Member-only story
Britain’s Illuminating Choice
The energy crisis has provoked a populist response
Thanks to ineradicable Western passivity in the face of Russian aggression, and thanks to an insane policy of relying on Russian hydrocarbons for 40% of its energy needs, Europe (which despite the stupidity of Brexit still necessarily includes the UK thanks to the unchangeable reality of geography), Europe is experiencing sky-high energy costs. As with SARS-CoV2, everyone is pretending that inane policies are “really” an inescapable outcome of factors beyond control and so soaring energy prices are being treated as an unchangeable fact of life rather than as something that could be eliminated if only the West was less terrified of Putin’s empty blustering.
Populism means always promising voters free ice-cream forever, with zero consequences. Populist lies are eagerly swallowed by millions of voters who are totally ignorant of even the most rudimentary facts of life, and simple-minded enough that empty soundbites and infantile lies appear to them as profound statements of fact. As representative democracy empowers these voters, it’s hardly surprising that we elect incompetent blustering halfwits and that these halfwits subsequently implement policies that shred economies and social structures. So it is with the energy crisis.
While the European Union is looking at ways to tax excessive profits earned by energy suppliers and use these profits to subsidize household energy bills until such time as the painful adjustment away from dependence on Russian oil and gas is completed, Brexit Britain is doing something quite different. Under its new Prime Minister (democratically foisted on the nation by the votes of 140,000 old far-right bigots who believe fox hunting and thrashing one’s servants are the two most important issues of the day) Britain has committed to spending £150 billion (around US $172 billion) on subsidizing household energy bills to be funded entirely by new borrowing. As the UK’s debt now totals 100% of GDP, this additional £150 billion represents a huge addition to national debt and with rising interest rates it’s clear that simply paying interest on the national debt will soak up an ever-increasing percentage of tax revenues.
