It may appear to be a metaphorical leap to equate the alleged actions of Peter Mandelson with many of Britain’s water companies poisoning rivers with excrement. But it isn’t. They are both on the edge of treason in an age when impunity is the nation’s greatest vulnerability.
Liberal democracies, like the UK, have become complacent in defending the norms that underpin what separates them from what’s emerging in America and already has a grip on Russia. Among liberals and progressives, a contempt for patriotism helps our enemies and threatens us.
Patriotism has been largely hijacked by populist right wing movements who have harnessed xenophobia and racism, rampant inequality, and social media into a jingoistic cocktail that suits our enemies – it doesn’t help motivate the West to defend itself.
It has turned Reform leader Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, the disgraced former leader of France’s National Front, Hungary’s Victor Orban, and anyone arguing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was Nato’s fault, into useful idiots in the service of the Kremlin.
Faith in Britain’s rulers, and rules, was fatally undermined by Tony Blair, his cronies, and a servile civil service who all conspired to lie Britain into a war in Iraq.
Since then we’ve seen bankers survive the 2008 economic crash they created, crappy British officers who got soldiers stuck in Helmand, Boris Johnson’s Covid cronies, and all manner of white collar charlatans, thrive and prosper.
Swerving prosecution is one thing. But how come these baddies are not being shunned – or better still tarred and feathered?
Britain’s water company bosses would be in the nick if their motives for poisoning the nation’s water sources were political convicted on terrorism charges. But they’re multimillionaires who, no doubt, enjoy a vivid social life they in no way deserve.
Blair continues to swank around the world at the head of his institute for global change while his chief propagandist, Alastair Campbell, who spun Britain to war, enjoys a third chapter in his life as a much loved podcast superstar.
The impunity of leaders of all kinds in the UK and their abject lack of shame has hopelessly demotivated a nation in peril.
Mandelson’s alleged leaks of confidential cabinet-level information to a known paedophile, who ran a known network of fellow perverts and who has a record of malpractice and corruption as long as his adult life, should not be seen as merely alleged insider dealing, stupidity, or sad.
At a time when the United Kingdom and her allies are already engaged in a hybrid war – that began when Mandelson was emailing weapons-grade gossip and memos to Jeffrey Epstein – with Russia, such behaviour should be seen for what it is; unpatriotic and treasonable.
But in Britain the liberal left can’t be seen carrying a Union Flag or wearing St George’s Cross for fear of being associated with the vulgar stupidity of the Right.
Nor would your average left winger say they’d fight for their country.
According to a poll by electoral calculus last October, 33 per cent of Labour Party voters said they would be unlikely to fight for their country, while 20 per cent said they would never take up arms. https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/ec_defencepoll_20251026.html
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An earlier Ipsos poll found that 48 per cent of the UK population said that under no circumstances would they take up arms to defend the UK.
Lib Dems were the least patriotic by this metric with 48 per cent, Labour came in at 47 per cent. For all the tub-thumping imperial nostalgia that so marks their campaigning, the Tories at 41 per cent and Reform with 40 per cent showed near equal reluctance to put their hearts where their mouths are.
Britain has been enfeebled by years of top level abuse that has gone unpunished. No wonder young people don’t feel their country is worth fighting for.
They may, for example, have noticed that although the 2016 Brexit referendum was most certainly the target of pro-Brexit Kremlin propaganda and influence operations, a parliamentary report into the subject was held back from publication from March 2019 to July 2020. Its investigations precluded any look at whether Russia’s efforts to influence a pro-Brexit vote had been successful.
When the results of the report were finally released, they were only seen by British voters after they could have reflected their views in the December 2019 general election.
So we should not be surprised that young people feel disenfranchised. The people we’re likely to have to send to war don’t feel that they are part of a country worth defending.
A year ago, Yougov found that 41 per cent of 18-27 year olds would not fight for Britain under any circumstances.
But 47 per cent said that the UK remained a tolerant country. It is that tradition – along with the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, and vigorous democracy – that is worth defending and that will need defending.
To galvanise a nation towards being able to defend the freedoms it takes for granted, its population needs to see that its leaders cannot act with impunity. When crooks and cranks are exposed, they must be jailed or sent to social Siberia.
Mandelson may get his comeuppance but that would just be a start.
