-state-here-is-the-evidence-20190822
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 19:17
Peruse the poll of polls, pils ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_United_Kingdom%27s_membership_of_the_European_Union_(2016%E2%80%932020)
What do you think?
"Will of the people" intact? Or utterly violated by a "mendacious chancer", as Chris Patten described him, and a flawed constitution?
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 19:31
The special relationship continues:
"As President Donald Trump morphs into a version of Benito Mussolini, according to former US ambassador Tony Garner last week, the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll reported that 80% of respondents agreed that their country was “out of control”. Friends of America are dismayed by the latest turn of events, a sign of terminal decline of a once proud nation."
https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/world/america-descending-failed-state
Posted by: Bob | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 19:51
Thanks be to God Trump's "Literally Hitler" has diminished to Mussolini!
And "hates" is down to "dismayed."
"Out of control" I'd, personally speaking, would say is a little more down than somewhat from "My God Trump promises in his first 100 days he's gonna nuke France!"
Now maybe if we're lucky it's beginning to sink in that "Hysteria Overload 24/7/365 + Leap Years" just might be a causal co-morbidity contributing to the fatality statistics of Covid 19.
(But probably not.)
Posted by: JK | Wednesday, 12 August 2020 at 22:04
Bob,
Blighty and Uncle Sam are quite different in three respects: -
(1) The incumbents are of opposite political and economic doctrines. Trump and the GOP are small state Libertarians at home. The Dombo pair is big state blue socialist through-and-through, self-described as a "Brexity Hezza" (Hezza is short for Michael Heseltine, a true blue socialist, aka a CONT - Conservative One Nation Tory).
(2) The US constitution enshrines Liberty as the prime mover, putting the straitjacket on authoritarianism, both democratic and undemocratic.
(3) The peeps in the US still have a culture of Liberty, albeit a diminishing one due to the control of education and media by the Left Axis. The state education system and BBC have erased the culture of Liberty from the individuals' minds in Blighty and replaced it with a collective authoritarian consciousness. Magna Carta and everything since is worthless now.
So under the current rising tide of assault by the Left Axis, Uncle Sam has at least an option for the peeps to choose to save themselves from failed state status.
Blighty's peeps have none.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Thursday, 13 August 2020 at 07:57
I might add that the Single Market and the Four Freedoms comes into clear view now as to what it is or was with respect to Blighty: the Liberty constitution we never had.
Invented by the last known Libertarians in Blighty: Margaret Thatcher and her followers during the 1980's, and passed to foreigners to shine back on Blighty and keep her prosperous and free from democratic authoritarianism, because Blighty's own pols and constitution couldn't be trusted.
The 30 best years in the history of Blighty for the peeps, and the worst 30 years for authoritarian pols. The last ledge to which we were clinging, that flattered to deceive us that this unprecedented prosperity and freedom for the ordinaries was all of our own making, all internal to our island and its constitution.
Then, off the back of that delusion, Cummings sold the perfect lie that Brussels was the problem not the solution. By 1% the people were duped, and quickly realised their mistake, but it was too late.
The stuff of nightmares.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Thursday, 13 August 2020 at 08:24
The UK and the USA have one over riding thing in common. They have an embedded ruling class that believes they know what is best for us. Unfortunately, they are usually wrong!
Posted by: Backofanenvelope | Thursday, 13 August 2020 at 10:58
BOE,
I don't think that's true of the GOP. They believe that leaving us to decide what's best for us is what's best for us. At least for the most part. And certainly more than the Dems, Tories, Lib-Dems, and Labour parties, who haven't even got one individual between them who believes that!
The next US election is a turning point in history. If the Don and the Goppers lose it's truly game over for any hope for the West. The next place to look for any individual freedom is Southeast Asia and Australasia. That forgotten corner that got left behind as the stampede of pols chasing the people seeking freedom veered north through China on its route through history from Africa to America via Asia and Europe until the planet was full of pol DNA and there was no where left to go to escape them.
Nooks and crevices. The exception to the rule type places. Somewhere that isn't big enough to be a threat to the global pol order of the new dark age. Or somewhere that's a useful necessity to them to be outside of their pol-blocs: A Switzerland, a Venice, a Gibraltar, a Singapore.
That's where to seek out your future if the Don and the Goppers lose the next election and you're young and want to live free.
