The racists win in the UK

(Credit: Tom Pilston)

In recent council elections in the UK, the deranged racists that believe that Nigel Farage represents them and will somehow fix the many problems affecting this country won a huge number of votes. Media reports put it as one the largest and most humiliating defeats traditional parties have ever suffered. Since polling day on 7th May, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been desperately fighting to keep his job. Basically everyone in Labour and beyond hates him, and with plenty of reason.

Starmer is the male version ot Theresa May, a man as uninspiring, wooden, transparently dishonest and dull as they come. He is neither a politician nor a leader worthy of following. Were it not for the sway that Tony Blair and his operatives still carry in the Labour Party, Starmer would still probably be sitting under a pile of backlog cases at his old job at the Crown Prosecution Services. Perhaps the best illustrative argument of the man's sheer incompetency is to have appointed Blair's chum Peter Mandelson as UK Ambassador to Washington, in full knowledge of Mandelson's deep, long time friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. When the scandal surfaced, Starmer tried to blame others, saying he wasn't aware of Mandelson's deals with Epstein. But Epstein was first convicted in 2008, and in 2003 Mandelson emailed Epstein caling him his "best pal". What does that say about the professionalism of this former Chief Prosecutor and head of the Crown Prosecution Service?

Starmer is useless, and the Conservatives are right up there with him having brought about Brexit, which, despite being the most important economic topic this country should be seeking to solve, is nearly absent in the national political debate. Neither the Tories, nor Farage, would mention that Brexit's annual cost to the UK economy is around 6% to 8% of GDP (~£140 billion). That's per year.

Starmer, who won a massive mandate in 2024, has been very busy politicking since reaching Number 10 and has very little to show for. The economy continues to be an afterthought in this country. No party has fixing the economic consequences of Brexit at the core of their political stance. As a Venezuelan, having seen what the chavistas did to PDVSA, I am very well equipped to call it for what it is: a completely gratuitous shot at this country's future, an economic suicide imposed on the collective by a slight majority of deeply resented racists.

But then Farage continues to be a very popular figure (among the racists). It beggars belief that someone so transparently corrupt and deficient would be, like Donald Trump, the figure that catches the imagination (of the ignorant racists) as a probable solution. But as far as UK politicians go at the moment, Farage is the proverbial cat among the pidgeons. Since revenge is what the racist majority is after, it is quite probable that Farage will end up in Number 10, and that's when the imbeciles that voted for him will truly get that Farage only cares about Farage.

The racist majority in this country, as in many others, loooove to blame everything on immigration. Known facts, such as the percentage of immigrants that pushed David Cameron to call for the Brexit referendum, aren't discussed. And is not discussed because anyone with a working brain and some objectivity knows that such decision emerged from Cameron's wishes to placate the radical fringe within his own party. No Channel-crossing, still-wet, undocumented individuals took part on that. Probably none voted in the referendum, oh no, that was Little Britain's proudest of moments. Yet Farage followers are convinced that the cost of living crisis, unemployment, lack of growth, uncontrolled inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, loss of value of Sterling, tax increases, heath and social services sclerosis, red tape... all of the ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES of Brexit that affect them are to be hanged around the necks of dispossessed and politically disenfranchised migrants that arrived in this country on inflatable dinghies.

It is the absurdest of fallacies. It is as clear as day that neither Rachel Reeves, nor her many predecessors since Brexit, have kept the counsel of immigrants for Treasury's decisions and lack of action. Ditto Starmer and his many predecessors re Brexit. And yet, Farage won what amounts to a landslide on a platform blaming all of it, and more, on immigrants.

The electorate of Great Britain has demonstrated it is as prone as the American one, as the Venezuelan one, of voting through resentment and wilful ignorance of most basic truths. The Conservatives, party of the economy as they love to call themselves, wrecked the economy, then formulated and maintained policies to further decimate it, left the EU Common Market without a working roadmap, and have refused to admit mea culpas. Farage on the other hand, wears it with pride, even claims Brexit as his life's greatest victory. 

The racists of Great Britain are very many, almost certainly the majority. They will keep voting for whatever populist charlatan knocks on the door to say life is hard, money is short, and the economy is shit not through their support for incompetent leadership, but because people arriving in dinghies have stolen their jobs, crashed the economy, raised inflation, invaded Ukraine and forced the Chancellor to impose more taxes. That's the argument that wins elections in Great Britain these days folks.

In his fight for political survival, Starmer said a couple days ago that he wanted to put the UK back in the heart of Europe. Two years he's been at the job and it took Reform's electoral victory to get him to address the elephant in the room, but he's fooling precisely nobody. Had it not happened, he'd probably be politicking, i.e. doing nothing of substance to fix the country's problems. Reform's electoral victory was a wake up call, alas it won't bring the needed policies to address and fix the economic engine here, because doing that will take common sense, much forward planning, intelligent policies, cross-party partnerships and many years. There isn't a single figure in British politics that has that sort of plan, so it will be the Venezuela way, the American way: a steady institutional erosion caused by populism and resentment that will make almost everyone poorer (Not Farage of course).