JEREMY HUNT AND DECLINISM

In a recent speech, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the exchequer, said:

‘Just this month columnists from both left and the right have talked about an “existential crisis,” “Britain teetering on the edge” and that “all we can hope for… is that things don’t get worse. I welcome the debate – but Chancellors, too, are allowed their say. And I say simply this: declinism about Britain is just wrong. It has always been wrong in the past – and it is wrong today.’

The term ‘declinism’ was coined by Liz Truss during her leadership campaign – although she did not define or explain it (see the earlier blog post here).

Jeremy Hunt treated the idea as being one of pessimism of the UK’s prospects. Hunt did not share that pessimism and cited a number of statistics that he believed gave cause for optimism. The UK was, apparently, doing well in comparison with other Western countries.

As a point of fact, the UK has experienced economic decline since the late 19th century. That, in turn, has led to military decline. The inability of successive governments to arrest this failing betrays a decaying culture of the ruling class.

Of course, any country can cite instances of success. There will be some firms or sectors that are doing well. It is the overall position that matters. The overall situation is that the UK is in decline, economically, politically and militarily. The UK cannot export sufficient goods and services to pay for imports, and the deficit is being funded by borrowing from abroad and by selling assets. This is ruinous.

The UK economy cannot generate the tax revenues to fund government and the state sector. Vast borrowing and a ballooning government debt is the result. English living standards are falling.

Hunt spoke of the UK becoming a ‘technology superpower’ and that: ‘In the audience we have leaders from Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Google, the world’s largest tech companies all with major operations in the UK.’ These are all foreign firms selling foreign goods and services in the UK. This is a globalist viewpoint.

Hunt continued: ‘Our universities are ranked second globally for their quality and include three of the world’s top ten. In order to support the ground-breaking work they do in so many new fields the government has protected our £20 billion research budget, now at the highest level in history.’ In reality, our universities are bastions of political correctness and a mechanism for the mass immigration of students into the UK – with unpaid bills (not least for housing) and more subsidies to facilitate this.

Bizarrely, Hunt claimed: ‘Shortly over 50% of the population of England will be covered by a devolution deal.’ Unlike the other countries of the UK, England does not have its own parliament. The so-called mayors, who are totally dependent upon the UK government for their funding, are no substitute for an elected parliament for England. The balkanisation of England is merely divide and rule. It is neither democratic nor good governance.

Since Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt have not defined ‘declinism’, I will therefore define it: ‘A belief or policy that the best the UK can expect, or deserves, is the orderly management of decline.’

Declinism should be contrasted with the revolutionary bile put forward by the communist wing of political correctness, and that of the Black nationalists and Islamists. Declinism is intended to be orderly and not destructive chaos – as would happen with a communist revolution.

Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt might condemn declinism, but in fact they are a part of it. They have not addressed the underlying causes of the UK’s long term decline and all they have to offer is the orderly management of that decline.