Then wait another 1,000 years like the last time. With the woke Left Alliance as the new Catholic Church in ex-West blocs: holding forth on righteousness, spewing fake news, stifling true knowledge, appointing kingly power et al; and straight-up gangsters in the others. Equal in their brutishness (or the woke LA worse if you're with C.S. Lewis) until the next renaissance and enlightenment re-discovers the principles of how to live a better way.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Thursday, 13 August 2020 at 13:22
SoD,
I don't know if you actually believe your comment above, but it's full of absurdities or misunderstandings. The Republican party has a Libertarian wing, but is hardly concerned with libertarian philosophy. Since shortly after the Civil War (Reconstruction) it's been the business party and party of the rich. Everything else, especially the culture war issues, are just window dressing meant to rope in what you affectionately call country bumpkins. Otherwise Republicans would be a permanent minority party. Trump is the illogical product of their failure to live up to their bumpkin-oriented political promises.
Our Constitutional system protects liberty to an extent, but on its own can't necessarily prevent fascism or oligarchy, and we're dangerously close to both. We'll see how things work out in the coming election.
It's just as easy to charge that Thatcherism is attempting to brainwash Brits. You might remember she was something of a nationalist. It just took some decades for the direction she set to result in Brexit. Your paranoid construction of an all-powerful, treacherous left is textbook political extremism.
And before you accuse me of the same: The Republicans and right are not all-powerful. A considerable number of Republicans and centrists have abandoned the party. Here's a very short summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YU9djt_CQM
Posted by: Bob | Thursday, 13 August 2020 at 13:47
The Country-Bumpkins in the US know that the best way for them to get richer is to let the rich get richer. That can't be said for the Country-Bumpkins in Blighty.
The truth of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill is so emphatic that the Left Axis had to redefine poverty as a relative calculation not an absolute one. Here's an overview of Blighty's redefinition of poverty along Left Axis lines ...
https://fullfact.org/economy/poverty-uk-guide-facts-and-figures/
Under these crass "poverty is relative" truth distortions, if everyone got double what they were earning more people would be deemed to fall into poverty because the gap between rich and poor would increase in spite of the "poor" now getting twice what they were getting!
The economic outcome of AS and JSM has had many benefits, like reducing the death rate from weather and climate events from 500,000 to 20,000 per annum, but the most marked effect was poverty reduction by the true measure.
AS and JSM leads to everyone floating with some higher than others in the water. The philosophy of the Left Axis sees us all drown together.
The GOP is the only mainstream party in the US and UK that still understands this, and the Country-Bumpkins and Nobs who vote for it the only people. The rest have been brainwashed into believing prosperity and wealth are a zero-sum game, prosperity and wealth for the poor only being achievable by robbing the rich, when this is empirically not the case. A brainwash of epic proportions with disastrous consequences for Country-Bumpkins and Nobs alike.
Uncle Sam is in the last chance saloon and John Bull's dead on the floor already. I'm not hopeful. The Left Axis gang will have their time of destruction in the West as they did in the East. It seems no civilisation is able to learn from observation.
Go East, young man, where they're over it already.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Friday, 14 August 2020 at 09:40
The Country-Bumpkins in the US know that the best way for them to get richer is to let the rich get richer.
Ignorance is bliss, darling.
Posted by: Bob | Friday, 14 August 2020 at 14:31
Americanthinker on it like a car bonnet! ...
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/08/americas_current_suicide_attempt.html
Encouraging really, Uncle Sam's been spinning, templing and pulling the trigger on that revolver with one round in the chamber for such a long time now - and nothing more than a resounding "click"! Maybe his luck will never run out?
And nice to see old Paul Johnson being revisited.
The Gaffer used to think the sun shone out of his arse in the good ol' Maggie and Speccie years!
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Friday, 14 August 2020 at 19:21
Democracy is messy because people are messy in their thinking. The "we didn't get everything we wanted out of the '60's and '70's, so none of it worked and we need to go in exactly the opposite direction" trope is so overplayed it's just white noise. As is gnashing of teeth over BLM and no mention of Boogaloo Bois, Proud Boys, neo Nazis, the KKK, various "militias" etc. The American
BrownshirtThinker would have you think there are only fine people on one side.If you think that single round is "socialism", maybe his bad luck will run out. The Johnny Rebs and cowboys making common cause with the carpetbaggers never really made sense. It was only sustained with Nixonian propaganda that's now reached an absurd extreme. America is generally a small "c" conservative country. Republicans and their remaining intellectuals and institutions are no where near actual conservatism any more.
We might even get a BMI. The precedence has been set by Trump, of all people.
Posted by: Bob | Monday, 17 August 2020 at 15:31