Best Of

How lomg before Reform also disappoints?

I suspect they will be pretty rubbish at running councils. Speaking of which, how would Farage resolve the bins in Brum? Maybe someone would like to ask him. Unless they have some ex-counsellors in their ranks - maybe defectors from the Tories? - they will be pretty clueless from day one.

The truth is that no party has the answers to our problems.

Hard, long-term decisions are required but if anyone attempted to be really honest with the electorate they would howl and whine because a substantial wedge of the electorate want everything to be excellent (healthcare, education, defence) but don't want to pay the price necessary (not personally at least). No party can square that circle so the voters lurch about latching on to the next snake-oil salesman.

Like it or not autocracies have the upper hand over democracies in this respect which is why I also expect China to win its battle with Trump.

I’ve been saying for a while. Democracy is dwindling - and it is probably doomed over time. A relatively brief experiment in the context of human history

There are multiple reasons for this. Just one is the greater ability of autocracies to make difficult long term decisions

The ability to make difficult long term decisions is usually outweighed by the inability to distinguish right from wrong and efficient from inefficient. However polling organisations, social credit and mass observation now enable autocracies to "consult the people" constantly and make popular decisions without changing governments, reducing the historic problem of autocracy. This has been tried and tested in Russia and has worked for over twenty years now.

Russia also has multi party elections for president and parliament

"free and fair" would wave hello, but is locked in a cell in Siberia...

How lomg before Reform also disappoints?

I suspect they will be pretty rubbish at running councils. Speaking of which, how would Farage resolve the bins in Brum? Maybe someone would like to ask him. Unless they have some ex-counsellors in their ranks - maybe defectors from the Tories? - they will be pretty clueless from day one.

The truth is that no party has the answers to our problems.

Hard, long-term decisions are required but if anyone attempted to be really honest with the electorate they would howl and whine because a substantial wedge of the electorate want everything to be excellent (healthcare, education, defence) but don't want to pay the price necessary (not personally at least). No party can square that circle so the voters lurch about latching on to the next snake-oil salesman.

Like it or not autocracies have the upper hand over democracies in this respect which is why I also expect China to win its battle with Trump.

I’ve been saying for a while. Democracy is dwindling - and it is probably doomed over time. A relatively brief experiment in the context of human history

There are multiple reasons for this. Just one is the greater ability of autocracies to make difficult long term decisions

Stop it. It is most unnerving when you make a point that is both controversial and correct for once. It really makes me wonder if I have got it wrong.

One has only to look at the way in which the South Koreans dealt with a wannabe dictator to realise that, no, democracy isn't dwindling.

Most of the "democracy is doomed" commentary is based on the current situation in the United States.

The situation has arisen largely because the previous Democratic administration (1) failed to control the border & (2) tried to run Biden for a 2nd term. The opinion polls had been clear for a long time that US voters were concerned about the border & felt that Biden was too old. The Democratic establishment tried to ignore the clear will of the voters & failed in this attempt.

If they had actually looked the opinion polls and (1) acted promptly in 2021 to implement border control measures and (2) forced Biden to retire in 2023, so there was a proper primary process & a new candidate, then Trump would have most likely lost the election.

Anyway, democracy is still alive and well in the United States. The Democrats have done very well in the Wisconsin court election & the Florida special elections have recorded a significant anti-Republican swing. Trump's favourable numbers are sinking rapidly & he will lose control of the House in the 2026 midterms.

I know I’ve been joking about Solzhenitsyn and the Terror and the “Gooly Archypoo” but - incredibly - I’ve just had a real proper taste of what life was like under that police state

I overtook a slow lorry on the steppes - crossing a solid line - and I was IMMEDIATELY pulled over. Almost brutally. The copper swaggered out and we couldn’t understand each other. Then he made serious threats about bad stuff happening to me

So then he got in my car - got in my car!!! - and we drove to a nearby place with decent cell signal. And we used google translate. With that it became clear I was either going to jail or I could bribe him

I offered a bribe. He said yes. Then we drove back to his friend in the cop car and the copper got out of my car and he shrugged and changed his mind and said into Google translate “nah, what the hell, you’re a guest, we don’t want a bribe - on you go. Enjoy Kazakhstan”

The whole ordeal must have taken 12-14 minutes

Now I can look the great Russian dissidents in the eye. Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Solzhenitsyn, the many that died in the camps. I’ve been there

The moral of this story. When in an ex soviet state, don’t steppe over the line.